001okay good evening and welcome to this regular meeting of the Northside Board of Trustees before calling this meeting to order the board would like to take just a moment to briefly review some of the rules for conducting our meeting the order of business for this meeting is set out in the agenda one item that you may notice on the agenda is the consent agenda this item includes items that are considered routine and are of a recurring nature all the items listed on the consent agenda will be acted upon in one motion if there is a consent agenda item which anyone here would like to address please sign up to speak to that item and we will pull it from the consent motion and discuss it separately the purpose of our meeting is to conduct board
002business and for that reason it is held in public it is not a public forum however we do provide the opportunity for audience participation if there is anyone who would like to address the board during an agenda item our citizens to be heard portion of the agenda we ask that you please complete a sign-up sheet located at the entrance to this room this is so we do not overlook anyone who would like to speak to the board we will review the rules for adjusting the board later in the meeting is there anyone here who would like to sign up to an agenda item and has not done so I see no great rush the meeting will then be officially called to order please Sam is trustee Justice Medina leases in the invocation and pledges of
003Allegiance Almighty merciful God we ask you for guidance and blessings upon this board students parents patrons teachers can ministers as we assemble here this evening in the common pursuit of our great nation's wealth our children amen thank you this regular meeting of the Board of Trustees is authorized in accordance with the Texas government code sections five five one point zero zero one through five five one point one four six the first item on the agenda is a public hearings optional flexible school day for Chavez Excel Academy dr. Jordan good evening miss Chumley dr. woods and Board of Trustees districts must submit an annual application notifying t EA if they plan to participate in what's known as an optional flexible school day program in in is deemed our application is for the Chavez Xcel Academy which
004has as its goal to focus on students who are either dropouts or in at risk of dropping out as well as those who are behind in their core area coursework in addition is required that progress towards the goal of an optional flexible a school program if you've implemented in the past must be presented via a public hearing so I wanted to share with you some of the results that we'd had the opportunity to discuss at an academics committee meeting back on July 12 so for the 1617 school year at the Excel Academy a hundred percent of courses that students attempted they completed that's a huge percentage is something to be proud of there was an enrollment of 370 students and they averaged an 84 percent graduation rate from the program and an 85 percent daily
005attendance rate these percentages are especially high when you look at students who are at risk and it's a positive indication of this program effectiveness this completes my comments for the public hearing thank you public hearing list for discussion only makes item I've been the next item on the agenda is the superintendence report Thank You mr. Chumley members the board just a few things to report to you this evening as you are well aware and probably everybody in the room is well aware the legislature decided to come back in a special session and the we have already seen bills filed that would if they became statute impact schools in a pretty significant way some of those I would say are potentially positive impacts and some significantly less so the two houses are moving at a very
006different pace and you have probably seen that well reported I'm happy to say that the Texas House again has filed and now passed out of committee significant school finance reform and so the house will try again to see if they can make progress on that in spite of what appears to be resistance in the other chamber I will say that that the San Antonio Chamber has been particularly active both in the general session in a special session and you've probably seen that the superintendent's the Barre County Superintendent signed on to a letter with the chamber opposing the so-called bathroom bill and encouraging the legislature to spend its time and its resources on issues that are more important both the schoolchildren and the Texans generally so all of those issues are very much still in play
007and we'll be reporting to the board as that special session continues into the middle of August last week I was able to attend the executive planning meanings for the Texas Association of School Administrators and I wanted to normally wouldn't comment on that particularly but I did want to make a comment at our board meeting it was announced to us that the longtime director executive director at ta sa Johnny Veselka was going to retire johnny has been at ta si for 43 years and I will tell you that it is absolutely my honor to have known and worked with Johnny over these years there is general agreement all across the country that the Texas superintendent's Association is among the very best and there's no doubt that that's that's in big part because of his leadership so
008I did want to just take a minute to recognize Johnny on his retirement he he will be with us a few more months as the as a new person is identified and transitions into the role and I will happily play a role in that new hiring but I did want to mention that I Johnny is is an icon in public education in our state and worthy of that recognition so as you are well aware we are already feeling the back back to school time and activities start very soon administrators and teacher leaders will actually gather for the first of several meetings this week and so we will literally begin over a month to go till school starts but we will begin this week with that group and next week as well and as you know
009new teacher academies are actually the first full week of August so that is coming up and I'll remind you of those dates later in our meeting tonight miss Hill tells me that we will hire around 650 teachers new to Northside by the time it's all said and done another another big hiring year in Northside for teachers and just to remind the board convocations will be the week of the 22nd there are the dates of the 22nd through the to the 24th so back to school is is upon us those days are coming up so while close with video moment and tonight's video moment is the Electrify your strings annual event [Applause] [Music] there's a friend of my pain photography guys in the world welcome please my favorite part is bringing in this instrument and showing
010these kids what can be done with not only with an electric violin but with their traditional instrument [Music] all electric fire strings is a program where they get string instruments and they actually Electrify them we're like more like rock music it's really different compared to like being in class three or whatever they like you combining those two was a really nice experience because you get that feeling like oh wow this sounds really good it's just something you don't think that would go together [Music] pretty cool like I didn't think that Orchestra you know people could do stuff like it it brings them out of their shell it helps them connect to flock literature if that's what keeps them going and encourage is worth it they meet new friends from other schools on stage they learn
011how to entertain rather than just perform in a concert it's really exciting to see the kids realized on my count you've paid you can move come up here up front head bang with me or turn here and do this and also near like first they don't want to do it but once they them and all their friends start doing they realize how much fun it is and after the show non-stop it's oh my gosh this is the best show ever seen I can't wait to be an orchestra master just being able to play the music and do that rock out for just however long the concert is just for a day it's so much fun [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] just take an opportunity as we do often at these meetings to compliment James Mikolka and
012his staff as well as the orchestra teachers all across North Side from fifth grade strings all the way through our our high school programs my no board members know that and mr. Medina's in a similar situation where we have orchestra kids living in the house so we get to listen to that on a regular basis and and as I go to watch mine play in concerts all around the district and really all around the city I'm amazed by the passion that these teachers have created and these kids the hard work and dedication that it takes to be really good and so I I save just a shot out to those really talented dedicated folks who helped so many North Side kids develop that skill set miss Chumley that concludes Superintendent report all right thank you
013dr. Woods do any board members have any board reports all right seems there we go miss Freeman thank you making sure I have a mic on dr. Woods and thank you for being Austin today I need to put press conference and I had the opportunity to watch it it's posted on the tassa Facebook page and you brought some common sense to to Austin and that's always a good thing and truly there were no chief McManus was there as well I know I didn't have the opportunity to see some of his comments but but thank you for thank you for being there Katie Katie Reid and I I had the opportunity last week go to Austin to attend an event and actually hosted started out as a Central Texas School Board Association event and Julie Kalin
014from Austin ISD organized it and it was a trustee day at the Capitol and they expanded it after they started thinking about it they expanded it to invite trustees from across the state of Texas I think there were over 50 of us there 50 60 we were introduced that was the first day it was the opening day of the special session senator Zaffirini introduced us on the Senate floor and then we moved from the Senate to the house and Donna Howard representative Donna Howard introduced us at the house and called all our guard districts so I really appreciated that and and the representatives on the floor that were representative of those districts that recall were waving in the in the seats up above so that was that was that was very nice and you could
015tell that they recognized it and then after that we went we had the opportunity I know Kay and I and many of the other countries we walked around and thanked people like speaker speaker Straus and other people who have been supportive of public education we were able to walk to their offices we weren't able to speak to them specifically through had meetings to attend to during that time but we were able to drop off thank-you notes and to let them know how much we appreciated their work and then we had lunch and several representatives we didn't see a senator in in that room but several representatives came by to speak to the group of trustees include include of speaker speaker Straus and cue birdie chairman Hoover do that public ed committee Diego Bernal and and
016others and that was it was a it was a very interesting and I think a worthwhile event to attend August the first the North Texas Association of School Boards is going to host similar so we all are invited to go I will if I haven't already done so I will send you contact information and how you can RSVP for that it would be a similar type event opportunities to make your own appointments at some of the offices to drop by and and then there is a lunch lunch is provided by tasbeeh and members are invited to come the members from that from the Senate and that in the house are invited to come and and talk if they so desire anyway I would encourage y'all to go it we heard from the representatives that did
017come to talk with us at the luncheon that the presence certainly meant something to them at the house and we need to be you know active they need to know who we are at the end of my report great thank you Karen thank you for your diligence to in representing as an Austin we appreciate that you that you've taken one that rule I just wanted to let everyone know that Ms Reid is not going to be able to make tonight's meeting dr. Hall real quick I wanted to I think dr. Jordan mentioned the success that Chavez Excel Academy has had and we're certainly proud of the hard work that teachers are doing there and one of the there were there are several things that academics committee that she shared that I think are work noteworthy
018and need to be applauded as well we have SAT full-day that has continued and we had over 7,000 juniors take that the board has approved monies in order for them to take that free of charge and our scores the numbers of students that are taking the tests have increased and our scores have increased and that's certainly allowing students to have better chances of choosing to go to college if that's what they so desire and so again we applaud the work of the the teachers and the district in doing that they also shared great things that are going on with several our schools with maker spaces and if you're not familiar with that just google maker spaces and you can see how they generate all kinds of interests all the way down to little guys to
019seniors that are given opportunities to create and design and problem-solve using a variety of medium and it's it's really helping students see significance I don't want to say some non star or non testing learning but also their their own creativity which sometimes I think gets lost in the classroom not in our classrooms but certainly when there's a strong focus on learning the standards and mastering them so it's a nice balance at our schools our middle school programs are flourishing there several numerous programs kids can belong to before during and after school that will also start when the school day starts in a few weeks and so I'm real excited about that there were several things to apply but those are the ones that stood out at our committee so thank you again for leading the
020charge dr. Woods and dr. Jordan thank you thank you all right seeing no other lights next item of business on the agenda is our report from the school health advisory council yes I'm so pleased to introduce our Schacht chair mr. Rob Phelps who along with Linda Seewald has facilitated the wonderful work of Schack they've been quite busy this year they've tackled quite a few items and Rob is going to share with us the highlights good evening president Chumley dr. would members of the board and humbled guests I am rob Phelps I've had the privilege of serving Northside ISD this year as chair of the school health advisory committee this is my second go-around is even better this year than it was last time and Texas independent school system is required by law to have a
021school health Advisory Council or Shack as we call it of which the majority of members must be parents of children enrolled in the district but who are not employees of the district the specifics of this mandate are detailed in title to chapter 28 section 28 point zero zero four of the texas education code and our NISD school health advisory council is in full compliance with this section of the texas education code the Northside Shack held seven regular meetings during the fall winter and spring of the 2016 to 17 school year the sixth annual taste of Northside was held in May at Jim Jim Martin Elementary School during which shack members and advisors were asked to evaluate the new cafeteria menu offerings for the upcoming school year this year 29 individuals were appointed to the shack
022for the school year 14 of whom were voting members including seven parents and seven general members 15 individuals were advisors to include our student advisor this is the third year that we've had student advisors by the way midori Flores who was from J science and engineering school a community advisor from the local chapter of the American Heart Association Evette white as well as our district facilitator Linda seal during one of our initial Shack meetings this year we conducted a brainstorming and create our shackles for the school year these were then condensed into 13 initial goals and further refined into three goal areas of increasing parental awareness of resources and dangers associated with social media increasing mental health awareness among students and NISD staff and increasing education within the community on the importance of healthy child
023nutrition our district Shaq had a number of presentations this year to include Jennifer Tristan the director of education and training at the rape crisis center of social of San Antonio RCC presenting promoting healthy relationships among school-aged youth this included an overview of RCC services primary prevention of sexual violence RCC's healthy relationships curriculum for youth and data on our CCS 2016 educational efforts the SHAC also during the meeting discussed potential educational opportunities thomas weary director of child nutrition provided his annual child nutrition update thomas discussion included the latest in federal state and local child nutrition policies clarifications on food given away or sold during the school day and internet-based tools and websites that assist in determining fitness of food as smart snacks also Terry my Brito coalition coordinator for the Alamo area team Suicide Prevention Coalition
024who shared data from the National youth behavior risk survey and highlighted coalition activities these included funding planning and the development of Teen Advisory Board with an awareness campaign access to and functions of the coalition website and some very very excellent handouts that were distributed to all the Schack meeting attendees committees that function during the school year included Wellness Policy Kathleen shield who is our chair elect was the chair of Wellness Policy Committee and they worked on the required revisions of the Wellness Policy under the final rule of the Healthy hunger-free Kids Act the committee made a recommendation to the shack on April 20th of this year which was approved and sent to the district next committee was a school-based clinics and Shirley Schreiber was our chair for this committee the school-based clinics committee traveled to
025school-based clinics in Harlan Dale and Southwest ISD this year and in light of the fact that helps and learning are interrelated recommended to the shack that NISD explore the development of a school-based clinic on January 19th the shack voted to recommend that the school district explored the development of a school-based clinic at one of the schools and the last committee that will mention this time is the physical education and fitness committee Paul Tucker chaired this and the physical education and fitness committee provided monthly gonoodle reports to the shack and reported on school I'm sorry on campus Student Assessment utilizing the fitness grant which is a measure of campus activity and physical activity for the kids as outgoing chair of Northside ISD Shaq and on their and Linda's behalf I would like to express our pleasure
026for the opportunity to represent the district and our collective honor to serve as health advocates for an ISD students and staff thanks again questions mr. blunt yeah and just that one I was just curious on the to the goal areas you had increasing awareness of resource and dangers of social media and the mental health awareness is that something that you're able to really focus on just this year or do you see the district that is going to be an ongoing ongoing area of emphasis we did have a number of discussions about those particular areas and because we always look for continuity that is going to be something that we're going to continue to look at and to focus on and to have presentations about yes thank you sir okay thank you mmm miss Raymond yes
027miss Turkel thanks thank you for your presentation and thank you to the other members of the committee I know this does take time and it takes time away from other things that you're doing but we really appreciate your work and those of all the work on those committees that committee I my question was sort of parallel to Bobby's regarding what what interests or one of these committees will continue on and overall we're talking about one but just do these continue on into the next year and then maybe you add some other yes ma'am the interest of a thank you to grow and as social media grows exponentially and as our kids are exposed to the growth of social media similarly exponentially this I would anticipate is going to be a especially the first goal area
028this is going to be a continuing area of our emphasis of our education and re-education and of course educating the committees that we serve in the board and the school did this as large as to the resources that are out there and the dangers that parents and and other staff need to be aware of so yes that that is most definitely going to be an ongoing and at some point in time that may develop into a standing committee we had done some work on it we'll be continuing to do more work on it during the next year and I anticipate that that is that is going to continue to be an area that we'll look at thank you thank you thank you I want to add my thanks as well in fact the whole board
029I'm sure feels that way of your time and we appreciate when we have individuals parents that will step up in and serve on our committees I just wanted to ask because it's kind of really what Karen and Bobby are - I just want to get it clear understanding I think your goals are great and very much needed when we talk about what we're seeing with kids and social media so during this year was this just like the initial ground setting or of what you're going to do with these goals are what what do you do specific to those goals and how can the board help how can the district help I guess because a great goal I just I'm just not sure exactly what Shaq's role is in relation to implementing those goals and so
030well can we how can we help and assist with that well thank you for the offer Adam Madam President I what we did this year and we did this a couple of years ago when I was chair is that we've got a lot of great ideas between the members of the Shak and our advisors and rather than try to piecemeal anything we bring them all together we don't have any common other than clarifications if you've lived through brainstorming sessions you know the process and then the condensing of that there were a number of ideas that have been condensed into that social media and as we I guess get more input from our presenters and more input from the outside media and we see what the district itself is doing presently anytime you identify an issue
031like this you basically triage it you see what's being what the situation is now what's being done what we can do better and how we can disseminate that information and we're kind of in between second and third stages of that and we will certainly bear in mind that we have lots of interest with that and lots of support and we do appreciate that certainly look forward to seeing with what comes next thank you very much thank you madam president okay the next item of business on the agenda is the consent agenda do I have a motion to come forward do any trustees have any items that they want to pull from the consent agenda dr. harrell no I move we accept a consent agenda as it is stated in our agenda thank you is there
032a second it's been moved and seconded that we accept the consent agenda all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the I Sabitha motion carries the next item of business on the agenda which I will get to is citizens to be heard do we have Monaco do we have any citizens to be heard No all right moving forward curriculum instruction optional flexible school day for Chavez Elementary Excel Academy excuse me dr. Jordan yes as has been mentioned previously ta requires that an application should be submitted annually to implement an optional flexible school day program and we had the opportunity to talk about some highlights of our students performance at Excel Academy that we're very proud of so what this item is is the actual application that we will submit to
033T EA so that we can continue the program for 1718 this is well was shared and discussed at the July 12th academics committee meeting and we are seeking your approval to proceed thank you dr. Rowe no I was just going to move that they did ago that we accept the agreement are that we approve the agreement but also that it was shared at academics and including the great work and she already mentioned so I I think we vetted it pretty pretty well is there anything from the academics committee meeting that you feel would be relevant to share with the board that came up in that discussion no I think you did the graduation rate the attendance read most of the designs and looking at the perform yeah and I think what was really significant is
034all student groups there were huge graph gaps between student groups they all perform almost equally well so it wasn't like we see in district-wide data where we see some gaps every once in a while this our kids are doing very well no matter what student group they're in so that was really successful looking that's great thank you I don't think you've moved that we accept and is there a second been moved and seconded and let me just open this pardon me it's been moved and seconded that we approve the optional flexible school day for Chavez Excel Academy see no further no further discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the ice habits and motion carries thank you very much the next item of business is facilities and operations
035mr. San Miguel amendment number three the auditorium replacement project at Holmes High School everyone's leaving thank you all thank you Miss Emily before you have the agenda item for the approval of them for we call amendment three barley Cod general contractor's awarded the construction manager at risk contract on November 15 2016 4 the auditorium replacement project at Holmes High School this project consisted of several phases in subsequent bids given the complexity of the project scope this request is for the amendment number 3 for a not to exceed figure of 26 million nine hundred thirteen thousand six hundred seven for the necessary work associated with the building package it's noteworthy to mention that the total amount of the total project is 32 million fourteen and four hundred and thirty two million fourteen thousand four hundred sixty
036dollars mm-hmm it it went through a series and I think we explain this in building committee went through a series of value engineering to try to get it the best possible price down and I can compliment Jerry with alum architects in spar Lacock and their staff to help us try to mitigating the cost factors that would the price down to a more comfortable range so we thank you we recommend approval um mr. Eamonn we since Katie's not here is there anything that the leap that came before the committee sorry I wasn't okay man that know who Eddie Gerald maybe one of mine was there anything that came before the building committee in relation today oh I think what as far as what the committee and and what was discussed by by by Leroy and the
037presenters I mean a lot of it was really just trying to make sure we control the cost and and it was emphasized by by Leroy that they would do that so and the fact that Bartlett is on top of this and they're going to be managing it was going to be good and this is a good thing for the district especially for Holmes High School in the renovation of the project so with that I recommend that we approve I lost my yeah my pants thank you the we approve the recommendation by the by the facilities Leroy I'm sorry identified I lost a long time no you're good thank you is there a second second all right um Tremont I just had a question I know that this whole project is relatively complex and I know
038that in the past we've talked about the phasing I don't know if you spoke about it again um do we see anything at this particular point that would delay the project absolutely not as a matter of fact Scott Parker from Bartlett rock is here and what you then scape that Holmes High School has changed you had an opportunity to pass by there you just see a big void where a big building used to be at there they're actually on schedule well we the the second phase was to take the building down and do the infrastructure to support it for the for the school coming or the school year and so they're pretty much ahead slightly ahead of the schedule that we said out so they took the building down there are drilling piers if I
039understand it correctly and also they're snapping the old piers it down there because we don't pull them up and they're going to finish that before school starts and that was their commitment very early on and I think they're on target to do that and then shortly thereafter you're going to see big cranes go up or at least one big crane out there so to answer your question they're on schedule based on this and they're going to get we need to approve this we can get them on schedule for the next phase in hearing about what was it 12 months 14 months project you'll start to see in the evidence of the of the project and again the landscape at homes will change again in a positive way great Scot while you're here we have the
040opportunity to thank you and Bartlett Kok what I've been hearing is that you've been really great partners with us and what Karen was talking about the staging has been really tough because you if everyone thinks about homes were very landlocked and that you've been accommodating with keeping in mind that we have staff and students that we need to accommodate from a parking perspective too so I just want to thank you because I've heard now I know this one is a lot harder because of that so we're very thankful that y'all are the ones that are on it and we we do appreciate your relationship with us of course we have a token that will not let us cut any corners anywhere principle is fight on top of just everything that happens in that school well
041that's why we need is saying good things about a Bartlett cocked and that means that that things are going well so there's a motion and a second to approve amendment number three auditorium replacement project Holmes high school seeing no further discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the eyes haven't the motion carries thank you very much the next time when business is business and Finance is the agreement between North Side Booster Association and Northside ISD mr. Cellini thank you miss Chumley this evening this is you that we do bring to the board to brief we did to discuss this item at the June 13 finance committee meeting what this item is is the contract that the district has with the north side boosters association I will tell you
042there are no provisions that have changed in the contract this is basically all we had to do at this particular juncture with this contract was to change the date to 2017 18 in addition to that we since this contract is for the concessions we do provide to the board both through at the Finance Committee meeting and also it's an attachment the concession price listed is attached to this particular agenda item and unless there's any questions about those prices I did try to highlight what those changes were for 2017-18 they were minimal and reasonable in the opinion of the administration so we we do recommend the bored consider approving this contractor 2017-18 okay dr. Hajra no I just had a comment I'm really glad that the shack folks are gone because when you healthy choices I
043mean dill pickles are about the only thing healthy on there so I was glad we had it after they were here maybe we can promote more hummus or something later on but that's gonna do hey yo mr. Lopez and as a Finance Committee Chair if you have any comments I would like to make no I think you know what we went through the on the Finance Committee on the 13th it was a real good discussion having to do with the agreements and allowing the allowing or giving the opportunity for the for the organization's our Band Boosters and then giving them that chance to be successful to raise money so that was one of the most important things there that we discussed on as far as that opportunity for the contract you know some of the
044products varied in price but it was it was good and it was a win-win for everybody so it was important that that we got that agreement as soon as possible so that way the organization's construct preparing for that so with that I don't recall anything else doesn't mean I would with that I would recommend that we approve the Booster Club Association our contract it's been moved and seconded that we approved the agreement between the Northside Booster Association Northside ISD the only question I have is that I'm thinking of coming from having four sons that I fed it many many more side events the prices are getting pretty high if you're talking about a family coming in and having to feed multiple children not now because I think this is great I think there's been a
045lot of forethought put into it but maybe in the future we need to look at some kind of packaged meal or you know something that could help you know two hotdogs in a soda or something that would help families that may not have the the means to pay this absolutely one thing we do in the Finance Committee I'm sure you're aware is we do try to show some comparatives with with some other districts but the the concept of having packaged meals is something I certainly will convey distinguished is something because I know that I can feed you know three other peanuts that that's I can just say that's getting expensive for a family that wants to bring all of their kids to watch their brothers or sisters you know performance at the football game all
046right okay and there being no further discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the eyes haven't and motion carries so I can thank you the next time of business on the agenda is the health insurance plan for 2018 dr. Woods yes ma'am as we've gone through the years and the health insurance market has changed 40 dramatically in the last few years you know this has become an annual review the other thing that trustees know is that this is a sizable program in our school district both from human impact standpoint as well as from a budgetary standpoint and so it is for those reasons that I do not choose to delegate this presentation so as you got to listen to me do this last couple of years you'll get
047to do that again so if if we can just follow along and I will say that I will be back a Blee backed up tonight by by Patty and Thaddeus Tim and Suzanne and Frank who are the certainly the experts in this area so if you have questions they will certainly be the ones who are providing you with additional detail so what we're going to try to accomplish in the next few slides is to look at our initial renewal offer from you know in healthcare the considerations we use to renew or issue a bid and I think you're all aware that we did choose to issue a bid the advantages and disadvantages we got three responses to our bid we'll walk through a little bit of the highlights of those three responses and then make
048a medical carrier recommendation and just briefly talk about where we go from here so I think you all are aware that on May the 10th we received a renewal from united healthcare at 19.6% if we replicated exactly the plans that we offer in the 2017 school year the letter of agreement indicates that a renewal offer above 10% things that we will be going out for a bid and we did that United did offer us some options to get that down to a single digit number but as you I'll show you in just a minute that would have created a fair amount of disruption for employees and so again we chose to go out for for an RFP so on that next slide Thank You Monica the the nineteen point six percent increase for obvious reasons
049wasn't going to be acceptable the other was that the disruption that I mentioned that if we had made significant changes to the plans we would have had a lot of employees moving from one plan to another and we obviously try to minimize that anytime we go through this this process the fully insured bid would encourage some competition we felt like we felt like that would generate some more aggressive pricing we were interested in looking at accountable care organizations and you can see a descriptor of an accountable care kind of like what we used to call an HMO with a group of physicians a hospital group but a more a smaller plan if you will to try to control our costs and to give an option to a 23 year old teacher who's single and very
050well to have a low-cost option for them so so as you see we went out to bid and we're pleased that we got three 3-bit so if we can go to the the next slide these across the top in the blue bar or the three bidders United Aetna and BlueCross BlueShield submitted proposals for health insurance for 2018 so I'll just kind of walk through without reading to you walk through what the what we felt like the advantages and disadvantages were so starting on the left with United United clearly offers the the broadest array of plan and network options it gives us flexibility to design a plan for staff from a very rich of in other words in a pin network and out and our coverage low deductible and so forth to to a much less
051risk glitch less rich plan like the ACO that we talked about briefly on the slide before the the we feel like the experience with United has been generally positive and so that obviously was an advantage in their favor you can see that United has agreed to interface to make filing claims under health savings accounts easier another thing that was a pretty significant factor is that the accountable care organization under United that small network is the hospital system as Methodist Methodist by a pretty substantial margin is the choice of more North Side employees than are the other hospital plans so that was a another factor moving on then to disadvantages the accountable care organization will be first offered in San Antonio in January of 2018 so it will be new in this area my understanding from
052from Frank and the group is that has been done in other cities and in other parts of the country but it will be new in San Antonio so obviously Northside would be one of the first to be using it in this area you can see there's around 350 primary care folks in the San Antonio area that that would participate and that at this at this time so if we move on to Aetna the the proposed plans were fairly comparable to what we offer now with United and the pricing was competitive with United and they have good experience we understand working with other ISD clients in this area there were a couple of disadvantages on the Aetna side one was the second year rate cap as a number that's pretty significant and we felt like there
053was some possibility that that we could get a very high brand new high in the second year the other consider is that the ACO under the Edna plan uses Baptist Hospital if that's a bad thing it's just less utilized by Northside staff and is the meta the the Methodist system so moving on to Blue Cross we understand and y'all will recall that we were with Blue Cross before we went to United and we understand that they've changed their role or the way that they worked with large clients I think some of you will remember that was a little bit of a challenge the last time we were with Blue Cross and so certainly that's an advantage if that would prove to be the case are as on the disadvantages side as I mentioned to you
054we did have some experience issues mostly in the administration part of the plan not so much with regard to employees accessing health care but on the administration side certainly in David shop and some other areas we did have some some concerns there and so so there's that kind of history of of our experience so our if at that next slide at 2018 beyond obviously we're trying to keep benefits costs sustainable this has become a very significant part of our annual budget adoption and so certainly we have to look at cost cost vote for our employees as well as costs for the district the other the second bullet is retain some affordable options that are attractive to our employees the other thing that that has been bended we've tried to do and working with United we've
055been successful so far is offer a pretty broad variety of plans and of course priced those plans accordingly so that folks in our system our employees have access to to a very rich plan and a very very limited plan and then several shades of gray in between depending upon their family situations their own health and so forth we want to minimize our cost shift to employees I know the board members know this but I'll say it for the sake of completion we Northside cover a little over seventy percent of the total cost of the health plan in our district that compared to other districts is is a very rich benefit and we want to continue to try to be generous in that way as long as we can afford to so obviously we're here making
056a recommendation this evening and we will continue then there was a conversation in the first time we talked about this topic in the Finance Committee around self funding and the analysis of self funding kind to really understand the cost the pros and cons of cost and benefits of self funding and that conversation will continue so lastly then is the recommendation and our recommendation is to go with kind of a a created list of options under United Healthcare we would retain what we have now which is employee choice among six plans and make Network contributions similar to to what we have now so folks would choose between six options as they do in the current year some of those options are exactly the same as what we have now others are slightly different the good news
057is that we're down to even if you assume no migration of folks from one plan to another we're down to an increase below six percent or five point seven eight percent which would bring the total cost of the plan this is the cost not only to the district but to employees as well just shy of 90 million dollars so just briefly to kind of go through the the plan options you can see on the I guess top left are the names of the plans and then we've listed and bullet some specifics and we walk through these with the with the Finance Committee so that there was a deep understanding of what what these look like so to kind of reiterate the point that I made earlier from a very rich plan to a very narrow
058plan you could start with PPO 2000 choice Plus which is a which is a very rich plan that will offer both in and out work in and out of network coverage does not require a gatekeeper and then you can see the rest of the specifics and then you go all the way kind of down that scale if you will to the Nexus plans these are the ACO plans these are those more narrow networks where I've got a series of primary care physicians that I can that I that I must access if I want to have Tier one benefits and as well as the methodist hospital system if I want to have Tier one benefits and board members can see I don't need to read to you the shades of gray if you will kind of
059in between those options so the goal here obviously was to control cost both for staff as well as for our budget as a system but also to maintain retain the kind of broad variety of options that we have in our current plan I think our staff appreciate having choices and I one of the things that I think I know from what I read other school districts are doing is that those choices are generally being phased out folks are having fewer and fewer options more and more narrow options if you will less coverage and at least as long as we can we wanted to try to retain a maximum amount of options for our folks so with that being said we are recommending tonight UnitedHealthcare as the insurance carrier for 2018 and any questions that you
060have I will happily give to Patty and Frank Mr Lopez I don't know if anybody I don't know if any other board members have any questions before I talk on this no please go ahead and finance committee chair we'd like to hear what the conversation was and your input please know the the recommendations obviously were we're needed in order to be able to continue to recruit a lot of our new teachers and especially for having 600 new teachers coming in on board I'll you know we really looked at the plan we discussed the benefits of each of each package there and you know I want to say that you know we really took into consideration in Austin and really ensuring that we take care of our teachers and all the employees of Northside so it
061was a good a good idea to go out there and put it out for a bid and we were obviously pleased with some of the with the outcome on that you know other than that I wouldn't recommend that we approve the insurance plan for four United Healthcare as being our insurance provider for the district okay Thank You mr. blunt yeah and I'll second it I just had one quick detail Karen quit that just curious I was thinking about when dr. Woods is speaking all the urges the new urgent er that are across the country standing there Freeza Freeza thank you how does our plans fit into those coverages I defer to Frank I think the answer is those are treated like a hospital a big conference while Heights little with regard to cost so okay
062one of the things mr. blunt to your point one of the things we tried to do is educate employees that that's not a cheap option either for them or for the plan just like going to Methodist er United er from a cost perspective okay thank you that's ER that's all I thank you mr. blunt any other trustees have questions at this time okay I've got a couple Frank explained to me were them's role in relation to our negotiation with our health care providers one of them goes out for bids the bids come in we analyze a bit we spread them out we get with Thaddius and missiles Department go over the bids they have a committee it set up review everything we take a vote and let me make the recommendation to the Finance Committee
063and the recognition to the board and what savings is there for us and I let me say first I appreciate everything you have done for us and over the years I just want to understand the relationship what savings is there our benefit is there for us to do that other than us negotiating directly with these carriers and is there any type of a a third party piece that fits into this that adds additional cost to us when we don't do we don't negotiate directly with United or Aetna are our Blue Cross Blue Shield when we go through um were them are companies such as were them we were them gets compensated on the cell of the voluntary products from the carriers that are placed with those products there's no to the district as far as
064the medical is concerned so playing devil's advocate what what guardrails are there in relation to what carriers you recommend for us well it's a bid system so it goes to all the different carriers those that choose to participate we don't have a selection list you know you're the only one that gets the bid product to be involved in a bid process it goes out to the public okay so then whoever we select though then you're paid a commission to them no no okay and they explain it again Frank I miss what you just said it's a bid process it's open to any carrier that wants to participate right okay once that selection is made we don't get compensated okay I said it probably bug how do you get paid bin for the work that you
065do for us our compensation is on the voluntary products such as such it to that jazz general disability life cancer that's how we get compensated and so do y'all run those voluntary programs is were them the carrier then our I'm not understanding the relationship of of how you get paid and and how that comes in to relationship to our to our employees the voluntary products are no different in the medical process its vid it's a bad it's a bit bids come in the benefits department makes the selection of who they prefer to go with then the recommendation is made maybe follow through with the board and then whoever's picked we get compensated standard Commission's on whatever product the district picks we don't fix it so chain employees pick dental then you're paid on a compensation
066based on to enforce then cash the commission of whatever however many number of employees take this thank you I'm sorry to put you I should have called you ahead of time I just when I was looking at this and I dealt with or them in some other situation I just was how that relationship worked with us and I'm not questioning the value of it I just wanted to understand it I'm concerned with UnitedHealthcare though I will say I don't know if it's so much United as much as it is the young man that helps our employees when there are problems with our health insurance - Carlos I believe who is our employee I'm not mistaken oh he's a you a cute boy he's a United employee but is honestly I'm better than but he's embedded
067here okay then our cultures rubbed off on him because when I've dealt with people of United that are not him they don't have the same culture as what this young man has in relation to dealing with our North Side employees he's been very easy to work with and has helped there's were some problems with anesthesiologists with gastroenterologist charging on a network for Northside employees and he very much took care of that and dealt with the carrier with the doctors I was just really impressed with this young man good so we get to keep him right with this okay so that's a good thing I'm concerned though with the direction I see united going in relation to the ACO networks and so I mean I just would want to make sure that we always make we
068always offer something besides that that if someone wants to pay for their insurance that they have the ability to do that because I would hate for us which other school districts have done is because of the cost savings they've moved employees into on an AC drill and it's the only option they have which you know the gatekeeper piece of it is a real issue and has been an issue that Carlos is taken care of on some of our employees - so what if I comment on that I worry about that fundamentally part of how this is designed right to try to provide a variety of options for folks and as long as we can afford it and I'm going to add that caveat as long as we can afford it that's a real priority for
069us is to try to provide an array of options where folks have real choice about how rich the coverage that they want is but that caveat is an important one so this I think provides that it provides it at a a reasonable and affordable cost increase and if folks want a really rich health insurance plan they can still get it okay and there are not that many places is Dee's where that's the case and then the one thing that I did want to ask is that I know over the last two to three years we've been talking and the conversation has been and it's been a request of the board to the district to start looking at other ideas outside the box of just being at the mercy of these health providers there's a medical
070group in town that has multiple multiple multiple [Music] done I want to call them doc in the box but they're not but they're not a medical they're not an emergency room and they self insure and they negotiate negotiate their own contracts with the hospitals and doctors and I don't know if that's something that were them would be able to assist us with but Brian I really want to make sure that we don't lose sight of that in that mixture when it comes back to us that we have looked at other options outside the box of just having to be at the health care providers mercy because there are other companies that are self insuring in negotiating their own contracts right and so one of the things one of the commitments is that each year we'll
071do a cost-benefit analysis on self insurance to try to evaluate that because clearly that's one of the if you listed pros and cons of self insurance that's one of the pros or self insurance so each year we're going to bring a an analysis of do we feel like we can really save significant dollars by moving to so mature but how do we know that if we haven't talked to like a Methodist Hospital our medical groups have we done that market analysis that we talked about the interest and the ability of being able to negotiate some of those those contracts ourselves yeah those are things I can do but as dr. Woods alluded to we have to go in the self-funded mode or transition to self funding because the way we're set up right absolutely sure
072we couldn't do that but have we done this I mean Weaver's been like a three year request now of us talking about that we would look at some at some other options have we done that we provided I believe two or three studies at that point out over the course of three years and with each study it's been determined that we're not quite there financially to transition over to self lending but it's an ongoing process and every year we're looking at it if you could provide that forth and Friday letter that would be very beneficial just to see where we are and what because I had a very interesting conversation with the owner of this group and he has everything we have a lot of employees I will and I ask that okay okay that
073would probably be helpful to put the experts in the room and let them and let them kind of talk about it over all right thank you very much miss Friedman and I in answer to your fee you asked a question about or a comment about variety and to be able to have an option where if somebody wanted to pay more they would still have that choice dr. woods answered that question but I was going to say that that was one of the decision points that was brought to us at the committee meeting in in choosing the plan that we had and a commitment from the staff that as long as we can afford to have those options that it is in the best interest of our it is thought to be in the best interest
074of the staff to continue to provide that that's great I'm feeling we did discuss that if it I just want to say we did discuss that thing thank you Karen I appreciate you adding that I think no as a question there's motion before the board all those in favor of a proving the health insurance plan for 2018 recommendation please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the eyes haven't the motion carries all right the next item of business is superintendent board operating procedures yes ma'am this is as members know an annual item that we bring each summer this document was reviewed at our meeting in in July and no changes were recommended in that meeting and as such we would recommend the board approve the operating procedures is there a mushroom come for the
075board I'd never approval is it it's been moved and seconded that we approve the board operating procedures is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the eyes haven't motion carries dr. Woods board superintendent goals yes ma'am at that same meeting we had a lengthy conversation around board superintendent goals for the 2017-18 school year that conversation centered around four main goals that were then turned into the document that's attached in your agenda and has been sent to you previously in addition to those four main goals there are some criteria that's the nest under those which would be ways for both the staff to guide to guide staff work and for the board to be able to measure some of of this work so our goal
076tonight is to have a discussion around these items and then pending that discussion and whatever edits might come from it we would bring these back for approval at a subsequent meeting likely in the month of August all right um do any trustees have any questions or comments mr. Lopez yes I mean I want to say that you know what we really did hear on this on the board and super-tender goals I think it really what we did that evening and working together to kind of give our ideas and see where we wanted to how we wanted to go in the future and you know I have to say that Carol did an excellent job and bringing up to light the middle school experience and you know when talking about those type of things that we
077look at particularly with the middle school you know it really took a lot to to bring those issues to life in in how we did it and so I wanted to commend everybody for being participated in this event and especially you Melissa for really taking charge and kind of putting that together and allowing us to give our our opinions on that and some of us agree disagree but that that's the way we did it and it was only there were good discussions those were my comments and I appreciated you know dr. woods and in the way you handled it in the way you guided work as well and kind of telling us say here's what we can really do and let's really look at it so thank you very much for that and so it
078was really interesting and I learned a lot as well my comment thank you mr. blunt that was well said that was so well said I'm gonna make a motion those may have to say well I think it's a great job I think it capture well and you stated it very well so I'll move approval of the board superjet it goes as a presenter okay the only thing let me ask though is Bobby I don't think we have them on there I know no but thank you because this is that's great though that about that we think that we see that we've got we've got a good move towards so it's on discussion I'm sorry I'll clarify that next time on motions I don't issues it's for discussion only and then I believe that it'll come
079back at the next board meeting everyone right hvala move up edits on the next one but thank you because I agree with you on it miss Freeman well I'm very proud of us of all of this this is a one pager as opposed to I think over - I don't know anyway I think we've narrowed this down and and that doesn't mean this page here doesn't mean we don't have other goals or the district doesn't have other goals these are just some things that that the board and together with the superintendent we wanted to focus on so I just I have to smile I'm just very proud of us - taking the time to get to this point thank you thanks Justice Carol anything well is there I think that I really Sakura I think
080this is kind of our time to put that out there right now if there's areas that we want to have staff look at is there areas that we need to add to delete from firm up change the wording okay finish in it again I don't want to be peace with words but we're always looking at improving and innovating and moving the needle and so I started just wanted there's a a more trajectory word other than maintain like promote or room or improve the law for breast of it maintaining and the best bet right now with with that word and says several times so only because when you look at student performance states proficiency levels if the expectations for student performance are so low that just meeting standards is getting represented a test drive or for
081you so thank you I agree with you because that we've always talked about that we don't want to rest on our laurels that we've always want to to make sure that that means that we're seeing improvement I just had a question though I know that we had talked about in our discussion on board goals and superintendent goals we had talked about having some that were measurable but we really haven't put anything that is a measure in here is that something that we wanted to see are not really well for instance under the first the first goal certainly that's that's going to be measurable you're going to compare that year-over-year so that's got built-in metrics to it I think each of these sub goals under the first that deals with curriculum instruction primarily are going to
082have metrics readily available and easy to access okay I actually think it looks really good and from where we were where we are now I think that this is a major step and a good start for us so do trustees just want to think about this and then just make sure that if there's aren't any other changes or additions or alterations that you want to make that we have that prior to because the next time it comes before us then it'll be it'll be to take action for approval how about no no I was going to say why don't sit send it to I would say send it to MS McGee and it'll be in Friday letter right we can what we can do is is essentially track change the document and say you know
083change has been suggested and and send that out ahead on the approval of the of the full docket that'll work anyway alright well that it's a great it's a great start for us I think a right well it's time to move into executive session oh I don't do we have students here no all right we were just checking no no students try to recognize that trying to recognize you I know I know okay so the board's trustees on July 21st beginning at July 25th thank you beginning at let's say 825 will convene and closed meeting to Texas Government Code section five five one point zero seven one and five five one point zero seven four are we ready okay board trustees on July 25th 2017 beginning at 9:20 will convene an open meeting the next
084item on the agenda is a possible passage of resolution addressing the settlement of lawsuit involving the pool at the natatorium any further discussion it's not as their emotions from foot board yes I move that the following resolution be adopted by the board resolved at the district enter to entered into a seven greement of the natatorium lawsuit that is Northside Independent School District for the CF Jordan and Atari corporation on the terms conditions of revision set out the settlement agreements provided to this board in executive session with such modifications to the subtle agreement as a superintendent needs necessary or desirable in his own in his sole discretion and at the superintendent's hereby authorized we execute such subtle settlement agreement on behalf of the district provided however that the dollar amount discussed an executive session to be
085paid under set agreement to the district shall not be modified by the superintendent is there a second it's been moved in session I second the motion yes thank you it's been moved and seconded that we approve the resolution as read is there any discussion there being none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all opposed I haven't motion carries y'all did great tag team that's great next item agenda is the appointment of administrators as discussed in closed session is there a motion come before the board mr. Medina i emotionally approve the administrative appointments as discussed in the executive session is there a second second it's been moved and seconded any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the I seventh motion carries that's
086the last item of business so shall we by general consent adjourn yes the board into this meeting at 9:22