Called Board Meeting 4-8-2025

001Okay. Uh good evening everybody. I think we're ready to get started. Um what we'll do be this is before we actually call the the meeting to to order. We'll do our invocation and uh pledge allegiance uh led by Trusty Freeman. [Music] Almighty and merciful God, we ask your guidance and blessings upon this board, students, parents, patrons, teachers, and administrators as we are assembled here this evening in the common pursuit of this great nation's wealth, our children. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor flag. I aliance to thee. One state and indivisible. All right, we'll go ahead now and we'll officially call our uh get ready to call a

002meeting to order. Before we do, there's a few just a few little instructions to give everybody background on the purpose of our meeting. So, this one is this one is a called meeting of the north side board of trustees and uh the order for this business is set out in the agenda. Now, the purpose of our meeting is to conduct board business and for that reason it is held in public. It's not a public forum. However, we do provide the opportunity for audience participation. If there's anyone here that would like to address the board for an agenda item, uh we ask that you sign up in the signup sheet that was located at the the front of the room. And again, this is for agenda items. This is a difference between our our called meetings.

003Um when we have our regular meetings and we have our citizard portion that students can sign up for, but for this one, we have a specific purpose. Um and this is important that we don't overlook anyone who'd like to speak to the board. Um again during this call meeting there's no s be heard portion and if somebody has signed up and let me see if we any indicator I don't think so. Okay. Um then uh we'll go ahead and we'll go ahead and officially call the meeting to order. It's always a pleasure when we get to do the recognitions especially with such a large group. So we'll turn over to our superintendent Dr. Craft. Yes sir. Good evening members of the board. Good evening uh North Side ISD community. Uh we have two special groups

004that we'd like to recognize and get started immediately. I know that we've got a lot of students to recognize. We're going to ask that if parents would like to take photos as we're uh recognizing uh these uh very deserving students. We'll do so photos will be taken over here and we'll kind of situation or uh put ourselves in a situation uh so that the TV monitor is not blocking. So without further ado, I think we're ready to start honors and recognition. I believe Barry Perez, our assistant superintendent for communications, is going to lead us off. If the board will please join me in front of the dis. Thank you Dr. Craft. As trustees take their place, I am going to give a few instructions for this evening. If you are a parent um or you'd

005like to get a picture of the honore, we have reserved the first row to my left so that you can come up and get a better picture of your uh of your child as they are honored. Students, if you are being honored, there was a pink card that has your name on the chair. We're going to ask that you bring your certificate up for that picture moment, but please don't forget to bring your name card. You're going to come up and stand to my left. As I call your name, you will go over and proceed through the receiving line. You'll greet each of the trustees. Don't leave. Stay if you have someone who's going to get a picture of you. And then you'll return to your seat uh going this way on my right. Okay.

006All right. So, our first group is recognition of vase state qualifiers. Hundreds of NISTD student artists participated in the region 20 West visual arts scholastic event which featured a remarkable 1,778 entries. NISD contributed 662 outstanding entries to this competition. Of those 662, 549 of them achieve the highest rating of a four. Additionally, 46 exceptional works from NISD advanced to the state vase competition, which will be held at the end of April. We're extremely proud of these talented young artists and their dedicated teachers. And so now, I'd like to ask them to come forward for board recognition. [Applause] We begin from Brandeise High School. Marian Mech Quimbar. [Applause] Gabrielle Marshall also from Brandeise. from Brennan High School. Andrew Santion [Applause] from Clark High School. Mia Eskel. [Applause] from Clark High School. Gabrielle Garcia Congratulations from Harland

007High School. Dwende Okampo [Applause] from Harland High School. Alina Lua Himenez [Applause] That is a lot. from Harland High School, Abigail Nicole. [Applause] from Harlland High School. Julia Perez [Applause] from Harland High School. Lydia Reynolds [Applause] from Harlland High School. Maya Gonzalez [Applause] from Health Careers High School. Rebecca Hong [Applause] You are just so nice. from Health Careers High School. Shanita Trapy from Jay High School. Diego Medina [Applause] from Marshall High School. Sarah [Applause] Smith Congratulations. from Marshall High School. Lorena Connley [Applause] from Marshall High School. Marsha Dakan [Applause] from Marshall High School. Sheamus Fagan from Marshall High School. Joseph Piaawa. [Applause] [Music] from Stomayor High School. Sienna Gonzalez. from Stomayor High School. Emma Pitman [Applause] from Stommy High School. Kylin Hill [Applause] myself. Thank you. from Stommy High School. Ty Barker [Applause] from Stoayor

008High School. Nicholas Munice That was for that Friday. From Stommy High School, Emily Freric [Applause] from Stevens High School. Angel Franklin [Applause] from Stevens High School. Christian Variel [Applause] from Taft High School. Kathleen Butos Congratulations from Taft High School. Amoris Slongoria [Applause] How cool was that? from Warren High School. Gel Alonso from Warren High School. Jaylen Gaitton [Applause] Our final honore is from Warren High School, Isabella Villan Nova. At this time, we'd like to recognize all of the staff members who helped these students achieve success with vase at VASE. That would be the art teachers here that are with the students. if they would please stand and be recognized. And students, your success would not be possible were it not for your family, your parents, your grandparents, your siblings. Would you help recognize your family

009members who are here providing support? Our next honores are on a roll literally and figuratively. These young student athletes are part of the North Side Bowling League which advanced to the Texas High School Bowling State Championships. They had lots of strikes and spares to win some top spots on the leaderboard. All qualified at the regional tournament held in San Antonio on March 2nd. First now, oh, excuse me. Now, some individual award winners. We begin with Caitlyn Tony from Brennan High School. She's a senior. She is the 2025 state bowling champion, winning in the single girls varsity category. [Applause] Next are our 2025 state bowling qualifiers from Stommy High School, Will Shelton. That was a from Taft High School. Adrien Gonzalez. [Applause] [Music] from Taft High School. Aiden Snider [Applause] and finally am A Amber Hill

010from Warren High School. Our next honores are the 2025 state bowling runnerup group which is from Warren High School, Adakus Whitmore. Hold it. Next is Joseph Heiser. [Applause] Jordan Moreno Ezra Haskins. [Applause] Kawichi Smith. [Applause] [Music] Daniel Heiser. [Applause] Where you get the group from? with a seat. Chandra. Oh, Chandra. Yes, sir. Yes. We'll recognize the two Warren coaches who joined the team for the group picture. We have James Napman and Chandra Williams. Let's also acknowledge all of the other coaches that are with us today. Mark Valdez from Warren, Rachel Tony from Brennan, James Tate from Clark, Walupe Vasquez from Taft, Patrick Kaggel from Stoayor, and the district coordinator Rudy Davila. If y'all would please stand. And as before, bowlers, if you would, let's show some support for your family members that are here and

011who have supported you throughout your season. Let's recognize them. Trustees, that concludes our recognitions for this [Applause] evening. Now, just one second before we actually depart. Um, we do want to recognize one other individual and that's a a former trustee that sat on his board with us who actually is the one that actually started uh our bowling program and that's Lynn Britain. Thank you, Lynn, for being here. Thank you. And congratulations again to all of our students that we we're very fortunate to to to have you wear that North Side name with you and to recognize you this evening and as well as our family members and others. Thanks everybody. Thank you all. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all y'all talk. We'll talk real slow as y'all slowly creep out of here so we can get ready for

012the agenda item. They don't want to stay. I didn't mean to say creep. They don't want to stay. For the record. I have to stay. Y'all have to stay. Oh yeah. Thank you. Yes. Appreciate it. always forget for agenda item. They couldn't sign up for it. We're good. We're good. There you go. Okay. Those bowling shirts. Those bowling shirts are nice, right? Oh, car. All right. Oh, okay. All right. I think we're ready to go ahead and get back on the uh next agenda item. And this is going to be under our business and finance and Dr. Craft to get us started. Yes, sir. Again, uh congratulations to all of our our students. We have uh really amazing students. the the bowling um uh teams have really taken off here at Northside ISD which is

013just a really phenomenal program as you articulated Mr. Blunt um Mr. Britain started and um and and furthermore as you well know we have phenomenal fine arts programs throughout the the district and um this was just a small sampling of uh like I say uh those amazing students and their their talents. Um this evening u under business finance we'd like to kick off with the depository bank services contract. This is a contract with uh Wells Fargo. Um it is a review and so if you do have any questions, please let us know. This is for your information and um seeing that we don't have a finance committee. Technically, this is our this is part of our finance committee with our budgetary review, uh we'd like your consideration to u look at putting this on the

014consent agenda for the 22nd. Uh unless there, like I say, is any amendments or or a need for uh uh uh changes. So Megan, I'll kick it off and let you explain what we're looking at. Uh yes, sir. So we are required to have a depository bank from Texas Education Agency and this is a requirement so that they can direct deposit into our bank account for our TEA payments is where that started. And so we are allowed to have a original two-year contract and then three two years of extensions for every bid that we do. If you can imagine, every time we change banks, it's um quite extensive to change out all of that information. So, we try if we like the bank after they've won the bid, we'd like to keep those extensions going

015until the next bid process if everything is flowing well. And Tiffany has assured me that it is flowing well. Um, we do get um the earned credit for the interest. So, we get some the fees rebated, if you will, um for that earned income that we have come in. And so, we would like to extend this this contract. It was awarded two years ago. So, we do have three extensions that we can do. This would be the first extension. I'm happy to take any questions and I know Tiffany has some more information with her if we have questions. Okay. And this one is a discussion as was stated. Is there any comments or questions on this agenda item? Okay. Good. Okay. Thank you. I think we can proceed forward and we'll see at the consent

016agenda next time. Second. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, we're ready for our next one. Our fiscal year. Yes, sir. Uh so as we are uh working through a very challenging fiscal year 26 budget planning process uh which is really a continuation of a lot of a lot of hours a lot of work. I felt it only again um appropriate to provide some context as we promised. We're working right alongside the legislative session um and really following uh particularly the school finance legislation as it pertains to what our revenue estimates and outlook will will be for the next school year. Um before I get there, just as a reminder, you know, again, the ESSER funds that we've been able to utilize to try to really work to help put kids

017back on track to success have expired. uh those funds were ex were they expired were expended uh back in September uh September 30th to be uh specific. And so while we do have a designated fund balance um um this year's uh deficit budget uh which is just north of now $und00 million is going to heavily rely uh year end audited on that designated continuity of instruction uh fund balance. This past week, I think that it's important kind of track where we were and then what happened as it pertains particularly to House Bill Two. House Bill Two has been uh proposed as really the primary finance school finance vehicle for public education. Um it um is very convoluted, very complicated. uh has a lot of different a lotments which I know that Miss Bradley will uh

018work to explain along with uh Tiffany as particularly if you have questions. It was scheduled to go before the House Public Education Committee on Tuesday. Uh the challenge became very evident that the LBB or the legislative budget board was having and is still having uh just actually as of 30 minutes ago, 40 minutes ago, a conversation uh that I just had with one of the committee uh members and getting these runs really scrubbed and refined to the extent of being able to really assess what is the overall revenue impact uh for districts. So as a result uh those runs were not delivered in a timely manner. That uh hearing that was scheduled for last Tuesday was then pushed to Thursday. Um there was uh some contradiction in the sense that that meeting was not only

019not livereamed but there was no public testimony uh provided uh for the opportunity for for public input. Uh the two pieces of legislation uh that were taken up at that time on Thursday were House Bill Two, again, the primary school finance legislation from the House. Um and there is a Senate uh school finance uh legis piece of legislation uh that we'll start paying attention to pretty carefully, pretty closely, particularly as House Bill 2 makes its way to the full House for consideration, as well as Senate Bill 2. Senate Bill 2 was substituted and is really the ESA uh school voucher uh bill. Uh both were passed out of the House Public Education Committee. House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 2 are uh as of this afternoon awaiting for the calendar committee to assign both of

020these pieces of legislation uh to the House for consideration. um House Bill Two and we're going to look at some very preliminary runs uh here momentarily uh from both Mo Casey, which is a final financial consultant uh as well as the Texas Association of School Board Officials. And as we have been working with both uh consultants um we feel like that we're getting pretty close to what was the actual intent of the legislation particularly when it comes to the allotments but then also uh what we're referring to as a hold harmless provision and much of the complication uh that the LBB uh which still does not have complete runs uh albeit and and again this is primarily the entity that legislators they rely on to provide accurate information data as to what will be the

021financial impact i.e revenue uh as a result of the legislation. So, all this being said, the runs that we're going to provide as far as a revenue outlook, potential revenue outlook are still very very uh rough uh at this point and in fact both have indicated to districts do not use this for budgetary planning purposes yet because it's just not there. Um the reality is this um and in my conversations with uh House particularly House public education uh committee members is House Bill 2 is not a good piece of legislation. Um it is a a piece of legislation that uh primarily supports rural and small school um districts uh far more than larger suburban and urban school districts. And while it is portrayed as the largest school finance vehicle or or uh proposal infusing more

022dollars than ever into the public education system. Uh I can say this that as it exists with the hold harmless provisions which if you recall it entails two two rounds of property tax compression the 65 years of age and older um exemption as well as the homestead exemption. If you recall, the homestead exemption just the last session was increased to $100,000. So what this does is is in it it provides an increase to in essence the basic aotment or regular program if you will, but then it's charges back uh a portion of those exemptions as a result. So when you see this increase um that Megan will articulate here momentarily, that's not the full story because districts like I say are in essence being charged back for uh these exemptions that have been previously promised

023uh and paid for by uh the state legislature. That's one of the complications. Um while like I say the allotments are being increased you really have to look at uh the details uh uh pretty significantly from a oh you got yeah trusty free a question um before we go too too much further so house bill 2 did it originally have the hold harmless um piece in it was designed that way yeah so it it was the original runs as we were just uh visiting with one of our representatives um had the whole harmless provision in it, but it was being calculated very differently. And that's the the devil in the is in the detail in the sense that as this was proposed and then has worked through the process, it's morphed or at least the

024calculation has has morphed. And so as a result um and I'll just go back to this past Thursday going into that meeting which it really wasn't quite a hearing uh minus the public input piece. Um it was very evident okay the whole harmless has provision has problems. I think that there was maybe an intent for it to be fixed before it went before that body of 15 representatives, but it didn't happen. And so when challenged uh by Representative Bryant, is this going to be corrected? Is this going to be fixed? Because there is a significance revenue uh differential. Um the chairman at that point said no. Uh it will be uh addressed on the full house floor. So that is kind of the lay of the land as to where are we? Um is that

025um provision fixed um here in the coming weeks when it finally uh works through the calendar committee and goes to the full house floor? That's the big question uh that we're all awaiting. I I guess I just wonder politically perhaps why that was put in place. Um, I know just recently we're certainly the state of Texas concerned about oil and gas revenues decreasing made perhaps significantly in the and if that happens then they're going to have a hard a difficult time with the entire hold harmless um piece. Absolutely. And and I think that's a very safe assumption in the sense we're all also watching what's going on with the tariffs. Um, I would completely agree that a big part of the $23 billion that uh this current legis legislature has to work with could drastically

026change depending on the state of the economy here in a couple years. Furthermore, I think that it was also uh well documented and well articulated the concerns in regards to the sustainability with particularly the property tax compression. uh both rounds as well as the increase to the homestead uh exemption. And so that is a a a big question as to okay are are we now really having reservations at the state level about being able to sustain this? And so while you know a nice big $500 increase to the regular program or basic aotment looks nice, that's not the whole story. that's not what uh it ends up how it ends up calculating. The other piece that is has been changed um in the proposal uh House Bill Two or committee substitute House Bill Two is

027really in and around the change of a 30% increase to or excuse me a 30% required uh distribution to teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses in the form of compensation which absolutely uh welldeserved needed uh that but that threshold from 30% to 40% % of all revenue uh not just an increase to the basic aotment. So that's also a pretty significant change uh that um impacts in essence the general revenue that we anticipate or will realize having at our disposal particularly to start working on closing that $100 million deficit budget gap. Um and so um we're still like I say following very closely. We're still very much in um kind of a wait and see. Although as it exists beyond House Bill Two and there I anticipate will be a safety aotment increase but outside of House

028Bill Two. Beyond House Bill Two, there's a Senate bill version of a school finance bill, but it really doesn't address any form of an increase to the basic aotment. Uh there are requirements, increases to compensation, uh school safety, but it does not increase the the basic aotment. And so a big part of what we are doing is we're starting to really work to shore up this deficit budget with uh an approach that we need to try to reduce expenditures across departments 10 at a 10% rate. We need to look really closely at staffing levels because again as you well know one of the drivers main drivers as to how we put together particularly the revenue associated with this budget is our enrollment. Um and we anticipate that our enrollment next year which we'll uh demonstrate

029here momentarily uh to be 98,4 just over 98,400 students. And so that's obviously a decrease. If you recall the staffing uh information that we discussed at the last meeting, we're st we're staffed even really beyond right now having 107,000 students particularly in regards to the utilization of ESSER funds that were positions that we've continued forward again uh to work to accelerate students to get them back on on track. whereas we really need to be staffed now that those funds have expired back to the 2013 2014 staffing level, which was really the last time uh that we dipped below 100,000 students. So, I I know that you're receiving a lot of inquiries uh just as we are and we're working to answer questions, but we've got to start working on staffing. we cannot continue on this

030trajectory uh uh with really having an abundance of staff when our student population is declining. And so that's a lot of the heavy lifting, a lot of the heavy work uh that not only Megan and her department, but our HR department and campuses are working through as we speak. What does that what does that look like? What does that mean? Campuses have just recently received their allocations. their in other words their full-time equivalencies or FTEES and so as a result they're working to build master schedules and at the secondary level based upon course request they're having to make the tough decisions as to does the number of students um dictate being able to offer this course um that they primarily or may have been historically been able to offer with a very small number of

031students 12, 13, 15 in some cases. And so those are the tough decisions that are being made particularly as they're staffing at a 28 to1 uh ratio now. And so again, these are all mechanisms of working to get our staffing back in line and to be representative of where we are. um with a student population of 98,400 students. Um there's going to be a lot of work still to be done uh particularly as House Bill 2 uh works its way to the House floor. I would uh almost bet anything that there are going to be amendments, proposed amendments. I would anticipate that there's probably at some point going to be a conference committee with both House representative rep representation, excuse me, and Senate representation. And so, like I say, we're starting to see kind of

032the crystal ball becoming a little bit clearer, but we still have a long way to go. I can say this with absolute certainty. Is there going to be the revenue at the end of the process, legislative process to close a 100 north of a $100 million deficit budget? The answer is no. Um and so that is why we we you're you're seeing not only North Side take the actions in from the budgeting standpoint that that we are um we are trying to avoid being in a position as many other districts are right now of declaring financial exigency or a reduction a formal reduction in force. Um and and that is that is challenging um because just as I mentioned to our cabinet this morning if we don't start making these maneuvers with that size of

033a deficit now uh especially that er funds have expired we will be looking at another significant deficit budget coming before you in August and we will be making these decisions and much tougher decisions at this time next year but it will be as probably a result of having to declare financial agency and a formal riff and we want to avoid that uh at all cost uh because there are implications with bond underwriters, bond ratings um that we just we don't want to be in that position. How does this how does this all shake out? Um, that's really a big question that I anticipate and hope that our legislators are going to uh be able to to come to consensus and adequately fund public education. Um, but again, I don't think it's going to be at

034the tune of uh $100 million. I think it's important again to continue to focus on our primary objective and our and our primary objective again as we started this conversation weeks ago while challenging is we've got to try to protect the integrity of our academic and extracurricular and co-curricular programs to the absolute best to the best of our abilities. Um, and I think that we can do so, but we're going to have to do so with really taking a hard look at how we're staffing uh some of these these programs. The other objective is just as important is was we want to protect jobs. We really don't want I don't want as your superintendent to even remotely have to think about proposing a reduction in force, which is in essence letting people go. That that's

035really what it is from an operational standpoint. Um and and so um those are our our objectives that we're going to continue just as we discussed this morning to continue to be focused on is protect the integrity of what we cherish here in North Side which are learning opportunities for students and and jobs and those jobs may look different uh in some capacities. Um and we're just we're just going to have to we have to start making uh these adjustments. And so tonight, what we really wanted to do is we wanted to spend a few minutes uh looking at our special program aotment uh spending um historical spending and then we'd like to uh provide again a very quick overview of just our enrollment, our projected enrollment. Um and we can come back and review

036staffing slides again if we need to. uh and really the trends and and trajectories. Um and then really have you uh have the opportunity to review with you uh the runs from both like I say both Mo Casey as well as the Texas Associated School Board officials which are I'll just say this the the data that right now our legislators are also relying on because they do not have the access to LBB estimates uh at this point. Does that change in the future? Hopefully. Um but there's there's going to be the need for a lot of clarity uh here in the next several weeks. Um so with that uh can I ask a question? Absolutely. Um Mr. president. Um, so I guess maybe maybe it'll be woven into this next presentation, but I I need

037some clarity around a couple things and maybe it was a previous um presentation and in a different context I need to see like we keep bringing up well with the elimination of er funds what what I've been seeing and hearing had nothing to do with er funds um because it it was let's for example with the fine arts programs er funs were used for Senate bill Senate Bill 4545 tutoring or instructional support or mental health support or whatever. So I I would like to see what what were the ESSER funds that are now going away. Yeah. Really using and how is it impacting some of the concerns that are going on? The other is clarity around and I I this is just me personally. I need clarity around. We have said no, nobody in our

038district 100% will not lose their job, but we could be cutting a program because it only has 11 students, which could be a program that is small now, but needs to be grown. And I know we've charged um our our teachers and our leaders with growing programs, but when you close a program or ask a student to go to another school for the program, you're displacing both the program and the kid and the family. And and I I have some personal concerns about that. And the third the third part is I know we're looking at like eliminating a program. So let's say and you brought up choir. So choir one is now going to have to be com stay at the school but combined with choir two or choir three so that there's 11 and

039maybe 13. And we haven't done some those are non-traditional ways of looking at stacking classes because oh no choir one doesn't go with choir two or art one does in order to preserve a program and grow a program at the school where the kiddos want to go versus a kiddo going to another school having to provide transportation displacing them in a community. You know I get the adult part of this. I'm just wondering what that looks like for the kiddo part. So maybe that's part of this and maybe subsequent discussions or or maybe you know um I missed yeah so so we can we can definitely provide uh an esser fund utilization breakdown uh that that's not a problem and you're exactly right uh when I talk about the esser funds I'm not I'm not

040please understand I'm not correlating that directly to a specific program but these were dollars that we were able to utilize to hire additional staff and so I I think that in fact why don't we just go ahead and go if we can pull up the uh staffing this may be challenging but if we can pull up the staffing slides and just go to the first slide um and I think that the first slide uh really articulates uh very well really the conundrum that I'm describing in the sense of we've got to break this this trend this this trajectory. Um I don't know Monica if y'all can work to pull up that slide. Um, as far as the the stacking of classes, absolutely. And I would argue that that's exactly what our campus administration is being

041charged to do. But they also have to make that determination within their master schedule and the FTEEs that they've been allocated, what can make and what cannot. And these are just tough decisions as far as uh the communication of growing programs that has been communicated that has been communicated I know last year and probably even years prior that unless this program grows its numbers it may not be sustainable uh going forward when we en encroach upon harder financial times which is exactly where we are and again I will partially take a lot of this blame because you recall that last last fiscal year about this time we were in special sessions. Surely our legislature is going to do something from a public school finance standpoint to support public education. They didn't. And so if you

042recall, I also believe that I articulated if they don't, we're going to be in a position the next year, this time this year where we are right now, that's going to be really challenging. Um because with the expiration of those funds, um that in large part we used to subsidize our general fund expenditures, um it was just going to be challenging. Is there any chance we're going to get that that slide up? Okay. Okay. Um and and so I say all this and I think I'd try to answer your questions, Dr. Harl, that a lot of what is going to be the driver at the campus level in regards to programming is going to be really a result of are are the numbers sufficient to make the class andor classes work? Um and and that's

043those are the those are the challenges that they're working through right now. This slide again I I think that it is pretty indicative of this trajectory trend line again seeing that 88% of our operating budget is personnel related expenditures. We cannot maintain this this staffing trajectory with a decreased student enrollment. And in fact even that 101,000 is as I just mentioned some somewhat uh seeing that this was 2023 2024 when we extrapolate out to 2526 you can see very clearly that that number right now is going to be projected to be closer to where we were in 2012 2013 and so again I am all ears I am open to suggestions as to how we go about uh working to uh shore up a $100 million deficit. But we've got to start addressing staffing. It's

04488% of our operating budget and we are trending in the absolute wrong direction particularly if we see and know that we're really not about to receive any additional uh of any consequence additional revenue from the state of Texas. If our legislators want to adequately fund public education and help us shore up this gap, then we can easily, and I say easily, I think there's still going to have to be some some uh corrections made, but we can start uh uh a little bit more maybe subtly to make making these adjustments and corrections, but but not with the information that we have at hand. Um, I think that it would be um, uh, almost indifferent if we were proposing to you that we can maintain all of the staffing and where we are right now given

045a dropping enrollment as well as no significant additional state revenue anticipated. And Trusty Hall and then Trusty D, you've been, but Trusty Hall, go ahead and finish your question first. Okay. So, a part of that um part of that um earlier discussion um a couple weeks ago was um about possibly um having open enrollment generate additional funding. And part of this open enrollment magnet for North Side is not just our fine arts pro programs, our athletic programs, our STEM programs, our choices at all the high schools. And it's hard, I know, to say if we did open enrollment, we could generate this many more kiddos in our schools. We know that we've had kids and families reach out who want to go to North Side and open enrollment would be great and yet if we're

046making I'm just concerned if we're making um decisions too soon about closing programs, the the things that are bringing kids to our district because I love our teachers. I was I you know I was a regular classroom teacher. I didn't do theater or art or you know whatever, but the things that are really making kids want to be in North Side um culinary arts, all our CTE, we can we can we do a good job with that, but we do a great job with all our choices that we keep saying we have all these choices and options. We don't need vouchers to impact our district. But yet, if we close a program because there's only 11 students versus keeping integrity, to use your word, of our programs, I I think we might have a missed

047opportunity if we and I I felt that there was board kind of positivity around open enrollment. I think at some point in time, when do we just vote on that and say, "Let's do it and start getting butts in the building." Yeah. So, that's a great question. So, um the um the open enrollment not only policy uh which is being scheduled for this upcoming policy meeting uh is definitely in the works as well as all the marketing material. It's one thing to say we're open enrollment. It's another to actually advertise and articulate to the general public that we are now open enrollment. So, we're going full full steam ahead with proposing uh for your consideration open enrollment April 22nd. Uh we anticipate uh working to bring forward a policy for your your consideration. But let

048me explain and and just again I'm I'm a realist and we we can we can do nothing. We can maintain the course that we're on. We will be having this conversation next spring and it will look very different. It will look very different because there will not be a legislative session at that that point in time. And I don't know where we're going to find the revenue again on the trajectory that we're on to shore up a hund00 million plus deficit budget, which is what will be proposed come August if we don't start making these adjustments. We're not closing programs. We're not shutting down programs, but we are looking at efficiencies. And if the numbers and the students that are requesting the programs don't dictate and drive particular classes, particular programs at campuses, then we

049may have to again to the point uh just articulated, okay, this program just like a magnet program can't be offered at this particular campus, but three miles away it it can be offered. And again, I don't want to specifically pick on a program because it's going to vary based upon the student population and the student request at that at that time before we eliminate quote unquote a program that will become that will come to the full board. Okay. Um and I hope again our objective primary objective is to not be in that position. Right. Let me and then I'll get you trusted. Okay. So, so let me clarify um because I think to make sure we're all saying this the same thing because there's a difference between closing a program versus a campus potentially closing

050a program. Are we seeing anything at a campus also that may be closed will come to the board or how we Well, I a difference. I I I think just as every year question especially at the high school there are classes that make and there are classes that don't make and those are those are really predicated in around the number of students that are requesting those courses i.e. interested in those classes. And again, this is outside the academic core. Obviously, we have to provide our core curriculum across the board, but we've been able and we've had the luxury of pretty well providing students any choice at any campus. And we're we this is the the I guess my point is that we've got to start looking at uh becoming more much more efficient in how

051we utilize uh allocations FTEES um across all of our campuses. Right. Well, again, Mr. Craft, it's um just so the board is clear, for example, if a if a campus does is going to close a particular not continue a particular program because I don't see it doing a district-wide program. Is that what we're saying? also going to come before the board or is that that has not been the board practice historically. I just want to make sure everybody understood that that's there's a difference there that right right but that's what I want be very intense I'm sorry okay go ahead trusty duran go ahead so I I know that we've gotten a lot of um questions from the community what can we do what can be done is if we were to do this open

052enrollment that could help the school leaders that are in charge of the master schedule and scheduling these classes to put teachers to meet those needs but what can teachers do if you want to stay what I had to do. I had to get multiple certifications so that if I could teach Spanish and be a coach and do this other thing to stay where I'm at. I we had to start thinking how we can be strategic, right? And so we need to recruit students that should have been done since last summer, right? And now we're here at the push end of this because the school leaders have to make those tough decisions at their discretion at their school. What we can do is help them make this happen if we do all this other stuff like

053open enrollment but that can't be done because by ourselves we need everyone from the students help you should they choir to the teachers saying you know ABC I have plan A what happens if this is not going to happen for me plan B like start thinking of diversifying your portfolio as a a person I have five or six certifications so that I could do that I could be able to move and shift if needed. And then the school leaders have to decide what's going to be best for their campus. And then at our level is like we don't want to cut positions, but this is where we're at and this is where a lot of the school districts are at. So I just want to know that we're hearing you. Nothing's been made a decision,

054but what you can do is recoup. Also, we should have been doing that. And then now um these decisions will have to be made at the campus level, right? Yeah. Exactly. And I think that what can be done is one, we need our legislators to adequately fund public education. That's that's really that's number one. Uh and I don't mean to simplify the matter, but that's truly it. Now, does that not mean that we don't need to become more efficient? Yes, we do. because again, we cannot maintain this trajectory that you see before us or behind me. We just we just can't. Um and and and I know that these are hard conversations. These are the hard conversations that most school districts have been engaged in for the last two years. We've just been fortunate in

055the sense that we haven't been quite in a financial situation to have to start having these very tough difficult conversations and making these these difficult uh decisions. I think the other piece that is is pertinent along with this conversation with open enrollment which absolutely because what we're trying to do is also not only uh allow students that live outside of our district boundaries the opportunity to engage in the phenomenal programs that that we have but again the uh enrollment projections that you will see here momentarily has no factor uh embedded as to the effect of what a potential ESA is going to have. And so while when I say we're leveling the playing field, if we're truly about providing parental choice, which again I'm I'm a proponent we have all the choices under the sun

056and then some, I I will argue we need to put ourselves in a position to be the most competitive. Um and and so my hopes are that while yes, we're able to offer our programming to students that live outside the district, you know, again, I don't know what the net effect when we provide a a enrollment projection of 98,400 students. I don't know what the net effect uh is going to be in regards to an education savings account being uh fully implemented particularly as it's being proposed and about to head to the house floor which is truly a universal uh program. I do know this uh that we have almost 19,000 students that live within North Side ISD currently that are attending charter schools. And so I I just think that we need to really

057heed this data and and think through how we position ourselves going forward to not only be as competitive as we possibly can, but just to understand that there's going to be these other options, other choices available um that we just we need to prepare ourselves for. Not only from a programmatic standpoint, but particularly from a financial standpoint. Yeah, Trusty Harl. Um I just wanted to make one clarification um based on something you said, Carla. Um we've told all our employees while we're making this decision, no decisions will be made for weeks or um about you're not los well number one, you're not losing your position. You may not be at the same school doing the same classes, but you're not losing you're you're still always going to be a North Side employee, right? We are

058working hard to prot protect every job. So, um, no one's going to lose their job. Is that what we're saying? Because I I'm hearing that they're hearing some other things that I've been told this. And then you know when Carla was talking about well um you know through through re reprogramming the job responsibilities may be changing but we are working hard to ensure that no one is we are not implementing a reduction in force. A reduction in force is you were hired last year unfortunately you won't have a job. you as the board will have to uh ratify that process uh formally before a reduction formal reduction in force uh can be conducted. Um what we are doing is we are working to reprogram to become more efficient. And the ESRE funded positions they were

059told and any grant funded that these are temporary. These could be two three-year positions depending on the grant. The other thing is, and I go back to Bobb's question, I I think it's important, I think it's real important that if we're going to close any program at any school, one school versus, you know, you're eliminating it for the entire district, um I I think it's important to come to the board. Um we are our schools. um if if you know as a graduate of John Marshall um if I heard that there was a program I have a a different sense because that's a school where I went or where my grandkids were and what I think we have personal attachments to schools and I know this money tends not to be personal this is here's

060the numbers here's the dollars I get it but I think we're we're in a we're in a time where we're dealing with kids and families and and program programs that really are making a difference in their life. And I know we're talking about 11 kids, but choir is keeping kids or whatever that it is. It's it's helping the whole child. It's helping whatever. And our goal is also to grow that. And I guess you're a realist and I'm I'm really hopefilled. I don't know what else to call it, but I think there's a way to keep looking at it given a little more time and let the legislator legislature see where things fall, let open enrollment and then make some really hard decisions. But we're we're having the conversations now. So, it's getting out and

061that's real important because I think people are now scared because the whole information isn't out there. They've heard bits and pieces and they've heard rumors and they've heard this person said it on this day and now social media has picked it up and and like I just feel real responsible because I don't know what the truth is and I'm I'm hearing it and I'm I'm understanding it but at the same time we don't have all the information and we're planning for the worst. I get that and I do the other kind of planning. So, um I'm glad there's all of us in this world doing that, but um I I'm just real concerned that if we close an entire program at a school and we don't know about it, it it it's a big deal.

062It's a big deal. I don't know how to say it in any other way. Um I think I think and I think that's a great point. Um and it is this is tough because it is personal. It's it while yes, there are dollars attached inevitably, it is it is personal. The one thing I want to be really clear about is we're not planning for the worst. Not even close. When we're working to try to cut $60 million, upwards of $70 million, I'm very hopeful that we're going to see a school finance bill to be able to close the remainder of that gap. We're not taking into account in our projected enrollment numbers, which we might as well go ahead and pull that slide up if we can. Um, we're not taking into account any further

063charter school expansion. We're not taking into account uh any proliferation of an education savings account, i.e. the privatization using public funds. And so unfunded mandates were not Yeah. I just Yeah. I just want to be real careful that this is this is not a worst case scenario uh that we're we're presenting. Not by a long shot. Bobby, Mr. Bunt. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Trusty Freeman. Carol, I hear your passion and um I have I have the same types of concerns, but I was hearing the other day that we may actually not only perhaps we get 12 million, perhaps we get 19 million, perhaps we're down a million. Um I I don't know if that's still in the mix. We'll explain it here momentarily depending on how this But that's a real concern. we only have

064so much money and if we don't make the tough decisions now. Um there are school districts in this state that are in that have a real challenge and that could go belly up real quick. I don't want to be part of that school of that type of school district. I I understand what you're saying about the kids because I my kids benefited from the opportunities that we had here. I don't I'm hoping that we don't get to where we have to um trim a lot of those types of classes, but I think there's we're talking about you mentioned one, there could be a few more at at other schools that we're looking at, too. And it's a concern, but I think we have to be smart and make the best decisions that we can. We

065also have to look at regarding a program like you're talking about. Um how many how many does it take to make a a program like like a specific fine arts program or something else. Sometimes there's a minimal number and you do have to whether it's a an athletic program or team, you still have to have a certain number. But I I feel the pain, but I think we've got to Yeah. And that's a great point, Miss Freeman, that you know, and that's where the staffing ratios, i.e. that translates into campus allocations or full-time equivalent uh positions, if you will. We've increased that threshold where it might have been possible, and I'll just use a high school master schedule. It might have been possible to offer that course if there were 13, but that means somewhere

066down the road there's more than 26 or now 28 in that in that class. Some somewhere it it it u equates to a larger a larger class. Here I was talking about enrollment, but I think that it's important, like I say, to go ahead and and we'll just take a look at it. So for this fiscal year, school year 24-25, we projected 100 just over 100,000 students as you can see for uh excuse me. Uh so realized base day enrollment. Um this is where we we've landed. Uh so we missed our our projection by 328 students. And I hate to do public math, so please correct me if I if I'm wrong. Um no, sorry that's not right. See, I warned you. 6288 students. So, next school year, our projected enrollment, as you can see,

067is just over 98,000 students. 98,500 students. And um and again, this has no factor that involves any form of an ESA uh $1 billion allocation in the form of privatization. And so again, this is this is the rationale that we really need to look at an open enrollment policy program uh and really marketing campaign uh as we're moving forward. Um any other I'll pause there early comments or or Yeah, trustees go I just have one question. Okay, maybe Trusty Sadan. Uh, do we know how many private schools are in North Site? Uh, do we have the number? No, Tiffany. I can look that up. I didn't bring that with me. Please hold. I know that we have uh over 130 charter schools in North Side ISD to date. Yeah. No. is priority over 130 charter

068schools in North Side ISD. Yeah, I and I guess related to that question that you have then I'll get get you next to your screen. Um is I hate to go historical but I will for just a second because it helps understand some of the numbers too and Debbie may help me out a little bit if I recall correctly. I think when our past projections if we went back fur far enough maybe 10 years or so we anticipated and I'm guessing to be honest and don't quote me on it but we'd be about 120 or so thousand students by now with our projection being up to 150,000 before we start getting impacted by charter and other type things. So some of that am I right okay some of that fits into this context that we're

069given too because we you've seen that gap of 20some thousand so that sort of impacts why staffing went certain ways etc. So that's sort of a context. Yes. And I agree with my colleagues and all the comments, you know, that they've been making and so forth. I think um I think clarity, we need clarity in regards to messaging and how we can message our public regarding all this. You know, there's again, you know, we have maybe over 200 emails. I don't know. I haven't checked. But uh you know, how to respond, you know, to the public. And uh I want to give them clarity. I want to give them a good answer. People who text me, people who email me, people who call me, I want to know what's going on with the messaging factor.

070I know uh I don't know what principles are telling their particular communities. And so I I don't know if they check with you before they make any statements to the community, their particular communities, just so that we can all be on, you know, on the same page and we know how to, you know, how to attack that situation. Yeah. That's that's an excellent excellent point. Um um you know I will say this over uh 132 campuses as they're working through their budgeting process it's going to be really hard at the district level to communicate whether a class makes or doesn't make like impossible because we do work master schedule through the summer because students are coming in moving and changing schedules. So that's so hard. That's what I'm saying. Like when we have a teacher

071that we can move and from one area to another and be strategic, that helps the leader of that school be able to fill those classes because it's about the numbers and it's a very challenging process. It's not easy. Yeah. And I and it's and it's become more challenging as as a result of like I say having to make some staffing adjustments. it's become just that much more challenging. What we can do uh Dr. Ga is is we can work with the principles to be very strategic and very communicative so that it's not it's not misconveyed that we're not we're not killing a district program. Now what makes as a result of student requests course requests at each campus it's it's going to it will vary. It will absolutely uh vary and so we can work

072like I say through campus principles to encourage overly uh communicating uh particularly as we work through this process. Um but it's going to be really difficult to communicate it from a district overarching voice unless the board makes the decision that we just can't afford to maintain this program going forward. I think that that would be absolutely appropriate uh district communication, but like I say, communicate each and every single change particularly with what I refer to as singleton classes um just across our high schools alone would would be really really challenging and I mean I'm afraid that we we would miss that. Okay, any other preliminary questions or comments? I had one. What was the original source of that we were cutting programs? That was my concern is getting accused of u you're cutting this program

073blah blah blah and I was going like I didn't remember voting on anything. What what are we closing? How did this get as a two 200 email? Well, yeah, it's that's a great question. Um the original source social media is a very powerful uh ecosystem. I I I don't know. I'm trying to um And even that messaging morphed into I think uh individuals were jobs were being cut. Yeah. I think uh it's not accurate. Yeah. I think and I think I that's where I get into trouble but I think u to be fair to everybody and let's be a little bit careful because this is a budget type discussion and we did tell some of our folks that April 22nd they wanted to sign up and and speak. So if we get to the specifics

074which we're getting very close to I would suggest we hold up on that particular part um and stay really to okay the budget budget portion because we start addressing individual email and some other things. Now we know exactly what we're talking about and we didn't give them a chance to sign up because we encouraged them to wait till citizens be heard portion. Okay. If it's okay, we'd like to shift gears uh because embedded within House Bill Two um are increases uh small increases uh to some special program aotments. And so I think it's important again as part of the conversation just as we're looking very closely at staffing, what do our our special programs uh which entail particular pots of money, if you will and support look like? And then how are we subsidizing these

075programs as a result of general fund revenue? which you can kind of think about the basic aotment or may maybe what is becoming formerly the basic aotment. Um so Megan, I'm going to let you uh uh talk through like I say special program aotment spending and and then we'll try to answer any questions. Yes, sir. So as Dr. Craft has said as we're continuing to review all of our data so that we're making informed decisions and bringing to the board the information so that you can assist in making these informed decisions. One of the things we want to look at is these special aotment spending. Um, so part of a basic aotment calculation uh goes into these special aotments. So right now our basic a lotment is $6,160 per student. The House Bill Two that

076we'll talk about more through this process and the next set of slides uh is proposed right now to go up $395 is what that dollar amount is. So 6,000 to 6,555. So when your basic aotment changes, it also changes the weighted special programs. So as you know, the special programs that I'm going to show have weights to them that go above the basic a lotment. So you take that basic aotment and multiply it by say 1.05. So it's a higher uh weight and funding that would go into these special programs. So what we did was pulled the 2024 audited financials that we're going to look at here in a moment. So know that that's where this data is going to come from that we're going to talk about. But before I look at the actual

077dollar amounts, I want to show you a example that I've used before of how to explain the the allotments. So if you think of a tiered cake, a wedding cake um scenario, the bottom portion, the bar the biggest part of that cake, the base of that cake is our basic aotment and tax revenue. And that basic bottom portion of that cake is intended to provide the basic educational program for all of our students, no matter if they are in a special population or not. So all students get pencils, all students get paper, all students get the basics that they need for their educational program even if they're in say a special education program. So that basic piece is that that that foundation. The next tier of that cake, the smaller funding pieces are those special

078funding pieces. They go on top of the basic funding. So that basic funding is goes to everyone and then if a student is in a population that receives that needs extra funding to help them be successful, that's part of that TEA special program funding and that's still in the general fund. So, but it's on top of that basic funding. And then on top of that, we get even more funding u for to meet the students needs through federal funding for IDEIDA, title one, those kind of things. So if you think about it in that tiered approach, I think that helps visualize somewhat what these special programs are. And now we're going to get into the dollars. So these are our special program funds that come through TEA that are the second tier of the cake.

079So that's what this piece is. And we're looking at 2024 here. Um so in the the far left column is the program itself the title. The first dollar amount is the allocation that is received based on the basic aotment and the weights of those programs. The next column is the spending requirement. So TEA sets that some of these programs have a spending requirement of 55% of that allocation and others have 100%. So what that means is if one of these that only has a 55% spending requirement, the district is allowed to use that 45% for other costs. And those other costs can be the administration of the program um but it's not directly that program. It can be for electricity. It can be for you know other things um to support the educational program. So

080the next column shows what that required spending amount was for fiscal year 24. That was the last year that we finished and had audit audited. It ended August 31st of 2024. So, for example, special education, just looking at the top line, we're required to spend 55%. Uh, and again, this is the TEA state funding. We do receive federal funding that's not shown here, but we're required to spend $58.9 million. We actually spent $144 million on that program. When that happens, when we spend more than they required, you're taking away from that bottom tier of that cake. So what you have available to have the basic education that all students are entitled to is reduced because you're spending it on a special population of students. Um I will tell you that I do not know a

081single district in Texas that doesn't spend more than 100% in special education, but I do not know of many that spend 244% which is what this is of the required spending. That's a very large number. Most are around 120%. Um, so that is a very large. Um, but then going through I'm sorry, Miss Freeman, did you have a question? Yeah, I'm sorry, Jesse Freeman. Thank you. So, you said you Well, this does not include, of course, it does not include um federal funding for special ed. So, we're not taking that out of the the pot. Um, that's on top of this spending. Okay. Yeah, it might might be interesting to know what that would be, too. And we can do that for another column. We can look up the No, I don't I mean late

082later. I think we can add that to another presentation. Okay. Add federal funding. Can you also add to tell the story like why do we spend to that amount compared to the others? What are we doing more than others or what's different for us? Do we have more students? so that we can tell that story with the data because that's very that's the probably one of the most important stories that needs to be told for public schools. I'll answer I'll partially answer that question and then we'll we can follow up with a lot more detail. We have some very very small self-contained units. Um we have um uh located uh special programs uh at particular campuses. um geographically for a v variety of reasons, but um and this is one of the this is one

083of the things that we're working on is how do we become more efficient? Um and and while I say, you know, it's nice to have and I'm not I'm just going to use an example. It's nice to have two or three students in a program with a teacher, an aid, maybe two aids. If we're staffed um our staffing guidelines call for say seven or eight students in that program, you can start to see extrapolated across 82 elementary campuses that becomes very very expensive very quickly. The other piece that I will say is is that we co-e um uh through an inclusion model across all of our campuses. uh the co-eing model um and Megan correct me if I'm wrong just a rough estimate uh comes at an expense of I believe about $80 million I'm

084sorry oh trusty Harl and Megan and Dr. Um I'm I was trying to do a search for it, but my understanding and I was talking to a step a staffer in and senators Kraton's office that special ed has become a big focus of the legislature, both the House and the Senate. And there there is great support right now for whatever sum of money that I'm I'm trying to find to come to districts to make up for the gap or to also so I'm just have was I the only one who heard that or there are bills out there to add funding to but ones that are like really having good support. I mean it's a statewide issue. It's a statewide concern. Um, yeah, it's it's been widely notated that uh the state of Texas has

085underfunded special education programming by over two billion dollars. There is proposed legislation. Um, and I think that there is uh there has been a strong voice uh in working to try to support additional special education funding. I will say this, there is a vast difference, especially in Austin right now, for what is being articulated, what is being proposed, what is being voiced as a need, and then what is turning into action in regards to the legislation becoming a reality. Yeah. And I'll just if I can add real quick on it. Um the other element too and this isn't going to change Minnesota federal government's probably 60% under what they were initially intended to fund for special education etc. So that's one reason why you have to be careful on the state argument but that's not

086going to change per se. So we are more dependent on the state part of it. But the the other thing I was curious on this this chart here and correct me if I'm wrong for example gifted talent was about 7% that if I remember right that the state actually would funding allocated special education about 10% and we were running it as a district higher than that too. Is that still accurate or is that accurate? Yes sir. So gifted and talented is the last line here. Um if if I may I'm going to go back up just a little bit. I'll be real quick, but just looking at state comped, um, career and technology, early childhood, bilingual dyslexia, you can see those spending is very close in line with the required spending. Um, you need you

087have to spend the minimum required. So, I think we're doing pretty good in those of of not going too far above, but but meeting the expectation. But then you get into college, career, military readiness, and you can see that's roughly four times the required spending that is spent. and then gifted talented. Sir, to get to your point, um the required spending is 100% of the allocation at roughly $2 million and we spend $10 million for a different Yeah. What what I was getting at it was uh the estimate the state uses for the number expected from your population enrollment if I remember right is GT is about seven. I may be off on that. I would have to look that up. And then I think special education, if I remember correctly, was 10% but we're

088actually about what 15 or 16%. Correct. No, we're we're actually approaching 18%. So that's that's what I was getting at. Also, another reason why I separate from the other part is because we have a much higher percentage than what's estimated by the state and our numbers are going to keep going up. They are. We're I'm sorry. Uh we are adding more students to our special education population as well as uh bilingual, although bilingual this year is is really kind of fluctuated. But, uh, I think that we're still on a pretty solid trajectory of about 200 new students admitted to special education, receiving an IEP, uh, each month. Um, the gifted and talented, we're very fortunate in the sense that we have a GT specialist at every campus. Um, just again some rough math. Um and

089and this is in support of our GT certified teachers uh that are assigned uh to our our students. Um but this is expensive. I mean to the price tag of upwards of a $8 million price tag. So you can look at that $10 million in actual spending uh that is uh in large part supplemented by the by the basic aotment that tier one. And you could start to see real quickly um how that is proportionally um speaking uh not in line with the required spend amounts. Trusty Sadian, I'm really concerned about the GT. If 2 million is what is required and we're spending 8 million more, is that something we're looking at and the college career and military readiness? Are those two programs that we're going to review and see if we need all of

090that? I I h how many students do we have in GT that were spending $10 million? um we have a little bit over 9,000 GT students. And so to Dr. Craft's point, that delta between what you're required to spend and what you're spending is staffing. I went back in um in former GNI. So starting in about 2017, the district used to staff GT specialists at a 0.5 at the majority of our campuses. and we began upping that to where it was a full um FTE at every campus. The thinking at that time was that uh specialist was serving not only GT identified students but was also providing enrichment. Um that also was the time when we really began talking about the impact of charters and you know what are we doing to retain and attract

091um certain families but that's the GT piece uh Miss Sana the CCMR as a matter of fact we've been working very closely with budget the majority of our CCMR uh monies go straight to campuses goes to our high school and middle school campuses that uh some of that is also staff campuses have some latitude to hire um intervention teachers, academic success counselors. So, we already have a plan. We know what we're going to be pushing out for next year, but have a plan to really look at some staffing formulas maybe to reduce some of that latitude in the CCMR space. Yeah, Jesse Hall. Um and also GT, right? Maybe look at that.5 model that we live with for ever. Yes, ma'am. That's actually we're working on that now. Yes. Okay. And then I had a

092question. Um, is bilingual are dual language programs or what do we mean by bilingual? Oh, I'm I'm sorry. So, what does it entail? Yeah. Uh, yes. These ones are dual language. Dual language would be transitional. Yes. ESL. ESL. Oh, ESL and dual language. Dual language. Transitional. Yeah. Bobby, Trusty Suda question. Uh, the gifted and talented, how many students do they teach during the day? Do they have a an academic schedule? Do they have 30 kids in a 25 kids uh several times a day or are are you referring to our GT specialist? the GT specialist or they just no teaching but just bringing kids in. They actually have classes of students and they also work in with students if they have a lower identified population. They'll work for enrichment and so they're part of kind

093of that whole um team with the STEM teacher, the GT teacher, the fine arts teacher at at elementary campuses. Then at middle school, there are actually courses that students take and also in high school that GT students sign up for and it's a regular period like it would be any other content area. So I guess what I'm asking, do they teach a full schedule like the academic teachers? The answer yes. Yes. I mean I would have to I would have to double check specifics, but yes, they have a they have a class load. they have a um you know certain students assigned to them especially at the secondary level. As a matter of fact, that's been tightened up quite a bit the last probably three years. Um and you know they get credit um local

094credit for that at the at the high school level. But in terms of having 30 to1 Yeah, I I think that's a really good question. Yeah, Jessica Palmos is with us. Jessica, do you mind uh shedding some light on exactly what because Miss Sonia's question is, is it a full class schedule, seven sections? Um, and I'm I'm just curious if we only have 7,000 students in the program and we're spending $10 million. Do we need a GT teacher on every single campus? You know, I'm just trying to see the academic teachers. We know we need English, math, history, and science. We got to have them. But is this I guess my question is are we looking at this program because of the cost? So so Jessica what does the schedule look like? The schedules vary

095at campus based by the number of GT students at each of the designated campuses. And so at some of the campuses they can have like a block schedule in which they can have those students anywhere from an 90 minute up to three hours because of the research projects that the students are um doing within the classroom aligned to the TEICS for that particular grade level. Some might come in in hours blocks, some might have a longer block for two and a half, three hours so they can do those research projects. And then we also have intermittent throughout the schedule where they do enrichment for the kiddos um that maybe didn't quite qualify for the gifted and talented program, but we might look to onboard them later throughout the years when they're retested. And so we

096certainly can provide a report um at the next board meeting so you can take a look at how that looks like. But to your question that you just asked right now, there is ongoing conversations to revisit the model that we used to have when we did have GT teacher split at various campuses based on the number of students that qualified. Actually, we're actually pulling those numbers right now. And to her point, uh, first and second grade students recently tested. Yes, ma'am. So, we're waiting for those students to be identified so we'll have a firmer number. Um, and we're removing any enrichment out and looking straight at GT identified and looking back at the model that we had in place prior to that, right? And so, we have several models in place, but we certainly can

097share that with Dr. Jordan and the board. So, you can take a look at that. We can also show you some hotspots within the district in which we would provide recommendations for some split pairings in the future. And just thank you real quick, what is the um going back to something Carla said earlier, what is the certification a teacher needs to do ISM at at high school? I know I it's I would have to lean to Jerry on that. I think he's in the room as well. Yeah. Um and then um is the qualification to teach GT at elementary that you've gone through the 30 hours. Correct. So any teacher elementary wise could teach it as long as they got the 30 hours of GT. Right. Correct. And then we also provide additional uh training

098and professional development for their uh general ed teacher as well so that we can make sure they're getting that high quality questioning and and research process within the classroom. Yes. And middle school then what would be the certification? And I know we have DA here as well. So, I don't want to speak out of turn, but I can speak all things elementary, but if you don't mind, I can hand that over to Diana and Jerry. But before Yeah, Jerry's got you. Mr. Blunt, before Jessica leaves. Yeah, before before you leave. Um, regarding our the the question on enrichment and I and I heard you say, but I think I know what you mean, that we're we will do away. You didn't say do away with enrichment. As Jessica said, it's it will be offered within

099the general ed. Yes. Right. And currently, even looking at that enrichment, um it wasn't solely for the kids that maybe didn't quite qualify. We have our GT uh some of our GT teachers going into the general ed classrooms and providing enrichment for all students. And so that is something that we have benefited from by having the GT teacher at each of the campuses. I just want to be um careful with the messaging that we're not we're not taking away enrichment either. It will be offered. It will still be offered ma'am with the general ed. Prior prior to going to one GT teacher at every campus even with the split pairing, we were able to um implement a schedule that provided the GT services and enrichment in each of the classrooms and so we helped design

100that with them. Thank you. And that's in conjunction with Lori Gos as well. Thank you. Good. Good. Thank you for adding that explanation of Richmond cuz I was going to say that. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I didn't have my counterpart here, but do the best that we can. Well, I to say you probably noticed that the pack of wolves were starting to front of the room, so calm down. Everybody gets a piece of the microphone. I can speak to All right, I'll hand it over to secondary. Yeah, Dr. Carl, for middle school, it's not certification specific. They just need their their GT hours. 30 hours. Yes. So, it could be an English teacher doing it or a math teacher or a PE teacher. I'm I'm just thinking, you know, looking at repurposing like if I

101don't have a full schedule, I could also do GT, right? Instead of eliminating a program of Yeah, absolutely. Yep. Perfect. Pretty much ditto for high school. Um, so the the luxury of high school is they do have a certification. So if they don't have a full GT schedule, then using Diana's example, they can keep a they can teach a couple English sections, for example. And high school it's graded. Middle school it's graded, but elementary it's not graded. Right. Right. So elementary teachers aren't grading GTR grade. Okay. Yeah. So middle school has the course, the innovative thinking course at six, seventh, and eighth. Right. Yes, ma'am. And it has its own teach. And then high school is GT1, GT2, and then ISM. And then heaven. Any other I have a comment. Yeah, go ahead. The totals

102on the state revenue allocation versus the spending. Is that a plus or a minus? I'm trying to do the math. There's a lot of numbers. It doesn't show the totals on the percentage. The revenue allocations is what totals. Are are you looking at a different slide or that slide right there? No, he's just trying to add up if you add what is the total the state revenue allocation. Oh, I did not add that up. Did you have any There's a different plus or minus. Oh yeah. And I that's the spending on the next slide. We can do that for you. I mean I just haven't I'm just wondering if it's a plus or a minus if we lose or we Well, it it No, it's very I can say this. It it it will be

103a minus. It'll be minus. Yes. Right. We're we're we're overspending right our required spending a lotment and so I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. We're an exception to overspending or is that a common practice? It is a common practice to overspend especially special ed. So not not all of them but special ed is definitely a common practice just not to this level. Um I am not accustomed to CCMR also overspending to this level. Uh GT I would say does overspend um typically. I'm not sure I would need to do some analysis if it's at this level or not, but we're using this as just one of our pieces of data as we're trying to decide the best course of action. Looking at the slides that came forward with the um misalignment of staffing to enrollment

104and looking at the historical and then going, okay, let's dig in further and how can we make informed decisions. And so, we've been studying this type of data as part of the cabinet and senior staff group. I've been working a lot with Janice, with Tiffany and Jake and and Julie and trying to um work with their teams of saying where does it make sense to put reductions again in the smartest way possible. So that was the intent of bringing it here to you so that as we come forward with discussions you can you can know the um the thought processes behind it. The next slide that we have we won't spend much time on here but I wanted to show you the spending. So that last column from the previous slide um now is broken

105down by the different object codes that TEA has his report. So you can see how much is payroll, how much is the services, how much is supplies and materials. So across that piece and I'm not going to spend again time on this but I want you to see that and then pulling that special programs into this last slide that takes the total special programs compared to the all other money that comes in from TEA and that you can see those totals by payroll services supplies and materials and want to point out that 88% you know when you have federal funds in them that 88% might change a little bit uh but the bulk of the spending that we have in North Side ISD is payroll. So, I know that that is a hard conversation and

106I do not take it lightly, but I think it's important that we show that. And if someone asked, well, why aren't you um trying to curb this $101 million deficit in other ways, it's hard, very hard to get there. So, I wanted to make sure that everybody could see that if you're looking for $101 million, you could add up all the services and all of the supplies and materials and barely get there. So, if people ask why are we having these we just can't do I mean obviously as you well know I mean we we cannot not provide supplies, materials. We have to turn the lights on. We had to run HVAC systems as you all well know. So we would like I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, you're good. If the board is um ready,

107uh we would like to go into the look of the model of the House Bill 2. So Monica, if you could bring up the uh um committee substitute House Bill 2 summary runs. Do you which one is that called? It's CHP2 summary runs is the one that she's going to bring up. We also have the detail, but it's very hard to read. the these are and again these are very very preliminary and and and I say this because again we are at this point not using this for budgetary planning purposes. We're hoping that this number is going to increase. I it's not going to increase to $101 million. Um but we wanted to provide this especially as we were looking at special programs because again um you can you can see very quickly that special

108programs and the a lotments that are being adjusted through the waiting system uh are absolutely pertinent um to this particular piece of legislation. So, what we have here um looking again down and across and you do have in your board docs the detail that gives all the special programs that we just looked at in detail. But what I've done here is summarized all those special programs just added them all together uh to make it a little easier to see on one page. But across the top um so that you know what the columns we have our uh SOF is summary of finance. So it's our adopted template run uh that came to you in August of last year. At that point, our membership was 100,000 students and you've seen what that has adjusted to as

109we've looked at it. That resulted in an a refined average daily attendance which is what we're actually paid on funded of of 93,500. So I want you to see when you start seeing these 93,91,000 that's due to the attendance piece. Um and again that lefth hand column um shows you the different areas. the regular program which was that bottom layer of the cake that we talked about. Uh there's a couple of pieces that are that bottom layer, but the special programs was that second layer. The local share is what we should be bringing in in taxes per tea. The tier 2 is the golden pennies, those five pennies uh that we have access to that brings in more money that hold harmless that Dr. Craft talked about. Um and we'll talk through that as we

110move across the page, which results then adding all of that together is our total state aid. And then below that is total state and local revenue. That total state and local revenue is going to be important as we talk more of the bottom. I'm not going to go further in the bottom yet. So then we look at current law um projected for fiscal year 26 for what we know right now. Again this is um assuming that nothing changed in our template. Nothing changed in the basic aotment. That's what we have as projected um revenue that we would have. see that under that total state and local, we're reducing about $20 million. So, we talk about our $ 101 million deficit. Now, we're going to add 20 more to that. So, again, this is why we're

111having these conversations. We have um the two entities that Dr. Craft talked about, and I don't want to list them individually because I don't want to hold them to what they gave us, but what we wanted to show you is the run A and run B from those different entities that we work with. You can see that the the refined ADA that's being used is a little different. The run B is using a another type of hold harmless, if you will, that is giving a softening of the decline of enrollment. And so that is in house the committee um House Bill 2 language, but it's not been ironed out yet of exactly how that calculation is done. So, one is using it, one is one is attempting to use it, one is not. Uh but

112if you look through those two columns and look down, they're somewhat close. I mean, they're within $5 million of each other when you look at the total state and uh local. So, don't get too worried on the individuals. Um, comparing those, I want you to see that we've got two different runs that are somewhat similar. So, I feel comfortable that they're in the right range. Again, we're not using this for budgeting. We're using this to talk to our legislators. Um, but what I want you to see is that hold harmless line, it goes away. So that hold harmless which is part of that bottom layer of that cake for basic services that is really taking away from those that funding that we have. If you look at this uh so you can see the difference

113columns which is the G&H the projection versus run A and projection run versus run B. Those are this the variances. So now I'm going to focus down on the bottom right. So you take under current law, if we were going to have an increase to the basic aotment, what the law said is that whatever that increase in the basic aotment was, which we know is $395 per ADA here, you would take that and that 30% of that would have to be used for payraises for the teachers, libraries, and nurses, and counselors. That's what's in current law. What is in the committee substitute for House Bill Two says you're going to look at your total state and local revenue per ADA compared to the prior year to the current year total including your special programs and

114you're going to look at that and then you're going to take 40% of that. So a much larger number that will go for raises for those those four groups of employees. I am definitely not saying that they don't deserve that. They do. However, if you look at this model, it just doesn't work because if you look the 40% chapter 48 is what that revenue is called the total revenue gain over the prior year that it would be required for pay increases under run A it would be 17 million under run B it' be 16 million. So again in line for estimates but looking above that those are the two lines the change in special program revenue is great. It's it's good increases because it is the weighted change with the basic aotment. So under one

115scenario 30 million another scenario 27 million that's wonderful but our change in nonsp special revenue special program revenue like we were talking about before that bottom layer of the cake it's only a possible four to 14 million. It doesn't give us enough to pay for those payraises. Now, I've been talking to the people building this models, and they'd say, "Well, that's not quite true." And I want to be fair to them that some of the teachers and librarians, nurses, and counselors would be in some special programs. You have special ed teachers, you have bilingual teachers, you have CTE teachers, that their pay raises would come out of that special program. That is that is true. But your regular education teachers, there's not enough money to pay for those payraises. So we could have to cut

116further to give raises under this scenario. And I I do not believe that was the intent. That's part of that's part of the refinement process. Um and then again like I say and it's all interconnected uh working through the whole harmless language and really it's the interpretation and in the bill cleanup if this if this comes to fruition and that's a big if. Again, that's why we're not using these numbers for budgeting purposes. Um, because it's it's got a obviously it's got a long way to go and and Megan has been working with Amanda Bronson, has been working with Josh Haney, Mo Casey. I mean, the these are Leo Lopez. These are individuals that are pretty astute when it comes to the state of public finance across the state of Texas. And there are a

117lot of question marks um as to what exactly is the intent and and how does this bill uh potentially ultimately uh be debated on the house floor and and then of course um if it passes out of the house um transitions over to the senate question which will be an entirely different conversation. Mr. Yeah, Chelsea Freeman, help me understand um a run a where or the hold harmless just completely goes away. We we didn't talk about it completely going away, right? I mean, the the hold harmless part is on um what they were going to delete, so to speak, or not reimburse us for is not the entire amount. Is that correct? I don't I don't believe it is. Megan, do you know? I don't know for sure. Yeah, I was going to say that

118interpretations of how they're reading the the committee substitute is the challenge, but it it was clearly stated to me that those three different types of hold harmlesses were being swept up to provide for the basic aotment. So, thank you. I thought I just misunderstood you from the last time. I thought it was only the 65 and the Yeah, it's it's it's the homestead exemption 65 years of age and then the two property tax compression. Oh, plus the two companies. I think they're they're working, I believe, to try to consolidate the two property tax compression um uh provisions. But no, I mean, even if you just think about the the um the homestead exemption, I don't believe that is uh indicative of the aggregate of or the net effect of those. Thank you. I I misunderstood

119what harmless. I had a question quick question. Um, Megan, when you were talking earlier earlier about the 40% out of the basic aotment, there's is there not a separate bill that Kraton has um like Senate Bill 26 that is in addition to this? But here's attention ret uh teacher retention that only for teachers, not the four. Yes, ma'am. Only teachers, the fiveyear, 10 year, whatever. Um, and I know we can't that's still out there, right? Um, have have we heard anything that that's um they seem pretty the staffers seem still really pretty positive that that has a lot of momentum like the additional special ed and I know they probably would because there is you know um in his domain so to speak but um that that could possibly impact in a positive way and

120it's still out there so it could get legs and move but I Yeah, and that that's a very valid question and it's a question that was just asked just this afternoon. Is the Senate public education finance bill better than what the House is proposing with this committee substitute House Bill Two? And initially I laughed and then I had to start thinking about it because it actually may be even though it's providing no additional revenue through the vehicle of the basic aotment. So I'm having to just really think about how could that be? But it could be based on the information that we're providing at at this point in time. Now, again, there's there's a lot to work through. There's there's still a lot of runway on on both. Um, but I think it's important to

121kind of understand the the why we're starting to have these really difficult conversations about our our reeling in our deficit budget as much as we can knowing that it's going to take some time. And again, the objective I want to be real clear also is not promising to bring a balanced budget before you in in August. I'll I'll be completely frank and honest. I don't think that we get there. This is going to be a process. Any other comments or questions or did we cover all the areas? I I did just have one final one. Once we do, um I do want to point out that um because if you go talk to legislators based on this information, we do have declining enrollment. So when you look at that non-special program not growing much, when

122you do have declining enrollment, that does cause additional problems there. So I don't want to make it sound like it's all in the legislation. It part of it the challenge is related to our declining enrollment. And and and I also want to echo that that there are some efficiencies that we really need to gain. This is not all purely a function of lack of legislation andor legislative intent with what's being proposed. I will say this that if you really look at since again 2019 has public education across the state of Texas been adequately funded? Not even close. Um and you can look at you can look at data, we can look at statistics and we can look um at all kinds of different metrics and it just hasn't. Um, I will also say this that

123just as I uh articulated with our cabinet, um, I am confident that in North Side, we are going to again take care of programs. We're going to take care of uh staff. We're going to ensure that that jobs are retained to the absolute very best of our ability, not just this fiscal year, but thereafter. Um and and we're going to work to make really tough decisions and propose uh tough situations in the best interest of our students. That's that's what is going to drive this budgeting process and proposal uh that we're working towards in in August. Not to say that there's not going to be tough conversations. There's not to say that there's not um going to be, like I say, some um long hours and hard work put into it. Um, but we've got

124to commit to it because like I say, there's too much at stake and then obviously that's our students and our students success. That being said, Mr. President, I ju just just one more on the uh to what you're just talking about. If we back it up from August, what are the key milestones that we're going to start from here to there that we need to be aware of? Yeah, I we need to have a obviously a near final budget come July. And luckily this is a this is if there is um a silver lining luckily we are not a July fiscal year as many districts are. So we have the luxury of having a little bit more time i.e. August 31 um to uh propose and and uh for you to consider passing a budget.

125So, we're going to again continue to work right alongside uh the legislative um session um just as we have. I think that it's going to be warranted that we probably have a monthly called meeting um which would typically be a finance uh committee meeting but a monthly called meeting and again not only to provide followup uh to questions and information but also because this is going to be fluid uh as uh things change and as we really get into the uh refinement um there's There's going to be a lot of things uh change. One of the also uh big questions that will come of um I guess probably what the next two months Tiffany uh is preliminary values. Um and right now I'm hearing different versions as to what we can anticipate from a property

126value growth across Bear County. Um, I've I've heard maybe 3% and I've also heard zero. Um, and so that also is a big driver in regards to uh revenue projections. So there's to answer your question, Mr. Blunt, there's there's going to be the need for uh monthly okay finance called called meetings, but then also probably updates at the our regular meetings as well. Good. All right. So, this one was scheduled for discussion. I think we had a very good thorough discussion. So, so appreciate um everybody that's here to help out with that. Okay. And as always, board members, you have any questions, please let Dr. Craft know. Okay. Well, yeah, just keep Dr. Craft informed. And remember, we'll be having these on a monthly basis. Okay. All right. So, I think we're ready to go

127to our final um item of schedule for this evening, the resolution acquisition of property by Medina County. Yes. Yes, sir. As you recall, uh Medina County uh approached us and had a presentation in regards to their uh need for to accommodate the growth. Um their uh current uh appraisal district offices are insufficient. And so, uh, this item, what you have before you in your board docs is, uh, the actual resolution, um, to accompany. They did have the opportunity to visit with all of the taxing entities. Um, and so, uh, this is for your consideration, like I say, to, um, support their efforts in uh, expanding uh, their office space um, as a result of the growth that they're experiencing. Yeah. And hopefully board recalls that that conversation on the prior. Is there any uh questions,

128comments from the board? Do we have a motion to come for the board? So moved. Second. All right. So I moved a second. Any further discussion? Not been moved and second that we approve the Medina County uh appraisal district purchase and renovation um located at the addresses specified. All those in favor I'm sorry, the resolution. All those in favor signify by stating I. I. Those opposed. Good. Motion carries. Good. I think that completes it. Thank you all. Thanks everybody.