NISD Board Meeting 4-22-2025

001All right, good evening everybody. Uh, first let me start out thanking our folks at our communications folks. I like the uh graphics that they're demonstrating at the beginning. It's good to see those. So, I want to say my thanks to them. Before we actually begin the meeting itself, we'll start out with uh the invocation and pledges of allegiance. Uh, Trusty Duron will lead us in those. [Music] Thank you for bowing your heads. 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. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with

002liberty and justice for all. Texas flagg to the Texas. One state one and indivisible. All right. Thank you, Trusty Don. Let me again welcome everyone to our this is a regular meeting of the North Side Board of Trustees. Uh before we call the meeting officially to order, the board will take just a few moments to review some of the rules for conducting our meeting. Uh the order of our business is set out in the agenda and one item that you may notice on agenda is consent agenda and this item includes items that consider routine and or of recurring nature. Now all the items listed on the consent agenda would be act one in one motion. If there's a consent agenda item which anyone here would like to address again we're going to ask you to

003sign up at the uh the front part of our room and we'll pull it from the consent motion and discuss it separately. 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 who wants to address the board regarding like citizens be heard or a specific agenda item, again, we've asked that you sign up at that signup sheet at the front. This is important so we don't overlook anyone that wants to speak to the board. Um, let me just check. Is there anybody here? There's a lot of people here that has not had a chance to sign up that wants to. Okay. When we get to that portion,

004uh we're so we're going to have our citizens if we speak, we'll review the rules for that particular that part of the agenda. All right. So, we're ready to get started out and um we're going to have some exciting recognitions and other things and and um good. I trust you. We're good. You made it also good. Yes, sir. Okay. We'll turn over to our world famous superintendent, Dr. Crab. Hardly world famous. Um well, uh good afternoon, good evening. Glad to uh be here with you all. Uh we've got some very special recognitions, welldeserved students. And so if I could have the ask the board to join us in front of the DAS. Uh we'll go ahead and get started with like I say the most exciting part of the meeting. I think Dr. Crafted trustees,

005as you're taking your place, I'm going to provide some instructions for our honores. Honores, you um are in your seats and you should have found on your seat a certificate of recognition. We're going to ask you when we call you up or when you come up rather that you bring this certificate with you. There is also a pink name card on your seats and we're going to ask that you bring that up. You will be cued when to line up right behind me. you're going to be to my left to give me your name card. And if there is um any indication that I'm I'm going to struggle with your name, I may ask you to to tell me that in my ear so that I can get it as close to right as I

006can. You're going to cross through the front. You'll greet our trustees and then we're going to allow for some pictures. We are going to do group pictures so that we can move some of this along a little more quickly this evening. If you are being honored for ACT deck, mock trial or our Burke Elementary Final Four winners, we're going to do group pictures with those groups of students. We do have some that are going to be more uh more suited for an individual picture. And so our scholastic award recipients as well as our board scholarship recipients, we're going to guide you on some individual pictures. We're going to have staff for the group pictures. They'll stop you right here so that we can bring your group back up and get that picture for you. If

007you are a family member of an honore and would like to get a picture as they're crossing in front of the das, you're more than welcome to come over to my left and grab the picture as your uh your child moves across the reception line. Okay. So, at this time we're going to begin and we're starting This is my child. Okay. We're starting with the recognition of mock trial teams from Marshall LMS. Each year, students from across Texas participate in the YMCA youth and government program, a hands-on civic experience that empowers teens through realworld learning. It's open to high school students. The judicial section of the program immerses participants in mock trials where they serve as judges, attorneys, witnesses, and baiffs. This year, seven students from Marshall Law and Medical Services Magnet School, not only

008qualified for the Texas State Judicial Conference, but also earned top marks, advancing to the National Judicial Conference in Minnesota this July. This is the first time that LMS has had district court teams place, and they had two. They are now among the top 10 teams out of hundreds statewide. We're extremely proud of these students and their dedicated teachers. And I would like to ask the students to now come forward for board recognition. We'll begin with Brooke Revila. [Applause] Santiago Bautista, [Applause] Maline Garcia [Applause] Victoria Wilkins [Applause] Elelliana Longoria. [Applause] Milo Bon [Applause] and Emily Moore. [Applause] So, at this time, I'm going to ask those students who were honored from Marshall LMS for the mock trial team. We'd like you to come back up so we can get a group photo. And that includes your

009sponsors and teachers as well. And let's also recognize their two teacher sponsors that have come up with them. Emmanuel Ernnandez and Dr. Alaron. Correct. Students, thank you all very much. Minnesota trustees. Two North Side ISD academic decathlon teams have achieved historic victories at the state level, securing their spots in the upcoming national competition. For the first time in school history, Warren High School clinched first place at the state finals and is now advancing to the national competition. This marks a monumental achievement for San Antonio as is the first time in 31 years that a local team has won the large school division. The team also earned over $19,000 in scholarships. For the fifth consecutive year, the health careers high school academic dathlon team is headed to the national academic decathlon competition. A record-breaking achievement that

010no other school large or small has accomplished. In add in addition, one student from Okconor High School is the overall individual winner in the large school category. Plus, Health Careers High School teacher Diana Johnston was named the small school state coach of the year. At this time, we'll recognize our students as they come forward. We'll begin from Okconor High School, Jason Chapman. Jason is our singular winner from OKConor. So, we're getting his individual picture. We'll now move on to Health Careers High School. Yuvon Buchiagari. [Applause] Vicc Gelfman. [Applause] Miriam Adaparusi. [Applause] Jack [Applause] Canelli, Paige [Applause] Dulan, Suani Punt, Alexander Almaras, [Applause] Cararissa [Applause] Calica, and Christian Bosnik. [Applause] If we can have our health careers group come up for a group photo. I'm gonna go. The group is joined by their teacher sponsors, Anthony

011Bosnik and Dr. Diana Johnston. And can we acknowledge them? Thank y'all. All right. So, we now move on to Warren High School and we begin begin with Trent RC. [Applause] Alexandria Caldwell [Applause] Connor Nolton, [Applause] Jean Longoria, [Applause] Fiona Martinez, [Applause] Abdel [Applause] Ortega, Michael [Applause] Padia, Owen Rodriguez, [Applause] Elias [Applause] Rodriguez. If we can have our Warren group come back for a group photo. and their coaches that are joining them are Angel Santa Cruz and Joseph Bayona. Sorry. I don't know if that was great. Let me try it again. Thank you. Warren [Applause] students and y'all may return this to my right. Oh wow. The next group is a large group. So we're not going to do a group photo at the end. We we wouldn't have space in front of the DAS. So

012parents, as they're going through the receiving line, if you'd like to come up and grab that photo of them, you certainly can. This is a group of very talented and creative students. NISD art students took home gold and silver keys at the 2025 Scholastic Art Awards for the Greater San Antonio region. Among these accolades are are three works garnering gold key awards. These particular pieces will now advance to the national competition in New York. In addition, six artists receive silver keys which are awarded for superior artworks and are celebrated regionally. We ask that these superior artists please come forward to be recognized. We begin from Brandeise High School, Reagan Craft. [Applause] Selena Maine. [Applause] So, we're going to go ahead and bring this this group back. I I thought it was a larger group. Let's

013get a group photo. We also have the teachers as well. the teachers. Let's recognize Brandeise High School art teacher, Ima Luis Okconor, high school art teacher, Ashley Hennis, and Marco Gora Stomayor, high school art teacher. trustees. As you know, the third grade students at Burke Elementary School are the NCAA Read to the Final Four champions. As part of the NCA NCAA men's final four, schools, teachers, and students were asked to participate in a tournament style literacy challenge. By doing so, students not only hopefully gained a love for learning, but also had a shot at scoring fun prizes, free books, and a library makeover as they competed for the title of reading champion. Burke students and families took on this challenge like the true champs that they are. The campus hosted three themed Saturday events during

014which families gathered in the library and students read with their siblings before school, after school, and even during lunch. The reading never stopped. When all the minutes were counted and the final four at and the final one, excuse me, at the final four was announced, Burke Elementary had logged an astounding 1,827,419 minutes, which by the way equals nearly three and a half years worth of reading, securing a landslide win for their school, and a $5,000 prize for library renovations and improvements. With us today are staff members and students from Burke Elementary representing all the third grade teachers and students who participated. And so I'll have them stand up and then we'll have your names called. They are students Max Bravo, Michael Martinez, and Josiah Martinez. [Applause] With them is principal Dr. Marisa Pena, associate principal

015Sarah Mireles, and librarian Ilsa de los Santos. [Applause] We're gonna get a photo. Yes. Let's stay right there so we can get a photo of this amazing group. Thank y'all very much and congratulations in in a spirited show of support for these third graders. ers members of the NISTD board of trustees joined forces with fellow Bear County trustees in a friendly reading competition, creating a bracket challenge to read to as many students at as many campuses as possible. The literary challenge was a brainchild of our very own board president Bobby Blunt. Six NISTD trustees participated among the 32 from San Antonio and surrounding areas who stepped up to take part in the challenge. Our very own trustee Karen Freeman emerged as the champion, earning the top title for the most minutes read. The competition measured

016total minutes spent reading to classes of any size. And while the reading will continue beyond the challenge, Mrs. Freeman has made an extraordinary impact visiting 18 campuses and logging over four, excuse me, 4,000 minutes of reading time. Her dedication to literacy and student engagement is a true inspiration. Congratulations, Trusty Freeman, on this well-earned recognition. [Applause] in the middle. The NISD board of trustees established the North Side Trustee Future Teacher Scholarship last year. At this time, I would like to invite board president, Mr. Blunt, to make the next presentation. Ready? All right. on behalf of our our board of trustees for those that may not be aware um when our board had won the outstanding from HB excellence outstanding district and we're giving u some money associated with that what we decide to do with that

017funding is to establish a scholarship for teachers and given the criticality that we all know that we have and our need for teachers this scholarship is for those seniors that are going forth they're going to be pursuing a career in teaching and the second part of that and we'll be coming back to North Side ISD. I added that part to it. So, on behalf of our board of trustees, we're very honored. We had three recipients of our scholarships this year. If they want to come on up. First, we have Oh, I got that part. Tagen Williams from Brandeise High School. Briana Hunt from Clark High School. [Applause] And Ryan Amanza from Martial Law and Medical Services. And if y'all want to come back over, we'll take a picture. And Barry, I'm going to turn this

018podium back to you. This is not my job, but thank you. Can we give all of our honores another round of applause for their accomplishments? We've recognized the teachers and coaches that were here, but if we missed any teachers or coaches for the groups that we didn't get to call and honor, if you would stand up. I think we got them all, but hopefully not. Do we have any others? We have I see some right there on the side. Let's give them a round of applause. And and finally honores would you join together in recognizing those individuals who have most supported you likely and that is your family your friends that are here to support you on this side. Let's recognize all the family members who are here with those honores trustees that concludes our

019recognitions for this evening. If you can just give us a minute. Let me see if any board members uh will have any comments before we go ahead and our folks that are being recognized will be leaving. But any comments for any board members? Uh oh. Okay. Let there be light. There goes the mic. That may be our cue to even make an announcement. Okay. Good job. Congratulations to all of our students. Dr. Harl, I think we're back. All right. All right. We're not back. Yeah. This Okay. Yeah. We'll go ahead and again, thank you all. Congratulations to all the world. We're going to get y'all out of here safely. So take your time getting out and thank you all again and congratulations to everybody were able to check out recess. Yeah. And and board members

020of we're going to take a short recess uh while we check on the power. We'll take a short recess and then come back. All right. We'll go ahead and um we're going to go back in call the the board back and go back uh go ahead and continue our meeting. But first, we'll make sure our superintendent is going to explain everybody what's going on and how we're going to weigh how we continue on the agenda. So, I'll turn that over to Dr. Craft. Yeah, absolutely. And first and foremost, our apologies. Uh, so we may have some intermittent power uh as already experienced. I will say this that um Ernesto and Steve, our very own maintenance electrical gurus, are out working on uh switching a breaker out right now as we speak. So, hopefully it will

021be shortlived, but um we'll continue on. Uh we have the ability to continue to record for about 30 minutes with a battery backup. Uh if uh you'll just be patient with us for the lights. Um we may have to recess depending on the agenda item. Like I say, hopefully we'll have a a solution here here very soon. But we've been struggling as a result of the remnants of the storm we believe this weekend with power here at the activity center. So again, we apologize uh for the for the inconvenience. Okay. All right. So, next we have our reports and we'll start out with our superintendent report. Absolutely. On that cheery note, um I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend. Um it was a a great weekend, I know, to spend with family and friends

022and recharge batteries as we prepare to sprint to the finish line. Um uh we had a great day of planning yesterday. Uh again, it was a student holiday, but uh we were able to utilize that that day for a staff to prepare, like I say, for these last uh several weeks. And so, um, during that time, uh, the education foundation, our very own Nef, had a really successful golf tournament. I know, uh, Dr. Don and Dr. Harl, I think you were able to both, uh, make that event. Um, it was sold out, um, once again. So, um, like I say, I know they generated uh, some funds for a great cause in the form of innovative classroom grants. Uh, we had the opportunity to celebrate with our child nutrition department. they had their annual awards

023uh banquet. Um it's always a pleasure really to not only say thank you but really to uh recognize their their tremendous work. Um Thomas Weary, it's amazing. Uh Miss Freeman and Miss Sana and myself, we were just talking about just how phenomenal it is that it all comes together. Um it it truly is just a incredible incredible uh um organization. Um we had the opportunity to meet with our special education instructional aids uh via Zoom yesterday as well. Tracy Worley uh our executive director for student services organized a great meeting and um we were able to really just touch base um but also then provide some information uh that we felt like was pertinent at this time. partly uh working through the budget process which I'll uh visit uh and speak more to here momentarily.

024Uh the month of April, we're still celebrating uh and recognizing this is at the the month of the military child. And so again, thank you to all of our military families, transitioning families, and really thank you to our campuses, campus counselors. Uh we had the most purple star designations uh once again this year. Um and that's a testament like I say to their hard work and ensuring that the resources are being provided to families that are are transitioning and uh are military affiliated. Um had the opportunity to speak to the Metro Chamber on Friday uh the 11th. Uh they were really interested in um how we go about uh training for the future business development aspect. Um and I think that it's safe to say that um it was a really really good dialogue. you

025know, we have amazing amazing partners here uh all throughout Bear County. Um, and sometimes it's just a matter of uh that communicate those communication lines really being open, but also channeling uh whether it be through mentorships or uh job shadowing opportunities. And so, again, I want to just thank the the Metro Chamber for having that uh opportunity. And speaking of uh we did have, like I say, the opportunity also uh to recognize some of our phenomenal partners here in North Side uh on the event last Wednesday on the the 11th. Um so again, congratulations to our partners. Um thank you again uh to the trustees for uh your support in that effort. And speaking of partners, um we had our annual uh NISD retiree lunchon. Uh this was uh also on the the 15th. Again,

026thanks to Ellen Sutton, uh, who is the president of the retiree association. Um, they've got just a a phenomenal, uh, support group. Um, it was great lunchon and, um, I think it was, uh, safe to say that not only were there some good laughs, but I think some some great information provided particularly to our retirees uh, with happenings going on, uh, across the across the district. Um, Wednesday, just a few quick announcements. Tomorrow uh is administrative professionals day. So I'm going to take the liberty if it's okay to thank Monica Guerrera. Uh she is our administrative our as in plural our administrative assistant. So Monica, thank you so much for not only keeping me in line but also uh help taking care of the the board of trustees. Um, looking forward to solar car races

027on Saturday as well as the esports uh regional qualifier event. So, right here at Knack, hopefully we'll have power fully restored by then, but um we'll be uh out on the track um racing solar cars and then uh we'll be in uh the activity center here uh with esports. So, it should be an exciting day and to be followed up with uh together we seeing at the north side sports gym at at three o'clock that afternoon. So, uh, looking forward to a really eventful, uh, weekend. Also, we have four softball teams that will be competing, uh, in the by district, uh, playoffs, Brennan, Harland, Okconor, and Taft. U, so, congratulations to our softball teams. Uh, their great seasons. Um, and then finally, you know, last week, um, I think it's probably safe to say, um,

028it was a it was a short week being a 4-day week, but it was a long week. Um, Wednesday was uh a pretty eventful day in Austin. Um, the legislative uh session uh kicked off. We had a a press conference the in the House chamber uh followed by uh the uh full house uh committee taken up the um school finance vehicle being House Bill Two uh followed by Senate Bill Two. Um, so House Bill 2, I know that we'll jump into it in a little bit more depth uh here momentarily uh with a finance update. Um, it is um it's not a it's not a bill that we're overly elated, but at the same time, I can safely say it's better than where we were before we started the week on Monday. Um, it's an

029investment of about $7.7 billion. Um it falls short of the $1,300 that we had requested originally being applied to the basic aotment, but it does help uh in shoring up our deficit budget. The Senate bill 2 being the education savings account uh vehicle andor voucher uh was also pretty pretty highly debated on the floor. In fact, um it was not voted on until a little after 2:00 uh in the morning, which uh I guess technically would be Thursday uh morning, and it also passed. So, as a result, it is already u being forwarded to the the governor's desk. House Bill Two, of course, has to go to the Senate. Um but I do believe that for the most part, it will stay intact um as it was debated on the House floor. Um, I think

030it's important to note that, you know, again, h how that pertains and relates to how we're going about our budgeting process. Um, and and just as a reminder, our two objectives remain uh to uh protect jobs. We want all staff, all teachers, all employees to have jobs. Um, and now again, the capacity may look a little bit different. um especially if we're splitting jobs up uh in between sharing between two campuses. Um but then also uh protecting the integrity of our our our programs that includes our academic programs as well as our extracurricular programs. And again, thank you for those that uh trustees that were able to be at the academic committee meeting on Friday. Uh we tried to explain that we're not cutting full programs across North Side ISD. However, uh campus principles as

031they're working through their allocations, they're having to look at numbers and numbers of students that have made course requests and determine the allocations uh that they will need to to meet those student needs. And so there are some tough decisions uh inevitably that are having to be made. the the reason that while House Bill two is going to provide some additional funding, it's not going to close our $100 million deficit. Uh with the expiration of ESSER funds, we're just not going to be able to get there. And so we're we're going to have to stay on our trajectory of again looking at efficiencies um when working with campuses because again we want to protect all the jobs but we also want to protect the programs and the integrity of our programs uh that we become

032accustomed to uh here in North Side ISD. So uh there will be more to come. Um and again this is also a process uh as campuses are looking at numbers um they're working through allocations of course they're looking at at certifications they're working with HR on a daily basis this is a very fluid um um uh planning phase right now and of course we're trying to really work to communicate um because there's a lot of rumor mill uh going going around there are a lot of things that we're we're cutting this program where we're cutting that program and that's what we're absolutely trying hard not uh to do and but at the same time we are having to look at efficiencies and we may have to look at doing things a little bit differently. Uh

033there may have to be an afterchool choir club an afterchool uh activity that might have been embedded and we had the ability to embed within the regular calendar day um that like I say we're going to try to make the accommodation so that all students uh receive the services that they're requesting and particularly the classes that they're they're requesting. Um, so again, more to come uh in that uh regard when we uh discuss our our financial situation as it pertains to House Bill 2, but I just wanted to reiterate that because I know that there's it's garnered a lot of interest and rightfully so. Um, but we are protecting jobs and we're trying to protect programs. Um, and those will be our and remain our two objectives as we work through uh the budget planning

034for the next school year. Um there will be a lot of other bills that will probably be taken up this week and into the next uh couple of weeks, but really House Bill Two and Senate Bill Two uh they're the bookends. Those were the two biggies uh aside from both the House and the Senate approving uh their budgets, which is their legislative obligation. Those were those were really the two big ones. Um and so there'll be, like I say, more to come. I I know that there are some curriculum bills right now that are being discussed. Uh there's some bond and indebtedness bills that are being discussed. Um and we'll be tracking obviously very very closely. Um but these like I say were the the two lynch pin uh bills for the most part. Um

035with that I know that was a lot. Um uh we do have a video moment. Uh if we may I know that like I say we've had a lot of celebrations but as we prepare uh to celebrate Fiesta um Vale uh for some time uh has uh uh been doing something really really neat. Um they um uh are getting in the spirit by holding their own battle of flowers type parades and celebrations. But Veil uh is doing a festive festival festale not festival festival v a l e uh which is a student organized and led event um that which the the stingrays uh are raising r a r a ys i n ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra

036ra ra ra raising okay I'm trying I'm trying here um awareness about the importance of uh inclusion. So, uh, if I can draw your attention to the monitors, um, uh, we'll check out what Veil has in store. As Fiesta San Antonio sweeps through our city once again, it's become sort of a tradition for schools around the district to celebrate with a special parade. It's no different at Veil Middle School, where the kids there were busy making lastminute preps for their own special show. Outside, the crowds lined up early, eager to get a good view and ready to cheer them on. All right, who's ready for a parade, but this, as you'll soon find out, is no ordinary fiesta parade. Today, we're having our third annual raising awareness parade, which was started by our Spanish Honor

037Society Club. School principal Brenda Rayberg explains. We're raising awareness that we're an inclusive school and we're honoring our students that have some unique and special challenges. And we're also raising awareness for our clubs and organizations that are just awesome here at Bale. [Applause] A parade that gets better with time. Each year it's like they add something new and it's all student created. From the concept of the parade to even the floats, all student created. And for this year's parade, the students decided to show the grown-ups some love. Today, the students even came up with announcing a Mr. and Miss Stingray, which is for the faculty. Yeah. For the students, it's more than just a show. It's a chance for self-expression. Every float you see here tells a story. We chose sports because it's a sense

038of community. Honestly, I love working together with the team. Um, winning and losing and getting better. because we love gardening and stuff. It's like it's so important to nature, you know. Principal Rayberg says the parade has done wonders for the school. I feel it's brought the student population since we've done it together and the students have come up with more and more ideas. It's a parade to celebrate the beauty of Fiesta San Antonio and the students who make Veil Middle School so great. Mr. President, members of the board, uh, I think that completes my report, unless you have any questions. Good. Thank you, Dr. Craft. Any questions about Dr. Craft's report? All right. If not, that takes us over to the board members report. Trusty Duran. I just want to thank everyone that's reached out

039and has been advocating for themselves. Um, as Dr. Craft mentioned your voices have been heard and um at the campus level all of those decisions are being made but um continue to stay um you know updated and check in with your leaders on your campuses. So thank you for your patience. I want to give a shout out to the North Side Educational Foundation. Uh I was part of the North Side Grant Patrol. That was the last one for this year. It's a lot of fun to be able to surprise teachers with their grants and so those will be available again in the fall. So, um, please apply and take advantage of those, um, opportunities through the foundation. We also had our golf tournament on, um, and they want to thank the Dominion for hosting us.

040Um, saw a lot of our coaches and I still need to find out who won. Um, I don't know. I don't know, but Nicole and that group did really good. Good job to everyone out there. Nicole, it was a beautiful day. So, I think um, everyone had a great time. April is National Stress Awareness Month. So I just want to remind uh everyone to please take care of yourself. And today is Earth Day. So uh I task all of you to save energy however that may be. I think we are doing Yeah, we did. Yeah. Good job. Example, turn the lights off behind you. Um we're modeling that tonight. So thank you all for being here. Thank you, Trusty D. Yeah, Trusty Harl. Thanks. I was just going to do a real quick shout out

041on the golf tournament. It was nice to see over 40 teams. That's the most we've ever had. Phenomenal partners, um, our own staff. Um, and Dominic, one of our ambassadors, was the cleanup crew at the end. So, he was running and racing. And so, it was really good to have students. It was also a really neat treat to have uh, two Brandeise golfer golfer girls, lady golfers that were phenomenal. like they outscored many of the you know the the tough kind of um I don't know ones who had had thought they had great scores and they were pleasantly surprised that our lady golfers are that phenomenal and one is going is a senior this year and going off Karen you probably know better than I because your your daughter's involved but um just they were

042they were awesome so it couldn't have been better um I do want to um recognize um we had three HB um excellence in education award finalists which is really awesome and I think is Margaret Bray still here she there you are she's our principal nominee in the whole state of Texas there's only five and so I wanted to catch you um and I get to judge those not your not your categories but um it is tough to make it to the top five so we also had Um um Cassandra Smith, a first grade teacher who's a rising star. So there's different categories. So that's like a beginning teacher. That's really phenomenal. She's at Boone. And then um Brandy Gonzalez Key, who is an art teacher at Clark High School. And the neat thing about her

043is having judged it so many years, there's a lot of talk with the judges like, "Oh, art's not that challenging. We need to have this kind of a teacher." So, I told her that art teachers rarely make it to the top and so she but she is phenomenal. She and her co-orker uh Luis Valdes uh are part of a um artisan residence program with UTSA. It's new this year at Clark High School and I went by to go visit. They're working on a helix harmony DNA mural legacy project. So, it's kind of where science meets art. It's really cool. if anyone's in the Clark area, they want to show it off in their their part of the the school. Um, but they're also working with a resident with a UTSA. Speaking of partners, um, we

044have higher ed partners that are phenomenal, Mr. Albert Gonzalez. And so we wish all three of them well in one one and a half weeks we find out. So May 4th is when it's announced. So that's that's exciting. So we'll be there and we'll be cheering you on, Margaret. Um, Youth Voice couldn't have been better. Um, and I know um, not everyone's familiar, but we do meet regularly with a group of students from each school and we talk about issues in the district and and just kind of open-ended, thought-provoking um, things that they want to talk about, but we really had a great discussion on is public education a right or a privilege? And some were saying it's an honor. Um, it's a responsibility. it it we could have written a book. The responses were

045just like um um just emotionally um charged which I I appreciate so much. We had a great elementary and secondary um teacher educator of the year. Um, and I know they they were telling us thank you when they come up to shake our hands, but they're phenomenal and they represent um, and not everyone can be on that that stage, but they represented all our schools and their peers actually vote for them. So, it was a great ceremony. Our staff couldn't have done a better job. I'll keep talking. Um, we do have esports again. The esports semi-finals were a few weeks ago and I know we started that program years ago and we thought we were a little bit behind um the eightball on that but we've caught up and this is going to be a

046phenomenal competition Saturday. Um I got to see the new Marvel game that's out which is pretty cool. Before that was the Lego finals. So to go from Legos with middle school to esports with high school was a real thrill. And then we had the state bowling in the afternoon and to go to the bowlers um who actually we honored at the last board meeting because um several of them have scholarships. That's um another way to go to school is on a bowling scholarship. So um you you have so many choices in in North Side. Um prize patrol you mentioned phenomenal to have the kids you think that teachers are getting a million dollars and um to the kids they are. Um, and so we thank everyone who turns those in. Um, uh, oh, Pat Blatman

047gets a little bit of a shout out because they participated in Shavano Park, uh, Birds of Prey poster contests. Um, and judging it was great because there was a lot of thought about Birds of Prey and um, and really I'd really never thought about them. And so I learned there were three judges and we got to award that the next day. but also um at our partners award, the Shavano Park Police and Fire Department were honored as a partner for uh as phenomenal partners of Blackman and just an example of how um our partners are in our schools all the time, but how much the kiddos appreciated it. Um retiree lunchon couldn't have been better. Um I want to shout out to everybody on that. Purple art um purple up. I'm a purple up kiddo.

048I was an Air Force kiddo. So, it was incredible that we're getting more and more schools. Um to recognize that as as an important emphasis for kids of military families. Um and so I got to go be part of a purple team at um Stinson where my kids had gone to middle school. And so um although what I thought on had I had on is purple when I went, there's like 20 million different shades of purple. So mine ended up being more plum, but that's another story. It was just fun to recognize it. Um um solar cars. So um trustees, I have a challenge for you. We built a car the year before CO or maybe a couple years before CO and somehow I think Bobby's dog got to it or something. So I have

049a solar car in a bag. If anyone wants to meet, we can put it together before Saturday. Um if not, it'll look real pretty. It may not go. Um if there's anyone out there who wants to help us um we'll need all the help we can get. But um that is that started out Bobby I don't know how many years ago at Rayburn and I was an academic dean at Rayburn and you were doing rockets and then 911 happened and we couldn't do rockets so we did solar cars and it has now grown into thousands. Y so it started out with one little middle school. So thank you for that. Um, I think we did it on tennis court tennis courts because we didn't have tennis. We didn't have enough kids to make a tennis

050team. So, we did solar cars. And there you go. Um, appreciate you, Bobby. Um, I think that's it. Oh, oh, one other thing I do. Um, so Clark High School has a modeled uh, United Nations program. Some of our other high schools did too, but they actually made it to the finals and went to New York and won the best medium delegation, which if you're a model United Nations groupy like I am, um, that's hard to do. They were a little disappointed because they did all this hard work. It's wonderful. It's really mocks what the model United Nations is like. There's delegate assemblies and they have causes that they they share. And anyway, they got this little award. So I we got to figure out how to get them a better award. So I put

051Barry on this to help me figure it out. But needless to say, they they were awarded the best medium de delegation in recognition of the outstanding effort, teamwork, and excellence demonstrated by each of its members at the Global Citizens Model United Nations in New York 2025. So shout out to them. Um and then I think that's it. I appreciate it. It's been a busy month, but it's been a great month. It's been a great month. Thank you all. Thank you, Trusty Harl. Trusty Salceto. Yeah, I just got something real quick. Uh early voting is underway. It's uh until Tuesday, April 29th, and Saturday, May the 3rd, actual election. I believe North Side Activity Center is one of the sites that you can come. All right. Thank you. Good. Thank you, Justice. Trusty Sadana. Okay. It

052has been a very busy month and uh student voice I I don't know how many of you are here but you all are just outstanding. I I love those meetings when we go because you all are so good to share with us some of your concerns and so I love doing that. the end of the year recognitions. It was so much fun to see the teachers be little kids again running on stage and getting excited about their their recognition. So that was fun. The grant patrol always fun because somebody is getting money. Uh, I went to the golf tournaments if you can imagine that. And you do get to go and watch and see what's going on. And I went to Brack, I went to Almas, I went to the golf club of Texas. And

053our kids just they're so the seniors and and our I should say the the varsity golfers are just so into it and it was so intense. And then I went to the middle school golf. Y'all, we have 500 middle school kids who are in our golf program. And the one that I went to watch, it was the district meet. There were kids everywhere and they're just loving it. You could just see it in their faces and they were so excited to be in the finals. So, that was fun. Uh I did go to the Harlem basketball recognition where they uh honored their basketball team for having gone so far into the season and that was a lot of fun. The final four elementary school celebration. Oh my gosh, when they announced second place, our kids

054went crazy because they knew they had won first. So that was fun to watch them. the fine arts festival. Uh we have Los Leones, but then this is the second half of the district though because we're so large, you know, half of them get to do at Los Leoness and then half at the gym. Just amazing art that our kids do. We're so proud of them. Uh, I did go to something that was something new that I had never gone to, but it was such a good idea that I'm going to tell you so that if any of the elementary schools want to copy it, Kun Elementary had what they called a public school openhouse. the third grade teachers and the administration put this open house together and you would come in, you were greeted

055by cheerleaders and pompoms and balloons and pictures and then as a parent with an incoming child to Coun Elementary, they would take you on a tour and so they took you to all the places that you needed to know before you got there. You got to go to the cafeteria, the gym, the library, uh the garden. They have an amazing garden. They were everywhere. But then we got to ride the school bus. They took you on a tour around the the parking area and where the bus would pick you up and drop you off. So they took us, Karen and I went, they took us on the tour, you know, because we were there to see. So, that was so much fun. And I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is such a good idea." Because

056any of those kids coming in are not going to be afraid because they already know what the bus loop is going to be like. They're going to know where the cafeteria is, where the gym. I thought it was just a great idea. So, congratulations to them and to their third grade teachers for coming up with that because that was really fun. The retiree lunchon. Thank you retirees because that is always so much fun. Child nutrition. Those ladies and gentlemen who prepare food for our kids and who manage that have got some of the best attitudes. They were so excited to celebrate the end of the year. But almost all of them would come back with and we're going to be better next year. We're going to win next year and we're going to this, you

057know. So, they were saying goodbye to this year, but they were already planning for next year because they just have such a great attitude. I just love the way that that they treat our kids and and how much they try to do for them. The partners, that was a really good uh event. And then finally, because I know that next time I'll take too long. So, thank you, thank you, thank you our teachers. The end of the year is coming. You all have gone through a long year. We cannot thank you enough. Administrators, club, and class sponsors, you all do it for the love that you have for these kids. You stay after school or before school. You work on Saturdays sometimes without pay because you love your kids and you want them to have

058experiences. senior class sponsors. I know how hard that is, but you're making sure that our seniors have a prom that they will remember. Our coaches, I mean, what can you say? They spent hours and hours with our kids trying to to be good role models for them. Our fine arts department, gosh, you all just every time I turn around, y'all are doing something that is better than before. And so you all are working so hard to give our kids those opportunities also in the fine arts athletics. It goes without saying IAS, our secretaries, our custodians, our child nutrition, our nurses, our librarians, all of those people are what make our schools keep running. I I am always amazed as I go into an elementary school because they're always so clean and you don't see paper,

059you don't see trash. Our custodians do such a good job of taking care of us. Our secretaries are IAS. It's just so as we're getting ready to close out the year, I just want to thank all of them and and know that we see it, we recognize it, and we appreciate you. Thank you. Well said. Thank you, Chesse. Jessica V. Just a couple of things here. I believe today's National School Bus Driver Day. So, I would like to uh wish uh or happy National School Bus Driver Day to all our bus drivers here in the district, you know, thanking them for all the important work that they do. So again, uh uh you know, we it's nice to recognize them for for the hard work. Uh I was honored to have made the remarks at

060the North Side Partner of the Year Awards back on April the 16th, and the retirey lunchon was uh fantastic. My wife's a retiree, so I bought her lunch that day, so I got some brownie points right there. But uh that concludes my report. Jesse Freeman. Thank you, Mr. Blunt. Um well, a lot of this has already been said. We have had a busy month and we all attempt to go to as many um events as we can because we um we want our our students and our staff to know that that we care and we learn more about um what's uh going on in the school district. Heard about student voice. I got to tell you, these kids are not afraid to tell you things. um they don't hold back anything and we learn so

061much from them. We learn about different things that we could um do better. I'm going to have to try to be um creative and reading my notes here. Um our elementary and secondary educators of the year, you know, as we shook their hands, you could tell and they would tell us that they just love what they do. um they have a love for their students and a lot of enthusiasm. So, congratulations to all of our um elementary school teachers of the year. The Lego robotics um uh championship I had the opportunity to go to spoke to a lot of parents and kids and they so much appreciated that opportunity. I learned um there was one school that had a presentation on um microlastics and these kids did a really good job relatively um something relatively

062new that we're starting to pay attention to. Um they did a lot of research and their presentation was um done very well and just a lot of things going on. It um it was at it was hosted at Bernal Middle School. our fine arts fest in our north side gym. Certainly a spectacular opportunity to showcase the the talents of our kids. There's not only visual art displays, but we did have some um performances from choirs, from dance, from small ensembles and and everybody just did such a such a great job. Um, I will tell you the the one of the um one of the most fun things a couple days ago was we I guess it was just yesterday that we had the child nutrition awards and in between the awards as they were regrouping

063for other awards there somebody was there to tell a joke and I'm sorry I I'm not really good at telling jokes but I just have to u mention mention this one. So what do we call people who take care of chickens? And Miss Chumley would might appreciate this. Um, chicken tenders. And so, um, it was a it was a [Applause] I'll have to tell my kids that I had an applause for that because I'm not really good at um at telling jokes. U day. Um, I had the opportunity to go to Virginia Meyers, a good friend of mine, uh, Roland Rios. He's a retiree from Fort Sam ISD and he does presentations at some of our schools and he brings camo and um camo is uh he's a chameleon dressed up like a chameleon and

064he talks about the adaptability and resilience um of our of our children. And that was a a great opportunity to talk to kids um that had parents in the military. My husband um was in the military. My own kids were military kids. So um that was u a wonderful event. And the Coun um presentation, the Coun opportunity, Karin and I did go on a bus and we heard all about the history of Coun Elementary and a lot of the good things that are happening there. And we heard all about um some of y'all who knew know Big Daddy Coun. And um we got to learn about him, too. So, um, it's it's been a great month. Lots of things going on. Thank you, Mr. Blunt. Uh, thank you, Trusty Chicken Tenders. All right. I guess

065this just three three quick items for me. Um, first of all, recognizing Scarboro for their uh annual lip sync contest that they have every year u between their grade levels. They talk about a major production. It every year it just gets better and better. So, I did want to publicly congratulate them. Um, I know we've talked about solar cars. It did begin in 1996. But what I want to also we've had over 22,000 um students that have participated in it. But I want to call out one other person because every year we talk about but we never also say you know Carol's definitely been involved Trusty Harl but over here was a young deputy superintendent who was an admin person at Lackland then Lackland City now Jerry Allen back in 1997. So we've got to

066recognize him for his past involvement too. And then the uh the last one I had um you know that final four beating competition y'all probably got it was really a big we were fortunate in north side with Karen winning with Burke winning but it really went from Sigin to Gonzalez all over San Antonio. It was a huge competition but I bring it up because we as the our Bear County School Board Coalition which are the 20 school districts that are touching Bear County uh the trustees are going to run it next year uh and take it over. the NCAA will go to a different city and they've never had a city that came back and did it again after they left. So, I went through a debrief. It's a massive undertaking. I have no idea

067in the world how we're going to do it, but somehow we're going to do it. So, uh so we're looking forward to to running that competition. Okay. And I think that completes our um portion with the board members reports. Uh next, we do have our citizens to be heard. And what we'll do, we'll watch if the lights go out on somebody, we know you need your paper, then we'll we'll adjust accordingly. you know, if it goes out too long, we'll go to agenda item and come back to it, but we do want to get it started while the the lights and everything is on. Um, I will read the instructions. You know, again, we believe that citizens be heard is important and meaningful and we'll definitely listen to what you have to say. Uh, we

068value your opinions and this is the important part. Um, what's that? Oh, yeah. We will though we are restrained by law uh from taking any action. Again, address your remarks to the board. uh you'll bring use the podium to make your remarks. Hope you confine your remarks to any policy or practice. You have three minutes for your remarks and at three minutes uh you'll be asked to definitely wrap up your remarks. We'll try to display the time on the screen. If we lose that, our our board secretary uh will let you know when there's one minute left and when that's also been uh been completed. Okay. And please we encourage not make any personal attacks on individuals. I know we have a a good number this evening and uh I know some have in common

069areas and we're we're going to hear from everybody. I do encourage you um if you if somebody's made your point per se and you want to adjust or um say something different or decrease yours, we we encourage that part. We want to really get a full understanding of the different issues we know that are coming before us this evening. Okay, we'll turn over to Dr. Craft. Yes, sir. First signed up special guest uh Elen uh Keigel Keel. Keel, excuse me. I'm sorry. Hey, go. Good evening, District 6 NISD board of trustees. My name is Elen Kaggel and I am a fifth grade student at Patricia J. Blatman Elementary. I would like to speak to you about Ellie's playground project. We have a playground at school. I personally dislike our playground. This is because of the

070wood chip mulch. I think it is beneficial to have poured rubber on the playground so that my friends in wheelchairs will be able to move around more freely. Let me tell you a little bit about my special friend Ellie. Ellie is my best friend. She has cerebral pausy and she is in a wheelchair. I'm happy when she's happy and I'm sad when she is. So, when one day I saw her sitting on the concrete while her friends were playing on the playground, it broke my heart. And I knew I needed to do something about it. You see, she has to stay several feet away from her friends so her wheels don't get stuck in the wood mulch, which is why I dislike our playground. As I continued to feel strongly about making playgrounds more accessible,

071I decided to speak with my school's special education teacher and she said, "No matter the differences between kids, they can all agree that recess and kinetic time is something everyone looks forward to. Unfortunately, a lot of the time the playgrounds will use mulch to pad the ground instead of just the dirt to try and reduce the risk of injury if a student or child falls. Mulch is cost effective for that, but it still leaves unanswered needs that fall with our students who are in wheelchairs or use walkers. The unevenness of the mulch does not provide a smooth surface for them to get around. So, they are usually stuck in one of the two areas of the playground. This tends to isolate the wheelchair bound students unless other students make a choice to go over and

072be next to them. We also have students that are able to walk short distances, but the unevenness of the mulch does not make them feel secure in utilizing the playground equipment independently. I know cost is important, so something to consider is wood mulch has to be replaced two to three times a school year. While poured or matte rubber surface will last 10 years before it needs to be replaced. This information can be found on a Google search. And although you can't believe everything you find on Google, I know you can trust this fact. I also know there are many organizations we can work with to help fund this project, like maybe the Gordon Hartman Family Foundation, who are the founders of Morgan Wonderland. In closing, Miss Nolina and I both agree that a rubber padded

073playground would be great as it will help with safety and reduce the risk of injury in the event of a fall, but it would also make accessibility for the wheelchair students much easier. This would allow them to be included in other areas of the playground and would possibly open up opportunities to make new friends. Not only am I wanting to make a difference for Ellie, but future generations. It would be a dream to work with you to make this a reality. In your packet, please find pictures of my best friend Ellie, who this project is named after and for. And please find examples of a rubber padded playground. Thank you for your time and attention, and I'm happy to answer any questions at your convenience. Well done. Well, well, well, we can't discuss, but we

074can definitely say extremely well done. Very proud of you, and you definitely gave us something to to think about, but that was very, very well done. So, thank you for giving example to everybody else. Hey, Mr. President, uh members of the board, those of you that have been a part of the building committee, you're aware we actually are working towards these projects uh as part of the 2022 bond. So, Elen, thank you so much for your time uh and your your uh insight. Um stay tuned. So, thank you again. Next, we have Precious Coleman. I know we need it, too. Good evening. My name is Precious Coleman. I'm a parent on the Warren Choir Booster Club Board and I also provide piano accompaniment services for choir programs across North Side. As an accompanist, I've had

075the privilege of working with some of the qu the finest choir directors across the district. I have been amazed at what they are able to accomplish despite their programs continually being cut to halftime. I have also witnessed their disappointment when they spend all their spare time recruiting, advocating, and searching for answers on what enrollment numbers will justify keeping full-time or keeping an aotment. This question has so far gone unanswered. As a parent on behalf of the Warren Choir Booster Club, we were troubled to hear that the assistant choir director position at Warren had been cut and that the Connelly Middle School choir program would not exist next year. While we understand no teachers are being let go, this is still a huge loss and a threat to the future of music education in North Side.

076Here's what's at stake. The Warren Choir offers seven classes, including an ac capella pop choir, beginner through varsity level classes, and even non-s singing classes such as AP Music Theory. The program hosts afterchool social events, assists with school musicals, puts on four concerts per year, visits middle schools, represents the district in the community, earns accolades, and more. The Warren Choir also puts on amazing recruitment events such as the only middle school summer choir camp in the district. As a result, the Warren Choir has been growing despite each of its feeder programs already being halftime. The Warren Choir is also home to the only alumni choir in the district. All of this on top of a track record of excellence since returning from the pandemic. The Warren Choir has earned a perfect sweep stakes with every

077competing choir at UIL. In addition, our directors offer services to the rest of the district. We assist Jordan Zachary multiple times of the week, offering sectional rehearsals and recruiting opportunities. If after all of this success, the Warren Choir is still under consideration for cuts, what will it take to secure a future? With the loss of Connelly choir, the Warren Choir will now only have two halftime middle school programs. We cannot expect continued excellence when its building blocks are being dismantled. As a parent, I have witnessed the significant growth of my daughter Arya who is a senior on the autism spectrum. She has not only found her voice and a supportive community where she has thrived. She advanced two years to region choir and is a proud member of the varsity mixed choir. We respectfully ask

078that you do what you can to preserve our choir programs and protect their future in our district. Thank you. Thank you. Isabella Martinez [Applause] Good evening, members of the board. My name is Isabella Martinez, and I am a two-time region and state qualifier. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. I'm here not just as a student, but as someone who has found a true sense of identity, passion, and purpose through music, specifically through choir. I come from a musically inclined family. Music runs through our home like a heartbeat. From an early age, I was surrounded by melodies, harmonies, and rhythms that shaped the way I see the world. Choir for me was a natural extension of that upbringing. It wasn't just an elective or a class. It became a safe space, a

079community, and a source of strength. Being a part of choir has taught me discipline, teamwork, confidence, and emotional expression. It has given me a voice literally and figuratively. Choir has helped me grow not only as a musician, but as a person. It's the part of my day I look forward to the most. The place where I can be myself fully and unapologetically. The thought of having choir taken away is heartbreaking. Without it, I fear losing that connection to my roots, that sense of joy and purpose that music has always given me. It would feel like a part of me is being silenced. I understand that your budgets are tight and are tight and tough decisions have to be made. But I ask you to consider what we stand to lose when we no longer offer

080programs like Wire. This isn't just about songs and concerts. It's about mental health, community, personal development, and the unique way music brings people together and lifts them up. Once again, my name is Isabella Martinez, and I am a proud Esparza Ross and Holmes choir student. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Kathy Settles, Hores, [Applause] Good evening, Mr. Blunt, Dr. Craft, and trustees. I am Kathy Seiseri, and I'm coming to you tonight as a former NISD choir student and as a retiring choir director with 27 years teaching experience. I'm here this evening to share my disappointment and distress over the reductions being made in fine arts programs across our district, but particularly choir. I am aware that there was an emotional response that went viral. And although I am fueled by my passion for choir, I

081hope to speak to the situation from the perspective of someone who has spent the last 19 years in the trenches for North Side. My biggest concern is the precedent being set by cutting choir programs at the middle school campus level. Once this option is on the table and considered viable, I fear that it can't be undone. This will then create a domino effect and will begin to we will begin to see the destruction of our 5A and 6A high school choir programs. We've witnessed this in the Holmes cluster in the last few weeks and when the Rayburn choir program was eliminated eliminated back before CO the J choir program suffered the consequences and they are still in recovery mode years later. So how did we get here to this place where enrollment in choir is

082low enough to consider elimination? There are people who want to lay the responsibility solely at the feet of the directors that they didn't do their job. I would like you to consider the role that policy and scheduling have played in this crisis. In the last decade, elective opportunities have more than doubled. This has occurred in fine arts, CTE, as well as athletics. However, total enrollment has decreased. This is affecting choir enrollment. Programs like AVID, high school credit courses, college credit courses, and GT are heavily pushed by counselors across the district. Everyone is fighting for the same students. No amount of recruiting options will assist if a student's choice is to graduate or take a fine arts class. This is affecting choir enrollment. For the past few years, all middle schools were required to have a

083campus improvement plan goal around increasing high school credit class enrollment in middle school. This has created a greater push away from performing arts and allowing there to be messaging to choose high school credit classes over other electives. This is affecting choir enrollment. Allowing some elective options to have as many as three teachers on a middle school campus, creating 21 sections for one subject. This is affecting choir enrollment. I'm not here to cause trouble. As a matter of fact, I want to offer solutions for consideration. What if we eliminate advisory, an ungraded class, so that sixth graders can have a second elective? Not only will this benefit the fine arts, but academic teachers teaching advisory would then have room for another section of their subject matter, and that would help ease student teacher ratios? What if

084we limit the number of high school credits that can be earned in middle school? Do 12 and 13 year olds really need to be put under that kind of pressure? What if we capped classes? Yes, some students would perhaps be in their second elective choice, but why is that a bad thing? Eliminating program choice is the easy way out. And before you scoff, I want you to think about how much harder it is to say this is unacceptable and then work to find a solution. There are campuses in our district. We're going to have to Yeah, I have to ask you to wrap up. Okay. I invite you to sit down and have a dialogue with us, the middle school and high school choir directors. We have ideas. We are organizers and solution finders. Thank

085you. Thank you, Harmony. Aascazda. Sorry, I can't read it. A Costa. I'm sorry. Apologize. Hello, my name is Harmony and I'm speaking on behalf of a fine arts student at NASD. I am a mixed varsity and a woman's varsity member in my sophomore year and I just wanted to express concern with cutting five middle school programs. I understand that we are at a $100 million deficit when but there are better uses of funding in my opinion. For example, choir at a high school level is only allotted $3,500 at the dis at the district for district funds. Most of that is spent at the beginning of the year for region packets which we are required to attend at a varsity level and um it's mostly spent in the beginning of the year for sheet music. Um

086excessively in comparison the school had recently spent about $7,000 on customized inflatable runrough tunnels for the football team. Again, I know the distribution of funds is dire right now because of different issues regarding school vouchers taking away from public school funding. I understand that next year there will be cuts in order to achieve a greater emphasis on math and literacy skills, but taking away fine arts takes away from those opportunities. Studies have shown that being able to read or play music makes students more proficious proficient in math and literacy. It is no coincidence that most of our high-reaching student body are in or have been at least one or more fine arts class. Studies show that students who participate in fine arts are more likely to receive an exceptional score on standardized test which in

087turns grants more funds to the school. Fine arts students are more 20% likely to attend college and 42% likely to attend a four-year college or university. In addition to this, by providing an outlet for kids, it makes students more likely to even come to school so schools can get more funding. In unsure and scary times, kids need a a safe and caring environment that actually provides care. In conclusion, cutting fine arts programs like choir, there is an unintended consequence for reduced attendance and failing standardized test scores for all, resulting in an eventual reduced funding for the district, even if it is only at the middle school level. By cutting those programs or splitting it, it puts high schools at a disadvantage. Ultimately, this is a matter of short-term gain with long-term consequences. And I surely

088believe that there are better funding things um better funding options for fine arts rather than putting most of your funding towards um high school salary high school teacher salaries like coaches who do not return as much as our middle or as much as our middle school and high school teachers do. Thank you. Thank you, [Music] Cynthia Garcia. Real quick, Mr. Bryant. Um, Harmony, what school were you from? I'm from Okconor. Okconor. Thank you, sweetie. Good evening, board members. I come to you um as a parent um a taxpayer and I am also a member of the Grammys. I am a member of the country music association in Nashville. I'm an award-winning film director and I'm here to speak up for our children. My daughter's part of the Holmes High School choir program and on April

0894th, sorry, she sends me a message. Choir got cut for next year. I said, "What? Are you okay?" That's her face. That's her face. The way I feel, my soul just got ripped from my body. I work with musicians 24/7. I've pushed 40 singles to radio. I have award-winning singers on my roster. And I also have award-winning kids that sing, learn, and know music. Music is not um just a song. One single takes you 40 to 50 hours to put together. From the writing process, from the charting process, from the melodies, from the verses, from the chorus, these children are learning music from I was 10 in choir. I'm a homes alumni and I am distraught to know that years and years and years of funding and cutting and bringing money in, bringing money out.

090Choir is the one that is the most efficient. It teaches them the most. They are the smartest kids that walk that campus because an artistic child is not a normal child. I'm a film director. So when I get a piece, oh my gosh, my mind starts creating. These are very creative children and they only they just do not create on a sheet of music. They create in the classroom. They score higher. You know, there's statistics that show that they are the highest scoring in math. I mean, these children don't deserve to get cut because classrooms too small. What's going to happen to Mrs. Gullet, her their teacher? My the kids are right here listening. They're very upset. You all are taking a part of them where music is life. Like music saved my daughter's life.

091Music creates it. It embodies our soul. From the minute if you're happy, oh my god, that song sounds good. Down to somebody passing away. There are the mariachi playing at the funeral. Music is a huge part of our lives from the minute we wake up to the minute we go to sleep. But for these children to not be able to be in a music class because of funding, find the money. Find the money. Give it back to them. Because like the previous mom said, once it's taken off the plate, it'll never come back. And choir is one of those that does not discriminate. So please, please reconsider your decision. Thank you, Melissa Guro. Massie, did you hear Melissa? Yeah. [Applause] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hold on one second. You have notes to read, right? Hold on.

092I do. Yeah. You have your phone. Turn the light. No, we can't turn on. Hold on a second. It's coming back on. Thank you. All right. Let me just make sure. Are are you comfortable proceeding? If not, we'll wait. Yes, I'm fine. Yes, sir. Thank you. Everybody fine on the board? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Go right ahead. Okay. Hello. My name is Melissa Guerrero Massie and I am a North Side ISD resident. Proud Marshall High School parent, class of 2020, and a 28-year coral music educator. I began my music education career here in North Side in 1996. I was fresh out of college with my bachelor's degree in music education, wideeyed and excited to teach choir. Today, I stand before you now with my recently earned MBA in leadership. I understand about numbers. I understand about

093enrollment. But I am here today for the specific reason of speaking to you tonight to advocate for the support of the coral music education programs at Connelly Middle School, Nef Middle School, Rayurn Middle School, Ross Middle School, and Holmes High School where campus administrators have made the decision to close down and end the programs for the upcoming 2025 2026. I am proud to say that I am the choir director at Connelly Middle School and one of the directors that has been cut in the process. These administrative decisions are hard ones that have been made, but they go against what the North Side ISD fine arts purpose statement is, which says, "We serve administrators, teachers, students, and community by developing, sustaining, and promoting quality fine arts programs to help those we serve achieve academically, socially, and

094communally. On March 31st, when I was informed that the Connelly choir program was cut, I was in shock. Um, as were several of my other colleagues who were told their programs were cut as well. Um, we had numbers, enrollment had increased in the choir program. So, I was very much surprised. I said, well, I need to use my MBA and how am I going to help my fellow choir directors? So I went and all the choir teachers are really good and we put together this chart and then before I got to the meeting today I told myself what does the chart say is that it it's just a bunch of numbers. Really what it boils down to is what the arts do for children and what they do for our community. Not only for North

095Side but the San Antonio community in general as several of the others that have come up and spoken. Um, mariachis are there to celebrate birthdays. Um, to celebrate recognitions, choirs are there to sing at little third grade programs, um, and fifth grade awards ceremonies all the way up to high school programs like Warren High School that has their capella choir that has performed regionally and nationally. And it's it's just devastating. as I said as a North Side resident, teacher, parent to see where we have come to this point and I hope that there will be a reconsideration of supporting the arts programs especially at those schools. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I can't quite read the first name. I I think it's is it Natalie Salazar? Matali, I'm [Applause] sorry. Good evening. I'm

096Italy, a junior and the choir secretary at Holmes High School. About 3 weeks ago, the news about my school's choir program getting cut was broken to me. We had just finished our UIL competition the day before and we were all pretty disappointed by our scores, but we held optimistic, telling ourselves we'll do better next year. For everyone else, they'll get a chance to improve upon their scores, but for us it was our final. We were just racking up accomplishments, too. Last year, we had one of our girls make it to all state choir. And this year, seven students are advancing to the state solo ensemble. Overall, we were building our legacy at home, performing at various events. We were small but mighty, capable of achieving great things like the other high school choirs. But all

097we need is that opportunity, that choice to keep us and let us blossom. Another thing to note, Holmes is a title one school. For many of my choir peers, including myself, private voice lessons are too expensive. For choir is an accessible way for us to develop our singing skills without having to break the bank. Removing our program and any other fine arts program for that matter removes the opportunity for students to dive into skills otherwise barricaded by a dollar sign. For me personally, choir is my home. It is the place I go to when I'm stressed and I'm done with the world around me. I go and get to do the one thing I love, sing. I've been singing my whole life and I did the choir. I did choir during my elementary years and

098I went back to it getting into high school and I'm so glad I did. Choir introduced me to my first friends who have stuck with me during the lowest of lows and highest of highs. All my classes are advanced or AP. So when the hustle and the bustle of the world gets to me, I know when I walk into that classroom, my worries will melt away. And I know it's the same from my other peers. Choir isn't another box check off or a credit to be earned. It is our passion, our glory, our haven. Taking away my choir took away a piece of me. It took away my sense of self, belonging, and freedom. Yet I, as well as my friends, haven't gi given up yet. As Ann lemon states, music is breath and f

099food. So please, let us continue to feeding others. Let us continue to sing together. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah [Applause] Dal. Good evening, Dr. Craft and School Board. I am Sarah Dowel. I am an alumni of Marshall High School Choir, Marshall High School Dance, Hobby Middle School Show Choir, and Colonies North Elementary. I am the daughter of a retired Marshall English teacher, a proud parent of a Bronze Station Bobcat, and a proud parent of a Zachary Global Leader and Dancer. I taught for 12 beautiful years at Glenn Oaks Elementary, and currently I am a special education teacher at Zachary Middle School in Zachary Magnet. With deep roots in North Side, I am a strong advocate for public schools and the programs they promote. My passion for education began in North Side Elementary School. But it

100was middle school choir that truly shaped me. It was more than music. It was a place where I belonged and thrived. My favorite place was choir. I remember Miss Ryan coaching us for show choir, and I can still sing some of my middle school solos that I took to competition. Middle school was not easy in any way, but choir was the highlight. It was the first time I truly felt at home in school. I felt like I was really good at something. I'm honestly not sure I would have survived middle school had it not been for choir. North side once championed fine arts, showcasing their importance. Now facing budget cuts, these vital programs are being reduced. I can still hear my choir director's voice in my head. Music is important. It's all the research. It

101helps with math. It helps with memorization. It helps with reading. I remember he would ramble on about the research of all the benefits. Now, choir was my passion, but I also love dance. When I heard about the cuts in choir, I was remembering all the wonderful experiences I had in middle school and in high school, in class, at rehearsals, on trips. It hurt to think that there were going to be a whole feeder pattern of kids that would never get to experience that. It was like a gut punch to think that my Glenn Oaks Owls would never get to be in a choir and Zachary Magnet students that went to wanted to go to Insight at homes could actually be leaving the opportunity of choir behind. I felt really I really felt like choir and

102the fine arts were an important turning point in my life. I don't think I would have had the success I have in my own life without learning a lot of those lessons in music, in performance, in perseverance, in failure, in friendships, in teamwork, and in creativity. I now look at my at my children and the children of other alumni. They may not have pursued singing like we did. My own daughter chose dance. These cuts deeply impact our students. My own daughter, a Zachary dancer, has blossomed through the program, even overcoming social anxiety. I was incredibly proud of her to have her accompany me to advocacy day in Austin to advocate for public schools. It's heartbreaking to think these opportunities could be denied and to her peers and to her. The district sites numbers for these

103cuts, but Zachary has 129 students are registered for dance yet we only have the capacity for 60. We are having to turn away 69 students from being in dance. No, go let's go ahead and get your wrap up. Okay, you can go ahead and your last one. Furthermore, we understand Nef is also facing cuts despite a new dance studio being built. Nef is going to have no choir program and only half a dance program. These numbers don't align. We deserve a clear explanation. Are these cuts truly justified? Now we have to go ahead and Yeah. Okay. Jasmine [Applause] Babin. Jasmine Babin. Okay. Hello. My name is Jasmine Babin. I am a north side NISTD student who is also a two-year award-winning 3C varsity choir student and a part of the Maverick Dance TAM at Strauss

104Middle School who has invested interest in the future NICD corral programs. My my confidence, leadership qualities and overall humanit humanism have benefited from these experiencing the choir program. I'd like to address the administrative campus bycampus decision making does not promote um program fidelity thus contributing to the district's misconstructed view of the program failure. The program enrollment for the latter of 78 students, professional development facult facilitators and nameless other communities thus retracted anytime opportunities for restoring the programs that have contracted to lead where there are opportunities for directors to implement program growth. Other duties have assigned are being put in place despite their added duties. In the last two years, the struggling NISTD choir programs has successfully obtained 30 34 ratings of eso excellence or superior at UIL events. 14 of middle school campuses average 15

105to 16 student increase in the beginning ensembles for one year to the next. Not every campus can be represented by growth because some administrators will not disclose the number of students who elected for choir. And each middle school campus with the exception of one which lost its choir program for six academic years and since revived has collaborated to produce the the district corral event. Together we sing for the past 16 years. How are these programs failing? What checks are being put in place to ensure students interest correlates with administration decisions making processes? When updating a particular director of what next year would anticipate, 84 students would fit into three class periods. The principal responded with, "I do not know your number for next year. If in the foreseeable future of these programs predicting on the

106preferences, what is the stipulation for capping a course, would it not be an abundance of students enrollments yet? Administrators are holding formal conversations with directors stating that they will cap the enrollment numbers for struggling programs. I argue the board and Dr. craft to have a conversation with the administrators regarding pro program fidelity across the disciplines with with this re revalence and mandated advisory at some campuses and not others. What are trending patterns of programs amongst feeder campuses? What is the revalence of office aids and as its electives as students permit to change their electives without conversation with their educators? Have viable situations solutions been discussed with directors? Please ensure equality amongst the arts in charge administration with showing work and directors proved day in out. I have been a part of a lot of things.

107Let's go ahead. We have to get you to rap. I've been a part of a lot of fine arts programs, but choir is something I've been dedicated to my entire middle school years and I definitely wouldn't be able to speak in front of you guys today without my director's help. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Marley Ramsay and Kylo the Kill [Applause] only told me about one Would you like to stand up here with me? Sure. Good evening, esteemed board members. I am Kyla Baker and I am Marley Ramsey. We are both seventh graders from seventh or We are both seventh graders from Zachary Magnet Middle School. We are here today to discuss the recent decision to reduce the dance program at Zachary Middle School. Dance itself is a very important program that helps

108foster creativity, develop personal and social identities, as well as supporting cultural diversity, and deepening acceptance among students. On top of that, our dance teacher, Miss Ortiz, is also the sponsor of several clubs such as esports, DND, anime club, and K-pop club, all of which will no longer run if she is to be split across two campuses. This would be a terrible tragedy as these clubs provide important safe spaces and communities for students who don't fit in as well or aren't as interested in traditional sports. We've been told that we have been told that the recent reasoning that the reasoning behind the recent decision to cut the d to cut dance has been due to a lack of interest. However, I believe what was overlooked when the district came to this conclusion was the impact it

109ha was the impact it had on dance and the fine arts program bringing and keeping students at Zachary Magnet. You aren't just cutting dance. You're cutting out a multitude of communities created by Miss Ortiz, the dance teacher, who has won many awards in North Side. It isn't just 50 or so kids. It's hundreds, including myself. When I started at Zachary, I didn't have any friends. But through the classes and clubs that Miss Ortiz created, I was able to make friends and find a place where I belong. There are hundreds there are hundreds of kids who will likely won't find another place in school. And these clubs won't get different sponsors. We know this because when Miss Ortiz was out on maternity leave, no one else wanted to take her place as a sponsor, even temporarily.

110And yes, our current economy is rough and we get money is tight. However, these electives such as dance bring more students to the magnet program in Zachary. From my understanding, the school gets money from having kids there. If we are facing monetary deficit, why is it that you're diminishing the reasons for kids to go to school? Going to going to school is important, but kids won't if we create an environment where they don't want to go or dread going. An environment where they are longing for any bit of mental stimulation. In a world with so much hate and negativity, things like dance are what keep us afloat, what keep us in school, what keep all of that hatred from eating away at us. Reducing on reducing dance on paper appears to make more money, but

111in reality, it will likely reduce attendance. So, if you really want to make more money, perhaps reducing dance is not the best option. There are other ways to keep our schools afloat. Cutting dance at Zachary is isn't the right answer. Sure, it will still exist, but the negative effects it will have on the school community are just too great. We greatly appreciate you being here to listen to us and giving us this opportunity to voice our concerns. Thank you. Thank you all. Welcome. Thank you. Leslie Ortiz Leslie. [Applause] [Laughter] Good evening. My name is Leslie Ortiz. I am a dance teacher, 2020 educator of the year for Zachary Middle School and NISD's 2023 pillar of character for learning. And next school year, my position is being split in half. Two weeks ago, I was told

112that my position at Zachary Middle School would be moving to a part-time position, and I would be splitting my time between two campuses. I was hurt, angry, and confused. I spent the rest of the day wondering where I went wrong. My program performs at countless NISD events, works with my theater schools to promote our dance elective, and performs at Spurs and UTSA games. I take my students on several field trips throughout the year to watch professional dance in the community and take tours of the theaters to see different careers in the fine arts. I was told that nothing could be done and I would be split on campus for the 2526 school year. Later that week, there was a news story and Barry Pettis commented on the situation of cut programs. He said, "We are

113not cutting any program. However, we are adjusting staffing to better reflect enrollment trends and specific program numbers. Here are the numbers. In 2017, dance had 141 students. In 2018, we had 216 students when I took over. After this, sixth graders were required to take a healthy habits course, and my numbers reduced to 193 students in 2021. Then, the district implemented that all sixth graders had to take PE and could not substitute with the dance elective. Even then, my numbers remained in the hundreds. Last school year in 2023, I had 125 students in my dance classes. This school year, I have 127 students, and I teach seven periods of dance class. For the upcoming school year, I have 129 students signed up, and about half of them will not get that opportunity. With classes being capped

114at 25 to 27 students and dance only being offered for three periods, let's break this down by class level. I have 71 students signed up for level one. That means 44 students will not be able to take dance. 43 students are signed up for level two. That means 16 will not be able to take dance. I have 15 students signed up for level three and this group is not affected by the cap. My program may not be completely gone next year, but this will start the process of killing it. I will now have to split my time and do double work with the same amount of school time. I will have to plan two winter showcases, two end ofear recitals, double the amount of field trips. When NISTD requests dancers at Thrill, Fine Arts Fest,

115Winter Spectacular, or even Los Leonas, I will have to oversee two campuses and double the amount of students. When NISD made the position halftime, they did not just hurt the dance program. They are also hurting the musical theater class my campus offers and the countless student organizations I run. Musical theater will no longer have a dance teacher to help with musical numbers during their class time. When the theater department asked about possible solutions, she was told that they were great YouTube tutorials. The numerous students who attend my afterchool clubs are now also affected because I will be unable to spend my free time giving them a safe space to allow their creativity to grow. I manage the anime club, K-pop club, Dungeons and Dragons club, all of which are unpaid and on my volunteer time.

116Anime and Dn D have around 30 students each. K-pop club has 10 students who attend once a month and I'm also a championship esports coach. We currently have six students on the Mario Kart racing team who will be competing this weekend. I hope when NISD thinks about how costeffective relocating a teacher is, they think about how will it affect their students, families, and community. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you, Coco Strader. U good afternoon trustees. Uh my name is Scarolina Shrader and I'm a music student at Okconor High School. Uh oddly enough, I'm actually not a choir student or a dance student. I'm in the band, which is no talks about cutting the band, right? It's probably going to be the last to go when it comes to fine arts. But I understand that, you

117know, the the first time you take that step, you let something go. There's it just keeps going. You never when is it going to end? Is it going to stop with choir or orchestra or dance or band? Like how far are we going to go? Anyway, I understand that you're swamped with students, parents, teachers, everyone here fighting back against the adjustments that are being made to the fine arts programs. But I wanted to briefly provide a perspective on that issue that I think might help the situation. From what I understood at the last board meeting, um it's because of the lowering number of students in our school district. And compared to years in the past where we had a lot more kids, we need a lot more teachers. Now, cutting and relocating is a logical

118solution, but it's not the only one. And I would like to propose a different idea. Instead of deflating support for programs like choirs and other fine arts programs, we should continue to maintain the standard of excellence that Northside has always shown because more charter school and private school families are encouraged to join our school district as opposed to the smaller schools. myself personally, I was in private school as a young kid. And because of my my desire directly to be in the marching band, to be in sports teams, to be in more of a like well-rounded school environment, I chose to come to North Side instead of staying in those private schools. And I imagine this is a similar discussion in other households in the North Side area. Um, especially I there was talk about

119open enrollment and if that is initiated, we're going to get more kids that not only live in the area but live in other areas of San Antonio want to come to North Side if we keep these programs going the way they're going. Now we start cutting things, people are going to start making those other choices, right? Like we start cutting our choirs or our dance. Hey, the charter schools have it pretty good or the private schools have it pretty good. Then our kids are going to leave and go over there, right? So, we're kind of going to make the problem worse for ourselves. Now, obviously, I could go on about how much band is important to me and music is important to me. Like, you've heard that all before and I understand like the importance

120of the budget. I know everyone's saying that. But I really do think that maintaining those programs the way that they are right now would be better off. It would be a problem that solves itself really for our community. And if an activity is important to even one student, I hope that North Side finds a way to safeguard that pursuit. In my many years of being a student in this district, I've always felt a strong connection to the community. And I really do think that preserving the programs that we already have would make for a much better outcome than if we just start cutting things wherever we see fit. because then you're going to drive away those students. You're going to drive away those families that might choose North Side. That's all I have to say

121about that. Thank you. Thank you, Patty Ku. Patty Ku. I want to add a real quick comment. U appreciate everybody work allowing us to work through. We we know some of y'all came a couple of weeks ago. We just want to make sure we hear from everybody. So, I hope everybody's okay. We want to continue. Although, we know we're having this power problem, but I think it's I think everybody's doing okay with it. Okay. Mine is not about the arts. Sorry, guys. But I'll take your applause anyway. Good evening, Dr. Craft, members of the board. My name is Patty Gthu, and I am a member of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association. First of all, I'd like to thank you all for your service. Um, over the years as a teacher at Timberw for 22 years,

122I've seen uh Mr. Dr. Blunt come in and lots of folks, you know, coming to visit our programs and it's appreciative. This year I've seen Homer more than I ever thought I'd see Homer at our school. I'm sorry, Dr. Gavato. Um, and I didn't realize until I hear all of you speaking about all the activities that you do and all the, you know, fine arts events, all the athletic programs that you visit. It's admirable. um in January as new to um Northside board meetings um TCTA invited all our members to join us at our upcoming meeting and we had we were had great conversations uh with Mrs. Karen Freeman, Dr. Homer Gavvada, Dr. Carol Harl and Mrs. Karen Salana and we know that Mr. Bobby Blunt was going to go but then had to end

123up in Austin that evening and wasn't able to make it. Um but it didn't go unnoticed that Dr. Carla Luhan and Mr. David Salceto um were not in attendance at our meeting and in fact neither one of you replied to our invitation and that's struck yeah that's that struck me so I just I invite you again you know to meet with us we'd love to you know you to have to hear our concerns um there are more teachers in North Side than just one group and I ask you to join us someday thank you thank Terry's the blocky. Everybody, if the lights go out, we're going to all start singing. [Applause] I'm also gonna need lights. Okay, everybody ready? Student ambassador. I couldn't climb that step. He paid me. Thank you, sir. I noticed him

124from TV. I appreciate it. I'm gonna go completely off script for a moment. My uh when I was teaching my uh course that I taught for decades was comms, communications applications at uh Warren and it was moved down to the middle school. I am here tonight to say that oh my gosh, communications applications at the middle school has succeeded beyond what I've ever seen because I don't want to follow these students. Hello. Uh at 1:00 this afternoon, I voted early and I realize that I can't vote for my north side trustee because of the way our single member districts are drawn. And I also can't vote for against the people in the state of Texas who have put us in this set set of circumstances. It's distressing when you can't vote for the ones that

125you care. So I came here tonight to ring the alarm bell, not in panic, but on purpose. This is our fire drill moment. Everybody get it? I was going to talk to teachers, but oh my gosh, who's much more effective? As we always know, the students are. When the alarm sounds, you know what to do. You protect students, you look around, you evaluate, and you move with clarity. I've lived the mission here. I've watched it. This happened in 2011. You know how you comfort somebody out in the parking lot when they've been told that they've been displaced and they've been moved? I've done it. And when it comes to this time, when it comes to this moment, I'm talking to everybody here. I don't care about you guys. I'm talking to you guys here. Here's

126the deal. You want experienced people who were sitting here. I don't know that some of you caught it, but there were a total of six trustees who read with the Burke students. I'm not going to say anything more in terms of that. Um, things have other boards have been taken over by partisan board majorities. North sides remain focused. And I sit here, I'm wearing the 75th anniversary t-shirt. I want you to contemplate what is this district going to be like 25 years from now when it's the hundth celebration. And I say to you and I want you to know this that to me the critical piece is that the people who have sat here and listened to you, you watch them, they are listening to you. They are feeling this. They are like me, right?

127And we all laughed when I said we should sing. We really need to sing because this stuff is horrible. Okay, teachers, this is your domain for moment. It's time to be distinguished. We don't have any money. We know that, right? But we have the vote. We have the ability to do this. This isn't about right or left trying to win a board majority. This is about what's right with North Side, a district heading toward its 100th anniversary. And if you don't support that, if you support a partisan agenda, then I'll say it plainly, you're wrong. Visit 100.vote. And all of us out here, if you don't think it's critical that the people who have heard you stay here and make these decisions, they're going to follow. You got we got to wrap it up. Thank

128you. Thank you. 100 dot vote. Melissa Chumbl. [Applause] Oh, thank you all. Um, thank you all. But I I'm not here to talk about this, but I will tell um the trustees I had forgotten what board meetings were like um since 2023. I know you guys have tough decisions to make. I feel for everyone here and the ch it just even though these were tough conversations, the children, our kids, our north side kids are amazing. Just amazing. Um, so Mr. Blunt, trustees, Dr. craft. I'm here to thank you for all that you do, the time you give to be on school campuses, attend community events, and fight the good fight for public education. I'm here to report that Chumbly Elementary School is fun, fabulous, and full of Chumbly champions. Our staff cares about kids, and

129Mr. Day, pardon me, and Ms. woods are a true gift. Um, I had the opportunity recently to visit with some of our classes and I had forgotten that first graders are always in motion and that fifth graders ask the most unusual questions. Um, I wanted to share with you tonight just some first that we are having at Chumbley. So, we had our first student talent show. We had our first staff spa day. So, a huge shoot shout out to Holmes Cosmetology Seniors and the program director, Rachel Love Lady, um, who came and pampered our staff. And when I say staff, Chumley staff is from custodian, cafeteria worker, and every aid, teacher, um, and administrator on our campus. We had our first staff Easter egg hunt. We had our first fine arts night where we had

130family line dancing. We had our first crochet night, our first anime night, and our first night at the missions. And then I wanted to share with you that I just handed out to you earlier, we have our first ever Chumley Fiesta Medal. And so my request tonight to all of you is please wear your Fiesta Medal everywhere that you go. I was reading an article about coveted fiesta medals and I would really love for our chumley champ which is our medal to be one of those fiesta medals. So I just want to say thank you. I know you guys have some tough decisions coming but I appreciate as a parent, grandparent and taxpayer everything that you do. Thank you. Thank you Melissa. Thank you. All right, that that completes our our citizens uh to be

131heard portion and we're going to get ready move over to our next u agenda item which is our consent agenda. Uh I do want to make one comment um to thank you all for being um respectful both for our process and uh decision- making and other things that we have to do as a board either through your emails and other type things. Um um I think ones I've received I've seen they've been they point out the facts to us or as those individuals saw but they've been very respectful as well as this evening and and thanks for y'all's patience as we went through some of the challenge with the lights. But we are going to go ahead and and move over you know we can address it. Um it was a consit agenda item but

132we're going to go ahead and move over um to our next regular agenda item. Okay. Thank you all again. Okay. So, we'll go ahead and now we'll go to our uh as folks, I know we'll be leaving, but let's go ahead and we'll go to our consent agenda. Nobody wants Is there a motion to come before the board on the consent agenda? Trusty Freeman. Yes, Mr. Blunt, I move approval. Second. Okay, moved and second. Is there any further discussion on the consent agenda? Not been moved and second that we approve the consent agenda. All those in favor signify by stating I. I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. Good. Motion carries. All right. So, now we're going over to our facilities and operations area. And uh Dr. Craft. Yes, sir. I believe we have our first

133presentation uh which includes the John J. Sea High School uh uh program. So, I'll turn it over to um Jerry uh Lamers and um his team and we'll get started. We'll wait on Jacob. He's got the numbers. Okay. I think Jacob's probably working on a fuse right now. Um so, [Laughter] All right. So on the facility side, the first item that we have for approval today is the amendment number one GMP for the building upgrades at John J High School SEA and SEA. And so uh this particular contract was awarded to George General Contractors. Uh it was a construction manager at risk contract back in September. And uh this is going to be a two-phase project. So here we're bringing the first GMP. This first GMP is aimed at doing the make ready scope. So

134that's a site demolition, some temporary bus loops and relocation of utilities. And so uh what we typically do is a design team which Jerry Lamers is here with Alamo Architects um and his subconsultants. They put together a scope that the contractor can then put out to the subcontractors of bid. Some of the scope does include self-perform scope from joris themselves which they're required to uh submit that bid 24 hours prior to the due date. So that way we keep the competitive nature of the bids. And in this particular case, the uh amendment one GMP is uh 4 just over $4.6 million uh 4.6 um 28. And so we recommend approval for this particular amendment to get us kickstarted. this work will happen during the course of that first summer to get us prepped for the

135renovation of the the ex existing building and the addition that we have um proposed to add on to that. So we do also have uh Joris uh general contractors here represented by G Robinson and so at this point in time I'll field any questions as it relates to the first amendment. Okay, any comments or questions from the uh from the board? Okay. If not, this uh this one is scheduled for possible approval if the board chooses to take action. Is there going to be a motion to come before the board? So move. All right. Second. Moved and second. Any further discussion? Moved a second that we approve the amendment one for the building upgrades uh GMP at John GSA High School as presented. All those in favor signify by stating I. I. If there's any

136opposed, state nay. Good. Motion carries. You're good. Thank you. Thank you. So, the next item that we have for you today is the construction manager at risk uh approval for the cafeteria and kitchen and athletic replacement at Oliver Wendle Homes. Um this particular project is part of the 22 bond program. Uh and it provides for the renovation and uh kitchen kitchen cafeteria renovation as well as an athletic replacement. Uh the first phase of this construction or the first phase of this project is uh the delivery method where we select the construction manager at risk after a concept is is approved. So that way the contractors can put a price on their fees uh expected fees for the project. Um this was a project where we requested um bids and uh conducted interviews. The interviews were

137held on March 28th uh with our evaluation committee uh to comply with our delivery method. And in this particular case uh staff is requesting approval for the contractor uh Bartley to be awarded the construction manager at risk at this project. Um and uh they have their fees that have been calculated and and run through our uh accounting department. Uh the architect of record on this particular project is Huckabe Architects which is represented by Jeff Rodriguez standing in the back. And so I don't believe we have anyone here from Barley I don't see anybody. Um and so this project is a 30 39.8 million project. Um and so at this point in time I'll field any questions that you may have as it relates to this particular recommendation. All right. Any now remind me did each

138one of these already go through the building committee? Yes. I'm sorry I should have opened with that. Uh President Blunt. Yes. Every single one of these have been previewed by the building committee. Um we've answered any questions that they may have had related to these items along with any questions they may have had with the consent uh items. So yes, they they've gone through building committee. Thank you. Any other any comments or questions from the board? Okay. Now, is there a motion to come before the board? I move that we I move that we accept uh the proposal or I guess the contract, right? The contract. Okay. Is there a um second? Second. All right. Moved and second. Any further discussion? If not, it's been moved a second. We that we approve the construction manager

139risk um as contract as presented. All those in favor signify by stating I. I. Any oppose? state. Nay. Good. All right. Motion carries and ready for the next one. All right. Thank you. So, this next item is kind of a two-prong. So, we have a a C and then we have a follow-up presentation. Both will be presented by Alamo Architects and again I got Jerry Lamers here and um he's got some supporting staff here as well. So, this is another 22 bond program uh one of our bigger projects and it is the schematic design for the fine arts replacement at Clark High School. Um this is a um a large project that we will actually build a new facility um off on the left side of the campus if you're familiar with Clark High School.

140And so this schematic design is consistent with the previously developed master plan um that was presented. And so the schematic design is uh going to be presented by Jerry Lamers and his team. And so at this point in time, I'll go ahead and turn it over to Mr. Lammer so that he can start his presentation. But but just to clarify so because I know these are se we're doing these as second appro separate approvals correct correct so this initial one is just for the approval of the schematic design at the fine arts okay then it fits into the and then it fits into the follow-up presentation that will be yeah we we wanted to go ahead and present the master plan as well uh the following item uh just so that as we look at

141this project and and particularly beyond this phase you know what could potentially follow whether it future bond elections um phasing like I say a master plan Mr. blunt was something we discussed in the building committee with committee members that we just felt like was important to have an overall here is here's what this ultimately could entail as far as a full scope renovation of a project so that we're not looking back in hindsight and trying to understand why was this project peacemeal um rather than planned longitudinally and so that that's exactly what the master plan is that we'll Good. Correct. Thank you. So, I'll turn it over to Mr. Lamers. All right. Thank you, Jacob. With me is Lindsay Opel. She's the project architect, project manager for both of these projects. And as Jacob mentioned,

142um we're going to talk about the fine arts uh portion first. We came before the board uh beginning of the year to to show you the concept design, which basically located the fine arts in the uh and tonight we're going to talk about the schematic design. And I don't know what's best for me for y'all to see what I'm pointing at because if you have a screen here, I'll try to just do it verbally for you. Yeah, we'll be we'll be okay. Okay, good. Um, so and um, as I mentioned, we're going to talk about the Clark Fine Arts edition. It was a or it is a part of the 2022 bond. It's actually the third one of these that the district has undertaken. Uh, starting with Holmes, then Jay, and now Clark. Um the

143program for them all has been very similar. They have evolved over time as programs have changed, but the general scope of work is a brand new fine arts facility uh for the Clark campus. And and speaking about the master plan, one of the things that came up uh in the schematic design process is well, what are you going to do with the old building? It's in relatively good shape. So let's take a look at what we should do with the old building for our future planning. And then when we do that, plan further down the future uh for the next 10 to 20 years basically for the campus. So um speaking about the fine arts specifically now obviously everybody knows where Clark is. Um the campus itself is roughly about 64 acres. It was originally

144built in 1978. It's a courtyard design campus. Uh, one thing I would like to point out is it is a very hilly campus, much the same way that Holmes was in terms of where the courtyard is now. It's basically at the top of the hill and it drops off dramatically as we go around the campus. As I mentioned, the age of the buildings. This will be important when we talk about the master plan, too. The current fine arts is in building B. The original building uh was built in 78. There was a a band edition in the early 2000s. Um uh but this is the existing uh campus as it is. Right off to the left is the band pad and I'll talk about that when we get into the plans. This is the proposed

145site plan. Uh previously you saw where the fine arts was going to be located. So that has not changed since we were here the last time. One of the things that um I'll remind you is that the principal uh parent entry is on the far uh east side of the campus and the way they circulate in right now is they drop off next to building C. That will occur now next to the fine arts center. So we're maintaining that. And then the other uh uh principal drop off is the bus loop which is in the front of the campus. We're going to bring that forward and there's no bus canopy right now at Clark and we will add a bus canopy. It will be connected to the fine arts and building A. And then lastly,

146we're going to displace a lot of parking when we build the new building. So, we're proposing a new or expanded parking lot on the east side of the campus there, roughly adding 340 cars. So, we're we're replacing the cars or we're we're building a lot that's going to replace the parking that we uh displace. Um then then taking a closer look at the at the site plan, as I mentioned, it really um drops off as you head east and south or I'm sorry, north um to the point where the new fine arts center will be 18 feet below the existing first floor. That's how big a drop off it is. So, it's it's a full floor below the existing level one of of uh building C, which it's adjacent to. And as I mentioned, uh

147we'll have a new bus canopy that's pulled down to give us some space to make that transition up the hill. So, there'll be stairs and steps and a slope sidewalk to get you up the hill back to the uh courtyard. And that kind of the white dotted line you see on the site plan there, that's going to be a new decorative uh security fence that will secure that part of the campus. And then moving to the floor plan. The floor plan in terms of the individual spaces are very similar to Jay in terms of the building design guide that dictates the size of those spaces. The differences at Clark is that we're going to have four art classrooms whereas at Jay we had three and that's based on their capacity needs at that school. Um

148all the other spaces will be exactly the same. So there's a new auditorium roughly about 900 seats. In the front of the auditorium there's a lobby that can also double as a as an art gallery there. There'll be sculpture benches like has been done in the others. There'll be uh uh along the auditorium wall, places to um hang art on the wall, the blackbox theater and the support spaces adjacent to it will support the auditorium in the event of a large um a large production. And then as we move north on the plan, the orange spaces, those are all performing arts spaces. So, the new two new band halls, all new practice, um the choir room, the orchestra, and all their associated support spaces, all to the new district standard. And then the next lineup

149is the art classrooms, which are arranged around a new art patio. One of the things that we're doing to overcome the kind of grade change is we're putting in this connecting link that's going to link the new building to the existing and it'll be a new stair that goes all the way up from the lower level or the fine we're calling the auditorium level to the first level and then the second level and it will also have an elevator in it because the only elevator on campus is in building A which is on the other side of the courtyard. So this is creating a new vertical link for the entire campus. Um and that's in the center portion there called connecting link. And then looking at the second or the what is now the first

150level in addition to the stairs and the elevator, we are creating a a a terrace that will come out and you know that area that uh exterior corridor that's on uh next to the cafeteria and then becomes an interior corridor. That's a very tight space. So we're going to create an exterior space that will allow you to expand that. Now it's a ramp there. We're going to expand that so the kids can come through the building on both floors or they can come through the exterior behind the security fence and get to the fine arts area and then um up to the second level. I'm just showing that that stairs and elevator connects up to the second level. So no matter what level you are on, you'll be able to connect over to the auditorium

151and and then go down to it. And then next we'll look at what the exterior might look like. And I'll start by showing you the overall bird's eye view. And what we really wanted to do was do a companion uh building or companion addition to the to the school that's there already. So we're using some of the same bricks that's there, but we're accenting it with a pretty with a real rich deep brown brick. So we'll create this accent color tone similar to what was done at Jay. And that really highlighting that connecting link. And then on the auditorium um house itself is having a multicolor it's coppers and deep bronzes and tans bringing um that brown accent on the uh metals on the existing building trying to play that up and wrapping the auditorium

152with it and having it be articulated or or have um uh have the ability to have shadows on it. So that will liven up that what was uh you know uh in terms of just being brown it's going to be multicolored coppers tams and browns and then extending the brick all the way around to the bus drop off. So you have this new front area um that will face the street for the campus and then on the existing um building the uh well this is the view coming up from the parking lot. So, if you're dropped off or you're coming in as a parent on that that side of the campus, you can see Will the Fine Arts as it gently goes up the hill. And then um as you're rounding the corner to towards

153the front, you can see the terrace that's out front and how the hill comes up towards the bus drop. And then this is the front view with that connecting link. And that sign is on the building now and we'll have to we can't reuse it, but we'll recreate it on that stair tower too. So that becomes the central element for the school. And then this is the view from the bus drop. So when the kids are dropped off at the bus or if you're coming from that side of the campus, this is how you will get to the auditorium. Although you'll be on the sidewalk on the right, not on the street I hope. But um and then you can see that vertical leak where the stairs are. And similar to what was done at

154homes, have some decorative light fixtures in that space that you can see. And then and then the night view uh is also important since so many of these events occur at uh during the night. And I spoke fast but that's our fine arts portion. Thank you. Any questions or Yeah. Trusty D. Yes. Dr. Durant. Thank you so much. Looks beautiful. I just have one quick question. In the connection with the link Uhhuh. I know you added stairs and there's an elevator. In case the elevator goes out, do we have an accessibility ramp from the main building to the link uh the new building? Uh from the main building it would be right now it's outside. So you would that um the area from where the courtyard is now you would be able to come down

155those sloped sidewalks to go to the outside. There's no ramp inside the building just mainly because it's 18 ft a grade difference and the the regulation is you can only go an inch per foot. So that's, you know, that's the ramp would be 180 ft long basically to make that work. Ideally elevated, but if there was, it was not working, they would just go around. Yeah, they could just go around the they would still be in the security area, but they would go uh on the exterior. Thank you. Any other trusty go? I'm sorry. Yeah, Trusty Salto. Okay. I still have a problem with the the band practice pad. I know we discussed it at the Oh, yeah. at the meeting, but uh I still see a lot of kids crossing student parking while I

156was um you know, the high school bands have xylophones and big old bass drums and a lot of equipment is going to be going back and forth toward that band practice pad. That's my biggest concern of somebody getting hit. I know you said you have a sidewalk. Yes. Clear across that other side, but I just see kids I just see an accident waiting to happen. um try to find a way to get it closer and put the I know we discussed this already that yeah so uh as we mentioned in building committee that band pad was done about two or three years ago um and it's a substantial project almost a million dollars were invested in that band pad currently the the students are actually traveling a lot further than they'd be traveling excuse me

157in this final plan and we're going to be looking and evaluating that walkway just to make sure that it's it's obviously if it needs to be redone or portions of it need to be redone, we can go ahead and redo it and see how we can keep it behind that secured area. We do understand that it's not ideal. Um but in order to not undo an investment of a million dollars that was already allocated on that band pad, we're trying to preserve that. Just to reiterate what Jerry has mentioned on the fall, that ramp uh starts on the north side of the plan north of that ramp starts at grade which is where we actually have some double gates so they can park their band trailer and whatnot on that parking lot and then it

158it transitions to a retaining wall that's almost 10 to 12 feet tall. So that's how much fall you have across that parking lot which they were practicing on that unfortunately uh prior to us doing that project. And so, uh, Mr. Machoka at the time had mentioned that concern and plus the asphalt had degraded over time and so we took an opportunity with some funding and and redid that ramp. So, as as we mentioned in building committee, Mr. Salceto, we will we will continue to evaluate that uh and see what options we have to make sure that there's safe passageways for the students. That raises a great point though and again ideally it would be uh adjacent to uh um particularly the the instrument storage areas. Um I think it's safe to say that the band

159practice area we probably use general fund uh which would be maintenance and operations which is really what we were just discussing with the budget. Keep in mind this is a result of the bond funds and we can't those are two separate funding sources that we can't cross over and so uh probably more so for those that are watching viewing again we can't use uh the funds that the the community the voters have approved for facilities to uh tend to operations and vice versa. So, this particular band practice pad is is an example. There's also a couple other examples of uh smaller renovations, the cafeteria expansion um that we just want to be careful of um and not my recommendation is we want to be careful of and not um tearing out uh improvements um rather

160master planning going forward. And that's really, like I say, the next item. And those are two really pretty good examples of why it's important. Also, while we're looking at, yes, the fine arts, uh, much needed, we also need to think longitudinally so that we're not going in and redoing projects in essence. Okay. And then and then trusty trusty Harl and Trusty D, you go next. Okay. Trusty Harl. Um, yeah, Jerry. Um, and I don't know if this is part of of what you do, but are there any new safety features that have come out um that would be part of this um that we possibly don't have at other fine arts facilities or any other kind of expansions? Anything new coming out regarding safety? Um, you mean just site safety or within the uh safety?

161Well, I mean, we'll the and as part of our project, we're going to be replacing all the fencing on the site. So, we did a survey of all the fencing around the perimeter and that will all be rel replaced with 8ft fencing, chain link fence. We're putting in the security um decorative security fence in the front. So, that's going to secure that part of the campus. And then as part of the district's uh overall safety plan, any of the front windows that um are beyond the fence, they'll be protected with safety film. So that um that will discourage breaking of the that glass. So all of that has been considered and we'll talk more about it in the site in the master plan about setting up the master plan with this project. So everything we

162do in this project will meet the safety standards and then the next project will take it to the next level basically. Thank you Chelsea D. I just had a follow-up question. I've been on a campus where there's two big parking lots and then a sidewalk in the middle taking students to another side of campus. I don't know how feasible or what the cost would be for something like that as a consideration for sidewalk like in the middle of new parking spaces that are going to be built from the Yeah, they I mean they have that pathway now. I mean, in and our new lot that there's there'll be a sidewalk that basically connects to the back of the fine arts, but there will also be a sidewalk that connects to the athletics facilities, which is

163the in this case the the bleachers for the football field are on the other side of the field. There already is a sidewalk, which is hard to see, right along the back of the buildings, and we'll connect up to that. But if you park on the opposite side of the campus now, you can go through the courtyard to get to okay the um fine arts facility. Okay, great to be done. The sidewalk that we're referring to is right here. That's an existing sidewalk. And again, we'll look to see if there's any improvements that are needing just to make sure that students that are traversing from fine art the fine arts building to the band pad have a clear path. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Okay. Uh this one uh is also potentially for action

164for approval by the board. Is there a motion to come before the board? I move that we approve the schematic design recommended fine arts replacement at Tom C. Clark schematic design. Second. Motion second. Any further discussion? Now it's been moved a second that we approve the schematic design for fine arts replacement as presented. All those in favor signify by stating I. I Okay. Any oppose? Okay. U six eyes, one nay. Okay. So, the motion passes. Thank you. And one thing I failed to mention is we do have a contractor on board for that. Barley Cocky is the contractor on board for that. So, as soon as now that this has been presented and approved, now we start moving into the construction documents where they play a key role in making sure they're looking at constructibility

165and those types of things that keep the cost down of that building. So, the last item that I have for you is the master plan as we already alluded to in the previous item. Uh, this also was uh completed uh by Alamo Architects and I will turn it over to Jerry here in a minute. Um, and we did have conversations with uh campus administration uh as far as how this would be laid out as well as when we were doing the schematic design. So, they have input throughout this process. And so, as Dr. Craft mentioned uh this is essentially a long range master plan of what we're going to do at the campus and the beauty of this particular master plan is that we do have some options. So we're bring presenting you multiple options

166so that we um we can get some direction. That's not to say that this plan cannot change over time. We're not locked in or anything like that. However, it does kind of lay the groundwork for any future considerations and future bond programming. And so that is what the intent of our master plans are. uh that started with Mr. San Miguel a few bond programs ago and we've continued that practice as we start doing projects like this that have substantial impact to campuses. So with that I'll go ahead and turn it over to Mr. Lamers for the master plan presentation. Can I ask you one one preliminary comment? I'm sorry on the uh on on the master plan itself um because I sort of looked a little bit already. The when we're talking about a master

167plan for Clark for example, we have to remember we're still limited. We don't have the 100 acres that we have at other campuses, right? So we can't do a comparison across the board to say, "Okay, this doesn't have this, for example, etc." Correct. Yeah, correct. I mean, it there's definitely a a method to the madness on how you strategically lay out these different components because obviously we're talking big blocks right now. We're not talking granular um and aesthetic layouts of these buildings, but we are looking at overall square footage as it relates to the needs of the campus. And part of the presentation, I won't steal Jerry's thunder, but part of the presentation does look at that and try and determine what the major deficiencies are at that campus. So, so we can determine either

168how to renovate spaces to accommodate those deficiencies or build new spaces and see what it compromises down down the road as far as either uh additional practice space or anything like that. Yeah, that's what I was sort of getting at. Um, you know, being a little bit cautious of athletics right now, but still, for example, we could not have two fields there at Clark, for example, right? just because of way. Okay. Yes, sir. And not to mention Clark is over the Edwards aquifer. Um, and so that creates a challenge in itself. And so any of these improvements that increase impervious cover then usually trigger some sort of water quality, whether it be a pond or some other uh best management practice that's approved by TCQ. So we have to take that into consideration. Thanks. Thanks

169for taking that. I'll turn it over to Jerry. Yeah, thank you. Thank you again, Jacob. And good evening again. Um, still with me is Lindsay Opelt. Um, but, uh, but, uh, to Jacob's point and yours, uh, Mr. Blunt, uh, what we're comparing Clark to is basically the new high schools in terms of the size of the spaces that are there, everything up and down the the list of the design standards. Now, we're only looking at the programs that are currently at Clark. So our first step is to do an inventory and we did an exhaustive inventory. We looked in every single space on the campus. We cataloged what that space was used for. We measured the square footage and then we compared that to the district design guide of which the new high schools are

170built. So in some cases, you know, in the case of the fine arts, it's an exact match. You know, the only difference in the fine arts now is the size. The the dance studio is not part of our fine arts project and there's a dance studio there. We'll compare that dance studio to the dance studio at Sodtoayor for example. But any of the other spaces are compared to the design guide. Um uh we spoke about where the campus is. Um and to your question about the site, the the the general site uh that the district uses for a new high school campus is about 70 75 to 100 acres. 75 being on the small side. That's what Soayor uh at that time was 105 acres, but a portion of that now is going to be

171the baseball softball. Clark is 64 acres, so a little bit undersized. And then they have the the nature or the area that uh helps with the drainage issues that uh Jacob was talking about in terms of what filters the running water as it leaves the buildings uh where we're putting the new parking lot. Um, other than that, it has all of the other components except that one field that you mentioned, but in the front of the campus is that uh uh severe drop off or slope that goes towards devala and there's actually a dry creek in there and I'll show you that in a minute. Um, but um just reminding everyone that the campus was built in 78. It's been added on to several times since then. The last one according to our records was

1722018 with the cafeteria edition. Uh but generally like most high schools and it's been pretty much added on to for the last almost 50 years. Um and uh we'll go right into the master plan. And then to your question about security, the first thing we looked at was the security. And we're assuming with this that everything that we talked about with the fine arts has been done at the the start of the potential next project. So all the fencing will be replaced. The security fence over at the bus drop off will be in place. Everywhere on this diagram you see a little uh brown uh person with a uh uh ped pedestrian. That's where a gate is. If it's a green one that's a a pedestrian gate. um where you see a lock open lock

173that means that there's a um a vulnerability there that we will correct. So that means either a new fence or in the case of the one by building A that's where the security vestibule will go now when and I know you're familiar with Clark Dr. car. When you come up the stairs, it's just open. So, you have you can either walk onto the courtyard or you're directed in to check in. The master plan will have a new security vestibule for the campus. So, all the other vulnerabilities will be taken care of and the only way you'll be able to enter the campus is through the security vestibule. Um, and then we look at expansionary and I spoke a bit about the dry creek at the bottom and the slope that the auditorium is overcoming. the

174only really available area is to take a little bit more of that practice field and then go over to where the portables are now. Then they're currently eight portables at that location. Um, and then stepping into the design guide comparison, as I mentioned, we look at the district standards for all of these categories. There are 10 major categories that we look at. We compare, we look at every space and we compare them with the design guide and then we rank them. And JOTC, although it's ranked number one, it it actually doesn't require that much more square footage, uh, a couple of thousand square feet to be at district standard. Whereas CTE, it's number two, it's going to require almost 19,000 square feet to bring it up to district standard. So, some of them will be

175relatively easy to comply with the current design guide. Some are are going to be more challenging. And the overall goal is to set up a uh a a series of projects that the district can undertake over a period of time. And they don't have to be collected in what we will show you and and basically four groups. They can be done individually. But the idea is that those are the projects that are most needed at the campus and here's a way that you can uh get them done. Um so the first one question is what do you do with building B? and building B's on the right. And what the master plan proposes is that the cafeteria and the kitchen be moved to where the auditorium is now. So that space is a tall space.

176We will have to spend some money to flatten the floor out. Um but it will then be the right size cafeteria for uh the campus. And you know right now that building's completely encased in brick. All that brick can come up. We can introduce windows. At that same time, we would uh uh in include the secure vestibule. The dance studio could move over there. It can be right sized to soda mayor. The ROC can be right- sized. The CTE green box and building E up above. The the construction lab and the auto lab are there now, but they don't have classrooms. Their classrooms are in a portable. So, those would bring those back over there. what is now the dance studio could be an expanded weight room and then over where the um uh cafeteria

177is now that would be the culinary arts basically all that culinary arts suite would fit into where the cafeteria is now. So the existing kitchen all of the you know intro to culinary the culinary dining room the lab and the classroom would fit in that space almost perfectly. Um and uh basically that's the series of projects that we're proposing are the first that be are undertaken in this first goaround. Then the next step would be a new CTE facility that replaces the one that's there and brings all of the CTE up to speed. The where CT is now could become the special ed because we'll be vacating some classrooms. Um, and it would have a location essentially where the same one is now. Um, and then the next phase would be a new gymnasium and

178locker room facility. So on this side of the campus, just like many of your other campuses, you would have fine arts on one end, which could use that parking lot. You would have the new gym and wait room lockers on the other end. And then the final is you tear down the existing gym and move the library so that it fronts the courtyard. it can be right-sized and then the admin can expand into the existing library and then we'll pick up some classrooms too. So those four phases would then bring um Clark up to the same square footage levels as the new high schools over, you know, the next 10 to 15 years. And then this is the total campus. As you can see, we're touching almost every space, renovating several of them, and having

179two major or three actual building additions. And then if you look at it in 3D, this is what it might look like. So, we're preserving that heart of the campus where the courtyard is. And then I would even advocate that we're improving it because we're going to put the cafeteria on the opposite end. And now we're moving the library to that location as well. So, we're activating that space even more than it is right now. And that's I'll happy to take any questions now. So, Jerry, real quick, when when was Clark first built? 1978. 78. So, it's almost Nick, you know, in three years it'll be 50 years old. Yeah, it's I love I love So, one of the compliments I always get from alumni is how we preserve the heart of our schools that

180are that old. Like Marshall was one, this will be another with that courtyard. Um, and moving the library up. Oh my gosh, it's such a hub. So, that's going to be phenomenal. And no trees gave their life for this to happen. So, well, actually that's very true because it's all on that side of the It is. It is. So, um I love it and great efficient use of space. So, way to go. Yeah. Trusty D. How long is the phasing in will begin and then Masenos approximately? So, typically with these master plans, each phase that you're seeing, so this is a four-phase uh master plan would be a bond program. So, you're still looking at a long time, a long time, 16 years potentially. If if you elect to approve this, which is not required

181by any stretch of the imagination, again, it's non-binding. We'll put this in a time capsule. Um, I mean, it just we're dreaming. It it Well, it it happens. It it just it's just going to for one we're not going to have the ability to displace large numbers of students from a programming standpoint because the the site is tied. The other challenge though that became very very evident just with the fine arts project is the elevation is also pretty extreme. Um and so it it's going to take a little bit of time uh to to finish it out. And of course, much of it will be probably contingent on the the voters um and how quickly they want to proceed and um future bond programs. Um so um but like I said, we wanted to go

182ahead and yeah, absolutely have the set the vision even though we know that it might tweak. There's in fact I would venture to say probably a strong likelihood that there will be uh some tweaks um um but just to make sure that it works. um because we we don't want to misstep and for example place a fine arts edition um or renovation somewhere where it really doesn't fit um and then have to go in and address it along with the remainder of the building. Okay. Uh Trusty Freeman. Yeah. Um we started these master plans several several years ago when um Bobby you said something I was going to say decades ago. Okay. Dec okay. well, maybe decades. Um, at least since I've been on the on the board. And so, this isn't any different than

183than um some of our master plans that we do have. And it does prevent us from putting something in and then, oh my goodness, maybe we should not have done that. So, at least this is u as you say, in a in a time capsule and we can always refer to it if we um decide to have do any other renovations or things that have to be done. um sometimes things come up um foundation issues that we weren't anticipating so we can still always pull this back out but thank you. Yeah, well thought of any other I'll just add it 20 years sometimes not as long as you may think per se. That's all relative. But some of our elementary and middle schools that you know we sort of whatever we call it master plan

184etc. there you look at things peas and some of the others etc were start out the same way. We said boy we don't know when we'll ever achieve that and you look now we're there. So yes sir. So yeah. So I think this is important to be honest. It really it really can happen. He's thinking about it now. I I'll probably still be here. No comment, but never. Are there any other further uh discussion? Is there a motion to come before the board? I move we approve um should I call it completed phasing or what? Master Clark master plan for Clark High School. Okay. Is there Okay. Motion and a second uh to approve the master plan for Clark. Are there any further discussion? Okay. Move a second that we approve the master plan for

185Clark High School as presented. All those in favor signify by stating I I any oppose state nay. Okay. One nay. 61. Uh motion carries. Good. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Well done. Thank you. Thanks J. All right. So now we go over to business and finance. Mr. President, Mr. Members of the board, if it's okay, I'll I'll start off and again I'll I'll um elaborate a little bit more focusing on House Bill Two. And as indicated, we wanted to make sure that we were working right alongside uh stride stride for stride, if you will, with uh the 89th legislative session. Uh so we've gone ahead and uh taken the runs that um took a little bit uh to to really have the official runs, which are again um uh part of the function

186of the uh LBB, which is the legislative budget board. uh those runs were received Monday afternoon, Monday evening. Um and that's really important because while we were looking at different scenarios or analysis that were being run uh by some or really two consultants, one being Tasbo, Texas Association of School Business Officials, but then also uh Mo Casey and um we really needed the LBB runs. um the legislators had those runs uh going into uh the like I say floor debate uh before the entire house and so we feel pretty confident that the way House Bill 2 with the amendments supporting amendments uh were approved that we're getting closer to what is the financial impact which is is really what House Bill 2 uh is about. um some of the pieces that had to be cleaned

187up or amended I should say uh leading into that um Wednesday, last Wednesday in the floor debate. Uh one big one that was impacting us uh pretty significantly was the hold harmless uh provisions. The hold harmless being the two uh tax uh rate compressions, the homestead exemption and the and then of course the 65 and older. um that was amended. Uh I think districts were well I don't think across the board were uh taken care of. The um prek allotment that was being proposed was in essence amended to be rolled into comped to provide greater flexibility. Um the special education aotment which we'll like say take a closer look at as we reviewed most recently special programs. Um there's a there's a lot of caveats um that Megan and Tiffany are still working through actually.

188um we don't think major um caveats but caveats just to make sure that we're like I say crossing tees and dotting eyes but there's a lot of a lot of um uh mechanisms in house bill 2 uh that does not provide just an overarching here's an increase to the basic aotment and and we'll dig into it here momentarily. So I think that's important to note. The other important piece to note is um there was some contemplation on uh the 40% uh of any new revenue uh having to be allocated for uh teachers and teachers only pay raises or teachers, counselors, librarians, and nurses. And it was amended to include all four. Um so you'll see the required spending um as a result of the 40% and again much needed um in fact I'll argue that

189probably not enough um and I will argue not enough um but that is going to be a requirement. So, um, all this being said, again, it it this is contingent upon it moving through, uh, the h or excuse me, the the senate chamber and then, of course, being engrossed and signed, uh, engrossed, uh, off the governor's desk. But like I say, it it's it's not perfect. This is not, as I've told many across the state, this is not a victory um, by any stretch of the imagination. I do think that a lot of individuals, including Diego Bernal, the vice chair for the P House public education committee, spent a lot of hours, uh, trying to work to to get us, uh, in the best possible position we could we could find ourselves. And so, uh,

190with all that being said, um, we'd like to go ahead and and, uh, provide you an overview of not only what House Bill 2, uh, is likely to provide, and of course, there are still some school safety aotment bills. There's some other things that could add, uh, additional revenue, um, uh, as we go into uh, next school year. U,, but we feel pretty good at this juncture as to where we are with our our estimates. Um and then of course continuing the glide path of working to become more efficient uh just as we have. You know, I I I think that it's safe to say that even before the session began, yes, we needed $1,300 uh as a result of just keeping up with inflationary pressures uh applied to the basic aotment, but that was

191just not going to be feasible. not not without um encroaching upon spending caps and constitutional amendments and some things that were just hasn't won hasn't been done historically and just it just wasn't realistic um with with the budget uh and of course the funding that uh the comproller released as far as revenue estimates I I really feel like with us being in and around 59 590 uh new dollars per student. Um it's pretty close. Um I I had a pretty good feel that it would probably be in and around $600 um per student just as a result of of resources being made available to us. So um so all that being said, uh tonight we'd like to like say continue the conversation looking at House Bill 2 impact, but then also uh the budget timeline

192uh as we proceed and going forward. So, I'll turn it over to Megan and Tiffany at this point. Okay. If we could pull up the the attachment. So, we have loaded in board book for you uh board docs the run models, House Bill 2 run models. I do have want to show you this is House Bill 2 as amended. Uh so many pages for to continue to work through and there are some things we have flagged to ask questions about and and it still has to get to the Senate. So, it's not finished. It's not final. So, we're not yet including this as a budget review. So, no, it will likely change some, but running the MA models, and I know that they're working on that for you, but roughly um it the model that

193is passed the house now, it adds back, here we go, 53.81 million in local um state and local revenue. That is taking local taxes into account. So, it is looking at the balance between state and local. And so it does include a about a three and a half percent property tax increase. If we do not recognize that, of course, that will change that balance off because I know you know that if your property tax revenue increases, your state aid decreases and vice versa. But taking looking so we want to look at both those in conjunction. So we're paying attention to that. But total um state and local revenue 53.81 million. Our change in special programs, like we looked at last time, adds $23 million for the special programs. And then the change in what I'm

194calling discretionary, it's not really labeled in that, but everything that's not a special program is $30 million. The 40% calculation that Dr. Craft was talking about that must be used for um compensation increases, that is now again, as Dr. Craft said that for teachers, librarians, nurses, and counselors, and prioritizing teachers with five or more years of experience, that total will be 21.7 million. I did a very quick estimate um based on the numbers here, and you know, it's a little over right at $2,000 each if we split it equally, which we can't do that. So, I don't want anybody to get hold to those numbers, but it's a it's a decent pay raise. um that would equal up that $21.7 million. We've got to do some work with that to make sure that we're prioritizing

195five years um and more teachers. And so that's just if everyone got the same dollar amount. The good news is not all of that $21 million will have to come out of the $30 million. Some of our teachers are paid with and teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors are paid with special program money. So there will be a split. So, while we will not recognize um $30 million in discretionary funding, we also won't see as little as nine million. It will be somewhere in between those two that we will actually be able to use to have additional budget considerations. Yes, ma'am. Does does what the state is proposing to give the teachers the 40% that we have to do that is that a definite figure that they will fund every year or is it a one-time

196we're going to give you this approximately $2,000 and that's it? Well, that's always the great question. Um, and and always the question that, you know, sometimes I'd go all the way back to 2011 and have to question how did we get here? Yes, until no is the answer. And what I mean by that is is I do think that while well-intentioned, it's going to be the sustainability is going to be very much contingent upon how the state does economically in going forward. And and what I mean by that is is I don't think that uh there was ever mal intent in 201 101 to uh cut over $4 billion out of the public education budget. But if you recall that's when as a state well really as a nation we were coming out of um

197some pretty difficult times from a mortgage housing u crisis and um and that's what happened. And so, um, that's why you're saying it's a yes until it's a no. Until it's a no. if we end up with oil and gas just dropping or whatever and we're not getting the money that sales tax revenue. Um, I mean it I I don't want to say that um I don't want to say that it's not sustainable, but as with this session and every other session that I've at least been a part of, it's it's usually very um shortsighted in regards to how additional revenue dollars are allocated. And I don't know that there's always a long-term view of sustainability and I don't think that this is different. Um now hopefully hopefully not but again the the best answer

198I can provide just from experience is yes the intent is to be is for it to be sustained um and even supplemented probably by the district through a general pay increase in years to come until it's no um i.e. It's just unaffordable. It is funded for two years. Yeah. So for the that's a better answer. Thank you. To me, I think that's the next. That's probably a much more politically correct uh answer. And unfortunately in school business, we're only looking at two years at a time because we know that every two years everything can change on this. So over two years. Thank you. So again, this is the run as of um the um April 16th. We received another run from another entity on the 17th. It was very close to this run. So, we

199do feel comfortable. Um, we ran nine different iterations of runs through this couple of weeks time frame and they were all very close other than the hard hold harmless. Uh, so the hold harmless piece was the piece we were very concerned about. You can see in this model that the house bill 2 as it was passed the house does bring our hold harmless back to 17 million. It was zero in the previous runs. So that's that is a huge increase that we need to be thankful for. Um as Dr. Craft said, it's not um we're not out shouting from the rooftops that we love this this um bill, but it is better than what we had been seeing. So I'm thankful for what we're for what we're seeing here. So are there any questions on

200this model? We will continue. We'll start looking into the pay requirements, compensation requirements through this, modeling those, bringing them back to you. And so that leads me to the next item. If we can show the next item in board book and that's a timeline. So Tiffany and her team has really put this together, but we've talked about a lot and the board has asked for this uh that to show you what we're going to be forward to you. So there's areas at the top that's February, March. Those are finished and done. So they're grayed out. So you don't see those as closely. But then um April and May is where we are right now, what we're working on. And we are looking to have a finance committee meeting on April 22nd with a new the

201full board meeting on the 25th. If you see in the bottom of that, April and May, that is where we will be bringing back um finalizing some of the reductions we're having to make um reviewing possible options for our compensation. And then we'll come into June. Again, I'm not going to go through all of this because you can read them, but that's what we're going to look at. There are some GNI packages as we know. Um, some costs will continue to increase. We have property insurance, things like that that we um have to look at. Health insurance for our employees. So, there are some things that we have to look at and consider as we continue through this process. And so, we'll be doing that through the June time frame. And then when we go

202to the last page, July and August, um July is when we will actually come to you with the notice of our public meeting. We will finally get our our final tax values, which we cannot finalize a budget without having those. As we've talked about that inverse relationship uh between state aid and property tax values. So, we have to wait until that July 25th date to really finalize and be able to get ready for a tax rate. And then you can see in August that we should have our tax rate back from TA on the M side by August 5th. That July time frame is where we really start looking at our INS. Also, there are some items in House Bill 2 about INS. We haven't gotten far into that. So, we'll need to be bringing

203that back to you in that um July time frame also. And then, of course, we will um ask you to set a public meeting where we will have the budget adoption and tax rate before August 31st. So, I wanted to make sure you knew what was coming and when so you can plan in your head. Any questions about the time? Yeah, Trusty Harl. Um, Megan, um, remind me what the CCMR budget is. Oh, how much it is? Well, and what is it? It so college career and military regulations. But what like programs, classes, courses? Um, I believe AVID is part of it. Um, CTE, I'm trying to think. I'm Tiffany. It's all those things where we get a CCMR rating, accountability rating. Okay. So, got correct. No, there was a separate budget for that. There

204is. It is part of our special programs. It's um roughly been 2 and a.5 million is what has been well and it's it's part of the uh weighted average daily attendance. It's weighted funding as a result of what we submit through the PEM system. So, under this model, it went up $60,000. So, not not a large increase, but a little little bump. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Good. Any other comments? Just has has a finance committee discussed lately looking at some of our different short-term investment pools and those type of things to see if that actually helps us out from a interest or other s have decent um yes some decent increases. That's what our I just sure if y'all address that at finance committee. I believe that was part of the consent agenda tonight. So

205we um we we did look at it just recently and are monitoring it and we are making Okay, good. Nice rates. Good. Okay. Just for clarif in in Knack. It's been a while since we've had a separate finance meeting outside this board meeting. Oh, okay. We've had we've had called meetings. Yes. Right. Right. No. Oh, no. No. as we were as we've been going through the I'm with you. I was just wondering if I didn't I know we Yeah. So, we haven't had detailed discussions on it just itself, but as part of the quarterly investment report, we do disclose that information. Okay. No, the reason why I was curious and um I just wasn't sure what everything that's going on financially, you know, hard some investment loan store investment those guys, you know, that for

20610 years. I'm curious how if they're benefiting us now or not, those type of investment [Music] opportunity have slowed a little bit. you don't. Okay. No, don't worry about these direct investments. But that that is definitely part of the revenue planning. Okay. That would that we go through as part of the process and we look at where we are and where we think we're going to be in the next year um and make sure that we're budgeting. Okay. So, it will adjust. That's a that's a that's a very good question. Um and again just as a reminder um per the the board uh investment policy safety security that's that's priority number one right yield is priority three um so liquidity is is important but um so the so the the investments that we have u

207particularly with fund balance if you will savings is is going to be pretty safe secure curve, but at the same time, it's just not going to right generate great yields with a volatile market especially. Yeah. Okay. Good. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay. And this item is discussion. Okay. Good. And hit a button. What is this item? Discussion. Good. More to come. Okay. Good. Next. Um, thank you. They go to our super actually I'm doing this one right. Reporting of continuing. Yes, sir. I'll pass it right back to you. Okay. So, reporting and continuing. So, this is a um our annual requirement and the requirement is that I have to u we have to make available to the public um our continuing education status and I also have to as as a board

208chair whoever our board chair also announces it. So I'll announce that uh Trusty Ga, Trusty Harl, Trusty Sadana, Trusty Freeman, Trusty Don, and Trusty Blunt have exceeded uh Trusty Salceto is incomplete. This just one area of continue education of requiring two more hours. So I'm sure they'll take care of that. So that's our official announcement. Okay, any comments or questions on that part? Good. And by the way, thanks everybody. There's a lot there's a lot on this that has to be accomplished and appreciate everybody that's really put forward the effort to do that and and again having the amount of exceed actually gone beyond what's actually required. So appreciate the board taking care of this part of it. All right. So I think we're ready to move over to next area is going to be

209our superintendent evaluation. I think we want to go into close session. So we'll we'll hold off on that particular item till we come back out again and we'll go to future agenda items. Uh yes sir. Uh next agenda or excuse me the next meeting uh called meeting uh will be May 13th. Um we we do need to have this meeting uh we need to uh plan on canvasing the May 3rd election results. Um and then of course the uh swearing uh the oath will be uh on the 27th but this will be the canvasing meeting. Uh we'd like to bring forward TASBY policy update 124. We'd like to bring in policy that uh really dictates how we um not only implement but also uh really market potential open enrollment uh for your consideration. Uh we

210also need to bring in teacher and admin uh administrative professional uh support contracts. So um that will be also scheduled for the 13th. Um and then from a we'd like to use this again as an opportunity to really uh dig into and or continue the conversation in and around the um uh preparation of the 2000 fiscal year 2026 budget uh and look at some model staffing as well as uh fund balances. Um I think that that would be um uh warranted with the notion that on um the finance committee if we're able to meet on the 22nd and then again regular meeting on the 27th uh compensation uh particularly as it's outlined in uh House Bill 2. Good. Any other Trusty Freeman? Yeah, this is the time of the year that um TASBY calls for

211additional resolutions. Um Dr. Harl, I don't know if you know the date on that. It's usually mid usually our the date to submit is actually mid June. Um you might want to check on that. I think it's like June the 16th. So we probably if we are going to submit any new resolutions the resolutions the advocacy agenda is for two years. So it would be any new resolutions. Um quite honestly I this last legislative session has been um things have been done to us and um somebody put it. Yes sir. And and I can't think of anything off hand but we need to put our heads together. Perhaps we have a policy meeting. You just talked about um uh update policy updates. So maybe at the policy meeting. Yeah we we've got a policy meeting

212already scheduled I believe or we do not. Okay, we have one and we're bringing that on the 13th. Okay. All right. I did that resolutions when I was looking at the election for I have it on the board meeting and so I can print out or email you last year and that was in June last year. It was so we've got time. I do have it on the last May one but again that's on but I can at least provide she did last year. If I were if I recall, it's right before we go to SLI. Yeah. But but it's still based on so we submitted resolutions in the fall or right before the session started, right? So these would be new resolutions from that point, not necessarily from Right. Okay. So we just need

213to look at what we currently have in place. Okay. Any other items? Okay. All right. So, we'll get ready to go into our um close slashexecutive session now. So, the board of trustees at what time is it? 9:25. 9:20. What yall need? 9:25. So, 9:25 we'll go in close session of course with the Texas government code 512 as listed. All right. So, thank you all for attending. We will be coming back out afterwards, but uh we're going to go ahead and go into close. All right, y'all ready? So, the board of y'all got the tables in town. So, the board of trustees beginning at 10:35 convene back in open meeting. Action can take place on uh the items that were listed. Is there a motion to become before the board on the appointment? I move

214that we um approve the appointments as presented in executive session. I second that. Moved a second. Any further discussion? Move a second that we approve the appointments as discussed in executive session. All those in favor signify by stating I. I. Any oppose? State say nay. Okay. Motion carries. Uh any on the superintendent evaluation? Is there a motion to come before the board? M Mr. Blunt. Yeah. Trusty F. Sure. I would um motion to approve the superintendent's contract as discussed in executive session with the addition of the one year on the contract. Second. All right. So, we have move second to make the changes as discussed in executive session on the uh superintendent contract and the motion extended one year. All those in favor? Oh, is there any further discussion? I do want to add one

215element on the uh discussion for the superintendent evaluation. Um in accordance with the Texas requirements, we have completed the evaluation um of our of our superintendent and um you know to give a summary. The board is very pleased by the performance of our superintendent during this uh this time period and um had some very positive comments and uh feel he not only represent our district well but is doing an outstanding job in terms of helping out others across our state and challenges that we face now in public education across the state as well within north side itself. So so we definitely appreciate it and thank you. Thank you Dr. Katie. Okay. All right. Uh so any further discussion? It's been moved and second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any oppose?

216Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Have a good evening. All right. So at 10:38 All right.