001You need to gabble. I call this meeting of the Red Oak Independent School District to order at 700 p.m. Good evening. I'm Melanie Peterson, president of this Red Oak ISD board of trustees. And on behalf of the board, our super and our superintendent, I'd like to welcome our guest, honores, students, and staff. 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, chapter 551. All board members are present. And Mr. Anderson, if you would introduce our guest pastor. >> Sure. Our guest pastor tonight is Dr. John Crosdale. He began his ministry at the senior as the senior pastor of Easter Baptist Church on May 12th, 2024.
002Pastor John received his bachelor's of arts degrees in ministry in 2018 and his masters of divinity in 2022 at Chriswell College in Dallas, Texas. Additionally, he received his doctorate of ministry degree in the spring of 2024 at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Uh, Pastor John is married to Britney. They have five children, Andrew, Colton, Daisy, John, Luke, and Jet. Doesn't say in here, but they call me Donut Man. [laughter] Um, a great truth from God's word that is near and dear to their family is found in Jesus Christ's response to significant question, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible." And that's from Mark 10:26-27. Thank you for allowing me to be here.
003And um so I'm a proud member of the Hawk family. Our daughter just uh started first grade at Shields Elementary. So a shout out to Miss Allison, Miss Samantha. uh thankful for all that you do and uh thankful for everyone here uh who is shows that they care about their community and I'm going to go ahead and assume everybody wants God's blessing on this community. Amen. >> Let's go ahead and pray and ask for him to do that. Father in heaven, we come before you tonight. We do thank you for who you are. We thank you that we can approach the God who dwells upon high because you came low. You have sent your one and only son, Jesus, to come and take our place on the cross, to die for our sins, to be
004buried, to be raised to life on the third day. So we thank you that we can serve and pray to our living God through our living savior. And so we're grateful for the administration, the staff. Thank you for all those who sacrifice and serve their community. Thank you, oh God, for the school board who serves uh to stand in the gap for the community. And Lord, we just pray for unity uh among uh all who are involved in serving their community, Lord. And we do pray, God, that you would bless the community of Red Oak. We pray that you would bless uh every uh school in Red Oak, every family, and Lord, for us to do that. We need to follow your blueprint. And so we pray for wisdom. Lord, we pray for those in
005leadership to seek you out for what you would want to do, to do that without fear and to do so in such a way that it would invite your blessing. Uh we recognize you are who we need. And so we submit this agenda, all the business that would take place tonight, everything uh that happens here, would you see to it that uh it would be done in a way that you would receive all honor, praise, and glory. And we ask and pray all these things in Jesus name. And if you agree with that prayer, would you say amen? >> Amen. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Knight, if you will go down and introduce our pledge leader, Well, I get the privilege to introduce our pledge leader for tonight and that would be Adrien. Adrien, if
006you'd come forward, please just a little bit about Adrian. Adrian is he's 12 years old. His parents are uh Edwin and Ashika Rosa. Uh he has one sister uh Alicia. U Ad Adrien is in the seventh grade at Red Oak Middle School. Uh his favorite class is band. Uh Adrien enjoys watching TV, practices his instrument and paper crafts. Eden. Okay. says, uh, his favorite pet is his dog, uh, Fiji. When he grows up, he wants to be a musician. And something he likes about himself, he is a kind person. That's awesome. Uh, he, uh, consistently demonstrates positive attitude through his work ethics, uh, willingness to support others, and communicates well, stays uh, organized, that's a good thing, and is a leader at the Red Oak Middle School. We appreciate you being here. And if you
007will, if everyone would stand please. >> 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. Oh [ __ ] Next, uh, we will have Julie Phillips, director of purchasing, and she's going to talk about a nice grant check. Is that nice? Good evening. Um, I'd like to take a moment to recognize and thanks thank TPS, that's Texas polit political subdivision, it's our insurance carrier, um, for their continued partnership and support and in particular thank Allen Hall for being here with us this evening. I've also asked uh Bill, our CFO, and Lori Ralph, our director of
008health services, to join me because her department was a big benefactor of this. We're deeply grateful for the recent $20,000 grant award, which has already made a meaningful impact across our district. With this funding, we were able to purchase eight new defibrillators, allowing us to place AEDs in location that previously had none and to replace outdated units that were no longer reliable. These devices are essential in emergency situations and this grant directly strengthens our ability to respond quickly and effectively when it matters most. The grant also enabled us to add three additional cameras to vehicles that used to trans transport students, further enhancing safety and accountability within our transportation fleet. This is the second time that TPS has invested in our district safety initiatives. The first grant awarded in 2022 allowed us to purchase proper
009storage cabinets for flammable liquids and improvement that continues to serve us well today. Alan, please extend our sincere appreciation to everyone at TPS. Your ongoing support helps us create a safer environment for our students and staff, and we truly are grateful for your partnership. Yes. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Okay, next I will have Miss Jennifer Jeter and she is director of career and technology education. >> Good evening. Tonight I'm incredibly um proud to recognize our masonry program. Um, two of our outstanding Red Oak ISD students have just competed in the World of Concrete National Competition in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. I would also like to add they competed in skills a couple of weeks ago and placed first. Um, so they'll be con competing in state in April down
010in corporates. So um the national convention it was not just um a simple convention. It's the largest uh industry competition um in their industry. To qualify for this event, students must demonstrate advanced technical skill, mathematical precision, safety knowledge, time management, and professional craftsmanship. Elena and Arturo have uh proven themselves to be among the best in the industry in their age. um the achievement it just it doesn't only reflect the strength of the masonry program that's led by Sedat Gutierrez um but the incredible industry partnership that we have um I would like to publicly recognize and I'll have them come up in just a second Mr. Melvin Smith and Mr. uh Jeremy Peak, who are the president and previous president of the United Masonary Contractors of DFW. Um in order to not allow a um cost
011to affect the kids competing, they donated $5,000 for the kiddos to get up to uh Las Vegas and also supported training and developing their skills. Uh, so again, we are deeply grateful and if I'll have the teachers, Jeremy, Melvin, and of course, Elena and Arto, if y'all will come up and have a picture. And Melvin, if you would like to say something, um, that would be great. >> Thank you. Uh so I have my own masonry company but so I discovered well over uh 50 years ago I discovered the value of learning a trade in high school and I fell in love with building building something beautiful. So now now I spend a lot of my time uh sharing that passion with students and we truly pre uh treasure our partnership with uh Red Oak
012ISD. So, as the workforce development coordinator for North Texas, I represent about 70 companies in our organization, UMCA, uh, contractor, suppliers, and manufacturers. Uh, and that's the United Masonry Contractors Association. We also work closely with our state association, which puts us over a 100 members statewide, and uh, they've been very involved with with the training down here as well. So, first I'd like to thank Sadat for her generous passion for masonry and thanking thanking her for instilling that uh same passion into each of her students because I've watched that play out. U I truly see your teaching as a gift of opportunity, an opportunity to to learn a beautiful trade that can become a great career. So the last two summers she's come out and worked for us in the summer so she could hone
013her skills and so she could be become a better teacher and a better mason. Uh so that's been a joy for that to happen too. I think she enjoyed it and our and our employees did too. U and then there's Arturo and Elina Elina that as you've heard went to Las Vegas competed. We're really proud of them. They've also um agreed to go out after school on Wednesday and Friday nights from 5 to 9ine and do some additional training at our apprentichip school which is at North Lake College in Dallas or in Irving I mean and uh so we're excited about that and they're doing that on their own time. So it kind of shows their how driven they are to uh to become the best. So we thank you for that. And then there's
014Dr. Jeter. Thank you for believing in Sedat and putting into place everything she needs to succeed. Uh with your with your program, students will have the ability to go into the workplace with confidence and the skill set needed to become needing to begin their career in masonry. And thank you all for here tonight for for allowing um Thank you all for following through for for on to a commit for an equip in a commitment to prepare these students for success and to become productive assets in the community. Red Oak ISD is quickly becoming the shining light on the hill that other schools aspire to when it comes to masonry training. And I'm not joking about that. and you can talk to the other schools and she's talked to the other teachers and it's and and
015it's uh we want to continue continue that. We look forward to growing our masonry program here and growing our relationship with Red Oak ISD. Thank you. >> Awesome. We will move into open form or public hearing portion of the meeting. We did have two people sign up to speak tonight. But before they do, I must read our script here. If you were here for recognitions and you need to leave now, now's the time. >> Melanie, this is Bill's time. >> Well, it's nice to see >> what it's a public hearing. >> Will I skip? >> Okay, >> thanks. >> Forget that. I did that wrong. Now is the time for public hearing, which also says open form on my agenda. [laughter] So I will have Megan Kors, our chief technology officer, will open our public
016hearing and we will begin when she's ready. Yes, I do. [laughter] Okay, tonight I'm coming for our statemandated public review of our 2425 final data. So that is the purpose of this public hearing. So it is 396 pages. So, if you want to sit back, it'll we'll be here for a little bit. Just kidding. We're not going to go through all 396 pages. Um, we're going to just go through the highlights and I'm going to go through the sections that are within this report and then this report will be placed on our website. So there are eight sections for our district annual report. The district annual report consists of the 2425 taper. It consists of the 2324. See I told it doesn't like me. the 2324 financial actual de um the financial actual report. It
017it is the 2324 school year accreditation status. It includes the campus performance objectives, the report of violence or criminal incidents on campus, the student performance and sec postsecondary institutions, a progress report on the house bill 3 goals and then the glossery. So all of this information we have already brought forward and so what we are doing today is just giving you an overview of what how the the annual report is formatted and what all is included within that report. This report is broken down it's going to be located on the website. It will be broken down um in that report to include the district information and the campus information. So when you see it, the way that this report is compiled is it's coming for TEA compiles it from every district and from the every
018district and every campus and they use PE's data that's collected throughout the school year along with assessment data. And then the 2425 taper is published as a PDF and it's released in December. So once it's released in December, then we have a little bit of time then to present it to the public as a completed report. We've already presented this data and we've been working on it. You've had campus improvement plans presented. You've had local improvement plans presented. And so none of this information is new. It's just in a different format. And so when you see the beginning, so we're going to start with section one. And so section one is has a cover page and it has the accountability rating. It has our special education determination status for the district level and then it
019also includes on the campus level any campus distinction designations. And so you'll see here I have an example of what's in the paper in the ta in the taper report. And so you'll see here it has our district name, our district number, it has our accountability score, and then it has that we have met requirements for that special education determination status. An example of a campus report is this. And so you'll see there it lists any distinctions that that campus receives. So every campus is broken up and and is outlined the same way. So the way we're going to go through it tonight is we're going to look at it just the way that it is laid out from the district level. And so the district has so each inside that section one you're going
020to see star performance and so it looks like this and you'll notice that it has the tests that are listed and then it has on that fourth column over is in bold and that is our district information and so those are our district scores. So this is looking at star performance and approaches meets and masters at all of the tests given at the various grade levels and subjects. Then that next section is school progress. In this section, it's looking at annual growth and accelerated learning. So annual growth is only reported on reading and math and it starts at fourth grade because you have to have a previous year's score to show growth. And so that's when we're looking at the areas of reading and math and we start in fourth grade and move all the
021way forward. And then you also see that we have accelerated learning. So accelerated learning is a student that did not pass one year and how they did the next year. And so it's looking at any student that failed one year and then how they performed the following year, which we referred to it as 1416. That's just one of what the House bill was referred to as. Academic growth is included in our accountability, but it is not made up of these two scores. So, if you do calculation, you're not going to come up with where our score came from. It's the same numbers. They just do other math to come up with our accountability score versus what's in the taper. And so, this is what that looks like um within the taper report. The next section
022within the taper is our bilingual education and English as a second language. And again, it's going to show you that same information, but it's going to it's highlighting only our bilingual education students and our English as a second language students. So, you'll see that information, but just for those um two subopuls that we have to look at those two programs. Then our next section is our participation section. And this section is looking at the students who actually took the test when STAR was taken in the spring. So what was our participation rates? Our campuses work really hard on the days of testing. They're calling parents. They're making sure that we know where the students are and that we're accounting for every student. And if they cannot come on the day of testing, then we have
023makeup sessions that students are are are invited to come to as well. You'll see that some are not included. So in order for them to be included in our accountability, they have to be here and enrolled as a snapshot, which is that October date. That is, we call it a snapshot date. And so if they're here in October and they test with us, then they're included in our accountability. So you'll see some that are listed as not included in accountability and that would be the reason. The next section is attendance, graduation and dropout. So this is when we get to the part where we have some that are lagging indicators. So it takes longer for us to finalize graduation information and attendance information. And so those two are lagging indicators. So the information reported in
024the taper for this latest taper is actually information for 2324 school year. And so in this piece, it's the same with our graduates. So our graduates that we report on are 2324 graduates. And so it looks like this. And you'll notice a couple of things. We are above the state and the region in our attendance rate. And then our chronic ab um our chronic absenteeism is going down, which those are both two um it's a lot of the work that our campuses are doing. They're doing a a great job of really working on our attendance rate. And then when you look at our graduation, our graduation rate is above the state and the region as well. The next part of section one is our college career and military readiness. This is again another lagging indicator.
025So Mr. How has presented already this year um on the the different programs that we have and the different tracking that we have looking at our CCMR for our campus. Um and we did when you look at our at the results that are included here, we had a significant increase from our sorry our 2223 data to our 2324 and we are on track to see continued improvement in the 2425 data that will be released next year. The next part of section one is our student information, our staff information, and then the information by program. And this just looks at all of our enrollment. And it breaks it down by grade level, by ethnicity, by gender, and then by other different cohorts of students. And that concludes section one, which is the taper. So that repeats.
026So we have a district taper and then we have a taper for every single campus and that is all included in the first section of our of our annual report. The next section is our financial standards report and this is looking at the data that is currently available for 2324 and this includes all of our financial data. So our financial data miss Dr. Johnson does a great job of looking at all of our financial pieces and we remain in great standing with TEA and so you will see that the the um information in this report is exactly what's available to the public as part and then it is included as part of our annual report. Section three is our accreditation status. Each year, TA assigns one of four accreditation statuses to a district. And so
027what for this year, this the one that I'm reporting on today was released in September of 2025. It was delayed because of the litigation. And what we are expecting is that they will be releasing sometime in the spring of 26 the accreditation status for 2425. But as of today and what has been reported to us is that we are to include the 232 24 accreditation in this year's annual report and we are listed as accredited. Section four is our campus performance objectives. Campus informant campus performance objectives are included in our CIPs or campus improvement plans. We have them posted on our website. So in this annual report, we have included the direct links to our different websites and then where our improvement plan is located for each campus. Those are living documents and they're updated
028throughout the school year by the campus as they continue to review the ongoing goals and objectives that they have for their campus. In addition to that, let me back up. In addition to that, I've also included as part of our annual report the local improvement plans that the campuses have shared with the district this year. And so I included that so we have all of that information as one as one document. The next section is a report on violent or criminal incidents. And for this the the expectation is that we are reporting any violent or criminal incidents that occur on each campus. we have to include the number um that of incidents that have occurred on the campus. However, if it is less than five due to FURPA, we can't release what that number is.
029And so we have that report and that image did not make the slide, but it is included in the report. Um and we had we had um one campus that have that has an asterk next to one incident. And so um that just means that it occurred less than five times on that one campus. Section six is student performance and post-secondary institutions. This is a report that is given to us and it has not yet been released for this year. The information that we have is the same information that we had last year and um we checked again today and it has not yet been released. And so what we are looking at today is the information from the 2023 graduates. And this is just where the the state tells us how our students have
030done in their first year of college or postsecary post college work or post high school work. [snorts] Section seven is our progress toward the House Bill three goals. And so as we look at these goals, we are looking at the at third grade specifically. So it's early childhood and literacy and math and then it's also CCMR. And so these were goals established by the board and then our progress. So when we look at early childhood literacy learning so this is third grade and it's meets and above and you will see that [snorts] our 2023 24 data was at 46 and our 2425 data was at 49 and when working with curriculum a lot of the things that we are seeing is the benefits of the text the readingmies that our teachers have gone through. So
031we're creating a really systemic instruction when you look in the area of reading from kindergarten on up. So our students are see we're seeing that that trend. In addition, we've changed curriculum over the last two years. And so that piece is also supporting um that initiative as well. And so then as we look at our math, unfortunately we are seeing a dip here, but this is a dip that the state is recognizing. And so that is why our latest legislative session they have actually started they're working on implementing mathmies in the same manner that they were they were implementing readingmies because across the stra the state we're seeing a need to support the math area and so for us what this looked like was an introduction of Carnegie blue bonnet math for the secondary level
032we've in we've implemented new curriculum at the elementary level. And so it's a systemic again we're looking at how can we support from kindergarten on up and then implementing things like the campuses have already talked through over the course of this last year. They've talked through the walks, the walk, the calibration walks that they've been doing, getting into classrooms on a consistent basis, looking at data from every six weeks, looking at so right now we're in the middle of looking at benchmark and um I ready middle of the year data and then making plans on intervention as we move into our final few weeks, our final seven weeks before star testing and then CCMR. So CCMR, we've talked about all of the areas that we've grown over the last several years, but in our goal,
033our goal was specifically targeted at AP exams. And so we have seen an increase in participation and an increase in passing. Again, this is a lagging indicator. And so this is old data that we are looking at. Um, one of the things that's great to hear is we actually had a meeting last week when we were looking at CCMR and high school needs and Mr. Mr. How brought forward that he needs more space to test because we have so many kids that are wanting to take AP exams. So that's a great problem to have. Um and so we're excited to see to see the growth continue in this area. And then section 8 is our taper glossery. And so there's a lot of definitions within this annual report. There's a lot of methodologies on different
034ways that things are calculated. And so that is explained by TEA in the glossery and it is available in English and in Spanish as well. This information the taper report is online right now in draft form and then it will be um any if we see any errors, if we find anything that we need to correct, we will make those adjustments and it'll be in final form within the next two weeks. In addition, we'll be placing a paper copy on each campus so that if anybody from the community would like a paper copy, those will be available as well. Any questions? And since this is a public hearing, I will now open the floor to anyone in the audience. If you have a question for Miss Korns, raise your hand and we will acknowledge you.
035Hi board members, you have questions and now your chance. >> So I mean we you've gone through how the taper is laid out the different sections. On the one slide you show we're a C district. What's keeping us from being a B district or an A district? What are our gaps? What are we what are we targeting going through the rest of this year going into the next year and in the year after and year after? So I will tell you we just met with I've just met with all principles um last Thursday and Friday and I reiterated the importance of growth in our accountability system. So 70% of our accountability system and more so at the elementary and middle school level is relying on growth. And so several years ago it wasn't the case.
036It was really about just strictly performance. But we have an opportunity now to where if a student comes to us, we just we need to know where they were and we need to make sure that they don't go backwards. And so really targeting. So my department has done a lot of work with the campuses. The campuses are already doing a ton of work really going in and looking at every specific student. And it doesn't matter if they missed five questions on the test or if they missed 20 questions on the test. knowing exactly where they are and where they need to be by the end of the year and then pushing towards that goal. And so we've been working on those pieces. >> Okay. >> Anybody else? >> Um the tiered instruction, if you'll just
037kind of touch on tiered instruction. >> So part of that looking at where the growth is. One of the things that we're looking at is making sure that we know what their need is. So, if a student is um I'm going to use math for instance because that was my that was my subject. Um, so if algebraic reasoning is not where they're strong, that's where they're weak in, or if financial literacy is an area where they're weak in, then really targeting in those areas and supporting that student because every student has strengths and weaknesses and really knowing where they are and tiering that instruction. And so we're doing that in a number of ways through Talent Time, through boot camps. So, a lot of our um secondary campuses are looking at boot camps where they're
038bringing the kids in and really focusing in on how can we um maximize where our students strengths are and then shore up any areas that need support. And if I could add just a few more things, I was going to do it in my superintendent report, but I'll go ahead and and do some of these now. The star blitz is something that um all of the campuses are working on doing. And so they are incorporating the different levels and they're tiering those levels like um Miss Korns is talking about. So they're taking those challenged students that are struggling and tiering their instruction, but also not forgetting about those students that are high and we want to challenge them. So they're really working on tiering that instruction to try to help. Um they're doing the spring
039uh SAT boot camps. I think y'all are starting this week, correct Brett? They're starting those this week uh at Red Oak High School. So that will help with those higher level kids. We also worked on uh repositioning some staff that we have, even some ESC staff to go into those classrooms or moving some teachers that we had in one level to another level to try to really focus in on those students that are struggling like in math. If we had a great math teacher over here, but they're struggling over here, moving those teachers in that way as well. Uh also, Mastery Prep is a program that we have really really implemented at the secondary level as well. trying to see a lot of progress there and uh they're working really hard with a curriculum instruction
040with Michelle Owen and her uh group to create star focus post assessments to create that rigor and that practice. So that's just a few of the things that they're really really honing in on trying to find out those needs and and pushing those kids to the growth factor that Miss Korns is talking about. Well, I guess my question is I get the growth, right? That's across the board. And when we're trying to move the district, you're trying to move that needle just a little bit here, a little bit there. Or is it math? Is it English? Is it history? Do we understand what areas we need to target? Everybody, we want everybody to grow, right? That to me, that's just a >> a given. >> Yeah. You want everybody to move forward, move that needle
041forward, right? But what I don't what I'm not seeing is what areas are we targeting are going to hit this next year. What are we going to hit? What are we going to target? That's what I want to see. >> Right. Not not everybody because I mean the reality is you're not going to move the whole district at one one point. >> Right. >> So we got to eat that elephant one bite at a time. What's that next step? So, one of the areas that we're working on specifically, so I can talk specific because I've worked with middle school just this last week. Um, when you get to seventh grade, if you're still struggling with fact fluency, then you're going to struggle overall. I mean, you could know all the steps, but if you don't
042know your multiplication facts, then it's going to take you either twice as long to do it or you're not going to have the correct answers going forward. And so one of the things that we're working on is looking at how can multiple subjects look at supporting that piece. And so really honing in on that fact fluency. And that's one of the things that we've been working on at the elementary level throughout the school year. Um we went, you know, math kind of have you have a pendulum where you don't want to do drill and kill. Um, but there is a place there's a time and place for fact fluency and really coming back to making sure that our students had that memorization of facts um is really important. >> So that's a good example where
043I remember I bring up something about looking at the data, right? >> Yes. >> So have we looked at you know get the sixth grade, seventh grades where all these kids from these elementary schools all come together. Is it a campus where these kids are struggling at? Um, have we gone down to that level, I guess, is my my point. And I it's not to it's not to >> throw somebody under the bus, maybe somebody's missing something, >> Right. That when these kids get together, >> they didn't lose it in seventh grade, >> right? >> They miss it in sixth grade or fifth grade or fourth grade or wherever, you know, whenever they take it. >> Right. I know you're working your way back into the elementary level. Um, I just want to understand that
044or make sure that we're we are looking back to those levels. You're trying to fix seventh grade, >> right? >> We can't wait till seventh grade to fix. >> Agreed. Yes. >> Right. And I think we're in a unique spot right now because we've we've never had to think feeder campuses, right? All of our elementaryaries funneled into one campus before. And so, I mean, we still looked at each campus strengths and weaknesses and the areas that they needed to to work on. Um, as a campus principal, I did that every year. I mean, we looked at what are our trends and where did I need to work on making sure the instruction was where it needed to be to make sure our kids got what they needed. Um, but now we're in a unique situation
045now because we have theater campuses. We have two campuses going and so we are going to have to look at data a little differently than we have before. >> Anybody else? >> Okay, good job. Okay, now we will close the public hearing and move on into the superintendent report. >> Okay, we are going to start with our safety week update. Uh, Sergeant Fullerton, if you would like to come forward and present that for us, please. appreciate y'all allowing me the time to speak in uh absence of Chief Pacifica. I just want to give a quick update on this uh spring uh safety week that we had. Uh it was originally scheduled for January 26 through the 30th due to some bad weather. We kind of extended that because we didn't want everyone pressured in trying
046to get all their drills and overlapping them. That was just to allow the chief of me to be at more campuses to observe and see what was going on with all of our drills. So we we extended it through uh February 9th. All campuses participated in all four of our SRPs or our standard response protocols. That's the lockdown, the hold, the secure, and evacuation drills. The reason why we do these drills as often as we do is because the more times that we do it and we do it right, the less we have to think about things in a real event. So, we really want to get to that point where we do our drills realist realistically so that we don't have people popping out when they shouldn't pop down uh pop out and they
047go in hiding when they should go in hiding and that only the right people are out doing the things that they should be doing for the safety of all our kids and staff. After each one of our drills, we do an afteraction review for afteraction report. In reviewing all of the uh elementary schools, they did an outstanding job. There was no deficiencies noted, no issues in the secondary campuses, the high school. There was nothing notable uh that they needed to do different. Everything went great. everything went as planned. Uh with the with the middle schools with the split, we wasn't for sure what to expect. Overall, it the kids did what the kids supposed to do. The the the staff did what they supposed to do. There is a couple technology glitches. They're aware of
048the glitches. They're working on that. On the police side of things, what little things that we could have done maybe differently, we address those. Uh we're we're planning a a training to address enhancement measures uh in April during our next uh staff development meeting or day. We plan on having a meeting for that and going into two hours of training uh just to enhance our our knowledge in SRPs and uh how to react in a actual situation versus drills. So, u basically that was it. Uh there any questions that y'all have of me? >> Sorry about that. >> Um the the one at high school I think went well, you know, for sure I was there, but I was just curious how Shaw went. >> Like I said, uh with the split, there were some
049small technical glitches. We expected something. We didn't know what. You don't know until you know. Uh [clears throat] but those things have been addressed. There's kind of a workaround until we get everything perfected. But right now, if anything happened there, technologies in place to set off all the bells and whistles. There's be more steps we have to take, but it's in the works to where that campus is going to work just like all the other campuses. But as far as the students, the staff, they did what they supposed to do. >> Okay, good job. >> Thank you. >> I know we do spring and fall. >> Do we ever do any that no one knows there are net coming the staff's not prepared to go, "Oh, there's 15 minutes and we're going to do a
050drill so that we're learning more when it's spontaneous and >> no. Uh we we don't." And that that's for a reason. We we want to we practice to become perfect when when things happen. We we don't want to present any gotcha moments. We're not going to set anybody up to fail. That's why we have planned drills. Uh and when we don't address things, just uh go back to the school shooting. I think it was in Florida where the fire alarm went off and you know, that things just went bad. So, we don't want to have any unannounced drills. Uh, we made that decision after the Florida school shooting. >> I I would like to just I think that I've said that in this in this space before and I think that it's to Donna's point.
051I think that it's important that we have unannounced things happen so that you see how your people react. And I think that last time we were when last time that this came up, we were thought off of an incident where um a student and a teacher or an aid was in the hallway and they didn't know where to go and everybody else did their job and so they had to get them to a space. So, I think that it's important that we we review and analyze those things and and from time to time that we do we do some unannounced things. >> And we did have a couple unannounced incidents that weren't planned and uh there were after action reviews noted and actions were taken right there. >> I I I'm just want to reinforce
052that that I I along with with what Miss Knight is saying here that I think that it's very important that we do some unannounced things so that we do know how to respond because inevitably something isn't going to be some people aren't going to be somewhere and people aren't going to people perhaps won't be able to report because they're out of their normal area or they don't have their device and they don't have a way to report and all the things where you have to drill down to the brass tax of of how we execute things >> and that was some of the >> I know those were the takeways. I'm >> Yeah. And that some of the things that were noted during those events was some of the technology. >> It's just important for
053me to reiterate that here. I >> I'll not pass it on to you for future discussion. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Thank you so much. Appreciate you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. I just have a few more things that I want to go over. Um I talked about some of mine earlier, but um as we remember that at Red Oakd, everyone remains focused on student achievement and we just want to make sure that everyone in this room and everyone publicly knows that um this school board and myself and our administration, we're going to be committed to focusing on that student achievement. And so um heard something this last week and I'd kind of like to adopt it. Effort is good, but results are required. And I really like that statement. So, I'd
054like for us to adopt that mentality that effort is good, but if we don't see the results, then what are we lacking in? So, some of the things that our campuses are doing, I've already gone over, but I just want to go over a few more. Uh, that um working all the campuses are working really hard with um Megan and her team and Mary Lee and uh with Miss Owen and her team and they are working really hard to do what the board asked as far as let that data drive the instruction and we're already seeing them really really work through that. So, I wanted to give them a shout out for that because they're working really hard to meet that. Saturday schools, I know our campuses are working. Saturday schools, after school tutorials, talent
055times, they're pulling small groups. They're moving staff around. They're adding resources. I know Miss Owen is working hard to give them things like thinkalongs, countdown to star, everything that those campuses are coming forward with and asking for. Uh the curriculum department is working really hard with our campuses to make that happen. our principles. I can't give you enough shout out for everything you're doing to try to pull in because I remember as a principal it's kind of terrifying when you say you have seven weeks till start. You know, your heart kind of starts beating really fast at that point. So, just want to give a big shout out to everyone that's really really working to make those results a reality. A couple more things real quickly. Texas Public Schools Week is March the 2nd through
056the 6th. Open houses will be at each elementary campus March the 3rd at 6 pm. And Shaw Middle School, ROM, uh, Red Oak Middle School and Red Oak High Schools, March the 5th at 6:30. Next coffee talk is going to be on Wednesday, March the 4th at 7:45. Don't forget that is actually an online meeting. The next mobile food pantry is Thursday, March the 5th at 4 PM here at the ESC. Spring break. I don't know if anybody knows that's coming or not, but spring break is March the 9th through the 13th. Red Oakd, I'm excited about this, is hosting our job fair on Saturday, March the 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at Red Oak Middle School. I got a resume sent to me today. I like that when people just send them
057in. So, make sure we're promoting that and trying to get all of these positions filled with great candidates. And then our next regular board meeting is scheduled for Monday, March the 30th at 7 PM. That's all I have for my update. Anybody have any questions for Miss Sford? Okay. If not, we really are going to do open form. We are. But we have two people signed up. But we are going to now move into public comment se session of our agenda. The board welcomes comments from citizens who have completed public comment forms this evening. They are accepted prior to the start of the meeting and are not transferable to other speakers. Please be advised that the information shared in public comment is the opinion of the individual speaker, not the district. Two minutes per person
058have been allotted for the public comments. Please keep all public comments related to school district governance and operations. If you have a specific concern related to an employee of the district or a specific student issue, you're encouraged to utilize the district's grievance procedures provided in board policies on the district website. And finally, remember that the board may not discuss or act upon any issues that are not properly posted on the agenda. So, when I call your name, please come up to the podium and state your name for the record. As soon as you begin, the clock behind me will start. Uh, first we have uh Yolanda Harris. >> Good evening. repeat. >> So, I'm Yolanda Harris and um in lie of the current viral uh events with girls basketball with the one player being ineligible.
059Um it was actually three that actually failed. One being my daughter. She did not receive her 504 services. I've asked and uh we've reached out for help, but I'm here for a solution with um developing or implementing a failure list or at risk for roster checks. Um implementing, cleaning up, creating the grading procedures and protocols that are not in place. Um teachers entering zeros as placeholders. um just teachers to stop being a disservice to our students, to all of them. I'm a 26 year veteran in education and I love kids. I love education and this our girls, they worked hard. They worked hard last year to set the tone to bring back this state championship from 1977 and they did it again last year and was in route for this year. I just want us
060to fix this teacher problem that we have with no systems in place when it comes to failing students or at risk at failing. It's unacceptable and it's not right. And I'm going to continue to fight for all the students. especially my daughter who did not receive her 504 services passed for four weeks and come down to the last and the teacher never respond until nine days later. I will uh handle at the campus level, but I want you to be aware of what's going on. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have Megan Giles. Good evening. My name is Megan Giles. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. This issue goes beyond programming. It speaks to who we are as a district and what we value. Showcasing the arts and recognizing events like Black History
061Month are not optional extras. They're essential to education. The arts give us students a voice. Cultural observances give students context. When we create space for artistic expression and culture recognition, we tell students their identities, histories, and talents belong here. Representation matters. When students see themselves reflected in learning, celebration, engagement rises, belonging increases, outcomes improve. What is concerning, however, is a visible lack of cultural collaboration within the Red Oak Elementary School and what appears to be hesitation, perhaps even fear among staff to lead or participate in these initiatives. When educators feel uncertain about engaging in cultural programming, it signals lack of clarity in our district's commitment to diversity. Equally troubling is the lack of participation and visible support from principles and supporting committees. Leadership sets the tone. When leadership is absent, the message is clear. This
062work is optional or worse, discouraged. That silence creates uncertainty and uncertainty creates fear. Staff should never feel anxious about celebrating culture. They should not feel that their professional security is at risk for uplifting students histories and voices. If we truly value diversity, that commitment must be clear, visible, and supported at every level of leadership. As Black History Month concludes, I urge the b the board to pro provide firm guidance and proactive support for arts and culture collaboration moving forward. Culture celebration and artistic expression are not risk their strengths. Our students deserve leadership that reflects that truth not only for Black History Month, but every other month for recognition. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have our consent agenda. Are there any items that any board member wants to pull and consider separately? If not,
063do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Make a motion that we uh approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. A motion by Mr. Knight and a second by Mr. Kelly. All those in favor raise your hand and say I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. Next we have Dr. Johnston is our chief financial officer and he is going to talk to us about authorizing the issuance of unlimited tax bonds. >> Thank you. Over the last four years, we've been able to pay off bonds when they became callable and that saved us $2.5 million. >> Yes, >> we have 2016 and 2017 bonds that are coming up, but we may not be able to pay them off. And we have Brian Grubs here with Samco to talk to us
064about how we might refund them and get the interest rates down. So Brian, >> good evening. Thank you, Dr. Johnson, Superendford, members of the board. Again, my name is Brian Grubs. Um I had the privilege of serving the district as your financial adviser for a number of years. Um the order before you um as Dr. Johnston pointed out is authorizing the issuance of additional bonds. There's two components. The first one is a bond refinancing. Uh the district has completed a number of these historically. In fact, since 2009 through 2019, you've refinanced um about eight different times for a total interest cost savings of almost $20.6 million. So you have two series of bonds here. The bonds that were sold in 2016 and 2017 that we're tracking as targets. And this is just like you would
065refinancing a mortgage. We have interest rates lower than what you locked in back in 16 and 17 to the extent that we can save you money to lower the interest rate, lower the bond payment. We would um authorization of this does not require you to complete this. If our interest rates move against us and we can't achieve the level of savings that we're previewing for you this evening, you do nothing. The bonds remain outstanding and we continue to pay on those. Um, and there in the middle section, the 2016 bonds, you have a little under 8.5 million of principal that can be refinanced. We are targeting that entire amount. If you move to the right under the 2017s, you have about 38.1 million principal that can be refinanced, but we're only targeting about 16.1 of
066that. The reason that we're not choosing all of it is the the portion that we're not selecting has low interest rates. So, I cannot prove up that there's any savings by refinancing those. So, the 16.1 and the 8.4 out of the 16 represents an average interest rate of 4.45. We're hoping to take that out and lower that with interest rates that range from two and a half to 3.6%. In doing so, at the bottom, we hope to generate uh almost 2.3 million from this refinancing. Um that 6.25% statistic. Anytime we have a refinancing where the savings as a percentage of the amount that we're refunding is greater than 3%, we bring it to the attention of our administration. we come before the board and get an order authorizing us to move forward. It cannot fall
067below that or again we would not complete the financing. The second part of the order is authorization to issue unlimited tax bonds out of your prior uh bond elections. We do not have a formal plan with which to move forward this. Our plan right now is to complete the refunding, but I did want to just preview where you're at with respect to your most recent bond elections. Out of the 2023 bond election, the voters approved 97.5 million. To date, we've sold 82 million of that. So, you have 15.5 remaining out of that election to be sold when you need to sell it. If you move to the bottom of that slide, the May of 2025, our most recent election, to the far right, you'll see that 40.9 million, that is what's remaining of authorized but
068unissued bonds out of that election. Again, there's we don't have a formal plan as to when to sell that. That's going to be driven by the timing of your construction as you move forward with the projects presented to the voters. With respect to our timing, again, authorization by the board allows us to continue the process of moving forward um going through the conference call process with the independent rating services in the month of March. We cannot lock in the interest rate on this refinancing until mid April because the bonds are not callable until August. So, we have to close the financing uh May 19th falls within a 90-day window. So that is the earliest that we can with respect to timing, but we're getting your authorization to approve this evening so that we can move
069forward with the process so that we're ready to act in April as long as our interest rates cooperate and we can achieve the level of savings that we're talking about this. So with that, I'll answer any other questions you have for me this evening. >> Have a question? I do. So the only the only thing if you go back to that very first slide and make sure I understand this correct that everything that the 4.45 u is just an average. We can't get below that 4.45. >> No, that 4.45 is what is outstanding. So between the 16 bonds and the 17 bonds, the average interest rate on what's currently outstanding and fixed is that 4.45. Okay. >> We're hoping to replace that and lower it with rates that range between the 2.5 to the 3.5.
070>> Okay. I just I just want to make sure I maybe I misunderstood. So >> no, that's a fair question. And in doing so, if we are able to lower it, then we generate that 2 million three in interest cost savings. >> But we won't know that until after May. >> That's correct. We'll we will lock in a new interest rate uh midappril at the earl. >> Okay. >> And we'll be in contact with your administration before we do that to ensure that when we do lock in that interest rate that it is at or better than what you're seeing. >> Okay. So, I know it's a crystal ball, but your projections, do you see any, you know, the variances of >> um uh the the beginning of the year, we've seen the interest rates
071trickling down, and so we anticipate seeing that trend either continue or remaining kind of at where they're at. We don't have any indication that our interest rates are going to turn around and move against us, okay, >> to a higher level. And right now, the volume in terms of bond market volume is low. So there's a high demand for Texas school bonds that are AAA rated that have strong underlying credit like red oak does. >> Okay. Other questions? >> Thank you sir. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I hear a motion on until I hear a motion. [laughter] >> Okay, I'll make the motion then. Um I move that uh we approve the order authorizing the insurance of unlimited taxable bonds as presented uh all this information and it's a
072lot of data and I know uh Dr. bill is always looking out the best interest and if we can get that percentage dropped and you said it's midappril correct so if we can get that dropped and we can save$2 million something dollars yes we need to do that >> second [laughter] sorry jumped a little >> second passionate Brian Brian Sebring. >> Okay. So that's a motion by Mr. Knight and a second by Mr. Sebring. All those in favor say I. And raise your hand. >> I >> oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. >> I just get a little passion when money's involved. >> Okay. And we have Dr. Johnston again. Thank you. As you know, we're working on multiple construction projects going on right now. And what we have for you tonight is a new
073elementary school. If you remember back with Shaw Middle School, we came well, first off, we've contracted with Joris to be our construction manager at risk. And one of the things that they do is they provide us a guaranteed maximum price. That's the maximum price the project is going to be. Good. For example, at Shaw it was 76 million. We probably came in around 74 million. So, and Shaw came in three different components. So, in this case for the new elementary school, sort of the same thing. We have uh bond package or excuse me, guaranteed maximum price package for early civil package which is 41811 $125. So, we're asking the board to approve that and we'll come back later with some more packages as they get them defined. >> Any questions for Dr. Johnston? >> What
074was the what was the bond for? How much was that for for the elementary? Do we remember? Uh, I don't have it off top of my head. I think it was >> 54 >> 49 million maybe. >> 49. Okay. >> Sorry. I didn't mean to throw you off there. And you're And this is just for the 4.1. >> This is just for the earth work. It's not. Yes. If you look, it's for the earthwork. Yeah. This early civil package. >> I mean, if you did remember on Shaw, we did this the civil where they start the earthwork component as she indicated. Then we came back and did the steel because we wanted to get that ordered at a lower price because it took some time to come. Then the third package came in that was
075just the actual construction of the project. So that probably was going to happen in this situation too. >> Do it in stages like we did last time. >> Yeah. >> Cool. Elementary was 56. >> Do I hear a motion? I make the motion that we approve the new elementary school bid package civil package as detailed and attached char general contractors over >> second. Okay, >> that's a motion by Miss Knight and a second by Mr. Sebring. All those in favor say I and raise your hand. >> I post same sign. Motion passes seven. >> Thank you sir. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Next we have Michelle Valeria. >> Good evening. Tonight we are going to look at an application to TEA for delay in implementing House Bill 2 teacher certification requirements. um anytime that
076there's a new law um they look at passing the law, but they forget to look at how it's going to impact us. And so, House Bill 2 passed new limitations on school districts ability to wave teacher certification requirements for foundational courses. Your foundational courses are math, ELA, science, and social studies. Well, as as well as passing the law, they also passed that we could extend the law. So, they have created a waiver. Um, and what that waiver does is it permits us, if granted, to extend the requirements of teachers to be fully certified no later than the 2930 year. Um and so TEA's notification is due on March 2nd and then they will notify districts on March 31st if um our plan is approved. Now when you look at the information um that's provided to
077you, the first part is the application. There's really not any substance in the application um when you look at what they're requesting. And so it is that we have to tell them how many of our staff currently are assigned to foundational courses. So if you look at what we have this year, we have 32 foundational staff, which is 7% of our teaching staff. Then we have to identify at least one education prep program um that will work with us to reduce this percentage. This year we currently work with 12 programs um and that doesn't include our university partnerships as well and we're going to kind of talk about what those programs are um in further on. And so then on the application you have to show the date the board approved the application, a web
078link to the board meeting agenda where the plan is. We're going to talk about the plan and then we have to show the link to the plan. Um, and so basically that is your whole tea application and that's included in your packet as well. It's really just drop- down menus to say we kind of went through the process is what to me it looks like. Okay. So then they asked for us after we have a tea request for the application, they wanted us to kind of create a plan of what are we going to do over the next few years to make sure that we meet that requirement by 2930. So what we looked at is that again that plan they told us exactly what has to be part of the plan. The first part
079is identifying that um the educator prep program. So what you want to hear is there's kind of differences. We mostly know universities we get student teachers, they get certified, they become a teacher. And so some of them are now creating their own alternative certification pathways as well. But most of your educator prep programs, they actually you have to have your bachelors to even be accepted into their program. And so when we're working with these programs, our staff have their bachelor's, masters, they just need to add their teacher certification. And so the two that we mainly had sign up this year were um the I teach and the Texas teachers. We don't get to pick what program you're going into. And so that's why you see that we work with several the staff member if they
080don't know most of the time they already come to us and say I've entered Texas teachers or I've entered I teach Texas. Um if they don't have a program, we have a list that's provided to them of any program that they can pick. Um those programs come out and they provide coaches, mentors, field supervisors which come out and watch that teacher teach. They're providing them with test prep. They have to pass modules, modeling lessons. So what those people missed out in the university setting [clears throat] then they're getting that with this educator prep program. And so our plan says you have to choose one. It's again it's a drop down. Um we have 12 this year but they've just asked us to pick one. So when you look at the plan, which is also included
081in your packet, we picked one of the programs and then we listed everything that they do for us, but again, we could list any of those programs and they offer similar services to help support the district. >> [clears throat] >> Um so when we look at our plan this is currently some of the things we are already doing. So we have just applied for the grow your own and residency grant to enhance our current program. So we've currently worked on growing your own with pair of professionals becoming teachers. Um, we've we've hired the uncertified to become teachers and get the support that they need in their programs. This grant is going to provide us funding to help continue to grow that program for the district. We were just um it was just shared with us
082that we qualified for this grant. And so now we will attend webinars and look at what we need to do and they will give us guidance on how we're able to spend that money. Currently what we do is hire staff and pay them similar parapay and help them to become student interns that are working on their certification. Um and so that we have found to be a huge success. um several of the districts um around us are not participating in that and so we're seeing an increase in even the programs for those students who want to come to us because they know we're paying. So when I student taught many years ago, I had to quit my job. I had to not make any money and I had to teach for a whole semester. And
083so that's um that's very hard on people if they don't have the opportunity the family opportunity to do that. So the grow your own being able to provide some of those the funding to staff um I think we were seeing a great benefit of that. We offer a district hiring incentive um that has been very successful as well. So, if you recommend someone, they get a job with us and they stay for a while, they get an additional $200 on their check at Christmas. Well, if I, you know, hire two, get two people hired, that's a nice little chunk of change. Um, this year we actually, um, 25 staff members qualified for that. And so, that's been exciting for us to see grow. um HR and principles meet throughout the year as well as Miss
084Sanford and um the principal supervisors. We look at and tell the principles this is where your staff are at. Meet with them. Um we also HR sends check-ins. Where are they? Do they need resources? do they need? Um, most of the programs offer test prep, but there's also other opportunities that are shared with them if they need. Um, some ask for in-person meetings, and so it's just really geared to what they need through the EP partnerships. They also provide district resources. So, we have district contacts for them if we have questions. Sometimes staff come meet with us and we have to help them with the program because there's, you know, they're they're struggling on their campus or they're not understanding how the process works. Um, and then campuses do a great job. They have a
085lot of options to support staff. So, they have mentors, team leads, instructional coaches, and so they're also on the campus trying to help support those staff. Well, any good teacher when you're looking for resources, you also look to steal from others. And so I searched to try to find what are other districts doing. Most of them say the same thing. Oh, we're doing this, we're doing this. Um, but I am trying to pull resources from other districts. Is there something new that we need to look at? So on the plan, I also included for some things for us to look into next year. Um, we already host summer mini hire sessions. In those sessions, Miss Sanford comes and welcomes them, tells them how excited that they chose us because nowadays they can choose anybody they
086want and they can get a job. Um, technology is there to help support with curriculum. Get everybody the first thing they want is to get into their computer. They want their computer. They want to get into their resources. And so instead of waiting for the first day, we've learned that they really need that um opportunity in the summer. So technology helps us with that. We do benefits. So what we thought is for the small group in those days that maybe we need to keep them after that meeting and really go slower because we have to remember they haven't been through programs. They might not have the understanding of what truly the year is going to hold for them. So, we thought maybe we need to enhance um some of the things I read is really
087having a small group where they can ask questions. Y'all been to our, you know, lunchon on new teacher. That's a huge room. I probably wouldn't have asked questions my first year either. Um and so, how can we help support them? The state is providing also alternate ways to qualify. Um, usually as a district we have not done those, but we're going to look into what those rules are, as well as they have new rules for a paraprofessional teaching permit. So if a parah has been with us for a year, they are working on their certification, are there things that we could do that they could be the teacher of record because they have proven themselves as a very successful parah. And so those are some things that we are researching right now of what does
088that look like for us? We would have to bring those to you to show that maybe they have their bachelor's and masters in math. So, their content knowledge is probably pretty good in math. Could we take from their transcript because we believe their content we can hope that they can become our math teacher. Now, they're still going to have to enter a program. We're still going to expect the certification at the end, but they are al offering us alternate ways to qualify staff. um if they're part of certain programs, some of those programs offer them the tutoring for free for their certification test. And so what we want to look at is would those companies charge us maybe a district rate if we purchase it and that we could also provide to some of our
089staff who are trying to pass their test. We have some amazing staff who are working very hard and they're just struggling to finish the test. They have test anxiety just like our kids. Um and so are there things that we could provide them? Also, it's a lot of money to take your test. You have, you know, three or four tests you have to pass. So, could we look at if you pass the first time that maybe we reimburse you for one of your tests? So, those are some of the things that I saw in other plans that I thought maybe we could research to see if that is, of course, we have to look, you know, at our finances and get bills no button off. Um, and so what does that look like for us
090to help in those processes? Um, and so taking those plans, how are we supporting? And then what they're looking at is extending from the waiver to the plan. How do we get the staff where they need to be that in the 2930 year then we can no longer have uncertified staff? Okay. So, what we recommend is approval of the certification waiver to TEA and the plan to delay teacher certification requirements for foundational courses until the start of the 2930 school year. So, do we have any questions? So you list 32 teachers. How many are not new teachers? So um if we're looking at this year I' I'd have to go line by line. I have that data. I could get you. But most of them >> biggest swag. What we do is right now if
091you're not certified and you haven't done what you're needing to do, then the staff are told that we will now post their position and the principal's goal is to hire certified staff. Now, when we get to July and we know that we're about to start school, we do sometimes have to look at we have to have people in the classroom. So, it depends on some have been a couple years. Um, most of them are new because we start over every year. >> So, I mean, I get you got to have people in the classrooms. Um, but if it comes down to it that if I don't get my certification, you got to have somebody and you can't find bodies, what's my incentive to go and get certified? >> So, some of those are what we
092want to look at. Some of them is the state is looking at offering a $1,000 incentive. Um, and so we're supposed to get that information this spring and they're looking at last year who wasn't certified. If they're certified by this certain date, the state will give them $1,000. So, there are things that they're trying to do incentives. There also comes a point where principles say, "We've done everything we've tried and it's time for them to move on." Because they're not putting that initiative into >> doing what they need to So, how do your teachers who go to college knowing they want to be a teacher, they student teach, they get their certifications like they're supposed to. How do they feel that you got somebody else in these classrooms that we're going to provide all these
093extra benefits, extra incentives to push them to go get certification? How do they feel about that? never asked, but I'm sure many times it's frustrating because they put their own money out to get the test. Um, so I'm sure on both of those sides that it is a frustrating thing. >> I mean, when we when we talk to people, we we hire them, they know they got to get certified, right? So, I don't understand why why they're we have to have some big push after they get hired. You know, if you don't enter a certification program when you get hired within the first year, they should be moving down the road, right? >> So, we ask all of them to enter a certification program when they start. And so, >> and everybody does. >> So,
094yes. Yes. >> And how long does it usually take for them to get certified? >> So, if they're in the program, they have to do their year. >> What's a typical timeline for somebody to get certified? >> A year. >> Yes. Because in that program they have to do their modules, they have to get help, they have they have those field supervisors come in to watch them, they have to sign off and then at the end the principal has to say yes, I think they're ready to go to that next step. >> So what I understand the 2930 we're we're getting the waiver as far out as we can from the from the state level, right? I get that. But what is our target that we have? We used to have a you want to
095teach in red oak, you got to be 100% certified, right? That's been here before. Uh it was hard to to to do that. U you were here when we did it. Uh what do we need to do to get back get back to that? I think the struggle that we're seeing is several years ago as an elementary principal, I'm going to use um I had 50 applicants who wanted to be a teacher and now you don't have that. So Nelson University in our own backyard, they canled their job fair because they had four people who want to be a teacher. And so even your university programs, we're not seeing them come out with teachers who or or people who are graduating with their certification. Um some of the people that we talked to um it's
096sad, but it's also understandable. Their programs are saying go this route because then you don't have to student teach because they can't afford to take a semester off. they already have families or their parents aren't taking care of them anymore. And so to be able to quit your position and go full-time to a job you're not getting paid for, it's a struggle. And so even universities are saying get your bachelors, get it in something, we'll just say math, then get into an ALT program. So even they're being told to go different routes because I think it's a struggle with some of the cert programs. >> No, I mean I understand that but we're in the education business and we have to have teachers in our in our classrooms who are trained and who can teach
097whatever subject that they're teaching. Right? You have 32 32 people that are teaching core subjects. Um we we just see the taper report. We're struggling in math, English, reading, our our core subjects >> and you can ask any one of the principles, us, we agree, but we still have to get staff there. I was a certified teacher. I still don't think they prepared me for walking into that classroom. And if you would have not given me a chance to learn and grow, my first year was a struggle. Um, sometimes I'd like to go search the kids and see what are they doing? Did I fail? [laughter] Um, because it took me, but it took me even as a certified person, it took me some time to get to where I needed to be. >> And
098that's any job you go to. I don't think I don't think anybody up here is expecting anybody to come out of college with a certification. They're going to walk into a classroom. They're gonna be some superstar teacher. Now, you have some superstar teachers. >> Absolutely. >> Right. They come on and they're they're young and they just have it, right? Maybe they they grew up under somebody who was a teacher or something, right? >> They just have it. Uh and I'm not talking about those those individuals. And I realize that there are people out there that they want to be a teacher. Well, hey, you know, I want to be an astronaut, but it ain't going to happen, >> right? [laughter] Well, but they're not going to put me on a spaceship to send me up
099unless I go buddy up with with somebody who took me to Well, my wife may put me on a spaceship to send me out of here, but uh >> I just want to make sure we're while we're look we're not just looking for bodies. I get and I'm not saying that we are, but this is my this is my struggle. I mean, I'm seeing we I see our gaps where we we want to be an A district, right? We're a C district. We want to be an A district. And this is a part of that package. It's making sure we have C and I'm sure there are some of these people who are not certified that are great teachers. They're doing a great job. I'm not I'm not saying that, right? uh I don't know
100the individuals and I'm not asking for for names or anybody else either but uh and just because you have a certification don't mean that you should be sitting in a classroom. So let me just let me just say that too. >> Uh >> but we want to help you. >> That's what that's where I'm that's where I'm struggling. We want to help. I I don't I'm not getting the this is what I need to get us to the next level. That's what I that's what I want to hear. >> Yeah. In March of 2022 is when the state issued that Texas vacancy teacher task force and uh they realized it for the entire state of Texas. And so since March of 2022, TEA's been working with all of these people to say what can we
101do to help? So I think they kind of got to that point too. They're just like we don't know what else to give to help. So now we're going to give you a deadline and we're going to see if the deadline pushes to get the help there. Um, I'm kind of anxious to see what happens in 2029, 2030 if they're there where there's 100% teachers, but totally agree. I'm going to tell you, I was a non-certified teacher and um I came from the bench, judicial bench, and I went into a classroom and I'd worked with criminals for years and the first graders almost killed me. So, you can't be prepared. You're exactly right, Mr. Anderson. You're exactly right. You can't be prepared for that. But through that support, I think you can really glean those
102great teachers. And I think it's up to administration to determine the ones that are not the great teachers. And I think you do have that avenue at that point to release them. But at the end of that one year, majority of our of our teachers are certified by the end of that one year. But then there are some you got a handful that you have to tell them in February, March, you don't get your contract. And that that really does frighten them. Or we're not going to offer you a contract. Maybe you weren't so great. So you're we're not going to offer you a contract. And then I think that does get them in gear to do it. I think they weed themselves out. Those that do not care if they don't come back as
103a teacher, I think they go away into another pathway. Um but I think that the 2022 to me was a big thing. It took them a while, their tea, by the way. So it took them four years to get it their plan together. This is what we want to do and this is how we want to put it. But I think that that just doing the little things like Miss Larry is talking about is going to actually help us to to pick those people. And I think it's up to us too as a district to promote education because education's on the firing squad all the time in terrible terrible schools, terrible teachers, terrible this, terrible that. So I think it's going to be a matter of us as the leaders of the school to promote
104us so that people do want to come. And that's not just Red Oak, that's statewide. Um, so I hear your frustration. We feel the frustration, too, because we need the people in place because you can have a fantastic teacher with a low group of kids and a not so fantastic teacher with a low group of kids and who do you think is going to get the kids there? And we know that for sure. We know that. So, I think we do have to focus in on more. It's just a matter of getting those people in place. Well, I think what I think the concern is when I see things 2930, I mean, let's be honest, it's going to ch TEA is going to change things 4,000 times before we ever get to that point. >>
105For sure. >> So, and I know that we have a sense of urgency. So, I'm not don't don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we don't we don't have that sense of urgency, but when I see when I want when I see the presentations or see things brought to the board, I need to see what are we doing? What do we need now? What are we doing now? Not two years down the road, three years down the road. Because things are things change so much. I mean, you know, every every every pass at the state level now, in my personal opinion, it's geared toward how can we kill public education? >> 100%. >> And it's little by little. They're eating that elephant one bite at a time, right? Our public education is a huge huge
106thing. How are we killing it? Well, just little pieces at a time. We keep changing it around. we keep mixing everything up. Some are going to get frustrated and leave and I think then they have you got a lot of good educators that have said I'm done. I'm out and I'm not coming back. Well, the ones that that we have left uh you know the grow your own. We have kids who graduate. I think we have some students who have graduated and come back. I think those are great programs uh to to be able to glean some of those kids and encourage them to come back. Hey, when you graduate, come back to Red Oak D because you'll have a you'll have a home. You don't have to move off. you can live with mom
107and dad for a while or whatever. [laughter] Uh the uh heard >> it here. >> I have a I have a room. They can come live with me when [laughter] teachers. Uh but uh I don't mean to I'm not saying I don't want to just >> I'm not trying to beat anybody up, >> right? >> I just think that we we need to speed up this our whole process. And that's you know that's what I I talked about uh my focus over this upcoming year. It's uh I'm tired of talking about new buildings and this and that. I want to talk about our education. I want to talk about our classroom, our curriculum. Uh moving that needle. You know, we when we hired Miss Miss Sanford, it was to be in a district, right? How
108do we get there? What are the gaps? I don't see somebody bringing to me, Mr. Anderson, this is what I need or we need to get to that level. That's what I want to know. And then we can go talk to Mr. Bill and say, "Open up the purse string. [laughter] Make it happen." >> He's shaking. He's shaking his hand. >> He is shaking his head. And what I mean, I do think the principles are working very hard. Um, and we did ask that this semester and we have tried to work on, okay, I need this and I need this. And so, we have, you know, a list of are there things that we can change around to. And so if they're not asking I mean but some things are out of our control. If
109I don't have 50 applicants and I have one for a certain job sometimes I mean that puts them in a huge bind. That's not their choice but that's what is available to them and so it is difficult. So how do we support those staff? Um, again, probably, you know, my third year maybe, I kind of knew what I was doing. And so, we have to look at how do we support staff. We have to, like you said, believe in those that can change and grow. Um, and if they're not choosing that, then there's a different pathway. But every time you start over, you start from the beginning again. And so, we do have those conversations. They get three years for a probationary contract. Well, that's because it's going to take them a while to learn
110their content to look at what they're doing. >> You you mentioned earlier that one of the pro was it res residency grant was that >> that that was very successful is that >> how many people participate with that? So what we started with was a very small amount. Um and I can get you the exact every year. Um but for instance um what we do is we pay them for their student teaching. It's their student intern opportunity. >> And so colleges are saying okay go here. >> And so we're really excited. I'm going use one example of DBU. Mr. Waller was there today. they are trying to get a larger district to do what we're doing. Um, and the larger district because it's a financial commitment is is not do not going to do what
111we're we're allowing them to do. So for DBU, we get certified people. Every one of our principles want to hire them. We've actually already hired some for next year that are interning in our schools. And so if we can get into those programs and the kids know, okay, Red Oak pays us. I mean, it's still not that much, but it's better than zero. Then maybe I won't go to all the surrounding districts. I'm going to go to Red Oak. And then they're already here. They already like the campus that they're at. They already are in our door. So, it's comfortable, too. They're like, "Yes, I want to stay." And then as they're finished with their residency, which is student teaching, then they're hired and they are becoming our certified staff. And so the more we
112can get that out there, but there's still a financial limitation on that. >> That was what I was going to ask. What is your limitation? How many can you have a hundred of those, 50 of those? >> So, [laughter] >> well, I mean, we might as well ask. I can't wait till cabinet. >> Okay, so for us this is huge because we started so low, but this year we have 19 >> and so that is huge because if we can hire all 19 of them, >> then we're already way ahead and we're halfway through your number already. >> But I think what uh Mr. donut over here and I were thinking earlier was that you know if you came in here and was saying we need to be able to go from 19 to 50
113that's the kind to get us to where we need to be for this time we want to hear we we need to know those kinds of pieces of information so that we can say Bill >> so that's how we have built our program and we will give Bill kudos because we started with a very small amount but then people said hey we heard you pay >> and So, we go back to cabinet and I'm like, okay, this school's willing to come on, but I need six more intern spots. And so, if if you you know look at working through that in cabinet, we have said yes. >> And we've said this is getting us that certified teacher. Now, to have 19, that's huge um because they are all going to be certified by the end
114of this year. Um and so but again we've taken for instance DBU I think we took all of theirs. So I mean we took everyone they had um but we did go to cabinet and say they're willing to give us this and so can we increase our amount and so we Bill has done a good job with approving [laughter] that. Um so yes, so um and so what we've built, but I think it's you build it, they'll come and so they have started contacting and Mr. Waller's our contact and he's going into the schools and talking to those classes as well. And so to get out there, to get your name out there, um because a lot of them don't know Red Oak, where is Red Oak, what is Red Oak? And so getting us
115to say we pay, they know where Red Oak is. So >> absolutely. >> So question, so obviously you're not going to retain everybody who enters the program, right? What is our retention side of the people that we are putting through the program? Okay. So, last year you know that better than I do. So, >> so last year we had 14 interns. >> You got to speak >> online. >> So, I'm going off my head, but I'm really close. Okay. So, last year we had 14 interns. We usually do it by semester. Um we offered all 14 jobs and 12 accepted. Two of them left for different reasons. um this year um first semester we had now we've got one girl that we're actually trying a year-long residency um and so she was with us first
116semester and then second semester um so first semester of the ones that we could hire we had six we offered all six um two four accepted and two did not um this semester we have 12 if you count our yearong we've already offered three of them and the principles are fighting behind me over the rest of And so I I can't like you said the mayor of ball. I can't give you the exact mayor of ball, but I feel very confident that we're going to be pretty close to all 12 having them jobs by the time that we're done. >> I think that I think that's real well realistically that's probably the the data that that John was after there is that how many are we keeping and how many that so we're just we
117don't just have an expenditure that that's coming out but how many people are actually staying on. So March is when job fairs start and if we don't have them hired by the time that job fairs start, they have a job. And so unfortunately sometimes we don't have that opening yet. Um and so um but if we can get them hired even before our job fair, then it's important that they know they have a place because it does get nervous to them as well of going do I have a job? So, >> thank you. [laughter] >> I move that we approve the certification waiver as required by TEA and the plan to delay teacher certification requirements for foundational courses until the start of the 2029 2030 school year. >> Second. >> A motion by Mr. Sebring
118and a second by Miss. All those in favor say I and >> I post sign. Motion passes 70. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> And we're going to hear from Dr. Johnston again. >> I thought about to say uh we're before you tonight to sell some property. Remember back in 2019 when we sold Live Vault to the city, they gave us some property just west of here off of Methodist 23 acres. And there's a stipulation that before a school district can sell property, you have to offer it to a charter school that's in your boundary. And Miss Sanford did reach out to Life School and they said they are not interested. So at this point, we can put the pro put the property on the market to sell it. And so that's
119we're asking for the board's approval to do that. body have any questions on that? >> Not. Do I hear a motion? >> I move that we adopt a resolution to sell the property at 100 Lake Trail Drive and by the order of the board allow proceeds from said sale to be used in accordance with Texas Education Code section 45.082. 082 B1 for constructing or equipping school buildings in the district through capital project priorities and/or purchasing necessary sites for school buildings. >> Second motion. >> That's a motion by Mr. Sebring and a second by Mr. Knight. All those in favor say I. I post sign. >> Thank you, sir. >> Passes 70. Anybody have anything? Okay, the time is 8:49 and we are going into close session. >> Thank you all for coming.