001Good evening. >> I call this meeting of the Northwest Independent School District to order at 5:00 p.m. 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 open te Texas Open Meeting Act, Texas Government Code 551. The board will convene in close session pursuant to Texas Government Code Chapter 551, including sections 551.071, 071 consultation with the board's attorney and 551.072 real estate matters and 551.074 personnel matters. >> Hi, good evening. We're going to reconvene to our regular meeting at this time at 6:30 p.m. We will now move on to the um the school first financial integrity rating system of Texas. This is a public hearing. Mr. Pastusk will lead it. >> Good evening
002board. Um, want to start off by saying this is our first report or financial integrity integrity rating systems that we're required to do by the state of Texas. If you see, remember this is about a year and a half lag on the data. This is covering fiscal year 2324. So, um, we're obviously in year 256. Um the purpose of this is basically to make sure there's some accountability in Texas on schools with their financial um statements. It started back in 99 and passed the session in 2001. And basically its goal is to make sure that districts are using their resources correctly. It assesses the quality of the financial tools or or management in Texas. It measures how efficient and how we allocate those resources. And basically it's just a report that we have to give
003to the public and let the public have an opportunity to respond. The ratings um have been around um in this way since 2013. Um as you can see here it's A is superior, B above standard, C meets and F is substandard. Um there's 21 indicators that we will be scored on. So we have to go through those. So I'll try to go through those rather quickly. First one is did we basically get our audit and financials submitted to TEA on time and of course we did that. Our fiscal year end is June 30th. We had to have it in by November 27th. The audit was there an unmodified opinion which basically means our audit was free and clear and we did a good job and we actually had an unmodified opinion. Was a school district
004in compliance with all payment terms of its debt. we were in compliance with all of our debt and did we make our timely payments to TRS, TWWC, IRS, any other governmental entities? And we did. We start getting into some of the numbers here. Was the net position in the governmental activities statement net position greater than zero? This one is a very confusing one because it talks about your assets versus your liabilities. And some of the liabilities go even to the pensions down in Austin that we're responsible for from our teachers that are retired. Um, we're one of the few districts that do. We were above zero with 299 million in assets over our liabilities. Was the average change in fund balance over three years less than a 25% decrease or did we have enough assigned
005and unassigned fund balance for 75 days of operation? We passed on both of those. Was the number of days of cash on hand in current investments in the general fund sufficient to cover operating expenditures? This is the one we always talk about, our fund balance. Um, we did. We had 157 days of cash on hand to receive the maximum points of 10. Was the measure of current assets to current liabilities for the school district school district sufficient to cover any short-term debt? Um the ratio was 4.7646 and we exceeded the 3.0 benchmark for the max points of 10 points. Did the general schools general fund revenues equal or exceed expenditures? So basically, did we have a surplus budget? The answer to that is no. However, if it's not, did you have more than 60 days
006of cash on hand, which we did at 157 days? If you see that year, we actually had a deficit of 62%. So very minor. Um, but we did receive the 10 points. Indicator 10, the TEA has pulled that one and not scoring that one. So we get the full 10 points for that one. So we started with a 10. So that's good. Um, was the ratio of long-term liabilities to total assets for the district sufficient to support long-term solveny? If you have a student membership growth over 5 years that was 7% or more, you automatically passed. Well, we had 22.76% growth. So, we automatically passed that with 10 points. This is the only one we did not receive a perfect score on. Was the district was the correlation between future debt requirements and district assessed
007property values? So to receive a perfect score, that indicator has to be less than four. And ours was 5.4558. The one thing that this does not take into into effect is future growth. So it's looking at today's property values. If the world stopped and I had to pay off all my debt, could I do it immediately? And the answer is no. But we have growth over the next 25 years to pay off that. So that does not factor into this equation. So we only received eight points instead of the 10 points. Was a school district's administrative cost ratio equal to or less than the threshold ratio? This is the ratio how much administrative staff we have. That includes campus administration, central administration. To get an A, you have to have less than 0.0855. Northwest ISD's
008ratio is 0.5.0552. So, we definitely passed that with 10 points. Did the school district have a 15% decline in students to staff ratio over three years? If the enrollment did not decrease, you automatically pass. Well, our enrollment was up 22%. So, we automatically passed. Was a school district's ADA within the allotted range of the district's bianial pupil projections submitted to TEA? And did it certify TEA's projections? So, we have to certify what we think our attendance is going to be and how accurate we were. You can see we were off by a little less than 3% negative, which is lower than the required 7% positive to receive the max points. So, we we definitely passed that one with five points. That's mainly to make sure you're not fudging the numbers to receive more funding during
009the year you're in by overestimating your enrollment. Did the compensation of PES data to like information of schools AFR or annual financial report result in a total variance of less than 3%. What that's looking at is the PE side of the house and the financial side of the house in the audit to make sure those are matching up when they go to TEA. You have to be within 3%. Ours was 0.00001%. 0001% if I remember correctly. Oh 0001 so three zeros um lower than 3% to pass. Did the external independent auditor report that the uh financial report was free of any material weaknesses and internal controls? We had no material weaknesses so we passed that. Did the external auditor indicate the audit was free of any instances of non-compliance for any of our grants, contracts,
010or laws related to local, state, or federal funds? We had no findings for material non-compliance. So receive the full 10 points. And the last three, did the school district post the required financial information on its website in accordance with the government code, local code, Texas education code, Texas administrative code, and any other statutes, laws, and rules that were in effect for the school district's year. We met all the requirements and postings. Did the school board members discuss the district's property values at a board meeting within 120 days before the school district adopted its budget? We definitely did that multiple times. We discuss the property values every year. So, um, we pass that ceiling. And did the school district receive an adjusted repayment schedule for more than one fiscal year for an overallocation of financial or
011foundation school programs because of a financial hardship? And no, we did not have any financial hardships that we needed to do that. So, we passed that ceiling. With that, we received 98 of the maximum 100 points to receive the A superior rating for finances. And we have done that for a consecutive 23 years. So Dr. or Mr. Sprouls, I know you always ask how many years. 23 years to be exact. >> How many years? >> 23, sir. >> And this is just so detractors when they say we're not responsible with our money. TEA and the state of Texas in a sense is saying we are. >> The wording would be superior. >> Superior. Yes, sir. >> For 20 23 years. >> 23 years. Yes, sir. >> Okay. Just want to make sure I heard that
012right. >> Yes, sir. And then on on the last bit of this, there's some disclosures we have to have. All of this is on the website, but we have to have the superintendent's current contract, which is available here and it's online. And then we also have to require a disclosure any um reimbursements for the superintendent and board members. Most of this is for your uh team of eight trainings, your travel, those conferences. And so you can see here the totals by each board member and by superintendent. And then the last couple things, did any board member or superintendent receive anything outside of the district for professional consulting and and fees and compensation? And we had none that were reported by either board members or the superintendent. And there were no business transactions between the district
013and board members for the fiscal year 2024. So none were reported. Are there any questions? >> Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. I will ask the board if you have any questions first. Every my friends in the audience, this is your chance to ask any questions. If something in this presentation made you say I don't understand that, you're more than welcome to step to the podium and ask a question. Okay, thank you very much. >> Thank you. We will close this portion of the agenda. Um, and we will move to the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. >> Would you guys please stand? I'm going to invite you to join me in a word of prayer. If you'd like to do so, please bow your heads. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for
014this day, Lord. Thank you for this opportunity to serve you, Lord. We know that tomorrow and the next day and the next day are not promised. So we thank you for the blessing of this day and this opportunity to serve you and glorify you. We pray Lord for godly wisdom as the board makes decisions as our faculty and staff and our leaders across the district make decisions in the best interests of our kids. Again just we pray for godly wisdom to to do so. These things we pray in the Lord's name. Amen. So I'm very excited to uh invite a couple of students. You guys have this. No worries. No worries. Uh they're going to help us with the pledges this evening. So, I've got Emerson Cox. Come on down. And also Leo Gutierrez, please
015come on down to the podium. Let me introduce Emerson. She is a fifth grade student at Love Elementary. Um, and her parents, Cameron, uh, Cameron's here for sure. Kristen is working on moms for homecoming. Is that correct? Yes. Um, I want to tell you that Emerson's favorite subjects are math, science, and reading. And she likes to organize and uh, clean. And I'll tell you that whole organize thing, you'd be my wife's best friend. She loves that. Um, but she's also enjoys cheerleading. And her proud principal, u, Mr. McAdams, says that Emerson spends extra time at school helping with FF, I mean, with the PTA, sorry. Uh, her mom and dad are both PTA members, and she is an exceptional student, uh, who always looks for opportunities to help others. So, pretty awesome. With her uh,
016is a fourth grade student from Love, Leo Gutierrez. Uh his parents uh Pedro and Eva are with us this evening. I had to get that right. Uh his favorite subjects are science and writing. Awesome. And he loves to play with his brother and he loves to draw. Uh Leo uh his proud principal said that Leo is a leader on campus. Always uh sets a good example for others to follow. And he's also on the Clara Love News crew uh broadcast team. So these two will lead us in the pledges. You guys go ahead. I pledge allegiance to the flag of 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
017state under God, one and indivisible. >> Thank you guys. If y'all stay right there for just a second, Miss Murphy, our board president, is going to bring you a token of our appreciation. You all may be seated. Can we give them a round of applause? >> Great job, guys. Thank you. And we will turn over our recognitions to Mr. Toy and team. Thank you for being here. Have a great rest of your >> good evening, President Murphy, Dr. Fast, and members of the board. Uh if you make your way to the photo area over there, we're going to try it over there this time. So, tonight we begin with a recognition that actually spans all three of our comprehensive high schools. The Alliance Texas Student Influencer Program operated by Hillwood is a nine-monthlong initiative where
018a group of high achieving juniors from Northwest ISD as well as two other school districts learn directly about business from the Alliance Texas companies. As you all know, Hillwood does a great job of attracting some of the leading businesses in the nation, sometimes the world to Alliance Texas, which is roughly where we are. It's their big development. Uh so through this program the students gain real world experience such as tours, interviews, hands-on planning, networking opportunities and much more. So some examples of the businesses and locations students have visited uh in Alliance Texas include the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership, Top Golf Callaway, Medical City Alliance, GFream, Amazon Air, Charles Schwab, and the community of Harvest in North Lake. Hillwood's great at developing the communities in the area. The program culminates with a capstone project where
019student groups select and research a company not yet in Alliance, Texas where they would be an asset to the area. They present this and they pitch it to Hillwood leaders at uh Schwab's corporate headquarters. So before we recognize the students, uh I'm not sure if they were able to make it, but we have three representatives from Hillwood. We have Hope Bell and Sarah Huntton. They are with the Hillwood customer experience team. They work with businesses throughout Alliance, Texas to build professional networks. and that's what the students uh get involved with through this program. Also is Drea Reyes of the Alliance Texas Foundation which supports Northwest ISTD through endowments focused on CTE programs. And from the Northwest ISD CTE department, we have Dena Coleman who coordinated on behalf of the district with Hillwood. So Hillwood and
020the Alliance uh Texas Foundation selected five students from last year's cohort of 36 to receive uh foundation scholarships of $5,000. Three of those five are from Northwest ISD. Uh JP Lindsay, Karina Larraange, and Becca Brown. All three are Eaton seniors from the BME Academy. So with that, I'd like to allow each of the students to come up here uh come up to the podium. And what you'll do is you'll say your name, what academy you're with, and what your plans are after high school. So, what you plan to study in college or what you're going on to do. >> Hi, my name is JP Lindseay. I'm at Ein High School. I'm in the business management and entrepreneurship academy and I plan to pursue a civil engineering degree at Texas A&M. [Applause] >> Hi, my name
021is Samina Mulam. I am in the business academy. I've been accepted into Texas State and I'm going to pursue political science. [Applause] Hi, my name is Rebecca Brown. I'm in the business academy at Eden High School and I plan on going to UT Austin and pursuing the business management pathway. Hi, my name is Kunel Laurange. I'm in the business academy and after high school I plan to go to Texas A&M to major in business. [Applause] Hello, I'm Bry Smith. I am a senior at Eaton High School and I'm also in the business academy and I attend on majoring in marketing. Hello, my name is Aiden Baylor. I'm a student in the business academy and I plan on attending TCU's Air Force ROTC Academy. Hi, my name is Nyla Kira. I am a senior at Byron
022Nelson High School and I plan on majoring in biochemistry on a predental track. [Applause] Hi, my name is Braxton Madison. I'm in the health science pathway at Eaton High School and I plan on going to University of Arkansas to study nursing. Hi, I'm Sophia Suarez. I'm a senior in the Northwest STEM Academy and I plan on attending a four-year high school and studying architecture. [Applause] Hi, I'm Lillian Von Drew. I'm a STEM Academy student and I plan to study mechanical engineering in college. >> Hi, I'm Aaron Feny and I'm part of the Northwise STEM Academy and I plan to I plan to study mechanical design at Purdue. [Applause] You want to try the photo here or over there? One more round. [Applause] And now we'll turn it over to Kendall Pierce for our community recognitions.
023Good evening, President Murphy, Dr. Fast, and members of the board. It's my honor to help recognize a few deserving individuals this evening. First, I would like to recognize our district volunteer of the month for September from Peterson Elementary, Erica Dunn. The Peterson librarian said, "Erica has spent countless hours supporting our library, shelving books, often multiple times a day, helping with projects big and small, cataloging new books, and most recently giving her time all week to help with our book fair. Her dedication, quiet patience, and positive attitude brings such a calm and encouraging spirit to our library each day. The truth is, I truly could not do this without her. Erica is not only invaluable to me, but also to all of our students who benefit from the time and care she puts in to making
024our library a warm, welcoming place to learn and grow. We are so lucky to have her. Thank you, Erica, for all you do. [Applause] Next, I would like to recognize volunteers of the month for Northwest Education Foundation for August and September. Alyssa Pry with Nef is here to help say thank you as well. First for August, we have the Mononttoya family, Brenda Abram, and Ava Mononttoya. Over the summer, from packing store items into boxes to thoughtfully preparing shelves until everything was just right, the Mononttoya family played an essential role in helping Nef transition into our new space. As regular volunteers, Nef was able to rely on them to assist volunteers with tasks and help oversee projects. Their support made a meaningful difference. We truly could not have done it without them. Thank you to the
025Mononttoya family. [Applause] For September, we have Teresa and Bill Waltz. They visit NEF each week with glowing smiles and a genuine enthusiasm for service. Not just to the NEF team, but to teachers of NISD as well. They are up for the task that comes their way, even making Tik Toks with the team. We are so grateful for their time, energy, and positivity they bring each time they volunteer. Thank you so much, Bill and Teresa. [Applause] Take a picture. Then we're going to go over here and take a pick. Okay. Alcohol. Thank you to all of our amazing volunteers. And this concludes our recognitions for tonight. Okie dokie. We will move on to agenda item seven, which is public testimony and comment on agenda and non- agenda items. And tonight we have none. So we will
026move to item eight, the consent agenda. >> Madam President, >> Mr. Schlutoter. >> Are there any members that would like to pull an item off the consent agenda for consideration individually? Seeing none, I move to pro approve the consent agenda as submitted. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Schlutoter and a second by Dr. Roush to approve the consent agenda as submitted. All in favor? 70. Thank you, board. We will move to item nine which is consider any item removed from consent agenda and there were none. So we will move to 10 discussion action. The first item on the discussion action is consideration of a teacher's late resignation without good cause and proposed complaint to the state board for educator certification for abandonment of contract. >> Yes ma'am. Unfortunately we had uh one
027uh resignation that the board did not accept. It did not meet good cause. That was for Jason Boots. >> Madame President, Mrs. Hatfield, I make the motion that the board finds that good cause did not exist under section 21.210C 210C of the Texas Education Code for Jason Boots to resign his contract for the 2025 2026 school year. That the board did not consent to his resignation and that the board authorizes the superintendent to file a complaint with the state board for educator certification to seek sanctions for his abandonment. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mrs. Hatfield and a second by Mrs. cop that the board finds that good cause did not exist under section 21.210C of the Texas Education Code for Jason Boots to resign his contract for the 2526 school year. That
028the board did not consent to his resignation and that the board authorizes the superintendent to file a complaint with the state board for educator certification to seek sanctions for his abandonment. All in favor? 70. Thank you. Okay, we will move on to item B in the discussion action which is the 2025 2026 campus improvement plans. >> Yes, ma'am. Mr. President, we um it's really a second reading of the CIPs that were presented and we haven't had any substantial questions um since the last uh board meeting. So, we'd ask the board to consider approving the campus improvement plans. >> Madame President, Dr. Rash, >> is there more than one of them? >> Yeah, it was in stereo, too. That was pretty >> Okay. I I would like to motion uh that we approve the 2025 2026
029campus improvement plans as recommended by the administration. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Dr. Roush and a second by Mrs. cop to approve the 2025 2026 campus improvement plans as recommended by the administration. I just want to say for the record, I loved having all the principles here last time and I thought they did a great job um being put on the spot and a lot of really good information. Um and thank you for being attentive to all the changing needs of the of the district. So with that, does anyone have any questions? All in favor? 70. Thank you. Okay, we'll move to item C, which is the 2026 2027 high school academic planning guide. Good evening, board. Yes, I return to give you your final review and possible approval of our 2627
030high school academic planning guide. Uh there are no changes to the course um request that we've put forward last time. Um, so there is no additions to that, but I did want to take a couple minutes and just update you on our progress towards EIC regulation. If you recall a couple years ago, we put into EIC local, which is our policy that outlines how we do um class rank and um GPA um the option for students to elect to um exempt up to two courses during their junior and senior years towards their class rank and GPA. and it was qualifying students who entered their freshman year during the 2425 school year. So they're now sophomores. So now next year during 2627 will be the first class that can actually use this exemption policy actually in
031um for their coursework. And so we have worked hard to develop our EIC regulation. I want to give a huge thank you to Dr. Farber and our counselors who really gave us a lot of input on how to implement this as well as our data services team led by Miss Mink who really helped us behind the and behind the scenes to help with like PE's coding and how we actually can facilitate this towards GPA class rank to come up with I think a really fair and exciting uh regulation for our students to use this exemption um for up to two courses junior during their junior and senior year. Um, and so again, I know you guys have a copy of the regulation, but I'm here to answer any questions you may have regarding um, that
032goes into effect next year. >> Yeah, I just want to say thank you. I think this comes back to when Dr. Griffin was interim superintendent and then um, Dr. Farber as well because it was from a presentation I heard at TASBY and I guess more more talking to Jeff than anything at this point or Mr. Daring. Um, I I watched a presentation at TASBY that talked about how uh school district, I think it was College Station ISD, they completely revamped how their uh class ranking process and and whatnot. But what they realized is they didn't want to punish freshmen who happen to have a bad first semester when they made the transition. So, if uh if graduation only required say two foreign language courses, they only took the best two foreign language courses. So, kind
033of goes back to when my son was looking. He was wanting to take um computer science to help him with his major in college, but he couldn't because it would have been a foreign language. Well, he was already going to have four or five foreign language credits on his transcript, but being that computer science at the time was on level, it was going to hurt his GPA and his class ranking where he was trying to get into&m. And then, uh there was something else. Oh, personal finance, same thing. It was on level math. It was going to hurt his class ranking. So he opted not to take it and do something else. So it it was keeping kids from exploring other options out there. So that was what initially started it. But Dr. Griffin, when
034y'all found out it was more kids were using it for other reasons. And can you talk about that? It's more um I I just threw that broadly at you about how it let some of the kids take AP courses that they were afraid to try. So if you could talk about that a little bit. So, we do know that some students, as um Steve mentioned, won't take a class because if it's on level, it could impact their GPA. Well, we also um learned from feedback from students. Um Dr. Farber talked with students about it and got some feedback and some of them expressed, well, I may want to take a harder class um an AP level course, but may not for fear of it impacting my GPA also if I don't do as well. um
035especially some of those high level students, some of the students who are in multiple highle um AP courses. So, they could elect to take it and it not impact their GPA up to two courses um during those two school years. >> Thank you. And it again, just it's for the GPA for class ranking purposes only. It stays on their college transcripts regardless. Yes, sir. And the GPA follows them. So if they end up getting a C, it doesn't impact their class ranking, but it falls into college. Okay. So I So again, now that we're finally here and getting to use it, thank you uh for making it happen back in the back then and thank y'all for keeping uh keeping the policy going. >> Yes, sir. >> Any other questions? >> Go ahead. I was
036just going to make one other one other comment that um this is we're getting into course selection for our 10th graders that are going to be juniors. So, we made this decision in the past. It's now coming to f fruition. So, appreciate you bringing that up and bringing the conversation up so we can now make a difference for this group of kids going forward. >> Yes. And we're also going to communicate this out to our families so they understand this change and this this this opportunity. Of course, our counselors as they meet with those sophomores, they're going to talk them through their options so they really understand what this exemption policy means. And so, I feel like we'll be able to really support our families as we transition to this new new chance for these
037kiddos. Okay, thank y'all. Do you have something? >> No, I was going to move. >> Oh, more questions. Okay. >> How do you plan to track who participates or takes advantage of these exemptions? >> Yeah, that's a great question and that's where I want to start off by again thanking our high school counselors because they're going to be on the front lines. Really, the high school counselors are the ones that are going to be tracking this. They're going to be taking the requests, you know, that come through the families and the students to take these exemptions. they're going to be the ones that are going to be looking at graduation plans to make sure that it meets the criteria that's not required for a graduation. Um, and so really it's our high school counseling teams
038that are going to really the ones that are going to be doing the heavy lifting with with tracking all of this and making sure that they're staying in regulations. So again, huge shout out to Dr. Farber and her team because again, they've embraced it. They understands what's good for kids and but they are going to be the ones on the front lines really handling it for us. We also have our um our district's enterprise digital workflow repository so that we'll make sure that kids are applying for the courses that will cover the credit and then it will be filed to their permanent repository. So we'll also have that documentation that we can go back to just like all of our digital cumulative files that we had talked about before. >> The other thing I would
039add to that is there was a tremendous amount of work that went into creating um alternate course codes for nonGPA calculating. So every course that gets exempted is going to have kind of a shadow course that's not for GPA calculation and that's backend work that people have put in hours and hours to make it possible for kids. Yeah. >> Okay. That's awesome. And I'm would be really interested in hearing about that data once we are get to a point where we can start sharing it. So, um, also I think the last time that we spoke at the last meeting, I had asked you because you were meeting with the principles the next day, was that right? Or one of the groups the next day and I had asked if you had um um anticipated any
040questions, any feedback or anything from the academic planning guide? Anybody give you any push back or >> No, ma'am. There was there was a couple of clarifying questions, but in terms of the actual recommendations for what we were going to add or remove from the course guide, there was there was no questions. >> Awesome. That's good to know. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, this is a discussion action item and we can entertain a motion. Madam President, I'll if I'll say one more thing and I'll make I'll make the motion, but say one more thing. It's I didn't realize I created extra work for everybody. And I've been pushing on most of y'all here to get take work away from teachers and I just created more for Dr. Farber and her her team, Cara Carter, you're
041in your team. So for that, I do apologize. So um yeah, >> it's a good example. Kids come first. >> Yeah, kids do come first. So I I appreciate all that. But but yeah, I was really excited, but now I feel bad that the extra work got caught. So with that, I will I move to approve the 2026 2027 high school academic planning guide as recommended by the administration. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Sprouls and a second by Mrs. Hatfield to approve the 2026 2027 high school academic planning guide as recommended by the administration. All in favor? That's 70. Thank you, board. Okay, that closes the discussion action part of the agenda. We will move to the reports. The first report tonight will be the 2025 2026 beginning of the year
042reading and math data report. Dr. Griffin. >> All right. Well, um, good evening board, and we are excited to share with you, um, some of our beginning of the year data that is aligned with our strategic plan. um definitely focuses on uh this particular part on strategic goal one um both literacy and academic progress. So in um starting with our literacy goal of all of our students annually increasing their literacy proficiency to re reach or exceed grade level standards. um we have our dip strategies that you have already approved and we continue to use the same um uh metrics throughout the year. So I'm going to share um the results of our beginning year data from those metrics. Um before I dive into the data, I just want to um share how we use this
043data. um our campuses, our teachers um and those of us in CNI um track our students progress over time um throughout the course of the year and we also look at trends from year to year. Um we're able to use this data to see how are our students performing in relation to their peers across the region, across the state and nationally. Um we are always analyzing and assessing our curriculum, our instructional practices and the resources that we provide our teachers um to see are we meeting the needs of our students or are there um adjustments we need to make. Um constantly asking our teachers how can we best support them? What help do they need? Um designing professional learning to meet their needs so they can meet the needs of their students. And then we
044also use this data to partner with our parents um so that we are working side by side with them to help um their students reach reach their fullest potential. So the first data I'd like to share with you is um CLI or it's also called circle. This is our prek data. um our prek students um our teachers um give this assessment um individually with our prek students three times a year beginning, middle and end of year to really um monitor their um growth and development with foundational literacy skills. So I have a comparison over the last four years so you can see how our prek students are um tracking in comparison to previous years. So with rapid rapid letter naming um rapid vocabulary um book and print knowledge and also early writing skills you can
045see that they are um tracking right along where um students in previous prek years. Um we're tracking even um slightly higher than in previous years as well. Um we also give MCL class to our um K through three students at beginning, middle and year, end of year to also monitor their growth in development of um those foundational reading skills. So um here we're able to also see how our students compare to um state and national norms and um a comparison to our kindergarten students um last year um compared to this year. So you can see that um our kindergarten students are um trending right along where we were last year above state and national norms. Our first graders are um performing a little bit higher than last year and um higher than our state and
046national norms. Same with second grade and then um third grade. Not all districts give um this assessment in third grade. So, we don't have state or national um norms to compare them to, but they're um tracking right along where uh they were last year. Um I would like to add in pre when we look at our kindergarteners, we're able to analyze our students who were prek students in the district last year compared to those who weren't. and our students who attended our preks last year are outperforming um students who didn't attend our prek by 16 percentage points um in kindergarten. So a huge celebration to the work that our prek students um and campuses provide our prek students to help prepare them for kindergarten. And then we also give um the MAP assessment to our
047second through 8th graders um also beginning, middle and end of the year to monitor their reading development. And so um if you'll look at the pink columns, this is the national percentile rank. So how do we compare nationally um last year to this year? Our goal is to be in the top 25% nationally. And um you can see that we are right there at each of those grade levels and um close to where we were last year with a couple of them a little bit higher. And then when we look at our um the percentage of our students meeting their growth projection, our goal is um to at least be at 50% meeting those growth projections. Um and they trend um pretty close to and in several cases quite a bit higher than last year.
048And this is a really um important piece of data for us because if you'll notice at the bottom it says these are based on new 25 uh norms. So NWA has reormed the MAP test. Um the original norm was from 2020. So this year they reormed. And so this is really a baseline for us because um the test has changed somewhat and the um the norming standards have been updated. So for our students to um perform um high nationally and also see um a large percentage of our students meeting their uh growth projections um is really um really validating for us to see. And then when we move into academic progress, so our students will achieve individualized academic goals to reach a year's growth or more in all content areas. So looking specifically at our
049um measurements that we use to track our math um progress, our prek again CLI and circle um they take this beginning, middle and end of the year to um pro monitor their progress on foundational math skills. In math this assessment is measured on their the end of the year expectations. So, um, when we see that 35% of our students are on track for rope counting, that means 35% have already met those end of the year standards. So, you can see how our students um compare to previous years and they're outperforming um previous years in each of those metrics. And then our math diagnostic is um a local assessment that our kindergarten and first grade teachers um engage with their students at beginning, middle, and end of the year as well. And so um the primary
050tasks that we really look at is um counting objects. We have 93% of our students who are right where we would want them to be in being able to count objects. Understanding quantity is the um task two and composing and decomposing numbers of three is um the the other task that we really look at. So our students are right where um we would expect them to be and where previous kindergarten students were as well. And then in first grade um there are a few more tasks that um we really look closely to see how our students are trending at the beginning of the year. So you can say it's estimation groups of 10 finding the total skip counting by 10 um subing um and then um in various ways um for those specific tasks. So
051again our students are tracking right where we would want them to be as well as first graders. And then our map data again this was renormed for 2025. Um, as we know, the TEIKS have changed quite a bit um over the last couple of years with the new STAR assessment. So, this reorming in math was a pretty significant reorming. So, our students um are in the or right at the um top 25% nationally. However, our growth metric isn't where we are used to seeing it. So, this tends this appears to be a trend um across the nation. growth measures um with the new norms aren't quite as high as we are typically used to seeing. So, this is really good baseline data for us. It's really hard to compare the 2024 to the 2025 because
052um they're two different uh norming standards that were used. So, next steps from now, um, our our teachers and our campus administrators and our curriculum coordinators and instructional coaches are kneedeep in this data. Um, I can assure you our teachers know every single student down to the nth degree on where they are. Um, so that they can be making plans on how to move them forward and provide that personalized learning. Um, we use it when we're meeting with principles. We dive into data with them. Um we have learning teams across feeder patterns. Um and we're about to start our data meetings and quarterly reviews with um campuses to just um talk about where is your campus, where are your students, and how can we best support you. So what questions do you have? Okay, I
053guess I have questions. >> Okay, >> sorry. Um, couple things. >> The prek, let's talk about the prek. So, that's amazing that the kids that are coming from our prek are outperforming. Do you see that the prek centers that we are going to be opening in the future are going to affect that as well? maybe to help increase the number of kids who are performing at a higher level. >> I absolutely think so. Um I think the prek centers are going to they're just going to give students um a level of experience that um the curriculum will be the same if at both the centers and um prek classes that we may still continue to have on campuses because there won't be enough room at the prek center or the ECC for all students to
054attend. But um it's going to be a very special experience for um our kiddos that attend our our ECC's. >> Absolutely. So your last slide you had talked about next steps and how you guys are um using this data. I'm assuming it all we just approved the campus improvement plans. I'm sure it all locks together. It does. >> Can you talk a little bit about that? >> Yeah, our campuses all have a goal in um literacy. So based on last year's data, based on um their end of the year data, star data, historical data, each campus has a literacy goal. And so this data is um something that they use throughout the year to track their progress on are we are we um closing the gaps and are we um how are we progressing towards
055meeting those goals. They each have a goal for math as well. So every bit of this data um is used to help them monitor their progress throughout the year. Um we are looking at it um at the central um admin as well to make sure that we are um that we're addressing any areas that we think may campuses that may need more support um grade levels that may need more support based on their beginning of the year data to help us accomplish our goals at the end of the year. >> Okay, two more. Sorry. >> Okay. >> Um so the the growth projections that are uh talked about throughout >> um talk about how that's measured. I I'm assuming it's just it's by student. So student is trying to get to XYZ and their growth
056measure. How how talk just talk a little bit about how that work. >> So we measure growth um differently on different assessments but particularly on math map excuse me. Um the assessment is designed. It is a computer-based assessment. So as students progress through the questions based on how they're performing the questions can uh get harder. And so it becomes very intuitive on um giving teachers really specific detail information on where a student is in particular areas um right at that moment. But it also stretches students to see how much do they know and then it makes a projection um based on all sorts of algorithms on based on what what we know about this student through this assessment. This is where we think that they will be performing at middle of the year and then
057recalculates again where it projects students will be performing at the end of the year. Perfect. That was perfect. Okay. And the last one I want to talk about the math the reorming and what did you take from those numbers and how do we address that moving forward because that's a big difference. >> It is. It is. Um actually Dr. Dr. Desimony and I have been meeting to look at that to see um it really does serve this year as a baseline because um I don't think we saw as big of a difference in literacy because the standards really haven't changed drastically um from 2020 to 2025. Um so the assessment is while it may be at a slightly higher level of rigor um we really don't think that it is but we do know that
058math standards um where the teaks fall in by grade level u we do know that that has changed drastically. So now that um they've reormed it based on those TEICSS and how students are performing um it was alarming like we aren't used to seeing um growth but it's also comparing it to um the previous year which was in a different set of norms. So we are very interested to see how our students are performing at middle of the year once we have now we have this baseline. Can I add something to that? >> Just might add that that might um could be a place to look for if there was a disconnect between how students were performing at that growth level on MAP versus STAR, meaning those growth measurements on STAR. >> Maybe that was
059why the norming happened because that wasn't aligning very well. >> Yeah. And we did talk about that also looking at it. It can make a prediction on how students will perform on STAR. uh we feel like it's really pretty spot-on in reading. Um but there was somewhat of a disconnect in math. So then that also challenges us to um consider all the the resources that we're providing with teachers and our professional learning and um curriculum as well to make sure that we're providing them all the support that they that they need to help make sure our students are ready for that end of the year test. >> Thank you very much. Any other questions front Jeff? So, this goes back to the prek stuff and I hope I articulate this right, but so when we
060have prek kids coming from out of our district and even going into kindergarten, so maybe from a primrose or somewhere like that, are we keeping any data with the struggles that we're having versus our the the kids that are in our prek system uh versus the ones that aren't and our kindergarten system that are going into first grade to help the teachers handle those students a little bit better knowing that they're probably behind. >> Yeah. And it could be students that didn't even attend preK. So, um, kindergarten teachers are they are a special group of teachers because they have students in their class who it may be the first time they have ever experienced school um or any type of formal um type of structure to students who may have been in our full day
061prek. they may have um even at three-year-old prek before they came to us that have a lot of skills and so they they manage the very wide gamut. So, um our amazing early childhood um coordinator and coaches work really closely with the teachers to um be able to quickly identify and assess where our students are. We even um now do uh what we call kinder camp, pre-K and kinder camp in August before school starts. And it's a quick way for um the teachers to be able to um just do some very quick informal um gathering of some some data on students so that we can uh level classes. So maybe we're not putting all students in one class that haven't had previous um formal educational experiences um versus a class that may have a lot
062of students that have. So trying to um make sure that it's kind of an even playing field across classrooms and then equipping the teachers to be able to quickly identify where the gaps are. Kindergarten kiddos close gaps really fast because those teachers are magic. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, Dar. Thank you. We'll move to item B, which is the dyslexia district effectiveness report. >> Hi. Thanks, Merki. >> Good evening. How are you all? So, I'm excited tonight to get to give you some information about our dyslexia program and um the things that we were able to do last year and some things that we're continuing this year. And tonight's a perfect night since October is dyslexia awareness month. So that worked out well. So um I've just added in here the definition of dyslexia
063from the dyslexia handbook because the revised dyslexia handbook of 2024 is what we are working under currently. Um the last couple of years they've revised it. We're currently hoping no more revisions right now because they're hard to keep up with. Um, but one of the things they changed was that we had to identify all of our students who received dyslexia services as special education students by the end of this current school year. We jumped on that early and we were able to accomplish that last year. So all of our students now that are identified do have a full individual evaluation completed as well as are either being served in special education or not don't need services and are getting those through 504 accommodations. We also all of our dys diagnosticians and dyslexia teachers have completed
064the required tea learn dyslexia modules to be an team member for dyslexia. Also in the handbook we're required to do screeners which is great for earlier intervention and identification. We do first grade in December and last year we had 140 referrals that were made from that screener and other data that we gather. We don't we look at everything not just the screener but the screener is one um area to look at and then in kindergarten we do it in April and May and we had 73 referrals made from that. So the two types of curriculum that we use in our district are reading by design and MTA which is multi-ensory teaching approach. Both approaches do um the same thing. They both are visual, auditory, auditory, kesthetic, and tactile learning pathways. They both meet four to
065five times a week. Uh to give you a little background, we originally had MTA for all of our students receiving dyslexia services. I believe we started that in 2020. We quickly realized that not all students were where they needed to be for MTA. It wasn't working for them. And we also added in our special education department reading by design. So we trained all of our special ed teachers in reading by design and our dyslexia specialists were trained in MTA. In our dyslexia programs, we have a little over 3,000 students that are identified with dyslexia. Almost 2,000 of those actually receive services either MTA or reading by design through special education. a thousand of them receive 504 accommodations. And then we have some students that don't need any services. They just are identified as a student
066with dyslexia. So our students, you can see in MTA, our elementary numbers are kind of holding steady. And same with middle school over 23 23 24 to last year 2425. And then over the time we've had MTA, we've had over 300 students complete the program. So, we're really proud of that. And then in our dyslexia star performance, 65% of our students in the dyslexia programs have scored at approaches or higher in their reading star, English one, and English two EOCC's. Um, they're performing well on their star test. These results show that we're moving those students in the right direction. We did want to give you the region and state um performance, but TEA was not able to give that to us without a public information request. So Dr. Des Simone has requested that and we
067should have it by the end of the month and we can get that to you. So post MTA, so our students who've completed the program, this is how they're performing on STAR. And again, they are being successful in three through eight after they complete the MTA program. And you can see the same for our English one and two completers. our MAP reading data from fall 24 to 25. You can see that our percent mo met of growth projection is close to that 50 or higher than the 50% that Dr. Griffin was talking. That's where we want our students to be. So, our dyslexia students are doing well. And then professional learning opportunities. our dyslexia specialist as we know we made some adjustments last year to them to for their duties and they are really taking
068on the special education role as well. So some of them are acting as case managers. They are attending professional learning with the special education team. They are continuing to model and collaborate with one another through their dyslexia PLC's. our diagnosticians are collaborating, how they're identifying, making sure that our evaluations are the same across the district, that we're not doing things differently from one school to another. And then we're doing a lot of crossraining right now on MTA and reading by design. So all of our dyslexia interventionists are trained in reading by design and MTA now. And many of our sped teachers are trained in both as well. allows us to serve more kids over the course of the year. Uh 26 of our 57 dyslexia teachers have completed year one or year two of academic
069language therapy training. And so that means they are a CL or a Calp. And a CL is a certified academic language therapist which is a two-year program. And a Calp is a certified academic language practitioner which is a one-year program. And then some of our challenge is just adding new students. They c they come up all throughout the year. It's not like they move or we just start them at the beginning of the year and just move through the program. They're being identified all throughout the year. So we're having to add those into schedules and that can be a challenge. Most programs start with a kit. I know y'all heard us talk about kit one or kit two. And so that can be a challenge as we're adding those students as well as just the
070varied pacing of our students, how they learn. They don't all learn at the same rate. So it causes us to have to slow down, go fast for the whatever group we have going. Some celebrations that we have, 96% of our dyslexia teachers have obtained their special education certification, including the coordinator and director. So again, that was a huge celebration. It was a big ask of everyone, but they jumped right on and they are doing amazing helping out that special education team since those numbers have gotten so high. Um they're scheduling more effect efficiently and effectively, so we're able to serve more kids um throughout our day. Most of our students with dyslexia are making at least a full year of growth. And I already mentioned the case loads. And then every October we hold a
071parent dyslexia simulation and approximately 125 parents attended that last year and we'll be holding that again this year. So next we're going to continue to analyze the students that are doing using reading by design versus MTA at the end of this school year to make sure that both of those programs are still effective and that that's the way we're going to continue to move. Um, we're going to continue to make sure we're identifying early and and and inter intervening and then just collaborating instruction of our curriculum and then making sure our gened teachers and dyslexia teachers are really collaborating to make sure those students are getting the supports they need in their general ed classroom when they're not in MTA. And then I added just a couple of links here. The instructional materials are uh
072resources that are available to students and families uh like talking books and things like that for students with dyslexia as well as um the handbook if you wanted to look through that. So any questions? >> I do want to make one quick comment or ask you to clarify. So there we have heard in the community some perception that because we changed our service model slightly and and have less individual dyslexia staff that we're serving kids less. Can you speak to that? >> Absolutely. So I uh really what we're doing is we are serving them more like I said earlier efficiently. We looked at schedules and we were not scheduling well to be honest. We were seeing very small groups. the groups can be up to six and we were seeing groups of one and two.
073So, we really just looked at our efficiency and how to better schedule students. As well as having those special education teachers trained, we now really have um multiple people on the campus that are able to teach to those needs. >> I just wanted to highlight that. I'm glad you said that. We have special ed teachers that have additional training. We have dyslexia teachers that have specialed certification. So that crosschaining is incredibly impactful to the way we can serve kids and the knowledge base that our teachers have to support our dyslexia students. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. I guess I'm the designated question asker tonight. >> Okay. Um Okay. Let's talk about screening a little bit. You had talked about what you do for K at K&1. What about kids who come to us from another district
074or from another state that are in 2, three, four, five, even seventh and eighth grade because kids sometimes go undiagnosed. So what do we what are we doing? >> So usually those students would be caught through MTSS. So we would see that they weren't making progress. We would gather all the data, the same data that we're gathering here. We just don't have that screener piece. >> Okay. And if a parent says, I think something is wrong and I think my child's dyslexic, they can just come to you and say and request that service. Correct. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Um let's see. There was a a portion of the students who have been identified that don't receive services. Tell me about that population. Have they graduated out of the modules or >> So they they
075have probably finished. There's two op there's a couple of things. They could have finished the MTA modules or the kits. Um they could not need any accommodations through 504. they're being successful using their strategies and they don't need it or they don't want it. Those are the other option. And then we did have a few um parents who did not want their students under the special education umbrella. So they opted to not continue with any services. >> Okay. Um I was going to ask one other question. Oh, if you had a wish list for serving dyslexic students, what would be on it if we had unlimited resources? I just put you on the spot big time. I know >> you did. >> It would probably a That's a hard one. You know what it would
076really be to unlock the mystery of our middle school and high school. How to best serve those kids because that's where we're struggling the most with being able to serve them. efficiently, effectively, where they're not missing out on electives or other things that they really want to do, but they're still getting that. So, early identification, probably making sure we're identifying and getting them through their mod their kits so that they can >> be successful in middle and high school. >> Awesome. Fair. Fair enough. I appreciate it. Anybody else have any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you very much for that report tonight. >> Okay. Okay, we will now move to uh item 12, the board president's report. And the really um we've got lots of events going on, but the big one um the go-kart
077lunchon is on October 15th for us. So, please attend if you can. We'll move next to the superintendence report. >> Yes, ma'am. similar. Um we are super busy in October um with all the student events going on and um this is the first of three weeks that we have Thursday night and Friday night lights. Um so Texas, you know, Friday night lights weren't enough. We need we need Thursday night lights as well. But uh Eaton's playing South Lake uh this Thursday evening in North Northwest High School. I just want to say incredible uh parade last night and uh they had the um pep rally and so forth. um just a a really good evening for them. Their homecoming game is this Friday versus Keller Central. Um so we encourage you to come out and as
078you mentioned next week super busy with go-kart lunchon and we are going to have our Facebook live for Proposition A um next Thursday, October 16th. Um I'll intro but it's mostly the Jonathan Pusk show uh on Facebook Live. We're looking forward to getting lots of questions from our community that u we can answer. So that's all we have. >> Move.