April Board Meeting

001turn this thing on. Regular meeting of the Midway ISD board to order. We have a quorum here. Miss Vic is not able to be with us this evening. Uh on behalf of the board, welcome those of you that are present with us this evening. Appreciate you being here. Welcome anybody that's watching this online. Um cell phones, you know what to do with them so you don't embarrass yourself. Um the board's role briefly as a reminder is to set goals. We hire and evaluate the superintendent. The superintendent and staff members are the ones that are responsible for managing the district, the board. Uh in addition to setting goals, evaluating superintendent, we adopt tax rates, board policies, budgets, those sorts of things. We don't do the day-to-day. Um, one of the things that we uh do now

002is uh the mission statement uh that rotates each month with a different board member who um goes through the mission statement and then has sage and wise comments. That that board member also though gets the uh the privilege, the honor and it is that of doing the recognition and tonight that's Brad Alford. Mr. Alford, thank you. So our mission statement is Midway ISD will maximize individual potential within the learner centered and supportive environment to prepare our students to excel in a global society. Um and I just wanted to say uh kind of what it's it's been an honor to kind of serve on this board for the number of years that I've had. And it's it's basically because I know this administration, the board, the faculty, everybody all pulls in the same direction. It's all

003based on kids excelling. And that's our our sole purpose in in serving. Um, you know, nobody really to me has ever had like a an agenda on the board. We all get along. we um just seem to do really well and I'm I'm just really proud of that fact to be associated with Midway. Thank you, Brad. And I would echo those comments. Uh moment of silence. I'm going to ask each of you if you would with me take a moment for silent prayer, meditation, reflection, or contemplation. And tonight, I particularly ask that you have Miss Vic and her family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. One of my favorite parts of every board meeting is the pledge of allegiance because we get to see principles from the different campuses most often along with students.

004And tonight we have the honor of having Dr. Clint Glazeman, principal at Castleman Creek. And I know he's got a group of students he's going to introduce us to. Yes, good evening. Well, it's my pleasure to introduce an exceptional group of students who represent one of our campus greatest strengths. Um, it's our remarkable diversity. Um, at Councilman Creek, our families speak more than 19 different languages um at home, which enriches our school community um every single day. And under the guidance of our dedicated ESL facilitator, Miss Mandy Ooa, um these incredible young leaders bring unique perspectives, um resilience, and invaluable experiences to our school. Um, their presence is a constant reminder of the beauty and strength found in celebrating our differences. And before our students introduce themselves, I would like to introduce to you and

005invite to the podium, Miss Mandy Ooa. All right. Good evening. I'm Mandy Ooa and I've had the honor of being the ESL facilitator at Castleman for the last nine years. Um, at our school, we currently have the following lang languages spoken by our families. English, Spanish, Arabic, Amharic, Erdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Russian, Tagalague, Nepali, Igbo, Turkish, Romanian, American Sign Language, Chinese, Burmese, and Morathi. Wow. In a moment, each one of these students, these amazing students behind me, will step forward introducing themselves and proudly share their native country or homeland. You'll notice they're each carrying a small flag representing their home country and symbolizing their heritage. Good evening. My name is Malik. My native country is Turkey. I know Turkish, English, and some Kurdish. Wow. Hola is Sebastian. Hello, my name is Sebastian. My homeland

006is Puerto Rico and I know English and Spanish. Hello, my name is Asher. My native country is India. I know English and Hindi. Good evening. My name is Osra. My family is from Turkey. I know Turkish, English, and some Arabic and Kurdish. Wow. Pretty impressive, huh? All right, if y'all all stand for the pledge. Amen. 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. Thank you. Great job. [Applause] Okay, next up is recognition. Uh, starting with April awareness days. April awareness days. Thank you, Mr. Russ. Uh, April awareness days. The month of April is National Volunteer Month. It is also now National Child Abuse Prevention Month. April 2nd was pair professional appreciation day. April 4 was

007Texas Fruit and Vegetable Day. April 4 was also school librarian day. The week of April 7 is National Assistant Principal Week. April 22 is school bus driver appreciation day. April 22nd is also Earth Day. And April Right on time and April 23rd is administrative professionals day. Thank you. Thank you. Um we're now going to do recognitions that Minister Alford is going to assist with. Starting with a National Merit Commended Scholar and uh where is Allison Smith? There she is. Good evening board and um our other admin team. Um it's my honor tonight to recognize one of Midway High School's outstanding seniors, Ethan Peacock, from being named a National Merit Commended Scholar. This recognition places Ethan among the top 3% of students in the nation who took the PSAT NF NMSQT. Ethan is the son of

008Dale and Miranda Peacock of Waco and is a shining example of academic excellence and well-rounded achievement. He is an AP scholar with distinction an Eagle Scout and holds the FFA state degree. Ethan is also certified as a professional horiculturalist through the Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association and as a nursery professional through the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association. Beyond his academic and career accomplishments, Ethan is actively involved in future Farmers of America, Scouts BSA, and Waco Youth Symphony Orchestra. I'm going to go ahead and have Ethan come on up and stand up here while I'm talking about him. Um, after graduation, Ethan up for the medal. There you go. Ethan plans to attend Texas Tech University where he were ma he will major in ecology and conservation and Ethan just joined us this year from

009Florida. Um and just so that you guys know one of the reasons they chose Midway is because we have a fantastic orchestra program and so fine arts do draw kids to the area as long and as well as like our FFA program. So um very well-rounded young man and congratulations Ethan. Um please join me in congratulating him on a well-deserved recognition and for representing Midway High School with excellence. [Applause] family choosing midway. Ethan, when do you sleep? State powerlifting. Yes, sir. I'm also standing in tonight for um our athletic director, Brad Shelton, um on state powerlifting. Tonight, we're proud to recognize three outstanding Midway High School athletes who qualified for and competed at the Texas High School Powerlifting Association, also known as THSPA, and the Texas High School Women's Powerlifting Association, THSWPA, state meets. These

010student athletes have dedicated countless hours to training, demonstrating ex exceptional strength, perseverance, and commitment to their sport. First, we honor Andrew Bonner. So, I'm gonna have Andrew come on up. Who competed in the 181 pound weight class at the THSPA state meet. Andrew earned an impressive sixth place in the state with a combined total lift of 1,585 lbs, including including 500 570 lb squat, a 405 lb bench press, and a 610 lb deadlift. A senior and two-time state qualifier, Andrew also competed as a sophomore where he placed 27th. Congratulations, Andrew. Next up, we have um just stay right there, Andrew. Don't run away. Okay, so next we recognize Trent Ingram, also competing in the 181 lb class. Um at the Boy State meet, Trent placed 25th in the state with a combined total lift of

0111,400 lb. It was a 570lb squat, 350 lb bench press, and a 480lb deadlift. So very impressive. Finally, also she's not here tonight, but Bella Ginch is one of our female athletes who competed in the women's powerlifting state meet. Bella placed ninth in state with a combined total lift of 870 pounds, consisting of a 345 lb squat, a 165 lb bench press, and a 360 lb deadlift. Her top 10 finish at state level is an incredible achievement. And so, she was sorry she couldn't be here tonight. Um, these students are coached by coach Hayden Wall and Greg Garrett. If y'all will come up as well. Um, and congratulations to Andrew, Trent, and Bella for representing Midway ISD with the strength, pride, and panther excellence at the highest level of high school [Applause] powerlifting. And last

012but not least, we have a TEPA state officer, Dr. Allen. Yes, sir. We have a very exciting recognition tonight and it's one that speaks volume about the kind of leaders that have been produced in Midway ISD. Huitt Elementary School principal Christy Watley, come on up Christy while we talk about you. Has been named the executive committee for TEPSA which is the Texas elementary principles and supervisors association for the 2526 school year. If you're not familiar with TESA, it represents thousands of preK through 8th grade leaders across Texas. And this committee is a big deal. It's made up of just a few people who set the vision and direction for the entire organization. Christiey's selection is no surprise to those who know her. She's passionate, driven, and always keeps students at the heart of every decision.

013She's respected not only in our district, but across the state. And in this new role, she will be able to not only share her incredible leadership, but learn from others in a way that we know will contribute to the growth of our school district. Tonight, we want to say congratulations to Christie. We are very, very proud of you and we're thankful that you are with us and that you represent us so well both here and across the state. Great job, Christie. Normally at this point, we would go into our information items and presentation discussion. We're going to move consideration item 8B1 up because we have sort of a unique circumstance. We actually have both middle school principal ships that uh need to be filled. And I'm going to turn that over to Dr. Allen to

014uh visit with us about his recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Russ. I want to start off by talking just a little bit about the process. Um as you know, we had some middle school principal uh positions that we need to fill. One, because Miss Allison was relocating and two, because Mr. Fisher accepted the opportunity to lead our district in a different way. And so with that having been said, we put together a combined process that had parents who represent the communities of both of those middle schools, teachers who represent the communities of both those middle schools, myself, Dr. Odima, and Dr. Kut were in the interview process in round one, and then at round two, it was myself, Dr. Ojima, and Paul Ael. Um, we asked them to tour the facilities with some students. Uh, and

015what they didn't know that we knew is that we debriefed the students later and said, "So, were they nice to you?" Um, and so it well, it's interesting what you can glean about the interactions they have with young people. And so, we talked to the kiddos about that. They went through 15 questions with us as a committee. And then they did walkthroughs uh in teacher classrooms that were facilitated by uh Dr. Robin Wilson and Kim Johnson. There's there's Kim and Kim Johnson. Um, and what we were looking for is whether or not they know good uh, instruction when they see it and how to provide feedback to teachers that would be encouraging and supportive as well as feedback that would grow their uh, practice for the for the purposes of students. After all that work,

016uh, what we are here to do is tell you that we're pleased to recommend for the principal ship at Midway Middle School, Kayla Brown. There's Kayla. Stand up, Kayla. We're obviously excited to bring this recommendation to the board uh because Kayla's one of ours. She's been an educator for 16 years in in Midway. She served as a math teacher, a learning coach, an instructional specialist, an assistant principal at the high school level. She ran Horizons and Date for a year, an associate principal at Midway High School, and now comes before the board uh as our recommendation for Midway Middle School. There are a number of things that we could say about uh Kayla that are very positive, but but I'll tell you it and u I' I've repeated this more than once because it was

017so automatic. I said, "Tell me about your best moment as an educator." And before I could get the question out of my mouth, she started talking about a kid at DAP Horizons. It was one of the two programs. And the young man was pretty far behind on credits and testing. And she just got in the rowboat with him and rode and got that young person across the finish line. and the absolute unflinching move to kids success and and especially student who'd struggled as her greatest memory in education. I think it tells you a lot about her heart and who she is as a leader and why it is we think that she's going to be a great fit at Midway Middle School. So that would be Kayla. Thank you, Kayla. Okay. And then at River

018Valley Middle School, we'll be recommending Heather, Dr. Heather Mezer, who Thank you, Heather. Um, Heather is a 289 year 29-year educator. Heather served in uh the Midway Ind School District before as CTE director and as an assistant principal at the intermediate, middle, and elementary schools. She was a counselor uh in Katy. She was uh hired on as executive director of secondary education in the Marble Falls Independent School District. Her husband's relocating back to the area in a strange twist of fate. It's connected to West Allison leaving the fair. It's Um and it put us in the in the great position of uh her wanting to apply for our middle school positions. Um Heather's got a long list of accomplishments. One of a couple of the things that she's done is created and implemented the early

019college high school within a school in the Marvel Falls Independent School District. 85 kids in a cohort right now that are going to finish their high school career. Uh core complete. Some of those will even have their associates degree. Created a STEM academy within that district. Also a school within a school model. um and has done a number of other things to her credit and so we're excited about that recommendation as well. Awesome. [Applause] So rather than doc asking Dr. Allen how it came to be that Dr. Mezer got to Marble Falls, I'll simply ask is there a motion to approve the administration's recommendation for these two ladies? So moved. Thank you, Miss Watts. Second. Thank you, Mr. Tullus. Motion by Miss Watts, second by Mr. Tullus. Any further discussion or questions? Fantastic. Agreed. All

020in favor say I. I. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Welcome aboard. Continued aboard. Thank you for taking it off. Yes. Information items. We have an unusually large number of information items, but that's because we've got a number of presentation items. Um, if any board member has any question or wants to talk about any information items, we'll take that up now. And if not, we'll move on to the presentation discussions. I just had a quick question about 6C, the early childhood update. I guess I've not really looked at these numbers in a while. It surprises me that to have so many kids in a class that's a lot of little bodies in a single space even with two teachers and it just caught my attention. I'll speak to that briefly and then if Miss Johnson

021or Miss Johnson you want to talk to that a little bit. So it um what we try and do is staff these building these classrooms in a way that allows the teachers to be successful. In some of these programs, we're required to take children throughout the course of the year, like legally required, right? And so, it kind of es and flows with the school year depending on um how many kiddos are aging into those programs. And um I I I will tell you it's been a little bit of a struggle trying to keep the staffing ironed out on that as we've gone throughout the course of the year. Would you add anything to that? That's exactly right. That's what happens to our 4K to our 4K program. Um any have to accept into that and

022it does punctuate our numbers. Um in 3K we keep it capital hands on and we do we evaluated the spaces to ensure they have the best space that they can have as three girls that be bodies in a room. My husband describes that as molecules just things bouncing off the walls. Well, I know there's some challenges but I appreciate y'all continuing to rise to the occasion. And am I right too that the summer offerings included mentoring alliance at Midway Middle this year? Yeah. So talk about how that's different than what we did at Huitt. The biggest the biggest difference is allows us to serve more children. So there there's a couple things there. Hugh at elementary is a little bit limited by space compared to Midway Middle obviously, but in addition to that, we have

023a number of other programs that we run out of Huitt in the summer. And so you had a whole lot going on in that building at one time. And so in the process of working with Mr. Fiser and the officials from mentoring alliance were able to make a way to provide space for them at Midway Middle School. So we'll be able to see more students and then do that in a way that creates um less intersection between that and other programs that we have taking place. And is it still same age grades or are we targeting middle school grades or what is it's the it's the same age group. In fact, the mentoring alliance folks in other districts, it's not they they kind of typically use middle schools and so for them it's a little

024more unaligned with their model, but yes, sir, it's the same age grade. Well, that enabled us to expand the program, take more kids. We should be able to enroll more students. Great. And in that same topic, Dr. Allen, didn't didn't you tell me that they have a sliding scale, too? Yes, sir. So part of the reason mentoring alliance is an attractive program for our community is that it's a it's a summer camp that provides a sliding scale for parents so that can be affordable for folks who may not otherwise have an option like that in this area. Um they are backed by donors and that's part of what allows them to do this. I'm I'm looking at Miss W. She's nine yes a lot. So, it is it is a tremendous service to our community,

025for our parents, especially our parents who work. And y'all, we're out of school in the summer, but jobs aren't. And and for many of our parents, this puts them in a little bit of a of a tough spot. And I think in some situations, our kids spend a significant amount of time unsupervised. This provides an option that's affordable for our parents to be able to have their kids engaged in uh quality learning experiences. Believe it or not, they do an hour and a half. Is it two hours a day, Christie, or one? An hour a day of academic intervention. um play, um water slides, lunch. I mean, it's it's it's camp. It's camp. And so, we're excited about that because again, it's a great service to our families. They do get the academic intervention, which

026is not for nothing. And so, we feel this uh provides a great opportunity. Thank you. I think we're getting close to the day where we can start tracking data from the kids that come out of that and academic success going into the fall. Yes, ma'am. That's our intent. Yeah. I'm looking forward to that. Anything else on information items, folks? Thank you. Thank you. Uh, normally y'all know we hear the monthly finance report from Wesley at this point. Um, he's been preempted by school finance. So, Wesley. All right. Good evening, uh, members of the board. Um, as is sometimes the case during legislative sessions, uh, the topic of school finance um, comes up um, as it does make up a significant portion of course of the state budget. So, we thought it'd be a good opportunity

027uh, just kind of do a quick overview of school finance um, and just kind of generally how it works. It can be a little confusing. There's a lot of misunder understanding out there that goes uh that goes around as well. So, uh, if you look at page uh 65 um, of your packet, uh, we'll get started here. Um the first first slide here shows uh two buckets. And so to illustrate um how the funding works, I thought we'd use this um kind of illustration. So there's two primary buckets um of money uh that school funding uh goes into. Um one is you can see the green bucket there called maintenance and operations. Um and then the blue bucket INS interest in seeking. Um, so in the the green bucket, um, all the funding that goes

028into into M, um, is payroll, supplies, transportation, utilities, extracurricular. So all the day-to-day expenses, payroll, that top line there, um, that's the majority of our M funding. Um, over 80% of our M budget goes toward, um, salaries and benefits. So that's obviously, uh, the bulk of that green bucket. uh the INS bucket. Um the um revenues collected um for INS go toward um paying off the long-term debt of the district which is issued for um for bonds uh for new schools um or capital projects. Um most of this presentation will focus on M um as that's uh uh really the most complex and where most of our funds uh go toward. Uh so but I will briefly hit in the next slide INS um uh there is a separate tax levied um for our to

029pay off our uh bonded debt. All those tax revenues um can only be used for that. They can't be used um to pay M expenses. So we can't collect INS funds from our um from our bonds and use that to pay teacher salaries for instance. It's a separate separate bucket of money. Um and there's no recapture either on our INS funds. Uh recapture just means u uh the state um cannot um cannot take any of our local tax revenue from it. So it all stays within the district. Um so now I'm going to I'll break down the M funding. There are a couple of tiers. Um in M funding I'm going to really focus on tier one, but I will briefly mention um our tier 2 funding. Uh uh tier 2 um is broken into

030what's called golden and copper pennies. Um, and you get a guaranteed yield per golden or copper penny. Um, and every district can get up to five golden pennies u without having to go out for an election without voter approval. Um, the remaining three golden pennies and nine copper pennies um have to be uh are subject to voter approval. So, you have to go to out for election um to capture those pennies. Um, Midway has eight golden pennies. Uh, those are worth um sorry, those are worth $129 per Wada. Um, and so WADA is weighted average um, ADA. I'll talk a little bit bit more about that um, in a second, but every district in the state gets the exact same amount per golden penny. Um, and the copper penny value is $4928 per watt. And

031so just to give you an idea, um, in Midway ISD, our our tier one portion of our M revenue is 70 million, about 70 million, and our tier 2 portion is about 12 million. Um, and so really tier one is is where it happens. That's the majority of our funding. So, um I'm not going to get more into tier 2. I'm just going to kind of leave it at that and we're going to um kind of go in here how how tier one entitlement so that um uh the 70 million um of our M budget how that's determined. Um so the way it works um as you can see here this funnel um uh so the basic aotment is uh 6,160. So, for every student that attends Midway ISD, if they're here 100% of the

032time, they don't miss a day, uh, the district is entitled to $6,160 for that student. Um, they're only here 90% of the time, we get 90% of 6160. Um, but then also, we get weighted funding. So, for students in certain, um, uh, certain populations of students, for instance, compensatory ed um, which means certain socioeconomic status, there's census blocks within our district. Um and if some of those are deemed students live in those and they're deemed a lower socioeconomic status, we get weighted funding for those students. Uh also special ed, we get weighted funding for students in some of those instructional arrangements. So for instance, instead of 6160, we may get um and say 6160 is 100% um for maybe a sped or comped student, we'd get like 20% more. You get weighted funding for that.

033Um and you can see all those other categories too. they build um they build and add to what our WAD is. Um so the ADA in our district is about 8,216, but when you add all those weighted funding categories, um it's uh it comes out to 11,044. And so to determine our tier one entitlement, you take that WAD after we've added all those weights um weighted funding to our students and you multiply that WAD of 11,000 um by the basic a lotment of 6,160. Um so really the the best way um to uh to put more money into the system and to provide um adequate funding uh for public schools is to increase the basic aotment because if you increase the basic aotment um then you also increase the weights for all those other categories

034um that you can see in that um in the pictures that that builds on it. Also um and I'll get into this here in a second but also um increasing the basic aotment uh decreases recapture. So there's districts that pay some of their local tax revenue back to the state and by increasing the basic aotment um less districts would actually have to pay recapture uh than they currently do. Um so that that dictates uh the tier your tier one entitlement. Now the mix of your tier one entitlement um is going to vary by district whether it's going to be provided by state funds or local tax revenue um or a proportion of both. Um so here this kind of uh graphic shows how that tier one entitlement um is determined. So that first bucket there

035uh the orange bucket is uh is our entitlement. So if you fill that bucket to the top um that's just for illustration illustrative purposes is $70 million which I said is our our tier one M entitlement. So um based on all those um uh ADA and and student counts Midway is entitled to $70 million. Now, um if we can depending on how much tax revenue um we can generate um on our um main MCR tax rate, our tier one tax rate times our values, um then we are able to fill that entitlement up. So that second bucket with the light blue, that's the amount of tax revenue that we can generate as a district based on our tier one tax rate times our values. And so anything remaining, see if you go up to that

036um that far right, the top right picture there um that dark blue um that's not filled up by our the local tax effort. Um the state makes up that portion. Um so for us um of our 70 million in tier one entitlement, uh we generate 50 million in local taxes. And so then the state has to kick in 20 million um to uh to fulfill that tier one entitlement of 70 million. That's about a 7030 percentage mix. Um that bottom uh bucket there um if we were able to fill up the entire tier one entitlement of 70 million uh with our um local tax dollars and we would not get any money from the state. And the way recapture works is if we were able to generate more than the entitlement. So at our tier

037one tax rate, if we multiply that by our values and we're able to generate 100 million, well then 30 million of our local taxes would go back to the state. Uh but we currently midway as I said we um are about 70% local taxes and 30% come from the state. So we're not paying any um recapture in tier one um currently. But as our values go up I mean that could change quickly. So um it's determined on our um values divided by our water. So if we you know get a big factory comes in or our water starts dropping um then that could change and we could start paying recapture. Although our total entitlement would still say stay the same. It's not going to change regardless of if we're paying tier one recapture or not.

038So, no matter how much money comes in, the size of the bucket doesn't change. That's right. Exactly. And that's a good segue. So, and that's one of the common um misnomers, right? Is you get a big um industry moves in or your values skyrocket and what does everybody say? Oh, great. You've got all this, you know, this extra money. Um but just as Ms. what's uh noted that's not the case because as our local tax revenue goes up the state share decreases um even it could decrease to the point where we have to pay back um some of our local tax revenue to the state. So yes, that 70 million um entitlement does not change regardless of what our um tax values do. And just to clarify too, I know it's a tier 2 thing,

039but those golden pennies are not subject to recapture. So that that 8 cents we do get to keep regardless of of where we are. That's right. Yeah. So on tier two, yes, the um the tier one pennies are subject to recapture. The golden pennies are not, but the copper pennies of tier 2 are subject to recapture. Um and so finally, just to show kind of a history of our uh tax rate at Midway ISD, um you see in 2425, our MCR or our tier one tax rate um is 61.69 cents. Our tier 2 rate is 8 cents. We have all eight golden pennies and our INS rate which is used to pay off our long-term uh bond and indebtedness is 24 cents for a total tax rate of 93.69. Wesley, do we get to set

040the MCR or does somebody tell us what that is? No. So the state um does give us the MCR um and so that's dictated by um state value growth. So the degree that um state values grow um our MCR or tier one tax rate is compressed um and that's that's mandated by the state. We don't have any discretion over that. So we can't set that lower than that rate. That's correct. Okay. Or if we set it lower, Wesley, I mean, legally we could set it lower, but if we do, then because we've not set it at the MCR, the state then reduces our funding otherwise, right? That's right. So, if the state does not change the basic allotment, what options does a local school district have to increase the mineral revenue? That's right. So, if

041the uh basic aotment doesn't change, um there's no new revenue um in in in the district. Uh the only way you could generate new revenue is to go out and have an election and try to capture more tier 2 pennies. Um and so for Midwayd, we have the eight golden pennies. Um so we'd have to go out and try to um attain copper pennies which for us talk about recapture we would um pay about I think 30% back u for every so whatever we generate per copper penny that tax revenue with 30% of that would be would go back to the state and recapture so that's not necessarily the best use of our local taxpayers funds to send 30% of that away in that case right I mean that's yeah it's kind of hard pill

042to swallow, right? But there's a lot of districts that are that do that in tier one, you know, so it's just kind of a local decision. But yes, sir, that is that's the case. Any questions on the school finance overview? Historically, have the the total tax rate in our district gone up or come down? Uh, so this is the lowest our tax rate uh has been in the history of the district that I' that I'm aware of. um because since they instituted um that automatic property tax uh rate compression um every year's values have always risen since then um our tax rate um drops every year. And if I can add to that briefly, that's the lowest the rate has been and I'm looking at you to confirm this. If I'm wrong, tell me Wesley,

043but that's the lowest we've been in the history of the district, the known history. I'm sure back in the olden days it might have been less. And that's with the eight golden pennies. So, we've kind of we've kind of maxed out our no recapture option on M pennies and our the only thing we have left to do is contemplate a copper penny Vader, which I don't think is um particularly palatable. Try and find ways to cut expenses or make sure that we put as much in the INS bucket as we possibly can so we don't have to use uh Money for things that could qualify for INS expenses. And that's a that's a good point because it's a reminder too that two years ago we went to voters to go up to that 8 cents

044and in exchange we dropped the INS rate by 3 cents. So it was a it was a zero sum change effectively but it did make use of our strong debt position to help us on the operation side. Yes sir. And in that same vein, Wesley, just so to you already said it, but to emphasize it, if the board votes to call an election, bond election, the voters approve it, that money can only be spent for whatever it is we've told the voters we intend to spend it for, which basically doesn't include paying for any people ever. That's right. Now, there are certain things we may have historically paid out of our eminent budget, like equipment or buses that we we could put in a bond, but you can never put salaries or personnel costs in

045a bond. Thank you. So, even even school safety is a good example. We could potentially use INS funds for upgrading facilities, cameras, glass, but not for paying security officers. Right. Just as a reminder, round numbers for our current budget cycle out of our M budget. How much of that is to pay for our good folks? Our overall personnel cost. Yes, sir. All Yes. Our M it's it's it's over 80% pushing 85 which means out of that what are we at? 85 86 million round numbers. The other 20% has got to pay for everything else whether that's bus, diesel, electricity, insurance premiums, all those things. Yes, sir. [Music] Other comments, questions. I'll just say as complicated as school finance is, that's as good a PowerPoint and explanation side of it. No, it is. It really is.

046It really is. That's that's as good a one as I've ever seen. So, thank you. Thank you, Wesley. Are you Are you going to give everyone the test now? Are we going to pass out? Yeah. I thought my income tax was hard. Yeah. I did want to give an update too on budget for next year. Um so Colonel if you don't mind in the information items. Um so just a couple of the slides there that our projection for for this year fiscal year 25 uh we have adopted a 2.4 million deficit. Uh right now we're looking at um finishing with a 2.1 million depending on how things um uh finish out. One of the changes from last month was our I increased our uh projector for property taxes. Remember there was a a big um

047positive adjustment to our levy in December. Some refresco accounts uh came on the rolls that weren't on before. And I kind of waited until you know we're through March now. So most of our tax collections have been um collected and so um projecting about 400,000 more in tax collections than what we budgeted. So looking at about 2.1 deficit for this year. And then an update for our um fiscal year 26 budget. Um of course, as I mentioned, we are in a legislative session. Um they're supposedly um you know, looking at uh House Bill 2 budget this week and we may find out um more on that. So, a lot is yet still to be determined. Uh but just kind of a projection here we put together based on what we know. So, this is based

048on um current law. if uh the state doesn't put any more uh money into public ed funding. Um and this does include estimates for 2% salary increases. Um the 20 new positions uh that have already been approved. Um no health insurance increase. We don't know that. We won't know that until June. Um some safety security about 400,000 safety security officer salaries that we were using a grant to pay for um that expired. So those are moving back into the general fund. Um and this also um assumes no increase or decrease in water. Um so this was the first year our water was really pretty flat from the prior year and every year since I've been here we always kind of budget a 1% 2% increase. Um this is with a 0% increase. So um if

049there's no movement up or down in our student counts um and so with no no additional state at all um and no increase in water, we're looking at 6.7 million deficit. Um now the house bill 2 that is proposed currently um we have uh had a model run that we look to our district and uh it would give us roughly 3.7 million u more in state aid if that were to pass. Um so uh possibly if that does pass the way it's currently written then we're looking at um closer to a $3 million uh deficit for next year. Um, and then at the May board meeting, uh, we'll have an update on all these numbers. Um, and we'll hopefully have our budget ready to post in June and then adopt in June. Um, and our

050tax rate will adopt in August. One interesting point I'd like to make because I'm looking at the 2425 adopted budget. Total revenue for 2425 is just a shade under 88 million. This projected budget with no change in the basic aotment is just a shade over 89 million. So round numbers 1.2 million increase in topline revenue. Right? If we're giving a 2% salary increase to personnel that's roughly $80 million. That increase in and of itself is more is more than what we're getting in additional revenue. And that's because the basic aotment hasn't changed since 2019. which I think we all know the cost of living has skyrocketed since 2018 or 2019. And so to me, it's crazy that we're even having the conversation of not even raising the basic aotment. So I would just say from

051my pulpit right here, if you can contact the state legislators and tell them we have to increase the basic aotment because we want to do more than 2% for our personnel. I I'm speaking for me and I think I can speak for the other six people up here and uh you know including Dr. Allen. We want to do more than 2%. But if we can't get any more revenue than 88 to 89 in a single year because there's no basic aotment we're handcuffed. I mean it's just the facts. I mean Wesley gave a great presentation and we can't we can't pay our people what they what they're worth because we don't have the money from the state to do it. And it it's heartbreaking to me. I I hate that and it frustrates the crap

052out of me quite frankly. But I mean there's not a whole lot we can do. So all I'm asking is please call the state legislators. Pat Curry, Brian Birdwell. They're in our district. If you know other people throughout the state, call them too because we have to have an increase to the basic a lotment so we can pay people what they deserve. Probably not even what they deserve, but we got to do better. We got to get closer. here. And following up just briefly on what Jonathan said, if you've been paying any attention, you know that the Senate is basically proposing to increase teacher compensation, which I applaud. Teachers ought to be paid more. The problem with that is what Jonathan just said. We got a lot of really, really important people in this district

053that are not classroom teachers. And if all the Senate does and that's what carries the day is in increase funding to pay teachers, we're way short of the mark or where we need to be. That's why the basic aotment is critical. So if you're wondering to yourself, how do I do that? Like, okay, I've learned something tonight. I want to I want to reach out to my elected official. I don't know the best way to do that. Raise your hand, Emily. Emily Parks, remember her name. My name's Chris Allen. You can catch her at any moment. You you can come talk to her right now. She's super engaging. Um, email me, email her. We actually can point you to resources we have that are nonpartisan. They don't they don't um violate any ethics codes or

054whatever. And it'll give you information on who to contact uh relative to who your local officials are and as well as who the major chairpersons are for the committees that are working on this stuff. Pubed chair, scheduling chair, there's a bunch that we can point you to. You you'll all be surprised that I have nothing to add. Well done. Well said. Good sermon. I do have one last thing to add very, very briefly. Just for those of you who might have seen folks out there saying, "Oh, school districts have plenty of money." On average, they have $15,000 per student. That's a numbers game, folks. All you got to do, you can look at our online board packet and you can our enrollment is no secret. You can do the math and you can see that

055when you take the basic aotment number plus those little additional tier amounts that Wesley's talking about, if we really got $15,000 per student, ignoring the waiting of it, if you just did it based on our average daily attendance, we'd be way above Dr. Allen's doing the math right now. 125 million. Say it again, Colin. It'd be about 125 million, right? Yes, it would. Yes, it would. Not in the mid to high 80s. So, don't let anybody tell you we get 15 grand a student. Not true. It's not true. That math ain't nothing. And I think Wesley's about to run out of magic beans at this point. Yeah. Um, if nothing else, folks, uh, gifted and talented program update. Who's who's taking lead on this? Thank you. Good evening board. I am Tiffany Brummit, the elementary

056math, science, and district GT coordinator, and I will be giving you our program annual update. Okay, our celebrations. We evaluated 520 students for our program that will begin next school year. Out of that, 32% of those referred students qualified and we have 21 pending approvals that we will finalize before the end of the school year. 13% of our population are identified gifted in as opposed to the states 9%. We're a little bit higher than that, but it makes sense with our demographics, and we're proud of that number. When we look at our current GT numbers for the elementary, we have 374 students. It varies across campuses due to the number of students. Our projected numbers for next school year increase up to 382 students. Our current numbers for our middle school are 409 with next

057year projected at 429. We like to see the increase. Our campus percentages, if you look at the green percentages, it shows an increase in identified GT students from from this school year to next school year. and happy to say that there's not many negatives there. The talent development program is something that we implemented at the beginning of last school year and we were able to see the fruits of the labor of it this school year. And um the goal for that program is to increase the number of identified students from under reppresented under reppresented populations to reflect the diversity of our school district population. We also want to provide advanced learning opportunities with like-minded peers and we address the social emotional needs of identified students. And then we also assist our classroom teachers in the

058process of differentiating um for their identified students. So, the main focus of this program is to help those kids that didn't quite make the program be able to hopefully uh be able to um test into the program the following year. And I'm happy to say that all but two of our students that we had in the program this year at we have three campuses that we serve this for. Huitt, um Spring Valley, and Spiegelville, all but two tested again. and were able to meet the criteria. The two that did not test, the parents decided to not have them tested. And so, at least those students that did retest were the ones that um ended up they qualified. So, we're happy to share that information. Moving on to the GT advisory committee. Um this is year

059three that we've had this committee. members include a staff member, a parent from all campuses, and our GT specialist, plus myself. And we met three times this school year. We evaluated our current services using the Texas State Plan and the Midway ISD GT handbook by identifying growth or areas of growth and providing input in order to create a plan of action for all areas in need of improvement. So, our next steps are to implement a plan of action, conduct parent and student surveys, and synthesize the survey results to make final recommendations for program needs. And then to conclude the presentation, I want to share with you our current events. Elementary showcases took place in March at each campus. We took feedback from last year's surveys to reduce the number of yearly showcases from two to

060one so that the students were able to showcase their best work throughout the year instead of trying to have 10 projects that they created at one time to show. They were able to show all 10 at one um pres or one showcase as opposed to two. So that we it was quality over quantity. And then uh moving over to middle school, our gate showcases will be May 1st at Midway Middle and April 29th at River Valley. And then we're excited to announce our first annual Gate Shark Tank event that will be held April 25th with some of our board members that will be volunteering to be judges. Thank you. Any questions? Are you calling? So, no, actually, I've I've twisted a couple arms uh from compatriots up here on the stage, but that's a I

061did want to say I think it's going to be a really really great event. Um I've had the privilege to work along sort of throughout the year a little bit with with with Tiffany, but also um with Cole Susman and Jennifer Stanley, who are middle school gate teachers. Um and they've got really really excited groups of students who have put together business plans. So, I think I think it's going to be fun. Um, I know that Mr. Green and Mr. Tullus are going to be there and they can they can judge for themselves, so to speak, um, what they think, but yeah, I think it's going to be a good event. Thank you. Yeah, 7:51 p.m. I watch things so other questions, comments. Thank you, Tiffany. I'm delighted to see the percentages as high as

062they are for our GT identification. Thank you. We're excited to share that. Shifting gears completely. Cell cell phone expectations. Dr. Allen, I'm actually going to come down here. I find that when I try and present from the dis, I spend most of my time looking this direction because the way my seats situated and I don't ever feel like I look at all of you. So, I'm going to come down here to visit with you for a few minutes. So, the purpose of this presentation is just to tell you where we are in our discussion about cell phones within the district, share a little bit of data with the board. Um the process we've been following to this point is we've been running shack and mass on parallel processes. They've been doing almost the exact same

063week, one group looping uh after the other. Uh they've discussed associated issues, reviewed data, and heard some presentations and we've had an active discussion with an eye toward the legislature. I'll talk more about that in a moment. So discussion to this point, challenges created by the use of cell phones in the educational environment, advantages to cell phones in schools, expectations of other school districts in Texas, and some of the national trends. We have some survey data. We've talked, we've surveyed parents, teachers, and students in grades 6 through 12. And then uh the 89th meeting of the Texas ledge is looking at HB515, HB1 1481. There's another one I saw today. It's really similar to 1481, but there's several bills floating around in Austin that would look to do something with personal electronic communication devices. So,

064the challenges that have been discussed are the mental and emotional health um impacts of uh the overuse of cell phones and that would include in the school environment concerns about academic dishonesty uh distraction of cell phones during instruction and also matters of student privacy. Um some of the advantages been mentioned is that there are some number who like the like knowing that their students can communicate with them and the in the fact should there be an emergency that they can communicate convenience. Um boy we live in a world people like to be able to do things quickly and conveniently. And so the game gets delayed because of lightning or something gets rescheduled because uh we needed to change a time of a bus route and it's easy for students to just communicate with their parents

065via text and other communication platforms. And then organization u many of us use our phones to keep us on track and make sure that we are uh doing what we're supposed to be doing. Some students use them in the same way. Expectations of other school districts really run in three broad ranges. There are some, although not many school districts in the state of Texas that have full cell phone bands. You may have read articles on things called yonder pouches where the students have to sequester the phone in either a pouch or a box for the entirety of the school day. They sequester that phone before they enter the school. It stays sequestered throughout the course of the entire day and they can unlock it when they go home. Um there are what's more common most

066common is expectations that have significant limitations. Uh, communication devices are secured or sequested during instructional time. Usually defined as the time that instruction is taking place. Uh, sometimes it might include passing periods and cafeteria, sometimes not. Depends on uh which school district you're looking at. There are usually two or three level options. Uh you'll see districts that have one set of expectations for kids pre-K through 5, another set of expectations for students in grades 6 through 8, and then finally uh an additional set of expectations for kids in grades 9 through 12. Or you'll see a two-level uh scenario where all students pre-K through 8 have one set of expectations and students in grades 9 through 12 have another. And then sometimes you have school districts that have almost no limitation or at least no

067clarity. That's becoming less and less common. So, I told you we took some surveys. Um, and here are some questions that we asked our parents. And this went out to all parents regardless of what grade the student was in. And it said, "Which of these would you most support Midwayd schools?" And you'll notice that the no change is about 32% no change to our current expectations. 16% would support a total cell phone ban and about 51.9. What I did in that little bubble is show you that you've got almost 68% of the folks who think some sort of change would be appropriate. They disagree on how far to go, but the the notion that we need to look at what we're doing with our expectations is something that our parents support. Yes, sir. How would

068you characterize our current expectations given the those three sort of obsity? Okay. Lack of cl I think that's what both of our committees would tell you. Mast and shack alike. Mr. Russ sits in with one of those and I think that they would tell you that there's a lack of clarity. Um and and and that's not only problematic in terms of um our teachers know what they're supposed to do, but it creates confusion for students. So I I uh I can I can tell you with total confidence no matter where we land on it will have clarity. So anyway, about 68% of our folks think that some level of change is needed. Teachers, 73% very close to parents on that. And again, we asked all teachers who responded to the survey regardless of grade level.

069And you can see there they slice that differently. You have more teachers who'd be in favor of a total ban. But regardless of how you look at those two charts, I I think that one could say that our data is telling us our teachers and parents alike, and by the way, a lot of our parents are our teachers would tell you that they think that we need to be looking at change. And so if someone were to ask, well, why are we looking at this anyway? And it's because there's a good reason to. There are people who are concerned about our current set of expectations. Question for you. Yes, sir. on school districts that have expectations. Are they the same for the teachers as they are the students or do the teachers have a different

070I've not seen that delineated because what we've been looking at is student handbooks and student codes of conduct. I've not been looking at employee handbooks. I I would tell you be my expectation that within reason our teachers would model the behaviors that we want to see of our students. When I say within reason, some of our safety protocols are tied to systems that we are tied to cell phones. So administrators, we want them to respond when certain things happen. Um, but generally speaking, we expect our our teachers to model all the behaviors we look for in our young people. Um, and then when you talk to the students, now this is not surprising, but but I will tell you the fact that you've got and this this is only kids grades 6 through 12. This

071isn't every student in the district. We surveyed and we had 989 responses, y'all. And even amongst the student group, you had 36% saying, "Y'all, we need to we need to restrict these." And and I I know that there's 62% no nothing to see here. Move along. But um but the fact that you've got 36% of the kiddos saying, you know what, even even I notice it's a little more than 36% when you look at total cell phone that just called out. But like even even the youngsters, a good portion of them are like y'all we ought to be talking about this. And so I actually thought that was pretty interesting. Um, so with that in mind, the other thing we're doing while we're working through this process is we're trying to keep an eye on

072the legislature. HB515 would be a total cell phone ban filed by um Ellen Trucksclair. She actually put money in the filing for yonder pouches. She doesn't call yonder out by name, but a device like that. 1481 is more of a classroom cell phone locker. Uh, that I think is probably the most popular strategy being used at the high school. uh especially among some departments. We think that what we see coming out of Austin is a trend in the direction of something that's going to require school boards to adopt a policy limit uh prohibiting the use of cell phones during instructional time. They have not defined instructional time in a defined instructional time in a bill I've seen yet. So I think that the good news to that is it means that our shack committee will

073be able to come make every committee to this board that will live within the boundaries of whatever comes out of the ledge. But while we're having our discussions, we are watching the movement of bills um as much as for any other reason. So we're not wasting the committee's time. There's no reason to uh ask them to do something that's just going to get trumped by the ledge at some point anyway. Um so we expect to bring a recommendation from Shaq in May. that that recommendation may be contingent on what happens in the ledge, but I think they'll bring you a recommendation. Um, and what we will be doing at our next meetings is sharing some sample uh policies that they can look at and then work off of to modify and adopt and hopefully come

074up with something that we can bring to the board uh as early as May by way of a full recommendation. And that would come from the SHA committee. It is within the purview of the SHA committee to make recommendations to the board for policy. Um, obviously cell phone expectations don't live in policy. They typically live in either a student code of conduct or a handbook, but they would bring you their recommendation for what we do with these expectations regardless questions. Looking to roll out something for the 2526. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Not necessarily limiting it to the brand yonder. What's that sort of device cost per device? Dr. Allen, I do not know because I'm sitting here thinking back to our school finance overview and Yes, sir. legislature going to tell us to make sure perhaps

075they will that cell phone use is prohibited during an undefined instructional time. And we got to adopt a policy that implements that. $30 per student. I'm sorry. $30 per student for a yonder pouch. And how many of those would we need, Dr. Odima? If the high school, how many? 4,000 roughly. So if the shack were to say we really want to see the district move in that direction, then my encouragement to Shaq would make that pending funding, not necessarily even from the ledge. That is a you could put that in a bond program theoretically. 15,000. Does the pouch block uh all cell service to and from the phone? It makes the phone inaccessible and so inaccessible to the student physically. Does it make it also electronically inaccessible? Um I don't really answer to that actually.

076Do you know that Becky? Okay. I'm thinking of the uh uh I'm not not calling out any names. The parents I know who want to know where their kids are all the time. Yes, sir. Geoloc and all that stuff. Anyway, just kind of Do you know that, Jesse? He says, "No, they're not signaling." They're not signal blocking. Yeah. Not block cell signals. Anyway, just some things to think about when you think about what the parents care about. Yes, sir. So, so the life 360 would still function, etc., etc. Random non stalking app Dr. Allan may or may not use on his own children. Other questions for the superintendent discussion? I mean it it's the thing that strikes me as it'd be great if we could have a policy that says invest administrators and teachers with

077the authority to manage classroom expectations appropriately and leave it at that. But I have a feeling that we're going to need to do something more concrete and specific and clear. Is that accurate? Yes, sir. Yeah. And and the good news is there's some really good models out there that we can work off of. Um the these the shack and mast have already done a lot of good work looking at some other districts and are very attracted to some of the way that they have structured the wording with significant clarity. I mean all the way down to yes. No charts like cell phone hallway. No. Yes. Like very very clear. Not just for administrators but for kids and parents because that that creates confusion for I mean our most of our people want to follow the

078rules but when they're not particularly clear we put them in a position where it's not fair to them. So we we need to clean this up. I think we all agree to that. But we're in no way breaking new ground here. We can No, ma'am. Not even close. follow best practice that have been implemented for a while elsewhere. Yes, ma'am. One of the things I would say too is is as much as I dislike some of the things they do and when they adopt statutes that don't define key terms like with put an armed security office on every campus. What's a campus during every school day? What's the what's a school day? Right? I think it is helpful in this kind of instance where emotions run as strong as they do if they do adopt

079something even if it's merely a directive for the boards to adopt a policy that says you got to not allow use during instructional time. Part of that is because I made the mistake of saying to my wife the other night on this topic that I'd be fine with banning them outright. She has a different view. Let's see here. Yes, sir. Yes, she does. She does. So, anybody else? The only comment I would make and and we're I'm getting a little ahead of ourselves here, but I I just I hesitate whenever we get to this point if there is a violation of the policy that ends up being in place. I would just recommend we don't because I've seen it in other campuses and I don't know if it's really written sort of at at the

080high school or not, but taking up the phone and giving it back two days later so that the the kid doesn't have the phone outside of school hours for a certain amount of time. I would just I was hesitate about doing anything like that. I don't even know if that's on the table, but that was just something that I would probably not be in favor of as a parent of an elementary, a middle school, and a high school kid currently myself. So, yes, sir. But, so the consequences of not sticking to the clear rules need to be clear and maybe have some grace. It certainly needs to be consequences, but not to the detriment of outside school hours. Our consequences tend to be it graduated. So first offense looks one way, second offense looks another,

081third, and as repeat violations continue, things like losing the phone for a period of time could be written in, but certainly not at a first offense necessarily. And I I'm going to ask because I see Jesse Gar sitting right there. I mean, it's fair to say that there is not an instructional need for a student to have a personal device really at this point that you that that you can think of, right? We we meet those needs with iPads and other pen and paper technologies and other things. Absolutely. That that's a really good point. I'm glad you brought that up because a long time ago when I had more hair, I was actually one of those who thought cell phones could really help kids as a productivity tool. But but in those days the Midway

082was not distributing iPads because we distribute those there's not a productivity a productivity tool that a student has needs that we're not already providing to them. And I'm I'm glad you brought that back up because our kids are getting tech instruction that they're getting. Well, that's a good point. If I don't know if it's it may be overkill or maybe maybe something to look at. If students have an app on their phone that's assisting in their learning or organization or what have you, perhaps we could look at let's make sure we have those things on their iPad if so we're not taking away an instructional aid that they've personally discovered or I I don't know but but something to look at. Yes, ma'am. And and one of the great blessings we have in in Midway

083is Sarah Collins. And she does a lot of the vetting of those apps to to make sure that our teachers have what they need to be successful in working with students. And we have some situations and special with our students receiving special services that are very granular. And there may be two, three or four kids in the whole district who have a particular app. Sure. And part of what Sarah does is vet those apps to make sure they're going to work on our platform seamlessly. um and and that we can maximize the um use of those devices to do what they're intended to do. And so we're very very blessed and that we have a good system for how to do that. Yeah, I would say we also need to think proactively about having an

084AI policy. We actually have a guideline on AI that's in our admin rags that was developed as a collaborative effort between Jesse and Sarah and the executive team. Yes, sir. Yeah, I I would I would stay on it. I mean, they're saying, you know, Moore's law was every two years. Yes, sir. Right. Computing power got better, but it's every six months with AI. So, this time next year, it's going to be, you know, exponentially better than it is today. So, Yes, sir. Um, and the kids will have learned a lot more. I mean, my my son is really good at using it. Yes, sir. Which is great. It's awesome. A little scary though. Yes, sir. Well, there was a method to my madness asking the question about the iPads, too, which is that I know

085my kid has a Midway ISD email address. And my kid, I don't know if this gets her in trouble, but if so, take it up with me. Um, my kid has emailed us before during the school day about a change in her pickup schedule or something else. So, I know there's there may actually be ways for students to communicate with parents from the devices we've provided, including the email addresses. I mean, they're really not blocking those email addresses outbound, right? There's emails So we got the restriction that was requested. Yeah. So that I mean we we may be finding there's there's more stones in our basket than we think uh to address some of these concerns. So yes, sir. Anybody else? Don't get my kid in trouble for emailing me. My kids would get in

086trouble, too. So we in it together, Colin. Really good point. Good discussion. Don't go anywhere. Dr. Allen. Um shifting to the INS side of the equation. Yes sir. So um last month I brought you a summary of meetings one through three. This is going to be discussion of meeting four. As you know Mr. Rustic is our ex official board member with the facility study committee. With me tonight is also our chair of that committee. Mr. Barry again. How's it going? Good. Okay. So here we go. So meeting four, we looked at program needs, potential solution scenarios sort of, and then some initial responses. Um, and so one of the things we started off by looking at was uh a better, more refined number for the uh basically the cost it would take to deal with

087our deferred maintenance that we're delinquent on and bring it to current, which is roughly 24 million. And then if we were to project 5 years after that into 2031, you're at roughly 40 million. So for $64 million, we can solve all of our deferred maintenance both now and 5 years into the future. Um that number is soft. If you're looking at those numbers, you're thinking, "How in the world are we going to spend $7 million on interior bishes?" Well, it includes all the carpet, all the paint, drop down ceiling tiles, lighting. There's a lot that's in that number. But that means there's also places to uh find savings within those numbers. And I use that just as one example. Um having said that though, we do have some some meaningful needs. HVAC, you're looking at

088over $3 million of needs there. Roofing is a pretty big price tag. Um, and and the fact of the matter is on some of these items, if we do not pay for them out of INS funds, we would be forced to pay like you got air conditioners have to work. That's a non-issue. So, if we don't pay for it out of INS, then we'd be paying for it out of M. And so, sometimes in the district, we get in a bind between are we paying for a teacher or an air conditioner. So, that's why this data is important to us. same numbers broken down by campus. Um, you can see the work that would need to be done. It is what you think it is. The older buildings need more work or uh like chapel

089used to be an older building. It's it's now it used to be Woodgates now Chapel, but it's been renovated recently. So, it it's kind of what you would think it would look like trend-wise. It's worth reminding you that Spigville Elementary School not only has a pretty big price tag on deferred maintenance, but also has one of our highest FCIs. Uh, and so that's worth just keeping in the back of your mind as we continue to talk throughout the rest of this discussion. The other thing the committee got to see was program needs. They looked at technology and operation needs, athletics, and fine arts. And I know I do not have to point this out to this board, but in the backdrop of all of this is the connection between our M and INS budgets. And

090so, uh, Jesse Garn and Kim Wolf talked to the group about some of the needs that we have related, I'm sorry, Jesse talked specifically about technology. Um, and those are prioritized. You can see P1 being priority one down through three. P1 includes data center gear, iPads, and some networking. And then you can see the other things that are in there um related to other potential projects we could do. I'm told by Jesse that if we got -ate funding, which we'll know in May, you could take about a million dollars off that $9 million bottom line. He would have more detail for you next month about exactly what that would look like. Um, but there are some needs that we have on the technology side um that we're going to have to address in the coming

091years. On the operations side, route buses for SPED, about $2.7 million worth of need. Route buses for general ed about $3 million worth of need. And then some equipment upgrades, district fleet operational facilities and activity trip buses. Those are listed in priority order. I will tell you one of the things that Kim Wolf told that group that I think might be surprising to some is that we have buses from the year 2011 still running routes. Um to me 2011 doesn't seem that long ago, but then I forget how old I am and that it's now 2025. And so 2011 is a pretty good ways back y'all for a big old bus to be hauling kids around and you want that to happen reliably. So I would say two things. One, I think it speaks to

092the need. I also think it speaks to the hard work of our mechanics keeping those things running reliably on the road. And so hats off to you, Ken, for for keeping that thing held together. He has a total list of only $14 million worth of need. Don't ask people what they want, y'all. They'll tell you. Uh some proposed improvements in athletics. Um Midway High School has two gyms. River Valley Middle School has three. China Spring High School has three. And this has been a bit of an ongoing issue, even back to last bomb program. uh it limits our ability to have the practices for our indoor sports and for cheer and dance even uses that space fairly regularly. And so when you say gym, people think athletics, but it actually crosses across several different uh

093disciplines. Um this was one of the items that made it to the very very very end of the last bond program and just couldn't quite make it under the funding threshold. It's back for discussion and so the committee got to see that. Um, it would also do some other work in the interior of the building that would create some advantages for the high school if we're going to be able to continue to try and expand those types of programs that fully engage our students in things that keep them interested in coming to school. Uh, this is another look at that. It's more of the proposed improvements, but it kind of shows the layout um in a different way. This is what Daryl shared with the group about almost $5 million worth of needs. Each of

094those individual categories is prioritized. When you see fine arts, instruments, equipment, and tech, if you start at the top and work down, that's how he would prioritize the needs. I will tell you, I told him to put uniforms in there. I said, if we're going to talk about uh ways to relieve our M budget with INS funds, it is not inappropriate to put uniforms because the amount of wear and tear they're able to get out of them into an INS line item. Um, I'll also point out, this was in the athletics as well, but I'll point this out here. I'm pointing on this screen, y'all can't see it. metal detectors, the potential of putting some metal detectors in our arena uh at the pack and we're already on Friday nights doing hand wands at the

095stadium, but putting some detectors there uh as something to be brought into consideration. Um and then you can also see where uh he added some things related to cafeteria storage, lifts, and other things. Again, Daryl's ask is is about 5.7 million, I'm sorry, 4.7 million for needs in our fine arts department. I challenged each of these leaders to give us their needs, but do prioritize them so when it comes time to really try to whittle the stuff down, we're able to understand where the needs exist. Uh, and that are most crucial to our ability to be successful for young people moving forward. Then we kind of took another stab at growth and zoning. This kind of has been the most difficult one to manage to this point. Uh I have been asked the question several

096times uh during the course of these meetings. If we took all of our attendance zones and we were able to draw them in ways that are for better lack of a better term um perfectly balanced and that's that's that's a theoretical concept, but if you just drew them where you all you cared about was numbers, not neighborhoods, what would that do? And how would that create an advantage for us in terms of our campuses? And at the top you see the Zonda attendance boundaries given our current scenario and you see if we had perfectly balanced. And by the way, no one would like that map. Let me just warn you on that. But if we did it, um this is what we'd look like. We would still be having the same conversation about overcrowding in

097that, you know, 2930 timeline just like we are now. um if if we passed a bond in the spring and wanted to do work in the district to create more capacity for elementary students, the fastest we'd be able to open the doors on those projects would be 2028 is what I'm being told by the people who do this. Um and so it's worth knowing that when you're looking at this data, uh we looked at a scenario that considered closing the old Spigville Elementary School and replacing it with a new elementary school that would be designed for 750 students. Um if we did that, it would change our elementary capacity in a way that would allow us to have um enough space for students up through the year 2034 given our current projections. And I would

098also kind of anticipate the potential for growth up Spiegelville Road. Um and so that was one scenario that was considered by that group. Um you can see how the numbers shift as you look at enrollment and capacity and numbers of students. If we did that, what we would contemplates doing that near very near River Valley Middle School probably the the board would have to um agree to this. But the thinking that was presented to the community was that the idea of putting it very close to that Riverside edition where we have some acreage there. A large part of what's driving that as a as a potential consideration is the fact that we know that they're getting ready to prove water and wastewater just the other side of that bridge. And so that that's reasonable. You

099couldn't really put more kids at Spigville now if you tried because of water wastewater issues. And so if if you were going to do something as a replacement to that building, you'd need to get where you can get to better infrastructure. Repurpose Spiegelville. What what does that mean? Well, there are a number of different scenarios that we would need to flush out uh and bring those ideas forward. There's a couple of different ideas we've kicked around, but none of them have been fully developed enough to where I think they're worthy to discuss at this point. Fair enough. Um, elementary uh capacity scenario two would be to take the buildings that we currently have that are not at a 750 student capacity and add on to them. So, for example, you could take Spring Valley and

100add to it. You could take Castleman, add to it. You could add to Woodway. You could do some work at Huitt. Huitt has BMS, so you wouldn't get it to the 750, but you could probably get another 60 to 75 students in that building kind of within the existing footprint with a little bit of additional work. You wouldn't add to Park Hill. You wouldn't add to Chapel Park. They're already there. Um I don't know if I said South Bos already or not, but I think you get the feel. Take every building we already have and add on it to it and make it bigger. If you did that, you end up with very similar numbers. Both scenarios anticipate the closing down Spigleville for two reasons. One, the cost of operating that building is $2,000 more

101per student than any other building in the district. Um with the low enrollment in that building, the operational cost make it the most uh economically inefficient building that we currently have. It also has the second highest um need related to deferred maintenance of any of the elementary buildings that we currently have. The highest being South Bossi and so it cons it contemplates that as part of the scenario. If you if this plan were the one that would be brought forward, it would give sufficient capacity to 2034 just like the other one adds almost the same number of students. It's a 20 student difference. Um both of these plans anticipate significant changes to elementary attendance zones, but we think we'd be able to put them in place and not have to touch them again for a

102long time. One of the things I've said to the committee is that you want to try to the best of your ability and to create zones that allow students start in kindergarten and finish at the end of fifth grade and be in that one building the entire time. Very difficult to do in in a fast changing scenario. Um if we were to start to see really explosive growth up Spigville Road, that would be hard for us to pull off. Um but you want to at least try and make that your aspiration. So, following this, uh, the committee got some colored dots and started to place some dots at some places and give some initial reactions and ask some follow-up questions. Um, I was in a meeting today with Mr. Barry and some of the others

103who helped put these meetings together. And what I can tell you is we're not there yet. We presented uh this group with a couple different ideas just to get them thinking and giving us some idea of where they're at. We're a long way from where we're going to land as a committee in terms of bringing something to this board. What we were able to do is glean some ideas about kind of what was interesting to the group and also start to try and connect the dots for the group about the relationship between decisions that are made as part of a potential facilities recommending group that could turn into a bond and how that has an influence on M expenditures from the district and how those two things can toggle one off the other. And so

104uh there are some ideas that are very very popular and then there are some ideas that are not as popular. And then what's clear to us based on some of the questions asked to myself and Jordan Barry and some others afterwards and some of those uh questions that have been submitted to us at the end of every meeting we give them a QR code they can submit questions to us that there's some lack of clarity and confusion on some of this too. And so we're going to in the next meeting come back at this and sort of start um kind of do a little bit of reset and come back through all these ideas with a fresh set of eyes. After that they tooured Spring Valley Elementary School which was uh hosted by some of

105that staff there and that was a great little experience for them and then uh we took questions of them and I'll now take questions of you. One thing I don't see you taking credit for uh so a lot of those items on there maintenance side and when you think about the new construction side as well will uh will lower our operational costs right more efficient lighting more efficient air conditioning and and those are ongoing uh savings to our M budget so it'd be it would be you'd help yourself if you identified those as well in your in your analysis Yes sir because some of that could be significant and uh well case in point. Um, I I I asked Brad, specifically Shelton, to put LED lights in at all of our outdoor facilities. Um, it's

106the fastest return on investment on energy, as you well know. The bulbs used to replace our current gas light bulbs are over $300 a bulb. And there they've communicated to us that they're going to stop manufacturing them. And so, we're going to have to do something about lighting sooner or later. But, there's a there's an energy efficiency on that that we could pick up really pretty quickly. and and it's coming anyway, so we might as well go ahead and consider something like that as part of this. It can also help your headcount on maintenance as well. I mean, absolutely. The newer the equipment, the more of it's under warranty. Yeah. So, you've heard me say that our maintenance department is a repair department. Yeah. And it needs to be a maintenance department. Yes. Questions, Colin?

107As you look at the the options for the replacement Spiegelville, the addition to elementaryaries, I'm I'm assuming there will be some hybrid conversations about if we we replace Spiegelville and Adowing to Spring Valley, does that get us and what does that cost and where is there a cost benefit? I mean, I assume that we're going to be looking at that was today's meeting 100%. So, when I said we haven't landed there yet, what a lot of what we were chewing on today is um and y'all part of the method to the madness is you sort of show people these big ideas. You kind of get them thinking about these big ideas. I I suspect and um we have a great thoughtful smart committee working on this. But what's clear to us is what they're craving

108by the way they ask questions, the exact scenario you laid out is what kind of synthesizes some of the best of both of those thoughts. That's good. You kind of said this, but I just to bring it home. If you're replacing things onesie, twoosy as they break versus, you know, putting out a bid package where you're getting multiple biders on quantities of items and economies of scale. I mean, that could be a 10 to 20% difference in the cost of that thing installed, you know. Yes. The savings. So, there's two pieces to that. And one is a scenario you just painted where we can get things sort of done with some scale associated with it. The other thing is the the truth truth told we have some equipment in the district that we're currently kind

109of holding together with bailing wire and duct tape and every time it malfunctions we're sending somebody that we're paying an hourly rate to go touch and brush up and we're just trying to keep it going. Um and it needs to be replaced. It just needs to be replaced. um it it's not good for students because they're in environments that are not being well conditioned and whether we're talking about air conditioning or um plumbing issues or whatever else and we're just kind of holding it together and and it's a drain on our time, it's a drain on our resources and it is just end of life, but we're trying to be frugal with the use of our money. And so when you have a large HVAC system go out, if we can order a part and

110get it in there and kind of get it running again, but how many times you ordering parts for a system that's been end of life for 2, three, or four years now before it's like, man, this is kind of a waste of time. What did we say the cost estimates are for a new elementary school could be? Well, if you did a 750 child school along the lines of Park Hill Elementary School, you're in the neighborhood, but you 80 to 85 million. And and if that is sticker shock, that's how much things have changed. Now, I will tell you, we put pretty strong accelerators on that cost. We put um so we're having to project forward a little bit because, you know, even if we we wouldn't be able to be a couple years from

111now and and we're trying to build enough cushion to anticipate potential difficulties created by trade wars without going overboard. So where you may see three to 5% acceleration, we're more like five to seven. And so that number, you should conrue that number as a high number. What do we do Park Hill for? Do we know the number? What? 35 million is is 40 39. 35. We're at 80. Yes, sir. And as crazy as that sounds, go buy anything right now, you know, and it's like, oh, yeah. But when you're talking about a building like the number we're using, Mr. offered is $500 a square foot more or less in just construction cost. That's not even soft cost fra's excited. He's about to raise the price on his houses now. He knows you can. It's a

112commercial cost. I don't think houses are popping today. So, what I'm hearing you saying is that it's a lot more efficient in terms of staff and a lot more fiscally responsible to do it this way as opposed to what I'd call the home warranty approach where they just keep trying to fix it until it overturns and dies. There there are some places where our the what would be best for the long-term um experience of our students and for our financial well-being to do some replacements. We do have plenty of uh things in the district that we're just fine to repair and keep rolling. Um I mean I'll use my truck as a pretty decent example. It's a 2019 Chevy Silverado. When it breaks, we fix it. It's got 73,000 mi. It's fine. Um, you know,

113we there's probably someone out there driving a vehicle with 250,000 mi on it. It's barely rolling. And the owner of that vehicle is thinking to him or herself, the next time something big goes wrong with it, I'm done. And we have some things that we're at the next time something big goes wrong with it, we need to be done. And there's there's silly stuff that happens uh like the government demanding another change in refrigerants to the whatever the next one they choose. So what refrigerant that was $30 a pound um cuz when you have a leak you got to put more back in you know it's 300 400 I mean it'll it'll it'll skyrocket. Yes sir. And uh yeah and and we're about to go through we're in the process of going through another one

114of those changes. still and some of the stuff we just can't get parts for anymore. Yeah. Like they just quit making parts. Um and not exactly the same as similar. We're running some stuff in in Jesse's world where you just can't get support. We have things in our data center and we have pieces of hardware that they're just they won't support them anymore. So the next time you know you're supposed to do something to be able to upgrade that you can interface with new systems, we just can't do it. So we try to be efficient. Um, we know we know every single time we have to have one of these conversations that um, we're talking about other people's money. So, we try and be very efficient, but it is what it is. And some of

115the stuff gets easier to pay for when our basic aotment goes up. Yes, ma'am. So, to since we know kind of the direction where this is all heading, um, we we have pretty significant bond capacity right now without a tax increase. Is that right? Do we know? Are we do we want to share? Do we even know? I don't uh uh I've shared it public face all over our website. Two meetings ago, we're at 100 $175 million at zero pennies. That assumes the use a little bit of our INS fund balance. Um but and that also assumes is it and if we don't know, let's say we don't know, but what's at 4% for the next two years and then 2% after that? Super conservative value growth projections. Well, the 2% after that, but then

116dropping off to none just very quickly. very very conservatively estimated colum. Yeah. And we've been average the last 5 years we've been averaging 9%. Yeah. So well we just again I mean that we talked earlier about those three pennies switch we did. It's a testament to years and years of really good management on the debt side in this district. And I think this is sort of our time our opportunity now to figure out what is what does that look like next right? How do we make sure the buildings we have are going to be around the resources we have are going to be there. you know what do what do we do in 2025 so that people in 2035 will appreciate it. Yes sir. And and Wesley's already alluded to it. You're getting ready to

117hear it again from Dr. Kudson. We're getting pretty beat up on the MO side right now. So we're kind of looking for any kind of relief we can get and whether that's the state. We're trying to work with our community to help them understand how INS infusion can help us offset cost. You can't use INS dollars on expenses but you can do some offsetting that allows you to move money around with the ledger. All in, all done on this one, folks. Thank you. Our next Thursday. Thank you. Thank you committee for all the hard work. Spigville. That's big. So, that'll be fun. All right. Don't everybody flush it once. Shifting to the M side and 80 plus% of the M side. Dr. Kudson. Uh might want to stay do this presentation. You know, I wasn't

118sure. Uh we were ready for a change. Okay. I I hope you are. Those are your famous last words. I'll hold you to them. Okay. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to come and talk more about what we started conversation around in the team of eight training earlier this month. Normally in April, I am bringing to you a compensation plan recommendation. Um, but with all that's going on in our legislative session currently, some things that Wesley mentioned tonight, we've been talking about for many weeks, uh, we don't feel it is prudent to do that tonight. So, we just kind of want to talk about um really specifically start talking about the TASBY uh update, the partnership that we have with TASBY each year uh to evaluate our pay systems programs, to make some recommendations. Uh

119the information that they provide help us with our compensation plan recommendations each year. And even though we're not ready to make that recommendation, I do want to review with you kind of what TASBY has shared with us on our current status and some things that they have um shared with us and data that they have provided information on. Uh and then we'll sort of talk about where this leaves us with decisions that are up in the air with our legislative session and um maybe when we can talk about things again. So just as a reminder uh you know this so much uh already that our our big focus especially out of the human resources department is recruitment and retention of highly qualified and trained staff. Um this is a district goal in our district improvement

120plan. We talk about it uh in executive session or executive team sessions uh regularly. We talk about it with our supervisors, hiring managers and principles that recruitment and retention are day-to-day yearround efforts in this district. We're trying to remain competitive with our pay rates, with our salary increases each year. We are trying to be very cognizant of what our employees need, what they're letting us know by way of surveys, annual surveys, and exit interviews, um, anecdotal conversations that they have with our principles, our directors, coordinators, and our departments. We are doing our best to retain our qualified staff. We pour into our staff. We listen to them uh and we attempt to meet their needs in a variety of ways. Uh but we all know compensation especially in this climate is very important and so

121we continue to monitor our salary plans and our budgeting toward those efforts. When sal uh when TASBY does our pay maintenance salary comparison each year we um have a market group of districts that they use to compare us with. Many of those districts fall within the region 12 area. those are our our surrounding districts that we're competing for staff. Um but there are a couple of outliers that they compare us to just for um perspective. And so this is a list of of the districts in the area. There are a couple that don't report. Um they don't all look like us really. The most closely related up there is Temple ISD. Uh but there are some districts up there that um provide us some really good data as we attempt to remain competitive in hiring

122staff each year. Yes, ma'am. Can you remind us what FTE stands for? Full-time equivalent staff member. Okay. Thank you. So, this is a snapshot of our current uh teaching and librarian staff group. So, these are all teachers and librarians in the district represented by um years of experience. And you can see the you know more than half of our teachers and librarians are in the six to 20 year uh teaching experience range. I will tell you that each year when we're hiring the m more and more of our new hires are falling in that orange area that uh zero to to five years are really orange and blue area zero to to fiveyear range. Um but we're we're holding true to this um distribution of years of experience pretty much year-to-year. And again this is

123just our teachers and librarians represented here. And just to I'm going to show you a couple of charts identical backtoback that show the comparison that TASBY did last year and this year in our uh pay maintenance report to show um where our salaries fall for that that teacher and librarian group and and where our pay scales compared to those market peer groups that I showed you on that that earlier slide. Our charts here and I'll just kind of pop back and forth look pretty similar each year. The blue line is local market and the orange line or red color line there is midway. And we remain pretty consistent. I'm just kind of popping back and forth from uh 23 24 to this year 2425 that our zero to fiveyear teachers um are being paid at

124a really competitive level. uh when you compare to our market districts where we tend to sort of differentiate and taper off and get a little bit behind is in the five to eight year up to about 20-year mark. But I want to put that into perspective for you with this chart. Um looking at the actual specific numbers, what you can see that top row there is our midway ISD salary broken down in those 5-year increments. And then that second row is our local market median. And when you look at the true difference, and let's take the orange column there, the 15-year column, we're talking about a difference of about $1,000 on that pay scale. So, we we can see where we fall short. And in our history, at least in my time in this position,

125we have been very intentional about giving staff additional adjustments and not just the typical um pay increase each year. We we are pretty specific about giving staff in that 10 to 20 year range, 5 to 15 year range, some additional adjustments to sort of stay caught up. Um our peer districts are smart and they do do the uh the same thing. Um but where we are really focusing efforts this year is trying to figure out other ways that we can also help meet our staff needs with work quality, with work life balance and and workload in general. Um, and then we're going to talk a little bit about stipens and other things that we can use to sort of entice um, our staff for recruitment efforts, but also retention. So, let's talk about stipens. Um,

126the column with all of the highlighted numbers is where we currently offer stipens that um are aligned to our teacher and librarian pay scale. So, these stipens apply to teacher pay scale only. The green highlighted areas are areas where I think we're doing really well compared to our peer districts and the median um kind of market value for what peer districts are paying. So if you'll look um not every district in the area pays uh teachers for a doctoral degree. We do pay for um that degree of $3,000. Um if you skip down to that uh next green category, special education high needs, we increased that stipen this year to 4,000. It was 3,000 last year. You can see the market median for our peers is about 3,000. So we're already a little bit we've

127ooched ahead a little bit there. Um official term there ooched. And then um national board certification. Not all of our peer districts pay our teachers who are nally board certified. And if you'll recall from earlier celebrations this year, we have about 20 staff members um that are nationally board certified that are earning that uh stipend. the areas that are highlighted in yellow, we have fairly consistently for at least the last three years that I've been um doing this work and been involved in this work, we've fallen behind our peer market median. Uh and so we're going to be talking with you tonight about some recommendations to look at making increases in those areas and uh enticing these areas that are really hard to fill. So looking at secondary math and secondary science, it says there

1282500 and 2,000 respectively is what we're currently paying. And that's actually at the high school level. Our middle school staff in math and science are receiving even less than that. And then in foreign language, uh it's been very consistent for many years that that's been at $1,000. So um one of the things we're going to talk about uh this evening is looking at potential increases to our stipened areas. and in math and science bringing all secondary middle and high up to 3,000 in each of those areas. Um with foreign language bringing that up to that uh market median of 2500 which would be significant for our teachers. And in the area of special education high needs though we are looking pretty good. It continues to be a very high turnover hardtofill position. And if we

129could increase that even more, we feel like that we could um it could be a really great draw uh that would set us apart from our surrounding districts. Other pay groups, um looking at non-teer librarian pay groups, we do monitor this through TASBY as well. Um I won't get as granular on the data here, but I think there's some really great things to celebrate here. The um first column employee pay to market is really going to be our entry level pay for our employees and we've got a lot of those areas where our we're we're remaining competitive in in that entry- level pay. The second column there paygrade midpoint to market. I think we also have a lot to celebrate. This is the value that when we recommend uh a general pay increase on the

130median of the pay range for us to have solid medians on pay ranges um that speaks to the raises that our employees are getting and so there's a lot to celebrate in that area as well. The biggest celebration and the biggest difference from this data that I shared with you last year is in our auxiliary category. Uh and so I highlighted that in green as a celebration. We have made a lot of strides um toward improvement in this area. Uh a couple of areas uh we focused on specifically that allowed for this um increase. We added our police department, our district police department. Our officers are paid out of this category. So the addition of that and the competitive pay we've created for them uh helps to to contribute to this um improvement. We also

131made adjustments to our bus driver um pay. We looked at hours and and we we really shored up some efficiency in how the hours are distributed which allowed us to increase their hourly pay. It has allowed us to be super competitive with um our local uh districts and we are fully staffed in the bus driver department. So so close better than we have been. Can we say that? Okay. Um we also uh made an increase this year to our child nutrition managers in this department and our skilled labor um workers. And so we still have room to to improve in this area, but we do feel like we have done a lot to focus on this uh employee category and our employees are feeling that and very appreciative and gracious. So, just a reminder of

132sort of where we've been. Uh, and I do want to point this out as a celebration, a nod that TASBY gave us um here because if you'll look at the history the last five years of how we've handled pay increases for our staff, we've been fairly consistent. We don't have any years where we've done nothing and we do have districts around us that have years where they've done nothing. What that does is buys them a little bit um that in that given year, but it makes it more for them to to make gain on in the future. And we have been steady and consistent, slow and steady, hopefully wins the race. Um and and TASBY did commend us for that because uh we our employees are confident that we are doing what we can uh

133when we can and I think that speaks a lot to the commitment that this board has in sending that message to our employees. Um we have been giving salary increases on paygrade midpoints since um 2223 which was a change and that has allowed us to to be um consistent with our messaging to staff as well on how those um increases are being applied and and what they can expect. So what possible help might we get from the state? There are some things Wesley talked about Dr. Allan has shared with you. Um just as kind of a quick recap, there's some talk about um increase in the golden penny yield. There's also some talk about that being folded into basic aotment increase. Um in the basic aotment area, what's currently being discussed is an increase to

134about $6,500, which to us could mean somewhere between three and $3.5 million increase. There are um discussions in these bills about special education increase, about safety aotment increase, some transportation aotment increase. We don't really know dollar amounts. We know kind of what's being discussed and what may be tiered out for that. Um we've also heard some overall values of these bills and these amounts. Um but we just don't have a lot to to go on to help us feel good about what that would mean for Midway ISD specifically. There is some discussion about direct teacher payraises and there are a couple of different possibilities here. Um what's currently being discussed is that with districts uh for districts with more than 5,000 students, so us um there is an amount for teachers with three to five

135years of experience of about $2,500 and for teachers with five or more experience, five or more years of experience about $5 $5,500. What's missing are teachers with one to two years of experience. Um, if uh we're looking at districts just kind of for context that are surrounding us that are districts smaller than us with fewer than 5,000 students, you can see a significant difference there in what's being proposed. Teachers with 3 to 5 years of experience looking at about $5,000. Um, and with five or more years of experience looking at 10,000. Again, the the year one and two teachers are missing from that. Um, but that's a significant impact on us when you look at our surrounding districts and when we're all competing in the same pool uh for teachers. So, it's too early to

136predict uh obviously what the state is doing, but we're watching this very closely and this is why we are not bringing a compensation recommendation um to you tonight. There is just so much depending on what could come out of this legislative session and what that means for Midway. They could do nothing and we could be sitting here with with no new uh revenue, no increase or they could do something and and for Midway that could look between three to$4 million. Um there's just so much that we don't know. if they choose to fund teacher raises that could impact our conversations on what we do for teachers versus non-eing positions. There are just a variety of scenarios that that could impact and I presented some possible scenarios to you when we were in our team of

137eight um training. uh worst case of those scenarios, we we could hit our fund balance like Wesley shared, if if uh we were looking at that 2%, which is where we've been consistently, it could be about $6 million hit, give or take. Um, we feel like us taking some time to put some space here between a recommendation on our part um and what comes out of our legislative session, it's going to create some angst in our employees certainly because they sort of want to know what we're going to do. Um, we have already made some really great strides in letting them know we're here to provide that support. you have supported the addition of 20 positions um that are going to help that work life balance, the workload, the work quality, what what they're experiencing

138on a day-to-day basis and how that translates into what we're doing to serve students. Um there's so much we still don't know, but we have been committed to showing them in ways that that uh we are keeping an eye on things and we will be bringing forth a recommendation as soon as we have better information. So, what kind of information is going to help us make that decision? We've kind of bulleted out some things here. Definitely if the state's going to provide that teacher pay raise and if they do, what kind of structure are they going to provide? Is it going to remain um that 5,000 student cut off that's going to be uh significant for us? How do we address the teachers with one to two years of experience? If the state is not

139um will the basic aotment increase and if so by how much and how does that influence what we do for our teachers versus our non-teer categories? Um and then all of those other options that the state is talking about with special education, transportation and safety, will there be any other sort of provision through new revenue options? Um as we were just talking about regarding provision through INS, does that create an impact for us on how we handle that and relief to the M budget and how we handle that? And then what other actions might we be able to take now partnered with the addition of the new positions? That sort of sends a message to our teachers that we're willing to do what we can where we can and and we've got our ears to

140the ground and are ready and poised to make some decisions about um what we'll be able to do once we get more guidance from the state. I will say we've had a lot of discussions with Wesley and Dr. Allan myself about what do we do if the state doesn't come through for us and doesn't give us any new revenue and what does that mean with the decisions we've made so far. We feel confident that the decisions we've made at this point especially when you look back at our history of two years ago we absorbed uh a good number of positions in order to buy ourselves time to do some efficiency audits with programming with master scheduling. We have shored up things in those areas and we're bringing some things back to provide relief to staff.

141And though we feel very good about that and don't feel that we are in a position to walk any of that back, we will have to go back um to hard conversations if the state doesn't come through for us to start talking about what is next and what's sustainable. So tonight, what we are bringing as a small um attempt to to to address some of our compensation concerns is a recommendation on those stipens that I shared and oh there we go. Um this is a final capture of that. Uh I visited with you in our team of eight training about what this might look like, how many teachers might be impacted. Um we've got about 110 teachers that would be impacted in this area specifically in these areas of math and science, secondary level, high

142need special education and foreign language. There are also um some conversations that are being had about um teacher leadership opportunities and compensating teachers who are involved in that. We've got the additional addition of the wrestling team coming on at the high school as a new UIL uh sport. And when I visited with you on April 3rd, I I shared with you that a $250,000 commitment would cover all of this and the little bit that we're working on as well impacting about 160 teachers. So when you think about 600 of our staff, 160 teachers just in these areas could be impacted by a little bit. Um, I think this helps to offset some of the areas where we just haven't been able to make those gains in the in the teacher pay scale, but we're still

143committed to those and it buys us some time until we get some more information from the legislature on what they're going to do to help us so that we can pass that help along to our personnel. Ashley, correct me if I'm wrong, but when we had our team of eight training, did we not discuss closing the gap between on our foreign language statement? There was something we talked about bumping that number up. We It's in here. The new one's in here. Yes, ma'am. We I had originally in indicated a recommended increase to 2,000 and you all recommended that we meet the market median at 2500. So, I made that adjustment here. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, I'm looking at the wrong column. My fault. Thank you, Ashley. on the the the teacher raises

144where you know obviously we're greater than 5,000 students when it's the 3 to five and five plus the the 2500 to 5,000 increase. Yeah. There um is there and I know we don't have any clarity or finality to this because the legislature doesn't give that to us but what are what is our understanding as to what that would entail? Is that is that a permanent 2500 increase, a permanent 5,000 increase? Does that happen for one or two years and then it goes away? Are we on the hook with our teachers for that in perpetuity? How would that how would that work for us if that were to pass? I'm going to definitely default to Wesley on this for for confirmation, but in what I understand in conversations with Wesley is that the intent at least

145currently is that it would be calculated into the funding formula so that it was sustained. It would just be like the other a lotments that are currently in the formulas. It would just be part of part of the formula funding would continue. Okay. Other questions for Ashley? I mean, I know that gosh, all of us know that the teachers we have are really what makes Midway great. I mean, the what happens every day in the classroom. That's why parents, you know, move from Florida to Midway to send their kids here, right? And so, obviously, we want to do what we can. I I hate the timeline that the legislators put us in here. Um, from my perspective, I mean, knowing that the the thing that we know we can do today is guarantee these stipend

146increases. I I hope that our staff see that as good faith from the board and saying we will do right. We want to do right by our staff and this is the step we know we can take today and as soon as the legislature gives us more guidance, we'll take the next step and the next step. I mean, is that is that kind of what we're wanting to do today? Yes, sir. Because that to me that's the message that we can send is we love you. We're glad you're here. We're going to do everything we can today. This is the step we can take. Yes sir. And I think that is coupled with what you've already taken by approving elementary positions and secondary positions in February and in March. Um you're committed to hearing what

147our staff needs and and doing what we can when we can. We're just drawing this out this spring. I'll say if I got paid to do this, I'd give it up and give it to our teachers. But unfortunately, this is an unpaid position. But they can have all of my pay. I'd give up I'd give up all the money I make doing this to give it to our teachers if I could. But I just I hate it and I hope the basic aotment comes through for us. So I know I've said that before, so I'm broken record. My apologies. Just needs to be said louder more often in Austin. I try to say it as much as I can. Yep. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Consent agenda. We have minutes from our regular and special

148call meetings, early graduation requests, uh our TEA expedited waiverss, the IMA for next school year, TE certification on that. out of district transfer student consideration for next school year, delegate hiring authority to the superintendent, the stipens that Ashley just talked about for next school year, the couple of budget amendments, and then the adoption of the gifted and talented plan. Does any board member wish to remove any items from the consent agenda? And if not, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Some move. Motion by Mr. Alford. Second. Second by Mr. Wit. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed. That motion carries unanimously. Um since we have delegated authority to the superintendent, we're going to defer the prof per prof professional recommendations, let him act on those tomorrow and that take care of

149all of our personnel matters for the evening. Yes, sir. Okay. Except superintendent's employment contract. Um, it's that time of year where we're acting on other contracts. It's solely within the board's perview to act on this one. And I think the uh the task at hand is to approve an extension of his contract from its current end date to one year beyond that. And I will make that motion. And I will second it. Any discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion also carries unanimously. Thank you. I appreciate it. No, thank you. We appreciate you. Uh, superintendent's communications. I know I've got another one. I'll come back to that in just a second. Uh, well, I think the biggest thing I want to hit on tonight is something that we've talked

150about over and over and over again, and that's how to express appreciation to our staff. And um obviously this board has taken strong stance in the direction of trying to do that not only through the commitment of positions and stipens but I think one of the best ways you can support people is to share information. And what I appreciate about this board and about the team I get to work with every day is how hard we work at trying to make very difficult and complicated things transparent. And whether we're talking about the school finance system, which Wesley worked us through extraordinarily uh deafly earlier, or trying to just have a conversation about our facilities and our needs and wants before us, whatever it is that we do, we're going to do it because we're working

151together and everybody sees the same information. I have said it numerous times in front of the facilities committee. You give reasonable people the same information, they're going to come to similar conclusions. And um I just appreciate how hard this board works at making sure that we're having discussions that give our community lots of opportunity to be informed and be involved in what's going on and for the expectations this board sets for me and for the staff in making sure that when we are working through complicated issues that we involve our community every step of the way and whether it's committees to hire middle school principles or groups to help us figure out what the best role for or the best expectations for cell phones are. Um, all of this we try and do in a

152way that doesn't just give lip service to, but truly honors and values the idea that schools work best when they occur in partnership with the parents. And so, um, tonight's been one of those nights I think it's been particularly highlighted. And I just wanted to take a moment and note that. your comments. The state requires school board members to get a certain amount of continuing education every year or every two years for some of the matters. Uh that's the legal obligation. It's certainly the expectation that board members do that. And one of the other requirements is that at the last regular school board meeting before the uniform election date in May for school board elections, whether you have a contested election or not, which we don't, the board president is required to announce the names

153of the board members that have met their continuing education obligations, those that have exceeded it, and those who are deficit in some regard. So tonight's that night. Um the board members who have completed their required continuing education is Mr. Tullus. The board members who have exceeded the required hours of training or Mr. Green, Pete Russ, Miss Vic, Susan Vic, Pam Watts, and Colin Wit. Uh Mr. Alford has one item that he and I will say this, I sympathize with him. He was in the same position I was in. I didn't realize that I had one of those two-year ones that I needed to do. Um Carolyn told me and I got mine done. His was a different one. You know what those people don't have on the other side? Jesse Garn and due to lack

154of um somebody over there to help him with the technology, he is going to finish that up as soon as they can get the technology working. So, uh, with that, we're out of agenda items. And I' I'd like to recognize a few brave citizens that sat through this whole meeting. Let's do that. Let's do that. No, let's do that. I know one of the guys back there. Well, and there there's we have some guests from leadership Waco. If Brian, would you want want to introduce everybody and say something about Good evening board members. our row here from leadership wake up class 41. We're kind of nearing the end of our year program. Of course, Dr. Oima is part of our cohort. Been very informative. We have children either in the district or soon to be

155in the district. Been a couple of years, but very informative. We appreciate your service. Well, what are their names? This is Cory Hancock, Ay O'Brien, and Aaron Bolton. Who you got with your uh this is Eden Bolton, my my oldest. How old is she? She's in second grade. And where where is she in school? She's she's actually a dollar. We're all in the same business. That's all. We thank y'all for being here. I can remember the very very first school board meeting where I was sworn in. My wife was there and took our oldest son. Black and white. It was No, there was no TV. Colin, there was no TV. And and it back then, new board members didn't get sworn in till the very end, which is when I got sworn in. We're driving

156home and our oldest son said, "And dad wants to do this. Why?" So, thank y'all for sitting through uh our meeting. And with that, yes, thank you. We're journed.