NISD Called Board Meeting 5-12-2026

001All right, so let's get us started. The time is now 5:06 and we're going to be officially called to order. Good evening and welcome to this called meeting of the Northside Board of Trustees. Before we call our first agenda item, the board would like to take just a moment to brief some of the rules for conducting our meeting. The order of business is set out in our agenda and its purpose is to conduct board business and for that reason it is held in public. It's not a public forum, however, we do provide opportunity for audience participation. So if there's anyone who would like to address the board during an agenda item, we ask that you please complete a sign-up sheet prior to the start of the meeting and indicate which agenda item you would like

002to address. The sign-up sheets are provided at the entrance of the board room so that we can make sure we know are not overlooking anyone that would like to speak to the board. It's called It's a called meeting. There will not be a citizens to be heard portion. There will not be an executive session. Everything will be discussed in open session and no action will be taken on any item discussed tonight. So our first agenda item is 1A public notice of intent to apply for federal grants. Yes, ma'am. So this evening we have for you an item that we brought for you again last year and have done that for years and we have Sharon Sanchez is here in the audience in case we have any questions about the item. She's the one that's actually

003in charge of this, but we are required by law and by our board policy CB local to have public notice of any grants that we intend to apply for and so that notice has been on our website for quite a while now and seeking input asking for individuals to ask questions about the grants and provide input about that. And then we have this board item here as in public information to get that word out to disclose that information. And so our requirement is to have a board item, which we do, to recognize that information. There is not any action that needs to be taken. We do have 12 items listed on that that listing that you have in your diligent board book. And it includes things like the IDEA, the federal awards that are out

004there. And so that is the item for this evening. Thank you. And Sharon has it here if there are any questions. Do you have any questions? Doesn't look like we do. Thank you so much. All right. And now we're going to move on to we're going to move to 1C just to because we have a guest here that's present for a child nutrition updates. Yes, so I'm going to introduce Mr. Thomas Weary. If you do not know Thomas, he is our director of child nutrition. I like to say that he runs 132 restaurants every day. So it's a lot and he has a wonderful staff. Michelle and Carly are not here with them this evening. They are both ill tonight, but they normally would be with them as the assistant directors and they do a

005great job for our students in Northside ISD. We're very fortunate that team of us and several of them are here. We have gone to eat Well, we had breakfast at one location this this school year and yes, Dr. Jordan, Dr. Fave joined us for some of these and then we've had lunch at several schools also throughout the year. We try to do at least every other month and so we get to sample the food and see what the students are doing and it's it's really great to to get out there and see the students and see the activity that that Thomas team Thomas's team works so hard at all year. So he's going to give you an update on their financial situation, compare us to some of our school districts and I'm going to just

006spoil the main part of the conversation is we have been talking most of the year about do we need to come to the board and ask for an increase in the paid rate for meals for our students. We have not increased that for 90 years. Thomas will cover this more in detail when he gets there. Long story short, we're not asking for that this year, but I asked Thomas to come give an update so that you're aware because it's very likely we'll need to ask for it for next year and I don't want to surprise you with that. So, I want to give the information as an update ahead of that but uh but before coming for an ask. And so, Thomas, I'll turn it over to you. That concludes my No, [laughter] it doesn't.

007Those birds go then. >> [laughter] >> Good evening. So, um before I get started on this presentation, I want to give you just a brief overview of some key facts that you may or may not know. So, child nutrition operates as a self- um sustaining budget independent from the general fund. We're a federal program under USDA. And we're administrated administered to the Texas Department of Agriculture. Our revenue comes from federal reimbursement reimbursement and local meal sales as meals are being uh to the child. It's not It's not like beforehand. So, we we we run like a business. So, participation is very, very important. And we'll cover some of that in the presentation. All food, staffing, and operational costs are paid through child nutrition. Like I said, child nutrition runs like a business and it's a

008business of feeding students. Key facts. We have 76 CEP schools providing meals at no cost to students. Currently, we we're in our third of our fourth year. So, next year, the 76 campuses will remain a CEP. After that, we'll we'll We'll talk more about that. We have 79 eligible supper campuses. And we currently have 987 positions in the child nutrition department. So, next, please. So, let's talk about revenue. This is for 124 operating days from September to March. And it's the same time frame, operating days of last year. So, you can see our federal and state reimbursement compared to last year, local sales compared compared to last year, our USDA commodities compared to last year, and interest earnings. So, we're doing better. But, what you may not know is 85% of our revenue comes from

009federal reimbursement. 15% comes from the other areas. So, that's that's important when you think of federal dollars. So, next. Back one. Back up a a slide. Okay, here's our expenditures. So, food, you can see 18.9 compared to 19.4. There's some efficiencies going on that we're doing. You can see labor, 19.7, almost the same as last year. Other cost, and that's anything that's not food or labor. That includes um supplies, equipment, um we we pay for our own delivery trucks, everything. And you can see that 43.7 compared to 46.3 last year. Next, please. Operational statistics. So, we lost 2,000 kids this year. So, for us, that's possible 2,000 breakfast, 2,000 lunch. So, you can see our variance, 2.9 million, 2.9 We're We're a little bit ahead of breakfast at that time. But, lunch, you can see

010we're down 70,000 meals. But, here's the key. Our participation is actually higher at both breakfast and lunch. So, that means more kids that are present are eating with us. And just to let you know, our national the national average for lunch is about 60%. So, we're at 68%. So, good stuff. All right. So, financial standing. So far through March, we're at about a 259,000 surplus. We were at a 3.8 million, I mean 3.1 million loss last year. But if you look down there at the note, we had a 4.1 million spend down through TDA. Our restricted fund balance is 15.6. That's how many how much money we have in savings. And then our months operating is 2.78. We would like to have 3 months, but 2.78 is very good. Next. All right. High school themes.

011In the last couple years, we've done a lot of work on our atmosphere food themes. And now we're really working on stuff getting ready for next year. So, what I wanted to tell you is about our um flavor station that just started this last week. We had two high schools pilot it. And that's a that's a concept where students can put their own ranch, barbecue sauce, dry spice on anything they want. Um but the ranch, you know, it's reduced, low fat, low sodium. >> [laughter] >> But I did have a student say this is the best thing that's ever happened to school lunch. Did they ask for like tahini or any of those? Um they do. Okay. And we actually sometimes we do provide it, but because of the sodium content, we can't do it

012all the time. So, that is a true statement. All right. Next. All right. Future challenges. Some of this you probably hear like declining enrollment. Um if they're not here, we can't feed them. So, that's going to hurt on the budget. SNAP benefit reductions. Uh maybe through the news you've heard about SNAP benefit reductions. That is a huge um we get direct certification. That's what establishes our CEP campuses. So, when that goes down, CEP campuses will most likely go down. How much? I don't know. But we have one more year of our CEP campuses. Uh 76. Rising food costs, staffing and wages. Um staffing's important. We need to have a good rate to get interest come to our side. But we also need to have a good rate to keep people that want to stay here.

013So, that's my my two cents on that. Um rising supply and other costs always a concern. And break-even budgets. We have not raised our paid uh pricing in 9 years. But we may have to starting next year. So, this next not next year, the following year. Next, please. So, this is some area districts paid student pricing. You can see we're a dollar across the board. I don't know what Livonia is doing. I'm not sure I I want to know at 250, but anyway. Um [snorts] all right, so that's breakfast. So, lunch. Next, please. We're 225 at elementary, 235 at middle and high school. And you can see the differences throughout the districts. So, that's key. So, um we've been very efficient in our warehousing, truck pricing. Um we do everything in volume, so we can

014save. And we have, but we're just getting to that balance where it's getting really tight. What are you thinking if we had to increase we would have to increase to just as a guestimate? Like a So, if if we had to increase, I would say probably 20 cents at lunch and 10 cents at breakfast. Oh, that's not bad. That's still going to be under the other guys. Okay, thank you. So, I'm open for questions. Dr. Harrell. Um There was this There was a slide and I was trying to write it down, but I think I know what you meant. So, we're down 70,000 meals. Correct, from the from from the prior year. >> before, but we have more participation. >> participation. Um So, remember it So, we lost 2,000 kids. >> Right. >> So, our

015meals are down, but kids that are actually at school were eating with their were feeding more of as a percent more. I just find that really interesting. Me, too. Yeah. >> They work very hard on it, though. They've done a lot of um campaigns. If you look at the right the So, you think it's >> a result of like getting the word out and changing some of the selections and or I think it's all the above. So, we work really hard on the menu all the time. We We constantly are looking at it. Um Sometimes the perception is is what's what's out there, what you hear is not what you see. I do invite anybody that wants to go to see some of these campuses, what we're talking about. It may be not what you

016think. Okay. >> So. I got you. And correct me if I'm wrong, the CEP program eligibility is something also helped with participation rates. It does. The um CEP program, uh community eligibility program, if you recall, allows all students, uh regardless of free and and reduced lunch status, uh the meals, free meals. Um And I know that participation rates usually are a little bit higher on those campuses. >> They are. I think a lot. I think it takes away the stigma from being a free or reduced child. Then it's not so embarrassing to go because everybody gets this, so nobody really knows if you're free reduced or not. So that helps a lot. >> So that that's Yeah, going back so that social pressure >> everyone gets fed. >> Everyone gets everyone. And we have we

017have campuses where only Title 1. So we Okay. Yeah, so 76 of our >> 76 of our campuses are CEP, so all of the remaining campuses do not are not CEPs CEP, so that means that the students pay and you can apply for free or reduced lunch through the application process. And then you mentioned um when you were talking about staff salaries, um you were giving your two cents. Yes, ma'am. >> Um what what is the hourly rate? Um Our starting pay, and correct me if I'm wrong, and Jake, you may know this, but I think it's 1468. And then it's, you know, depending on how many years it goes on. >> Sure. Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> And our school nutrition uh is also part of our salary study uh

018that will be, I say, reviewing uh with TASB on the 26th. Uh some more information uh will be also forthcoming uh for, like I say, uh Thomas and his staff. You've done a great job. Thank you for trying to keep those low cost for the families and that are affected directly in our communities and that's I'm hoping that we are able to reapply at a renewal for that CEP program, that it continues at the federal level cuz that's going to help us. We'll do is everything we can to keep as many schools on. Yeah. You know, so we're we're looking into it now. Thank you. >> And they're constantly monitoring that. I also want to make sure that the board is aware that any of the compensation plans that you approve apply to him automatically,

019and he does have to be uh self-sustaining, and so he has to balance his budget. So whatever compensation plan is approved, it applies to his um employee base, and then he has to adjust other things to make up for that increase. And he does so happily. Last year when the board approved the the compensation plan, the next day I called him. I said, "Okay, Thomas, you get your pencil out because you've got to got to work through this." And he did it happily. >> Mrs. Zapata? Um sir, I'm sure. But um is there Mike. Okay. Okay, is there um Do these numbers include Does there like an after school lunch, dinner, take >> We do, and it does. The supper program, yes. Those numbers do include that. Everything. And so those numbers are included in

020like under the lunch like So when you say the increase with an increase, that's also including the >> for the 76 campuses? So 76 campuses is the CEP, and that's included in those numbers. And And the after school supper program is also inclu- included. Yes, yes, ma'am. >> you said 79? 79 eligible. We may have It may be 67, I believe, that's actually partaking. In the after school? >> Yes, supper program. Mr. Blunt? Yeah. Two quick questions. Um You mentioned when Dr. Rand asked a question on the possible increase whatever the 26% but it also includes, if I remember correctly from 9 years ago, don't you have to You also look at ala carte items separately per student to figure out if they need to be cost increased? >> We do. Okay. Okay, so Ice

021cream adds up. Yeah. Oh, yeah. >> [laughter] [gasps] >> The other quick historical one I had, um I'm just saying the budget challenges right now, but in in the past we were able to utilize where we had excess additional revenue to support other projects. And I don't know if that went through the general fund or if that just came out, support wise. Uh do you recall that or is that still a possibility like the interest or the 15% that's not the federal government that if we do raise prices that may have some additional revenue for other support? So any anything in the child nutrition budget is considered child nutrition including all a card. >> Um so the good thing is is that um as long as we have a positive fund balance, we do not

022have to go up on paid pricing. It's just that next year we might be going into the fund balance after everything we've done for all these years to be break even so to speak. So what you're saying is any additional funds has to stay within that program and it can't be used for the >> It has to be non-federal funds which would be probably general funds that But he is able to spend the any money that's raised on on his program. So they can work on the serving lines and replacing equipment >> take his money. That's no. Even interest >> [laughter] >> even interest you couldn't even take the interest and apply so okay. Thank Is there interest off of our our revenue? That's fine. I'm with you. Thank you. >> sir. So one thing

023one last thing so you saw on this on the slides that it said um one team one promise nourishing every student. Did y'all see that? >> Yes. Very nice. So I'm going to give you the child nutrition promise. I've got one on my board. Yes. Cute. Ready, huh? Thank you. Thank you. And he puts this on It's on here. Yeah. It's on the staff. Thanks, Grace. The base. Yes. Thank you so much. It's so nice. What a good culture. Cool. >> [clears throat] >> Oh, I didn't >> [laughter] >> Thank you. I was really clearing my throat. >> Mrs. Freeman, you have a question? It was answered. Thank you. >> Okay. Mrs. Zabate again? >> Thank you. Did you have any other questions? No, I don't. Okay. Dr. Hassell? Hi. Um, just curious on the

024staffing side. So, I mean, I know no one's fully staffed, right? But, like, [laughter] where where do you kind of run on the staffing ratios? And then, do you have currently with the pay set up, is there trouble getting individuals or are we pretty competitive with other schools? Right now, we're about 90% staffed. >> Okay. Which is which is a which is a good. I'd like it to be better, but it's a okay number. Yeah. Our hardest time to staff is right now because we don't most of our staff do not work in the summer. So, if anybody's looking for other jobs or they're going to change, it's like right now. And then, because of um, hiring full-time this very minute with taking out benefits and insurance, their first check, they don't get any money.

025So, so it's kind of one of those things where right now it's a hard time for us. Okay. But, we are we are hiring temporary. Um, we're keeping our manager training program open the whole summer. And so, what happens is in the end of June, we're going to have some job fairs. And probably the middle part of July, we're going to be probably closer to the 95, 96% staffed. So, that's really good. Thank you so much for your presentation and for coming tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. And now, we are moving on to our next item, which is 1B, fiscal year 2027 budget planning. Yes. Monica's loading my presentation. So, tonight we are bringing to you a story. So, we're going to try to lay out for you the work we have done, um,

026where we are on the financial picture, the work we have are continuing to do, and then what the future brings for us. So, part of the presentation, um, will be me. I'll I'll come and go through the presentation. Dr. Faye is going to give you some information, and Jacob is going to give you some information on the bond to try to tie it all together so you see that overall financial picture of the district. So in doing that, I want to start with our fiscal year 26 adopted budget. So we're in fiscal year 26 right now. Our year end is August 31st and the board adopted this budget back in August and it had the $38 million deficit. I think you all remember that, but I wanted to bring it back to your attention to

027be able to see this this piece. And you've seen this slide also. This is showing our fund balance for our general fund along with the piece of the fund balance that the board has taken action to assign to be what we call the instructional continuity. So the instructional continuity is the green piece and that's about $90 million. The orange piece is about $270 million and that is 3 months of operating that we have for the unassigned. Want to make it clear for you that we have not tapped into the orange. We have our 3 months of operating ready to go. So we do not have any cash flow concerns. Our fund balance is healthy and that's very important for our bonds. When we go out to sell bonds, I was telling Dr. Craft today, you

028know, we're we're about to sell bonds. We do the defeasance that the board approved earlier in the year. We have that going for almost $100 million and then we have another $100 million off of our 2022 bonds that we're selling. So we have been working on the bond rating calls for those this week and next week and we'll be selling those bonds at the end of May. So we're constantly working that debt program. But as we have to answer questions for those underwriters, this is a big piece of it. Do we have that unassigned fund balance at 3 months of operating to ensure that we are ready to be able to pay our bills, keep our cash flow going. So this is a big piece of that. And then our audited financial statement for last

029fiscal year. So August 31st of 2025 again, our board approved that back in January. But I want to bring it back to your forefront again. If you remember at one point when I first came on to the district in March of last year, we brought forward a budget amendment to you soon after that had a deficit budget of 100 over 100 million, right at 100 million dollars. But we actually ended the year, if you see the very bottom line, with a deficit of right at 50 million. So, we took a lot of actions last year that through the year we were able to reduce what that deficit was going to be and keep reducing that deficit down. So, we're doing continual work through the year and we actually recognized a 50 million dollar deficit. We

030were at the Leadership Northside last night. Tiffany and Jake and I did a presentation. Julie was there to support us. And some of the questions that came out were excellent. Ms. Freeman was there also and Dr. Faye. And and one of the questions was how often have we recognized a deficit budget or and also how often have we had a seen a balanced actual audit. And Tiffany jumped in because she's been here for quite a while. And um was able to say that we've probably never had a balanced year where we come down to the dollar amount of zero on our budget. But this is the first year, 2025, that we actually recognized a deficit. So, we have had deficit budgets in the past, but through the year and they can season staff and things

031like that, we would always come out ahead. This was the first year that we actually recognized a deficit. That's a big difference. And another piece I want to show to you on this is our instruction is 653 million dollars, which is should be the highest thing we're spending. And so, I wanted to recognize as you look through that line items of we spend a billion 79 million dollars in that year. 653 [clears throat] million of it was instruction and that's where you want it to be. But I also want you to look at as you look down these line items in the function codes on the on the left, you can look on TEA's website of what those function codes mean for those instruction and on the various other function codes that there are only

032four line items that have the amount of our deficit. So, if I'm pointing out cuz it came up again last night. The question was, "How would you tell the public if you were that we're not top-heavy, that we're not administration-heavy?" And so, if you look on the the line item that's 41, general administration, that was 17.9 million that was spent there in the general fund in 2025. We're looking at a budget deficit of 38 million. You could You could cut all of central office and not get to that 38 million. So, when we're trying to make the reductions and we're looking at the the budget we're really looking at the amounts that are the larger areas. It's just so hard to get there. And also, 88% of our budget is salaries. So, when we're having

033to look at reductions, unfortunately, it usually does go towards staffing and salaries. And that's important because we're going to look at recommended reductions here in a moment. Want to show you those items, too. Before we go Yes. Yeah. Oh, Dr. Thornton, that's okay. Um please explain to like I I know you mentioned the dollar amounts, but the percentage cuz I think I think it sometimes helps to look at the percentage of what central office staff might be. And I think last night you had it at 1%. >> If you look at the 17 million compared to 1 billion 79 million, it's roughly, you know, it's 1.5-ish percent. And because of a comment that even after I had asked the question again, um uh when we talk about deficit budgets we're not borrowing the money to

034pay those deficits. We you We adopt deficit budgets, that money comes out of our general fund. Absolutely. >> And it's I think it's important for people to know that. And I know that there was one person who had a question. >> had really good questions last night and I appreciate those very much, but absolutely that that orange piece here, one of the reasons you want to have that unassigned fund balance is for that cash flow. So, if you think about it, the part that's in orange is almost like a savings account that we have the cash available to cash flow our our needs of spending. And of course as I said that orange piece is 270 million, our deficit being 38 million, even if we didn't have the instructional continuity, we would be okay for

035now and that's an big important piece, but for now we would be able to cover that. Um how long could you go with a deficit budget year over year? Um that would become a challenge for cash flow and that's why we're working on it. Yeah, I was just going to add to the the designated fund balance, I eat the continuity of instruction, this really would allow that 50 million dollar deficit while realized if you recall, it was very intentional. Uh we knew that there was going to be some of that designated fund to be used like I said year end audited. Tiffany, I'm trying to remember I I believe budget amendment two with last year last year's fiscal year audited, I want to say we were at 108. Um so there was a true like

036I said a tremendous amount of work that was put in uh to not realize even half of what we had proposed. Um and we're going to continue to to work like I said um I know Megan's going to talk a little bit more about planning future for fiscal year 27, but we still have some we have some work to do. Um it it and that's budgeting. That's just the sheer essence of budgeting. It's always going to be a work in progress. Sir. >> Mr. Gossage Mr. Blunt Yeah, um Go back to And I may have missed now you you may be Don't go backwards again. You'll be fine. Okay. Uh now the other key component is more historical and I guess now also is is a sweep because this is a budget. You know, you

037get to actuals that's a little bit different per se and we already recover because of the sweep at a very large sweep at a path. And I think last year it got a lot narrower. It was shown to be a lot narrower. Where do we show that or where does that sort of play into what we expect the sweep to be? And you mean the sweep like the year end? Yeah, with the actuals. People don't expend things etc. >> a great question and I know Jake was actually working on that earlier today because we were getting ready for our bond calls. Do you have an estimate on that? I mean right now it's a 38 million. Oh, is it? Right. Mhm. Okay. Yeah, cuz see that's pretty significant to be honest cuz if you're saying

038you got a short whatever you take away 38 million you got to recover then that's what helps you from having actual deficit. And what I saw last year is in the budget planning >> [clears throat] >> concern over having the deficit, the work done to get closer and closer and closer to actual was very intentional. But we're monitoring it. Julian Jake's they're they're constantly looking at at the budgets and seeing looking at salaries seeing where we look up where we're going to come in. Again, when salaries 88% of your budget, that's a lot of what they're monitoring. It's how much do we budget and compare to actual. Okay. So So this line is our trend line of our average daily attendance and our enrollment. You know, the the average daily attendance is what we are

039paid on from TEA and state aid and the enrollment is what we staff on and plan for. And so we are constantly watching both of these and of course we know the the trend line is going down. So this goes to the current year 25-26. I know I saw Debbie somewhere. Yeah, Debbie's back there. So So she works on our for the next school year. So, our projected enrollment for next year is 95,461. We brought that forward and we are calculating the ADA on that. We'll work the state aid and we plan to bring those back on May 26th for looking at what that generates for next year along with our preliminary tax values so that we can start really looking at the revenue on May 26th. The staffing trend line, if you remember last

040year we brought to you many of these slides by, you know, teachers and instructional aids and a lot lot of different ones. This year we're just showing you the total staff because it tells the picture we need to be looking at. So, you have the enrollment in the blue line that that's trending down that we recognize and that's going along the left axis of the number that you're looking at. And then the orange is the staffing line and you can tell we're making progress. You know, we started on the 23-24 year and after 24-25, you can see we really have started trending in the right direction which is great work. I want to acknowledge the work that's been done because it's been hard. But we need to be below the blue line. The trend needs

041to They needs to cross that blue line again for us to be financially healthy. And so that's what I'm wanting to make sure you're seeing. So, is it okay? So, Megan, that's you were getting there with my question. So, how low Well, here we go. That's a great question. >> [laughter] >> A great question. So, if you look at the trend and we could go back out further years back and maybe we should have when we were healthy. Um but the challenge that we had in the past where we were so fast growth that that enrollment was just going so fast and the money follows the enrollment and so you we had I don't want to say excess, but we had money to be able to adjust um pretty easily and provide what we needed

042to. And so I don't know that I have an exact answer for you, but it needs to be below the blue line is where I'm going to focus on. We need to cross that blue line or at least get to that line to where they come together. And we're working on it. But it's a balance because the some of the things we just really can't reduce. You know, insurance cost and like that. Poor Jacob, I I give him a hard time all the time because utility cost it's not getting cheaper. TESSy gas prices. So there's so many things that are out of our control that are in that 12% that it is very difficult to reduce that 12%. Yeah, I think that's really important and important note. Again, we experience the same inflationary pressures that

043a household budget would experience as well. In fact, I will argue that in some cases we probably experience it a little bit more exacerbated. Depending on for example some of the things that we we just had to rush order. I'm thinking of Jacob's department with some of the parts and things that HVAC systems, particularly if they're aging, that we don't have the luxury or the ability to just wait 2 weeks. We've got to have it basically yesterday. The other piece is in Dr. Harley, your your question. I think that again, the strategy this year, just as it was last year is we want to make sure that we're protecting jobs. So every employee has a job. Now it may not be again the same job that they were doing this year, but that's a priority.

044And then of course protecting the the integrity of our programming to the very best of our abilities. Although I will say this, we are having to take a much deeper dive into and and looking for and efficiencies because even while we were able to reduce this current fiscal year around this same time around 60 million dollars, 62, 65 million dollars. It's much harder with this 38 simply because if you recall we changed teaching or teacher student teacher ratios. Staffing formulas in essence. We we can't move that or can't pull that trigger trigger again. That that that toggle has been used and that was a big savings and it also really helped us with staffing up and our vacancies particularly in our classrooms. But again, I've already explained to principals that they've got their staffing formulas

045and and allocations and we we just don't have that we don't have that lever again. I don't think we want larger class sizes going forward. So I say all that because as we get into this next piece of the conversation not to segue too much Megan, these are the these are the tougher decisions I think I've been talking through in preparation that we're having to we're having to make and bring those recommendations for your consideration. Dr. Fe is going to cover a couple of slides. So I'm the fun one. So I actually have a cheat sheet if you will that I brought forward because I think that possibly we probably haven't talked about this in a way that that can get begin digested well. And so I put some bullet points up there because these

046are the things that we have brought forward through the optimization process. And expanding popular programs, implementing and everything with a check by it, Northside ISD has already done. And so if we're looking at expanding popular programs, those things that we have already done, examples at Northside ISD is we've expanded GT, we've expanded fine arts programs, we've expanded STEM programs. I'm sorry, do you not have one? Okay, [snorts] sorry. We also have implemented new programs over time. We've had new magnets, early college high school, we've onboarded CAST, teach. We've done rezoning, we've been part of fast fast growth, right? Now we're going through declining enrollment. But we've done rezoning here at Northside and we've done it for years. Campus redesign, this is the one that I think may cause some pause for our board because we

047have done campus redesign. We've done ADSY, y'all got to hear Tom Knapp and Miss Rincon, Rincon, right? Make sure I get that right. She came and and they presented on the success of their programs. And then there's other things and these are things that I think that you may be hearing about in the news and then someone did come to our board meeting to talk about it. And I I brought it up and I put it in red because in year four of a failing school, there could be looking at something called the school turnaround. And in that is when the board would have to make a decision on do we turn that campus into basically a charter system, right? You turn it over to a to a different organization and they run the campus

048for you. We never want to be in that situation. And as a matter of fact, we got some data back yesterday and today that you know, I don't put a lot of things on my doors, but there's some data on my door that says we're getting ready to knock the knock the socks off of star. So and then we have alternative models. We've we've done those things. We're getting ready to onboard a new model virtual. We've done the Excel Academy. We've done that. But we haven't done school consolidation, right? And we have committed to next year that we would not be closing schools or doing any school consolidation. But that is part of the thinking through the budget process, not just this year, but the years to come. Because we did do a self-correction last

049year. We did that through class sizes, right? We put staffed our K through 5 25 to 1. We staffed our secondary campuses, I believe 26 28 to 1. And guys, like it's really difficult to teach a kindergarten class with 25 kids in it. And so, while that was a a good a good thing to do for the budget purposes, long-term, I would beg to say we wouldn't want to be staffing that way forever. And so, and so then I just on the next slide, um these are the draft priorities that we're working through, right? And go back, I'm sorry, Monica. Uh just so the public can see it, but we we've worked through the feedback from the board a little bit. We worked with our principals. Y'all are going to get to see that a

050lot more in your one-on-one sessions that are coming up on the metrics that may define our framework for as we look forward to what How are we going to make our decisions? And part of the reason why we want a framework is so that we're we take some of the emotion out of the decision-making process because they're really tough decisions that we have to make. And so, I just wanted to bring that forward again because in our thinking right now about optimization, we may be able to self-correct in this next year again, but the problems are not going away financially for the district. They're going to continue to be the be problems until we get something from the legislature that changes funding of schools. And I don't see that happening anytime soon unless Dr. Kraft

051can prove me wrong. Um because all the money that they they did pump in tons of money into the school system last year. All of that went directly to teachers and that is a wonderful thing, but none of it went to support the electric bill, the the fuel bill, the like so the our counselors, our nurses, you know, so those are things that we're going to have to contend with as a district and they're going to continue to be problems. If we continue to see enrollment declines and I would beg to differ that as fast as our enrollment went up, we've lost uh Megan presented at the NEIC the other day. We're down 14,000 kids. That's a lot of that's six high schools if we want to put it in in context, right? And so

052not saying we're closing six high schools, okay? Just [laughter] make sure that that's not the plan. But I I think that we have we're going to be able to get through some really minor tough decisions this year, but for future years, we're going to have these these decisions that we're going to come up again again and again. And so I just wanted to visit that with you guys again because I think it's important to know that yeah, we have been in a in a in in we've done a lot of the optimization work, but we've done that while we've been fast growth and we've done that with money that we've been able to spend. And so now we're at a position where we're going to have to rethink the work so that we minimize impact

053on our communities and our kids. And so thank you for allowing me to share a little bit tonight. >> And I just want to kind of like thank you and um the administration because you guys have taken this since on since last year to really optimize and the reduction of allocations has been handled really well at the at the school level. And we know that it's really hard, but these are the same conversations that all uh high schools, all districts are having uh middle school, elementary school across the county. >> Yeah. So, they're not a just an exclusive to Northside, but the tough the decisions are getting tougher and they're going to continue to get tougher. Dr. Hassell? I just wanted to cuz I wasn't aware are there any 1882s that work with elementary schools

054in Texas? Excuse me, I'm sorry. I didn't >> any 1882 partners that work with elementary schools? Cuz I know like >> I would say potentially third future school and you might I know you work at SAISD. I I don't know if it's an 1882. Uh I put 1882 on there cuz that could be a funding It's a it's a funding source. >> Okay. Uh we've heard that conversation in this board room uh around the CAST Network. Uh and that is um that's about um you get additional dollars when you're doing an 1882. The 1882 sometimes in third future schools, which is kind of one of the campuses that you could turn it over to, but we're not going to be there. Like that's not an option right now. Um but that too could be an

0551882, right? Because you get additional funds to pull down to pay staff differently and things like that. Yeah, I didn't just I didn't wasn't aware of any successful models. So, I just didn't know. I know like in other states, there's successful models. I just didn't feel that there were any in the state. So, I just wanted to make sure like I was like in my head. And I I put that there in red because I I I want the board to know that that is that's part of the the thinking, not our thinking, but that is part of what other districts are having to go through and make decisions around because if you go into year five of a campus that's not being successful, it's a state takeover, right? And so, we're really being mindful

056of that and I think that in the next couple days you're going to get to see some data that's really, really good and promising. So, I would cross that off right now, but I do want the board to know, right? Okay, sorry. One more. And those scores are coming this month? Are those scores are coming this month, right? Uh we will get our star data back mid-June. Um we're just really excited about our map data. Sorry. This is into view. Uh map >> Yeah. Map shows tremendous growth. Yeah. Okay. Exceptional. [clears throat] Go look at my door. Growth is exceptional. [laughter] There you go. Mr. Blunt, thank you. Yeah, I can't remember just fits here maybe somewhere else, but the other one um is it possible to generate where we can generate revenue? And and

057what I mean by that and I don't I can't remember we've had this conversation recently. You know, for um for example, there's one quick example that we just talked about earlier, you know, increased costs. There's then it could be more so self-sustaining and do some other things. There's programs like Learning Tree and others that we potentially could generate adult communications that we charge that we could potentially generate revenue from, too. And then the one and Dr. Craft, you got to remind me if we dropped this idea. Um was to begin to have advertisement. Yeah, we still can. Um Those type of things. >> We can advertise on buses. We can advertise at our stadiums. We can advertise pretty much anything on anything and um And I have been >> just putting out a general category.

058Don't don't don't solve it yet. Just It's a general category generating revenue type things. >> Absolutely. I we've brought that up several times. That would be a nice to revisit. >> Not not Dr. Dr. Craft's fun thing. But we did that in a a district up in Dallas, so Oh. We turn keyed it and we did um promote um we put out RFP for uh our football stadiums cuz it had prime real estate and you'd be surprised. But does that fit in our optimization or is that just somewhere else that you all will weigh? >> It's not necessarily in our optimization work, but it definitely could be revenue generation. Uh I don't think it's going to take care of our significant problems, but it could help the little things so that we're keeping some some

059of our programs intact and whole. So, thank you for that. Appreciate it. Thank you, Dr. Harrell. Um Julian, when you were talking about um we're going to have to come up with or your your focus on developing and creating a framework, how would you um describe the framework? I mean, what are you thinking? What are you visualizing? So, when we're and so we've presented out a couple times. So, these are the four what I would say are based on community input our our all-level meeting where really we generated some major themes there. We took that, broke it out into some survey questions, we pushed that out. I gave that raw data to you guys uh I think in board notes this past week. Uh and then the iterations between the one-on-ones uh that we're working

060with you guys on and then back and forth with our principals. We did that the day after the board meeting. So, this is kind of where we're lan- excuse me, where we're landing on as far as these are the priorities of the district as we move the district forward. They kind of align with what you would see in a strategic plan also, right? This is not a It's not a It's not a scorecard at this point, uh but I will tell you um parents are excited about academic achievement at Northside. Parent Our teachers are excited about academic achievement at Northside. We want to showcase that. That's a good thing right now. Uh leadership and staff is always going to be really important in whether we're talking about priorities for the future in a framework or

061a uh strategic plan. Our student experience is a really important part, right? Of the work that we do in schools. Um and then we're always going to have to worry about resources and facilities. And those, if you look at any strategic plan across the state of Texas, you're going to see those four areas. They're going to be called something different, but this is what was determined to be defined for Northside ISD. And I took to heart Mr. Blunt your comment about but this is what's this doesn't say anything unique about us. And I think the unique about us is hidden within these expanding programs, right? Those are the things that we don't want to lose and that's why it's really important that we're mindful about budget in the process and what we're doing because we

062and you'll see later on in the presentation that if we want to keep our excellent programs whole then decisions have to be made elsewhere. And so to have a framework that we can guide the work on, right? So the the the framework is these four priorities and then we have as a district administratively taken the data set in the raw data and and said here's the metrics that we would define that at. It's not a It's not a It's not a report card, right? But for one example, a facility utilization report. There's going to be some campuses who may not meet that criteria because we're over capacity at those those campuses. Meaning we have built that a campus out and we're not rezoning so we're adding portables. So that is over capacity at that those

063campuses and that's part of the utilization piece and I might be getting too much in the weeds, Megan, but I know the state is currently looking for that data now too because we're having to submit campus capacity and utilization reports to TEA which they've never asked for in my 30 something years in public ed. So this is this is our framework for how we're going to move forward and define what are we going to expand programs to that we want to keep, right? Um are we going to consolidate programs? Are we going to consolidate schools? I think Dr. Craft has put the $200 million dollars hold because you got to see what's happened in other districts about they've invested hundreds of millions of dollars into facilities and then they made two two years later decided

064to close those facilities. So, I think all of that is built into this framework to say, we're going to be Northside this is how we're going to make decisions moving forward and landing with some metrics around this is not a strategic plan, but it kind of is for us to move forward. And so, I hope that answers your question. Mrs. Freeman. Thank you. Um Yes. Dr. Fay, you've mentioned MAP scores a couple of different times about them. Are they in a form that you could include them in Friday letter? Absolutely. That would be Or you can probably get them on your dashboard. Oh, that's where they are? MAP scores? We can we can drop them in Friday letter and we can compare this year to last year. >> Okay. Everything's They're exceptional. I'm just They're

065exceptional. >> are exceptional. Are they on the dashboard? They not be loaded up yet. >> the other day cuz I looked, but Well, we just just got, yeah. But Mead is nearly off the chart. They made so much growth. Thank you. Okay. So, there's the fun discussion and now I'm back to >> [laughter] >> Okay. I love the energy though. It was really great. So, >> [clears throat and laughter] >> Basically, your 2027 budget assumptions. So, these are the big picture assumptions as we're working through the budget. We will continue to grow the budget assumption list just so I want to make sure each time we bring budgets to you, we're showing the big things that are driving the budget so that you're aware. The first one and we won't always show three lines for

066it, but I want you to be able to see. We talked about the 95,461 that it equated to equates to an average daily attendance projection of 88,150 when you apply that 92-93% average daily attendance compared to the average daily attendance that we've actually realized through the fifth, sixth weeks this year of 90,111. So, you can see those trends coming through. As Dr. Faye and Dr. Kraft have mentioned many times, the no school closures for fiscal year '27, we're trying to make sure we're keeping that out in front of the public to make sure there aren't dispelling any rumors that might be going because that is happening or happened in the past. [cough] Also, as was mentioned, the student-teacher ratios remain the same as they were for this current school year that we're ending now. And

067then, want to bring forward again the TASB salary and stipend review. We've been meeting with TASB through this week and they're starting to finalize those those recommendations, so we will be able to bring that recommendation to you next meeting, May 26th. And then, so that is an add. That's an increase to the budget. So, as we're trying to reduce a lot, but we know that having marketable salaries for our for our staff is very important. And so, that's going to be an add in as we're still having to reduce. And then, we as a district are also reviewing the stipends and supplemental pay and putting things in writing of the who different things apply to and what the rules are around the stipends, what are you doing to receive these stipends, and the same with

068supplemental pay. We have found that we are not consistent in our supplemental pay, and so we're looking to document that so that we are having consistency for the same work being done being paid the same rate. So, we're doing that. So, those are the budget assumptions that we're going through right now. Um talking about budget reduction work, you've seen some of these already. Um we've done the principal survey. Also, all principals brought us back what they said protect this these items, do not take these away from us. And then, they've also given us ideas of where they think that we would should reduce. We distributed that to all of cabinet and a lot of cabinet is in the room tonight. So, thank you all for being here and helping with this. But, all of cabinet

069that and again, I think all of cabinet may be here. So, thank you. Provided input of an Excel files of where they would recommend we go to look for reductions based on they had the principal survey data. So, we had the principal survey data of all 132 principals and had that information to use to submit the information. And we asked for the cabinet work not just to bring forward recommendations from our groups, but Janice could say, "Okay, Megan, I see over in your area that maybe we could should consider this reduction over here." And the same, you know, Janice may have said, "Dr. Faye, I see something over in athletics." And so, really looking as a global district-wide view of that cabinet work bringing those Excel spreadsheets together. So, as that group, we we have

070met on those many, many times. We had a very long list of things to consider. And of course, some of the things we said, "No, take those things off the list. They're just not good for Northside. They're not going to yield much." And it's, you know, the the cost-benefit consideration that we looked at and trying to monitor also what makes Northside Northside. And we'll talk about that again here in a moment. But, trying to maintain the integrity of what makes Northside special as well as um protecting the classroom. You know, that's that's what we're working on. And that gets down to we started having staffing allocations meetings, I guess, last week. We had a couple and then week before last and then last week had high school and middle school staffing allocation meetings with the

071principals. And it was very eye-opening for me. Debbie was the one that leads that work with a lot of people there in the meetings. But, as I sat through those meetings, um it became apparent to me and I have a a um color-coded chart of looking at our core classrooms compared to all the other classrooms. And what I found very quickly is high school specifically is that our core class sizes are larger than our non-core class sizes in many of the situations. There's a few examples of like pep squad that that's not true. There are very large sizes of pep squad. But >> [clears throat] >> but outside of that a lot of our CTE courses the class sizes are smaller, a lot of our fine arts programs are much smaller than the core class

072sizes. So looking at that we also saw in this work that we have been fortunate to be able to give a lot of teachers off periods in their schedule. For for valid reasons when you're in nice time financial times, but we're looking to reduce some of those off periods. That is not going to save any money for next year because we've already done the allocations, but what it will do is bring those class sizes down. So that's the goal with that work that we're we're working on right now. We also have a pretty decent number of double block programs. And so looking at those, you know, that's very costly. And so looking at is that the right way to do some of these programs. We're not recommending any changes in those right now, but it

073is and so not for next school year, it's too late for that. But it is something for us to consider as we're continue to have these hard discussions and hard decisions. And then also noticed through these staffing allocations that we have teacher certification limitations. We have teachers that are certified in a very narrow field that it's very hard to fit them into the master schedule. If you are only going to offer I'm going to say world languages is one. If your certification is only in Latin, how many Latin classes do you need to have? And so if you can't teach other courses, it makes it very hard to offer that one class. And so Debbie's team has done a lot of work around that and it's not just I don't want to pick only on

074world language, it's in other places also. And you can probably imagine PE only. If you're only certified in PE, that's very hard to build a master schedule around. And last year we made that recommendation that you can get multiple certifications. Right, we are so I seven because they need to put you where they need to put you so you can stay on that campus. >> we are encouraging that through HR. We we're saying you know, right now where we're saying anyone that is employed at Northside will stay employed at Northside. That is true as we go into next year. I don't know that that can be true into the next year if people do not go to get the certifications to to keep them in the in the school. Um, but so just know these

075are these are tough decisions. Things that we're not asking you all to do anything on what I now but you need to be aware of the challenges that come forward as we look at these kind of things. And that's important to also again provide some context because change is always difficult. Um, having these off periods, again, these were really more or less nice-to-haves. Um, we've got to just tighten up. We we got to tighten tighten some things up with um, allocations or or some of our FTEs um, having an additional off period for say department head duties or some some of the other responsibilities. Um, and so those are going to there's probably going to be some rumblings. I needed just Shouldn't be. Yeah. And and again when you're not lean, when you have money

076coming in, when you're fast growth, you're able to Northside has done wonderful things of saying we're for a department head, we're going to give you a period off during the day to plan for that department and we're also going to give you a stipend. So, in addition to that off period, you're also receiving a stipend. So, we're not at this time recommending reducing the stipend, but we are recommending reducing those off periods where we can to make sense for class size. Do you have a question, Mr. Blunt? No, go ahead. Mrs. Zapata. Uh so, I see that we did a principal survey and then we did the cabinet recommendations. Do we do any kind of surveys with the teachers? Do we get their input? Not directly, no. Are we Are we going to I do

077not have time for this time, this budget planning piece. >> it's important because it's going to take everybody. I get it. We're going to have to make some um We're going to have to make some changes and I think everybody knows that it's coming, but I also feel it's important that we we we we um we get their input on it, too. Everyone's a part of this. Everyone's going to have to um like I said, make some changes. So, I think it's important, you know, for us when we're doing this and moving forward that, you know, we do take the consideration of the teachers and maybe there's something that um you know, they can help recommend and and, you know, where we're all kind of in this together, we're doing it together. It's not just

078coming from one group. And so, maybe that makes the transition into this a little bit easier. Everybody's buying in. So, I think it's important that we get some feedback from the staff as well. From the teachers and then I believe I I agree with you and we can work on that piece. I am hopeful that the principals got buy-in from their staff when they submitted their information. Uh we did not limit how much they could give. We I mean, so I'm hopeful that they were using their their teams to bring forward their recommendations, but we did not require that. >> is that the principals, they have to have those conversations with their staff and if there's going to be a change, then it's like, let's figure this out together. And then definitely sometimes those decisions

079are at the campus level. All right, we have we won't get wind of those because they're very different scenarios. Each campus is unique. And so I was a unicorn. I was a coach and a world language teacher. Hard to find those, right? So you're going to have your unicorns, you're going to have those conversations, and then you're going to have those tough decisions to make. So I do believe those conversations are happening. I think Mrs. Zapata, what you might be wondering is how do we know like those are happening, right? That's it. But they are happening. Yeah, I don't want to assume, I guess, that the principals are doing that. How do we know? We need to like be purposeful with it. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Freeman. Thank you, Mrs. Zapata. Yeah, I guess I was

080I was kind of surprised. I don't know how how many people that this includes as you talk about off periods. I didn't realize that we had such a thing as an off period because or that you just didn't have a class to teach, so all of a sudden you had an off period. Um I wonder about tutoring opportunities, reading specialists. I understand you have to have certification for that. I am not aware of how long it actually takes to get certification, so I'm I But have we I'm sorry. Oh, and cost. But and cost But do we we have to wait a whole year to I mean, can we move into that? >> Secondary Dr. Fay and I are having some of those difficult conversations this week of where we are going to ask people

081to not or not ask, we're going to inform them. >> So So we have a meeting with campus leaders in our high school athletic staffs on Thursday morning early um because we have a lot of room there to And what we're looking for is opportunities to bring down the core content uh class sizes cuz they're sitting at well over 30 and and I think that it's it's not a permanent thing long-term, right? Hopefully we get to a place where we don't have to have all these things happening. But and I would say off period intentionally that some of them are using it for planning or leading work PLC work coaching, you know, things like that. But in the master schedule it's a it's a blank spot. And so we're meeting with them to lean into

082some some opportunity there for us so that we can not get rid of things but just to bring down some core content classes and we will too also be limited because of certifications. Right, not everybody's going to be certified to teach and so Conrad's been just exceptional partner to this work and we think our coaches will be too because they always rise to the challenge and so we'll see how the conversation goes. I'll tell you that that off period sometimes meant I'm just going to go cover for somebody else. That's true. >> used strategically too, especially the department chairs. And my coaches always jumping in to support wherever there was a need or a void or somebody had to go home sick so we're going to you're off period but it's not really off. And

083some of the that is very good work too. The work still discussing is you know fine arts. We may have a fine arts teacher that goes down from the high school to the middle school or from the middle school to the elementary school. And so it's not when we say it's an off period it may not truly be off just like the department chairs. They have work to do during that time frame but they don't have kids in the classroom so it's it's driving our class sizes up. So that's those are the discussions we're having. So so thank you for that. I misunderstood. I thought we were going to have to wait an entire year before we Okay. But again it's not a cost savings. It's not going to save us any money because the

084master schedules are already being put together but what it will allow us to do is put less students in the in the classrooms. We spread them out over more more. Okay, so we're working through that. Good questions. I don't have any more right now. Sorry. Go ahead. So now on to the work that was done through the cabinet discussions that being led of course by the principals. We are tonight bringing forward a recommendation that would reduce our general fund budget by $17 million. What this does is it shows those items again that came from a lot of people in this this room by the type. So the type means like an allocation is a budget figure. So we give $2 a a student for something. We may be recommending that it's now going to be

085a $1.98 or something per student. So that's an allocation to a budget. We have services, software, staffing again. Staffing here is 82% of our recommendation. Again, our staffing is 88% of our budget. So that means we're taking more money in our recommendation outside of staffing staffing than we spend overall. And that same $17 million split a different way is by the different departments recommended. Departments or campuses are listed there on the right-hand side. So those are the items that we are currently recommending. This gets us again 18 million of our 38 million. We still have 20 more million to go. So So that's not we're still not finished. We are still looking. And so what are we looking at? These further considerations. These are very unpopular things to change. And I say that. Some of

086them are Mr. Blunt, you can sit down and I put them in alphabetical order on purpose. I don't want >> [laughter] >> to think anybody is ahead of another one. So they're alphabetical. But sponsorships and advertising is on there. So that's a revenue generator. Some of them like adult and community ed that as we've discussed it it the programs of adult and community ed pay for each other. We we charge for those, but it's not our core business and we have leadership that spends time in that area that should we let a partner in the community take that on instead of us spending our time for that. But, so that's a conversation on one side, but on the other side is that what makes Northside Northside? So, those these are the questions that we're looking

087at for this group. We don't have any recommendations coming out of here right now. Um but it's where we're looking and trying to balance that um what makes Northside Northside compared to how do we balance this budget is really the difficult conversation that we're in right now. Um so these things are not I don't want anybody to come in and say these are on the absolute chalk chopping block. These are things that we would look at redesigns, restructuring, you know, could we GT is on here general gifted and talented is the bottom left. Um you know, cuz I brought it to you before, we spend $7 million more in GT than we receive revenue from the state. There are a lot of different models that you can do for GT. Um Genesis team looked at

088three different models that we looked at last year of possible changes to save money. And they implemented one of those. Um but it was the less um changes, I guess I would say. Um the less least disruptive less Yes, but disruptive. We implemented that, but we're still spending $7 million more than we receive in allocations. So, do we want to look at that again as a possible redesign of how we would how we would provide these things um or do them. So, again, no recommendations at these, but as we're having these hard conversations, if we're not going to consider the optimization work of potential closures and consolidations, these are going to have to be considered. Lynn, I think it's important Oh, go ahead. We had Mr. Blunt had a question. Well, I I was just

089going to suggest that as you look at this list, the initial strategy and it really hasn't changed. Again, we're we're trying to work with the the heart and soul of our work is what transpires each and every day within the classroom. So, looking peripheral or outside of that lens, so the further it's away from impacting what is taking place with teaching and learning inside the classroom is where we're It's where we're focusing our efforts. I've mentioned, like I said, the the staffing ratios. I I I hope also in the future that there's an opportunity that we can bring those back down. Uh time will tell. We've got a 90th legislative session forthcoming. Um which, of course, the state will be putting together a budget that is uh largely contingent upon how oil and gas does.

090But, for right now, what we're trying to do is really look at these programs and and more. This is not These are not This is not an exhaustive list. But but really it's outside of our core business and really what's happening in the classroom each and every day. Um for the most part. Um not bad programs. I Not not a single one is um malicious or They're all great programs. It's just can we continue to sustain these programs going through some really difficult financial times. Those Those are the questions that are going to have to be answered here in the near future. And I've And I've said to the group um I have a fear that as we're going through this reduction pro- process, that we will end up reducing something that a year down

091the line somebody will say, "Well, if I knew we were going to go here, we would go have brought up something else." And so, I've said that multiple times, bring it all to us because we need to make the best decisions we can possibly make. And also, as I've looked into these things, I haven't found a single thing yet that we're spending money on that isn't good. I mean, it's all good for students and for the community and the these are not easy to discussions. >> These are kind of the things that make Northside what Northside is. So, this is a differentiating factor if you want to look at it like that, and so we don't want to eliminate any of this, but I guess that when push comes to shove, we're going to have

092to re- re-evaluate and reconsider these niceties, right? And Mr. Bond, you had a follow-up. Yeah, I guess Uh what's that? Oh, okay. No, you're fine. You're fine. Yeah. Well, well, we will have more discussion on it. Um I hesitate to say niceties. To me, well, I'll give an example. Um as I use Learning Tree, y'all know I'm heavily involved with Learning Tree per se, and you know, you may say that I have to close here, but it's also where we grow future teachers, and they get experience and other type thing. So, you do a cost-benefit analysis also to say, and I'm sure you'll do that, too. Some of these programs have that other benefit that ties to our classrooms in that particular way. So, it makes it a little bit tougher. But but but the

093one I'm lost on, see, I'm still I'm still lost on this and I'm hung up on it is uh and he's about he's about how much 21 million left? Or was it seven? >> Well, we have the 38 million dollar deficit. This is 17, so it'll be another 20. But where does the sweep fit into that? Cuz if that's 38 million, then you're actually okay because you're going to have additional revenue when you do actuals, or you already included an estimate of that. >> We're saying that that 38 million is right now what we really think we're going to recognize. Okay, it's already in your formula. It's in your It's in your formula. There will not be a sweep. >> Okay, thanks. You You answered. You answered. It's already in there. And I think that

094this was probably explained by Megan's predecessor in in the sense of if you recall the analogy that Renee would use was tightening the circle. We're tightening the circle. A big part of how that tightening was done or calculated or or um in essence orchestrated into the budget was through the vacancy factor that we've just really tightened up. We know that for example, we're going to have so many positions vacated throughout the course of the year which then won't be accrued payroll expenditures, etc. That's the piece that it's just it's really really tight. And we we look at vacancy reports and percentages on a weekly basis. Y'all probably look at it daily. Um and it's it's pretty tight. No, I'm good now. You just put Yeah, I'm good cuz y'all said it's already in there. So

095I'm >> And if if we can, we can go back to that slide, Megan, real quickly. This one? So when we are saying 38 million I'm just going to round up. I'm going to I'm going to say 18. Uh again, assuming that that we make these tough decisions uh which we can provide a much more detailed uh look um we can load it in Friday letter. In fact >> So so 38 minus 18 we're at 20. The other piece and we'll talk a little bit of more about it in in a moment. But the other piece uh that we're also looking at, don't forget, is a November Vader. The the Vader or the voter approved tax ratification election could generate again M&O funding. We have access to the three golden pennies. Again, could generate upon

096voter approval 45 million dollars. The compensation piece that's going to be forthcoming on the 26th, um I'll just say this is is obviously with it being uh 88% of our $1 billion operating budget, a big portion of that 45 million is probably going to be needed um through the voter through the voter approval process for for salaries and and pay raises. That's not to say though that it couldn't also be used to help close this remaining $20 million deficit in essence. Thank you, Dr. Hall. I guess we'll get into the process a little more, but I'm just wondering going back to Oh, you're there already. Um as we move forward cuz we're keeping the survey results in mind, we're keeping what district staff said in mind, is there going to be some sort of either

097uh I don't know, rubric or something that's juxtaposed on this to help us with making the decisions number one if student safety was um foremost, which it did come out. I I think we've named it student experiences. And it also included mental health and student wellness. And we're looking at Communities in Schools. And we don't won't have the details yet. You said you're going to give that like what did we mean? Are we cutting Communities in Schools in its entirety? Are we going to But that kind of stuff will come later, right? So then we can Yeah, exactly. >> to support in making the decision. We are not proposing cutting the Communities in Schools or the support. >> What we're also >> items here are on the list of reductions. This is future consideration. >>

098I'm sure this next year. >> Right. So the items Well, Going going back to >> it was part of this. >> No, it is not. So this is what we're recommending right now that we'll send you on Friday letter. I'm sorry, Dr. Grant. >> [laughter] >> Good luck, Dr. Grant. And these are So, these are additional already. The one before is already the allegations the schools have received. That No. It's additional It's additional what they've already got. It's additional what they've >> Yes. But again, the way that we can can we we have the ability to move positions, reallocate. Uh in essence, we have vacancies. We're going to have attrition. We It this is a very large in fact again, using last year as a prime example, we still started the school year uh with

099I want to say about 40 or 50 classroom teacher vacancy or vacant uh positions. Even through, like I say, the the really large budget reduction of $65 million. It we're going to have the same scenario play out. So, no one again, we're working hard. No one's going to be losing a job. Uh uh displaced? A different job? Yes, uh very very possibly. The further considerations are uh beyond the $17.5 million. And again, we'll provide a much more detailed list of where that 17.5 uh is coming from. But these are the programs to get to that 20 that I I just described. We're These are going to be programs like these that we're we're just we're looking we're going to need some help and support and really when I say help and support, what is the

100appetite of the board uh in either reducing or potentially moving away from a program. Uh trying to get again I get I love that and and I I think that's what we'll need. I'm also um wondering if it could also include if this goes away or if we um share um, schools or whatever. Because if just to make sure what would be there in place of continued student support in this area. >> Right. Um, so what are the actions, you know, we're going to have you know, the counselors or the social workers or whatever pick up this piece as the example. And then the other piece is like is there a way to look at some of these like dual language? Is it really bringing kids in? Are we going to you know, kind of

101hurt ourselves a little bit with what's in the building if we cut a program. So, I'm just wondering if part of the process is some sort of rubric or checklist or something that we can >> and that's a great point. Again, dual language, it is a very it's a widely popular program. Uh, just had a conversation with a parent this earlier today. Loves the program, [snorts] in fact. Sought after living in the neighborhood for the dual language program specifically. But I think that I think that some of the So, the impact, Dr. Hall, your point. Some of it will be able to, I think, identify pretty straightforward. It'll be pretty, I think, pretty objective. Unfortunately, I anticipate that other impact, um, uh, statements or or just just assessing the impact, articulating the impact, is going

102to be a little bit more challenging, unfortunately, cuz I just don't know that we'll know until after the fact. Hindsight's always always 20/20. Um, But we are considering, you know, in in the recommendations that we have, um, that we have summarized on this page, we have done that work. You know, what would be the effect? So, we are minimizing minimizing the effect that would be towards the classroom. That's that's our goal. All of this is making sure we're trying to protect that classroom experience. But, what the fear is we're working we're getting deep. I mean, we like I said, that 82% staff on the recommendation list, 88% of our staff is our district wide. That 12% is a lot of things that you cannot even touch. So, we're scraping pretty low of where we can

103go. And where it's if we go ourselves lower without doing some of this, we're going to severely hand handicap the work being done. And so, that's that's my fear. If we don't start next going into this list, we're going to really have The reason And the reason that this is important if we can go back to the previous slide again. I'm sorry, I I keep coming back. Scott I I think that the reason that this is important now is we do anticipate that there's going to be some designated continuity of instruction funding even after this after this the close of this fiscal year 26 fiscal year of 26 budget. But, I'm also going to caution I don't think that we need to expend it all the way down to the last dime. I think that

104it can help close one more year, I E fiscal year 27, not at 38 million. Um but we need to have a plan that ensures against sustainability and our ability are to not have to rely on that continuity of instruction designated fund balance because once that's gone, then we truly are looking at the three months operating fund balance. Three months of operations fund balance and that's a that's a very bad place to be. It It especially for a district our size. And I don't to just clarify when I use the word niceties I meant like a certain we do above and beyond and that's what makes us Northside not to minimize these programs at all. Um I don't I want to eliminate any of the >> They're all good. They're all very good. Yeah, just

105[clears throat] to clarify for those board members that made that comment I that's not what I meant. >> [laughter] >> And Mrs. Freeman you had a question or comment. Thank you. Dr. Fay you made a comment last night um to the leadership Northside group. No, I just wanted to elaborate a little bit more on it. So you were asked about um what about some schools right now where we share um admins amongst um a couple of campuses and how will that look next year expanding it or whatever and you mentioned it why don't you explain and then tell more specifically where we are with that. So currently um we have six is it six campuses where we share staff at the elementary Mhm. So we have um six campuses at elementary level that have such

106low um enrollment that we have a principal and then we split an AP between two campuses. Not good for campus either way, not good for AP either way. They can't be um loyal committed to a student population, right? And the workload involved with 504, ARD committees, LPAC-ing, student programs that we're required to do is exceptional. We also have So we have uh the opportunity within this and I would say that's a target for me to make sure that we're not splitting our APs. But then we also have some elementaries that are well over a thousand or 8 900 kids. 8 900 kids is a lot of kids to do ARDs, RTI, 504 plans or you know, so uh we have um in our thought process to add um staff to those campuses once they go

107over a certain threshold. So, what came up last night in the meeting was, well, middle schools, we have low middle school enrollment as well. And so, middle schools are the only level in our district where we do not staff but the leadership by a student enrollment. So, every middle school gets four admin. Um whereas at the high school, you're going to look at [snorts] from, you know, eight one to 800 kids, you get one AP and things like that. And Debbie McNairney and and company has We really worked really, really hard this year to try to define that very explicitly in our staffing models. And so, I will tell you um next year in middle school, we're going to have to look at that because admin at the middle school level um is exceptional compared

108to what we're doing at our our elementary campuses. Uh and then some elementary campuses are fine, right? And so, but splitting if I had a a dream tonight walking out of here, I'd say let's not split APs between elementary campuses. That's not a good practice. Uh but then I also know that that running a campus with eight or 900 kids and 1,000 kids, that is a extreme challenge and with all of the things that an administrator has to do, it it's exceptional challenges for them. So, I hope I explained that appropriately, Karen. Yeah, I I I understand that. I guess what I misunderstood or did not understand, I heard you say that that some of the campuses that are split do have challenges with arts, etc. Is Is there another way that we can help

109those campuses with I know we talked about some I don't want to say off periods cuz having one teacher go or having somebody go to another campus is really difficult. I'm not suggesting that at all, but is there another way that we can help those campuses this year? >> For example, administrative interns. >> We We're doing I'm sorry, John. We do administrative interns. We're really trying to move away from that because the cost of an intern is is almost equivalent to the cost of of an AP. You might as well just provide the staffing for them. Um I think the goal is to get away from splitting people's time and commitment cuz that's a really difficult thing to do. Plus, when the AP is not on my campus as a principal, everything is my responsibility.

110I've got to be in every room if the crisis happens in a 504 meeting, art meeting, things like that. And so, just a And I think that is a minimal cost to us in in the planning. Um whereas looking at middle school, high school leadership is is a little bit different, but we're not ready to tackle that yet. >> Okay, I I get it. >> And this is I don't mean to interrupt, but this is really I mean, we're truly getting now into the justification for consolidation. This is why a a 290 or 300 student uh campus with another 300 students is really an optimal um from a staffing standpoint, an optimal uh option uh because then you don't have these uh situations where you're splitting FTEs and you just you just gain a lot

111of efficiencies. So, let me ask the question. Um Another Are we going to be able to give those those campuses that are splitting admins right now? Are they going to get any additional relief this year? Are we looking at this coming school year? We did. We did. this list >> We It's >> [laughter] >> until we started really crunching the numbers and it we It's not that we've made the final decision, but on Tuesday of this week I said we're going to pause for right now until we can get through the next uh couple budget rounds. My recommendation would be we don't split and cuz it's not going to save us millions of dollars, right? We're it's it's just not I I believe in the work. So. Okay. [snorts] And And Dr. Faye, we did

112as we were looking at these staffing guidelines and we compared our staffing guidelines to a lot of districts around the state and especially at the elementary school level, we had a goal to make sure that every campus would have a principal and an associate principal at every campus. But with that to make that work within our budget we would be changing some of these things. STEM and GT at elementary level. Honestly, we didn't think the board would be happy with that exchange. There's other stuff that's done that's not on paper. Like I was an informal administrative intern, which meant on my off period or my I would go to the cafeteria and work for free. After school, I worked for free because I wanted to be an administrator. So, they're using those folks, too, that

113volunteer their time all day. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, and if I could just add um though for for the conversation piece around these significant budget dollars um the amount of staff that we would add take away is not going to impact the overarching the big work that has to happen. And we talked a lot about these programs um and nobody wants to split things. But the other thing is all of these people, if it's a people-oriented program, they have they have jobs next year at Northside. So, the the low-hanging fruit categories and I'm just going to say it cuz I I'm I I feel like it's important to say it is is you have GT staff that's tied to GT programs and you have STEM staff tied to STEM. There is a different way to

114do GT. Um Janice and then brought forward three different recommendations. They chose a specific recommendation last year, but if we would have to significantly shift programming next year in order to make that happen. The other kind of low-hanging fruit for us because it's tied to about $5.4 million is the STEM program. We have a STEM teacher and we were splitting some some of our STEM teachers this year. And so and and why I why I bring that up is because those are tied to typically really gifted talented teachers that would go back into a classroom, right? And so all the other programs there are are they're very niche little areas where we don't have the opportunity just to shift gears immediately. And I would say the same thing for the GT program. And so if

115we put dollars to the work though, STEM is about $5.4 million and your GT program were allotted $1.9 million from the state for GT. We spend about 11 >> Almost 10, yeah, yeah. So we're spending way more than our allotment. And so I'm not saying I I think that would be a huge lift for us for next year. I'm just being honest. And the other thing it's a really like we're the gold standard in Texas. Like do we want to give that up? And I'm not sure that we do. And so we've got a lot of I think maybe in the next couple conversations putting some dollar amounts to these so that y'all could kind of see big picture the impact that it has on the budget and we kind of weren't ready to do

116that quite yet, but we picked the language around programming and staffing because we don't want to just say we're going to cut the GT program, right? Because you can have a GT program that serves kids differently. It's just a it's the way we do it which is what makes us exceptional. And so we have to we have to work through what does that mean and how does that impact the bottom dollar for us moving forward. Other programs I don't know the the low-hanging fruit there, but they're not even options for next year. Like we can't just turn it turn on a dime and move us from Google to LMS, and that's not going to render the large dollar amounts, right? So, I think that in future conversations, start putting dollar amounts to some of this

117work would be really, really helpful. We'll do that through the optimization work with the look at consolidation and and things like that. Um but ultimately, there's a price tag to every single one of those, and how that impacts the work moving forward is really going to be important for us to consider. And I think y'all y'all probably need to see dollar amounts. >> Can we also put that gold standard, like those those other things that are priceless on there? Like what like how what they mean to the district, if we could do that too. Cuz dollar's important, but that other piece is is critical. Dr. Hassell, and then Dr. Hall. Um just wanted to also, like I know like Google LMS, that wouldn't be something like when the earliest feasible implementation could possibly be. So,

118that way we generate you get a sense like it may be like a million dollars, but there's no way that we're even going to be able to implement it till like a year or two. So, just like what is the feasible like implementation? And then second, if I could in next Friday's letter get the 2025 2026 capacity and utilization report. Um so, that way I can have that um readily available to really review, and when we're discussing this, really be able to look at and talk about. Will do. Thank you. Dr. Hall. Thank you. Um just a couple things, and I don't want to add another slide that says um if we do this, could I I'm trying to see where it might fit, like to generate funding. I know Bobby talked about advertising, and

119um public schools everywhere are doing that, but um no, it was more like um tomorrow night we see the retired administrators, and I don't know if it's cuz I'm getting older, but they sure look young. And they always say, "After a while, I I want to come back." And just wondering how we could form something around our retired administrators who really do every time when we're shaking hands and they're saying, "I I want to come back. I want to tutor kids. I want to sub for admin." Or I mean, principals are saying that. So, I'm just wondering about that. And then I just recently I got a I I've been reading a lot on technology and and this thing controlling our classrooms. Um I'm wondering and did Chris leave? Because I don't want to Okay,

120sorry. But you can tell you can text them. I'm just wondering eliminating one-to-one, what that might do. I'm just I'm just wondering. Just I would like to see something with technology. I just got the most profound email from a parent questioning that and and she's using a lot of research. It's we've we've all we know what the research is. I'm I'm just wondering if there might be a way to look at technology. Um Lean is here. I know. They have done some of that work. We we have >> a lot of Lean work. Yeah. Right. >> remove the one-to-one for elementary this year and and middle school. That'd be good to hear you talking about that. >> we've already moved towards that. In fact, that's a great segue to my next slide. I don't know

121if the >> [laughter] >> Technology deployment fund is next on here if we're ready. Um I don't want us to forget as we're talking about the current deficit and work that we're doing. We have future expenditure needs that we're not really putting on any document anywhere. And so, the technology deployment fund, that is a big piece. So, those of you who came to the technology board committee, you saw the presentation that they did showing that we have a we have a funding cliff coming for replacing not only the student devices but the staff devices also. If you remember when COVID came, the TA gave a lot of money towards devices. That is all coming to I think it's next year, next next fiscal year. They're working to make it less, but it was, you know,

122around $30 million um that we don't have in this plan at this time. Now, could it come from a bond? Potentially. Um could you know, there's other potential ways that we could restructure it and it not cost so much. Did you want to say something? Well, I was I I was going to suggest, in fact, uh it is right now on the list of considerations uh for the upcoming uh potentially November bond. Uh we like to the board likes to to call it call for the election. I think that um the one-to-one can be um accomplished uh with laptops in carts that are deployed uh as needed across classrooms. I I I think that to replace technology devices and especially at a tune of 90,000 plus, I think that resources can be expended better, uh

123more efficiently, and and provide really the same technology learning opportunities and applications as a as a true one-to-one. I can say this from just experience and and having conversations with especially some of our high schools, their devices that are issued they they're they're not used one time. Um the the students are accustomed to using their own personal devices and that's what they use. So, um We did we discuss that? That's a long answer to At the technology meeting maybe like considering a checkout for as needed students like we do at the colleges. >> Yes. Lance listening and taking notes, so we will we will Thank you for that. Um, the next other item the bus seatbelt requirement that came to the board recently and the costs associated that is with that requirement is significant to

124get us in compliance by 2029. Um, and then also the police officer at every campus and we have retirees that we're using for our elementary school campuses now, but we'd love to move to the and that's a part-time piece. So, we'd love to move to the full-time police officer at every campus that are not um, part-time and so we're working towards those, but these are all costs that again are not added in here that we would want to um, keep on our mind as we're talking about reductions that there are more funding concerns coming forward that we need to also remember. Let me before I forget Megan real quickly. I don't know to your other question. We do actually have a retiree hard program. Um, we usually I think this year we were right at

125about 40. The number ranges between 40 and 60, but um, no, we we're using there's some some TRS surcharge implications, um, but particularly in critical shortage areas as long as they're eligible, uh, which they have to remain separated, uh, for a year. We we definitely are interested in bringing back some of our our retirees to help us out. I I'm also thinking that they come and they work part-time. Good. Yeah. And so where we wouldn't have to pay that surcharge. Yeah, they had to be Yeah, they'd have to be removed for I think I think it's 30 days, separated 30 days and then would they would be able to come back? Right. Yeah. Yes. It'd be helpful. >> [snorts] >> Okay, the next piece again you've seen this before, but wanted to go through it

126as we're trying to tie everything together. Again, we said we were going to had a story for you. We're trying to bring it all uh, together. We have the slide on the the piece on the left that is our current year budget with the right in million 50 thou 1 billion 50 million uh dollar revenue and then the expenditures that is 38 million dollars more so that's showing that deficit. The expenditure reduction goal of the 38 million we brought forward the 17 million just a moment ago. So bringing that back up to closer to zero. Then the Vader, talking about the Vader election that we intend to bring to the board for consideration. That would bring in roughly 45 million dollars. We are working on the TASB study again we'll have that recommendation to the

127board. Um >> [clears throat] >> bless you. For the May 26th. Part of that revenue could offset current operational cost. So we could rather than having to reduce some some of it could be paid for with that Vader. We would have to determine that the contingency piece of it like the TASB salary study will likely come forward as a contingency that we don't implement it unless the Vader passes. And similarly if we are going to apply current cost of operations to the Vader, we would need to determine which ones are there because if the Vader does not pass then we would have to reduce that again. So that's a challenge piece. But it is a consideration. So when we talk about the 20 million right now that we're needing to continue to find some of

128that could be from the Vader and that would be in exchange for the the uh the amount of salary increases that we could give to staff. So want to remember that that we're trying to work towards that proposed budget um is what we're balanced budget that those are all considerations. Those two middle ones need to be kind of joined together so that you see the full picture there. I wanted to bring forward the total tax rates for our area districts in San Antonio so you can see where we are. We're right in the middle. Northside ISD again that's is in alphabetical order. And but you can see the districts that have an M&O is the blue, I&S is red. Um M&O is for the operations journal fund, INS is our debt service to pay back

129our bonds, and you can see how we compare to our neighboring districts. And in addition to this, we have our districts around us and how many of the Vader pennies they have. So, you can see Alamo Heights and South San Antonio have the three cents, um, that they've passed, the golden pennies that were recommended that we go out for in August, and the others have adopted into the copper penny zone. So, we've talked about the golden pennies are the most valuable because TEA gives us a higher benefit than the copper pennies. Also, the golden pennies are not subject to the recapture, copper pennies are. So, we've got you can see the difference here that we're looking at. Any questions about these before I hand it over to Jacob to go over some bond items. Okay.

130The bond story, Jacob. All right, good evening. So, we're going to continue the storytelling, uh, and now I'm going to get into the bond planning piece of it, which I know we've reiterated on several occasions, and several of you board members have been through this process, uh, in the past. So, normally planning takes about 2 years prior to us calling an election. So, this work has been ongoing for a period of time. I shared that bond timeline with you, where I put it in the Gantt chart, so it's a little easier to see, although it's very, very small, I know, but it's a long, long duration, so we had to fit everything in there. Um, currently we're on 4-year bond cycles. We've been like that for a while, so we're due in 2026 for another

131bond. We've deferred it. Normally we go after May elections, but we've since deferred that to November, given the potential Vader that has to happen in November, and and kind of conjoining those. Um, the bond planning is initiated by facility staff, although we gather a lot of input from, uh, prior bond priorities that weren't on the previous bond election. Um, and so, if if it didn't make the cut, per se, that becomes one of the higher priorities as it go we go into the next bond. Uh we're obviously looking at life cycle replacements with the working with our maintenance department, CT, other department heads to identify items that need to be replaced. Uh we get input from department heads such as athletics, fine arts, and and and some of those other programs to understand what their

132needs are. Um and then obviously we reach out to our campus administration to understand what they need from their actual campus. And so that's usually what we use to generate the bond proposal that is then brought to our CBC committee, which is the the oversight committee that helps formulate the recommendation that eventually will go to you the trustees for calling the election. And so obviously as as we talk, I'm not the finance person, but all these bond dollars cannot go, I want to reiterate, cannot go to salaries or any of that other item. So that's why the Vader becomes so critical cuz that actually hits our M&O. This is really to take care of capital improvements that we have, uh needs that we have in the district to make sure that we're operational and providing

133the an environment that's conducive to learning for our students and our staff. So that rolls into my next slide, which is where I kind of highlight the CBC group um that is the the group that is made up of quite a bit of people um that include staff, students, community leaders, consultants, parents, local government officials, and then obviously you board members. And I believe uh a recent invitation went out to a lot of folks uh in this room about uh asking if you guys would participate in that group. Um that group works on several meetings of trying to understand what the options are, how we're going to formulate that proposal that will ultimately go to the bond. >> Yes. Mr. Blunt has a question. >> real quick. And I apologize, I've got to leave right

134after this, but I did want to ask. Um besides the bond, I'm I'm outside of my lane right now. We outside cuz I forgot. But there are other potential borrowing mechanisms or ways that you can get funding. Have Have we look at those continuously? Is that capital appreciation bonds. There There are some other vehicles, paper I don't I don't I don't know that and Megan, I don't mean to step in your lane that I don't know that there's a feasible vehicle right now that's even remotely close to what a a bond >> The yeah, the amount of money you can get from them is not anywhere close to what Jacob would Oh, no, I'm okay with >> [laughter] >> No, I'm okay with that. I just >> needs. Let's go with that. I'm with you

135on that, but I just thought every little bit sort of helps and I and what you're saying is it really those aren't worth it or The The dollar values that you can get are are fairly small and the cost of issuance is higher. Okay. It's It's what I know. I'll look some more into it, but from the people that I know that have done those, um it's that's the reason you wouldn't go into Oh, no, that's fine. I might be boring you. That's fine. Um So, the citizens bond committee obviously helps formulate that. They're also reviewing your survey data. They're They're reviewing district needs. They get educated on school finance. Um so, they understand exactly the big picture of what's going on in the district. Um and then with that input, they're going to determine

136how they develop how they evaluate the options that are presented by by staff. Um that could be a an option to increase the tax rate, to maintain the tax rate. All those different options are presented and then it establishes the different levels of priority of the needs that the district has. And so, uh ultimately that group will develop the recommendation that will be brought forward to the board based on how how we formulate that recommendation. It may change the the look may change from prior bonds based on on the need right now. And then, um there are multiple meetings leading up to this uh this call for election before they present it to the to the trustees. So, then after, assuming all all goes well and we pass the bond, then we roll into our

137advisory committee, which is called our CBAC, or Citizens Bond Advisory Committee. So, this again is a community uh, oversight committee uh, for the current bond. So, after a bond passes, we currently have a CBAC for the '22 bond. After that bond passes, they are getting updates on a bi-annual basis of what we're doing, how we're progressing towards through the bond. Um, their membership is based off of your your appointees as trustees. You You do those appointments as well as the superintendent. And as I mentioned, they meet twice a year, but we have the option to meet additional uh, have additional meetings throughout the year should they be needed based on systematic changes and those types of things. They do provide uh, community feedback in those meetings based on what they're hearing from their constituents. Um,

138and then they also could provide recommendations to the board on any modifications to that were proposed in that bond proposition should there be any. Um, they advocate for district bonds, and every report that's presented in those meetings is actually posted on our website um, for review. And so, um, with that being said, I do want to talk on my last slide before I turn it back over to Megan on where we are with our 2022 bond. Um, so as you've you've heard uh, there's 200 million that are currently on hold. That's 200 actual bond dollars, but the true cost of those projects is quite a bit more based on inflation, escalation, everything that we've encountered. And so, we've intentionally deferred those projects towards the end of the bond to allow us the maximum amount of

139time to make a decision on how we want to move forward with those projects. We're working hand-in-hand with district optimization and other other strategies to do that, but the driver on this was, as Dr. Craft mentioned, is you have several campuses that are just very low enrollment or are very over capacity and way under sized for what they're serving. So, there's there's a need that's out there and we know that based on the district optimization and the information that you guys have been fed over the last handful of months, safety and security is a huge priority. So, putting a kid in a portable is not the safest situation for that kiddo. And so, that is why we're looking at this and trying to figure out the best way to approach these projects and some decisions

140will be made. When we say they're on hold, they're paused just to determine if is there a better use for those monies that still impacts those communities or or the district as a whole. And so, uh part of this is being fiscally responsible as you've heard a comment earlier, uh our our our districts in the north that made the decision to spend $100 million on a new facility and then turn around and close it the following year. We don't want to be in that boat. And so, I think through Dr. Krafss' leadership, we've been very strategic in why we put these on hold. Um not saying that they're not going to get done, not indicating that these campuses are going to get closed, but just simply let's make sure that we're being fiscally responsible when

141we spend these dollars that we have determined are in the '22 bond. Um And other districts have done that, too. We were not the only ones with this we just get called on it a little bit more, but others have had to change path paths because didn't make sense. Yeah, I I I I I I I think that this is again, this is a conversation that's occurring oh as of yesterday with the uh interim charges being heard the uh House Public Education uh committee. Uh this is enrollment enrollment trends, demographics, shifting. I mean, these are all things that are happening really across the nation, not just not just the state and definitely not just Northside to your point, uh Dr. Krawn. So, you're exactly right. Um and I I I think that within the next

142year, we're going to have new data sets particularly with the impact of the um recently approved voucher program being implemented that will be able to as Bob Templeton articulated yesterday. I mean, it's just this is an anomaly. These are unprecedented times that we're trying to project and figure out where are the students? Where are the students going? What are these trend and new trend lines going to suggest and the even the next four to five years. And so we just I think by pausing just a little bit I still I still believe that it's the right course of action at this at this current state and and just where we are. Um and then we'll pick up pieces and the projects may may cost a little bit more, but I think it'll be well worth

143just like I say taking a minute to pause, really assess and then figure out a really good plan very with intentionality and going forward. I guess we can also add that we hear you the community's concern. We listen to you and and we want to be responsive. We don't want to be negligent. We don't want to do that. Absolutely and the reality is that the needs I mentioned that we start planning two years prior the needs that were the needs back in 2020 are not necessarily the needs now in 2026. So how do we pivot and adjust based off what the needs of the district are now versus what we planned for which was just our best guess at the time based on how projections and those types of things are going. So through district

144optimization depending on what the outcome is of that and the recommendations that come that could also change what the scopes of those projects are. And so not necessarily that the those monies are not going to be applied to that community, but if we do a specialized program for that particular campus it's not your traditional elementary school, well now you're not going to doing just standard classroom replacement you're doing something different. They might be STEM labs or something different that we're doing. And so, you don't want to spend those dollars in in in a traditional setting when you're trying to reprogram that school or redesign it. Dr. Misobata has one question or a question. Jacob, but I think you just might have answered it right there. So, my question is and it and I don't know

145uh if the verbage was written in the bond back in uh 2022, but you know, if I'm looking at, say, Meadow Village, Hulen and Cable, I know they're close in proximity. Um once we get feedback and information from our optimization, can we restructure the way we use the money? Cuz here it says cafeteria, gym, classroom replacement. If like what you said, if there was a way where maybe uh we were able to use that money to restructure it in a way where maybe now there's an we're able to build a brand new school. Maybe using those funds, combining them, where we're still using it for that community, but maybe we're not using it in the way that it was written back in 2022. Is there some sort of clause that's written in the bond to

146say that somewhere down the road, like for this instance right now, like um you know what, things have changed and now maybe we don't use it for these exact things, but we still use it for that community in that sense, like Absolutely. And and we've gotten that clarified through bond council um already. Is as long as there's an initiative that was established in that bond proposition, those dollars can be used for those same same initiatives. What you can't do, based on the the recent legislation, is that you can't take that money and say, "Okay, now I'm going to go build a football stadium >> state of the art football stadium or something like that. As long as it aligns with the the items and initiatives that we're establishing that bond then then you can reallocate

147those funds. >> schools only, right? No, it can be any any anything in the district as long as it's one of those priorities that And especially if it's for instructional support um this is all within the parameters of the bond uh the order itself um And so And that's the pause because >> there and there's a lot of uh studiousness that went into making those parameters flexible without ill-intentioned and being like I say diverted towards football stadiums or whatever the case may be. So yeah, instructional support is um in essence the the parameter language. Correct. Thank you. >> And so I mean Northside in the past has always been as transparent as they can which is why we identify the projects so the communities know, but in cases like this where the kind of future

148is unknown that's where we're having to kind of put the the pump the brakes a little bit and try and figure out what's the best re-course >> forward. So Dr. Hall has a question. Yeah, just real quick too and and I probably said it in a um a different way but the schools that we're talking about that Laura was just bringing up they're still um there's nothing there that is not being taken care of. The pause just was for kind of dreaming big or um but any improvements any all that's still ongoing. That's part of the That That's part of the pause. >> Correct. Any of the maintenance, roofing, any of that is being monitored to make sure there isn't an adverse impact to the instruction in that space. So she just mentioned Meadow Village

149which is a kitchen cafeteria gymnasium. They still have a gymnasium, they still have a cafeteria, everything's functional. It's just that would be bringing it to our current district standard where they're combined with the movable partition and having to be similar to what our newer campuses are being built. Okay. So. Valley has another great example. I think he just repoured all of the new the sidewalks in and around the the outside classroom area. So so Yes, we we've got to make sure that life safety, but also cosmetically um mechanical, everything's being supported and maintained. There is a lot of community pride. So um I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Understood. Understood. And what we've been doing is we've been sharing where we are with these projects since uh in the fall of 2025. So we started

150with building committee sharing that in in in September of 2025, then went to CBAC where we shared it in that meeting that we had that following day in that evening, and then we've also brought it to the special call meeting that we had in December where we brought that list initially and had discussion on that. So um we're trying to be as transparent of where we are with these dollars and showing the status, and obviously wait until there's some good formulated recommendations that come out of this district optimization so we can start making some decisions. As as Dr. Craft has mentioned before, we're ready to go the second we are we're told pull the trigger. We'll we'll get after it, but um we want to make sure we're being strategic in how we spend those

151dollars. Um and our next item is just the timeline. Um so we're going to be continuing to work on this. We'll be continuing to look for reductions that we'll bring forward. I will put the full list in Friday letter for you to know what the 17 million is all in um made up of. We're also drafting for fiscal year 27 the revenue based on the ADA and the tax um estimated values so we can start bringing that to you. The allocations that we're finalizing, hopefully this week, um the cost of those two just so we can start really looking at what would this fiscal year 27 look like from a big picture and rolling all of this into it to see how much further we need to go on those future considerations. Sooner rather than

152later. But we'll put some dollars to some of those. I I expect some of those will have multiple options of, you know, A B C D of different dollar amounts for different plans again. Not wanting to cut those items, but how do we possibly restructure or redesign? And so we'll probably have multiple options on those and they'll probably have to come over several meetings because getting that together with the different options will take some time. But our timeline is our ultimate goal with all of this is to come to here on August 17th. I purposely put Monday on there because that's different and than what we normally do. But Monday, August 17th is the last day the board can call a veto or a bond. So we could not meet on Tuesday of that week

153and we likely will not have the budget ready the previous week because it's goes through the August 31st and so that we want to make it as late as possible but meeting the deadline. So we are asking that we meet on a Monday night, which again is very odd for y'all. So please make sure it's on your calendar that way. So Monday, August 17th is the meeting that we'll ask the board to approve the August 27th budgets, the tax rates, then call the veto and call the bond election. Ms. Zapata. Is Um, I had a question for Megan and I'm sorry, I probably should have said it before Jacob got up. That's okay. I don't know why That's okay. Uh It's okay. I just wanted to know I um w- And I don't know if

154this is the meeting for this, but we were talking about uh like the internal audit. I know we spoke about that the last school board meeting. Um, what's our next steps for that? I'm going to defer that to David. >> Yeah, so the I think that the I'm not sure There's a There's a couple of different audits that we've discussed. Uh the efficiency audit is associated with the Vader. That has to be completed uh before uh the board can uh uh consider calling the order. The board's internal audit, I think, needs to be a conversation that goes back to the finance committee to really look at the financial application uh or implication, I should say, and how much Well, a couple of different things. How much do you want as a board to uh dedicate

155to an internal audit program? Do you want to hire an internal candidate, which uh Ben and I already looked at uh the the pool. There are more applicants uh cuz we just have left that position open. So, it really is just a matter of how the board wants to proceed. This is not one that I I can really make a strong recommendation simply because of the function of the internal auditor has to really be a function purely again, directly reporting to the board um and only the board. So, it would be um probably inappropriate if I were to tell you, "Hey, this is who you need to hire and what what it needs to look like." Can we have a list of those? I guess you said that it was open to people >> Absolutely.

156Absolutely. Yeah. There can be a recommendation from Yeah, I mean, I I think it And this is not on this agenda. It is It's not, and I I think that we can I'd say at the next finance meeting have this conversation um absolutely. A- A- Again, there's going to be three different options that are all good, I I think. It just depends on which way you want to go. So, Okay. Thank you. Mrs. Freeman had a question. A comment. I guess um Does it bother you that the Does it bother anybody here that the last day for us to call a bond is August 17th and we have a meeting on August 17th? And though it's very rare that we don't have a quorum for such an important meeting. I don't know what else we

157would do. If there were three of us that I don't know. >> We can back it up. The only thing is you were just trying to accomplish the budget long winded. We can back it up to the Tuesday prior to. Or we could keep it here but I just I don't know that we can. I think we would be waiting. Yeah, the tax rates will not be done and the MCR. So So it could we might could do Thursday, maybe even a Friday. We just need to have We just need to have Karen's one we need to have the runway if we can to be able to post another agenda. So I would not recommend all the way to the previous Tuesday because that Or if we posted it maybe on Thursday or Friday and

158then on Monday in case we didn't have I mean it just I I guess I just get concerned about >> We can look at that. We'll come up with another timeline for that. Saturday morning. Let us calendar it out because we we had talked about the things that that caused it. The maximum compressed tax rate has to be approved by TA before we can bring it to you and that's usually like the 7th or 10th of the month and so that gets in the way and then there's there's several things. So let us put a August calendar of these events and then we can bring it back to the board to make a decision on it. >> And if anything what we can do is we can we can actually go ahead and post a

159couple of different dates that are maybe the 15th, 16th it would be the 15th, the 14th, the 13th, Thursday before if we can. We wouldn't have to have the meeting. We just to meet the meeting agenda posting requirements guidelines. >> [snorts] >> Uh you we could do that as well. So. Be prepared. Can I just add? I think it's just really essential like called meetings and boards meetings like having a consistent time cuz I think that's where we catch ourselves. Like I know today having it at 5:00 is extremely difficult cuz you know, I got out of work early to be able to be here at 5:00. Um so it's like if it's a called in a board meeting, should we have a consistent 6:00 start time so that way we know as a board

160anytime we have a called or a board meeting at 6:00 p.m. And like finance meetings making sure those are at like 5:30 because then that gives us enough time to get out of work and then drive across town. So if I know that August 17th it's at 6:00, I can have enough time to get here cuz August is not a good time for me to take time off from work. Like I if it was at 5:00, I can assure you I'm going to be late like cuz I can't get out of work. I I think I think again for consistency I agree. We There's nothing that We we can start committee meetings at 6:00 with the exception of building building kind of just it fluctuates or Jacob, I know y'all try to usually start around

1619:00 or 10:00 in the morning for contractors and professional services etc. reports. But yeah, we can move We can move all the meetings to just a 6:00 consistent start that works. Well, we I'm just wondering there are contractors that work Oh. For consistency sake and for the most representation cuz we kind of waned. Could all of them be at the same time? I I get building and building Oh, is that what you're saying? I thought Yeah. Yeah. Well, building is usually held Yeah, building is held during the day or that's what we've have been. But we But do we give them enough time? I mean, was it cuz they are getting paid, right? What what what we have What we have discussed is and again >> Wait a bit. What are you all going to

162do? Going back what we discussed is the building committee just with the amount of information in many cases that are is being presented, contractors working during the course of the work day, etc. That's the only committee that we're still again holding within the the the school day, if you will. With the exception if there's going to be a quorum. If we sense that there's going to be a quorum, then we immediately automatically based on the new legislation, if you recall, have to push it outside of the regular work hours, so 5:00 thereafter. If that were the case, yeah, we'll just make it 6:00 as well. By legislation. Yeah. Cuz I I Yeah, I would be able to go then and I I I actually >> the time I would really want to go. >> Dr.

163How, you're saying what you need to say, right? And Mrs. Sabatier? I agree 100%. I would love to be able to go and if we know in advance, so we can schedule it out and and let the other parties know. We we'll make 6:00 a consistent start time with I say committee meetings and we'll gauge building as we need to um depending on the quorum or not. Okay. Okay. So, 6:00 um For this meeting. Yeah, yep, got it. And we'll we'll work on the date. Try to give yourself a little bit of buffer. Thank you. >> it, Madam President. That's it. All right. So, without further ado, the time is now 7:14 and this meeting of the Northside Board of Trustees is adjourned and go Spurs go. >> Mhm.