NISD Board Meeting 5-27-2025

001Well, good evening everybody. Before we uh before we call the meeting to order, we'll start out with our uh pledge uh pledge of allegiance, also a prayer led by uh Trusty Freeman. Almighty and merciful God, we ask your guidance and blessings upon this board, students, parents, patrons, teachers, and administrators as we are assembled here this evening in the common pursuit of this great nation's wealth, our children. Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, good evening everybody. I hear a little bit of rattling that'll come from our recognition when we get to our students part. Uh looking forward to tonight's meeting where we have the opportunity to only not only

002do our recognitions, we've got a new trustees and some agenda items also that we uh that we'll be covering. So once again, this is a regular meeting of the board of trustees and be I'd like to take just a few moment before I actually call the meeting officially to order to review some of the rules for uh conducting our meeting. Now the order of business is set out in the agenda and one item that you may notice is a consent agenda and this includes items that are considered routine and or of recurring nature. All these items listed on the consent agenda will be active on one motion. If there's a consent agenda item which anyone would like to address, please sign up to speak the item and we'll pull it from the motion and discuss

003that one separately. Now, the purpose of this meeting is to conduct board business and for that reason it is held in public. It is not a public forum. However, we do provide the opportunity for audience participation. If there's anyone here that want to address the board regarding citizen items, uh we ask that you complete that signup sheet uh prior to starting our meeting. Is there anyone here that didn't want that opportunity, didn't get a chance to sign up yet? Okay, good. And this is important that way we don't look overlook anybody that may want to speak to the want to speak to our board. Well, if we get to that item, we do have some citizen had to be signed up and what we'll do is review the rules for that portion uh when we

004get to that those particular items during our citizens to be heard portion. Okay. So, once again, thank you all for attending and we'll turn it over to our world famous superintendent, Dr. Crap. I don't I don't know about world famous hardly. Well, this is an exciting time of year as we uh prepare to graduate a little over 7,000 seniors next week. We've got a few groups that we'd like to uh make sure that we celebrate with uh before we adjourn for the school year here in just a couple days. So, uh our students are smiling. So, that must mean that you're uh closing in on the end of semester exams uh this semester. But um the medals clanging, you know, I we used to always say, hey, that's the sound of success. So uh so

005without further ado, uh Barry Perez, I believe, is going to kick us off. And uh like I said, we've got uh several groups that we're going to recognize. We're going to once again take photos around the left side of the dis. So if I could ask the trustees to join me in front uh while we, like I say, recognize some very, very worthy students uh this evening. Thank you, Dr. craft. My name is Barry Pettis, assistant superintendent for communications, and I'm thrilled to be honoring some outstanding students this evening along with some equally amazing staff. A few instructions as trustees find their way in front of the dis. So students, when you sat down, there was a name card that you should have seen. I'm going to remind you that when your group comes up,

006we do need you to bring that name card. You're going to step to my left, hand me the name card so that I could call your name. You're going to circle to the front, greet the trustees, and then return to your seat. If you are a parent or here to honor your child as they come up, please know that we are going to move by groups. So, we'll announce the groups. And parents, if you'd like to come up and snap a quick picture, certainly you can. We are going to move pretty quickly though through the names. Um, honores, a certificate was placed on your seat. You're welcome to bring that certificate up with you or you can leave it there so that it's there when you return to your seat. So we're going to begin

007this evening trustees with a group that you've seen before. This is a recognition of Warren High School's ACT deck team and just last month they were here. You've met them individually but they're back again now tonight as national winners. The Warren High School academic decathlon team won first place at the state finals in advance to the national competition. The national competition was held in De Moine, Iowa. This year's theme was our changing climate. And we are proud to announce that the Warren High School academic team placed third in the nation. You've met them individually. So rather than have them reintroduce themselves, we're going to have them come up as a group and they'll be joined by their coaches, Joseph Biona and Angel Santa Cruz. So, at this time, if the Warren High School ACT deck

008team could join us in the front with the trustees for a group [Applause] photo. All the noise you want. We're good. Thank you. Congratulations. [Applause] We will now move on to recognition of track and field state qualifiers. At this time, we are proud to recognize our outstanding student athletes who have qualified for the state track and field meet. Their dedication, hard work, and perseverance have earned them a spot among the best in the state. Let's welcome them now as they come forward individually to be recognized by our trustees. We will begin. We're going to begin with Kayla Lions from Brennan High School. from Harland High School. G. Ivory Graham from Harland High School. Anthony Dior Jay from Harland High School. Aiden Aliman from John J High School. Shines Davis, [Music] Daniela Shelfoi from Warren High

009School. Sienna Lada from Brandeise High School. Ben Taylor. Those are our track and field state qualifiers. Let's give them a hand and their coaches. If their coaches would please stand. Yes. Are there coaches here? Thank you. And now, the recognition of 2025 state swimming and diving finalists. Each year in swimming and diving, the top six individual swimmers and relay teams from each of the 32 district meets advance to one of eight regional meets. From there, the top two finishers in each event at regionals move on to the state meet along with the next eight fastest times statewide, creating a field of 24 competitors per event at state. However, only the top 16 performers from day one qualify for the finals on day two. The athletes and relay teams recognized here tonight, joined by their coaches,

010are our North Side competitors who advanced to the finals at this year's state swimming and diving meet. We begin from Brandeise High School. Patrick Maldonado from Brandeise High School. Lily Glasco from Brandeise High School. Camila Flores from Brandeise High School. Addie Wilson from Brandeise High School. Kindall Sweeney from Brandeise High School. Parker [Music] [Applause] Burch, Tia Babes, also from Brandeise High School. And Alexa Hutchinson. [Applause] If we can get you back, we'll do a group picture. And do we have coaches with this group as well? Oh, sure. That's Yes, sir. I didn't do anything. Come on. Come on. [Applause] Our final group this evening is a recognition of our student ambassadors. This school year, Northside ISD introduced an exciting new initiative aimed at amplifying student voices within our communications. The North Side ISD student ambassadors

011program brings together a select group of students chosen through a rigorous application process to become the face and voice of the district. Facilitated by the communications department, specifically Kaye Losa and Monica Falenberry, these ambassadors assisted with public relations and communications, representing NISD at school and community events while working alongside NISD board members and the district's executive leadership team. Ambassadors gained valuable leadership experience, enhanced communication skills, and positively promoted NISD by engaging with students, families, staff, and the broader community. Tonight, although we will say goodbye to our seniors, we are happy to announce that all of the juniors have signed on for another year, and we have selected a number of new ambassadors who will be joining them this coming school year. At this time, I'll call up those who will be returning next year and

012thank them for their service for this school year. Followed then, of course, by our graduating senior seniors who will follow. From Stomayor High School, Germaine [Applause] Anyu. Okay, good. Okay. from Cast Teach High School. Jocelyn Gamacho [Applause] Hernandez from Stomayor High School. Riam [Applause] Alahir from JSEA. Brian Gonzalez from Okconor High School. Chloe [Applause] Gatron from Clark High School. Jillian Jones representing Harland High School. Emma [Applause] Mills from Cast Teach High School. Olivia [Applause] Rosas from Taft High School. Alexandria [Applause] Parada from Health Careers High School. Avani Nageri. [Applause] Those are our junior student ambassadors. They will be returning next year. So, we want to get a group photo with our juniors who are returning. I'll have you come back in front, please. One more question. with us. Joining the group from Health Careers High

013School, Brian Udam. [Applause] Thank you juniors. We'll see you next year. Now trustees, the following are our graduating seniors. They are receiving a leadership chord for their participation in the student ambassador program here in about a week at their graduation. We'll begin from Marshall High School. Ryan Almansa from Harland High School. Abigail [Applause] Alvarado from Marshall LMS. Serena [Applause] Cardona from Health Careers High School. Christopher [Applause] Fuentes from Clark High School. Briana Hunt [Applause] from Jay High School. Leah Joiner from Holmes High School. Chloe [Applause] Martinez from Okconor High School. Asta Dominic [Applause] Mirez from Holmes High School. Ronaldo [Applause] Pettis from J High School. Christopher Pinedo [Applause] from Brennan High School. Olivia [Applause] White. And wrapping up this senior group from Insight, Tien Vu. [Applause] All right. If we can get a photo with

014our seniors. And can we get their two communications department sponsors, Monica and Kaylee Losa? I think they should join them in the photo. [Applause] trustees. That concludes our student recognitions. But as we always do, we think it's very very important that we recognize the family members who have supported these students. If you are a family member here recognizing, would you please stand to be recognized by your children? Dr. Craft, Mr. Blunt. That concludes our announce our recognitions. All right. You all give us a few more minutes. Um and then we'll sort of say, okay, when it's a good point to leave. Um but let me see if any trustees have any comments or remarks that they want to make to our those recognized. We want to thank all of you for all your hard work

015and we want to wish you the best on your next journey. Wherever that may lead you, whether you're going to college, vocational school, are you taking a year off and doing some missionary work, wherever that takes you, let us know. Continue to get uh connected with North Side and come back and tell your story. Good luck to all of you. Thank you. I just wanted to say something very quickly to the seniors that are leaving. One thing about North Side I think you'll find out is that you can always come home and we are family and we will be here to help you with anything that you need. Um, and wherever you go, please, please, please take care of yourself. And don't forget to ask for help. It is a sign of courage and bravery

016to ask for help. And there's a lot of newness out there. Juniors to senior year, oh my gosh, you are going to enjoy it. So, what what I my advice to you is just to take it slow, to notice everything, pay attention, and take a lot of deep breaths. But congratulations. Um, like Dr. Don said, it took a lot of hard work, and you guys are the real deal. So, thank you for being here. Parents, mom and dad, grandma, grandpa, thank you for supporting them so much, too. Good luck. Just once again, congratulations to everyone. Uh, this is just another chapter. you got a lot more chapters to go. Congratulations. And to our juniors, to our juniors, thank you so much for um your hard work. We're so very proud of you and we look

017forward to seeing you next year. And to our seniors, congratulations. Thanks for all that you do. You make us proud. All of you make us proud. And so, thank you for um thank you for doing that. And and best best of luck um in what you decide to do next year. And and I'll just quickly add because fellow trustees of state is so well, but the the sacrifice in case of athletics, the injuries, the time that you put in uh for the coaches, those extra efforts and nights, I know that you had to work hard to study to figure out how to make your athletes the best they could be. and the the sacrifices also from the family and we we thank each and every one of you and uh and wish you future success.

018I just want to add one other thing. Um we take great pride um as we talk to fellow districts. I can't say anything like we talk trash or anything that wouldn't be appropriate to say but we do and man north side has really been on the map the last couple years and it's great to see the success. So thank you all. Thank you once again. If I may, I I just want to add congratulations to our seniors. Uh we are so so very proud of you. Um you know, this is really a culmination of um as we prepare for commencement ceremonies. This is a culmination of tremendous academic and extracurricular uh success. And you have set the bar incredibly high for yourselves. Again, thank you to our coaches, our sponsors, uh because we know without

019their support, uh you probably wouldn't be in the position to be as successful as you are. And we are, like I say, so so excited to our juniors, underassman. Keep working hard. Uh you truly are the example that we uh want uh all of our students to to emulate across North Side. So, thank you for your hard work. Great job, and enjoy your summer. Uh two more days. You're almost there. Two more days. Two more days. Thank you again. two more days. So, if you can, this will be our sort of underneath our column of recognition, our last item. And hopefully everybody can stay for this one. Uh, it is an honor to be able to have new trustees, two new trustees, our four trustees, I should say, officially they're going to receive the the

020oath tonight and Judge Harl who's been a long-term uh not only success within the judiciary, but a long-term support of what we do in education as a whole. So, it's an honor to have him here tonight to to administer those oaths. So, we're going to start that process and we'll have four trustees that are taking the o. And if you all um one other thing we should recognize about Judge Harl, which will get me in trouble, but today is his birthday. So, it's a very [Applause] So, thank you, Judge Harl. No better way to celebrate than this our big group we have here. It's okay. We know the feeling. We'll be doing this uh 13 times here in the very near future with graduate graduation for GA. Okay. [Music] All right. Actually, I really can't

021think of a better way to celebrate my birthday, which which I no longer count. So, if I may, uh, I'm just going to call these folks up in the order that it was given to me. And let me start off by congratulating each and every one of them. And I'll congratulate them after they're sworn in. But just for their efforts in being elected, congratulations and welcome. First one I have is Lauren Sapata. Closer. [Applause] Very nice. Raise your right hand for me, please. I Please state your name. Laura, do solemnly swear. Sorry about that. I I Please state your name. Laura Sabata. do solemnly swear do solemnly swear or affirm or affirm that I will faithfully execute that I will faithfully execute the daughters excuse me the duties of the office the duties of the

022office of North Side Independent School District of North Side Independent School District board of trustees board of trustees District two district two of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve preserve protect protect and defend and defend the Constitution the Constitution and the laws and the laws of the United States of the United States and of this state and of this state. So help me go. So help me go. Congratulations. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay. Yeah. [Applause] [Music] Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. I'll be going back [Applause] a little shorter here. We got the drill. I mean, we could still please raise your right hand. I Please state your name. I, Sonia Hasso, do solemnly swear

023do solemnly swear or affirm or affirm that I will faithfully execute that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office the duties of the office of North Side Independent School District of North Side Independent School District board of trustees board of trustees district five district two it's district two I can only work district two district the state of of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve preserve protect protect and defend and defend the Constitution the Constitution and the laws and the laws of the United States of the United States and of this state and of this state so help me God so help me God thank you so Merry Christmas, please. It's a legal right

024I do I Karen Freeman do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully exeute that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office the duties of the office of North Side Independent School District of North Side Independent School District Board of Trustees. Board of Trustees, District 7, District 7 of the State of Texas of the State of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve, preserve, protect, protect, and defend and defend the Constitution the Constitution the laws of the United States and the laws of the United States and of this state and of this state. So there go. So help me God. Congratulations. [Applause] That's right. Your turn. [Laughter] [Music] And I'm fairly confident on this. You're better. Please

025raise measure by hand. I Please state your name. I, Carol Harl, do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute that I will faithfully execute the duties the duties of the office of the off of the office of North Side Independent School District North Side Independent School District board of trustees board of trustees District 6 district six of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve preserve protect protect and defend and defend the Constitution the Constitution the laws and the laws of the United States of the United States and of this state and of this state. So help me God. So help me God. Thank you. [Applause] Congratulations everybody. Way to

026go, sweetie. Yeah. Yeah. So, let let me uh first of all, let me let me thank you all for one staying in attendance. Um as you all can tell the formality of this process is extremely important. Uh it's something that all of us elected officials and just sort of connects us in terms of taking that commitment not only to further education but to defend our constitution and to do what is right for uh for our country etc. So it's very significant to see the old and thank you Judge Harl once again for for doing that for us. Uh so once again ladies and gentlemen let's uh congratulate and boys and girls congratulate our new north side IFD. So what we'll do to give you all a little time to escape and we got a couple

027of setup items. Our meeting is going to continue but we'll take just a couple of minutes for those that cannot stay for the whole meeting to go ahead and uh enjoy the rest of your evening. and uh board members, let's just get a real quick setup and uh we'll be ready to go. I think most of our students have exams, so they're they're probably going to exit stage left. Oh, yeah. They're they're taking finals right now. Yeah. Dr. Yes. Dr. Crap. Hey, Ray. It's nice. I know. Everybody think it's hot. I like it. I feel comfortable. I know everybody else got to be burning up. Man, they got out of here fast and Fastest exit I've ever seen. [Applause] in a while. How are you? Sorry for getting to We're about almost ready, y'all. We'll

028go ahead and get set up for our next group. All right, Dave. Okay, good. Good. That's all. Oh, did you uh I wonder if we should Oh, that's okay. got double the stuff. Yes. Oh, yeah. I was like, I feel like these belong to someone. Do you have anything to sign? I got I had something too. No, it's just me. Okay. What is this? Okay. All right. All right. You got everybody. Oh, now we Okay. You're not yet to husband, right? All right, I think we're all set. Congratulations again. And we'll go ahead and welcome and we'll start out our agenda and we'll start out on item number three, our public notice. Yes, sir. Uh we're actually required to post this notice uh when we have a um a tax attorney representation and so uh

029this is a formality. It's required uh through new legislation. I'll let Megan uh try to answer any questions that you may have. But like I said, we needed to have this posted to an agenda as it's an item that we'll be visiting here uh just just a couple more agenda items. Yes, sir. This is a requirement when we have a contingent fee attorney um agreement on the docket and we do under consent agenda item D for today. Okay. Any comments or questions? This one is just scheduled for information. All right. No comments or questions. We're ready to go into our superintendent report. Yes, sir. It's a busy time of year. Uh but it's an exciting time of year. Hope first and foremost that everyone had a nice uh Memorial Day weekend. Uh I think it's

030always important that through our calendar but also um uh through our recognition se ceremonies and celebrations across the district to uh recognize those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to defend the freedoms that we have so come to enjoy as a free nation. Um uh we've got two days of instruction left. Um and it's in the books. The 2425 school year is coming quickly to a close. It's hard to believe. Uh just as a reminder, uh we will be kicking off graduations this Thursday at the North Side Activity Center. Uh or excuse me, sports gym, excuse me, sports gym. We're at the North Side Activity Center. Um nice to be here. You think after two years that I'd have my locations somewhat down um sports gym at 6:30. Um and then of course next week,

031uh Tuesday, we'll uh we'll we'll start the graduations with our comprehensive and magnet school programs. So, if you have any questions, any uh needs for Regalia, um just let us know. Like I say, I think that you should have those schedules by now. Um we'll we'll be graduating and this is the exciting part of the year. We'll be graduating a little over 7,000 seniors from our high schools this year. So, it will be a very festive four days next week at the Alamo Dome. um really enjoyed having the opportunity to be a part of the judging of our HB uh excellence in education awards. Dr. Hall, I know that you had the opportunity, I think, to be a part of the school board uh judging. I had the u um less than 10 years of

032experienced teachers and it's just like I explained to Jill, it's just so reinvigorating um like I say to visit with the teachers that um are really um doing so much across the state of Texas. Um and it was a great great award banquet and again congratulations to our north side uh educators in excellence. Uh they are phenomenal individuals uh as well as you can imagine. Um we had the opportunity to recognize our ASA uh FFA award winners this year. Uh Miss Freeman I know was at that banquet um on the 15th and it was a packed house. Uh we had it, like I say, at the at the facility uh multi-use multi-purpose facility and um it was it was overflowing. In fact, the students were scrambling to put more chairs out and like I say,

033I appreciate those that donate scholarships to our FFA awardees, seniors. Um I think that they awarded a little bit over a million dollars in scholarships as a result of the Garlock show as well as the scholarship endeavors, which is pretty phenomenal. Um, again, thanks to all those that joined us at the North Side Education Foundation fund run on the the um uh 17th, Dr. Don, uh, Dr. Carl. Um, um, it was it was another great event. Um, we actually had over 2600 participants. Um, so, uh, we overrun, no pun intended, uh, overran Northwest Vista College. They are, like I say, just tremendous partners in in our efforts. um not only with the fund run and just being a really phenomenal site, but also like I say with all the dual credit programming that they support

034us with and have to offer. And so again, um thanks to all those that came out to support NEF and um it was a it was a great event. The weather held out. It was a little humid um but it was really a great great event. So again, thank you to Terry Diaz and our education foundation board members uh for their efforts as well. Um and of course it's always special to celebrate with our retirees and our service year uh recipients. Um this was held just last week at our sports gym. And again, thank you to the trustees that were able to attend and celebrate uh with our particularly our service awards. I give our retirees a hard time. It's hard for me to celebrate uh with our retirees without trying to beg them to

035come back to work. Um but um it was really a neat event. This was the first year that we held it at the sports gym obviously and I thought the venue worked out really pretty nicely. It provided a little bit more elbow room. Uh families were able to actually uh sit. Uh for those that are not familiar, we've had this at the Brandeise High School or a high school auditorium and it just I think we've outgrown our high school auditoriums for this particular venue. Um and it was great to recognize our retirees uh at the front of the ceremony. Um, not to say that our service year, yeah, I figured that might be coming. Not to mention our service, our service year recipients aren't as equally important, but we wanted to represent or recognize our

036our retirees. Um, and then again, uh, thanks for, um, uh, uh, Miss Freeman, Dr. Harl, Mr. Blunt, thank you all for coming to our last, uh, student voice meeting. It was kind of bittersweet. Um but uh this was a again another just phenomenal group of seniors and we'll get to see them one more time as we're uh handing them their diploma here next week. But uh it was a a a great great group and again just so appreciative of the campuses supporting our student voice and like I say we'll um won't be long and we'll be bringing in the indoctrinating the next group. That's probably not a good word. we're inducting um the next group of uh seniors next year. Um it's been a busy it's been a busy time period in Austin. I know

037we'll talk about House Bill Two or the committee substitute to House Bill Two as it pertains to funding and the uh quote unquote historic $ 8.5 billion investment. Uh we're also keeping a close eye uh on House Bill 4 uh which is really the revamping of the accountability system and suspension of STAR testing, moving to a three-year assessment. Um I anticipate that to gain some traction and start moving uh this week as well as House Bill six uh which is really um uh reforming some of the disciplinary procedures particularly mandatory DAP vape placements. Um and then the homestead exemption being raised from a h 100red,000 to $140,000 uh dollars per household did pass. And so that's on the governor's desk waiting to be signed. So, this is really the last week um as we uh

038look at wrapping up sidai the 89th legislative session and um it's hard to believe but really if anything has not gotten through the house floor by Thursday uh there's not a strong likelihood that it has a chance to move uh beyond that point. So, more to come in that regard. Like I say, we'll dig into uh the committee substitute CS House Bill 2 as we discuss budget uh process here in just a few minutes. And uh with that being said, uh that concludes my report. Again, we're really looking forward to next week and graduation ceremonies. All right. Any questions for Trusty Craft? Oh, no, not that part. Yeah. Yeah. I'll get you first on the next part. Yeah. One question real quick. I I was trying to listen to Senate Bill Did it go all

039the way through the library one? Because it had uh implications for trustees. Um and it it was going going and it sound like they were passing it, but then there was going to be an amendment. Yeah, I I don't I don't remember seeing it getting through or over to the public ed house. I need to double check that, Janice. I don't know if you're tracking it or not. Um, this was the one that had the mandatory training in the event that there were I want to say three or four appeals, maybe five appeals. Um, I I don't believe that it has gotten through the the House Committee public ed, but we'll double check. I didn't realize they were meeting on Monday. Oh, they met all weekend. They did. I mean, it just kept going. So,

040yeah. Take a break. No, this is this is that time of of the year or the in the session that like I say it's it's it's pretty busy and of course they were both meeting all day today. And and I also just on the graduations um so Micah's got a if if we can let Monica know, correct Monica? Um we're going to put together a list of graduations everybody's going to be attending. So if you can let her know, that way we can sort of compile and have that information. And that's that's very helpful to know up front. So So just let uh she'll have a list, but let Monica know which ones you'll be able to attend. Yeah, it it'll be really helpful this year, like I say, uh when we line out speaking

041uh pieces and um and and like I say, it also will help as we're preparing to load this stage if we're missing anyone if we need to slow down some things just a just a little bit, even though we won't have the opportunity to slow down too much. Yeah. Yeah. And the way you can let Monica know is uh we've got the list. She's real time here. So you can check it off tonight. We'll pass around a list so everybody can start taking a look. Okay. Thank you. You got you got to send that around, Carol. No, send that around. Yeah, y'all. It should be one per each, right? All right. We'll figure it out. Okay. Yeah, you got you got a couple things in your folder. Uh one of the items is the committee

042uh representation, which we'll talk about here momentarily. Uh I think Mr. Salio has the graduation schedule. Okay. Good. Okay. Feel this initial. Good. All right. And uh next we'll go to trustmart and trusty don. You were ready. Just want to thank once again the um Dr. Amy Boseley and the colleges for hosting us for the North Side Educational Foundation 5K. Didn't beat my time, but I also didn't get time so that no one could laugh at me. It was very humid. I want to also thank the police and the logistical team um for putting it all together and the IAP group that does a lot of uh runs here in San Antonio and the campus facilities at Northwest Vista. Thank you so much for getting up very early and taking care of us and our

043safety. I want to thank all of our teachers, our staff, and our administrators. Thank you all for all that you've dedicated this academic school year. I hope you rest. you have a restful summer if you're not working summer school. But if you're working summer school, thank you so much and um see you guys soon. All right. Thank you, Trusty. Trusty Dan, any other trustees? Yes, trusty Harl. Um I just wanted to say while Ryan is still here, um we were invited to go to the mental health the first ever mental health summit sponsored by a Northside student. was part of your ISM project, right, Ryan? Kind of sort of. It was your life. Say it again. Your magnet school project. Thank you. Um and it's also a passion um of yours and we share that.

044And so um we're looking forward to a district-wide mental health summit and this about this time next year. Maybe we've we've got a plan for it. Um but it was so well presented and facilitated. Um I loved how you started out with your own story and then we were able to kind of weave in our own thinking and and ideas and so really um it it everyone left with a lot of hope and and actually um uh it kind of set the tone for things to come. So I really really appreciate that and I know that um you are also going to be the only presenting in a couple weeks here at Knack to a group of educators as well and hopefully using the same format. So, um Charles um organization is sponsoring that training

045for teachers and North Side teachers are invited to that. So, good luck, but they're paying you for that. So, that that'll be college money. Um and hook and horns. Um I wanted to thank Cable Elementary. We were able to go to their uh family fiesta celebration and what was really neat is of student voice students. Trinity from Okconor High School had her project in full bloom and it was a reading program and um they were giving out books, but there were all kinds of wonderful um exhibits and uh activities going on from uh how to compost. I mean, who would have thought you do that at Fiesta? But everything is a celebration, right? So these beautiful gardens is a fiesta and reading and and games and and it was just packed. It was beautiful and

046I don't think I left anything out. There was music, too, right? It was wonderful. It was great food. Um, I forgot I was going to start real quickly. Bobby, 83 elementary schools, right? Every single elementary school this year. Phenomenal. Um, and also, um, is the kingpin behind the solar cars. And so, that was a great, um, event for thousands of kids and families. What I love is we we had our official um school board and we will save it for our new members. Um it's it's in a nice little box in my office for next year. So I think we figured out how to win this next time. So tape the battery pack on top so it doesn't drag. It was a fast car but the battery pack fell off. So I think we came

047in third. We didn't come in last but we represented. Um TAP had a wonderful um they invited us to have a senior walk. It was it was great. I think the kids just kept going down the same hallways. We kept seeing the same kids over and over again. But to celebrate seniors, this wasn't the only school that did it. There were seniors that were walking at their elementary schools and their middle schools. North side really celebrates being a senior and um that was phenomenal. But just you could see their senior kids faces when they were five years old as they were going down the hallways and we were cheering for them. Um, we also got an opportunity to read to the AL kids at Soayor and that was phenomenal. The kids loved every story that

048we read and um, we also got to participate in their PSA events. Um, clinical teachers, I don't know Ben's here, Ben, that was a great event. Um, I think you could get a better student speaker next time. Um, just joking. Ryan Ryan was also the speaker and He just stood up there and did it in front of all these adults with without a lot of rehearsal and everything. I was just like blown away. It had us all in tears. But that was a great way to celebrate those future teachers that we hope to keep. They they're the ones who've done their student teaching in North Side, but then came with their mentors. And so that's just a phenomenal way to celebrate everybody. Um Peace Middle School, I think, did you get to go? the Beetleju.

049Beetleju Beetlejuice. Um, phenomenal. It was great. They do dinner in the show and the kids I went to the the teacher version of it and it was phenomenal and the kids just love um when people come to watch them. So, I know we we always go to our high schools, but check the web page and see in the fine arts section when the middle school versions are because that's growing our our fine arts programs by having us go and give them feedback and cheers and hugs. Um, Storyfest was a huge success. It was in throughout this whole building. Um, I forgot the amount of people. Hundreds. Hundreds came. My favorite part was reading to turtles. They had turtles. They had um birds that you could read to. They did have a dog. Um but I

050was fascinated with the kids reading to the turtles. To the turtle. Um anyway, lots of great reading going on. Um in addition to what Bobby did, um Project Acorn had a huge celebration at Okconor High School and I think Karen and I drew drove up right when they were packing up. We couldn't make everything after the fun run and um and it was But as Dr. said, um, retirement was great. We started counting how many people did say, "I'll be back in a year." So I think Ben, we get a finder feed for all the ones that we said, "Are you coming back?" And they said, "Yes." And so we circled their names. We got them. So it's our own recruiting is shaking hands in line. Um, Rollinsson Middle School was awesome to go do

051their National Junior Honor Society. It's always nice to see kids who have worked so hard um and dress up and so they were they were having a blast but it was a great honor to um congratulate them. Uh Warren and Sookayor had great choir programs last week and what I loved about them is they did again celebrate the seniors that celebrate their um their entire year through pictures and so it's like the story of this incredible group of kiddos that from day one what was neat looking at the seniors several of them had been had just joined last year and so it kind of gave me pause to thinking that you know our programs can um also evolve in in real time. So um anyway, but thanks to Warren and such great great um concerts.

052Um CIS had a great lunchon. Um, I was able to have my mentee come from homes inside. Um, and she we're going to start that as as part of a tradition in North Side where we have students come with us or sit at our table because she was very much inspired by communities and schools who's probably one of our best one of our our partners. She does such an incredible job with with our kids and families at our schools. I'm going to leave the rest but all good. Thank you. You said it busy busy busy in May. All right. Uh Trusty Hall, thank you. Trusty Salceto. Yeah. Just real quick, uh just want to give a shout out. The the construction careers academy had the tiny home showcase. Uh my family I went out there

053to to look at they had a bus, a north side bus converted into a a tiny home. That was really impressive. Um it's like a wood shop on steroids. It was like there's no birdhouses. These are actual houses where people live in. It was really amazing. Um, like Carol said, we also attended the Peace Middle School uh dinner theater. Um, we did the dinner theater part where they actually serve dinner and get to watch the whole uh theatrical performance and they did Bele juice. Awesome job. It's it was hard to imagine these were middle school kids and the way they were, you know, totally professionals. Great great job. We also had a a chance to attend the Jefferson Middle School dance showcase held at Stoayor. That was also awesome that middle school kids and uh

054it's looked like they were high schoolers. I mean they were just so so professional and just my wife and family were always amazed when we get invited to know then um you invite me we try to come. So thank you. Good. Thank you Trusty Salo. Trusty Hassel. Hi. Hi. I just wanted to take some time to really just thank everyone for this opportunity. I'm extremely thankful and blessed to have the support of my husband Jeffrey Hasso who was here supporting me. Also Rosie Castro who has always been a mentor to me and a great friend. And then also I see Rick Galvan and also Kurid um Karina um here to support. And then of course um Northside AFT and Texas AFT and teachers, teachers aid support staff that are here to support and just knowing

055that um always keep me accountable. I'm here for students for teachers and support staff and so thank you. Thank [Applause] you Trusty Zap. Okay. Um just to reiterate with that, just want to say thank you very much. Um it's an honor to be here. Um I know one of the things that was explained to me is just being a part of the team of eight. And so I'm I'm really excited to be working with everybody here. Um thank you to the community, to my family, to my friends, um to everybody who uh endorsed me, believe uh believed in me, um and just um supported me. So thank you very much. I I appreciate this opportunity and I look forward to representing our community. Good. Thank you, [Applause] Chelsea Freeman. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Blunt. I'll

056start with the some of the activities and and I was gone like a week and a half to Colorado and there's an entire um laundry list here. Um the highlights though, um Bobby, yes, congratulations to um to be able to read to 83 schools. Um, those of us who read for the NCAA know that um, truly it's it's very enjoyable, but it does take time to drive between schools and um, appreciate you taking the time to do that and um, setting that challenge for yourself and and meeting that. Um, and then solar cars was just fantastic. Maybe as a our trustee car, maybe we need to work on that a little bit sooner than what we did and maybe start earlier and think about what we need a planning we need to plan for a

057planning session as we go forward in the spring. But it it was great. Again, we weren't first, but we weren't last. So, um we respectful finish. Um Project Acorn, this is the first time there were so many participants. They usually host it in the multi-purpose room at uh their building at Okconor High School. And we moved or they moved into the overflow into the cafeteria and it's it's all about um they um work the the kids are engaged in environmental literacy through hands-on science and what they display is their year-long projects and different things that they do at their school. So, congratulations to them and all of their school sponsors um for for what they did. And you can learn so much by just walking around and how to grow plants and just various other

058things that um I I don't do well with vegetables, but couldn't stand to learn a few things. Storyfest. Um congratulations to Lisa Kulka. Certainly a bunch of kids were here. Lots of reading going on as um Dr. Carl said the the featured speech a featured author was Suzanne Lang um and who wrote the Grumpy Monkey series and I was so inspired I ended up buying three books and um was pleased that um she was able to to sign those. So I've become a fan of the Grumpy Monkey series, Retirement, Celebration and Employee Service. Yeah, there was a lot of smiles coming across that stage and um yeah and dancing and um so we were certainly pleased to um congratulate all of them. Certainly bittersweet but um congratulating them because they've they've earned that opportunity to

059retire and they all had if they didn't have plans they were certainly ready to ready to make them. Um student voice it was the first time we had the two groups together. Normally we have two sessions because of the geography um in the in the school district. So some of our schools meet here at Knack, some of our schools meet at the North Side Gym because it's closer, but we had them all together. And so they they shared some things that they didn't know about themselves. So that was things that we learned. That was fun. Um Stan Lang, um we honored him in his retirement ceremony. Y'all know Stan. I can't say enough about him. not only not only was he, you know, great at ath instilling athletic schools in in kids, but the beyond

060the game program and to u teach life skills and leadership skills, he did a really great job. Um, and and the kids are are certainly better off for it and those of us who listen to him are better off for that as well. So, um, we certainly congratulate Stan and and wish him good fortune. The FFA awards, as Dr. um, Craft had said, they had with the Gerlock show and and the FFA awards, they had over a million dollars worth of scholarships, but just that night, they awarded $120,000, which was included in what Dr. Craft had said. And what's really amazing is some of the people who donated the money were parents of either current um students at FFA or kids that have been through the program and they appreciate it so much and they

061come back and award the kids and they they are certainly um to be commended for that. There were four state winning teams this year and and three will actually compete in Indianapolis um national and then electrify your strings. So that's a an event that um North Side has hosted. This was the first first year that Miss um Elizabeth Sanchez Lopez had um had she was taking charge of that and just a very successful two days or 400 elementary school students, 600 high school, middle school kids and um they performed alongside Mark Wood and he um played in the Trans Siberian Orchestra. So very talented and the kids played rock music to with orchestra instruments and it's just something to see. They did a really good job. There was a John J. Senior um who was

062awarded an electric violin and I understand that he's got a full scholarship to Northwestern University. So um kudos to him. Ryan, great job on that presentation. Just it was just perfect. And um we all had an opportunity to share. Done very well. You were on time. You had it paced well. Just great job. And um as you know, as I take the oath oath of office, I reflect. It's it's truly an honor and a privilege. Even though that sounds cliche, I I'm I really believe it is an honor and a privilege to be able to serve the community of North Side. The you know, the people on this board occasionally come and go, but what remains is the the legacy and the legacy that of of people that have served in the past and that

063continues to endure. It's a commitment. It's about integrity. It's about service. It's about loving this district and doing what's best for kids. Um the new board here will continue to be able to build on this legacy and I am honored to be part of it as we um grow our team and and build that as we go forward. And that's all I have. All right. Thank you, Trusty Freeman. And I'll just bring up four four quick items. Um first one is um as part of our board visits out to different areas within our district. We went out to the Nelly Reddic Center about about two weeks ago or so. Um just just a quick comment. I've known about Nelly Reddic for a while, but to actually spend some time there and really understand the impact

064it is and the challenges is simply amazing. So it's a story that very few understand. But that was uh that was that was enlightening. With all the years I've been on that was really enlightening. So it's a good visit there. They talked about solar cars. A couple of things on that. Uh first one is uh technology having that big screen up there. That was cool. That was something else. Everybody could see better. I mean it was a whole production for being able to show um not only the races live as they were going on so people could see a lot better which is a big challenge sometimes. Um as well as the different features that we showed throughout. It was that that really paid off. I know it was talked about but that that had

065really paid off. And I'll give you a real quick history not too long on how solar cars really started because uh we've got a lot of new new people here. Uh it actually started out um as a request by the partnerships office in had contacted my corporation to do a partnership with um Rayburn and Allen at that time Lackland City Allen but really this was really for Rayburn Middle School and when we first started out it actually wasn't done by teachers it was done by engineers it wasn't engineers just my corporation we had engineers across the city and everything else that ran solar cars as engineering mentors after school for about the first five or six years and then we got teachers and others involved. The other part is it started out as a state

066competition initially against Houston and Dallas started coming the valley etc. So in the last part I'll bring up it was actually more than just racing solar cars. Uh they used to have to also we judge the cars um and uh actually see how well they were built etc. But they actually do presentations. So we were coming over here at Knack the kids had to present other things. So it's come long ways because of the size and scalability for it. So that's how solar cars really got started. Um you mentioned 83 schools. I do want to thank all the principles for letting me into schools. You never know, as well as all the librarians and the teachers and the uh the students. Um it was a lot of time, but it was definitely worth it to

067to make all 83 as of last week. It's just amazing. I think yall know I'm involved in other things in the community, but you want to soccer other things. Parents, hey, you read to my child at their school. They told me that. So, it's uh it was really Yeah, it was really great. I I did make a mistake though. I went to the learning tree um celebration. and I was here and I made the statement that I bet I could visit all 95 of our learning tree locations. Look, so I'll be reading to 83 schools with some other trustees. I'm going to help ask for y'all's help as we visit all 95 learning tree locations next year. And that that is my report. Yeah, go ahead. One more thing. Um for the new trustees, there's

068a piece of paper going around that says uh retreat dates. um don't think of it as a retreat. It's a mis um characterized title. It's a working day for us or working time period. It's more um and really it's team forming, but it is it is a work session, but it says retreat. So, I want to make sure you guys know that. And to also welcome y'all to the board, too. I was thinking the other day that um I was comparing it to my life growing up because we moved every two or three years. My dad was in the Air Force and every time it was time to move, I kept thinking, "This is the best place I've ever lived. How could the next place be better?" And then it was better and then the

069next place was better. And I say that with my students. Oh, this was the best class I've ever taught or classes I've ever taught. And then the next one comes. So, you know, last month that was the best board that I had worked with after other boards. Now, this will be the best board. So, I know we're all going to um do great things for kids. But, welcome, welcome. And um if you know, we're always a phone call and a text away. There's never any question too small. And believe me, I ask I still ask questions. So, welcome. Welcome. Good. Good. And it's a uh it's actually three-hour team building. That's what it mean. Just so you know. Got it. By law, it is too good. Don't Don't worry. We will talk through all hands.

070All of the required uh um hours uh training hours, but yeah, exactly. Bobb's exactly right. It is a team building. You mentioned you mentioned uh Nelly Reddics. Yeah. Reminded me tomorrow right here at Mac, we'll have a completion ceremony for Nelly Reddics. And to answer your question, Senate Bill 3 did not make it through the House. What? Senate bill Senate Bill 13 did not make it through the house. Thank you. So, all right. So, that completes our board members report. Uh and next and I'll give it to Dr. Craft. But really looking forward to this report. As you know, we've engaged more of a partnership with our PTA council as a board as our district has always done that. So, we're looking forward to Dr. Craft. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, Crystal Rivas, I think you

071probably all know, our president for our PTA council and Jordan Wagner are here, uh, this evening. So, um, Crystal, uh, asked for, uh, 45 minutes to she wanted to provide a quick update in regards to the the state of the PTA council here at North Side. And we so appreciate y'all's support. We really do. Thank you, Dr. Craft, and thank you, board of trustees. Um, as he said, my name is Crystal Rivas. Um, I am the council president for my second and last term. So, this will be my last term as council president. I do have two kids in Northside, one at Carlos Kun Elementary and one soontobe high school student for John JA. So, I am a product of North Side. I met my husband at Taft High School. I attended Zachary Middle School

072and North Crossson Elementary. So, I love this district just as much as you do. So, um, thank you for letting me speak today. Our collective vision of 117 PTAs that make up our council is to ensure every child's potential is reality because we value the partnership between the superintendent, school board, community, and the PTAs. And because we count on your continued support, we want to give you a brief update on our important work. I am providing this report in writing, but would like to go over a few of our highlights. Um, so just some backstory. Um, I presented one in the fall, so this is now our spring, so it's going to kind of have some old information and then some updated information. see if I know how to do this right. I did it.

073Yay. Okay. So, some goals and efforts. I'm going to go over um our previous goals of what we talked about at our last one. So, um our mission statement to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children is recited at at the beginning of our delegate meetings and at our executive board meetings. This is in to ensure that our locals and our local leaders are aware of what we're standing for and what we uh represent. Um a goal that we also had was rally day 2025, fill a charter bus, donation drive for NICD threads, our Jaxi Jordan scholarship, and our national PTA reflections program. So updates on that, we do like I said, do cons continue to do that. We did fill a charter Jordan.

074Um we had over 65 attendees. We did have a donation drive for NIC threads. We have raised over $21,700.38 for our Jaxi Jordan scholarship. Donations came from 34 elementary schools, 11 middle schools, um seven high schools, and two community donations. And for our national PTH reflection program, we had over 122 entries that were advanced to the council level. So, just some cute little photos. There's our Jaxi J students. There's our reflection ceremony, our rally day, um and then some of our our drive photos. Just kidding. I don't I don't know if I know how to go back, Miss Monica. Sorry. Okay. Sorry. Okay. So, like I said, we consist of 107 local PTAs, which makes us the biggest council of PTAs in the state. Um I've been told there aren't going to be any more

075schools being built. So, um you know, that 117, let's hold it strong, guys, because the next one is Austin. They have 111. Um we do have a 13 member executive board who provides leadership oversight and training for our local leaders. So our membership numbers this was as of okay I did it of 52425 we are 24 794 members strong which is an increase of 1,313 members from last year and our overall goal is 25,000 so we're almost there. So, if you haven't joined a PTA or if you want to join a PTA, please join PTA. Um, it would um it's a goal that my VP of membership, Candy Bowman, is really trying to get and I hope we get it because she has been working so so so much on this. We do have two

076Grand Pa memberships, which is Dr. Craft and Bobby Blunt. These two u gentlemen have joined all 117 of our local PTA. So that is our grand PTA membership. Some awards that we've been awarded, we have our shining star companion, a council on the move, and our spring community builder. We also um participate in training as well. We have council training. So we train at launch um up in Dallas. And then we also have a council board orient orientation where our Texas PTA assigned field service representative comes in and um hosts the training for the whole entire council board. We also train our local PTAs. Um we have a financial reconciliation event coming up here at Knack on July 15th. Uh we have our mentor program which really helps the CP break out because again 117

077across so much. It really helps breaking it out into smaller groups. Um we had rally day training, my PTE easy training as well as membership training. Our big old fun party is what people call it um founders day celebration. um and honors the vital role PTA has played in supporting parent involvement and advocating for all our children. It's a time to reflect on our achievements and thank the pioneers who made this work possible. The theme this year was PTA powering for a brighter future. Um if you can't tell the theme, we can't be friends. But um Holmes did an amazing job and there's Miss um Miss Elizabeth down there and there's um a couple of my board members and my the folk dancers, but they did an amazing job. Um, Chef Danielle, um, shout out

078to her. Her food was amazing. I heard a lot of good, um, good feedback from that. Um, and that's actually all that I have for y'all today. So, thank y'all so much for allowing me to speak. I hope to continue this partnership with y'all. Thank you. Um, I, like I said, this is my last term as CP, but I will be returning to the board, so I'll still be there. So, thank you'all again. Thank you. [Applause] Well, again, thank you, Crystal, and to the entire board and really all of our PTA councils. It's pretty phenomenal when they meet on uh a monthly basis. It's pretty amazing. They fill this room u plus some. So, we appreciate y'all's continued support and particularly your advocacy during the legislative session this year. Good. Good. And I'll pass on

079the thanks, too. You know, we always, you earlier, we like where North Side shines and having the the biggest and also the best and just the great relationship. So, so thank you all again. Thank to both of you. Okay, so we'll go ahead and switch over now. We now have our citizens to be heard portion. I think we have about eight citizens to be seven to be heard. If I understand uh all seven that somebody tells us differently are going to speak during a citizen be heard, right? Not for a specific agenda item. Okay, good. We did read that correctly. So again, we uh we do value u our citizens be heard. Uh we are restrained by law uh from taking any action. Uh what we uh request that you make your remarks at the

080the podium. Uh we'll have three minutes for your mark and uh I think we have both on the screen as well as our board secretary will hold up the yellow card when two minutes have passed and then when your time is up at the the three minute point then they'll hold up the red card. uh very important. We ask that you not make any type of uh uh commentary that's personal against any uh individual by name. And other than that, I think we're all set to be heard. Yes, sir. First uh signed up is Jennifer John. Good evening. My name is Jennifer John and I'm the proud orchestra director of Stevenson Middle School. I have also been the elementary strings instructor at Bronstation Broccley and Nichols. I was once a student at Bronstation myself where

081I started learning the cello in the elementary strings program and I continued with orchestra as a student at Stevenson Middle School and Communications Arts High School. My music teachers and orchestra directors had such a profound impact on me that it inspired me to get my degree in music education from UTSA. By doing so, I now have the privilege of teaching and inspiring more students in the same schools I was raised in. Therefore, I am a proud product of North Side and I'm passionate about music education, the performing arts and public school education. As we heard from others at the previous board meeting, I have felt disheartened by the decisions to dissolve choir programs at specific schools and to split more performing arts directors due to campus enrollment and teacher aotments. The student population at Stevenson

082has unfortunately also been declining, making it increasingly more difficult to recruit and maintain students. This is not from lack of effort as we all work incredibly hard to recruit students, but these systemic issues continue to hold us back. All of us enjoy seeing students give outstanding performances, but at the middle and high school level, these performances do not come from occasional club meetings. These highle performances are a product of daily intentional practice and specialized instruction provided by highly skilled educators. Furthermore, the skills students cultivate in the performing arts classes can be transferred to other areas of their lives, ultimately creating more well-rounded people. I understand that various factors go into these decisions, but one idea is letting sixth graders have two electives by removing advisory. Many students and parents would prefer having two electives, and

083many elective teachers have been assigned to teach those advisory classes. This way, the students can have a second elective, boosting elective numbers, and more elective teachers can teach their primary sub content area. The performing arts are an integral part of North Side's tradition of excellence. And our established programs set us apart from charter schools and private schools. As South Texas's largest public school system, we are a destination district and investing in the performing arts will help to maintain that status, ensuring that students, parents, and teachers continue to choose North Side. For all of these reasons, it is my hope that we continue this conversation to explore ideas and ensure that the performing arts are consistently offered and supported in North Side. Thank you for your time and consideration. Okay. Thank you. [Applause] Next signed up

084is Grace Garza. Hi, my name is Grace Garza and I work in the district in North Side. We pride ourselves in being the largest district in San Antonio, fourth largest in the state. and like she said, the destination district for children and staff. I'm here today to ask for an increase in auxiliary staff pay. Many of our um staff make poverty level wages, have second jobs, have children on Medicaid, living on food stamps, and living uh living within their means, but struggling to make ends meet. As a special education teacher, I myself have had a successful class because of instructional assistance. I've had um paper better paperwork and communication because of the support of office staff. As a parent with children here in North Side, my children make it on time because of those bus

085staff people. They are served great meals by amazing cafeteria staff. And my daughter is cared for at an afterchool program called Learning Tree where people work there for $12.50 50 cents an hour. With the increased salaries for auxiliary staff, we would retain employees and build a positive north side culture, living wages that is welld deserved, especially the instructional assistants in my classroom. Come check them out. Um, as a school board, you are guardians through policies and are responsible for our schools. I am confident in a positive outcome that you will come up with. Let's continue to be the premier district to live, work, and send our children. Thank you very much. Thank you, Juliana Sandal. Hi, my name is Juliana and this is my service dog, Graven. I'm in fourth grade at Scarbo Elementary. I

086have a rare disease called hereditary copa porferia. I'm actually the only kid in the world with the under 12. Even my doctors have a hard time saying it. I also have anhydrosis, dautonomia, anxiety, and epilepsy. A lot of people think I'm okay because I look fine, but they don't ask how I feel or what I need. This is what it is like having an indivisible dis invisible disability. Every day I check my temperature. The temperature because I can't be in the heat. it when it's over 80°. My recess is in the afternoon, so I have to stay inside most days. I've been told that I'm okay, but I'm not. I feel sad because I want to play outside with my friends. If I could, if recess was in move to the morning because of my

087rare disease, I hear no a lot from doctors and the school and the and that's already hard. All I want is to be included, to feel safe, and to have a normal school day, and recess with my friends like everyone else. I promise I'm trying my best. I just want to be seen. I do not want to be left out. Will you please help me find solutions so that so that school can create a schedule that will consider my needs so that I can enjoy my last elementary school year with my classmates? [Applause] Hey Juliana, very very I do I do want to say you know Nashville we all definitely uh feel for you. We're definitely rooting for you if I can say that sort of in any way possible. Um it took a lot

088of courage for you to come here this evening and to let us and we appreciate that. But more anything else we definitely wishing you the best as best as we can. Jessica Joanna Sandal. Hello, my name is Joanna Sandavville and today I want to share something very personable personal and incredibly important not just to me but someone I love very much. My sister. My sister is one of the strongest people I know. She faces battles every single day but most people don't even realize it. Why? Because her disabilities are invisible. She looks like everyone else. She smiles. She laughs. She tries her best to keep up. But behind that smile is a girl dealing with multiple invisible disabilities. things you can't see, but things that deeply affect how she lives, learns, and plays. One of

089the biggest challenges she faces is the heat. Due to her disability, she physically cannot tolerate temperatures above 80°. It makes her feel sick, weak, and incredibly uncomfortable. This means that when recess is scheduled in the middle of the day when the sun is strongest, she has to stay inside. Every single night, she checks the weather, hoping and praying for a cooler day so she can finally go outside and play with her friends. It might not seem like a big deal. It's just recess, right? But to her, it's much more. It's connection. It's freedom. It's a chance to feel included. And right now, she's being left out. Not because anyone is being mean mean, but because the system isn't designed to see what's invisible. Everyone looks at her, thinks she's fine. But the truth is, every

090day she fight is a fight for her. A fight to feel normal. A fight to be understood. A fight to not be left behind. So all I'm asking today is simple. That the school she attends can come up with a solution to her. Allow her Reese's time to be specifically in the morning when the temperature is cooler so she can go outside and spend time with her peers in her last year of elementary school. Let her have that one part of the day where she doesn't have to have to fight just to be like everyone else. That way that take that weight off her shoulders. Let her be a kid. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for one speaking for and I'm sure take helping to take care of your sister too. Thank you.

091Lupita Sandival. First, I want to thank Dr. Craft for recognizing Rare Disease Day in February. The public acknowledgement meant a lot to our family. Awareness is the first step to equity. My daughter attended Scarra Elementary School and she has a complex medical learning disability. She spent 94 days in the hospital last year and I want to thank her teachers. I want to thank you guys for the support. Over the last year, we've experienced a lot of gap in her services, miscommunication, and decisions, and I just come to you to ask for support. First, decisions were presented to us as final. We've encountered multiple situations where key decisions such as placement, accommodations, and scheduling were made before or outside of the art meeting and then presented to us as final. This directly contradicts the collaborative nature

092of the art process and violates Juliana's right to idea. Second, misinformation about accommodations. Juliana was denied access to a medical fridge prior to the start of the school year, which is essential for her daily care. The initial reason given was that it violated the fire code, something we confirmed with the Bear County Fire Chief was false. The justification later was changed to energy efficiency goals. This forced our family to spend hours researching laws and policies, time we should have been spending caring for our child. Third, fighting for indoor placement due to Juliana's inability to sweat. The indoor classroom placement was not medically necessary. Yet, we again were met and told that this was only an administrative decision, not an our decision. Finally, recess denial due to a master schedule. Most recently, this past week, we

093were told Juliana would not get equal access to recess with her peers because there was a ma master schedule conflict for next year. We were informed this was an administrative decision and not our decision. Reese's is just not playtime for her. It's a social, emotional, and medical need. Denying it based on convenience without our review is unacceptable. We continue to hear decisions that impact Juliana's basics needs our administrative decisions and not hard ones. Our daughter is not a policy conflict. She is not a budget concern. She is not a master schedule conflict. She is a child resilient, courageous, and deserving of dignity, safety, access to a free and appropriate public education, and access to racis. I ask that you would ensure that our decisions are made collaboratively and transparently with parent participation, not after fact

094delivery. That you require staff to verify legal and policy claims before communicating them to families. That you would provide mandatory training to campus level for invisible and rare disabilities and that you would establish real accountability when students rights and accesses to services are denied. Thank you for your time and your commitment to make all children seen, valued, and protected. [Applause] Thanks, Miss Sandaval. Uh, Joanne Par. Good evening, distinguished sideboard and superintendent. My name is Joanne Par. I am the proud mother of a 2019 graduate of Harlem High School and a 2021 graduate of Health Careers High School. I also served as a North Side Independent School District collaborative teacher and academic technology coach for 12 years. I've also been a taxpayer since 1998. Since 1998 to this great district and I've seen it grow by

095leaps and bounds. I proudly assisted in opening Scar Bro Elementary. As a collaborative teacher at Scar Bro Elementary, my role entailed providing for both general and special education students with access to the fourth grade curriculum and ensuring that they were also growing socially and emotionally in a safe environment. At no time did any of the many ARS that I sat in last longer than an hour. Now, I'm not sure if it's current campus leadership or if it's district leadership who have negatively negatively transformed our meetings into bullying sessions that last six hours. But this has to stop. Parents of a medically fragile child who are already battling against an unknown disease, who have witnessed their child flatline, should not be subjected to battling their neighborhood school for their child's safety when walking to the restroom

096from outdoors, nor when playing during recess. North Side, we have to do better by our students. Unless this information has been purposely hidden from you, the board, then the high number of court cases lost by North Side versus Special Education students is not a surprise to you. North Side is not protecting the education and safety of their students. Many law firms who speak to other school districts during their summer, during the summer when they're getting the district ready for a new school year, the first thing they tell school districts is don't be like North Side. North Side has to do better by their students. It's no wonder that the Texas legislature is working against the equal funding of its school districts and is supporting vouchers when one of the largest school districts in the state

097is not doing right by our special education students. While we are fortunate to not have lost any children to horrific events such as what happened at Rob Elementary, I leave you with this. What will you tell the media about losing a child to a seizure caused by overheating despite the plea of her parents that was willingly chosen to be overlooked for her physical safety and scheduled recess in the heat of the day? Thank you. Thank you, Molina Esperto Oscar. Good evening trustees and Dr. Craft. Uh my name is Molina Espirit Dasok and I am the very proud president of North Side AFT. On behalf of our union, I want to warmly welcome our new trustees to the school board. Uh Dr. Dr. Sonia Hasso and Coach Laura Sapata are both highly qualified, incredible individuals who

098are deeply committed to seeing North Side ISD thrive. They are dedicated to servicing our students, families, and the entire community. And we are thrilled to have them representing District 2 and District 5. Our union is built by those who work, live, and send their children and grandchildren to North Side ISD schools. They are teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, instructional assistants, bus drivers, bus assistants, custodians, maintenance workers, cafeteria workers, and so many more. They are the working people and the working families who serve North Side ISD every single day. Our mission as a union has always been and will always be to ensure that these essential stakeholders have a voice in how our school district is run. We are excited to finally have a school board that reflects the voices of working families. As the second largest

099union in San Antonio, affiliated with the San Antonio AFL CIO, who represents over 37 local unions across San Antonio, we stand tonight in solidarity with our fellow union members from North Side AFT and across the city. We celebrate these important wins and what it means to have a school board trustees who understand and champion the needs of working families. At the end of the day, our goals are the same as a school district. We want all our children to have the best schools, the best teachers and support staff. We want to build a destination district where educators in San Antonio are proud to work and where they want to stay. We know that Northside ISD can and should be that place, the best school district in the city of San Antonio. That is why we

100are so committed to collaborating with working families who make up the majority of the school district to ensure that Northside ISD community can achieve these goals together. We look forward to working together to face the challenges ahead and to continue to fight for our public schools. We know that our students deserve the very best and we will keep working tirelessly to ensure they and the staff who serve them have the public schools they truly deserve. Thank you. And last signed up is Whitney Meter. Good evening board and thank you for your time. My name is Whitney Meter and I am the parent of a student at Folks Middle School. I'm here today as a concerned mother who has spent the last five months navigating an incredibly alarming situation that exposed serious gaps in our district's

101ability to respond to threats of school violence. In January, a student at my son's school made multiple threats, including naming my son's friend as someone he would kill first if he were a school shooter. That same student later physically assaulted the targeted child and issued additional threats to him and other students. Despite multiple reports, written documentation, and direct meetings, the administration failed to act with urgency, consistency, or transparency. The families involved were promised schedule changes, adherence to safety procedures, regular updates, and communication to school staff. These commitments were either delayed, forgotten, or never followed through on. My son missed school repeatedly for fear. Fear that was justified by the school's inability to enforce its own policies or prioritize student safety. We were fortunate that our school did not experience a tragedy, not because proper safeguards

102were followed, but because that student simply chose not to act on his threats yet. That is not a safety plan. That is luck. And luck is not a strategy. Luck does not keep our children and our educators safe. This district is less than 100 miles from Yubaldi. We have seen the horror of what happens when warning signs are ignored and when systems fail. There is no room for missteps and confusion with threats of mass violence. Procedures must be followed every time without exception. If they're not, either the training is inadequate or the leadership is. I understand that that is a harsh statement, but the stakes are too high to sugarcoat the truth. These systems are only as reliable as the people entrusted to carry them out. And in our case, they failed not once, not

103twice, but through nine documented breakdowns. We didn't have a school shooting, thank God. But we left the door open to our worst fears. And without serious intervention, that door remains open. Since January, I've heard from parents across the district that similar breakdowns have occurred. This is a pattern of poor communication, delayed action, and dangerous lapses in follow-through. So, I ask the board, what will you do with this information? Because if stories like mine keep surfacing and the response is silence without action, we aren't protecting our schools. We are inviting tragedy. Safety protocols must be more than words on paper. They must be implemented, tested, and reinforced regularly. The board must ensure that every administrator knows the procedures, is trained in them, and is held accountable when they don't follow through. I'm calling on you to

104launch a formal district-wide review of school safety response procedures and ensure the systems are not only in place but actually working. This cannot be a one-time conversation. I am here and I am open to the dialogue, but I will not stay silent when my child's safety and the safety of all of our children and our educators is on the line. Thank you. Thank Thank you, Miss Meter. if you can leave us with those nine documented cases, uh that'd be great and we'll be following up with you. Okay. All right. That completes our citizen be heard portion and and once again um in this particular item is the board is is for information only or for listening um from our citizens. We can't take action and we can't have a deliberation or discussion on it by

105law because anything we're going to discuss has to be posted in advance and given opportunity like Dr. craft was just doing for administration to address what we're hearing this evening. So, so we're not ignoring anybody. I want you all I think you all know that per se, but you know, believe the messages were heard. Okay. So, next we'll go over to our consent agenda. And again, our consent agendum are those items that are considered routine and or recurring nature. Typically, they may have uh either presented at a prior board meeting um or at um or something that we do on a constant frequent basis. So, I'll ask uh first of all, is there any item that any board member wants to pull or superintendent for discussion? Most of these items were discussed in uh like

106I say, an academic uh committee meeting. Um a uh building committee uh meeting or finance committee meetings. Um so, like I say, we'll be glad to uh discuss uh any and all. I know that one of the uh policies which is for the second reading is the uh FDA local which is it pertains to our open enrollment uh campaign uh as promised in our last um policy committee meeting uh with your approval this evening. We will launch that campaign immediately um allowing uh students outside of the school district given capacity uh no excess excessive uh discipline uh andor lack of attendance records uh to attend North Side ISD schools where like I said we have space available. All right, Dr. Crab. All right. Now, is there a motion to come before the board on the

107consent agenda? Mr. Yeah. Uh, Trusty Hall, I move we um approve consent agenda as um listed in our agenda. Okay. Is there a second? Second. A second. Is there any further discussion? Time has been moved and second that we approve the consent agenda as identified and presented. All those in favor signify by stating I. I. Those opposed state nay. Okay. Good. Motion carries. All right. All right. So, that completes the consent agenda. Next, we'll go into our business and finance area. I'll turn this piece uh directly over to Megan to kick us off. Thank you, sir. We have a few items for you this evening. The first item we have is an information item. It is the notice of intent to apply for federal grants. It is in your board packet and um through board

108policy CB local which is also included in your packet. It says that the district shall provide public notice of federal grant applications through an informationation item at a board meeting and by publishing information on the district's website. So that is what we're doing tonight. You have a list of the grants that we intend to apply for uh provided in your packet. That is also on our district website. And when you go to our district website, there is a a portion of the website that has the intent to file the notices and you have an opportunity to click on a link and provide public comment. And it's a great website. I want to encourage you all to go look at that and where you can actually go into the individual grants and provide the public content

109of anything that you would like to provide to us. And that's true for the public. So I want to encourage them also uh to go and look at that site to provide input if they are interested. and this fulfills this requirement for the board policy. So, no action needs to be taken by the board, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Trustee Freeman. Yeah. For for clarification, Miss Bradley, too. We discussed this in um finance committee meeting and I saw Sharon here. She's the back. Yes. I asked the question about the opportunities for grants considering we've heard at the federal level some of the grant money has been cut. So from last year or previous years can you speak to the trend this year? The trend is grants available yes to apply for. So the

110esser grant of course is our the concern that went away. So that that one has called use the words dried up. But outside of that, our normal grants that we have the title one, the IDEIDA are are still available and the dollar amounts have not decreased. So we have not seen that. We are tracking that information and we will of course let the board know if we become concerned of any other grants that may change. Thank you. I know that that's a that's a question that that I've been asked personally. Yes. Um for that and with our new board members. I appreciate appreciate that. That was all. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments, questions? All right. For information only. So, we can go to our next item. The next item we have for you this

111evening is a first reading of board policy CFB local for accounting inventories. We also brought this to the finance committee meeting and discussed it that we have received correspondence from TEA and that is provided in your packet also through something that they call a TAA to the administrator addressed and it provides the documentation that the OM at the federal level has changed the capitalization policies which means for capitalization it's what we must uh record as an district asset and it has moved from 5,000 to 10,000 at the federal level and we have the opportunity to do that for us at a district level by changing board policy CFB local. So what we are asking for in the first reading of this policy change is to change the capitalization threshold for purposes of classifying individual capital

112assets at $10,000 rather than the $5,000 that is listed in the CFB local currently. So, we're bringing that forward here as the first reading and then we'll bring it back to you at the next board meeting for a second reading if the board is okay with that and I'm here to answer any questions that you may have about that change and just explain on our our policies are sort of a two-step process. Uh the very first one um that's presented to usually to go to a committee first a policy committee and it comes to the full board and it's considered a first reading. Um at the first reading you get the summary. It was extremely well done just now. Any comments or questions now, but it gives you opportunity to ask further comments or questions

113later at the and typically at the next board meeting is going to come up a second reading and that's when we'll put it for uh the board to potentially pass. So, anybody has any comments or questions? Remember, you don't have to you have them now, that's fine. If not, you've got time until our next board meeting. Okay. Give any comments or questions then. Okay. So, we'll consider that the first meeting and we're ready for our next item. Thank you, sir. Our next item is a little more lengthy and so this is our regular um budget update. Dr. H, would you like to give Yeah, let me let me as promised um we kind of discuss where we are with really the committee substitute to House Bill Two. Um and um this has gotten really complicated

114uh really fast. Um you probably have seen uh the headline um a historic investment in public education uh to the tune of $ 8.5 billion. Um and so as we were working through this uh over the past several days uh which I know like I say our legislators were meeting in Austin over the past uh several days. The committee substitute um is just that it it has substituted quite a bit of language from the originally proposed house bill 2 that as you can probably recall was passed out of the house uh late one evening uh last week. Um the committee substitutes which we'll dig into um uh pretty extensively uh did focus on teacher compensation um and and really increasing uh teacher compensation above and beyond what uh the original version of House Bill 2

115obviously originating uh in the public house education committee. Um and then it also um rather than applying an increase to the basic aotment uh created a new aotment which is uh being referred to as the fixed cost aotment uh to the tune of $1.3 billion. Um they did set aside also uh $500 million uh for compensation increases outside of the required teacher compensation increase. And I'll just go ahead and let you know that the teacher compensation piece is is just teachers. So it's not inclusive of nurses, librarians, and counselors as the originally proposed House Bill 2 uh was. Um for districts of 5,000 students or more, which obviously is North Side and many other large school districts, it's a $2,500 increase for teachers with three to five years of experience. And then for five years

116or greater, it's a $5,000 increase. Um, I've been asked, well, what about experience uh uh that ranges between zero and two years? It's not included in the legislation. the uh $500 million uh set aside or earmarked for compensation increases outside of the uh teacher compensation piece equates to what we've calculated about and don't hold us to this just yet, but we are discussing and looking at compensation packages of about one to 1.25% general pay increase. That is that is what $500 million looks like uh as it pertains to all other staff if a general pay increase uh was applied. So you don't see me doing back flips right now. Um and this is not to say that um the increase uh in the muchneeded teacher compensation piece is not uh appreciated. Um but this is

117h hardly a in my view a humble view a comprehensive school finance bill that is really going to m move the the needle. Um I question um where some of the a lotments are are really being applied. Um but this is where we are. Um I do absolutely think that uh the passage of Senate Bill 2 or ESAs i.e. vouchers uh to the tune of a billion dollars being uh applied again in the 2627 school year was a leverage point as was House Bill 4 uh which I mentioned earlier. Um this is the elimination of STAR testing that is yet to be passed through the Senate. Um but it was absolutely part of the conversation. uh elimination of STAR uh moving more towards a uh nationally normed assessment or throughear uh assessment program. Um A

118throughF remains intact but the accountability system calculation itself uh changes uh pretty significantly with some local accountability CCMR metrics um etc. But I re the reason I bring those two pieces of legislation uh because as House Bill 2 and particularly the committee substitute House Bill 2 was being uh discussed and proposed um in meetings th those were absolutely like I say lever uh levers that were uh also discussed. Um so um where we are now um this has uh like I say passed the full Senate um assuming it passes the House which I believe it absolutely will garner uh that uh support uh will go to the governor's desk uh for engrossment uh and and his signature um again it's not uh guaranteed uh seeing how this legislative session has uh played out but again

119June second is quickly approaching and uh this is this as we've discussed for the last several weeks, House Bill 2 is the school finance vehicle. Uh there's no other uh significant piece of legislation that is out there. The only thing that was really um interjected uh if you recall there was a Senate bill, but it was really just geared toward towards teacher compensation increase. again no increase to the basic aotment. Uh the fixed cost aotment was um in essence um a replacement of an increased meager increase to the basic aotment uh to pay for inflationary uh cost uh drivers such as property insurance um electricity cost uh the TRS and benefit uh uh piece that is associated with the required $2500 and $5,000 teacher pay raise which for us is almost $4 million uh unfunded.

120Um so that just kind of gives you an idea as to uh where we are. And then like I said, I know Megan and Tiffany have been working on this pretty diligently. Um please don't hold us to uh these numbers just yet because again, we're working off of assumptions uh that it's been really difficult to model. In fact, the legislative budget board, I don't believe had the even the opportunity to model it until late Sunday. Um, so it it's it's pretty fresh. Um uh but we feel like that we've got a pretty good handle on at least estimates as to uh where we'll be and particularly where we'll be as uh we're putting together fiscal year um 26 budget uh which is uh will be coming uh to you for your consideration and approval with

121of the tax rate in August as a reminder. So Megan um I know I left off some some big pieces but Trusty Hall had a question on your real quick question. I may have misunderstood, but I thought um there was going to or as part of this was a support staff aotment which um I even heard that again today and I think Senator Moss had referred to it and and defined them as our bus drivers and cafeteria workers and and so I mean I if we can revisit that I I really thought there was and again I could be wrong there's $500 million uh that's going to be dispersed across school districts to uh provide support compensation support outside of the teacher compensation piece. There's $45 per ADA. I'm sorry, 45 $45 per regular program

122ADA that's provided to provide salaries for support staff. Okay. And that that support staff aotment is bus drivers, cafeteria workers, non-administrators, non administrator non- administrators and the teachers that have less than three years of experience. But as Dr. Craft said that will equate to approximately a 1% Yeah. general pay increases. I I No, I I I'm sorry. I No, no, no. It's No, I It's minuscule. I know. It sounded glorious, but it sounds great. It's being pitched to sound great. comment Bobby. Yeah. So, yeah, this has been spun very well by people in Austin and we keep hearing, you know, from the lieutenant governor, people that um this is the the be all to end all bill. we've taken care of um public ed and they've done their job and um I know we're just

123finding out about this but it is way short of what we need and I think um I we've got a whole presentation here about where we're going to be with budget we that we've heard in um finance committee and that's not a pretty picture and I I would like to we need to broadcast this louder to our community because yeah I I can say this with very good certainty Miss Freeman that what has been proposed and and assuming that this again is engrossed um this is not going to come anywhere close to curbing the 3/4 75% plus of the of the districts that are operating a deficit budget. It doesn't come anywhere close. it it hardly even will put a dent uh in those efforts. And so we'll walk through that because again, we're I

124don't want to say we're on the very u uh cutting edge, but we're we've been working this alongside the proposed legislation uh pretty aggressively uh to be to a point where we've kind of pulled back the curtain uh so to speak. And there are models and like I say there's um advertising and then there's numbers. So you're correct in your assessment. Well, and and just just talking to my neighbors, um we were speaking about u a few things and and it's it's difficult to explain the the elevator speech about how this is not going to help us much at all and and that's not what they hear. So, you know, I don't know. I don't know how we it's it's more than an elevator speech. Yeah. Let's let's dig into it because like I say

125there's a lot of moving pieces and it you know good, bad or indifferent, it it just complicates the funding formulas just that much more. My assessment and and and again yes uh arguably speaking it's it's an $ 8.5 billion investment of taxpayer money but outside of teacher compensation um I I I've just again I'm not doing back flips. In fact, I'm not for sure I can even applaud the effort speaking very plainly. It's where I differ from probably some of my colleagues. All right, mate. So, where we're starting this evening um with that nice introduction is this document that's on this slide and the next slide actually came from the legislators and you can see at the top the Texas House and Senate plan for school finance. This was released late last week and and

126when we were learning that they had negotiated and came up with a deal that both sides plan to approve. What I want to point out on this slide um the most is at the the yellow circle that says the 1.3 billion in new aotment for basic cost. They're calling the ABC. It's also being known as the fixed cost aotment. It is shown as the second bullet point under the landmark reforms section and saying that this aotment is intended to relieve budget pressures like skyrocketing insurance premiums, TRS costs tied to teacher raises. So they're indulging that the teacher raise piece does not cover TRS and this is meant to help with that and utility cost. U so that is a new aotment we've never had before and I do um I'm glad they put that in.

127That's a it's a good positive thing. I'll let you read the rest of these items um for yourself when you have time. The next piece came up the bottom part of this one pager that they sent out talking about the teacher pay increases that uh Dr. Craft talked about. Uh the first piece is talking about the payraises for teachers and then another 500 million that's dedicated for non-administrative staff payraises. And so we'll talk about that here in a moment. Uh the pieces uh that we have it talks about the offers up to $8,000 per teacher for five years of experience. That's for districts that have less than 5,000 students. We have more than 5,000. So that dollar amount for our teachers would be $5,000. So, want to make sure we're clarifying that based on the

128the items here. And again, I'm not going to go into all the detail here, but wanted you to see that this was sent to us by the legislators as they um reached their negotiations. So, this is um my attempt to um bring it together to you to show what we believe it means to us. I have preliminary on here because this has not been validated other than by me and Tiffany and Jake. And so um we want to make sure that we disclose this is very preliminary but where we believe the House Bill 2 Senate floor amendment gets us. So on the far right hand side so you've seen the first column of numbers and the second column numbers several times at board meetings now and now we're bringing in this right hand column is

129what we believe this legislation brings to us. So we'll go down a little bit of it. I tried to um group it in tranches that we could take up separately and look at. So the regular pro program aotment if you remember me bringing you that cake here to the board meeting and the bottom layer of that cake that first line item is that bottom layer of cake um for the most part and so you see that that number is actually going down for us. Um the reason why is our declining enrollment and the change to the basic a lotment was not um it was $55 but it's taken from our golden yield golden penny yield which is the third from the bottom line item. You can also see that dollar amount is decreasing also. So

130they took money from the golden penny yield, moved it to increase the basic a lotment by $55. But because our student counts are going down, that goes down too. So our bottom layer of the cake, the cake we you the piece we use for basic educational program is decreasing. Did you have a question, Miss Freeman? I don't I don't know if we need to talk about it at this time or not. the there's a lot of discussion at least in some text threads that I'm on regarding this golden penny yield and what it actually means and then for those for those districts that have actually gone out for a TR what does that mean to them? Um can you there there's a lot of concern and I should have disclosed at the very beginning we

131have not seen bill language yet. It has not been released. So the bill language itself is not out there. The um the second amendment that went through on the Senate side that language is out there but it has not it does not reflect everything in here. So unfortunately I don't have that answer yet. My understanding of what is um happening is they're freezing the golden field. So they're not going to in it was originally intended to be at the Austin yield and it would increase every year as values increased in Austin. They're freezing that so it's not going to increase anymore. And then they took some of that value and moved it over into the regular program alignment. Dr. Craft. Yeah, I I can I can speak to a little bit again the golden pennies

132and Dr. Hasso, forgive us because this this stuff this is school finance. um we have access to to eight uh golden pennies. They they bring forward a greater yield um uh than copper pennies and and so it's really a result of the funding formulas and tax effort. Um and Megan, you'll have to help me. the board had the authority or the ability when the legislation was first uh adopted um implemented to I think it was accessed to three or four four golden pennies uh which we have since accessed um and then there was the option I believe for another penny which we've also access so we have access to three additional golden pennies but the only way to access those golden pennies which is a greater yield um especially um when you look at pennies

133thereafter, which I can talk about here momentarily. The only way to access those pennies though is through what's called a voter approved tax ratification election or vader. And so what uh Karen, back to your question, there was a $55 increase to the basic aotment um that was uh initially proposed. Well, that $55 increase to the basic aotment was to help wash basically the freezing of the Austin yield or the golden penny yield cap. So rather than allowing this to this value of these pennies for all school districts, not just specific to North Side, grow in perpetuity as a result of property appraised value uh growing, which they are across the state, it was it was capped. Um and thus um that was going to be the offset. I don't know if I explained that any

134better. Um thank you. some I guess somewhere I read where the basic aotment was going to be tied to property values. So property values went up from the basic aotment went up but that's not no true the basic aotment you'll see there is no increase to the basic aotment and and the regular program aotment uh please don't confuse that with the basic allotment the basic allotment um that was proposed in the original house bill 2 and I'm sorry I don't have the number right off top of my head but was I believe it was 400 it was $395 more 3.95 was the um proposal that that is no longer. In fact, the only thing that's even remotely close is this aotment for basic cost. Um, which again, that's a brand new aotment. Okay. Thank you.

135So, we talked about the regular program a lotment and the money that's spent for the basic education. Then I I grouped some of the aotments that have the required spending. We've talked about the required spending pieces in the past and so I grouped those all together. So we're looking at those all together. The items in green are the new aotments so that you can focus on those items and see where the funding is coming through. Many of these aotments are um calculated based on what are the weighted average daily attendance. And so they do calculate based on our student numbers. Uh the new special education evaluation allotment is $1,000 per evaluation is the way that's calculated. I am not sure yet how they will know if it's based on an actual evaluations um completed how

136we will report that. There's not any we don't have any of that information yet but somehow the models are running the $4.3 million for us. U I'm not going to cover the other items there's not major difference. Let me let me pause you real quickly because I think this is important again talking about pulling the curtain back. Keep in mind that the state reported that there was an there was they were they recognized there was a funding shortfall or they were un underfunding special education services by over $2 billion which is even more uh since that report was released two years ago. So if you look at all the way over that far right hand column that is the increase that 3.24 24 and the 4.33 for evaluations. That is the increase to special education

137funding. So going down the the rows, the teacher retention aotment is what they're calling the new aotment for pay increases. I believe, and I think I speak for Tiffany and Jake, too, that we believe that that item does also include the $45 for the other staff members that are not administrators. The calculation works out correctly. So the $32 million is not only the $5,000 for teachers with more than five years of experience, $2,500 for teachers with three to four years experience, but also the $45 um per ADA that would go for non-administrators and for the teachers below the three-year threshold. Again, what's not included in that is the cost of the TRS benefit, which is roughly 10%. Um, and so if you look at the very bottom, we've added two rows at the very bottom

138of what the required pay increase would be, which matches that amount, and then the cost u of the benefits related to those pay increases. I wanted to put that on here so that you see that that 3.54 million has to come from somewhere. Um, and it's so we'll just put that over to the side for right now. Um, the next line item is the aotment for basic cost. That's that new ABC set of money that's meant for the fixed cost, which we can use for the TRS cost, they put that in the flyer. So, of that 10.62, the 3.54 could be paid out of that amount, leaving about $6 million in there as um I'm going to call it somewhat discretionary. It again, we don't have any bill language, so we're not sure exactly what

139that can be spent for. We don't know if it can be used for salaries or not. We don't know if it has to be reported for exactly how we're going to spend it. that that has not been given to us yet. So, we're waiting for the the buildings to pass first, then the commissioner will probably come out with regulations on that. So, uh then the other items are just part of the formulas. We are happy that the hold harmless did stay. That was a big concern a few months ago. So, that did stay. So, that's good news. Even though it's lower than we what we want it to be, it is still there. Uh so, that is positive. So going back and looking at the alignments with required spending, if you remember the that required

140program spending presentation that we did a couple of months ago, there is a possibility that some of these could supplant to be discretionary spending. So there is the possibility we know we're already overspending our special education aotments. We've done the I've done the calculation and that additional 3.24 we're already spending that much more. So that 3.24 24 could be used for other purposes. We've got to do the calculations on the others as we do salary cost to make sure that they might be able to be supplanted, but I believe some of them will be able to be supplanted. The one that will not be able to is early education. That is one that is 100% spending. And so that 4.65 um we will need to make sure that we're spending that the way the law

141says that we will be required to spend it. Trusty draw. So they in addition to the administration is the only group that we don't I don't show we haven't discussed whether they be able to get pay increase. Is there another group or anyone else that will not also be covered through this these changes? Administrators is the piece. Now again if you're giving the pay raise based on the funding provided it's roughly 1%. general. Yeah. And we and we owe you a um compensation recommendation. Um you know, I feel fairly confident that this is going to be the engrossed fully passed uh school finance bill. Um, but I mean as far as the comp the proposed compensation, you're you'll be able to see and and leading into the next finance andor uh board meeting what we're

142going to be working is to see, okay, well, what are we already i.e. supplinging special education uh services general fund with that? Again, I hate to use the term supplant, but that's interchange, if you will. Um, that we can possibly free up general fund. But keep in mind from the last presentation with, and Megan, I'm sorry, you'll have to remind me the number that we're working towards. Um, I mean, we're still very much in a red deficit uh budget process, probably to the tune of closer to $50 million. That will be our last slide tonight. So, I so I'm just I'm I I don't want to overpromise and way underdel and um and that's just where we are. Um, and as you well know, um, this year's budget we knew was going to be challenging.

143I was hopeful that uh the state um would propose a school finance bill that would help us to the tune of 25 or $30 million in offsetting that deficit, but it is very clear at this point that's not going to happen. And we will not be alone in this vote. Um I just don't know that other districts have had the opportunity to really start digging into what this looks like uh through implementation. and and and we feel like this is pretty close. So before we move to the trusty um so I had a real quick question last um reading of the the final verbiage for the um voucher bill. it did have a piece that alluded to the fact that we're going to have to pay and so I'm not sure it's the same language

144for the special education evaluation but any kind of special education testing and identification of services um the school district would have to incur even if the child was not going or it's a voucher so they're going either to homeschool or private school but is that funing supposed to cover that as well. We Yeah. So, we did a little bit of research and I think I mentioned at our last finance committee meeting, we're already responsible for those evaluations through a program called Child Find. So, this hasn't really changed other than in essence, we're going to be reimbursed for the expenditure, if you will. So, that that's Does that cover the cost? Um, what does that cost? That's a really good question. Um that I don't know that anyone has really been able to provide a definitive

145answer. That's a really good question. Um I I do know this that obviously at the earlier ages uh primary years, that's that's when we really see a lot of a lot more screening, a lot more testing, particularly with dyslexia. Um, as Megan articulated, I believe what has been used uh for estimation calculation purposes is $1,000 uh per assessment, but does that cover the full cost? Um, there are a lot of variables depending on is it um, you know, outside evaluations, is it you know able to be conducted in by staff inhouse? I mean there So that's a that's a good question. Um the other piece too is what's kind of also interesting is is we're starting to see this overlap of um IDEIDA funding now and state funding which is um it's an it's an

146interesting uh relationship that's evolving. The other question that I just got is, you know, if they haven't been identified like in an elementary or middle school, are they going to is there going to be a line of high schoolers for the first time being asked to be tested by us? No, I I I I don't I wouldn't necessarily think that would be what we will will Child Find is set up to to try to identify students very early on. I think that where there were um I don't want to say deficiencies, I think that there were where there were maybe just some challenges was uh appropriately screening for dyslexia. And I think that that has come a long long way. Um but you know if you kind of look at how students um and we

147do on a weekly basis how students are admitted to um special receiving special education services andor 504 accommodations which is under the the 504 umbrella. Um we we identify most students early on i.e. primary years especially as they're trying to learn phonetics and trying to learn to read and write. Um, so I I I don't think there's going to be necessarily a real influx of secondary students, particularly high school students, um, that haven't already been identified. Um, that that that's not usually real common place. So, Trusty Freeman, but could parents on top of what you said, could parents request their child be tested since there is additional voucher money for those students who are identified as special needs? Um, could parents request that even though the district may not parents can make the request now

148and so we would have at any time we would have to test. Yeah, we have to we have to determine education need educational need. But yeah, yeah, it it they can remake that request. Now, this is a this is a really that's why I'm saying it's kind of interesting. This is a program that is really protected as a result of um IDEIDA and always has been. So, I it's it's just an interesting conversation. Well, I've been in alternative charter school settings where RTI behavioral issues. They had they had very far tier students. So that's what I'm wondering. Yeah, we may see some of that those requests that are unusual but are potentially possible. Yeah. And it there could be behavioral support. I mean I Yeah, absolutely. So, I I don't want to I don't want

149to speak um prematurely in the sense of we could we could see it, but I I just that's not usually the trend. I'm just wondering once the word got out though it because it is going to be publicized. I think sometimes our our families don't know that it they could now. Um but once the word got out, it could create problems for our school districts. It could create a what it Yeah, I'm sorry. No, it could create a backlog in and just timing the the testing timeline or require required timelines that have to be met. That that's what I'm more worried about. Typically though, students are identified either by an educator, uh sometimes a nurse, a family member, a parent early on that a student has some form of a learning disability. Um that that

150that's what that's usually what, like I say, triggers the request for testing and evaluations. Well, that's true. And I was just thinking though with speech as part of that um how easy it is to getification and then I could go to a private school under the special education priority and get more money for my kiddo being at either private school or home school with that kind of identification. So assuming that there are private institutions that are going to accept special education students with IEPs. That's true. That's a that's a big assumption. I would not bet on that assumption at all. a lot but homeschool anyway. All right. Um, sorry I should have asked this before and you may have covered it on the uh the membership numbers 100,000 if FY26 projections current law let's say

151it was 100,000 also. How would that impact our total and all state aid is it still? Yeah. So it's it's based on ADA. Y'all didn't use water or did you Megan? Yeah it's ADA. So uh so there there are weights that are applied but keep in mind what you have to kind of factor in also is a do you know what the percentage attendance rate is that 94 94 94 right Jake around 94 so we're using a 94% attendance rate so it's not enrollment is that the question no I was trying to figure out whether the dollars be close because I'm just trying to do a big picture because okay and be careful I say it but um from a big picture standpoint somebody sees this well Yeah, I would expect it to drop because

152you have less students per although I know the reason why details etc. But if it was equivalent, what would it look like per say then? That's a great question. Oh, that's yeah, I see what you're saying. If we were to maintain uh ADA under fiscal year 25 adopted current law, um so 100, 324, what would that funding entail? You're right because it it it's it's um Yeah, you're right. It's not as it's not as glamorous as a result partly because of a drop in in enrollment. Um but I'll counter if you do it on per pupil uh funding which was really the idea of an increase to the basic aotment. It's still not real glamorous. Okay. No, that's fine. So let's explain a little further. We can try to Yeah, we can try to run

153run it through. Yes. And we've talked about running an apples to apples comparison. The concern with that is we would almost want to do the do it backwards rather than forward because we wouldn't want you to see the higher numbers and be get that in your mind that that's something we might actually get because we know we're not going to. So we could we could take the 91,000 um ADA and back that into what would that have been in phase 25, you know, doing it backwards planning to show that. I'm just hopeful that our policy we passed earlier has an impact and that we do have that increase. The the last one is this but the real baseline is this September is that when it say number it's end of October end of October oh

154end of October yeah peep snap snap last Friday in October and these are estimates so that 90,173 that may be a little low when we saw it it was okay um so it may be a little low it's uh October 30th 3rd last Friday in October. A snapshot. Right. Right. Last Friday in October. Correct. So, and we also hope that the open enrollment changes this numbers on the upward. And so, again, I want you to remember the bottom line numbers if for those in the audience, if you can see them, the 32 million for payraises and then the cost of the benefits relating to those co payraises, that 3.54 could come out of the aotment for basic cost. We know that that's what came out in the flyer that they provided us and information provided.

155So if you see the 10.62 a lotment for basing cost, take out the 3.54. We know we still have about 7 million up there that we can use for other costs in the district. Uh so that's the the biggest piece of discretionary money I see looking at this so far. I want you to remember that dollar amount as we go forward. Um next we're going to just look at the historic compensation plan. Well, I think we are. It is not moving forward. And we all have it, too. So, we're scrolling along. It's tired. It's tired. I don't know if I'm not pointing to the right place. Okay. If y'all can move forward to slides. Oh, okay. There it is. There it is. Okay. That one. That's where I wanted to be. We'll see if it

156moves forward. So this is our historical compensation plans that goes back for the last six years. We wanted to remind the board of what you have adopted in the past. Uh we took this forward to the leadership north side group uh recently and so we wanted to bring it to you also just to keep it in your mind. We were also brought to the finance committee. So reminding you that, you know, in the past year, the most recent year, there was a 2% general pay increase that um was given and you can go back in time to see the historical pay raises that have been forwarded. That's just for information. Okay. Now, we're going to go into the information that came to the finance committee and review it with the full board. This slide came

157to the full board previously. So this was the trajectory of our unassigned fund balance and looking at the instructional continuity piece. If we did not make changes to our budget planning, we know we have, but we want to remind you of this. The green area is our instructional continuity committed fund balance. The orange is our unassigned fund balance that is recommended to be three months of operating expenditures. So that's why you see the little step up in 2324. um that as your operating expenses increase your that piece will increase also. Uh so this is a little hard to graph and Jake has done these graphs for us. So thank you Jake. Um that as we do shrink our budget that amount really should shrink a little bit but it's a little bit of a chicken

158and egg of how do you it's a circle that's going to keep going. So it's a little hard to keep up with that. So for rounding purposes we kept it where it is. Um but again that red dotted line is what would happen if we did not change our budget planning. But we are and we're going to show that in a moment. But the real reason for this is the blue line to show you what we're wanting to do as that instructional continuity is used up which it we're expecting it will be for the end of the next fiscal year. Uh where we need to be in that glide path to keep that going. Yeah. And I'm sorry. Yeah. Go ahead. We do have two new trustees and it's also good for a review about

159why it is recommended and who recommends that um we keep three months of um ex operating. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much for reminding me that. Yes. So, for the new trustees, do not be afraid to ask questions and I would love to meet with you separately to go through school finance, what I'm going to call school finance 101. It is not an easy topic. So, u the more you hear, the more you, um, reflect on it, uh, the it will start to at least not sound like a foreign language after. I guess that's not what I was saying. Please explain why why it's needed. Yes, ma'am. So, um, so Texas Education Agency recommends best practices that we have three months of operating expenditures setting a fund balance. Think of that as a savings account.

160So, fund balance is basically your savings account. uh three months of operating expenditures is recommended so that we don't have cash flow problems. We could be paying out payroll um and have to pay out operating expenses other than payroll and months that we're not getting state aid from the state or not getting property tax revenue coming in. So just like you need to have savings accounts for if you had to miss a month of pay it's the same with us three months of operating expenditures. Does that answer that question for a minute? Also, we have something called the first rating, the financial integrity rating system of Texas. This piece is a part of that rating. Um, that rating, if it goes down, our bond rating is also affected. So, there's multiple reasons why we want

161to keep that fund balance up. This slide is showing the changes that we have made to staffing from the current school year that we're in getting ready for the next school year. So these are the reductions that have have been made with class size ratios is the main change in the um teacher area. You can see that we have not changed librarians or nurses. There's a change to counselors based on the ratio there. There have been an increase in instructional assistance based on the reduction of PE teachers. That's an exchange there. You can see there are auxiliary and pair professional changes and look across to see which positions those are. Um we've reduced 21 campus administrators and 38 professional support which is mostly central office positions. Uh there so those are showing that changes to

162our units or full-time equivalent staffing that is going into the model for next year. We're still working on this. Um we are also going through a zerobased budgeting process. Um Janice is shaking her head because she got to meet with us today. Um Ray's met with us. Barry's met with us. And so all the departments are meeting. Jacob has met with us and so we're going through zerobased budgeting where we're saying what do you absolutely need compare what are the nice to haves and the wants and making informed decisions on that so that's not reflected here but we're having those conversations for the budgeting also trust real quick on the learning tree program um it we're not losing anybody but um right the black that actually means we're adding we are adding right but I'm

163sorry but that is a funded program with student tuition in Okay. Yes. Yes ma'am. And so you'll see on a future slide that we have increased the revenue to offset this because they're in they're expecting increased um membership I would call it and that will offset that cost. So the rest of these are the reds are decreases the black is additions. Oh, I'm sorry. The rest of the ones on the left, the description, learning tree all the way down to early childhood from middle school down to early. This is all the north side budget. This is no revenue coming in other than the state or fed. Learning tree is the only one where we get money from tuition from students. I believe that is correct. I'm I'm looking through it. Yes, Jenna says yes. See,

164I think what she maybe suggested if it's for us to talk to charter, it may be good to asterric or something just to note that that way people know the learning tree program is in the general fund. So the revenue that comes in is in the general fund. So it is part of our general fund is why we're including that before we leave that page. Sorry. Also, just to to be clear for people that are listening that we we talk about decreased staffing um units, but we have not we need to be clear that we've not done a reduction in force. That is correct. Yes, ma'am. We have not done a reduction in force and we are everyone has a job. So, we are want to make sure we make that clear every time we

165meet that no one is losing a job. They will have a job in North Side ISD if they had one this school year and want to have one. It is um the job may have changed but they do have a um comparable job. Yes sir. No reduction in force. The next slide is looking at u the first slide that like that we've looked at in the last board meeting and we looked at this at the finance committee and so this is just reminding you of our trajectory of our student numbers that you can see from 23 24 and the orange line going to the 25 26 the decrease in student enrollment that we are expecting and have seen for the 2425 year and then the blue line is looking at all staff units. So moving

166from 12,000, we've talked about the increase to the 13,000 that we had when we moved things into the general fund from ESER and then where we are now based on what you saw in the previous slide coming down to 12,620 uh staffing units. So again, we're trending in the right direction. That's our goal to show you this with the changes we've made. If we wouldn't have made them, we would still be up at that 13,000. So we're making changes and starting to right size is what the the common language has been for this type of work that we've been doing so far. So then we want to look at more numbers for you to show you what this really look like looks like in dollar amounts. And so the top um areas are revenue. So

167the bold items are the totals. So if you look at the current year that we're in, we had a $998 million in revenue, a million 92,000 in expenses. And for a projected result of $94 million deficit, if you remember, we had um a couple months ago $101 million deficit that we were showing, we have actually come in and found some savings of that 7.5 million that you see above that um line item in red. So we are actually reducing our expenditures in the current year based on some of the decisions we made for next year. So already seeing some positive things happening and we'll continue to monitor that. Down below in that black box is our fund balance. And there's two pieces to that savings account or fund balance. The first one is our instructional

168continuity that our school board has set aside. It was at 140 million at the beginning of the year using 94 million of that for the current year. That would allow 45.9 million to roll to the next year. So I'm trying to show how it moves across to the right. and then our beginning unassigned fund balance of 270 million at for the year that we're currently in. Moving across um we are expecting a decrease in revenues and you can see the what brought us there at the all the items below the 986 million are the changes from the prior year that get us to that 986 million. So we do see expect increased property tax collections based on values increasing. And then we have state foundation fun formula that we looked at just a moment ago

169looking at the decreases there. Uh the investment interest we expect decreases in that based on rates going down the charge revenue. We've talked about that before reducing and we do expect the increased after school that's the learning tree that we talked the we saw the FTEES before the unit changes that's the offsetting revenue for that similarly at the bottom you can see that we are reducing staffing um cost and overtime cost by 36.9 million from the prior year and contracts and other services of 11.5 million that get us to the 1.4 million. So, we're currently projecting the next year budget, fiscal year 26 general fund only budget to have a deficit of $60 million. So, where would that $60 million come from? 45.9 would come out of instructional continuity that design a committed fund balance

170that the board has set aside. The remaining would come from unassigned fund balance, which we don't like. We don't want to do that. But at least that dollar amount's coming down. And I would say that 14.6 six million a use of unassigned fund balance. Some of that will be made up in the legislative session. The $7 million that we saw a few minutes ago on those ABC money that could possibly help with that piece because we'd be able to supplant money to reduce that. Now on a flow through we're not going to go completely to the next line but what we've identified so far of changes to the 26 27 year it is important that we're looking at a bienium because the funding is for a bianium. So, we're going to look at two years

171at a time. But what I want to point out to you is that instructional continuity is zero. We don't have any of that left going into 26 27 if we don't cut into that $60 million reduction and we're working on it. We're doing the zerobased budgeting. We are still working on that. Any questions on this before I show it in a graph form? Bobby, I had a question. Yeah, I'm sorry, Jesse. Um, just real quick. So, we're hoping that um we can generate some revenue through open enrollment. Yeah. Yeah. I think that I think there and I think that this is I don't want to say worst case scenario, but we're taking a very conservative approach with these these estimates. As Megan already articulated, we've got to really see the bill language and then unpack

172the committee substitute House Bill Two, assuming that it's going to pass. I mean, that's the thing that we're still awaiting. Unless the governor signs it, passes the house, and the governor signs it, it it's just it's just language on paper. Um so, so assuming it passes, we're going to again work to see where we can supplant. I think that we'll we'll be close to a balanced budget with uh the use of the uh continuity of instruction if the board so chooses um uh to approve that that uh budget. But that what that means is is that we're just prolonging a deeper dive at looking at reductions unfortunately. Um and again this is this is the impact of no increase to the basic aotment and again I'm I I can say applaud the efforts of the

173teacher compensation piece. I don't really applaud the effort of the $500 million to uh employees outside of that that classification of employees. But beyond that, this legislation has really not provided the flexibility nor the funding that districts desperately need, particularly that are already operating in a deficit budget uh situation. Um, and it's not going to obviously for the two years as Megan indicated with the bienium. There'll be a small increase going into the fiscal year 27 budgeting process, but we're going to have to continue to work pretty hard um at looking at savings. The other piece that I just again I think we need to keep front and center on the radar is there's no assumption built into this model and it's going to be really difficult to build in this assumption as what is

174the impact of an education savings account. which will be rolled out um for like I say the 20 um 627 school year. So yes, open enrollment can help but then there's this ESA also that um to be determined. Well, and the only other thing that this made me think of is um how many um emails I've gotten, you know, just lamenting about the waiting list for our um Learning Tree program because it's such it's so needed. Is the waiting list because there are not enough Learning Tree employees? I'm You don't have to answer it now. We can find out more later on, but or is it because there's one gym being used or whatever, but it seems to be a very po not seems it is a very popular option for parents to have learning

175tree after school, but so many of our schools have waiting lists and yeah, it's we we monitor the vacancies uh on a weekly basis. Um it's fluctuated between 40 and 50 vacancies uh throughout the course of the year. Um is and what what is their hourly? Are they making 15 an hour or 12 1250 1250 1250 an hour. Um and keep in mind too they're not full-time employees. Right. Right. Lot lot of college students but seasonal. Okay. Thanks. And I you know again that that's a program Again, just speaking out loud, many school districts contract those services out. Right. We used to have that. We had a mixed model. We we did that contract out some schools and you know, I'm not making the recommendation. I just No. Yeah. Mr. Huh? We had three different

176ones at one time, right? You probably remember better than I do, right? Yeah. Three different ones that used to be across North Side and then we changed over time. I believe Miss Freeman has a question. Yeah. Just a just a comment that was made in um finance committee meeting by a trustee concerning the concern was zeroing out the instructional continuity fund and that um so when you do that that leaves us no cushion in the future for any future legislative sessions where we don't get anything. Yeah. And we've been depending upon that fund. Yeah. We're gonna we're going to work hard to not be in that position this fiscal year. We're not done with this fiscal year budget. Um, but like I say, we do owe you you a compensation recommendation plan. We're we're late.

177And part of it is is we're still waiting for committee substitute House Bill 2 or whatever this finally looks like. Um, but again, we have a pretty good idea, or at least I feel like we have a better idea as to where we're going to land. Um so by the next board meeting um we need to we need to bring that to you so that we can start building it out as an assumption seeing that it will be June uh mid June. Um, yeah, I I think that also, um, it's important to note, um, there are districts that are I I can tell you that, um, uh, Dallas is is tracking along pretty closely as well, and they're just they're going to use fund balance. I mean, it just they're just going to use it.

178I wouldn't advise it. I'm not going to recommend doing so, but that's the approach they're taking to balance or come close to balancing navigating over a hundred million dollar deficit budget for next year. So, these scenarios that we have in front of you were everything that had been taken into account since May 16th, 2025. We've added that at the very bottom of the slide. Um, again, um, the board had asked that these slides be added to our website. So, we are adding a section of our website, they'll have these. So, we're being very purposeful to try to put a little more information at the bottom so that someone who's just looking at it will know a little bit more about it since they won't have our spoken words with it. So, uh note that that

179date at the bottom because as we update, we'll have a new date down at the bottom of when the date was. As I said, we had zerobased budgeting meetings today. We had them most of the week last week. We have them going through next week. So, we're still working very hard to identify additional reductions uh that can help with this situation. So, this is a slide looking very much like the initial slide and I wanted to start with that one in the red of what happened if we did not um change our budgeting process and this is showing what we have in place as of May 16th. So you can see that if you go back to that red um slide on your on your devices, you can see that the fiscal year 26 projection

180has narrowed tremendously inside of that unassigned fund balance. That difference now is that 14.6 million that we showed coming from unassigned on the previous table. And then on the right far right, the fiscal year 2627 line is the 65 million that you saw on that previous table also. So the total that we're looking to reduce at this point or somehow account for because if additional revenue would mean we don't have to reduce as much. So the net we need to balance and have a balanced budget not using fund balance would be 79.6 million. So that is the number we're looking for looking towards right now. So it could be a combination of if we could reduce more than 15 million additional for next year that means less that we have to do the next year.

181In total we've got to come up with 79.6 million to have a balanced budget going forward. We've gotten over 50 million. So we're I mean we're I would say we're doing pretty good. I mean we've been working really hard on this for the last three months and it's um I think we're doing okay. We've got a long ways to go, but we're okay. Off the top, can you give us a comparison to like another school district just so we can compare data like worst case you've seen? Oh, I don't have any of that. Do you Dr. Craft? I could call around to my peers. I don't know if we want to also. Well, and there's some districts that are June 30th year end. So, they will be actually proposing a budget here in the next

182few weeks. So, we will definitely have that. We can have that for you soon because the June 30th year ends we'll be proposing. Relatively speaking, we're in really pretty good shape. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We will be pretty good. Yes. Okay. All right. So, this is our presentation. If there aren't any other questions, we will continue to work on on working to balance this budget. Okay. Julie over there. I didn't mention you, Julie. Sorry. And I so I assume uh the finance committee is going to continue to meet on a monthly or so basis as they work through this or we do not have the next finance committee meeting set. We'll need to get that scheduled. Okay. We like I say compensation conversation recommendation will be the next uh big piece along with hopefully like I

183say the engrossment of committee substitute house bill two. Uh we'll be able to really refine uh ADA projections. um start looking at tax rate calculations and um and then just working through the remainder of the zerobased budget and we're going to work on cutting into the utilization of that continu fund balance uh because I hate to use it all in the first year of the bienium. Um it's going to be really difficult though this this first year to bring forward a pure balanced budget. um without using like I say the designated fund balance. Okay. Good. Good. Well, thank you for the update and Trusty D. I will say this. I'm not going to name any school districts, but I will state this that there are a number. It's it's causing some very big challenges with

184school districts and school boards in this particular area. So, it's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. But there are a lot more with challenges than don't have challenges. I'll say it that way. This this I can say this with absolute confidence. This will be the greatest challenge districts will be faced with the next two years. It will not be the implementation of ESAs, the implementation of a new assessment accountability system. This will be the greatest challenge the next two years. It will be the the fiscal nature of managing programs, maintaining programs and the fidelity quality of of the instructional related services and the teacher pay raise um the $25,000 in regards to retainment and recruitment efforts. We'll see. I think it's we'll see. Okay. All right. Another comments, questions in

185this area. All right. That takes us over superintendent area. Yes, sir. So, we have uh several items. Uh if it's okay, I'll just jump down to the future agenda items. Uh again, we'll have another budget uh discussion. Uh we will likely have a couple more appointments um that we'll need to bring forward um in regards to any updated policies. there may be uh some as a result of uh legislative changes that uh we need to revisit uh likely a legislative overview because like I say even though we've been talking a lot about House Bill 2, House Bill 4, House Bill 6, there are other pieces of legislation that are uh moving through the pipeline. Um so that so like I say assuming that uh they have adjourned the 89th legislative session. Uh probably be a

186good opportunity to just very briefly talk about some of the other legislative uh changes as it pertains to public education. Um and that's that's what I have on the working agenda right now for the June 10th uh called meeting. Any questions on the request for the future agenda items? one item that you know again we're working around SLI um the month of June uh Karen Aderman has the ability to provide the uh ISO uh which is evaluating um improving uh student outcomes. Uh it's part of the TASBY SLI summer conference but we can do it inhouse uh which is also kind of a nice uh team of eight training as well. Uh so Karen, like I said, we can schedule that for our new trustees that are looking at workshops with SLI. Uh we'll we'll

187provide an overview of the new or yeah, the new trustee requirements. I think um gosh, I'm trying to remember. I know that like open meetings act training and several others are required. So we'll have that to you momentarily. But as you're looking at SLI scheduling, just know we can take care of the ISO and have in the years past. And to my knowledge, that's still going to be a required uh training every two years if I'm not mistaken. Um so ours would do. Yeah. And I add on the SLI portion. Hopefully everybody's able to attend because that also in this our new board members whatever they officially call exper what they officially call on been around experience board whatever they call it the other board members I'll say that for now the getting that legislative

188update the is it two or three hours two or three hour I think it's a three hour three hour one yeah I think that' be opportunity to get that one too if I remember correctly there and that's remember that one's hard to catch so so yeah there's a couple that are going to be hard to catch that we can catch early on during the summer and the service center is working to try to bundle a lot of these trainings as well. So that will be also an avenue region region 20. Sorry, I said did I say 12? Oh, it's new. You'll go to the new trustee training and then the rest will figure out because they're in different places. Yeah, we'll have a we'll have our spreadsheet for you. Trusty Freeman. Yeah, just a comment

189too. So when and I don't know how you all I know you talked to Monica about registering for SLI. So the ISO training that you may have registered for was nobody registered for it. Oh okay. Okay. So that's but the but the post ledge um training there is also an extra fee for that and that's on Saturday morning I believe. So you would need to would be a good opportunity to go get those credits. As new board members, you don't need it. But with all the stuff that happened this legislative session, I think it would certainly I was say hopefully there is a post ledge. We're not okay. We're not all right. Oops. But there is an extra fee for that. So then you you do have to get with Monica to register extra for

190that. Breakfast. Okay. All right. Any other Okay. So the other item we had was the reorganization of board of trustees. Uh we also had that listed as for discussion executive session if the board so chooses. Uh it is an exception that is allowed and that sort of gives us opportunity to discuss what the roles are and some other information. So if the board's okay, we can go in executive session on that part. Right. Okay. We also have some appointments and review of school safety uh audits if that's okay as well. And then the next one, the board of trustee committee assignments. That actually really sort of wait and see how the officer positions play out because I think that helps make some people's decisions along that line. We do have a sheet in here, but

191let's let's we'll wait on that one either this evening or we can do that another time period for everybody to fill out that part of it. Okay. So, what we would do um so board of trustees, what time is it? Beginning at Thank you. 9:10, we'll convene a closed meeting in accordance with the Texas government code section 55107 1 2 3 4 6 and 82 8489 as listed. Discussion take place on items that were uh uh listed in the agenda. Okay. So, we're going for board members. What we'll do is go into close session. We got the appointments talk about the officer stuff, but the dialogue about the actual officer and voting and everything else. We'll come back out in public and do that portion of it as well as looking at committee assignments. Okay.

192All right. So, the board of trustees beginning at 10:02 will convene back in open meeting. Uh action can take place on the items listed. Um are there any motions to come before the board on the appointments? Mr. blunt. Oh, on appointments. The appointments. Okay. Well, I I can do that, too. Um I um I move to approve the appointments as discussed in executive session. Okay. Motion. Is there a second? All right. Moved in a second. Is there any further discussion? Moved a second that we approve the appointments at discuss discussion close. All those in favor signify by stating I. I. Those opposed state nay. All right, motion carries. Okay, so the next item we have, so we got two more items um that we're bringing in is reorganization of the board of trustees, uh the

193officer positions. And once again, the positions that we would have would be president, uh vice president, and uh in the position of secretary, and this would be for a one-year time period. And um the process that we we use is we would take uh first if there's anybody wants to uh discuss or identify that they're interested in and would like to have one of these positions uh this would be the time to do so. In addition, the process we' use is we would take um the nominations and we take all the nominations for those particular positions and then we would take a vote as a board and we would need a majority of four. So it continues or hope until we get four uh that position would not be filled. We would do president first

194then we'll do vice president and then we'll do secretary. Okay. So any nominate for or nominate Carlo for president. Okay. I don't know if she'll accept the nomination or not. No you no there's no Yeah. Accept the nomination, right? Yeah. She would have to accept the nomination. I don't know if she wants to do it. Okay. So, let's have a um Were there any We have the nomination there. Before we take any further nominations, were there any discussions or any comments, questions? Anybody want to uh Trusty Freeman? Yeah, I would I would say it is helpful for the board president to have um gone through some board officer training with TASBY before before they become president. Okay. Or any or actually any office, but especially president. Okay. Any other comments, questions just in general about

195the process or those being nominated? And okay, go ahead. I also think that we have to look at someone who has attended um many of our events outside this particular board meeting. Um certainly one of the jobs as president is to you you um chair the the board meeting but also to be present within our community. And so it helps to attend several um several events in the in the school district. And I think we have to look at somebody who's who's done that has been visible within our community. And okay I don't know if we talk about people in particular but what's that in terms of well I mean this is open session so you can before we take the president if there's any nominations you can always talk do we take we take

196further nomination oh you can talk no before we do that let's just finish the discussion that we're going to have on the president position I'm sorry say that again I said if you want to talk about before we do any further the nominations we did get the one in I just like to have just a general discussion first and then we'll just go ahead and start taking all the nominations. Oh, okay. Yeah, that would have to go back for that. Thank you. I'll wait for I'll wait until we nominate because we're not going to vote right now. We're taking all the nominations. We'll take all the nominations first. This is just anybody had any general comments first. All right. Okay. All right. So, we're ready to go ahead and start taking the nominations. We have

197the one for uh Trusty Duron. Are there any other nominations for president? Mr. Blunt. Yeah. I nominate um Dr. Harl. Okay. Okay. Any further nominations? Okay. So, we have the two nominations. I wasn't sure if any either one of y'all had sort of a little bit different. If y'all if you want to speak to why you'd want to be president, that may be helpful for everybody. And then we can vote after that. Um well I haven't been an office of training for North side as mentioned I have been on several boards and have served as chairwoman at the state level familiar with Robert's rules of order um so that's necessary it's not a requirement so thank you for that comment other than that um I think that I appreciate your nomination question, David. I think

198that it's humbling and I'm looking forward to serving if I were to be selected. Um, when people can't attend things during the day, it's not because they don't want to. Sometimes it's because we we actually work for a living. And so, sometimes that requires us to redefine our career choices and align them with the responsibilities that we have. And that's something that I've done so that I can be more present in this role. So, and thank you for your consideration and concern and your words are duly noted. I appreciate that. Good. Um, thank you for the nomination. Um, I I guess um I was going back to some words that Dr. Craft shared earlier. I think we're faced with um this is going to be a tough year ahead, at least one year. And um

199I'm hoping that part of that because we have new members and then we have existing members can be an opportunity to um build this this team of of eight um by reflecting all of our gifts that we bring to the table. So um and and the fact that um I think you have two people who are willing to do it. So that doesn't always happen. So I think that's a good thing and and it would be an honor to serve as in any capacity. So thanks. Okay. Good. All right. So what we'll do next is and then um we'll take them in order. Uh so we'll do Dr. Durant first and then Dr. Mr. Blunt. Yeah. Go ahead. So can we can we also discuss attributes before we vote? Yeah. We can always specific make

200any comments before we Yeah. Before the vote. Yeah. Um, so I appreciate u Carl I appreciate your your comment and I understand that that you work and can't attend some events during the day. We do have a lot of evening events and I will tell you Carol consistently Dr. Harl consistently um attends those the I just go back just the just the last couple days the retiree piece um Carol help me. I just can't. I mean, we've had so many events in the evenings and I see Carol there. Uh, Dr. Don, I I don't see you often in the in the evening events. And so, I think it's think it's important for our president to be um to be able to be at at many at many events. And I I've seen the experience in

201the past. I also have seen Carol this bringing a bringing a team together. While I know that you have leadership experience on other boards, Carol has been on this board um for longer period of time and I've seen her build um build relationships um amongst board members and and build a team. So that's why I would u that's why I've nominated um Dr. Harl. Okay. Any other comments? I would like to respond. Yeah, go ahead. So I think that those are great comments, but Carl also had to have started at some point without not having any experience and I think we all deserve the opportunity to be able to exercise our leadership. So Carol didn't come to the north side board having been a board president or an officer anywhere I'm assuming because you've been

202here so long Dr. Hall due respect right now and I believe you've also already served as a officer on this board. So those of course cannot be discounted and rightfully so and so at some point we all deserve a chance. Sure. I just she she shows up some go back and forth I think she'd like to Yeah. All right. Okay. All right. Any other? Okay. So, what we'll do is what's what's we'll take parameter wise the reason do is we'll take Dr. Durant first because it's an order of the nomination. If we have the majority of four then then that stops it at that point. Okay. So, all we're doing is looking for majority. We don't get a majority. We get three. We just keep going till we get a majority. Okay. So, we have

203to get a four uh tonight out of these positions. Okay. So, let's go ahead. So, um let me know all those uh that are in favor of Dr. Duran, please raise your hand. Let me see. We have four. Two, three, four. Okay, good. But it's just going to be Yeah. All you're gonna do is just count. We just say we have the majority of four because you don't do a there's not a comparison. There's not a split. I don't need to take No. Long as we show we had the four. That's correct. Yeah. Because there's no motion or anything else. Okay. Good. So, congratulations Dr. Good. You know we you know we help you know we help each other out. You got it. Ain't no big shoes. You're good. One thing about always said north

204side we we all support each other and it's all equal. So we're good. Okay. So let's go ahead and do u take yeah vice president next. Yeah. So let's take are there any nominations for the vice president row? Mr. Bunt. Yeah. I nominate Dr. Harl. Dr. Are there any other Yes. I'd like to nominate Dr. Sonia Hassel. Okay. Are there any other nominations? Okay. Well, let's go ahead. Let's hear from if it's okay. Let's take them in order again. Dr. Given. So, it's Dr. Dr. H the hustle neck Dr. Hustle next if if you want to make any comments. Well, I'll just say that as vice president that you'd be the backup person for the president and and um that would be a um an honor to serve um one way or the other. So,

205um trying to think anything else that the DP does um to support the president. I guess if the president couldn't make things. So, uh, the officer meetings. Officer meetings. Yeah, the the agenda planning meetings. Agenda planning. We meet. We did. We kind of talked about that. Yeah. Usually the Thursday prior to the Tuesday. Um, and I say it's an hour. Yeah. It's not It's not We just We can do it Zoom. Bobby Zoomed in. Oh, yeah. Zoom. Oh, yeah. That's my That's That's my Yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. The three. Yeah. Okay. And Dr. Hassau. Hi. So, I know I'm new to the board. Um, but I definitely am not new to leadership roles. I have been a board president before. I have been in higher ed for over two decades and are really

206focused on making sure that individuals have the ability to have the opportunity to really be able to serve. Um my schedule even though yes I do have a full-time job. Um I do have the flexibility to be able to be there to be at events and be able to assist the president. Um so excited um if given the opportunity. Thank you. Okay. All right. So, what we'll do is we'll take them in order again. Hold on, Mr. Blunt. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Just a reason for nomination. Yeah. So, I think especially since we have a relatively new board member two of two years or um I I think it's important that we do have somebody experienced as um as a board officer and in the vice president role to support the president. So, I think

207um I think Dr. Harl's experience just like I talked before said before would be critical for the success of the of the president and then building this um building this relatively new team because we do have to work we must work as a team. Okay. Any other comments? All right. So we'll take them in order. Again it's always in order the nominations. So uh those that be in favor and Dr. Harl, raise your hand. And those we have three. So we continue to the next candidate. Uh those in favor of Dr. Hassel, raise your hand. Two, three, four. Okay, good. So that'll be Dr. Hassel has the other four majority. Okay. Yeah. Congratulations. Welcome. All right. So now we'll go to the board secretary. We'll do the same process. Any uh other nominations? Nominate myself.

208Just keep going for one more year since I already finish off Gerald's year. I'm gonna officially nominate myself, I guess. Okay, you let me finish the sentence, but All right, we have a nominee. Clear my throat. I know it. So, Dr. Oh, did y'all hear that? I'm sorry. So, Dr. I just saw C though as as huh doctor oh damn I put G I put G you saw that right and I read it I said it's a D that means doctor sorry David Sceto nominated uh himself so we have the one nomination there any other nominations for secretary yeah I'm gonna nominate Dr. Harl again u I I will say I'm sorry Carol I appreciate if you'd accept the nomination though the um so Mr. I I know that you are deficient in CEC credits.

209There's been plenty of opportunity to get those CEC credits. I believe as an officer um it's a it's a position that that you we all have approved or you've been on a board that's approved the board operating procedures which says that which talks about training credits and you've not you've not done that and there's been plenty of opportunity and you're not going to SLI to to get them any time in the near future. There was an opportunity to do that online before. So, I think I think we need to reward people that have done what they should be doing. And again, it's an off it's an honor to be an officer. Um, so that's why I would nominate Dr. Har. Yeah, Ive I've completed all my hours and they're all I did it before the

210the deadline. I'm sorry. I thought the last board meeting that we talked about Yeah, but it was I had till the 30th. I wouldn't I had two more hours to do. They're complete. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. So, we'll do the same process. We'll um say since I'm say that since David Sido uh was nominated first um all those that would be in favor of David Sido, Trusty Cece being board secretary, raise your hands. One, two, three, four. Okay. So that gives us a majority needed. So David, you trust you, you consider you as a board secretary. Congratulations. Good, good, good. Well, thank you all. So we have our new board officers now. Remember, y'all have to stay a little bit later to sign the the paperwork in the back. Don't put

211yourself up. We're not done yet. Hold on. I was like, I was just I'm sorry. It's a It's a late night. No, the only other thing we had um was uh the board committees because remember we wanted to wait and see the officers. So um just to talk it through a little bit and what we could do is if you could let it's okay to use Monica again. I'm sorry to always ask. Yeah. So typically the board president uh announces the committee assignments. Um well go ahead. Or they just sign up. Everybody signs up first. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll hand it over to Carla. Sorry. Um I'll have them work on the chair but the other Yeah. Those are Yeah. So what what happened at if it's okay um what I'm going to suggest

212if this is okay is um if everybody can identify at least I suggest at least two with the exception of maybe the the board president that's up to you but typically a lot of times the board president because other duties don't necessarily sign up for for the two but sometime helpful but sign up for at least two um and uh you can sign up for more than that and again get that over and then what happened at the the next meeting and like Dr. Craft was stating is we actually bring it before the full board. Okay, the board president lead the board president if we get to the board president early the board president is the one that identify who's going to chair. So that's the one that the board president comes into and it'll

213be good for the board president to have that information prior to the next meeting. That way you have the chair and the committee identified and then you'll see extra positions on there's a five I did have it right remember I was telling you I couldn't remember if it five or six there are five committees to choose from those other positions we just sort of appoint as a board during the board meeting like the NEF rep at the next meeting we'll actually discuss that can they put a little star or something to say they want to chair certain committee that oh that'd be good let us know that they're interested in chairing a committee also okay and then yo and Dr. around and work with um just with Monica prior the next meeting on everything. Okay,

214so that's how it work on the board committee. So okay, y'all are working on that real quickly. Academics um academics usually are talk to usually in the afternoon 4:00 4:30 uh 2 maybe three hours. They're not monthly or six weeks. We'll look at a lot of test score data. We'll look at uh curriculum adoption material STEM what we just did um calendars, academic calendar, professional development calendar. So that's kind of kind of what we do an academic building committee. Uh here recently they haven't been too long, but they're going to pick back up. Building committees can be two to three. My bad. I told him that. Okay, good. Shorter. It just depends on how much. Normally three. normally three probably. Well, I was thinking um because of um if you don't have flexibility of time

215in your chairing committee, do you have to abide by that 9:00 rule? No. Like academics is always in because Yeah. So the way we set the times up is usually who cares? Yeah. No, we can meet we can meet in the evenings, we can meet in the early mornings. No. that building. I'm trying to remember even why I don't I don't even remember why we morning. Well, I think it was because well and it was because of the week. Yeah. And the contractors too. Yeah. Their time frame was better at those times. Uh policy they uh shared policy that's usually going to be has the local legal policy updates. Um if there's a dress code uh if there's open enrollment which we just tackled those will be the items that we policy intergovernmental relations it'll

216start getting lighter on the legislative front I think assuming that we don't technology is probably one of the lighter committees we'll look at one to one technology we'll look at different types of applications and solutions Um I'm just trying to think what's on the horizon. Uh acceptable use policy. Um uh we'll probably be looking at a another this could go policy as well, but um cell phones, personal use devices going in backpacks at the high school level. So that that kind of gives you an idea of technology. And then the TASBY board of directors. Um I know y'all are gonna talk about that. Yeah. The next one. We can we can kind of talk through that. It's I mean it's just what it is. It's it's uh being the north side representative uh to that

217board of directors which is pretty important. And then NE is our education foundation which we typically are in the past we've had two. And then PTA is new uh working with the PTA. Yeah. And I again I would highly suggest if one of your choices be either academic or finance. Those will really give you the foundation. The second one so be it. But I'd at least choose one of those early on. They're very helpful. Okay. Anything else in on board committees. So Carla, we'll have these back to you. Okay. We're already doing it. So Okay. All right. Okay. And then we'll convene before the 10th. Um, okay. So, I I'm just checking make sure we did everything. All right. So, unless there's anything else. So, the board of trustees. I think we covered everything. No,

218we we haven't talked about the TASBY board or Oh, no. We're going to do that next time. Oh, okay. Because that way everybody can sort of see. Okay. Everything sort of flows. Okay. Yes, she has it, right? Yeah. Monica, you got it. You had it on your computer. Everybody did it. Monica, I did give it to you, didn't I? Did I? Yeah. Missing committee. I don't know. sheets from that sand of the room. Yes, if y'all want to do them. I just got those. Let's look at that. He's explaining everything. And then we've got the grad the graduation was in in there as well. Um we'll have regalia. So Karen, I apologize. We'll have you. We'll have it. There's a sports gym in the boardroom, right? We'll have it at the sports gym. Yeah, we'll

219be we'll be good to go. Well, I'm hoping we have yours repaired. They did it at that same Okay. Okay. If you if you can be there about 30 minutes before, 15 20 minutes before tomorrow 6:30 here tomorrow for Nelly Reddics. But that's just that's not that's not regular. We don't change. No, no, no. We'll be in the back. We sit. We watch that one. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. What we've done is the chair of the committee, whoever becomes chairs to those signed up. Yeah. To schedule it when most of the people who have signed up and make it. But anybody would come to a meeting because they called So it's important because I know that thanks a And right now with budgeting and finance is very important. The finance one's going to be vitally

220important and academics important as well. Y uh House Bill 4 just passed the uh Senate. Uh so it's going back over to the House conference committee. So they're they're trying to fulfill their promise of revamping star. Yeah. All right. All right. Oh, and just to say for the record, I point out too, all of our committees are very important, but this just suggested. All right. Yeah. Make sure that's on the record. We'll have some policy updates with the legislative session, but we just go through the last update. So, I think that Okay. So, the board of trustees at 10:30 p.m. end of me end of this meeting. So, thank you all.