Northwest ISD School Board Meeting - February 9, 2026

001Good evening everybody. I call this meeting of the Northwest Independent School District to order at 5:00 PM. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that notice of the meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551. We will now move to close session. The board will convene in close session pursuant to Texas Government Code Chapter 551, including sections 551.07 071 consultation with the board's attorney and 551.072 real estate matters and 551.074 personnel matters. Good evening. The board will now reconvene in regular meeting. We will now do the um move to the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. >> Okay. I'll invite you guys to please rise. If you'd like to uh please join me in

002a word of prayer to open our meeting. Heavenly Father, we come to you this evening with great thanks. There's so much to be thankful for, Lord. And we just praise your holy name for safety, for the opportunity to gather here and make decisions in the sight of the public, but in the sight of you, Lord, in the best interest of our students. Lord, we pray for godly wisdom as we make these as the board makes these decisions this evening. We pray for your continued hedge of protection around our faculty and staff, our students, and our families and our community. These things we pray in the Lord's name. Amen. I'm uh please remain standing. I'm excited as we get to do the pledges this evening. We have uh two students from Seven Hills Elementary School. I'll

003invite Brock Nelson, a fifth grade student, and Ellie Blas, another fifth grade student, to come to the podium. And as they're coming up, I'll introduce them. Ellie, um, thank you parents, Jasmine and Frederick, for being here. Her favorite subject is writing. Um, she likes to make clay, uh, clay bead bracelets and hang out with her friends. And her proud principal, uh, Miss Blackburn, said that Ellie was nominated because she's a leader of self, others, and of their pack. and she consistently demonstrates responsibility and respect at school and she's a positive role model. And her compatriate in saying the pledge this evening is Brock Nelson. Uh thank you uh Mandy Bricky and Cody and Samantha Nelson for being here. Brock's favorite subject is math and he likes to play football. Uh and his proud principal says

004that he's a wolf and a member of the student lighthouse team. I think both you guys are members of the student lighthouse team, right? and um that he exemplifies leadership and embodies the school's core values of leading self, leading others and leading the pack. Uh he has excellence in academics and character and service and sets a powerful example for his peers. So these two awesome fifth graders from seven hills are going to lead us in the pledges. 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 the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. >> Thank you guys. And if y'all stay right there,

005y'all may be seated, but Brock Ellie, if y'all stay right there for just a second. Parents, thank you all for being here and supporting your kiddos. We appreciate that very much. They did a great job. Can we give them a round of applause? I don't know if you guys heard them. Their mic wasn't on, but we got it squared away. I heard them. They said it. So they did a great job. Thank you. >> Great job. >> This time we'll turn it over to Mr. Toy and team for recognitions. >> Thanks for being here. You a great leader. >> Good evening, President Murphy, Dr. Fast, members of the board. Tonight we'll begin our recognitions with uh going back to Seven Hills. Our next principal uh next principal taking a new role. Uh Kim Blackburn is

006going to lead Romer Elementary School. Uh she's been at 7 Hills for a decade. She's got a lot of great experience. Uh more important to that, she has a personal connection to Dr. Ror, the namesake of the school. When Dr. Ror sadly passed away a few years ago, she was one of three principles that we had speak to the TV crews to honor her. And I have no doubt that she'll honor uh Dr. Romer going forward leading the school and I'll turn it over to Mrs. Blackburn to introduce herself. So good evening Dr. Fast, members of the NISD board of trustees and NISD leadership. Thank you for the opportunity to open Dr. Leanne Romer Elementary as its inaugural principal. Since being named principal of Ror Elementary, I've been learning everything I can about ravens. Ravens

007are known to be highly intelligent, excellent communicators, extremely social, often playful, and both bold and brave. For those who knew and loved her, these are the very qualities that made Dr. Ror the leader and legend that she was. And if I'm being honest, they are also qualities that initially intimidated me in taking on this role. However, in my research, I also discovered something quite unexpected. The relationship between ravens and wolves. Yes, wolves. A recent study in Yellowstone revealed that ravens and wolves form a remarkable mutually beneficial relationship. Leveraging their respective intelligence position in the ecosystem, keen communication skills and social interactions, they help one another find food, warn each other of danger, and are often seen playing together. It's true. There's a video of tugof-war. It's actually really cute. Um, it is in it is

008a partnership built on trust, intelligence, and shared purpose. Dr. Romer was my esteemed and trusted colleague. She was also one of my closest friends. A friendship built on laughter, trust, shared purpose, and a commitment to being the best versions of ourselves. Tonight, this wolf stands before you no longer intimidated by the role by the role or the raven. In fact, quite the opposite. I stand here empowered. I will embrace these qualities. Sorry. I will embrace these qualities and this special relationship as we build a culture of leadership and learning that honors Dr. Romer's unique genius, reflects the character and personality she embodied and values relationships as paramount to success. What a legacy she left for our future Ravens. Thank you for your support of my leadership at Seven Hills and in NISD over the past

00911 years. I am deeply grateful and truly excited for this next chapter. Here I am trading my au for a kaka. Next up, we'll recognize one of our schools for earning the prestigious Texas School to Watch Commenation, Chisum Trail Middle School. This year, Chisum Trail was named a Texas school to watch due to its commitment to academic excellence, student growth, and continuous improvement. This is not an easy commenation to earn. There is about 1,200 school districts in the state of Texas. Almost every single one of those has a middle school. Many have multiple middle schools. We're about to open our eighth. So around 2,000 middle schools, they are one of 70 in the entire state to earn this distinction. So it's definitely not something that's easy to earn. So in addition to all of that,

010they will be recognized at the Making Middle School Matters Symposium hosted by the Texas Association for Secondary School Principles this March in Austin. And then after that, they'll be recognized in Washington DC as part of the National Forum School to Watch Conference. So here to accept accept this recognition on behalf of Chisman Trail Middle School is principal Jennifer Higgins, excuse me, [snorts] assistant principal Ellie Palmentary, assistant principal Lynn Petty, and assistant principal Alan Palisik. And you're welcome to join us at the front now. All >> [sighs] >> right. One, two, three. >> Before I hand it over to Candle for our community recognitions, there's one U honore who couldn't be here tonight or they were honoring us really. Uh Perkins and Will, one of our architects, recently donated $6,500 to NEF as part of their

011charity golf tournament. So, this is funding that will go into NEF's strategic goals of teacher grant, student scholarships, the resource store. So, it's definitely something that will be put to good use. Unfortunately, uh they couldn't be here tonight. Their headquarters out of Chicago, I believe, so it's not easy to get down here, but we really appreciate their uh donation to Nef and helping our district out. And now I'll turn it over to Candle. Okay. Good evening, President Murphy, Dr. Fast, and members of the board. [snorts] It's my honor to have help recognize some deserving individuals this evening. First, I would like to recognize our volunteer of the month for January. From Hughes Elementary, Brittany White. Hughes principal Nathan Rob said, "Brittney is not just an amazing parent, but she is a Hughes community leader. She

012cares deeply for our school community and all the students and families. She is a regular volunteer on top of leading our PTA as board president. She goes out of her way to help our school partner with every family. She helped lead a teddy bear drive and donated food for our Thanksgiving meal. She also volunteers once a week to help our librarians shelf books each week. She's incredibly kind and hardworking. Hughes Elementary is an amazing place to be because we are blessed with amazing community partners like Britney. Congratulations, Britney. Next is a very special group of individuals who were instrumental in the success of the Angel Tree program. Each person here was in our Santa's workshop several days and with their help, the program was able to serve over 1,800 students this year for the holidays.

013I absolutely could not do it without them and the nearly 200 other volunteers who came through Santa's workshop. If you will please come up when your name is called. Terry Trainer, Jessica Britain, and Katie Hussie. Not here with us tonight, but people who I would still like to recognize, Janet Carter, Mark Udder, Christina Clauser, Shauna Shipman, and Rebecca Ba. literally love them so much. Thank you. Next up, I would also like to recognize the incredible members of the NISD Education Foundation for their support of the Angel Tree program. Here to represent the team tonight is Alyssa Pride, the director of communications and public relations. This year, we were able to get every single angel adopted, which is incredible and a true testament to our community. However, each year we also have unreturned angels that adopters

014never bring the donations back. Nef has supported the angel tree program by hosting a fundraising campaign to cover the cost of every single one of those angels that don't come back to us. This year, the fundraiser raised almost $18,000 to support our students. Members of the NEF team also helped do the shopping to cover those kids as well as volunteer their time in Santa's workshop. We truly couldn't make the program what it is without their support. And honestly, I might have ran away this year without Alyssa. So, extra praise for you and thank you. Thanks, Alyssa and the Nef team. Thank you to all of our volunteers and hardworking staff. And that concludes recognitions for tonight. Okay, we will move to agenda item number six, which is public testimony, public comment on agenda and non-aggenda

015items, and we have one this evening. Um, I will read this statement before I call the speaker to the podium. Public testimony and public comments are an opportunity for the public to address the board on any agenda item or matter not on the board agenda. The board may place reasonable constraints on the length of presentations as long as it does not unfairly discriminate among speakers based on their viewpoint. People who wish to speak must have signed up and completed a public request to speak form before the meeting begins and identify the topic they wish to address with the board. Each presentation is limited to three minutes. Speakers requiring language translation will be limited to six minutes. Speakers should refrain from mentioning by name an employee or student with whom they are complaining. Our first speaker

016will be Miss Cavayo, I believe. I'm sorry if that was really bad. Um [laughter] I apologize. If you speak step to the podium and state your full name and your address, please. [clears throat] Good evening uh board members. My name is Lloyd Carbalo and my address is 364 PBLO Bonito Trail Hasslet. I [clears throat] am here to raise a concern regarding the CCMR process as it relates to my daughter. Recently, I learned that my daughter was withdrawn from the CCM CCMR Ethan High School application process without any notification to me as a parent and without my knowledge or consent. This lack of communication is considering as the parents should be informed of and involved in decisions that directly impact their child's academic opportunities. In addition, this situation caused significant frustration and confusion for my daughter.

017She was left with the impression that her application was not good enough. In fact, she had successfully advanced through the first round of the process and was later withdrawn without explanation. This experience was disenouraging and avoidable with proper communication and transparency. I respectfully request that the board review the current policies and procedures governing the CCMR application and selection process to ensure that they are transparent consistently apply to fair to all students and families. Clear clear communication and parent notification should be fundamental part of any process that affects students placement and eligibility. [clears throat] by the perspective. I previously live in Florida in a district serving approximately 180,000 students which each year the district conducted a lottery based choice process in which students could select up to two school. Northwest ISD serves approximately 32,000 students and

018I believe there is an opportunity to implement and refine process that ensures equity, clarity and trust for families navigating a specialized program such as a CCMR. My goal in in s uh my goal in reaching out is not only to address what occurred to my daughter but also to advocate for the system that is fair, transparent and consistent to all the students moving forward. I appreciate your time and your attention to this matter. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, we'll now move to agenda item number seven, which is the consent agenda. >> Madame President, >> Mr. Schlutoter, >> I'll first ask if any of the board members have an item they would like to pull off for consideration individually. Seeing none, I move to approve the consent agenda as submitted. >> Second. I have a

019motion by Mr. Schlutoter and a second by Dr. Roush to approve the consent agenda as submitted. All in favor of 6. Thank you board. Item eight is to consider any item removed from the consent agenda and there were none. So we will move to nine which is our discussion action agenda for the evening. Item A is the naming of of principal for Seven Hills Elementary School. Madame President, Dr. Roush, I would like to motion to name Sher Jones as principal of Seven Hills Elementary School as recommended by the administration. Second. I have a motion by Dr. Roush and a second by Mrs. Hatfield to name Sher Jones as principal of 7 Hills Elementary School as recommended by the administration. Any questions? All in favor? A 6. Thank you. Board item B is the naming of

020principal for Wayne A. Fox Elementary School. Madame President, Mrs. Hatfield, I would like to make the motion to name Hannah Garcia as principal of Wayne A. Cox Elementary School as recommended by the administration. >> Second. I have a motion by Mrs. Hatfield and a second by Mr. Schlutoter to name Hannah Garcia as principal of Wayne Aox Elementary School as recommended by the administration. Any questions? All in favor? 6. Thank you board. We will move to item C which is the naming of principal for Medlin Middle School. Madam President, >> Mr. Sprouls, >> I move to name Ashley Taylor as principal of Medlin Middle School as recommended by the administration. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Sprouls and a second by Dr. Roush to name Ashley Kaylor as principal of Medlin Middle School

021as recommended by the administration. Any questions? All in favor? 6. Thank you, board. Okay, we will move to item D, which is consider and act on an order calling a general trustee election. >> Madame President, >> Mr. Schlutoter, >> I move to approve the order calling the 2026 board of trustee general election for place five, place six, and place 7 for May 2nd, 2026. >> Second. Oh, >> I have a motion by Mr. Schlutoter and a second by Dr. Roush to approve the order calling the 2026 board of trustee general election for place five, place 6, and place 7 for May 2nd, 2026. Any questions from the board? All in favor? A 6. Thank you. Okay, we will move to item E now, which is the 2026 2027 growth budget and staffing matrices with um

022Kim Barker and Jonathan Pusk. >> Good evening, Dr. FA, President Murphy, and members of the board. Um we are excited to bring you our growth budget and staffing matrices for the upcoming school year uh for us in our office. This begins the hiring season and so we are very excited uh to bring this this evening. So as you know everything that our department does is housed in strategic goal two where we recruit value and retain highly effective staff prepared to meet the individual needs of our community. We had a couple of factors for consideration as we uh prepared our staffing for the upcoming school year. As you know, we are opening three brand new NISD campuses. We're beginning the planning stages of opening Davis High School, which will open in the fall of 2027. You

023know, you've approved some boundary line changes and adjustments to reflect the needs of the these three new campuses. We do have some student support needs that have increased. We always want to hire highly effective employees which is why we bring this to you early in the semester. You also know that we had a successful VATRE that was passed in November and we have some staffing u proposals in that as well as a result of the passing of that election. And then we will also have to work through reallocating some of our current staff due to the enrollment that we have right now. So also you'll find in your packet we have updated the look and professionalism of our staffing formulas also called our staffing matrices. In addition, we bring a new one to you for

024our early childhood center. So one thing that you'll notice on this um is how we are staffing that inaugural um early childhood center and there may be some adjustments as we work through the school year and be prepared for next year. So, it could be we could adjust it next year based on the needs as we get in the building with those pre-K kiddos and find out what we really need. Um, one thing I want to notice and point out on here is our office manager uh for our prek center will be working 235 days. Uh, typically an office manager on the campus works 220. However, during the time that the campus is closed, that individual will be housed up here and will be leading our prek registration team. uh prek registration can be very

025uh tedious and has a lot of moving parts that are a little bit different than our traditional registration. So that additional support will be there. Um in addition I wanted to note that in each pod there will be an a ECSE classroom with pair professionals in it but we will also have each pod will have a floating pair professional to support the needs of the students within that pod. Moving on to our elementary staffing formula, we use the same format. We updated that as well. Um, one piece that you will notice at the bottom is how we staff our lamp, which is library, art, music, and PE. Uh, that is a very uh strategic staffing model that we use to ensure that students are safe when they are in that PE classroom. So, you can

026see at the bottom for less than 700 students, there's not a campus assistant. for more than 700 or if one or two grade has more than a certain number per section that ends up in that PE classroom, we do add a campus assistant. We also could add a PE pair professional based on enrollment. And sometimes we also have a PE pair professional and a campus assistant to help support those students as they go through those rotations. Our middle school staffing formula has very few changes. They're at the fine arts area. You'll notice that last year, part of our budgeting and staffing plan, we had some fine arts staff that were shared among our middle schools. As part of the um VATRE, we did say that if we were to pass that, we would put that

027money right back into the fine arts and staffing, which we have. And so, moving forward, we would like to make all of our middle school fine arts departments back whole as to how they were. As a reminder, they had a shared assistant band director and a shared assistant choir director. Now they will each have their own dedicated assistance. Our high school staffing formula has not changed from last year to this year. We just updated um the look of it here. All right. So we have I've mentioned the VAT impacts. We have a couple of very specific things that we'll talk through and then I'll hand it over to my colleague here. As you know, we did state that we were going to increase student ratios as well as our fine arts programming. and you've seen

028the fine arts programming um reflected in our staffing matrix. All right, so here's a look at how we staffed our classrooms in the 2526 school year compared to how we ran our staffing guidelines for the 26 27. So at prek remains the same. Kindergarten is still 22 to1. Same with first grade. When we get to second grade is where we see a difference. Last year second grade was at 24 to1. This year it's at 22 to1. Third grade last year was at 24 to1 as well as fourth grade. We've split that difference and staff them at 23 to one. Fifth grade remains the same at 25 to1. At our secondary level, we staffed at 180 to1. And at this year for our secondary level, it is 172.5 to one, but we like to say that

029we're not we're not taking half of a kiddo anywhere. But that's the formula that we used. Do you have any questions on our um student toteer ratios? So on the 172 >> because my math is not so wonderful with with figuring out some of this. So like we had some classes that were like in 40s, you know, some classrooms where I think were 38 40 kids, I can't remember. >> What does that mean? Now >> this is going to lower those class sizes to closer to 30 or under 30. >> Okay. >> Thank you. And I if I could add just a little color commentary, we're going to ask our um secondary principles in particular to concentrate that those ratio changes on the core academics. >> So you may still have some pretty large class

030sizes and electives and perhaps even CTE, but in in the four core academics, we're going to ask them to prioritize the additional staff they're getting based on these formulas. >> Yes. And you'll also note too essentially we we are delivering on what we said is we can't put it all back but we're going to go about halfway from what you know that we did as far as restructuring. We're going to go about halfway back. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Great question. Here's a look at our fine arts staffing more specifically from 202526 to 2627. You do see the shared assistant band directors and choir directors on there where we now will have uh full fully staffed that will be there all day in our finance programs. And then I'm going to turn it over to

031Mr. Pusix. He can talk to you a little bit about the enrollment impact and how that impacted our our finance here. Do you want you find? [sighs] So looking looking at the data in the growth for this year, the biggest thing we had to look at was the 2526 projection. So we're going back to last year. Last year we were projected to end in October. Our snapshot data 33,195 students. That's been about,00 student growth for that year. We came in about 32,838. So last year, which is actually our current year, so think of it that way, projected, but current year, we're 357 short of that goal. We did not hit our enrollment growth for the first time other than COVID since I've been here. So um new dynamic that we're having to really watch and

032monitor. So looking at the 2526 actual number of 32,838, the new projection for next year is 33,166. So from actual snapshot to next year's snapshot, it looks like we're going to go 328. However, if you look at what we projected last year for the current year we're in, right? If you look at that projection and look at next year's projection, you can see we're actually going to be 29 short. So over a 2-year period, we got our normal one-year growth. So I think the the the hard part for that to understand is last year when we were hiring we hired for,00 new students but we only got 800 and I can't remember the exact number 850ish. So now that we're adding the other 350 if we wouldn't have changed the ratio we would have had

033no growth in teachers because we would have been getting two years projected growth and what we staff for in one year or one year's growth in two years. Does that make sense? That is really hard to explain. I want to make sure that sinks in. Any questions on that? Because I think that's really hard to explain and I want to make sure we're all on the same page. The reason it's so important is looking at this. If we look at next year's changes, this is because of passing the VATRE. We always talk about growth because we're always growing. But in this scenario, we're not truly growing any students from what we've already staffed at. So looking at our elementary ratio change, we're going to add four FTs. That doesn't sound like a whole lot. The

034reason is is had we not change the ratio, we would actually been overstaffed by about 17 if I remember correctly or I'm sorry, 21. It's a 21 teacher swing. The ratio is adding 21 more teachers. But because we're already overstaffed, we only have to add four more. So that's why that number seems so low. secondary ratio change is going to add about 34 teachers. When you look at our enrollment for that projection, our secondary hit, it was about what we projected last year. The shortage was all in elementary. So that's why you can also see that we need 34 in the secondary versus four in elementary. Uh Miss Barker talked about the fine arts additions at the middle schools. So you can see that we're adding those assistant directors back at the middle school. I'm

035also going to skip special education for a second and go to new campuses. We talked about the new campuses that we're adding. We're going to need about 26 additional um staffing because of those new campuses. And then the last one is special education. 49. That's a big number. Um I actually went and pulled the data to make sure that Micah wasn't pulling my chain when she did this. And and it is it is obvious that our special education is growing much more rapidly than our regular student population. And of course that is also a lower number of students per teacher. So there is a a big need. A lot of those also are the PAR positions that go into the classroom and help support the teachers. So that's where that number 49 comes from. And

036then the last piece of this that we're going to talk about tonight is talking about the VAT. In the VATRE, if you remember, the big push was we we believed we would get at least $12 million in additional revenue. I think that's going to be north of about 15 million. So, that's a positive. We were conservative, and it came in that we'll be higher. Our staffing, we proposed 8 million would go to staffing in the sense of we would lower the ratio at elementary, which we just presented, as well as at secondary, which was also presented. We said we would return the fine arts at the middle schools, which we just showed. And then we also said we would maintain the current programs that we're offering at the level we're offering them. And that was

037going to cost us about $8 million. Currently, we're budgeted about 8.8 million from the changes that we just showed. So, we're pretty close to that level that we talked about in the Vader presentation. If you also remember in the VA presentation, we proposed that 4 million would go to compensation. We were going to really do a good market analysis, look at all the different positions as compared to other districts and make sure that we're being very competitive with our salaries. We're in the process of doing that now. We proposed that that would cost about $4 million. I have no idea where we are number yet. Um we're still doing that that uh analysis. And then one thing that was not in the Vader uh presentations was returning custodial. If you remember, we did cut about

038$2 million out of custodial. Teachers were taking their trash out. We alternated cleaning days. We heard that that that was needed uh dramatically. Um that was one of the things that we heard a lot of at listening sessions as well as from families. And so we've actually put that back in already this year. So that $2 million is what it's going to cost to put back what we took out last time. So, that was not in the original Vader presentation, but we've already returned that as an additional goal for next year, but we've already done it for this year. So, I hope that answers some questions on the Vader and the growth and the staffing. Are there any questions that myself or Kim could answer? >> Jonathan, I have a question for you. So, uh,

039we eliminated some programs, uh, because the budget shortfall. Are we adding those programs back? the programs that we eliminated was one that really sticks out as AVID. Um AVID, I think, had 96 kids enrolled in it for three staff members. So, it's one of those that we would love to bring back because of how good it was. Um but being that we can't put everything back. It's one of those efficiency ones that's not very efficient. Um so, as of right now, it's not bringing we're not bringing it back. Again, we will continue to look at all the things as we go through the budget process and see what the the revenue is and our current expenditures. Anything you'd like to add on that? >> Yes, sir. There was also uh changes we made to our

040staffing models with uh GT dyslexia emergent bilingual um the librarians in the rotation. We're really not able to address any of those. Um, and I I wouldn't suggest we're taking a walk on the wild side, but we're getting new revenue and we're immediately stretching out, you know, as much as we can. We're going to use all of it just as we promised um in during the prop Proposition A, you know, campaign. Um, but there's not a whole lot more that we can get to. Um, and what we don't want to do is make the really painful structural cuts to rightsize to, you know, the pace of growth and the funding that we're getting and and that really push and pull between uh inflation and additional salaries that we want to add. So, as the expenses

041go up, but the revenue doesn't go up, you know, it's really important that we made those structural cuts. If we put it back, all of it right now when we have a little bit of extra revenue, which by the way, we're pretty much spending all of it. That that adds up to 14.8 of of 15, then we're right back in the same situation we were two years ago. So, we're stretching it, but we don't want to go any further than that and put us in sort of fiscal peril. And I'd also like to make sure one of those things when we changed some of the models of dyslexia and GT, we did not um decrease the service or the quality of what we were providing. We just became more efficient. Um we had some scenarios

042where maybe we weren't maximizing our staff to the best on that scenario and we were able to do that. Um I'll use an easy example. You may spend the morning over here in the middle of the day go to another campus. Well, you lose a period there which you could be seeing students instead. Now they may go all day Monday to one campus and then all day Tuesday to a different campus. So we just became more efficient where the class sizes still are in a good spot for those programs, but we're doing it with less less staff members. >> Yes, sir. >> Hey, Jonathan, while you're there, I have a question for both of y'all, but could you go back to talking about the population growth? I have no idea what you said. Could you

043And you even said you even said you were having a hard time explaining, but you really tough. So, think of it this way. For the current year we're in, we projected and we staffed for,00 more students. I got 850. So, it's 350 short. I'm using ballpark numbers. This next year, the demographer projects that we're going to get 350 students. So, over two years, what we projected and staffed at or what I'm sorry, over one year, what we projected and staffed at, we didn't get. It's going to take two years to get there. So we were already staff with that number. Is that kind of make sense? >> Yeah. So we're only projected 350 students this next school year. >> That is correct. The number is 33166. Now we have another demographers report coming up. We're

044going to continue to monitor. But that is the conservative number. So I'm hoping that come in a little higher. But >> so for this which basically what you're saying this school year you you're staffed for the next >> two years >> or one year >> next year we're already staffed for next year if the ratio wouldn't have changed but because of the Vader we promised ratio changes. So with the ratio changes that's why we're adding the staff you see on this second page. >> Okay. The staff is because of ratio and growth of special ed and Vader promises, not because of high student growth. >> Okay, that makes sense. >> Miss Barker, question for you. Could you go back to your elementary um lineup because you had art PE on there twice and I didn't

045really understand what you're you were trying to say there. >> So up at the top uh you've got the PE, art, and music teacher. Then down at the bottom under specials, >> art, PE, and music. Looks like we do have that twice. >> So I was just kind of curious what is that a >> you that's a great catch. We will get that corrected. >> Okay. Because you know because it goes over the past few years always talking about those pairs that help correct >> with the specials. So um can you explain that that part again is um >> when it comes to specials. >> Let me switch up here. Yes. One of the things that adjusted last year >> is placing the library into the rotation for art, music, and PE. Went from AMP

046to LAMP. We like our FUD names in education. Because of having extra students in those rotations, we have to make sure that our teachers are supported and our students are safe. Specifically in PE, there is regulations for what is considered a safe space in PE with that many students. So at the bottom it is is very meticulous in how we determine the support that goes to those campuses. So the first bullet point on the second set that's in red. If there's less than 700 students and no grade level over 112, we do not award a campus assistant. So that's if a campus remains small and not any of their grade levels K through five go over 112, they don't get that assistant. If they are 700 students or one or two grade levels levels over

047the 112 students, they get one campus assistant that provides support during LAMP and specifically typically mainly during PE. We have some flexibility. The campus has flexibility on that. If three or more grade levels are over 112 students, they get a full-time PE pair professional that stays in PE all day. If three or more are over 112 students plus 700 or more students, they get a PE pair professional and a campus assistant. And that campus assistant is designed to be flexible wherever they may need that assistance at due to the larger number of students. >> So the question is what's really what's the difference between a pair professional and a campus assistant? >> Uh just through naming convention one the PE pair professional that is in PE all the time. That is their assignment. a campus

048assistant could be moved and put in different classrooms for different needs that the principal may see. >> And not just the specials, but anywhere on campus. >> They're typically using them in specials. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Those are great questions. >> Anybody else? Jonathan um on on the on the special education with raising that up so much. So on the funding piece of that because we're the way I understand it, we don't get funded 100% from the state on that. So how how does that correlate with the Vader and just I'm trying to figure out the dollars and how much that's actually costing the district. raise that up. >> I have not got the exact breakdown of that. I will have to do some math on that. So, think of it this way.

049For every student we get, we get a dollar figure. I use try to use easy math. We get a dollar for every student. Bear with me, right? A special ed student, we may get a $150. That ratio hasn't changed for years. That $150, half of it has to be used directly for special ed. However, that hasn't changed. the ratio or that that number we get that$150 hasn't changed since before the 90s from what I understand. So where I'm going with that is it's way underfunded. So that 55% that we need to spend or have to spend we're closer to about 110 or 115%. So for every$150 we get we're probably spend $1.70. So, it's a it's a tough line in there of for every student we get, we are getting more funding and we're putting

050it right back into sped at 100% plus maybe a little bit more which comes out of general fund budget. So, you could say the Vader revenue or some of those other revenues. Does that kind of help answer it? I didn't break down exactly what the amount of revenue is going to be different for sped next year because we haven't gotten to the the budget um deeply yet, but that'll be part of the presentation as we go forward. But, this is just it's got to be there. And one of the things we changed last year was when we do this at the beginning of the year, we used to wait and come back with second staffing in April and ask for sped teachers then. Well, they're the hardest to fill and we're already two months behind

051in the hiring hiring season. So, we've started putting them in the growth budget so that we can get hiring them immediately. And so, that's why you're coming to you now instead of in April. >> Also wanted to add it's 49. It's not. It says FTEES, but it's not 49 classroom teaching positions. About 20% of those are pair professionals. That is correct. At least 20%. >> I think it's a touch more than that actually that are pairs that actually help support. >> And then I was also just going to help too on that lamp discussion. Think of it as a math ratio. They've done a really good job of figuring that out of it used to be divided by three classes. Now it's divided by four. So that's why those ratios make a big difference of

052when you get that next position. >> Yeah. that and as I as y'all were talking I was I was thinking about the math. So for 112 to get a campus assistant that's really divided by four and and um and because I'm I'm more think about the PE assistant or the para there with all the craziness that's going on there. So um so 112 divided by four. How how many how many teachers is that in a grade if there's 112 students? Are we at five or six? >> 22 22 to one. So fiveish >> five six. Okay. Okay, thank you. >> Okay, will you go back to the last slide with the VAT information? >> Fabulous. I know that you said that you were working on this and the compensation. I'm going to talk a little

053bit of compensation in the past. You always were able to tell us a number of what 1% technically may equal. Do you have any ballpark figures of what that's going to look like this year? >> I could shoot from the hip, but that's I hate to do that and be off. I I think the the boss may get mad at me, >> but I assume we're going to we're going to get that for sure. You will get what 1% would be for all staff, for certain specific staff. We'll get into the market analysis of different positions, whether that be Paris. One of the things Dr. FA has really pushed is let's look at the market for Paris. Um make sure we're being very competitive there. So that may be a different rate that we raise

054them versus others. So that will be bringing all that information to you as we get more into the compensation analysis side of this. to set an expectation there. I I really don't know that we'll have enough work done um in March. That'll probably be the first meeting in April. >> I think you're probably right there. That's a that's a lot of data we're going through, but yes, I I think you're probably right. >> Okay. All right. Do we have any more questions? This is a a um discussion action item tonight and I think the sooner we take action on this the better so that they can start hiring um for the future year. Anybody else have any other questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion. >> Madame President, >> Mr. Dearing >> uh make a

055motion to approve the 2026 2027 growth budget staffing ratios and staffing m matrices as recommended by the administration. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Daring and a second by Dr. Rous to approve the 2026 2027 growth budget staffing ratios and staffing matrices as recommended by the administration. All in favor? >> 6. Thank you for the presentation and answering all the questions. Okay, we're going to move to item F, which is the board policy update 126 and the local district update 2026.01. Miss Hobbs. >> Good evening board. Dr. Um, happy to present to you the largest policy update that TASBY has ever put together in the history of TASBY policy services. Um, and we actually have two policy updates we're looking at tonight. One is the postledge update with 126 and the other

056is a local district policy update um to align our policies to uh current practices on DOI plans and make one additional change. Now, like I said, the policy update, 1,400 pages. Um, I'm not going to read them all to you because I know you all have families who you would like to go home and see tonight. And so, we are just going to hit some of the highlights um so that you can get home and see the family that's waiting patiently for you. Um so, the first thing we've got here are um the policy update from this legislative session. Most of these will be real familiar to you because they are already things that we are doing because it's the law and we are following the laws that went into effect in the summer and

057in September. Um under local governance um be is your policy on board meetings and there are a few changes to board meeting procedures um required by legislative updates. Um for example, no um now meetings have to be held outside typical work hours. Um, agenda items can be added up to the fourth business day before the meeting. That aligns to some new legislative language. Um, and then regular meetings begin at 5:00 PM. These two with the asterisks are additional changes that we're making locally to align with our practices here. Um, and then um the policy also defines what a record vote is. Under policy BED on board meetings and public participation, all public comment now occurs at the beginning of the meeting per SB12. We've been doing that since August, I believe. Um, so nothing new

058for our practices, just aligning our policies to new legislation. Um, under grievances, um, we are aligning our grievance procedures and policies to the district of innovation plan that the board adopted in, um, August and keeping our long-standing practices of providing a prompt response to our grievances as we've been doing um, under the processes that you are all very familiar with. Um, we'll talk a little bit later about um, changes um, to policy for DOI plans. These are specifically um laid out the way they are so that the public can easily find those terms um and easily find out what the timelines and what the procedures are. Then moving on to business and support services um several things under the cyber security arena. Uh CQB adds some details for notifying um folks of cyber security incidents

059and security breaches. This is not a change to how we've been um handling things. um just an additional change um as required by the legislature. In CQD, our policy on artificial intelligence is a new policy um and it includes um mandated AI training requirements for staff as well as um AI parameters for student use of AI. And then policy EIA um adds to the list of things that qualify as academic dishonesty um unauthorized student use of AI. Students can use AI um responsibly um as teachers may allow um on a case-toase basis. Um under pro uh procurement of construction policy CV um we see the threshold of um contracts under construction that require board approval. It's going up from $50,000 threshold to a $100,000 threshold, which makes sense. It's about time we aligned those numbers

060um as we've seen uh construction costs escalate um over the years. Um, moving on to personnel, um, DEI prohibitions that came into law this year, um, are incorporated into our local policies, um, specifically DFBB, um, where violation of certain DEI prohibitions, um, are now on the list of reasons that a person's term contract may be terminated under HB2. And then, um, DH is our employee standards of conduct. Um adding to that the DEI prohibitions added um by SB12 and then um there's also a prohibition added to the policy on assisting a student with social transitioning or providing any information about social transitioning under SB12. Again, that's the law. We're just making sure that these terms are aligned within um local policies where these um where you would see terms for non-renewal and employee discipline um

061spelled out locally. Um under personal services DBD there's a new section on restrictions to personal services. Um you all have been approving um employee or administrator requests for personal services outside of uh of the workday since August. So this just again adds to um local policy things that we've already been doing to comply with the law. Moving on to instruction and students. Um quite a few updates under um policies that connect to parental rights. Again, this was a big legislative year for parent rights. Um under EP, there is a new policy requirement that each course have their syllabus posted online um as required by SB12. Under EFA instructional materials, um terms are added um to explain to parents how they can request to review instructional material. Also under SB12 um under EIA there's some clarification

062that parents have uh two opportunities for parent teacher conferences per year as required by law. And then under FFF student safety um we are required to notify a parent within one business day if their child is suspected to be a victim of a crime under HB2. Um and so we're just adding that along to our um policy on student safety. So there's no question that we will be doing that. Um notice of threats and crimes. Um under FFB, um there are some new statutory requirements to give notice to staff of a threat against a campus under HB2. Rolling that into local policy. Um you'll also see that um spelled out in legal policy as well. Under FF student safety, um again, we're required to notify a parent within one business day if their child is

063suspected to be a victim of a crime. um release time courses. Um this is a new feature that the legislature put into effect this year. Um allowing students to have unexcused absences for what are called release time courses. Um and students typically engage in these courses. Um it's often for religious purposes um with churches or other religious organizations um where that instruction might take place during the typical school day. Um and there are um added to our local policy um the same things we see in statute where um to qualify for that excused absence, we must have prior written consent from the parents. So we know that students aren't just skipping out to go um do something they weren't authorized to do. The private entity who's providing the instruction is responsible for maintaining the attendance

064records. And then students are responsible for um any schoolwork or assignments they missed when they were out for that course. Now, moving on to local district policy update 2026.01. Um, the main goal of this update um was to align the um amendments to our DOI plan that were put into place in August into our um local policy. And what we've seen over the last few years is a shift within um TASBY policy recommendations. It used to be that they would when we have a DOI plan, when we would state out in that plan what the purpose of the exemption was and what terms um the administration was to look for for guidance. Um TASBY policy would take those those terms and put it into local policy. They're moving away from doing that. Instead, what they're

065doing, and you'll see this in the um in the the red lines, is putting a note at the top of the local policies that are affected by a DOI exemption. um that that policy is impacted by a DOI exemption and directing folks to look at the DOI plan itself. Um and that's just a strategic change um to make sure that as DOI plans are updated that u people are looking at the most current terms and they're looking to the source uh they're looking to the actual source the DOI plan. Um, and so in you'll see those changes where we're pulling out some specific language that we had had on our DOI exemptions and just putting a note that the DOI plan provides for some changes from our local policy. Those those terms are still available.

066Those exe exemptions are still available. um we're just pointing people to the plan itself instead of incorporating most of those terms into um the local policy. Um FEC is a difference from that general um general change. Um that's the policy on attendance for credit. Um we did have a very short and sweet policy there and when we looked at um updating to align with our DOI plan, our policy consultant said, "Hey, you know what? We've got some really good terms that we recommend for most school districts around the state on how to consider a student who has excessive absences and how they can earn attendance for credit. And so instead of that tiny little blurb that says look at the DOI plan, um in FEC we have a much more robust explanation of the things

067that administrators can consider um when they are deciding whether or not to award um credit to a student who has excessive absences. And these um are consistent with what our staff and administrators have been doing. um it just lines them out and makes it I think I think this particular policy is a good thought partner for our um attendance committees as they are evaluating um students on a case-byase basis. Um then in AE educational philosophy we are replacing our old policy language on our core beliefs, vision, mission and strategic goals and just putting in the things that the board adopted um a few years ago with that strategic um planning committee. Um, thank you to Miss Kabanssky for um, alerting me to the fact that we needed to update that policy to align um, with

068the beliefs, vision, mission, and goals that we have been operating under for a couple of years now. Um, so that's just a cleanup of our policy language. Any questions? >> This is our first reading, >> so please go ahead and ask your questions. So on the SB10 does that your explanation of that does that u incorporate the release time uh religious instruction policy? >> That's exactly that's exactly what that is. Yes. and we have been operating, the law changed in the fall and so we've been operating under that and allowing students um to use those um absences if they were requesting them and if they qualified. This just puts it in our local policy. And so the process would that for that would be to email the principal or whoever and say my child is

069going to be leaving at this time every day or every other day or whatever it is for this purpose, >> right? That would start the process to make sure that we have the information that we need to to approve those. Um, I don't believe we currently have a form that someone would fill out, but um, as always, starting to communicate with the child's principal or assistant principal is the is the place to start that. >> Thank you. >> Welcome, >> Miss Hobs. The in the legal part, one of the E, I can't remember the exact one, but talking about reviewing instruction material, >> what's the process on that look like? I I just want to make sure teachers aren't going to get overwhelmed with uh requests from parents on that. >> That's a great question.

070We can look at EFA together. Um I have not memorized the particular process to make that request, but we can certainly look at it, which is why I bring this big giant binder up here with me. [laughter] And you say that was EFA. >> Uh yes sir, EFA local. Um >> local. >> So we will be developing administrative regulations to ensure compliance. Um but in general um a parent would just need to get in touch with the campus principal to ask to review those materials. Um and that would start the process. We don't have a particularly honorous means for parents to do that. We don't we don't hide our curriculum. Um it it is available for parent review. >> So on that note, I made a note for EP about um the syllabus online. >>

071How are we posting that online? Is it behind a password or is it forward facing that the p anyone in the public could look at a a syllabus? >> That's a great question. [snorts] It is um posted on our website public facing um Anthony and his team helped work on that um at the beginning of the school year and then um teachers have sent it out to their students at the beginning of each semester. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? This was the first reading, so we will uh be uh voting on this for our adoption into our policies and procedures for the next meeting. >> Thank you, Christie. >> Thank you. Okay, we will move to item G now, which is the resolution on wage payments during January 2026 emergency weather closure. >>

072Yep. Uh the next two resolutions are really about um we were we were out for a week unexpectedly uh in January. We want to make sure we take care of our staff. Uh in order to be able to do that and so our hourly and other staff don't get harmed, we have to have the board pass a resolution that will pay them uh in light of being out. And I'll just go ahead and introduce the second resolution as well, which was a um we had four days of additional minutes built into our calendar. So Monday through Thursday essentially were uh covered by those additional minutes and then we we ran out of minutes. So we will ask the state uh for uh a waiver for that Friday um that we still and I'll tell our

073community and um and our team here that probably already know. One of the reasons why we're missing one of our board members this evening is because that Friday morning when they were trying to get out onto the um driveway, she slipped and fell and broke her ankle and and has to have surgery on Wednesday. And so um we made the right decision. I think that was her first text to me. You made the right decision. I just fell. I think I broke my ankle. So um we will have to ask the state to wave that day. Um if the board approves that second resolution this evening um then we'll apply for that immediately and find out whether or not uh the state will approve that. And the reason why I say that is sometimes for

074attendance day waiverss we do those at the end of the cycle. Um but this one if the state for some reason says no which we have all the meteorological backup and news clippings and so forth. Um then we'll add additional minutes to the school day to make sure we capture um the 75,600 minutes. Did I hit that Dr. Desimony? Is that Yep. Okay. Madame President, >> Mr. hearing >> like to make a motion to approve the resolution on wage payments during the January 2026 emergency weather closure as recommended by the administration. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Daring and a second by Mrs. Hatfield to approve the resolution on wage payments during the January 2026 emergency weather closure as recommended by the administration. All in favor? six-year-old. Thank you. Item H is

075the resolution to on missed school day waiver during January 2026 emergency weather closure. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Before y'all do the motion, I have a question on this one. >> Doc, Dr. FA, you made a comment that I'm just thinking like if the if the waiver is denied by the state adding minutes, do we have any in any open days in the calendar or is it just going to be it's or is it too soon to really have a plan a backup plan if the state denies a waiver? So, um I think historically whenever we let's just say Good Friday, we're going to go to school on Good Friday. not popular. Um, so if you can do it via minutes versus adding a day back onto the calendar, you make less people angry generally.

076>> And if you talk about how like I guess it all depends on when they deny the waiver, but how many minutes are we looking at adding to >> 420 450, >> but we need >> Yeah. It's somewhere 420 4:30, but a day's worth. >> Okay. I just curious, is it gonna be a minute over so many days or two minutes? I guess how how do you >> Oh, yeah. Typically, if you it it depends on how many days are left in the school year, but if you add five or 10 minutes to the school day, you you'll pick that up. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. And again, that's why we want to apply with TEA, you know, the quicker the sooner. Quicker we know. Yes, sir. >> Yes. Madam President, I

077don't know why you didn't go ahead, Steve, but oh well. [laughter] >> Mr. Schlutoter, >> I move to approve the resolution on miss school day waiver during the January 2026 emergency weather closure as recommended by the administration. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Schlutoter and a second by Mr. Sprouls to approve the resolution on miss school day waiver during the January 2026 emergency weather closure as recommended by the administration. Way to jump in there at the last minute, Mr. Sprouls. All in favor? 6. Thank you. All right, that concludes our um our uh discussion action agenda for the evening. We'll move to 10 which is the reports. The first report for the evening is the December financial report. Hi. >> Hello. Good evening again, Boyd. Um again, this is the December financial

078report. If you remember, we just did November's um last month. Not a lot of change in December because there's only about two weeks worth of uh action that goes on. So, um but we'll go through it pretty quickly. I will say total revenue is trending super high right now, which always sounds good. Revenue is always good. Um, I think a lot of that is because of the state had to pay us more because of compression as well as the pass through money for the teacher retention aotment that was new this year. So, they gave us a lot of that money in September, October. So, you're seeing our state revenues up quite a bit. So, we're at 57% of our budgeted revenue at this time where last time at this point we were only at 37.

079So, you can see we're trending very high. Um, as well as the Vader Pass. People that have paid their taxes in December may have paid a little bit more than we originally had in the budget. Looking at expenditures, you can see at this point our expenditures are 134,956. Last year at this point 134,550. So our budget increased quite a bit. So you can see we were at 40% last time. Last year at this point where we're at 38%. So trending very well on expenditures and trending very well on revenue. Again, going to food service, not much has changed yet. Um, our revenues at 51% as compared to 47. So, that's always a good thing. And if you remember, we're still doing the expenses from last year where there was an issue and we didn't get

080it all caught up till January. So, I think you'll start seeing that change. But right now, we're at 37% of our expenditure budget. And then lastly, debt service. Debt service revenue is of course trending higher as well. If general fund is usually INS is as well, we're at 52% as compared to 39 and expenditures 27 versus 24. We make our next big payment of debt in February. So, it's actually February due by February 15th. So, I'll be wiring that out this this week and it's about $110 million we have to wire out this week for for debt payment. So, that will go out this week. And so, as we get into the February statement, you'll see that expense number jump way up. So, any questions on the December financial report? >> I think we're good.

081Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay, let's move to report B, which is the 2025 2026 district improvement plan midyear report. Dr. Griffin >> and the whole team. [laughter] Good evening board. Yes, as as usual, this is definitely a team effort uh to share an update of our middle of the year um progress on our district improvement plan. Every quarter, we do a formative assessment. So in cabinet we go through each of our strategies and talk about the progress that we've made. You have the full um report uh formative review in your packet. So that was the end of our second formative review um the end of the first semester and we're happy to share our progress with you. As you know it is based on our 23 to 28 strategic goals and

082priorities. So we are right in the middle of the work with those goals and priorities. And uh you're familiar with those three strategic goals and each strategic goal has um three priorities underneath it to really guide the work that we're doing um at the district level and at each of our campuses as well. This is just a timeline that we've shared with you before so you can see uh where we are in our yearly u process and working through our improvement plan. And so I'll share with um strategy number one. Um as you'll recall we have four strategies within this um part of our number one priority which is a focus on literacy. So to date um we have really been working with our teachers and with our administrators on analyzing um the growth that

083our students are making and then making in the- moment instructional decisions um both to the curriculum and also in terms of teaching and learning in the classroom as well. And we have a big focus on writing. So, we've been working on our extended um constructed responses or what we call ECRS and um making sure that um we're calibrated on that our teachers know um what our expectations need to be so our students are successful in writing but also on that particular part of the STAR test and then also incorporating ways um to incorporate writing across all content areas um so that our students are writing every single day. So within this this presentation, I'm also sharing our middle of the year data um related to those goals. So related to literacy, if you'll recall, our

084um prek students take an assessment called circle at the beginning of the year and then at the middle of the year. Um we just finished that. We were a little behind from the week off from um the ICE. And so um this data was actually not in your um board packet. This is um new data since we um posted the board packet. So you can see middle of the year um related to um some important reading skills, rapid letter naming, rapid vocabulary, book and print knowledge and early writing skills. The percent of our students that are on track to be where we want them to be at the end of the school year. So you can see significant growth that our students have made in each of those early writing skills has dipped a little

085but that's because the expectation is higher. also um that is an end of the year expectation for them. And then we also give MC class um in K through third grade. So you can see um the first column is where our students were performing at the beginning of the year, the percent of students that were at or above the level we would expect them to be. And then you can see where um they are with middle of the year. The yellow bands are our Northwest students. And then you can also see how that compares to um kindergarteners or that grade level in Texas as well as nationally. And then you can also see um the percent of growth that we have seen in our students over over time. And just to give you um a

086comparison when we started using MClass in 23 24 this is where our students were performing at middle of the year. So you can see that we have um definitely made growth in each of those grade levels um over the last few years. Our teachers really use it as a tool. There's ongoing progress monitoring that they use. There are lessons embedded based on where a student um is performing on their MC class. And then we also give our MAP assessment to second through 8th graders. And so we look at two different pieces of data on map. So this first pink area is um looking at how we our national percentile rank. So how our students are performing against um similar students across the nation. And our goal is to be in the top 75th percentile. We

087want our students to be in the top quarter. You can see where we were performing at the beginning of the year and now you can see where we are at middle of the year with every single grade level um at or above 75th percentile. Some of them into the 80th percentiles um with fifth with eighth grade just one percentage um percentile point below that 75th percentile goal. And then we also look at our students meeting their expected growth. And um this shows we our target here is we want 50% of our students to be meeting their projected growth. And um so our goal at beginning of the year, you can see all of our grade levels were at or above the 50th percentile. And um they have made some significant growth as well. And most

088of our grade levels and all of them are above that 50th percentile goal. And then strategic goal or um priority 1.2 two which is our academic progress. Um you can see that um we have really been engaging a lot with our um teachers on our professional learning. Um as you'll recall we have started um embedding choice sessions in our district PD days based on feedback from our teachers. Um and we engaged in January in um choice sessions on high level questions um discussion strategies just really making sure we're pushing our students thinking at high levels. We also do a lot of work in professional learning communities with our teachers. Um making sure that uh we're providing all the support we can so that they can provide support for um differentiating um the needs of our

089students, making sure that our students are engaging in productive struggle and uh we also are continuing our learning walks um with our campus administrators. So our math data as related to this priority um our circle data in math um you can see uh where we were beginning of the year in the white band and then middle of the year is blue. So as you can see our students are making really good progress in their um mathematics skills and um this is reporting on what we expect at the end of the year. And then we also have a math diagnostic for our kinder and first grade students. And so um kinder is at the top and there are a series of tasks that um teachers um work with students and observe how they're doing to determine

090um if they are meeting the expectation to be ready for where we need them to be at the end of the year. So you can see um growth in counting objects, understanding quantity and then um in the beginning of the year we assess them on composing and decomposing um up to three and in um middle of the year it's decomposing um tens. And then first grade you can see again um the different tasks. You can see that those tasks change over time um increasing the level of rigor on the assessment from beginning of the year to middle of the year. um but lots of growth that we're seeing in math as well. And then our MAP data, again, our goal for um our national percentile rank is to be in the 75th percentile or higher.

091And um we've definitely seen growth in each of our grade levels. Um seventh grade dropped just a little, but they are still above that 75th percentile at the 82nd percentile. And second grade has made significant growth. um not quite at the 75th percentile yet um but definitely are seeing growth in that grade level as well. And then looking at their growth um they're all above our 50% um target with most of them being in the um with most of them at the se 70% or higher meeting their target growth. And then we also assess fourth, fifth, and eighth graders in science on MAP. So you can see where we were beginning of the year compared to middle of the year. Um really pushing up to the top 10% um 10 10th percentile in um science

092and the growth that we're seeing in all three grade levels is um well above our target of 50% as well. And then for um priority 1.3 I want to point out one change to um the list of DIP strategies. when you approved our DIP back in the fall, uh we shared with you that we were going to add a couple of strategies related to artificial intelligence and how we're supporting our students and what is our what is our vision for what that will look like in classrooms. So, we've added DIP strategy number five and I'll update you on um some things that we're engaging with with that. Sorry, didn't really fit on the screen there. Um but from this is our CCMR um college readiness, making sure our students are ready for for life after

093um high school. We've seen um a significant growth in the students taking TSI, which is an important assessment to help them be ready for college. Um we also are um we have student tracking sheets to help um our campuses really individualize the needs of our students in CCMR. Um, we're seeing growth in our CTE practicum student enrollment by 28%. 100% of our CTE programs have fully embedded um, IBC's. And then related to that new strategy that I just shared with you, um we're working with CNI and technology are working to develop um right now um we have an initial student framework that we are working on and uh we're starting to work with a committee to really analyze that and get feedback. Kim Barker is going to do strategy too. Sorry. There you go. Thank

094you. All right. Good evening. I briefly discussed strategy 2 earlier, my earlier presentation. I'll go in a little deeper detail some of the um projects and actions that we've been working on at our department. First up is priority 2.1 is recruiting. Uh two areas that I'd like to highlight is that we have been working with University of North Texas to develop a teacher residency program. Um but given budget constraints, we had to get a little creative with that. So, they did have a non-paid residency program that allows um their pre-ervice teaching candidates to be in our schools for the spring 2026 semester and finish their student teaching in the fall of 2027 with the graduation gra no fall 2026. I got ahead of myself. Fall 2026 and graduating in December of 26. Uh we currently

095have 18 students that we have brought on board that are in our classrooms at six different elementaryaries. right now is an elementary teacher only program. They're looking to expand it. Um but we're are very excited to see um how this impacts um our student teachers and how how they are ready um to go into our classroom. So being being with our talented teachers for a full year is something that has a lot of benefits. Um another thing that we have really worked hard on is developing and implementing our updated hiring guide. We do have a hiring guide that we have used um here in the district and we update it every year, but this year we really added to it and added a lot of of the requirements that came out of the legislature um

096and the reporting requirements. We have to be very careful of the individuals that we vet prior to providing them offer of employment. And so we really beefed up that guide and gave principles some practical tools to use as they're looking at candidates. Um, and then in addition, we put in some additional safeguards in our office in our hiring process in the pre-employment screening. Um, so we were able to present that to our campuses and district leaders at the last DT in January. Um, and they are utilizing that. We did in include an acknowledgement form to just track that they have acknowledged they've received that hiring guide and are you our understanding the importance of following um what is in that guide. Uh, strategic goal two is value. And so we will start here. Um I'll

097talk at the end then hand it off to to Anthony here. Um we you heard a little bit in our earlier presentation with Mr. Pastusk that HR and finance we're going to work together to review and analyze compensation to bring you um full compensation later this spring. So know that work is ongoing. We spend a lot of time discussing and talking about compensation. So we will have more information on that later this spring for you. And then on these first two bullet points, the first one is about Nephi. So the mobile resource store that Nef offers. Uh as all of you know, the resource store in this building has been extremely popular with our staff. Uh our teachers, our bus drivers, our pair professionals, they come up here to get free resources. So they are

098now relaunching Nephi now that they've got that that settled. Nephew will visit the schools on the periphery of the district, the the boundaries of the district. So it's harder for those campuses to come up here unless they're up here for professional development. So, that's going to help our teachers out that way. The next one is we're considering we're continuing, excuse me, our staff listening sessions. Dr. Fast has done several of those. I believe Michael's done one. Few of us have uh sessions coming up. We have three topics this year. They're related to legislative advocacy. This is really the time of year we need to be getting that feedback. This is the off cycle right now. So, our lawmakers are planning what they're going to uh advocate for, what they're going to propose in the upcoming

099legislative session. So, we really want the staff feedback right now. We saw in a recent rec recent election in our area that education made a huge impact on the outcome of that election. So, I think we're seeing the pendulum swing back in terms of the support of public education. Uh what we can expect from our lawmakers going forward. The next one is what makes you concerned about education in general or about Northwest ISD? What can we do to kind of allay your fears of anything that you have related to the education profession? what can we make easier for you? So, it's really a broad topic. And then lastly is involvement. What uh committees, what groups can we convene either for staff or for community members to make sure that we're continuing to build that trust,

100build those relationships because we don't see everything that happens on a campus. The campus doesn't see everything that happens up here. How can we make sure that we're coordinating and that we're doing what's best for kids through the entire district? And then from the community perspective, are there any committees that we can convene that would really help our families and our community overall understand what we're doing for kids in Northwest ISD. And uh priority 2.3 is on retaining staff. And I also want to go back and point out that um strategy number, maybe it isn't on this one, maybe it was on the previous one. We have another um new AI strategy in our um strategy number two as well on providing training for our staff um related to um AI. So we have it

101um listed here as the last bullet. Um but in January in our PD, I mentioned the choice sessions. Um we had over a hundred choice sessions um for our teachers to choose from um just to make sure that they are getting the the learning that they need to help them learn and grow and enhance their craft as teachers. We've started a principal pathway as part of our leadership pathways this year. We currently have 27 assistant principles that um are taking part of this program to just really dive into what does it really look like to serve as the in the role of a principal. Um and um you saw some fruits of that labor tonight um with two of our um newly named principles are a part of that principal pathway. Um so we're really

102proud of the work that they're engaging in on a monthly basis with that. It's in the evening, so it's um them giving up their own time. There's two books that we're reading, so there's um quite a bit of um prep work for them and um I think they're finding it really beneficial and we're enjoying it as well. And then we also are conducting an AI training needs assessment and u working on what is that first set of all staff training need to look like. um certainly with a student focused um lens on helping our students be able to navigate um the world of AI in their learning. Also on this strategic goal, you can see here that we've talked a little bit already about the total compensation package for all employees. So we're doing a

103market analysis of all the paygrades and then we're also trying to look at any benefit changes. I think you also know high insurance costs um especially in the highest region and we're charged based on the region we're in and we're in the highest region. So what are some things we can do to try to continue to combat those high insurance costs and get creative there? We were asked this year if we could also give a wellness leave which the board approved. So each employee now has a day of leave for their personal mental health and wellness. We've got that going. It's working great. Um a lot of people have been taking advantage of it. So that one has been 100% completed. We also changed to a Red Rover timekeeping software. Um, we started using it

104for our subs and they also had a timekeeping component which we've now implemented for all of our hourly employees and that's going really well. We worked a lot of the bugs out in October, November, December. And now we're starting to look at testing some departments with our temporary and extra duty pay. That is still done the oldfashioned way on some paper time sheets. So, we're working on getting that more efficient and getting that completed and testing that. And then, of course, the last one is the VAT or the Vader. Um, one of the goals was to pass the Vader. We did that. Um, now we've got to implement those changes and get that completed. So, that's what we're working on now. And now we're starting strategic goal three, which is really all about community, environment,

105safety, things like that. So for this first aspect, we're looking at engagement. That's the priority we're looking at right here. One thing that is not on the next slide is CCMR engagement for K5, so the elementary level. Kelly and her team are doing a great job with that. That's some of the feedback that we heard from families and leadership in ISD and different avenues that we get feedback. So she's really pushed down CTE courses so that families at younger grade levels know what they're going to be getting into whenever their their students advance to the secondary level. So, some of the things that we've done for this priority so far are limited open enrollment. We just opened that earlier this month. Uh, last time I looked, we had about 20 applications within the first week.

106So, we're expecting even more to roll in. We'll probably get a wave at the very end. We probably uh we'll see that mirror the first week that we had and then there will be a little bit of a lull. Uh, I'm expecting there to be somewhere around 80 to 100. We're not really looking to go too far in depth in this yet. We want to dip our toe in the waters and see where we end up with this. Not making any big swings right off the bat, but just see what we can do, see where we can improve for next year. The next one, as you all know, is having your involvement in our superintendent round table. Those are our PTA leaders. So, they're the presidents of our campus PTAs. So, you all get to

107hear their feedback directly. We're not relaying it to you and then maybe missing something that they said. Uh, so I think that's gone well so far. We have another one coming up tomorrow, I believe it is. So I believe uh Mr. Sprouls and Mrs. Hatfield will be there. So we'll see you there. Uh and then lastly on this area we have our new to NISTD questionnaire. We're doing that at the end of each semester. Uh the first semester gave us some pretty good feedback. Uh I'm looking at the data already. When I look at some of the questions we ask, we ask about parent square. 97% of families know how to use that. So we're not too concerned about that one. When you're talking about home access center and accessing grades, there's about a fourth

108of families who don't new families to the district who don't know how to properly use that. So, we'll give them tools going forward to make sure that they know how to better access that and things along those lines. Next up, we have our strategic goal on culture. And let me look earlier or down here. So, some of these are uh in Michael's wheelhouse uh and some of them are in Dr. FA wheelhouse. So I'll turn it over to Dr. Fast for the first one about code of civility if you'd like to address that real quick. >> Yes, sir. Um so we this is something we've been working on. We we really pressed pause at the beginning of the school year because of the profound impacts of Senate Bill 12 which you saw a bunch of

109things on Miss Hobbs's um a bunch of policy changes and so forth on parents rights and not necessarily as much their roles and responsibilities but definitely their rights. Um so we've we believe the kind of wave um has subsided to some degree. What you will see executed in the fall uh is really two things. One uh a code of civility that will be in the required signoffs in the enrollment process. So all of our students that reenroll or new students that enroll will have to acknowledge essentially like they do the student code of conduct and other mandatory things that they've read and understand a code of civility which is a set of expectations of how they're going to engage in their students um education but also how they're going to conduct themselves with some decorum

110and treat our faculty and staff with respect. So, we'll try to articulate that in a way that's powerful, but um also again, it's a code of civility. It's a very civil um document that's intended to reinforce and set expectations for interaction with parents and so forth. So, step one is that will be in the enrollment process that opens up in April. Um and then step two, we will build that out a little bit further. That'll be a really summary document. we'll build out a little bit further, a little more ex uh explicit information in the student code of conduct. >> And then the next bullet point you'll see here, I probably could have phrased this better. It's not a new campus communication process. It's uh campus communication processes for new campuses. So principles who are

111leading a campus that's going to open in either the upcoming school year or two school years in the case of, for example, a high school. So, making sure that we're giving them really a playbook for here's what we can help you with, here's what you should do in terms of communicating with families, reserving social media accounts, when we're going to promote uh the major milestones in construction, just making it easier for new principles. Natalie Childris over at Warthingington did a great job of giving them one of those aspects of the playbook, more from the the organizational standpoint of opening a new campus. This is more about the communication aspect. So, we'll make sure that we help our principles of new to open campuses more going forward. And then the next one is a very long

112one because it's a very important one. It's all about safety. You'll see a lot of different things here. Some of which we've already implemented in terms of youth mental health and first aid, the NISD student wellness center, which is going well. We've implemented, excuse me, the elementary DAP program. So, we've had a few placements there this school year. And then a few of the other things are on the next slide and I'll turn it over to Michael to talk about the student wellness center in a second. But the crisis communication plan is something that we are mandated to do by state law. Uh the mandate doesn't go into effect until later this uh this year, not this school year, but later in 2026. One of the challenges with this is it's very mundane and it's

113very written from the perspective of someone who doesn't actually have to use it. So, when I've talked to other school districts, some of them are telling me that, hey, we're going to have this one the state says that you have to make, and then we're going to have this one that we're actually going to use. So, I'm trying to combine ours, the one that we already have because we've had one for many, many years, and making it very readable in line with what the state says that we have to have. It's taking some time. I'm pretty much done with the state requirements, but I want to make sure that uh it does give guidance to our staff here. So, it's not just the state requirements, it's what do we do in Northwest ISD and how

114can we easily explain that to anyone who has to pick up this document and know this is what you do in a crisis situation in terms of how we communicate. And then to talk about the student wellness center, I'll turn it over to Michael. And finally, as you'll remember, in the fall, our counseling department started um a new program, the student wellness center, where we have counselors who are providing um counseling services to students after hours um every Tuesday and Thursday evening. So far, they have served over hundred students. Um they are completely booked for this third quarter. I believe there um is even a wait list and then they'll start um booking for um the last quarter. So, it was definitely a need and something that our families are definitely taking advantage of and

115um are very appreciative of. And so, um with that, just some of our highlights. Um do you have any questions for any of us? >> Dr. Griffin. Mhm. >> So, e Elon Musk's Musk put out a couple weeks ago said within 5 years there's going to be a supercomputer smarter than any human being on Earth. I tend to believe him a little bit. Um, but when you were talking about the AI and then you were talking about retention, my mind goes back to some previous conversations of are we within some of this putting effort towards reducing some of our staff's teachers time by integrating some AI stuff in there to help them get out of that classroom quicker than what they do. >> Yes. That's why you see um one of those new um strategies

116in um strategic goal one. So that's the student learning side. And then you also see it in strategic goal two which is um retaining and valuing our students. So that is definitely a part of the ongoing discussion of um working smarter not harder and using it as a tool to help support our teachers as well as our students. >> If I could jump in there. One example that I like to give is and it's not the only one. It's just an easy one is um one of the most laborious things for English teachers, really all grade levels, is grading writing samples. Takes a lot of time and effort if and to give that feedback and to have that one-on-one writing conference with a student is incredibly valuable. Again, it's about time. So, what if there

117was a technology like AI, which there is, that can grade, let's just say a section, the introduction, introductory paragraph, that technology exists. We shouldn't rely on that all the time, but we could use it for a percentage of students, a percentage of the time, which frees up the teacher to have more one-on-one conferences with students. So, if we can leverage technology for grading purposes and some of those other things, again, not exclusively, um, but with oversight of of hi, human intelligence, um, then that could make teachers jobs easier, more efficient. We're always looking for opportunities to do that. We've provided training this year that was choice training um but at the beginning this summer and and uh in the fall where they had sessions they could choose on how they could leverage AI in the

118classroom for for their benefit as well as their students. >> This question for Miss Barker. You talked earlier about the the partnership with for the student teaching. Is that is that the program from a couple years ago that we talked about but never really started? It's a slightly different program. Um, since then there are a lot of different pieces to teach your residency programs. They have evolved. Um, some have evolved just over time as as universities have used them and some have evolved based on legislation. Um, a couple years ago we were looking at one. It was a year-long one from a first semester to second semester with some requirements on what we need to pay them and some >> thought it was a paid a paid position. So, this one um they still do

119that op that opportunity up there at they have about three or four different pathways to look at now. Uh but this one they had already prepared and ready and it is an unpaid residency one and they have students who are wanting to take advantage of that. >> Okay. And then Mr. Durian had a great suggestion to tie in on the next contract with that program. >> You going to bring it up? >> Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. >> Well, I I just made the comment that maybe we move to middle school and then we get a discount on our graduations there. I don't know. [laughter] stop >> saving the road. >> Yeah. And there are some unique things right now with um with residency programs that the state is inc increasing and changing the types of

120enhancements that go on certificates. And so what we also want to make sure and there'll be more information coming how we work move forward with trying to find a way to create to provide a residency program that also allows our candidates to get the enhanced certificate because that's going to be a competitive advantage. So on the student, how much of that is like throughout the state is is a paid internship? I I just hadn't heard a ton of that. >> It's out there. Um I know that um there are a couple down in Houston. Um there are a couple and Denton has had one for probably three years. Um Dallas, Fort Worth or Worth ID has them. We're starting to see them more readily here in the Metroplex. I do know that TCU has been

121partnering with I think a district down in Houston. I can't remember off the top of my head, but there there are a few around and it's this is going to become they're telling us this will be the norm uh to traditional student teaching won't exist at some point. >> Wow. >> There's a lot of grant programs actually that we work with too >> that provide it, but some of them come with a lot of strings attached >> um that you don't a lot you don't want. Um, so there's a lot of conversations that are happening at the >> at the institutions. Y >> any other questions? I do I have a question uh for Dr. Griffin. I'm going to go back way to the beginning. Um but you don't have to do the slides. >>

122Okay. >> Um it's an overall question about outcomes as we get further away from CO. Are you seeing bigger gains or more improvement as we move through these school years for those populations of kiddos? Because there's a lot of numbers that look a lot higher >> than they were last year and the year before. To me, >> I would say um where our where we lost the most ground during COVID was in math because math is so sequential and it is so um builds upon each other as um reading does to an extent, but it also is pretty cyclical as well. And so we did definitely see and across the state saw math achievement um take a dive. um we are seeing some of our greater gains starting to happen in math as well. So,

123as kids are now um we're closing those gaps on some of the skills that may have been missed um early on and our teachers have worked really hard to really um individualize instruction for our students to really target individual skills to um start seeing those gaps close. >> Awesome. >> Thank you for that. >> And I appreciate the question. One of the things that's challenging is um you know comparing apples to apples. So one of the things that's happened since the pandemic is a star redesign. Absolutely. That was in 23. And so you have a completely different tool to measure. So how do you compare preandemic to post pandemic when you modify the assessment tool significantly? And then >> again institutions continue to have questions or concerns about star as an accurate measure of what

124>> kids can and can't do. So there there's a lot there in the question about assessment tools. MAP is nationally normed and so it's something where we're not just comparing locally or with our state curriculum. It's a set that you can look across a broader spectrum perhaps more participants. I don't know if that's actually the case, but um there there's some value in some of that data and how we're comparing. Now they did just re um calibrate the map. So this is this first fall set of data I guess beginning of the year middle of the year >> um is a new data set is that correct? >> Uh yes since um I believe it was right before co um they had the norms that um it was based on whenever it um did the

125calculations behind the scenes and so this fall was um the it was reormed and so a new set of norms. >> So we'll track that data over time as well. >> Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay, thanks. Appreciate it. >> Okay, we will now move on to the board president's report. And all I have is May 2nd is our general election filing um for board places 5, six, and seven continues through this Friday, February 13th. And now I will shoot it over to the superintendent. >> Yes, ma'am. We have um uh elementary ultimate book challenge. Uh it's actually at Eaton High School tomorrow night uh starting at 6 PM. Um so if you can that those are always fun and exciting and uh the kids get fired

126up. It's a it's a lot to see. Uh also this Friday we have quite an honor for the Leo Adams um corral. I guess the girls choir there. They've been invited to perform at TMEA. Um, they're one of a limited number of choirs in the state to perform at the Texas Music Educators Association, one of the premier organizations in the United States, uh, here in Texas. Um, and they're going to perform in front of thousands. They have a suite of, I think, four or five songs, and we heard them practice with parents, um, last week, and they sound like angels. It'll be pretty amazing. They're going to represent Northwest ISD. So, that's this Friday morning in San Antonio. And then uh also a couple of other upcoming dates. Um February 20 I know we're meeting

127on the 23rd, but February 25th we have an NTAB uh meeting at HB at Hurst Ulis Bedford. And then on the 26th we have connection lunchon. So pretty busy week with a board meeting uh NTASSB and connection lunchon that week. Just mark your calendars for those upcoming events. That's all we have. Lose.