001Independent School District to order at 700 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 Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code, Chapter 551. All board members are present and Mr. Knight, if you would lead the invocation. Father, we just come for you tonight, give you thanks, give you all the glory, Father. Father, as we go through tonight and go through all the items that need to be discussed, Father, we just uh let us do it with the knowledge and clear minds and uh what's best for this district, what's best for our teachers, our staff, our students, everyone involved in our district. Father, Father, thank you for hearing us. Thank you
002for your love, our Lord Jesus. Amen. >> Amen. >> And Mr. Luch, if you will lead the pledges. To the flag of the United States of America to the republic stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all the flagg and indivisible. Okay. And next we will have the superintendence report. >> I don't have a lot for you, but just to give you a couple of dates to put on uh your calendar, we have our back to school bash on Saturday, August the 2nd from 8:30 till 11:30 at Red Oak High School. As usual, it's going to be a great big event. So, anyone that can come, we would love to have you there. coffee talk. Uh the virtual coffee talk with superintendent is going to be Wednesday, August 6th at 7:45 a.m. Uh
003even our last one, even though it's during the summer, we've had great attendance. A lot of people coming on trying to find out what all is new going on in Red Oak and just getting some questions answered. So, I'd love for y'all to get on if you could as well. Elementary school meet the teacher is Tuesday, August the 12th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at each elementary campus. Get there early to get a parking spot. First day of school is Thursday, August the 14th. And also the next mobile food pantry is Thursday, August the 14th at 4 PM here at the ESC. And just uh it's a little bit further out, but to put it on your calendar, meet the Hawks is Wednesday, August the 20th at 6 PM at Red Oak High School
004competition gym. And that's all I have for the update. Okay. In open forum, we have uh Mr. Author. Come on up. And when you come up, just state your name and we'll have a timer back here for you. >> I'll be way less than that. Uh thank you, Superintendent Stanford and board and staff. My name is Matt Aier. I do live in Wax Hatchee, so I'm not a Red Oak taxpayer, but I'm running for House District 10 state rep. Just want to introduce myself. I'm here for the only purpose is to come and learn a little bit more about Red Oakd. I got to come and see y'all's middle school uh construction on the way in today. So proud of you guys for doing that. And just know that if I do get elected, you'll
005have an advocate in Austin for public schools. My wife is a principal in WakatchiD. I served on the school board previously there. And all three of our boys have gone through that system and are in it right now. So, I appreciate all that you guys do for public school in the state of Texas. Just know you got a friend in Austin when I'm elected. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next, we will go into the consent agenda. Are there any items that you would like, anyone would like to pull and discuss separately? >> Yes. Can we pull item 6 A10 to discuss? purchase of cell phone pouches for secondary campuses 10. Okay. Are there any other items? >> Yes. If we could also pull item 6 A13, which is the salary schedule. >> Okay. Okay. Well,
006let's start with number with 10, Mr. Anderson. >> Yeah, I see the the purchase of it. Can you give us some background of of what we're going to do with these pouches, how it's going to work. Um, are the kids going to be assigned a pouch? What if they lose a pouch? Are they taking the pouches home? How is this going to work at our campuses? >> Absolutely. Mr. Cordderero is prepared to answer those questions and give you a little summary on that. >> Well, good evening, board of trustees, board president, superintendent. I uh brought my shoes, but I didn't bring my dancing shoes, but I'll do the best that I can to dance to your questions. So, I'm uh passing around an executive summary. I'll go through that really quickly and u when I'm
007finished with that, if there's still questions and I'll take those questions. So, uh first of all, Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill uh 1418 1481 into law. Um we do know that there's some school districts prior to now uh for maybe up to 10 years um they've banned cell phones in the school district. So banning cell phones in school districts is not something new, but for the state of Texas, when Governor Abbott signed that into law, that's all 10,000 school districts in the state of Texas. Um, Red Oak ISD of course plans on enforcing um the the personal ban of devices during the school day. It applies to every grade level, prek all the way to 12th grade. We do know that at the elementary level the students there's not really an issue if students
008go to school with their cell phones. They're usually in their backpack and they're never taken out. This was before uh 1481 went into law. Um there may be one elementary campus or two where the teacher collects them all, but for the most part there's really never been an issue at the elementary level, but since it is law, we're combing over every elementary campus and then of course secondary So devices must be turned off and stored in backpacks. So that's really all kids preK through 12, but of course you're going to slowly start gravitating toward secondary as I go through this. So with that, secondary students, they can have their cell phones on on the bus. They can have their cell phones on on the way to school, but right before they enter the school building,
009their cell phones need to be turned off or in airplane mode and stored in their backpacks. And I'll get to the pouches in just a second. Um, this doesn't just apply to cell phones. It applies to smartwatches, earbuds, and other electronic devices. So, headphones. Um, there was conversation of, well, can a student use a smartwatch just to tell time? They cannot use a smartwatch to tell time. If they have a smartwatch, it needs to be stored away as well with any other electronic device they have. So, it ensures minimal disruption. And that's why up to about 10 years ago, a lot of school districts, certainly in Texas, but around the country, uh, started banning cell phones. You know, maybe local policy with board of trustees, uh, because they saw that with students with their cell
010phones, it was a lot of distractions from Tik Tok to filming bites to just on their cell phone when teachers were teaching and not really being active uh with the lesson for secondary campus. That's the two middle schools and the high schools. Um we reviewed pouches. Uh right when we saw that Governor Abbott was probably going to sign this into law, we started searching what is the best strategy. Um initially we didn't just gravitate toward pouches. you know, I pulled the secondary principles. I pulled uh other folks. I talked to cabinet. Um and I said, "Well, if we're not going to go to pouches, what is the one strategy that we have in our back pocket that's going to ensure that when there's 150 teachers at the high school that we don't have 150 different
011ways of ensuring cell phones don't go away?" What's an example? Let's just say we don't have pouches. When you have 2,300 students at the high school and a total of 4,000 students between the two middle schools and the high school, the kid has their uh cell phone off and all of their smart devices off and they're in their backpack. What if they decide to go take a rest break? What if it's one of those days where there's 25 teachers at the campus that are absent, approved absences, and other reasons? Um, and maybe there's a substitute that feels, well, if I just let them their phone, maybe they'll behave. So, you start getting into restrooms, you start getting into different staff members, and you just start getting into this situation where there's a lot of different
012ways of of how we're ensuring that we're upholding um this bill that was signed into law. So, we kind of threw out the whole idea of pouches. That is a common denominator that would ground us all. Um, of course, if you when you approve this, if you approve this, I'm going to run out of here. We I'm going to go home first. But tomorrow, uh, tomorrow, I'm going to get to work with the secondary principles. I mean, we've been hard at work already, you know, in anticipation and hoping that, uh, the pouches would be approved. Uh, but once they're approved, then we're our mode is going to go into implementation. So, you might have questions about that in a second, but u with implementation, that is a law. Um do we feel between now and
013August 14th we can put the systems and processes in place? Uh absolutely. Uh we could put those in place. Uh so the yonder pouch is a system that we went with after searching and reviewing and researching. Uh the devices will be locked before entering the building and then unlocked at the end of the school day. So kid gets out of mom's car, gets off the school bus, they lock their pouch. Once they lock their pouch, they they themselves cannot open the pouch. It's a specific magnet that opens the pouch. So then they store it away in the yonder pouch. There's enough room for their AirPods and um and their smartwatch if they have other devices. So once uh it's in there and it's stored, it just stays in their backpack for the rest of the
014day. And then once we get ready to hit 420, u we'll have a system in place. And I'm just going to throw a rand a random number at you, but we'll have folks in place in the hawks nest. And of course, now you're thinking Shawn Roms. There'll be places for them, too. Um, and we'll have maybe the high school cafeteria. We'll have the magnets scattered in multiple places so that within 5 to 10 minutes within that, we can unlock 2,300 pouches >> or 4,000 secondary pouches. And so, we feel very good Yonder, they've been very supportive. Um, Yonder, uh, the company Yonder has actually been around for 10 years. And when we talked to them the other day, they were like, by the way, this isn't our first rodeo. We've been working with school districts
015for 10 years. So, we have all of the lessons learned. We um know from 10 years ago what worked, what didn't work, and then as recent as last year, some schools that came on board, what worked at middle school campuses, what didn't, what works at a high school, what doesn't. And so I stand in front of you now feeling very confident that we can unlock 4,000 devices within a matter of minutes at the three secondary schools. Only district issued devices will be allowed during the school day. So that's Chromebooks. Um with with band, Megan came up with a good solution with Jason Mitch. They're going to issue iPads. So that kind of takes care of band. We know that um there has been some concerns from some parents about students that may have medical issues.
016Well, the good news for the secondary campuses is and all the campuses, we are always in communication with the nurse in terms of any issues that a student may have and this being medical issues that they may have. So, if a student has a 504 or student is diabetic or just a student has a documented reason of why they need to have their phone, we're not going to take their phone from them. Um, we're going to work with the parents. We're going to work with administrators on the campus going to work with the nurse and if the student needs to access their phone 15 minutes every 15 minutes of the day they'll have access to the phone. In fact, Yonder the company Yonder um while some of those the pouches lock some of those are
017sealed with just Velcro. So if a kid has a phone they can put it in the pouch and it's just velcro. So once they want to take it out of the pouch they just unvelcro it. And if we need to do a plan B, in other words, the Velcro is not enough for that student or, you know, because their medical condition is really that severe, we'll work with the families. Health is everyone's number one priority. So, we're not going to jeopardize a kid's health over the law. We're going to uphold the law, but we're going to make sure that we prior prioritize the kids health. Uh, that's the same thing with IEP accommodations. U that, you know, an IEP is written and a certain device has to be used based on that IEP. Accountability and
018enforcement. So, the pouches are not cheap. They're about $30 each. So, if a kid forgets, well, if a kid damages their pouch or loses their pouch, it's the same thing as a Chromebook. Um, if a kid comes to to Mr. how and says, "I lost my Chromebook or I broke it or I went swimming and it's in the swimming pool. It doesn't work anymore." Then, uh, there's going to be a fee and, you know, the students going to be held accountable for paying that fee. So, we're going to hold the student accountable for paying that $30 for that pouch before we give them another one. Um, and we're working with Christy Watts, um, the secondary principles and others, cabinet today and cabinet last week on just exactly what those consequences look like. And at the
019next board meeting, um, a big part of that board meeting is designated for you to be able to see what those consequences might be if a student damages or loses their couch. Um so next step um is to continue to work with Christy Watts and the secondary folks and you know really all the stakeholders here internally on the guidelines for the student code of conduct that's going to come to you July 29th. Parent support is essential. We we want parent support. Um, you know, if we get parent buy in and we get past the fact that it's law and they know that this is the right thing to do, it's going to be easy for the board, it's going to be easy for the cabinet, for the superintendent. It's going to be a lot easier
020for the campus administrators to support what needs to happen. And that's ensuring that the students have their devices on airplane mode or that they're off during the school day. And so, I'll say it again, we need parent support so that we can help ensure uh that all of this runs smoothly. And at the end of the day, what's the whole point of it? The whole point of of this is to ensure that we maximize student learning so that cell phones are not a distraction in the classroom. They're not a distraction in the restrooms. They're not a distraction in common areas. And they're not a distraction keeping kids from showing up to school late um or any other distraction that they may be uh causing. And then uh the last is uh remember House Bill 1481
021was signed into law and Red Oak ISD has been brainstorming ever since it was signed into law and before that to uh you know just ensure that we have a right system and process in place to make this as smooth as we can for for everybody. >> Anderson, I don't know if that answered your questions, but I'm ready to take some questions. >> You get your dancing shoes on. Um, so how are we going to ensure that one the kids have their phone in the pouch? Um, you say they're locking so they automatically they close the pouch when they get there and it locks. Uh, so we shouldn't have to worry about the kids being late to school because oh I could have I have to stop and lock my lock my pouch. >> It's
022it's the push of a little lever. It just pushes and it snaps in. >> Right. But they don't have to go by a locking station to do it. It automatically locks by itself. So >> yes, sir. >> Uh so we shouldn't have 300 kids stacked up waiting to get in the school because they got to lock their pouches, I guess, is my point. We have this issue when we had them, you know, the dress code. They're waiting. They're they're they're lined up because they got to get in the code, right? That's what we want to want to avoid. So how do we make sure we do that? How do we make sure that Sure. I got a phone in the pouch, but I got another phone that I have, too. what what happens, you know,
023is that part of your discussion with for the July 29th, they're bringing alternative phones um uh to school. What's going to happen there? Um and then um for the for the uh the kids that that have di they're diabetic, do we know roughly how many kids we're talking about? >> I do not. Um, we've got I know that we're pulling a list through the nurse's office, but I don't have a list yet. >> Okay. Because there's there's multiple ways to monitor your your blood glucose and without using your phone. So, just give you a heads up on that. And I guess my biggest thing is how are we communicating this out to the parents? We're, you know, >> we're we're talking now and we pulled it we pulled it out of this consent agenda. You're
024still talking about the the code of conduct and school starts here in another couple weeks. >> Yes. um how are we communicating out to the parents? If we want parent support, are we already talking to our parents and talking to the kids? So, uh when they when they come, it should be we're ready to hit the ground running and not not start. We're going to roll into this nice and nice and slow from day one. It's no cell phone, right? >> Yes. >> Zero tolerance. >> That's correct. Zero tolerance. Mr. Trimble, you want to talk about some of the rollout and the uh communications that you've given? Yes, good evening. As um as Israel was mentioning, yes, we've already done some of that communication since House Bill has passed. Um it's already been in our
025um Faul headliner that's gone out. It'll be in our Hawk weekly news going forward. Um we've also already put it out on social media and we've sent two communications directly to parents um letting them know that this is coming. Um, knowing that the pouches were part of our conversation behind the scenes, um, we said that the devices would have to be put away um, and out of sight um, or in a district issued pouch if it was provided. And so that's the communication that we've been doing after pouches are approved tonight. We'll be doubling up those communications with the pouch information. >> And what's the feedback you've gotten so far? >> Um, most parents um, educators are ecstatic. Um, most parents are understanding that it's a state law and it's not just Red Oakd. It's
026not like I'm going to take my kids and go to another district or charter school even for that matter because it's everywhere. And so the conversation is of all districts are having is it's a state law. Um, so it it's it's for the benefit of your child to learn and the more that you can advocate for that learning for your child and support us um instituting the law and implementing the law of this then the more we are going to be better partners and support your students learning. >> Okay. And is there any campuses or districts close to us that use this? Uh Grand Prairie actually implemented that and they have seen reductions in discipline actions. Uh they did say the first few weeks are a little rough. They're they're going to be a little
027rough, but after that everybody gets on board then they have seen definitely good results with it. So >> yeah, Grand Perry is one of them. But now that it's been signed into law, um the companies that we've reached out to, they've all started to get phone calls. You know, Ponder told us if we move yonder >> Yeah. told us if we move forward with it that they should be able to give us our shipment uh as quickly as possible like the turnaround. Uh but they did say that school districts have started to reach out to them. Uh and so so there's that piece. You know, and I just want to say this, will there be a few hiccups along the way? You know, I like to tell we're going to fail forward. Um it's a
028huge shift with 4,000 students. Well, we're talking about the whole district, but right now I'm talking secondary. It's a huge shift to say you no longer get to use your phone during the school day. So, will there be one or two students that take a backup phone? Uh will there be a couple of students that, you know, try to go around what we're trying to do, but we're going to act swiftly. We'll find out who they are. Uh you know, we'll we'll take care of the situation and um we want to get out of the gate with a home run, but for those kind of few outliers that we run into, you know, we want to take care of those as swiftly as we can. um and then just move forward. Overall though, I think
029it's going to be a little bit of a learning curve August to September. It'll it will be a little bit of a learning curve to sit here and tell you eyeball to eyeball that Brahms uh Shaw and the high school are going to have it perfect. Um you know, we're we're still in the in the human business and so uh there'll be a few hiccups that we have to work through along the way. One thing that is going to help us, just in case there's a question about that today, is the weapons detection system. Um I uh as a high former high school principal a long time ago long time ago I did metal detectors for four years straight every single day. If there's one thing that that does when you're checking for ID badges
030in the morning and and slow the flow down in the morning if you slow it down uh you actually kind of control the kind of the culture and the energy that comes into the building. you just open the doors to a building and you let 2,300 kids kind of run through. Um, whatever energy they came in with in that morning, it's kind of the energy that you feel throughout the day, but if you're going to make 2,300 high school students or 4,000 secondary students, I know we're doing it out elementary, too, but if you're going to slow it down and say, "Whoa, we're going to check you. We're going to check your backpack. If thing lights up red, it makes a sound, you know, we're going to do a secondary screening. Slowing the flow of
031students coming into the building gives us all an opportunity to see where's the pouch, right? Because they have clear backpacks. So it gives us a chance to say good morning to the students and uh kind of look at the clear backpack because there are some school districts corana they've gone to open gate which is the same weapons detection system that we're using when I went to observe them at the end of the school year last year and and this isn't the same thing about corsana but they have non-clear backpacks that's what I observed so for us um I I don't know if we feel that I don't know how that would help us but the fact that we do have clear backpacks we're able to visibly see if that pouch is in the backpack and
032actually have a conversation with the student. >> I probably worry more about the watches than I do the phones because I was told the other day by a guy at the Apple store that more parents are going to the watches instead of the phones because the kids can't their kids can't play and get into things on the phone on the watch like they can. So, I worry about that is, okay, are they going to have long sleeve jackets, their hoodies, and it's covering their arm? What are we going to do when they're walking through? How are we going to patrol the watch just as much as that phone in their hand? >> Well, that's one of my questions is I know with the metal detectors we're going to and the yonder pouches, there's going to
033be probably some confusion in the beginning of this. How are we going to stage? How are we going to manage? Are we going to have our in case we have disruptions? Are we going to have our police department standing by our metal detectors or you know we going to have a teacher or how how is it going to flow? >> Yeah. So, so one if there's any kind of incident you know we check a backpack or check a student if there's any kind of incident. Uh the high school already does this. Uh if if we need to do a private screening with a student uh they've been doing this for years. So, we'll just quietly move a student to another room that's confidential and do what we need to do. Um, if I could just
034kind of go slow here with the weapons detection system, uh, we researched quite a few of them. You all know we obviously went to open gate. Um, at this point, every campus principal has been trained on open gate. Every assistant principal has been trained on open gate. U, we did that just last week. Um we on the second training we shared with administrators now that a lot more staff are back that they're welcome to send anyone that they would like to to the training that we had last week, the second one. And we did have some campus uh pair professionals and secretaries show up and they went through the training. And so we feel very comfortable that at the very start of the school year all of the campuses have had the training that they
035need. Uh now the delivery is starting to happen. So once all of the open gate systems come in uh we'll ensure that we provide the technical assistance that we need for campus and that is going and ensuring that we set them up where students come in in the morning uh that we set up the tables and the stansions and we clearly see the vision with how kids come in. Now pick a school like the high school we know kids come in through the front door. We know kids come in through the cafeteria. So, uh, now with open gym may tweak things just a little bit, but we already know where kids come in at all of the schools. So, now it's just creating that vision of, okay, where does the stansion go, the table go
036um, and then just ensuring that we have the right coverage. One example, if I could just go back to Corsacana, uh, we went and visited Buoie Elementary School. They had three entrances. Um, the first entrance, which was the main entrance, there was one police officer that was there. And the main reason that I went is I wanted to see how young scholars move through and what their anxiety may be and that the police officer knew every single student by name. So he was good morning Isabelle, good morning Lily, good morning John. And um when it when it went off red and made a bunch of noise, for the most part the students were good, but I'd say maybe 20 or 30% of the students when it went off you could see the anxiety go up
037on the student. But the police officer knew every single kid by first name. So he immediately said, "Uh, Lily, did you bring your Stanley cup again?" And so it immediately diffused the kid or he would just say, "John, did you bring your uh your eyeglass case again?" And so sure enough, he knew exactly what they had, you know, and so he pulled it out, ran the kid through again, you know, go have a good day. And then in the back of the building, there was a spot where the buses dropped off. there was an assistant principal there with designated staff and then there was another location where parents could drop off. I think that was maybe upper grade level and um there was additional staff that were there and everything just it ran smoothly. You
038know, we went to Mansfield and they had a different security system but it was the same thing. You had all hands on deck. Uh at Mansville there was mostly one entrance at at one of their high schools and um there was maybe 15 people on deck and they had a flow in a system and how things went. Several of us went to Lancaster. Some of us went to Lancaster twice because they also have the open gate just like for Sakenna which is the one we're purchasing. And we were able to see how students go through. There were no nonsense. So if it went red, uh there was immediately somebody that was standing right there that was their only job was to see if it was green or red. And if it turned red, uh, they
039immediately pull them to the side of the secondary search. So, it will take a little bit of time for our district since we are going from no metal detectors to all the campuses overnight. But, it's a good thing. It's a good thing because we want to ensure that we have a safe school district for our students, for our staff, and for our community. >> But it will take a little bit of time. I mean, it's not going to take the entire semester, but it it might take we might be in September after Labor Day. It would be nice if the dust settles where all of the staff feel comfortable with it, where students feel comfortable uh with it. In fact, at the back to school bash, we're hoping to set some up so that kids
040and families can just walk through it. But it'll just it'll take it's just a little bit of adjustment. But if you had been there with me at Buoie, you would have been able to see like, oh, it's just part of their day-to-day fabric. I mean, you know, their day-to-day routine. um they're just, you know, instead of being in the cafeteria doing this, they're doing that. So, that's one that we'll get through. And then, um 1481 was signed into law. So, we have the pouches with that. And I think it's better to have the pouches than no pouches because I think if we didn't have the pouches, it would just be a little chaotic. But at least with the pouches, you know, we'll we'll have the weapons detection system. We'll have the pouches and All of
041that will be part of the fabric. And then, you know, the good news is there's other school districts that have been doing this for a long time. They got through the tuba Ross, I guess. You know, they got all the way through from denial to anger to acceptance. And so, I think uh the more we work together as, you know, a school district community with our parents and and the students, I think we'll get through that. Uh but it it will all be a little bit of a learning curve and we're working hard to try to minimize and think through all of those scenarios the best that we possibly can. >> So when the kids come in late or a parent comes in because everybody I know staff is all around the doors in the
042mornings early. They're there to greet go go. say come 8:30, nine o'clock after the tardy bell rang, is somebody going to be there to man those systems during that time to where it's just everybody goes to their rooms, they scatter, they go back to the office. Is >> somebody going to be >> Yeah. The good news is one of the things that we implemented a year and a half ago, which we'll do again this year, is there is a process for receiving the students. Right now, I'm just talking to the high school, but it's the same thing for the middle schools, too. uh we have a certain process for receiving the the students until the tardy bell rings. So it it they should be in class by 8:20. And when that tardy bell rings, we
043did it all of last year. We rerouted all of the students to the front of the building. They went to the front of the building and then there was a line of tables with about four or five or six staff members, administrators and staff members, hall monitors. They received the kids. uh at least one member of the attendance was off attendance office was there. We gave them a late to class or if they they were there past 8:30, you know, they were late to school and so we gave them the pass that they needed to go to class and then we documented it. So it'll be the same thing now. um we'll have all of that staff that'll be readily available just like we did over the last year and a half of 10 or
04415 staff members, you know, that are needed. So, we'll have the staff that were needed to ensure that those students go through the weapons detection system and that we're checking to ensure that their cell phones are put away the way they're supposed to be put away. And then of course once 8:45 comes around then you're talking about one or two students here here and there. And then now we'll just move to somebody closer to the front. The students will go through the weapons detection system. Person that's monitoring can help ensure that um that that one or two individual students that came through late that they have their uh yonder pouch stored stored with their cell phone in it. So, >> not to put you on the spot, but Mr. How, would you talk about your
045lock boxes just in the event, like Mr. Anderson said, someone you discover someone has a second phone and it's discovered at the high school [Music] >> of schools. So, we're going to order some lock boxes that hold about 60 phones. There's a slot. It has a number. We're going to label them A, B, C, D. We take the phone, we put it in A1 on a spreadsheet. We put A1 belongs to this person. Uh they they're locked in a separate office and that's just for us to keep up with all the phones that we know we're going to confiscate at some point in time. So >> they pick them up at the end of the day. >> The parent comes and picks it up at the end of the day. >> Yes. Students are not
046allowed. >> They're not giving anything back to us. And then I think we even put in there that if a student comes up at one o'clock to pick up the phone, they can't call their kid down and give it back to them right then. >> Right. They don't get it that day. >> They have to keep it. So >> that's what I was wondering about the early releases the early release kids. >> Yeah. >> That can they have their phones out once I mean because I know I know they stick around the campus for a while even though they've been early released but they're still on campus property. Are they allowed to use their phones at that point since they're out of class, but they're still on property? >> They'll have to leave the They'll
047have to be out of the building, >> okay, >> for us to unlock it. >> So, as long as they're Okay. >> So, there are there are weatherproof magnets uh that we can put outside the building on a pole or something around the parking lot that we could utilize for those students if they were leaving. But they have a lock on them, too, like you close it and lock it up. >> So, I have a couple of questions. um than I did. Some of that's going to um some of it's going to get answered I guess on the 29th. But um insurance on the pouches, are we insuring those like we do with um the Chromebooks or where we're purchasing cost? >> Replacement cost >> $30. >> How are we paying that? Because if we're
048not taking cash, are we doing it through school cash? Are we doing it Apple Pay? You know what? I mean, every kid, you know, every kid knows how to use Apple Pay or or I mean, what's the what what is the >> I think as of right now, it'll be school cash and it'll be the same form of payment we do with the Chromebooks. >> Okay. Um, >> if you walk into school and realize you forgot your pouch and you happen to have the means of paying $30 to get a second one, so be it. You can pay $30 to get a second one. >> If you don't, we take the phone, we lock it up. mama and daddy, grandma, whoever is on the list can pick up the phone at the end of the
049day. >> I'm all for it. I'm I'm good with it. I think it's great. Um uh that's going to get answered on 29. Uh only other thing that I would uh would be suggest would to put signs out front. remember um even if we get something I don't want to say something nice metal or something that we could put um make sure you have your yonder bag lock you know time to lock up your phone I'm sure we can miss Trimble can figure out some cool little slogan that we can um but just a big sign out front um as their parents dropping them off. Same thing. Hang one in the front, one in the back. Um that just says no phone. Make sure you have your pouch. Uh otherwise, you leave it. And that
050would be just something that I would suggest. Good >> suggestion. >> Um >> most of the districts that we visited did have visible signage. So um we can get with uh Beth and share with her, you know, some of the exemplars that we saw and see what we can come up with. out there where we big big sign >> on the marquee. We put on the marquee. >> Um, okay. I I guess just and the other the last thing I had was issue. What are we doing about issuing those? I mean, >> there's going to be a process kind of similar to how we do Chromebook when we issue them because they are numbered. They will I think Mr. Anderson, you asked that question, too, but there's a specific number. So, they will be issued
051those. Um, we're talking about schedule pickup. They're kind of doing the Chromebooks, but it depends on if we have those in in time to do it during that time. So, they're going to be working through how they come down to get those issued. >> Sounds good. >> Yes. >> The rest of that will be answered on the 29th. >> Yes. Anybody have any other questions about the yonder are they called yonder pouches or yonder bags? >> Yonder pouches. Yes. Okay. >> Yep. That's it. I I have a question related. I'm I'm assuming this issue of pouches and the law was not you know when we were doing budget that was not part of we were not thinking about this necessarily. So this is a a big expense. Yes. >> So what's not going to get
052purchased? >> Actually uh there's not anything that's not going to get purchased. We have uh different funds set aside for emergency situations and then we prioritize what we have to spend those funds on. So it will come out of that. It was pushed to the priority list. >> Okay. And the other thing I wanted to say is I think that a lot of this it is very important. I think it's good to emphasize that it is law. Don't lecture the parents over it's better for your kids >> because you're going to get in an argument maybe over that. So the law is a winner on the argument. The second thing to me is the issue, you know, keeping the culture and keeping the tone. And what you were describing about the start of the day,
053the end of the day, the calmness of that, I think that that is such a good thing to try to make sure that we don't lose who we are in the midst of trying to protect because while we need to protect, we don't want to be start the day in animosity every day. whether it's the um issues of phones or whatever that's going to be, there's enough that's dividing our educators and our students without having to have just bad feelings. >> So, if that is the way, and I'm very happy to hear that, I think you're on the right track of doing that and have experience there and so I trust that very much. But I think it can be a very positive thing. It doesn't have to be a negative. And thank you for
054taking that approach. Thank you. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Don't be a slouch. Have a couch. >> Thank y'all. >> Thank you, Mao. >> What do you say? >> Okay. And the other one that was Miss Sanford that you pulled? >> Yes. I'm going to have uh Dr. Johnston to talk about the salary schedule. We're >> Do we need to off that? >> No, it'll go back into the consent agenda. Okay. um he's going to talk about the salary schedule that is being presented um to the board in the consent agenda where we're proud of some of the things we were able to do and um so he's going to discuss some of that with you. >> Well, thank you'all and good evening. If you remember back when we adopted the budget in June,
055we pretty much adopted the budget based off of the known factors which are mainly the prior years because the legislative session just ended when we had to develop the budget and put it out in the newspaper. We had to do that 10 days before it came and so we didn't really have any salary increases in there at all. Indicated that we'll come back once we have a little more detail. And so after factoring in all that information, the additional uh basic allotment and some of the other aotments came up with a salary schedule that's twofold. Number one, the state did say that certain teachers get either $2,500 or $5,000 over their prior year salary. So, we created the salary schedule to show that. All the other employees, the non-eing staff weren't given any dollar amount
056by the state. So trying to factor up all the numbers came up with that we think we can give $2,000 per individual as their increase from last year to this year. The only caveat or exception right now is we're kind of waiting on this Friday to get the property values from the Ellis Cat because the homestead exemptions going up. So based on the numbers I'm using right now, we are okay. those hopefully that'll still be the same. And so that's allowing us to cover all these salary expenses plus some of the other needs that have have cropped up since the June board meeting. So again, the teacher salary schedule is being increased by again, it's the terminology that's been provided is 2500 or $5,000 over the 2425 basic sal uh salary that the individuals received.
057So we increased from let's say step zero or let's use step five to step six by $5,000. So that's in line with what the state did. And again, all the other employees, their salary schedules won't change because it's a min, mid, and max, but the the staff will get a $2,000 increase as a result of that. >> So, when you say staff, that means the lowpaying custodians all the way up to the highaying administration. Everybody in there gets the 2,000. >> Yes, >> that's correct. >> I think that's fair. I think it's good good process. So, I know you're always on the conservative side, so that's that's a good thing. And and I appreciate it. I appreciate you watching over our dollars and you do a good job at that and always thank you for
058that. Um, but this goes to show that we can reach out and we can, you know, honor our our our staffing and everybody by increasing their wages by a little bit. you know, we're I know there's some cities that can't do that >> and we appreciate it. >> Well, we have two good factors on our student enrollment is increasing. Plus, the property values in the Red Oak School District is also increasing. Maybe not always for homesteads, but it is for the commercial property is increasing with the Compass and Google and all the different data centers coming in. That's increasing our property value which helps us allocate more tax revenue. Thank you Dr. >> So when we raise the salary does that also raise their their um insurance and all of that stuff that comes out?
059I mean because I know it always I always hear well we got a raise but the insurance just went up just as much so we don't have any extra money. there was a increase in insurance but it's not near that but there was an and that's going to be for everybody that takes the insurance >> and it's not based on their salary it's just a premium based on their plan >> insurance goes up >> or mine always did I don't remember a year it never going up >> every year >> but this will more than cover it for sure >> anybody have any other questions for Dr. Johnston. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, sir. >> Okay. So, now we will back up and do are there any other items on consent
060agenda that we need to pull? >> I'll just ask that those items be put back into the consent agenda for the vote. >> Okay. So, do we have to make a motion to do that or did you just do it? I just did. >> Okay. Okay. But I do need a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> That was a motion by Mr. Knight and a second by Mr. Sebring. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> Oppose. Sun sign. Motion passes. 70. Thank you all. >> Now we will have a discussion of the official delegate and alternate delegate designation for TASBY delegate assembly. As y'all know, each year we we ask that someone volunteer for um
061to be a delegate or andor an alternate. this year. I believe that the assembly is going to be in Houston. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> Okay. And we had we had kind of talked about who might want to do it. So, do I have a nomination for delegate? >> I make a a motion that we delegate uh for the delegate Sean Sean Kelly. Second. All those in favor say I. I. >> Oppos. Same sign. >> Okay. Mr. Kelly, you will be our delegate for the uh assembly in Houston. And now, do I have a nomination for an alternate delegate? >> I make a motion that uh we assign as the alternate. Donnie, >> do I hear a second? >> Second. >> I I have a question though about this. Do I have to
062put my phone in one of those pouches to >> That might be a deal. >> We're not We don't know that for a fact. >> Just checking. >> Okay. I have a motion by Mr. N and a second by >> me. >> Mr. Sebring. >> Hey, my name didn't change. Melanie, >> I can I can't tell whether it's you or Sean if I'm not looking at you. Okay. So, all those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Oppos. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. >> Um, you had information items in your packets. Did anybody have any questions on those? If not, the time is 7:48 and we will go into close session. >> Thank y'all. >> Thank you.