May Board Meeting

001the district superintendent and his staff do that. The board adopts tax rates, budgets, policies, hears reports, and takes action on what I like to call big ticket items. And running the day-to-day operation of the district is not that. Um, we start our board meetings now in part with a uh recitation of our mission statement, but also wise and sage comments from whichever board member will be handling recognition tonight. that board members our secretary of the board Pam Watts and not to steal her thunder but she's been doing yman's service today and I'm going to let her explain our mission is that Midway ISD will maximize individual potential within a learner centered environment and supportive environment to prepare students to excel in a global society and as Mr. Rustic alluded today, I had the privilege of

002coming alongside about a dozen trustees and public education advocates from all over Texas and walk the halls of the Capitol building and go into some senator's offices and uh implore that they secure the resources that we need so that we continue to be able to maximize individual potential and do all these other things. We need fully funded public schools. It's good for our schools, our students, and it's good for Texas. and we made sure we let them know that. Thank you, Pam. Don't stop calling your legislators. They need to hear from you. Indeed. Thank you, Pam. One of the other things we do is uh have a moment of silence, and we're going to take a moment for each of you to engage in silent prayer, contemplation, reflection, meditation, and in particular, Dr. Dr. Allen

003told me just before the meeting started that LINA ISD Lena High School tragically lost what would be a graduating senior in an automobile accident today. In your moment of silence, please remember those folks. I was standing with Trustee Rush Johnson in the capital when he got that news. So, it was hard. Thank you. Her last official act at a board meeting, principal of River Valley Middle School. And I say that because we had her back for one year and we were grateful to have her for that year and we wish you the best as you and your your hubby move on to the next thing. Yes. Principal Allison students from River Valley Middle School you're going to introduce to us. Yes, I am. Yes. Thank you. Um I would like to say to the board

004and to the parents sitting in the room tonight, thank you for sharing your children with us and to the board, thank you for giving us this opportunity to allow us to recognize these students. Um this is a hard task to figure out who out of a school of 900 amazing kids who's going to come and recognize uh be recognized tonight and represent us. Um we've got a lot of more coming from River Valley as well along with the other um esteemed classmates out there. But to help us with the pledges tonight, I would like to call up Davis Rutherford. Davis, come on down. Davis is our River Valley Middle School student of the year. Um obviously he is a member of the FFA um and is going to be recognized with a group. Um being

005a former ACT teacher myself um it is amazing when you have middle school students who compete on the high school level and give them a run for their money and that is one of the things that Davis did this year. He was first in area um in the range contest and got to be a part of the range team and that's going to part of who's going to be recognized tonight. and they went to the state level um and competed and he was 44th um out of across the state students but as an eighth grader. So we have amazing amazing kids. He's just one representation of that. My other four individuals that I have here tonight, very involved students, but what is special about them tonight is they are four members of our inaugural lighthouse

006student team. Um, and so we are so looking forward to that. They are going to be leading us next year and leading the charge and leading their classmates in making a difference at River Valley. And so I would like to call up Max Hopper. Max, come on down. You're going to go stand. And then I would like um Harper Merritt, come on down. And Ava Corzall and Addie Webb. and thank you so much for being here. They are going to turn and face if everyone else will please stand for the pledge. They're going to lead us off 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. I think we are going to be in

007good hands this next year. All right. And next up, we've got recognition. Uh we start out with the superintendent and May recognition days. Dr. Allen. Yes, sir. May recognition days. AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is May. And May is also military appreciation month. May 1st was school principal day. May 1st through 7th was National Physical Education Week. May 2nd was school lunch hero day. May 5 through 9 was teacher appreciation week. May 7th was National School Counselor Day. May 9 was school communicators day. May 14 was public school professional uh pair professional day. And then the 26th of May is Memorial Day. Um, we we do a lot of these recognitions throughout the course of the year. I can't help but notice that May is laden with school employees. Yes. And uh they all

008do such a great great job of helping our schools run effectively and efficiently. Um, and I'm not going to editorialize any more uh about this, but to kind of tag a little bit on what Miss M Watts was saying is the number of folks are being appreciated uh as part of this recognition for recognition mandates, but who are actually included in the sentence version of compensation increase. It's it's one it's one group only out of all those being recognized. And so I think it's important that while we're recognizing people with words, we do it with action. up first then Allison Smith, but you knew that principal for Midway High School and Miss Watts is going to assist. We'll let y'all take control. Sounds great. Thank you. Good evening board members um and all of our

009guests tonight. Um the I'm going to start tonight with US presidential scholar candidate U Miss Esther Kim. So Esther, will you come on in? Um we begin tonight by recognizing Esther Kim, a senior at Midway High School, who's also our current valadictorian and will be um I guess crowned that as our highest ranking graduate on Friday. Um who she's been named a candidate for the prestigious US Presidential Scholar Program. Each year approximately 4,000 students um just.1% of the nation's high school seniors are invited to apply for this elite honor. Esther's selection reflects her exceptional academic performance, leadership, and dedication to service. Being named a candidate places her among the top performing high school students in the country. And I believe the last time we talked, you're headed to Princeton. Yes. So, congratulations, Esther. We're so

010proud of you. [Applause] Keep keep going. Okay. All right. Next up, we have a very special group, the MHS um Marine Corps Junior ROC program. Um we're going to recognize them for they earned the Bronze Patrick Henry Award. And this award, sanctioned by the Military Order of the World Wars, honors exceptional JRTC programs and individuals who demonstrate outstanding patriotic values and leadership. Representing the Panther Company tonight are Taylor Hadex. She's on this far end. Oh, we got one certificate that works. Then Lawrence Saledo. So y'all wave as I call your name. And then Carrington Moore, Katie Sonnenberg, Aaron Willis, and Samuel Wong. And this MHS MJOC is led by Lieutenant Colonel Jake Urban. So Lieutenant Colonel, I think you're in the back. Come on up. You get to get in the picture, too. Um, please

011join us with your students. We'd also like to recognize and congratulate Samuel Wong. Samuel, raise your hand again and wave. Um he received a full ride Navy ROC scholarship and will be attending Oklahoma University in this fall. After graduating from college and officer candidate school, he will be commissioned and insigned in the US Navy. Competition for this scholarship is exceptionally keen with only approximately 2,000 of the 10,000 plus fully qualified applicants being selected. Sam's scholarship is illustrative of the fact that even though the Midway High School program is a Marine Corps program, our cadets are well postured to compete for our sister services scholarships and pursue careers in any branch of the military that they choose, if they choose. We are so proud of the Panther Company for continuing to set the standard for youth

012leadership and civic responsibility. Congratulations, [Applause] Thank you. Thanks, guys. Congrats. And I get to keep going. So, tonight we're also talking about our state vase artist. And so, we have eight Midway High School students who earned area gold medals and advanced to the state visual arts scholastic event, also known as VASE, the highest level of art competition in Texas. And so first we're going to have Caleb Burch and Jeremiah Okmpos, Adam Eubank, Elise Snyder, Andrew Blair who also earned a state gold medal, Bryson Robinson who also earned a state gold medal. And then Isaac Callahan couldn't be here with us tonight and he also earned a state gold medal. And then lastly, but definitely not least, Miss Stella Rabond Rabond Rayondo, not Rayondo, Rayondo, who not only received a state gold, but also received a

013gold seal award, the highest recognition given to less than.5% of all entries in the state for the second time in her high school career. So congratulations to these talented artists. And come on in, Miss Abberrombie and Mr. Storm. And that was a lot of applause. This is Kim Abbercrombie and John Storm, our two teachers that did this with our students. Thank you. Congratulations. There's [Applause] High school talk about middle schools. Yes, sir. If you want to have great high school vase students, you start them off early. So, let's talk about vase junior state artist. Midway Middle and River Valley Middle Schools both had students at Junior Vase. From Midway Middle School, we have 14 student entries. Three sixth grade students earned perfect scores and gold medals. Ezra Helario, Visiah Douglas, and Adelyn Pankinan. And then

014for Midway Middle School Platinum Medalist are Kaden Freeman and Katie Osborne. These students are taught by Gretchen Lamour. There she is. And so this is Midway Middle School and their fine work. [Applause] Okay. We're going to get all together. Okay. From River Valley Middle School, they submitted 41 pieces from 35 students and earned an impressive 36 gold medals and seven platinum medals, the highest number of platinum medals awarded to any participating school. Platinum medalists include Emma Campos, Alicia Griffin, Emily Wyn, Nate Vega, Jamie Zet, and we would like to have Adriana Cresbow come join these young people. And that's your middle school state base artist. Two, three. [Applause] Great job. Love art. All right, Jess Wheeler with our Texas Association of Future Educators. Thank you. So, Midway High School students recently competed at the Texas

015Association of Future Educators, Taffy Teach Tomorrow Summit, demonstrating their passion and preparation for careers in education. First, we have Julie Denny, state qualifier and high school interactive bulletin board. We have Claire Willis, state qualifier for high school interactive bulletin board. We have Emily Dunn, state qualifier for children's literature. We have Michaela Willis, state qualifier for teacher created materials. We have Ava Weatherly, state qualifier for high school interactive bulletin board. She is also a national qu national qualifier in children's lit literature. We have Jordan Clever, state qualifier, high school interactive bulletin board, and she is also a national qualifier in children's literature. We have Elise Jones, a national uh qualifier in job interview. We have Juliet Trailer, national qualifier and elementary interactive bulletin board. Clary Oats, national qualifier, elementary interactive bulletin board. And finally, we have

016Bianca Phillips, national qualifier and elementary interactive bulletin board. These students are led by Miss uh Vanessa Dulock. If you would go ahead and come on up. We commend all of their students for their creativity, their professionalism, and ultimately their dedication to becoming future educators. Awesome. Make sure you bring all your friends. Back to you. I'm back. I'm back. I have to bring this back down. Okay. Next up, um I'm going to go ahead and have her come on in. Nandini Kadakia. Um she's a student at Midway High School. She happens to be a junior. Um and she is here tonight for earning a perfect composite score of a 36 on the ACT. A 36 is a distinction achieved by less than 1% of students nationwide. She's the daughter of Val and Haral Kadakia of Huitt.

017is a National Spanish Exam Silver and Bronze Medal winner, a three-time Spirit of Midway Award recipient, AP Scholar Award recipient, Junior Class Student Council Vice President, Diversity Council Vice President. She's the National Technological um honor society treasurer, the HOSA member and competitor, NHS member, and is in the MHS varsity technical theater. She is an active volunteer at the Hwitt Public Library with Abby. gives back and with Ascension Providence Hospital, she's very busy. Nandini is one of only two students at Midway High School this year to earn this honor and her achievement reflects exceptional academic ability and commitment to excellence. Congratulations. [Applause] You're still next. Oh, me again. Sorry. No, I said you're still up. Okay, I'm still up. Yes. So, last I have um finally we recognize Caris Collins and Avery Hubard. I have them

018go ahead and come on in. Along with their wonderful teacher, Molly Sanders. Come on in, Miss Sanders. Come on up to the front. Yes. Um they advanced to the Texas History Day State Competition with their senior exhibit titled Breaking the Bank. Their project explored the role of the federal government and protecting consumers from unethical practices during the guilded age. After earning first place at the Heart of Texas Regional History Fair, they proudly represented Midway at the state level. And of course, they're joined tonight by their teacher, Miss Molly Sanders. [Applause] 15 years ago. All right, Mr. Wheeler, back to you. So tonight, we're also proud to recognize three outstanding Midway FFA career development tent events that their teams qualified uh and competed at the state level. And I'll add that they placed in the top

01910. There was an additional 36 students that that competed at the state level, but we would have uh done filled this place up. I think we already did. Um and so it's an honor uh that that each required that they had to place first place in their area before uh advancing to state. And so first we have the wildlife team which placed fourth in the state finishing in the top 2% of all the teams in Texas. Team members are Grayson Haynes who also ranked seventh individually out of the 226 competitors. Hazel Davidson, Ethan Blanc, and Bo Biggs navigated one of the most rigorous contest uh in the FFA program. They demonstrated knowledge in plant and animal identification, wildlife management, hunting and fishing laws, boater safety, and even equipment identification from pelts and skulls to reels

020and ammunition. So, next we have the range team which earned an eighth place finish at state members Davis Rutherford, Hank Barkley along with Grayson Haynes and Ethan Blanc showed incredible resilience in a contest that required them to identify 90 different plants, um, assess different pasture conditions while filling out a scantron, which is kind of important. important because on this day it rained for two straight hours while they were outside. So their determination truly embodies their grit and focus uh to be FFA members. Finally, the food science team placed 10th overall in state. The team Ethan Peacock who finished second individually out of the 142 students at state along with Zoe Copman, Haley Hartline, and Natalie McCullum excelled in a multifaceted competition. They were tasked with developing and pitching a food product in just one hour.

021In addition to individually completing technical challenges such as math formulations, aroma identification, and c and customer inquiry analysis, these teams that you see here today are taught by our a teachers Beth Zulhof and Lauren Foster. If you two could please come forward. Each of these students has presented represented Midway ISD with excellence, dedication, and professionalism on a statewide stage. Please join me in congratulating these exceptional teams on their achievements. Wow. And one more time. And one more. Last but not least. So we are also proud to recognize seven outanding students uh from Midway High School who qualified uh for the business professionals of America National Leadership Conference after their impressive performance at the state competition. So, please join us in congratulating Haley Carlton, advanced accounting, Mie Mila Doo, digital media production and virtual media and

022and promotion team. Chloe Doo, virtual media and promotion team. Yan Label, video production team or LeBay, excuse me, video production team. Aubrey Leblanc, video production team. Avi Olsen, virtual media and promotion individual, and Sarah Whitaker Delgado, Advanced Desktop Public Publishing. So, these students are led uh by our Midway High School CTE business teachers Dee Moore and audiovisisual teacher and BPA sponsor, Mr. Kyle Rogers. These students competed last week uh in Orlando at the national contest and can say uh that two of those teams placed in the top 10 in the nation. Wow. Wow. Outstanding recognition. Congratulations again to all the folks we honored. We're going to pause for those of you who have better things to do on a gorgeous evening in May than stay for the rest of the meeting, but you're welcome if

023you want to do that. Caroline income Okay. uh administration of oath of office to our newly elected even though we didn't have an election since they were all unopposed trustees. Um we would swear them all in tonight but two out of the three aren't here but we're going to go ahead with Miss Watts anyway. Okay. Yay. I'm by myself. Well, yeah. All right. You don't have to Carolyn's already. She is. Just make sure you get short. Okay. In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas. In the name of by the authority of the state of Texas, I I can do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of the Midway ISD board of trustees of the

024Midway ISD board of trustees of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States and of this state and the laws of the United States and this state. So help me God. So help me God. [Applause] Let's not forget in that same constitution it says that we will provide for public education. Hey, here here All right. After uh each election, whether we actually have an election or not at the first regular board meeting following that, the board is required by law to reorganize. Uh and under our board policy, we have the offices of president, vice president, and secretary. All of

025which are required to be members of the board. U so I'll uh open the floor for nominations for the office of president. Second. Any other nominations? Well, y'all are y'all are too kind. Uh, hearing nothing further. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right, that motion carries. Um, office of vice president. I'm going to nominate Miss Vic. Second. Second by Miss Watts. Any other nominations? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion also carries unanimously. And last uh office of secretary nominate nominate Ken Watts. Second. Any others? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries unanimously. And I I do want to she's gotten out front and center a lot today, but that's appropriate because again, you just you don't know how important

026it is to have somebody that can can and is willing to and does actually go down there and engage those folks in Austin. And we appreciate that. Pam, I want to repeat that and just say how amazing she is because she really loves to advocate and it means a lot to her and so she puts a lot of her time into it for all of us. Thank you. They needed to hear that Texas is the best music education state in the country and we want to keep it that way along with a lot of other things. But we start slipping there and it's a hit for our economy, our industry, our, you know, our kids, lots of other things. So hoped if I told them it's going to get me in the pocketbook, maybe that

027will incentivize some folks. Well, I'm going to briefly ask Mr. wit to just tell everybody what he told me before we started this meeting about a perspective that frankly I'd never thought of as far as Go ahead, Colin. I don't know. You you know what you know what you told me about the what the legislature does down there and what that does in the future. Sure. So, you know, I think it's important when especially when we engage with uh with these members down in Austin that they Keep in mind that every student we educate in Texas public schools in the next 10 to 20 years will be voting. Some of them as recently as you know next year and the year after. So, um, the question for them would be, do you do you want

028an educated I mean, do you want people who know what who care and know what's going on in the state? And and the other question is, do you want to essentially seed um the battle for education to the quote other party? Uh, which is kind of the message you send when when when there's a group that says we don't think we need to fund public education, those kids are going to remember and they'll be voting. Good point. thought that was a unique perspective. Yeah. Thank you, Colin. Uh information items, we've got the facility study committee update. Um if there are questions on that, we'll take them up now. The board needs to know and remember that that the committee still has one more meeting and then we'll be bringing the committee's recommendation to the board

029for consideration at our June regular meeting. So, there's going to be a lot of time to do a a deeper dive into this, but if you've got questions on this item, we can take those up this evening. I just I just thought it was great that you sort of laid out in the slides the options that were considered and you can sort of see the evolution of where that landed. So, it was it was great to see that to see the work you guys have been doing and then obviously when we land where we land next month to you know it'll help with the conversation to know where things have been. So, and I just want to commend again Dr. Allen, the staff and then the great board that is doing all this work, the

030facility group that's it's amazing and they're very dedicated and what we were get what were given was very clear and we could tell what you were thinking. So, thank you. Which ended up being part of the conversation we had this morning about making sure that our community is engaged in the decisions that we're making going forward. We're not just making decisions willy-nilly. we are involving our co, you our constituents and and future of this district. Indeed. Uh and then we've also got the proposed new club as an information item and if there are questions on that, we'll take those up. Otherwise, if not, we're going to move on to the presentation discussion items. uh starting with the monthly finance report and uh 2526 budget update as it were. Okay. Good evening uh members of the

031board. Uh yes, first off we'll look at our um April uh financial monthly report. Uh the 10th uh month of our fiscal year um is behind us. If you'll look on page um 77 um of your board packet um real quick I did want to point out on the report of transactions greater than um 25,000 kind of there in the middle middle you'll see under bond projects um and uh expenditure to the department of treasury. Um yeah so as a taxexempt entity this is you know not a normal uh transaction we had to set up a new vendor um here the IRS to pay but that's what's called an arbitrage payment. So there's a restriction when we issue a tax exempt bonds. There's certain advantages to that. Um but the IRS does restrict how much

032investment earnings you can earn on those bond proceeds. So over the life of the bond um we um exceeded um that threshold and we had um a consultant BLX group um calculate what the arbitrage payment would be and that's what the 364,000 is um to the uh to the IRS. So we we timed it well. We issue the bonds when the interest rates were low and then interest rates rose as we had the the um investment earnings there. But there is a little bit of a restriction um on that. On the next page, page 78 of the financial report. Um here's a projection for the current year. Um fiscal year 25 uh we adopted a 2.4 million deficit. Currently projecting um a deficit of 1.4 for the year. Um last month uh it was about

0332.1. A few of the adjustments were on property taxes. um increase our projections for um interest income um and also just our expenses uh projected a little bit down um a couple hundred thousand there. Um any questions on the current uh current month's uh financial report before I go into next year's projections? Thank everyone the whole district. Also just question to make sure I'm right. We're at July 31 fiscal year end. Is that right? June 30th. June 30th. So we've only really got one more month. Well, this is April. So we have right May and then Okay. Right. Usually in the summer, I know we have that long period where it's kind of a strange thing and then that makeup because teachers would start in August and we would have that weird thing. We don't

034have that anymore. Correct. That's right. The the salary acral for the August days. So, we're going to land pretty pretty easily now. Yes. Yes. That's good. Um so then so the next page 79 um is uh a look at our uh budget fiscal year 2026 uh proposed budget. And so, uh, each month as we get the newest information, um, from the ledge, you know, we've tried to, uh, present what a possible possible budget would look like for next year. And that's changed drastically, I feel like, every month. Um, but so we have two scenarios here on page 79 and page 80. Uh, the first scenario on page 79, well, there's I guess I'll start. There's three budgets the board's required to adopt. Um, the child nutrition fund and debt service fund. Those are a little

035more um uh little more little more straightforward. The child nutrition fund projecting a deficit for next year 59,000. We still have excess fund balance there. So we have a little bit to spend. And the debt service fund projecting um a surplus next year of 3.8 million. Um that's assuming we don't um defease any funds. Uh which is a possibility. Um and we'll when we adopt the tax rate in August, we'll come to you with that that possibility. uh the general fund. Uh that first column is of course the big wild card there. Um that is definitely subject um to change kind of dayto-day until the the governor does sign um possible school finance budget bill. So this first scenario um you'll see is a $5.2 million deficit. So um this assumes um that the uh

036current um sub Senate substitute for House Bill 2 um passes as is. Um, if you'll recall, I know like I said, we've presented lots of different scenarios. Um, but if the the House Bill 2 budget had passed, we were looking at like a $3.5 million deficit before we kind of looked at um possibly cutting some things from that. Um, but this uh raises it to 5.2 um largely because we still have the 2% raises in this budget across the board. So 2% for every employee group like we did um in the House Bill Two version. However, um with the um Senate uh substitute, um you're probably familiar that the teachers um are given a larger raise. So 3 to four years uh will get $2,500 and then five years and more get $5,500. Um and

037so that's way above the 2% that we had in our original bill. I actually more like 10% for um for those employer groups. Um which is great and they need it, but we um have to use those funds uh for that specific group. So um for that group the 2% raise was about a million dollars and with the with this um salary allocation requirement um that increases it um by 1.8. So so 2.8 million total for that group. So that's why we went from 3.5 to about 5.3 deficit here because everybody's still getting the 2% but those groups are getting over and above based on that um salary um aotment that's proposed um in the committee substitute. Um does that make sense? So that's uh our possibility number one. On the next page, page. Yes.

038It's that in combination with the fact that the committee substitute took out the basic aotment increase. Yes. So that that's also driving that increase deficit is uh HP2 had a $355 basic aotment increase and the committee substitute has a $55 basement increase. That's right. by the time we back out the additional um contributions we have to make to TRS because of these increased salaries. How much does that basic a lotment increase at $55 per student actually in round numbers kind of generate the district? see the summary of that in the last couple pages here. But yes, the $55 increase in basic a lotment is about 600,000 to our district, but the increase in contributions for TRS and things is about three or 400,000. Um, so it cuts it a little more, you know, than half.

039And so, you know, basically that leaves us a few hundred,000 for those raises for, you know, all those other employee groups, right? Yeah. the salary a lotment is just for salaries doesn't include that was part of today's conversation. So maybe the increase isn't really an increase. Yeah. Okay. And then the the next proposed so our two scenarios. The first one is if the committee substitute uh Senate Bill 2 passed as we've seen it. Um this next scenario is if um nothing passes. Um so uh in this scenario we would receive no new revenue um from the state um but we would propose a 1% um one-time incentive payment. So the 1% wouldn't go into salaries. It would just be a onetime payment. So that if we do pass this in June and say there's a

040special session and they come back and they add things to current salaries, it would be their current salary, not anything above that. this would just be a 1% just so there's something in the budget um for um uh compensation increase. And so that um you'll see the general fund there in that first column would be a 5.7 um million deficit for next year. Um so those are kind of the two scenarios. Um and a reminder of the timeline. Um at the first part of June, we'll post uh the budget um in the paper and then in the June board meeting uh we'll bring it for adoption. Um and then of course whatever we do adopt um we can come back if there's a a budget bill that's passed we can come back later um and

041amend that um in July or August. I have a question that's sort of asking you Wesley as well as Dr. Allan to get your crystal ball out a bit because I know that, you know, when we get into this time of the year and years past and we look at where we are on adopted budget versus where we think we're going to end up, we have seen as we just saw, you know, we adopted a budget at $2.5 million deficit projected in the budget and we do better than that through the course of the year and we've done that in years past under either one of these, these are both over five million. In light of everything else that's gone on with inflation and all that, do you think that either one of these, assuming

042that that's where we end up with the legislature and the board adopting a budget, are are we going to by the end of that fiscal year shave that down to half of 5 million or or or is times my sense of it is is is we'll probably do a little better. we usually do, but I don't think it's going to be on the magnitude that we've seen in the past because I just think it's that much tighter. But I don't look at it as closely as you guys do. That's why I'm asking the question. Typically, Dr. I've looked at it before. Typically finished about a million dollars better um than what we had adopted. There's of course there's so many variables and factors. I mean, our you know, WADA is a big part of that

043and these projections assume just a flat uh flat WADA. So, if our enrollment moves up or some of those weighted, you know, um categories move up and that could change. Um also, I'm thinking about I did want to add in the um first scenario, uh that 5.2 deficit, um I did find out since I we posted this that part of the um uh special ed um evaluation funding. So, we'll get $1,000 per evaluation. That's about $300,000 and we will get that. I wasn't sure if we get get that in the first bianium, but we will receive that. So, actually we're down to 4.9. So, there you go. Um, and then I should add to the in this committee substitute um there is a drastic change in house bed is um funded. So, it's going to

044be changed to intensity of services. Um and there's a big if you look on page actually 81 um of your pack 81 and 82 kind of just have a summary of the committee substitute for um House Bill 2 um and uh there is so overall the total bill is $8 billion you see there at the top um and special ed is 1.3 billion and they're still fleshing out how that's going to be funded um and so this uh scenario here in the first year of the banium fiscal year 26 doesn't have any increase in special ed funding. Um it's hard to say what that's going to be in the second year. Um based on 1.3 billion, I would estimate, you know, half a million to a million dollars. Um so that second year of the

045banium will look um a little bit should look better. Um so 27 should look better than 26. Um and then to this just kind of goes over the summary of how those funds are allocated um in this uh budget bill. The 8 billion is the same as the house. So it's that's a actually a great number. Um it's just as Dr. Allen mentioned 4.2 billion is in that um salary um aotment that teacher compensation which again is great is needed but it doesn't give us flexibility uh for those other um groups of employees. Um school let me look uh safety school safety aotment is going to go up. So I think that's going to increase about 230,000. about going to double what we receive currently, which is still doesn't obviously cover all of our um

046school safety needs, but that is another increase um proposed in in this bill. So, any other questions? Are we still even tracking a version of this with the some of the more original House Bill 2 numbers in there or is that we think that that train sailed and it's time to look at something else? Um, we I want to make sure I understand the question. If we're tracking another version of this budget that assumes if the original House Bill 2 were to be restored in conference or something, is it even worth looking at that anymore as an option? I I would be surprised if we got back to where HB2 started. Okay. But what I would tell you is if we did that's those are some numbers that we ran was it last month Wesley

047or a month before? Like we have three two and a half three million number we have those. If they if they just said forget it, we're going to give the house like we're going to go back to what the house proposed, then we've got those numbers more more or less. They also had some sped funding in there that we'd have to wait to get details on. But we kind of have that scenario run. Okay. And then being different for us this year since we're I mean fiscal year starts July one, we've got to have a budget. You know, we we don't have any luxury at all to wait and see really what happens even in June if there's a special session or anything. We have to we have to plant a flag in the ground

048and say this is our budget. So what what happens to us if we do that and then there's a pretty dramatic change in the funding mechanism from the state. I mean what what are our options to amend or not? Because I know that with I know that with salaries Yeah. once that's in the contract we can't change that. Right. So, I'm I'm going to So, if we don't have anything out of the ledge at all, what we will come to the board with in June is a budget that shows a 1% one-time payout by way of recruitment retention. The second one that's in here. Okay. So, that if something else were to happen, it would leave us some flexibility with how to manage our compensation package for our staff. Okay. I think that's a smart

049thing to do. say way to work with it and try to figure out a way to make sure our people get an increase, but then we don't know the future. So now we're not stuck to something or have to add on top of that. So that's a smart idea. And it's worth noting that on both of the scenarios that Wesley has showed you, they assume zero increase in contribution to health benefits. Oh wow. Zero. So when we're talking about our staff getting a bump one 2% we won't and we won't know what that is till the first beginning of June. June 3rd I think is the actual date and we don't know years in years it's gone up quite a bit and other years it's kind of stayed flat but all of these numbers assume

050no increased contribution for staff. Yeah. So that'll come out of their pocket. Yes, ma'am. Come out of the money we give them. Yeah. Is it worth noting that there's teacher pay increases in both the House and the Senate bill? As Miss Watts, that is an exceptional point and a piece of of information I think's lost in the dialogue is that even in HB2, there's a $355 basic a lotment increase, but a requirement that 40% at least 40% of that is used on teachers, right? So, it's it's in there. It just creates the flexibility for boards and local communities to figure out how to manage it from there. So, yes. Well, and we're able to take care of all of our staff, not just our instructional staff, which is important. Other questions? All right. On the

051technology update, Miss Roden, I'm going to let Mr. Garn present first and then we're going to let you speak. Is that okay? Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, guys. this work. Thank you for uh presumably wanting a technology update tonight. So, uh here are the items I'd like to present to you tonight. I'm going to start with onetoone device uh status. So, we've completed our first school year. In fact, we just did iPad collection at our secondary campuses uh Friday, Monday, and today. Uh it's been a really good year with really minimal issues. Um we've been happy with the way they're holding up and their performance. um of over 9,600 iPads in the wild, we've only done 95 repairs. So, that's really good. That's that's less than 1%. Uh typically, we see between three and five

052percent breakage. So, that really speaks to the the build quality of this fleet. So, we're real happy with that. Um also happy to report that we received our final check for sale of last year's iPads following the final grading. Uh and we were able to make a million dollars back on that sale. So, that's that's really good. Remember those iPads were used by staff and students for four years and still held value in the secondary market. It really speaks to that total co cost of ownership equation we talked about last time and how iPads really were the the best value to the district especially when compared to other platforms like Chromebooks who have virtually no value in the secondary market. Um so we've completed uh almost 3,800 work orders so far this year. our team

053has uh it's just shy of last year's numbers by by a touch and and that's the first time I've ever seen that. So digging deeper looking at the categories uh you'll notice Apple devices so that's iPad repairs mostly uh went down 37%. So I think that's where most of that decrease went. So again it speaks to uh this good bill quality has actually resulted in in in less uh downtime and less work for our tax. Uh you guys have all heard this before, but you know, -ate is a federal program. It provides funding to schools to help with the cost of internet. Uh also uh costs for internal network connections. The amount of our discount corresponds to the percent of our students who are eligible for free or reduced lunches. We're at 36% free and

054reduced lunch. So that is a 60% discount. Any item that's eligible that costs a dollar would cost 40 cents to the district. So we leverage that every chance we get. Uh this year we have applied for and have been approved for funding for our in our internet circuits uh the dark fibers that connect most of our campuses and for the maintenance for our privatelyowned fibers. Those items are in tonight's consent agenda. We're still waiting for approval for a handful of network switches and for Wi-Fi service on our trip buses. Uh I've never seen it take this long. Um I think stuff in the federal government right now is just taking longer. Usually by now we've got our items in hand and are ready for summer refresh. Uh, so it could be the case that I

055get approved later on and and bring it to you later. Uh, there is a a case sitting with the Supreme Court right now. Interesting. We brought it up last year and it's still pending, but I'll bring it up again. Um, um, it's it questions the funding model of of Vate really is what it does. Everything I I've read leads me to believe this case will be dismissed. Um, I listened to some of the hearing. the justices um uh really appreciate the level in which schools depend on this funding. Here in Midway alone, um since 2021, we've received over a million dollars in funding toward internet service and network equipment. So, losing that funding would be a major blow to our budget, but I really don't expect that to happen. We do expect a decision on

056this um in in late June or early July, and when I get that, I'll keep you posted. We leverage a thirdparty cyber firm to run perimeter scans on our network each month. And I'm happy to report they've yet to discover a vulnerability. We uh also have them perform an internal audit uh once per year. That's where we provide them with a network drop and a student level access and they they run uh vulnerability uh scanning tools against our systems and they try to find some way to circumvent our system or gain unauthorized access to our systems. Um, happy to report again that Sire was unable to obtain unauthorized access to any of our systems. I would say this really speaks uh to the hard work that our engineers put into keeping our systems patched and

057up to date. A really big project we've been working on is upgrading our access control system. Um our current system has been problematic uh as of late and vendor support has not been very helpful which caused us to start looking. Um it's very much a case of you get what you pay for. We don't currently pay anything for access control system. It came bundled with our old VMS um which is is great but uh it's a security issue and we can we can do better. So we started demoing systems. We demoed several this spring. Uh we've selected a platform called Ong Guard by Lenel S2. Uh what's cool about this platform is it will integrate with our existing uh camera systems and it'll give administrators that single pane of glass if you will for u

058managing uh cameras doors and vape detectors. Also part of the upgrade we plan to configure alerts for propped and forced doors for every external door in the district. We also plan to retire all of our old key cards and issue new ones that are more secure. And we're working with Emily's team on a brand new car template, one that's easily distinguishable from the old template. So you can see at a distance that it's the newer and the old one. We're going to start this work next month and we uh anticipate having it all completed before teachers arrive in August. Jesse, security, are we do we have the firm still testing the fishing attacks and social vectors as well? I mean, are we are we still Yeah, we we do that in house. Oh, you do

059that in house? We do fishing in house? Yes. Okay. Okay. I know I've seen a few that I forwarded to your teams. Yeah. Good. I'm glad you caught it. The facility study committee is currently considering items to be included in a potential bond package. You guys know this. We have some technology items on the table for consideration. And speaking with Dr. Allen, one thing I really wanted to include here is the impact that shifting these purchases into a bond could have on our our M funds over the next five years. We've really only included items that are necessary to maintain our status quo. In other words, items that are either already in our annual budget or that we'd have to find a way to fund otherwise. Things like our data center gear, iPads, teacher computers.

060Uh, and point here is that shifting uh all these items into INS would relieve about $8 million from a general fund over five years. It's kind of a one-off slide, but I just thought it'd be important to include here. Here are some of the major summer projects we have going on this year. We are in the fourth year of our five-year teacher computer refresh plan. This summer, we plan on replacing around 150 old VDI workstations uh with Dell all-in-one PCs at Huitt Ele Elementary, Castleman Creek, and South Poski Elementary Schools. This project also includes installing new AV cabling and new document cameras in each of those classrooms. We are also migrating to a new firewall platform this summer. We were able to get new hardware and software support for a year on a pair of

061Cisco firewalls for $22,000 less than a one-year extension on our old platform. So, we jumped on the opportunity. And finally, we'll be working uh with a vendor most of the summer to complete that access control project that I discussed earlier. So, I just want to thank you guys um obviously for your time and attention tonight, but also just for your support over the years for for uh for technology. Um you know, I often tell the guys that we're able to we we can handle any problem that comes our way. And that confidence that I have in telling them and I do have confidence in that. Uh a lot of it is because I'm blessed to work with a very talented team of technology professionals, but also that I feel very well supported by our admin

062team and and by this board. So, thank you very much. It means a lot to us. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer those. Questions for Jesse? Are we going to get a report by anytime soon about how the new bathroom sensors are working? Like an update or did y'all do that the last meeting? I missed it. You didn't miss it. Okay. We wanted to get to the end of the school year and bring back what this summer. Anecdotally, I'll tell you, and Allison, you're sitting there. Um, they're they're having an impact on the way student behaviors are being shaped at the high school, but we'll get you a more comprehensive. We want to pull all the middle high school data together and break that down for you. That'll be over the

063summer. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yes, ma'am. Sure. Okay. Say it's it's gone well. Um, every once in a while we'll have a vape sensor that goes crazy. We have to go restart it, but with 87 vape sensors, that's kind of to be expected. They've been pretty solid. Support's been good. As to the results, I I would look to that team here. I think they've been good. And it's been a couple two months now. Three. When did when did all that get installed? January. Before first of the year. January. Okay. We did the high school before that, but by the time all the secondary campuses were online, we're back from Christmas break. Okay. And the community's been good with that. We haven't had no ma'am. Lots of any negativity or much negativity. Okay. Good. Good.

064Thank you. Are we I know we have someone to speak. Are we Is it appropriate for us to wait to ask questions after or should we ask ours now? I don't know. Go ahead. Because I I think Miss Roten has a different perspective she wants to give the board. Okay. Is that is that fair? That's fine. I I'll I'll ask just a couple questions and some of these we've covered in an email thread a week or two ago is just sort of to get out so people will know the conversation. Um uh so one of those was about uh and and I know we talked about this in the um technology committee meeting as well too about some of the tools that let parents really watch and monitor what's going on really up to you

065know within a few minutes of their kids's device. And so what you've been piloting a project and we're looking at next year like what is the I I almost considered I I considered adding it to tonight's report. The thing is they've pushed this update from our content filter company to they they're calling it late summer. I mean for me that's July for yeah by the seasons that could be September. So I didn't want to show you a new product that I that I may not be able to do. But we're in beta testing now. I can manually enroll you. Uh and I really really do like it. It's a It's called Lightseed Parent Portal. And when they release this feature to me, I can automate the onboarding of every parent into this portal. And you'll

066be able to generate your own report of every every bit of web activity from your child's device at home or at school. And if you just wanted to be completely hands-off on it, it will uh you can configure it to send you a weekly PDF of of everything that you could scroll through. And you can sort it by show me everything that's blocked and now all my my Google searches and all that things. So, it provides a layer of transparency that I'm excited to provide to parents. Um, but that update that's going to allow me to automate it. Like, if you had a one-off right now that we needed to watch, let me know. I can manually enroll it and we can work through it. I've done that for five or six folks and it's

067been great results. But the automation piece that's going to let me do it for uh 8,000 is coming late summer. Wow. Even even when they have our device at home, That's right. they can still see. So kids taking it to their room or something, the parents can still see what's happening on that device. That's right. Yeah. The filter on those devices actually takes place on the device. So it doesn't matter which Wi-Fi you're on, you're going to you're going to get filtered. Interesting. Okay. Very good. Um that was I think that was my main the main conversation we had. I know although we did have a conversation maybe maybe it was with with Miss Parks folks more about the parent square question which was about really connected to I think the cell phone conversation. So

068maybe it's a different conversation but about whether parent square allows parents to contact students directly through student square and parent square and the answer was no at this right that's correct just making sure that was where we were on that all right thank you anybody else all right wrote thank you uh you've read our policy on comments from the public you have three minutes and uh we won't interrupt you with questions, but we might have questions at the end. Okay. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Ally Roten and I am a parent of a kindergartener at South Bossy Elementary, my first child in the Midway school system. Before the school year began, I made the decision to decline the iPad for my child. I reviewed the research and

069um while there are some educational benefits, the overwhelming concerns from screen dependency to mental and emotional health made me feel the risks weren't worth it for my six-year-old. I agreed only to allow limited use for district testing after receiving a phone call under direct teacher supervision. We explained our reasons to our child um and he understood. However, he was later given the iPad outside of that um by a substitute and came home saying, and I quote, "Something scary popped up." He said, "I swiped away from it." Um but what he saw, I still don't know. Um I understand there there are filters, but filters can't match the judgment of a parent or teacher who knows what's appropriate for each child or group of age children. what's blocked may not include all the content that we

070would consider harmful or inappropriate, especially for young children. Um, my second concern is the broader impact of frequent iPad use in the classrooms. There's growing evidence linking heavy screen time to issues like anxiety, obesity, and reduced emotional and social development, especially in younger children. These effects don't show up right away, but I know many families are seeing this at home already. I applaud the district for examining the phone use and mental health. I'm asking that you might do the same for the iPads, especially in the early grades. Let's take a hard look at how they're being used, when, and why, and whether it's actually serving our children for their long-term growth. I'm not anti-technology, but I am for thoughtful, developmentally appropriate use. right now. I don't think we're there and I know that I'm not

071the only parent who feels this way. Thank you for listening. I appreciate y'all's advocacy for our students and thank you for your service to the schools. Thank you, ma'am. Anybody any questions for Miss RH? Let me just say personally, not speaking on behalf of the board, I appreciate you coming here. There are a lot of people that will have thoughts and feelings, but it takes a lot to come and speak to this board in public. So, we appreciate that. I appreciate that opportunity. Can I ask a question? Yeah. Did you So, your your son went through most of the year without the iPad except for those testing opportunities. Do you feel like the district still was able to engage with him in terms of learning and assignments and work? I know it's kindergarten is maybe

072different than an older child, but what are your thoughts on that? Um, yes. So, the um state testing was all able to be done on paperwork. Um the only testing that had to be on the iPad. Um so after we had our issue, I came back and I said no iPad at all. Um and they and they said that the iPad had to be used for the district testing. That was the only place where they couldn't use a paper substitute. I do feel like the teacher was very accommodating. and she just would print things off and I offered I said I can come make copies like I don't want to put more work on you but um both the principal the teacher everybody was very accommodating to that I think the struggle was more all

073the other kids in the class have it mommy why can't I have it like they're doing all these fun things yeah I I just wanted to make sure since we had you here as a parent raising the issue I mean I can I can ask Sarah Collins and others hey how do we accommodate students that don't want to you know families that use the iPad, but since you were here, I thought I would just ask just to make sure that we're still delivering a great Midway education. Yeah, they appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. I mean, I know you have your your friends are probably involved with the school, everything things at the school. Do you have a general idea of how many people you said might also not want their children, at least at the

074kindergarten age, to have iPads? Um, so I just kind of offhand said things to friends, you know, said things And I know of at least 10 people in my circle who have either pulled their students from Midway or um are having issues with some of the technology. Okay. Um and that's I don't have a big circle. No, no, that's okay. Um of course at school is important what you're doing. You also wonder how much screen time they're getting at home, right? So combined usage of screen time could be different. Um, yeah. So, it's that's curious, but yeah. And I also I kind of find it interesting like we were sent home some bingo cards a couple different times throughout the year and one of the things was a day of screen free thing and I'm

075like, well, we can't do that on school day. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's funny. That is kind of ironic. But thank you for speaking. Like Pete said, it's it is a challenge to come and speak in public. So, thank you for doing that. We want to hear everybody's voices and understand what's going on. Thank you, Jesse. So, remind us the iPads in elementary, is it K through two they stay in the classroom or is it K through one? When is it that they're in classroom only? Or is that a Sarah question? K through five. K. Oh, they stay in the classroom for all. They don't go home until middle school. Okay. So, I It's been a while since I've had an elementary kid. So, just remembering. Do we have data on on how much time during

076the classroom they're actually on their iPad? That's what I was thinking. I mean, do we have it? Well, and what apps they're using for those times? Yeah, we actually just enrolled a new from the same company makes our content filter. It's called Digital Insights. It will show you all the platforms they use throughout the day. They show you the number of interactions they have with the platform and it's straight from the platform and something that's not approved or properly you can just block it straight from the platform and it sends that uh right over to our content filters to apply it on all classes and is there also a lot of leeway with the teachers of how much they use the iPad in the classroom or is it a pretty set curriculum that they're all

077going to do the same things on the iPad so that they're all doing their their ABCs but can some do their numbers as well or how how does anybody know how that works? Would that be a popular question? Yeah, speaking of curriculum, especially in elementary, um we look at what best best practices are for the age group. So, think about our younger learners. They may be using their station or pulled in small group table or smaller reading instruction or math instruction. Um but most of it's making the best use of the technology to enhance our lessons. But but we do talk about best practices for ages. Okay. But it's not required classroom to classroom. Generally our teams play together for what says for their age students. Okay. So there is a could be quite a

078difference between class A and class B. How much time they're on the iPad if the teacher finds some other things to do on the iPad? And do we have data then on how many families have said no no iPad please for my student? Do we know like by grade or how many? I don't have it. in hand. It's not a large number. I didn't expect it to be, but it to me it's interesting that we are just nine year eight years into the one to one. How long has it been? We've been we've done this a while. 12 years right into um 13 years. Yeah. 13 years. That was 32. Whatever the number is. It's good. Over 10 years. More than two and less than 20. Um, but just to just to get a sense

079of where how is that sort of shaken out now because I think a lot of families have had a chance to have kids multiple kids come through and maybe that makes them more familiar or more comfortable or less I don't know. So I don't create a bunch of extra work for yourselves obviously but it will be interesting to see. Can I say a lot of people that I tell I declined the iPads did not know it was even an option. Oh interesting. Okay. So I will just All right. Anything else from Mr. Roden? Anything else from the board? Thank you. Sounds like a conversation I appreciate you bringing forward, but let's keep the conversation going for sure. Sounds great. Yeah. Thank you'all. Thank you. All right. We have the Shaq annual report and student support

080services update and Marie my glasses on. I have to choose. I can either see you or my paper. So, sorry. Uh, good evening and thank you so much to the board for the opportunity to present an update on student support and mental health services for 2425. I'll also combine this with the shack update. So, one presentation. Here we go. Um, oh, I need to thank you. So, looking at this framework, um, you can see that it spans a wide range of services and includes many of our support personnel. So, our campus counselors that we have on all of our campuses, our social worker, um our district at risk mentor, uh staff counselor, communities and schools, ClariS, interns, all the people that play a role together in supporting our students. These partnerships and interventions are critical

081in helping our students and staff thrive. Um I did want to give a shout out and thank you to Dr. Rojima because she took uh my mental health experience and expertise in some areas and her curriculum expertise and really um put us all together in a room to say it's important that we look at all of this to support the whole child including um all of our curriculum and special education. And so that when we're having conversations, we meet weekly. We're looking at how to support um all the areas that we can um to help build our students and make them the best that they can be. And so you can see many of the um different things that are included in this and then the way that we support that framework and our staff

082counseling support. This was the first time that we hired a professional counselor to provide services for our staff. This was in response to staff surveys. Uh in that um some staff responded and said that they would really appreciate if there was a way to get some more mental health support for them. And so I think it's been an absolutely incredible addition um from you know I try to protect confidentiality so I want to be really careful about what is said but I did meet with the staff counselor weekly for supervision so that we could talk through any resources that we could connect um our teachers with our staff administrators anybody who reached out for the support she started it was Kristen Artberry I always think that everything you have really is dependent upon the person

083in those positions and Kristen was the absolute best hire for this. I think she connected really well with all of our staff, built great rapport and trust. Um and so she just kind of put this together to say these were the main issues that she um worked with all of the the staff that she met with. But she provided 317 counseling appointments with staff this year. She was incredibly flexible. She was picking up food boxes and delivering them to some of our staff when they were experiencing hard times. She made phone calls with staff members to agencies when they needed housing, when they needed um family support, when they were uh suffering from grief and loss. So, it was um really an incredible blessing for so many people this year and she did a phenomenal

084job in that. I'm just really really proud and thank you to Dr. Dr. Kudson and her staff and HR for helping us figure out a way to make this um be something that we could provide. Many times, sometimes it was just a staff member needing somebody to sit with them and make a phone call. You know, who can I call? Who can I reach out for this support? So, um it was very very uh needed and utilized throughout the year. Our hunger-free program, you know, always like to provide an update about that. Uh and you can see the historically how many bags that we've been giving out over the years. This year we were up to 360 bags and you can also see the increase in cost that goes with providing those bags. So to

085total count was over 12,000 almost 13,000 bags of food delivered that our pals packed for us and made those deliveries to campuses. If you include our holiday boxes, we're over 13,000 um food products that were provided to families this year. We uh did something new this year and on the hundth day of school, we did a district-wide challenge for raising funds for Hunger-Free. And in that one day, we raised over $18,000. So, it's very, very excited and proud of all the efforts from our campuses. Kathy Edwards with Spring Valley is like, "Bring on a challenge." And so when we said, she looked at the numbers from the year before of campus contributions and she said, "Oh no, we are going to beat that this year." When she submitted, they did a spare change challenge, which

086I think actually broke the bank and so their change machine, coin machine. So it took a while. She said they'll revamp for next year. Um, but that original calculation was around $4,000. They also did a holiday run and raised another I think 1300. So they were about $5,400 that just that campus raised. So we were very very grateful. And then you can see the picture of all the support. It it really is a team from PAL's packing to our food uh not food services, our uh transportation department that schedules the pickup of the food for us and makes the delivery. Um and so so many people are a part of that and we're we're really grateful. Yes. Yes. I mean, you just answered. You said with the spare change, you we raised $18,000. So, we

087definitely covered our cost this year. But how much outside money are we getting to help supplement this cost? I mean, I know it's maintained itself, but I just want to make sure it does it grows and from contributions from people like you, Mrs. Vic. Thank you. Um, we uh the Nacho Daddy car show that was held this weekend, they'll um contribute part of that money. our pals go and work and then they give us proceeds from that. Waterburger gave us $3,000. We also for the first time this year did a um option for staff to do a payroll deduction. And so we got money coming in every month from that. And so it just um I think the awareness and then the communi communicating with our community partners what our needs are, we just continue

088to to bring in funds. This is the best year that we've had. So that's great. That's that's great to hear. I'm happy to hear that. Then I had one question for you about this teacher counselor. Sure. You said we this was the first year we did that. Yes. Do we have the funds to do it again next year or was that funded by an outside source? I I believe what are what are you shaking? I I said yes, but maybe. Are y'all telling me? Do we know if we're going to do it again next year? Starting the school year with the intent to build next year. So obviously it was not if it was outside funding, we lost that inside. So, we were using some funding that we were getting as part of the um

089what do you call it, Ash? The health. Yes. Health and wellness budget. We have a health and wellness budget that we were kind of funding it out of because of the demand that you're seeing here. What we're actually want to be able to is increase the hours some. So, we won't be able to do it exclusively out of that budget anymore. So, we are doing everything we can given the current state of budgets in the state of Texas to hang on to it is the way I know is the best way I know to answer. Right. Okay. It is one of the half positions that was approved in yes this spring to convert it to general budget from that council. Okay. Well, it sounds like something that's needed. So, I was hoping we can continue

090it if we could fund it. We are. Okay. Bye. All right. Thank you. That's good to know. Thank you for asking. That's all for right now. So, keep going. Yes. Okay. And then our Mckin Vento population. And so these are our students that are either coded as unaccompanied which means they are no longer with a parent or a guardian or that a family may have lost housing. And so you can see the numbers that just like everything else when we look at you know our need for food and counseling and all the different resources that our McKini Mento population or our homeless population has also increased and you can see that citywide. So even throughout the city when we look at the increase in the um numbers of people that have lost housing that impacts

091our families as well. Um I again we could not do all the things that we do and provide the resources if we did not have strong community support. I do think that's one thing we do really well is that we make sure we are always connected with our community partners. Um I can pick up the phone and call region 12 and say I have a family that lost housing. they need hotel and then I'll get a call on Saturday saying we've met met with the family they're in a hotel we've got it paid for for a week we have another church lined up for the next week so from church partners to the cove the cove will come and meet with our students I know Mrs. Watts you've been volunteering with the cove and I

092want to shout out if I could at that time uh we have an instructional specialist at Midway Middle School Adam Miller who works with our kids and our staff all day all week long and then he takes a night uh every week and and then gives to the kids over there. So, yeah, basically, I mean, we show up and we're present. We're we're serving mashed potatoes, but um it's it's a really neat effort to be a part of. And if that's something you're interested in, um you're welcome to talk to me about it. It's it's an incredible program that was initiated by a former Midway High School choir parent. So, um, very proud of that effort, but proud that we have a community and staff that support these kind of things on their own personal

093time. That was the point of that story. Also, uh, I'll give you a sneak peek, but there is an interesting fundraiser coming up in the fall for the family abuse center that I will get to be part of, and I will tell you more about that when it is officially public. Are you are you going to get to dance with the stars? That's my dream. I will tell you more about it when that news becomes public. You just got to wait along with everybody else. I seriously didn't know that was just me throwing that out. So, sorry, we're site is not live yet. So, just stay tuned. And we did, and I put the Shepherd's Heart Food Pantry calendar up there because we did have several meetings with um Central Texas Food Bank, people from

094Austin, Shepherd's Heart Food Pantry here in Waco, and looked at opportunities to make sure that we were providing food to all of our families and setting up locations. And so from that conversation, Shepherd's Heart met with Harris Creek and opened up another food pantry to serve more of our families um in this area. So again, all of our community partners really help us um to meet to meet the many needs that we have that we can't do by ourselves. So mentoring, transition plans, and character education. Um this is vital for re-engaging and supporting our most at risk students. This year, Cullen Zellers, our district atrisisk mentor, shared 164 character education lessons in DAP, and you can see some of the things that he talked with. He also presented to our shack about that. Um he

095um did 193 transition plans and there are questions up there. I always say you know most of our kids have a story to tell and they just want to be asked and so as a part of that transition plan any it's required by law any student that's been in discipline placement must complete a transition plan to go back to campus and that's to help ensure a smooth transition. So they meet with the counselor, they meet with the assistant principal, uh they meet with their mentor, and then they talk about what are some things that you want your campus to know. What have you learned in your time that you've been here? Um and you know, just to again really make that transition smooth, but to give the student the connection to the staff to on

096campus to go back to when there's a need. Um and then 93 students received mentoring support throughout the year. So, that could be a weekly or every other week check-in. Um, you know, it may be families reaching out saying, "Hey, we've had something happen within our family and we just think our, you know, son or daughter could use somebody to do a check-in. This, um, is from elementary all the way up to high school, some of these students, and you can see a picture with Cullen and these students." And he did ask permission and they said, "Yes, you we can uh you can show our picture if you can meet lunch with us." So he went and ate lunch with them and took an an updated picture. So some of these students are followed for

097several years and they may say, "Hey, I'm good. I think if you could just check on me once a month or once a semester." Um but that um support is so vital. I thought it was really good timing because in the ASCA, the American Counseling Association magazine that came out, uh they talked the focus was on restorative discipline. And so it says it's not about letting students get away with negative behavior. It's about giving them skills to handle conflict better next time. Restorative practices help students learn how to resolve conflict productively, rebuild trust and relationships after a conflict, and ensure every voice is heard in the process to take meaningful accountability. So still accountability for the decisions that we make and the choices that we make, but we do that in a way that supports

098and rebuilds. So, I love that. Our community resource fair. This was the second year that we did this resource fair in um uh support with a immunization clinic that we provided. So, all of our district nurses and our um local health community came together to do an immunization clinic. So, we reached out to many of our graduating seniors, if you need your menitis vaccination, you can come and get that. And so I think we had about 30 students that came and did that. But it could also be for students coming into school. Um so any of our new pre-K kindergarten that might need immunizations, they could come do that. We had 36 community agencies that wanted to be a part of it. So we grew that by about 10 more community partners. The best thing

099that I think we do with this is, you know, we we bring the the community resources to the families. So, we let them know and they can come and do a walk through and collect so many resources, but also I said before most of our community partners get really excited about meeting with each other and so they'll say, "Oh, I didn't know you provided this resource. Let's get together." And then they, you know, build even more programs to support our community. So, it is a it's a great thing. Emory, were those vaccinations free? Yes. I think they could I think most of them were, but they could also use their insurance. So, they ask them to bring their insurance card and do that. And if I say free, I think they said $10 if they

100did not have insurance. Yes. And when are we going to have this? When is when will it happen? Next. Next year. That we just did this one. We just We just Oh, we just had it in May. It was in April. Oh, in April. We just had it at the end of April. Yes. So, sometime next year. Do that again. Um but I think it will continue to grow. We always get really good um positive feedback from that and participation. our substance use counseling and education partnership with Baylor continued. This was a three-year grant. Uh again, we cannot do all the things, but we can partner with the people who can help us do all the things. And so this grant um is a partnership with Baylor. They send uh PhD candidate students that come

101in and help provide counseling. They're required to get 10 hours of substance use counseling experience um every week. And so they come in and do our substance use education lessons that we adopted last year, the year before um through Shaq. And so they provide those lessons. And you can see they did 155 hours of lessons with our middle school students. Uh they also provide counseling to any of our students that may um test positive for a substance on a a drug test at school. So we used to require one hour of counseling and now we've bumped that to three because we felt that would be more supportive. and um happy to know that many students self-refer. So, they come in and say, "I need to talk to somebody and I would love to get some

102support." So, we will actually expand this through the summer. We were um we've already sent stuff out and we'll be offering for some of the students that want to keep coming and getting that support. I did include on here about the vape sensor installation and I know that that's already been presented, but just to know that there was a lot of parent communication um involved in that so that we could be proactive um and so that we could communicate what that would look like. Well, will Baylor be helping us this summer? Will they continue to send interns in the summer? Yes. Yes. Yes, we've already got that set up and ready to go. our pregnancy related services this year. Um there were five pregnant students. Um it also includes support for dads and so there

103were eight total students who received support um through the pregnancy related services this year. Um seven of those students were eligible to graduate. Um again everything that we do is about keeping students in school and successful but then also helping them prep for a next stage of life. And so some of these it was sitting down and students say, "I have a plan and I still have a plan. I just need to know how to make that work now." And so connecting them one, we got connected with MCC. We um got connected with child care options. Um she's very excited about going into a radiology program and and working with the the MCC staff already on how to make that work. Um financial aid and all the things. And so these services are provided by

104Joy Fanner, our district social worker, who helps just make sure that they're on track to graduate and get the support that they need. And like I said, seven are eligible and will be graduating this week. Our communities and schools partnership um we have on middle school and high school campuses. One of the big focuses that started last year was um communities and schools involvement in truency and that really has made a huge impact because they go to those pre-court hearings our communities and schools reps do and then they hear the story of the family. So why is this student truent? And most of the times there's a reason there's a story behind that. One student in particular there was truency because the parent had had a stroke. um around spring break, there was a four-year-old

105at home that the parent could not care for and so the child was missing school um to stay home and take care of the four-year-old. Well, communities and schools gets that information and then says, "What can we do?" And so they start connecting the family with all of the resources, but not only that, they come back and say, "Hey, to the counselor, want to make sure that you're aware of this because we heard this and so this student may need support from you." and then they communicate with the younger um siblings to say, you know, here's more information and maybe we can get the student connected with prek or programs. So, it really does make a difference. And, you know, I was going to mention this later, but I'll say all of our programs interact

106with each other. We meet monthly from ClariS to communities and schools to our campus counselor, social work, mentor. We meet every month and we bring in all of our community resources throughout the year to keep us updated on what's available for our families. And most of these kids get multiple touch points from people. So communities and schools may refer somebody for mentoring support and mentoring support may refer for mental health services. And so it really is such a coordinated effort that works really beautifully. M our heart of Texas behavioral health is our claris support that's provided in the schools. So this is our highest level of counseling support. They do um inhome visits. They provide counseling services throughout the summer. They meet with families. They do education for families. They do psychiatric evaluations. They can

107um place students in hospitalization when it's needed for in um care treatment. And so this is our high highest level of support and um they're able to connect students with things that we don't have the direct access to do. And so it's great to be able to meet we can call any one of these people with ClariS that we partner with and say hey got a student I need to know status um update or we need you know information for parent involvement in this particular thing. And and again they they work really well and provide the highest level of support that we can offer. And then our community resources to support campuses. We did a partnership with STAR this year. They provide free counseling services. They said, "We have a lot of counselors, but parents

108can't leave work. They don't have time to be able to do that, but we can come to you." And so if that's an option, can we sign a memorand memorandum of understanding with you and then we can pick a couple of schools. You tell us ones that really could use some support. So we picked Huitt and Spiegelville and with parent permission and the school support they went during the day and met with those students to provide services. And then our TAT partnership um continued and that's also free service where all of our students that want to um sign up for TAT get five free counseling services um through through online support and then if they need psychiatric support they get five additional free appointments while they're set up with That. TAChat gets the community resource

109guide from us and then they make sure that the students get connected with the counselor in the community for long-term support and then they communicate with the family as well about about services and Marie is Chat comparable I'm thinking like better help is it that no okay betterhelp is a paid service right yes but it's but it is online mental health so is it one-on-one counsel yes it is yeah but it's free. That's what we like. Well, that is a big distinction. Free is best. Oh, sorry. We're on to Shaq. Here we go. Um, so our Shaq, uh, my job is to provide the updates on all of the things that were discussed by Shaq. I think most of you at this point have all served with me on Shaq at some point in time.

110Um, and so you know the process and what it looks like and all the things that we cover. Many of the things that I just talked about are always a part of our SHAK meetings, too, because it impacts our physical education, our health education, health policies, community resources, all of those things. This year, um, special thanks to Dr. Allen and Mr. Russ who served with us on Shack. Um, you know, it could be we give free lunch and they're really good lunches. Um, but they were very supportive and um, we we appreciate the participation and the feedback. And Marie, is Jerry Snider still the chair? Co-chair. Yes, he and Dean Kloppus are co-chairs. Yes. The Shaq Oh, sorry. Does somebody have a question? No, sorry. I said clear my throat. Okay. Shaq met four times

111this year. We had about 30 to 35 members that were present on um, average for each session. Um, this year we had here our agenda topics for the year. Some of them have already been discussed, but the these same people came in and spoke to Shaq, but you can see several of the things that were discussed um throughout our four meetings. To honor the request of the board, Shaq did take up discussions about cell phone policies this year. And so you can see historically we kind of follow along with legislative um sessions too because typically out of a legislative session there will be some task for Shaq and so we just pay attention to that and it really aligned well because the board had already requested hey look at you know cell phone policies let's

112have that discussion and so did the legislative session. So, I printed I just typed in um in the beginning of the year um cell phones and so I could pull all the things that were being you know discussed in legislative session and so there were many um discussions about policies around cell phone usage about mental health studies that were requested to be conducted and so have all of that and then there were about four that were following um still following that recommend in policies and so we'll we'll kind of see where that goes. Okay. The cell phone policies and expectations were reviewed by shack. They were also reviewed by mast. So this was a parallel process where everything that was done in shack was then also replicated and discussed in mass because we wanted to

113get as many um you know stakeholders and and their um their input was valuable to us. So in October you can see an overview where we just started those conversations um positive and negatives you know what are all the things around cell phones and we just opened it up to conversation in the December shack we reviewed uh the proposal proposed house bill 1258 um and that was discussing the prohibition of possession of personal communication devices. uh we looked at sample parent, student and staff surveys and then looked at the questions. Did we want to reword add anything? And then those surveys were sent out. Uh in February we had Don Wobble from TalkMore Tech Less come and give us some policy information and some of her uh legislative action and support that she's been a

114part of just to give us another perspective and keep us updated. uh we also then went over all the survey results. So we had those back and then we used that for discussion and then in April and we had many many many articles sent after every SHAK meeting to prepare us for the next. So here is everything that's being discussed from many different resources um to give us some some more input. And then in April we reviewed cell phone policies. Uh all of the groups shared comments. There were three different policies basically that were drafted. Um samples A, B and C. Both the mast and the shack favored sample B which all of you have um and revisions. They asked for some revisions to be made. So the one that you have has those updated

115revisions and then I took from that. So from the policy, the sample B that was mostly um you know everyone's favorite I guess with revisions and pulled what it looks like by grade level. And so you can see there are more restrictions and prohibitions for cell phone usage from preK to 5 to 5th grade. And then there are a little bit more freedoms in cell phone usage as they get older, as the students get older. um across the board there was agreement that there be no use in the classrooms and then you can see by 6th through 8th grade they're allowed to use cell phones at um the beginning of the day and the dismissal time and then 9th through 12th grade there's a little bit more flexibility and freedoms with arrival and dismissal during

116transition so hallway time and then also in the cafeterias and then all three um age groups that are listed had permissions and flexib ability to use cell phones on the buses. So that's what I have. So let me go ahead. I just had one question of this. From everything I read you sent, it wasn't clear. We may not have decided, but for these, you know, it's not supposed the phone's not supposed to be used in the classroom. Have we decided if we're going to have a bin that they put their phone in? Are we going to let the student put it in their backpack or is every class going to be different? How's that gonna work? So what we conceptualize at the grade 9 through 12 level is that they would actually have classroom bins

117or lockers they put them in. I I will tell you part of the reason we haven't given you great specificity yes is is two reasons. And one is um we're trying to anticipate legislation that could be coming forward. And two those would come at some cost. And so we're trying to process how to manage the cost associated with that. It's not overwhelming. We'll be able to do it. We want to get some feedback from teachers though on what that would look like. Um I want to just for a point of clarity talk about what what it is we're doing with the board tonight and um kind of the conversation we're having. So what you have in front of you in this summarized graphic which Amry's done a great job on and then the more detailed

118you have in your packet the more detailed kind of with all the exceptions and all of the ways that we accommodate for students who have need to get to their phones for health reasons or those other uh issues. um is what you're looking at is the shack recommendation for cell phone expectations uh with mass affirmations. So both of those groups agreed that this is where we should land. Um we're not asking the board for any approvals tonight and that's for a couple reasons. One, we have historically put our cell phone on expectations in the handbook. The handbook does not carry the weight of policy. that's where it lives and that is um that is common that is common in handbooks and other places across the state. Um we could also capture them in our student

119code of conduct. Our student code of conduct is approved by the board. And so though it's not policy, it carries the weight of policy. That is also not uncommon. You'll see these in either hands of uh handbooks or codes of conduct. There is also legislation floating around and Amory made note of this that would require boards to adopt policies doing the work we've already done. And so it is not our our we don't anticipate bringing anything back to the board by way of an actual desire for approval until we got clarity on what may be coming out of the ledge or feedback from the board tonight. If y'all said, "Hey, put it with this code of conduct." Then we'll put it as an appendix in the code of conduct and you would approve this as

120part of the overall code of conduct. Paul, when are we going to get an updated code of conduct? July. So, because the ledge is in session, we wouldn't see that till mid July. Uh, but it would be folded in and we remind you of this at that time. If y'all said put it in a handbook, you you might never approve it, but we would like for the board to at least affirm that you've seen this and you appreciate the work of the shack and mast committees knowing full well that no matter really what we talk about tonight, there may be a required pivot if the ledge passes something that requires us to adopt formal policy. So really as much as anything, it's just a little bit of a of a discussion about um us sharing

121with you these expectations again brought being recommended by Shaq, affirmed by mast um answer questions you have about the process or anything else and then maybe a little bit of feedback on where you'd like to see these captured. This all started when when the board charged me with having a discussion, frankly, about banning cell phones. In those days, the discussion we were having was younger pouches and we had that conversation. In fact, what Don Wy talked to the community about is all the reasons we should ban cell phones. Um, and at that time there was a house bill 515 which was looking to do that. It got no traction. You saw the surveys with our parents and with our community and others. And we feel like where we've landed does the best job of capturing

122the desire for a a limited use on cell phones, a more controlled and consistent I would think the thing the committee might have been the firmst on. I'm looking at you Amarie and Mr. Russ was with us at every single one of those meetings and so was Becky. no matter what we do, we got to be consistent. I think that was their number one takeaway is make it make it clear so that it's consistent. Um, and so you you have all that in front of you and we um we'd love to hear your questions or comments. And if I might relative to your comments, Dr. Allen, I I not not only was that clear, but the other thing that was clear is the vast majority of parents and and staff members, surprisingly not students, thought

123thought that we did need to do something about cell phones, right? The what varies depending on who you're asking the question of, but the overwhelming majority thought we needed to address it because it it does interfere with the educational environment. So, and and I'll say this too, just as an aside, all of this work and I keep talking about the ledge may come down with something. I've seen policies that talk about limited use of cell phones during instructional time and some that say during the instructional day and the difference in those two words for us is fairly dramatic. Yes. So, we're we're really kind of waiting to see what comes out of Austin, but this is this is where we are with the work that's been done by this community. I don't want to get

124I'm not going we can get into this a second, but one of my first thoughts and I've been thinking about this is the bin versus the backpack. Yeah. Um, I'm a little I have some concerns about using a bin. Um, one I think that takes a little more time out of the classroom instruction time because you got to everybody's got to come in, the teachers got to make sure they've done it. Then I would assume before they leave the classroom, they get their phone back because my other concern is people taking other people's phones and that could cause quite a lot of havoc in the hall if someone's running, hey, you took my phone or they don't know who took their phone. And I think that's a real concern we'd have to have at using

125a bins. I hate to say that about our students, but well, they could just get confused. They all look alike. So, I prefer I think the backpack idea, which is what we used to do in the old days. Um, and it's pretty obvious that the kids old days for cell phones. But what is when they got fined, got their phone taken up and got fined. Yeah. What is the conversation about high school versus middle school and bins versus none? So, Allison speak. So, I'm going to have Allison speak to what they're doing at the high school because they're already doing bins at the high school in a lot of classes. So, go ahead and stand up so we can use that coaching voice here. Yeah. So, they look a little different each of the classrooms.

126Um, some of my departments went together and they bought department bins like the math department and decided they kind of wanted the same thing. Some are using the oldfashioned calculator patties that you hang up on the board and as a kid comes in either they pull a card out with their number and they drop their phone in or they have an assigned number. Um, I have some teachers that even have a rolling cart that they pull out. Kids put them in there and they can plug them in. The teacher takes the cart in and plugs it in the wall so they can charge them while they're sitting essentially in the so students put them in there because they get charged while they're in the caddy. So it's a little bit a lot of things happen

127in the center of the table and everybody she gives them 10 seconds down their chair get all stuck in the box and the box is closed until the last 30 seconds of class and then she says okay grab your phone out of the box instead of the table. So, it's a mix of both or all. And then some are still with the backpacks. They stay in the backpacks. But, but there's definitely time in the classroom to get their phone back in case some kid takes the wrong phone, they can figure that out in the classroom. And I'll be honest, that has not been Okay, that's good. We're not not envisioning just tossing them in a free-for-all. That's why I'm thinking they would just throw it in a bucket. So, I can speak to this a

128little bit from personal experience. my wife does at the high school is the oldfashioned calculator slot instead. So they have an assigned number. Yeah. And all she can also look up there and immediately know who's not in class like look if the kids's not sitting there but anyway up there. Yeah. I would say the calculator is probably the most prevalent one because the kid can drop it in there just drop it as they come in as they go while they're sitting and easily grab it if need be on the way out. Right. Okay. Well, I appreciate that information. the I'm not opposed to the classroom caddies, Mr. Wit, at the middle school level, but because they are not allowed to have them out at any point during the day once school starts, it it just

129seems reasonable that like and middle school administrator can basically see if we say it, we take it. Like once the bell ring and the school day starts, so there's there's no ambiguity in that. Um the secondary where they're kind of in and out a little bit based on transition times. Yeah. Well, the one thing I'll say about process and and everything else, and you and I had emailed about this already because it was one of the questions I had about the uh the board packet. Um I I mean I I think it would be appropriate code of conduct somewhere for the board to have said, "Hey, we we bless this or we tweak this or what whatever that whatever the conversation needs to be." But I also know that my text thread conversation with Mr.

130dream about middle school specifically, him not being here. I would definitely want to have an opportunity to have conversation when he is here because I know we're I think we're the only two on the board that have a middle schooler. Um, and I think from my perspective there's maybe a couple of conversations to have there, but everything else is Yeah, really appreciate the work because I know that's it's kind of a lightning rod issue sometimes for some people. So, really appreciate that. Well, I applaud Shaq and Mast and and and Mr. Russ was with us during all the Shack meetings. Um and and what I would tell you is um they did a great job of wrestling through this because there's a lot of thought and feeling about phones. It's man it's amazing y'all. They're

131an electronic device. But what they've become in our society like the fact we have to wrestle with it so much is almost indicative of the problem. But um but I also want to say this and this may this may seem one off or a little bit out of line or not not the right time but y'all I you can't appreciate Amarie enough for not only her leadership of Shaq and what she does out of her office every day. Um but you know we started our board meeting talking about the fact that there's been a tragedy with the student Lena. Um and I got a call from the superintendent and I said hey Marie we may we may need three or four people on standby for tomorrow. And she said I'm on it. got it covered.

132And and I don't you don't know how much you appreciate people who do the kind of work that Amarie and our counseling staff does and and some of these others like from Star and these other places to you're walking a family through their absolute worst nightmare and they're the ones who step into that difficulty and and become a source of light when there doesn't appear to be anything but darkness. And so just her just your work on that, Amory, I just really appreciate it. Appreciate that. Thank you. She's amazing. Thank you. Thank you. So, Colin, are you saying you have some different ideas for middle school than I'm I'm saying I think it would be appropriate to have a conversation with the full board here because I think Mr. Green's going to want to weigh

133in a little bit too, just from our conversation. I don't want to speak for him, but I also know that the ledge is going to do what they do and code of conduct isn't a thing that happens till July anyway. So, maybe Yeah, maybe it's to put on the back burner and have conversations between now and then kind of thing. Sure. Sounds good to me. Well, I would say subject to what the legislature mandates us to do. Yeah. And if it's nothing, so be it. It's nothing. I think it's still appropriate for the district to take a considered course of action. In in my opinion, that should absolutely include that whatever the decision is, the full board has an opportunity to discuss it and to then vote on it so that it is boardbacked, however

134that comes to be. If the legislature doesn't mandate that we adopt a certain kind of policy, we'll see what they do. But if they don't if they don't do anything, yeah, to me it's still important that whatever the decision is, it be one that's made after the full board has an opportunity to weigh in on it and that ultimately it's it's board action that backs it up because I think that's important for our staff to be able to say no this this this is coming from the board and the the consistency piece of it there becomes important in that regard in my view. Agreed. Agree. Agree. Understood. Okay. Thank you, Amar. Thank you. That um before we take up the consent agenda, thank you and Marie, maybe we should pause briefly and revisit that other

135agenda item that that we didn't really spend enough time on because he wasn't here yet. Somebody might want to speak. Somebody might want to get sworn in. Sworn in and have an oath. You want to swear at me? Yes. Yes, we do. Interesting. We're going to let Colin start [Laughter] though. Start. He won't stop. You're on the spot. Raise your right hand. I in the name and by the authority of the state of Texas. That was choppy. It's awfully [Music] in the name authority of the state of Texas. I, Rick Tus, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of the Midway ISD board of trustees of the state of Texas and I will uh and I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution

136and laws of the United States of this state. So help me God. It was easier when you read it. It was easier than I know. Thank you, Mr. Tullus. Thank you. Consent agenda. We have minutes from our regular meeting in April. Our special called meeting what I think is a record number of early graduation requests. Yes, sir. I mean, wow. Does it matter now? I mean, it's in three days, you know. the - technology matter that Jesse talked about, our food service management company bid for the next school year, and then budget amendments that Wesley had also mentioned. Does any board member wish to remove any item from the consent agenda? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. So move. Motion by Mr. Alford. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. I'll second it.

137Mr. Motion by Mr. Wit, second by Mr. Alford. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries unanimously. I'm looking at you. Lots of lots of new folks. Lots of new folks. Uh superintendence communication. Let's do the part we're going to do out here and then you've got a communication to make to us in close session. Yes, sir. We'll get there. Okay. So, super communication. Allison, I'm going to put you on the spot. How many kids we walking Friday night? It was 665ish the last time heard and growing. Yes, sir. Okay. So, Friday night, the forecast is looking promising. If you're a praying person, let's keep that let's keep that going in the right direction. Uh, so you have at your dis in all seriousness, you have some information. You have your parking

138pass. We will meet per our Mr. Tell us we have yours. We promise we uh, per our usual custom, we will meet in the press box at about 7:15. We'll start making our way to the field. This is not on your piece of paper, but if it's useful to you, we'll start making our way to the field in that 7:40ish range. We're going to do something different this year we haven't done before and it's a little bit of an intro video and then I so we'd want to be down there before that starts and so then soon as that video is done we'll start with commencement ceremonies and so there's been a lot of talk this evening about a number of different things some of it team seems to go back to the same topic

139which is the need for the people in Austin to understand that you can't run schools on no money but y'all that should not distract from or get in the way of or in any way detract from the fact that we've got 670 kids who've made their way from prek through high school. And this evening, you heard a a number of recognitions about the great things that they are already doing that is setting the stage for what will happen next. We got kids with perfect SAT scores and perfect ACT scores and going to the United States military and getting commissions for ROC scholarships and kiddos who are who are soaring and doing things. Y'all, when I got into this business back in 1996, I didn't even know half the things our kids were doing were a

140thing. and they are just the most amazing young people. And so our chance to celebrate them and not take for granted that um that these families are going to get to celebrate these achievements um some some of whom are represented in this room. There's a Nate Smith and a Zoe Kudson and a Caitlyn Ojima and I'm and uh Johnson's got one a bunch I'm going to get in trouble. I'll leave people out. We got a bunch. Raise your hand. Just say raise your hand. We got a bunch coming out. Uh, and if if seniors of of parents in this very room and they've already started with the graduation parties and all that. So, there are a lot of things I could talk about, but Mr. Russ, I think what I'd like to end on is

141talking about our graduates and all that they've done to contribute to the greatness of this district and all that we're confident they're going to do to make our society and our community a better place. Excellent. Good work. What your goal? Can I add one thing to that too? and a baseball and softball team that are still playing. Still playing. Still playing there. There will be sweaty people graduating tonight. State. Can we have our parents as seniors just stand up for a second? You got a graduating senior. Wow. Man, that's impressive. Going to be a bunch of It's a big bunch of folks on Friday night. So, I have 858. We're going to briefly as briefly as y'all have to be, sir. That's good. Lay it on us. Yeah. uh going into close session under Texas

142Government Code [Music] 551.0821 0821 sir and then we're not going to take any action when we come back out or anything. We're just going to adjourn. If you want to stay and see that welcome, they already did. Yeah. I thought it wrecked you. Hey, do you want to try some just now?