Regular School Board Meeting - May 15th, 2025

001Please join me lady and gentlemen. or as a reward to secure your appointment or confirmation whichever the case may be. So help you God. Okay. Now I will read the oath. In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas, do you, Mrs. Randall, Mr. Kruzanne, and Mr. Ramos, solemnly swear or affirm that you will faithfully execute the duties of the office of trustee of the Rockport Fulton Independent School District of the state of Texas and will to the best of your ability preserve, protect, defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state. So help you God. Thank you. All right, that brings us to agenda item five. But before we do that, I was going to ask if there's no objection from the board. I'd like to move

002an agenda item 13A1, which is our featured campus report to to be presented now. And the reason why is because there's a lot of high school students and parents here and I thought it would be good for them to see and hear uh how the high school is doing. So if there's no objections, can we do that? All right. Then we have Dr. Carter and this is 13A the high school campus report. really proud of um these things a lot of hard work from the entire staff and our students and so it's what I can put together for a few minutes but I think Okay, much better. And Chris, are you driving the slides? There we go. Some of these things I I think we're here for academics. I mean, at the end of the

003day, it's to make sure our kids are ready for college and career or whatever else they want to do after they leave the high school. We are very proud to just showcase our top 10 and our shining stars. Um many of them when I look out here are here today and it's just a testament to the work that they're putting in day in and day out and also the support of their families and their teachers that show up for them regularly. I also wanted to just uh give a little shout out to our education foundation. they support the whole district. But we did have um five teachers who received uh grants and uh had submitted submitted some innovative ideas. In addition to that, I just wanted to also say we do have 13 teachers that

004are TIA recognized by the state on campus and that is quite a bit when our faculty size is just slightly over 60 teachers. Um thank you. Thank you. Um that is something to celebrate. Uh we uh professional development is a big deal. We do a lot of campus PD but this year we uh uh sent some teachers to the lead forward rock and review uh in preparation to get some new instructional strategies with the hopes of increasing our um scores on the uh tested EOCC's for the high school. And our teachers really embraced it. You can see a couple of them dressed up when we kicked off the rock and review and then practiced it. And this would not have happened without uh Monica Fielding, our instructional coach. So, I know the board has supported

005those on campus and I just want to thank you for that. Um that work happens. teachers don't have the time to get in and put those things together and she was instrumental in getting that to take place on our campus um by herself and so very proud of the work she did and then to see the students respond to it in class was really exciting. Um we also had a lot of targeted learning and I wanted to just take a second for you to kind of see in these images what what's occurring. So we had a career fair. We have our teachers who are um engaged in some of the collaborative conversations on campus. We sent students and teachers together as a group to the all-in conference. It was a leadership conference in Corpus um

006to spark some ideas on what can they do to bring back to start implementing those. Um, our CTE students are are u continuing to learn by going to the uh&m university in Corpus Christi Delmare and just a lot of hands-on learning that's taking place. Um, we also our CTE teachers and students take a lot of pride in supporting our younger pirates. I know the um Miss Poland and um and uh Miss Cox uh they've they've welcomed our kids over to help support the littles and I think it's it's rewarding for them, but our kids are really enjoying it. They just went over and spent the day teaching lessons on the difference versus needs and wants to kindergarteners and also had done a teddy bear clinic um to teach them about um taking care of themselves.

007And that wouldn't have happened without the community support which donated a ton of teddy bears to our students to be able to take over so every kindergartner got one. We have our floral design program um maritime program that was out collaborating with Folton to do oyster reefs. Um there's just so many great things that that CTE program is putting into the community and then that the community is also supporting it. So um it's great to watch those things happen. We're also trying to celebrate some spotlights on our staff and students. So here's just a couple of examples. If you see something, say something. Um, and so we've appreciated those of y'all who have sent in those uh nominations so we can take the time to recognize our students and staff. And I know many of

008these you've probably seen these these students stand up on the stage throughout at different board meetings and recognize them. But I just didn't want to miss an opportunity. Some of our boy state are going to be up here tonight getting recognized. But we also have a lot of in addition to the academics, a lot of fun that we're having. These extracurricular activities are really keeping our kids engaged in the classroom um every single day. Uh I also wanted to take a second to just highlight our campus leadership team. All of this work like it takes a lot of work from our assistant principles and Miss Lad to for us to work together to be able to support our teachers and our students in the classroom. And so I just thought they also deserved a moment

009in the in the spotlight tonight. And then I just wanted to end with kind of a a little uh semester by the numbers if you will. So we have really worked to prepare our kids to be college career military ready. And these are just a few of the highlights. So we have hosted that college and career fair. Uh we've done some our success advisors have done two how-to presentations. We've had industry visits uh to three different areas. Uh three community outreach events that were held at community locations to try to get our parents to be more involved. Uh four FAFSA days. We've had six college visits, 24 TSI group testing dates, administered 527 tests, and we have had um 172 passed. At the last count, we gave outund or the community had gave out 176

010117 scholarships totaling almost $300,000. Um, at our scholarship night and something that I'm really proud of is the work for uh that Miss Lattis put into increasing our partnerships with Corpus Christi. We had 139 dual credit courses this year and then already on our course selections, we have 254 set for next year. So, um, I appreciate the kids challenging themselves and stepping up to take those more rigorous courses to prepare them for the college track. Um, we also had 228 students that earned their IBC. Um, I believe when I sent this to y'all originally, it was a little lower because that was as of May 9th, but this was as of um I think we're up 29 more since that that number. Um, also from a behavior standpoint, we've had 285 less referrals this year

011than last year. And um, so our assistant principles are very excited about that news. And then just some community service hours. We have a lot of activities and organizations on campus, but just from these five that I've listed there, they have committed 5,756 hours And the final thing is again with our goal of being CCMR ready. Um last year the CCMR rate for the high school was 75%. So that's how they ended the year last year was 75%. When I got there this year we were down to 3 we were at 37% of our seniors for CCMR ready. And so we immediately took action to say what can we do because that's unacceptable. We know our kids we need to give them more opportunities. And so we have increased that by 56% this year from

012the beginning of the year. And I do believe I keep telling Miss Lad we're going to get to 95. Like we're we're not done yet. We still have four more days of school. We're we're going to get there. But we really want that to be 100%. Um, but we are very happy to stand here and say that it is 93. Um, now the one thing about the accountability system and I know Dr. Austin may elaborate on this is unfortunately next year that accountability we're not going to be assessed by that 93% that we're setting here um because it lags by a couple of years. So why she just mentioned that when she came in it was 36% that's going to show in this year's accountability. Why she and her wonderful staff and our students reached

01393 and made the 95 that will not show into accountability in 2526. So it just lags behind. That's just how the A throughF accountability system works. that this is huge, huge work and we want to make sure that when accountability does come out and we see a low number in CCMR, it's actually not reflective of the great work that you guys did this year. Yes. Um and then I hope that y'all will come out and come to the graduation ceremony. We're excited to uh to participate in that next Friday, the 23rd at 8 o'clock. So, we're hoping to have a big turnout um to celebrate our senior class. And then finally, uh, lots of pressure heel, we'll turn over here. Uh, we are looking ahead and we are pistantic and know that you're going to

014get us in this building very, very quickly because that's what we're all hoping for so that we can continue to do great things here at the high school. All right, y'all saw the thumbs up from him. We're on it. But thank y'all so much. I just wanted to point out that 93% on CCMR, the college career ready or military ready um is really like life ready and u that's the why why we're here and so it's it's really amazing and I'm I'm glad to see that that we're moving in the right direction. The needle is definitely going. Um I'll say it again, I said it before, I I'll say it over and over again. I don't believe that one standardized test once a year can determine the successful of our our success of our students.

015So, and and I finally I think legislation is uh coming around because hear the House passed that they're going to maybe change that. So, I do just want to echo what Mr. Kruzanne said. This is our why. It's our why. Why we support you guys 110% and then this is also your why. Why you show up every day. The more we get our kids involved, these are the results that we see. So, thank you. Because behind every student who's successful, there's a teacher who's given their extra all day in and day out. So, thank you for all that. All right, we'll move to agenda item five, which is our district celebrations. Dr. Austin. All right, I'm going to come down here without tripping because um we are going to celebrate our Special Olympics um our

016participants in Special Olympics and Mr. Glouse is down here. So after he announces, will you guys also come down to help shake hands and say congratulations? First of all, I I suggested to a certain person this morning that I would only take an hour and that person decided uh sent me back a message and said minimum two hours. Uh I figure we'll we'll uh deal with five minutes. So, okay. Um I'd like to thank the Rockport Fulton ISD school board, Dr. Austin from allowing us to take a few minutes to recognize three Rockport Fulton ISD students for their accomplishments at the Special Olympics Region 2 spring games at Colossal Midway High School on April 12th. The results of the of the competition were as follows. From Rockport Fulton High School, Savannah Martinez finished third place

017in the 10 meter wheelchair race and fifth place in the tennis ball throw. Reagan Tomlinson placed sixth place in the 50 meter run and sixth place in the softball throw. From Rockport Fulton Middle School, we have Ishmael Deleó to place fifth place in the 50 meter run and third place in the softball throw. Thank you, Mr. Glow, for taking our students to to Losa Midway and participating. And we can't wait to see what we do next year. Oh, they're going bowling in the fall. Thank you so much. We're going back. We are now going to move as our board of trustees come back up. We're going to move to our pickle ball appreciation presentation. Mr. Natney, will you come up as well as our pickle ball represent representatives? Feel like I've been talking all day.

018All right. So, this is to recognize pickle ball and also we've had a great relationship. Miss McConville here along with Mr. Cville somewhere out there in in the in the audience there and uh we recently signed anou with them signed by Dr. Austin and reach I'll let you go through the acronym reach is but I'll leave it up to missville. Good evening to all of you. Yes, pickle ball is really alive and well right now. Uh it's kind of hard to notice uh the young families that are out now in the evenings as well as the youth. Uh and uh I used to know everybody's name and got everybody's email address that played out there and it's getting really difficult to keep up with it now. But it is the most wonderful situation I can

019tell you. We have become a nonprofit. We do call ourselves REACH which stands for Rockport Fulton encouraging activity and community health. Uh Steve Cop is our president. He refuses to come up. Uh truly truly this is the only sport that I know of where you can get on a court with uh a an 8-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 50year-old, and a 70 year old uh on the same court and play. And I'll let you guess which one age I am. Uh you don't have to gather a group and and have a group come meet you there. You just show up, put your paddle in the holding area, and when a court becomes available, you jump on and play with somebody different every time. So, you leave with 20 new friends. Um, we are truly grateful to

020RFISD for the use of the public courts and are always mindful of becoming welcome welcoming to all. Uh, with the two checks that I'm presenting to you tonight, we will have given a total of $2,000 to the district for maintenance of the courts. Uh, we will continue to give a portion of the proceeds for any event that brings in revenue. Um, in addition, REACH is going to be investing an additional $3,000 uh into the improvement of courts to better serve the needs of the community. So, we're very excited and we thank you so very much with all your faculty. Let me know. Thank you. Throw some chicken. Make some chicken pickle ball. Yeah, that's right. Thank you. Pluckers is good. It's We need you. All right, our next celebration is for our student ambassadors, our

021salt team. Salt stands for student advisory leadership team. Um, so if my salt students will start making your way up here and stand right here, I'm going to get your certificates. But as I get those, so we started meeting in September and we did two things. They spent the time talking with myself with our two principles from middle school high school. Our board of trustees. We have Michaela and Kenny are part of the salt team. And there were a lot of topics discussed with our salt team. There are 12 of them this year. After we had those discussions, we then moved into leadership training and principles. And I always probably had some kind of activity or multiple activities for you guys to do, right? I'm very proud of this group. I think every month this

022was a highlight of my month. Just spending an hour, sometimes two, whenever Dina would give me extra time, I would take it and just spending it with these wonderful individuals, getting feedback on those things that are most important to them. Some of the important work that came from their time together this year was our pirate path, which is our student profile. It culminated in April where each of them got together in their group and presented to our principles from Live Oak to Fulton to middle school and high school with a unified approach of our pirate core values that are going to be the path that all of our students take to become successful. And so very proud of their work and I'm going to go ahead and call them. I do want to say as

023they um get ready to come across, we already opened applications, closed them. 50 new students have applied and uh we will have to now move to about 20 ambassadors next year uh because we had ton of six going to be a seventh, eighth, and all the way up to what will be our seniors next year. So, it's going to be a great group. So, we're going to start with our eighth grade, our lone middle school student. It will not be that way anymore because there was a ton of them. But, we're going to start. Sorry. Do you have Okay, you got it. All right. We're going to start with Julie Brown. She is an eighth grade student. She'll be a freshman next year. Okay. So now she's the only eighth grader. No, nothing else is

024in order. So I'm just going to name them as they come. Everybody's good with that. So we're going to move to Addison Presley. Well, she is a freshman. Yep. Come on, Addison. Oh, you do. She's Diana's good. She has them in order. Kinsley Burton, Elsie Hell, Kathleen Hunter. Lauren Holden, Addison Burton, I've got to explain she's dressed up because she's being recognized tonight or she would have her salt t-shirt on. Oh, don't forget your certificate. So, she gets recognized tonight again. Levi Diaz, he's not here, but go ahead and clap for him. Cara Hillina, I bet I do. What is her mom thinking? Caitlyn Garcia. for Brady Hatman. And we'll round it off with our last senior, Miss Jacqueline Crab. Uh, one thing that I forgot to tell you that they did and they did

025so well and they are a part of our new salt podcast and video. So, if you have not seen those on our YouTube channel, thank you Salt Team for jumping in doing our salt podcast and our videos. So, let's take a picture. We're going to move to our RFHS academic UIL. Mr. Jed Wilshshire is here for us tonight. Thank you. Uh, our UL coordinator uh, was unable to make it tonight, so I got to jump in and do this, which takes me back to when I used to be the coordinator. And uh so this is a a nice reminder of it without having all the extra hours of work that she does. If I could have anyone that's here uh could come down so you could receive your certificates. We had a um we we

026have had a a year where I would say we definitely punched above our weight class. we had um such a small number just for many different reasons and you know we're everyone's pulled in 800 different places. So you're going to hear the same names over and over and over again if I read them all out because so many of these students uh were so successful in many events which means just to be successful in one event takes just tons of studying. So, how to do it in multiple events is just crazy. Uh, and what's also exciting is so many of these are underassmen or and they're coming back and they're just going to do even even more amazing. So, um I'll I'll just read everyone whether they come up. Uh Abby Walker uh was um

027advanced to to uh region in social studies and was part of the winning journalism team and she was copy editing third place. Addison cop I know you're here. Okay. Addison won in three or placed in three different journalism events and extra extraneous speaking was the district champion and the district champion in headline writing and the district champion in newswriting. Just an incredible day of performance for Addison at our competition. I got all of them. Okay. Um, Alyssa Win uh was uh placed in both science and literary criticism. Uh AI Singleary for social studies and was part of the second place computer science team. Um uh Emily Martinez was uh placed in headwright writing, newswriting and was the district champion in editorial. Jaden uh Armenere placed in science. Jeremy Lome in social studies. John Gorena in

028social studies. Josephine Boyce for literary criticism and Kaylee Cypes uh was second place head of writing. Ma Bley we have uh placed in science and literary criticism and was second place computer science and Miranda the Kremloo also second place computer science team and Victoria Ramos was uh placed in silence. Thank you all for supporting the UIL academic team and I can't wait till next year. Okay. Okay. So, next we'd like to recognize and celebrate the Texas boy state selection and Mr. Kelly will join us to present those to our gentlemen. Hello everyone. Uh I'd like to introduce the three boys that applied for and were chosen to represent Rockport Folton at the prestigious Texas Boy State Program. Um this is something that we haven't participated um in in a while. So this is awesome for

029our school. Okay, I just tell you a little bit about the program first. Um the American Legion Boy State is amongst the most respected and selective educational programs of government instruction for high school students. Um it's an interactive program uh where each student becomes a part of the operation of his local country uh and state government and at at the boy state participants are exposed to the rights and privileges and duties and responsibilities of a US citizen. uh the training is objective and practical with uh city, county and state governments operated by the students themselves. So there and they will actually be elected um through a process um that's very similar to the real one and uh it's a five-day program that will take place from June 8th to the 13th at uh University of

030Texas in Austin. Um throughout this whole thing I've reestablished contact with our American Legion uh through the pro um and they're now engaged with RFIST so it should be easy going forward. Um I walked all three of these guys through the process through the application um the interview process and you know fortunately for us they were all selected. Uh these three guys are amongst our best junior students and it's been a real joy to work with all three of them. Um, so without further ado, I'll go ahead and uh announce these guys. The first one, she Patel, uh, Burke Johnson, and Gustaf Johnson. Next, we will uh celebrate our state qualifier for golf. I will say four years in a row state qualifier for golf. Coach Donaldson Okay, so last year, my first year here,

031and I came to this thing and I was clueless. Like, I was supposed to dress up. I was supposed to give a speech. Like, I had no idea. I didn't have anything ready. Like, all this stuff that Hannah did. So, this year, Hannah was ready. We do not have time. We do not have time to for us to go over everything because she is absolutely amazing, you guys. I do have some notes, but I won't read all this. All right. Um, tonight we're here to recognize a truly remarkable athlete um on and off the course. I I do believe she is probably the most decorated golfer to come out of Rockport Filton. I don't have all the stats, the numbers, but I would say she is. um this year, her senior year, let's start. She

032placed first in every single golf tournament that she entered. Every single tournament she had first place, y'all. That's hard. What I mean, good or not, you know, you're going to have a bad day. You're going to have a bad day. Even with a bad round, she finds a way to win. That's what she That's what she is. That's what she does. Um, uh, this includes the Lauren Johnson Invitational that she's been to four years. Um, this year we had a rough first day and this is when I really saw Hannah's grit. She came back the second day, shot five under, which is a course record, which I'll talk about that in a second, and ended up winning, beat a D1 commit, pack 12 D1 commit. It was It was a big day. It was a

033really big day, but I saw so much maturity and strength and poise and composure for a high school athlete um to come back from being down and it was pretty down that first day, but she just astonished me. She always does, but that was remarkable to me as a coach to see. Um let's see. She won district this year by 44 strokes. She's won by more than that in the past three or four years, but still astonishing. Uh, first place medals at regionals and qualified for the state tournament, like Dr. Austin said, for the fourth year in a row. She's been to state all four school years of her high school career. Um, she finished in the top 10 at state three years. Uh, district champion all four years, regional champion her sophomore and junior

034year. Um, I'm not forgetting. Oh, her course record at Colony Creek. That's what I was going to mention. Five under. If you don't know what that is, that's there's par. Like if you just make par, it's called even. But if you're five under, that means you're five strokes less than what they expect you to be at par. Okay, that's hard. And some people do it, you know, once and they're like, "Yeah, well, she did it once and she did it twice. She did it three times." Okay, that's showing that she's that good. It's not just, oh, I had a good day. She's that good. She is that good. Aside from golf, let's talk some academics here. Um, oh, wait, sorry. Keep my notes straight. Um, talent hasn't gone unnoticed outside of Brockport High School. She

035was named caller times player of the year her sophomore year. Uh last year she was a Coastal Band Sports Hall of Fame qualifying nominee and I just found out today she told me at practice today um that she found out she is a qualifier this year as well. So go to the back foot but that's a big deal just just to get that qualifier. um in the classroom, all district first team, academic all district, academic all state second team, uh taught 10% of her graduating class. Um she's going to go on and play and go to school at um Texas A&M Corpus Christie. And I always say I'm so happy about that. I will have the opportunity to see her play some. They travel a lot, but at least you know they'll be down down

036the road a few times. Um and here's the backside. And here's where I don't want to cry. Here's the thing more important than all that. Okay, better than all that. You know, how can anything be better than all that? It's the person that she is. She plays with integrity, ethics, poise, grace, under pressure, like you wouldn't believe. She's a leader. She's a role model. The younger kids look up to her. She's always willing to help people. And I say this like when we're playing in a golf tournament, you don't play with your teammates. you're you're always playing with someone new or the opponent. And she's so helpful and and so explanatory with them and not rude with them. No, that's the rule. No, that's not how you do it. And people like playing with her.

037Um you think I don't want to play against her. She's so good. And that's not really how it is. I would like to play with him. Okay. Because she that's that's who she is. Um very humble. Um, mom and dad James and Teresa Creedmore, kudos. You have raised an amazing, amazing. She is one of the few athletes I've been coaching a long time that I try to be like her so much. I'll do something and I'll think you know what what would she say if she saw me do that or say that she would coach calm down. It's okay. It's okay. And I do have to tell one story and then I'll finish because it truly speaks it was funny to me and I don't think she meant it to be funny but we were

038having a rough day tournament a while back and I thought I don't even know what to say to her on the tea box. Walk up to her cuz I'm not a golf pro. Okay, I'm I'm not going to I can't fix a swing in the middle of a big tournament. So I walked up to her and I said, "Okay, you are your own cat. You're the cat. What would you say to yourself?" She looked me dead in the face, expressionless. Coach, I don't know. I don't talk to myself. And I, you know, I wanted to laugh, but at the same time, she was serious and she went up box and I walked off. And the more I thought about it, I thought that's perfect because the biggest part of the game sometimes is these six

039inches right up here. And she doesn't get in her head. It was perfect. Like the more I was driving and was thinking about it, I was like, "That's Hannah." Coach, I don't know. I'm talking to myself. And I was talking to myself the whole time going. I wonder why she wasn't talking to herself because I'm talking to myself and I wanted to know what to say to her. Anyway, just made me laugh. So, without anything else, I would like to introduce to you Miss Hannigree. Can I do this one? We are now going to move to our next state qualifiers in track. Coach Blue and Coach Swinford. Good evening. Thank you for having us. Um, my name's Ala Blue Roberts. Um, we're here tonight to recognize Addison Burton and Logan Wood, who made it to

040the UIL state track meet, aka the show. Um, getting to this level, uh, takes a lot of hard work. Early morning practice, after school practice, lots of hours. Um, these girls have shown what it means to push through and stay focused. Um, we're proud. They made their teammates, coaches, teachers, and their family and their community very proud. Um, I'm going to move on. Swim, he's going to talk a little bit more about the girls. Um, talented athletes make for really good coaches, right? It's it's funny how it works. The more talented your athletes are, the better coach that you become. Uh, every every coach dreams of getting to coach talented athletes. Um, until you find out that that talent really isn't enough, right? I mean, too many times I've seen athletes that have all the

041talent in the world, all the potential in the world, and then for whatever reason, they never live they never quite live up to the hype. They don't ever quite live up to the potential that that their talent would otherwise say that they have. A lot of times, I believe that's the case because for whatever reason, they don't have the type of character that is necessary to sustain long-term success. And that could not be further from the truth for either of these students. Couldn't be. I mean, they are here a as an exception to that. They are here because they are the the complete total package. They're everything that a coach dreams in being able to coach. They are talent plus athletes. Uh they have uh incredible talent. I mean, no, no doubt that they have

042incredible talent, but it's not their talent that got them to this point. It's the it's their their commitment to the process. It's their discipline. It's their willingness to make sacrifices. It's the character. It's the integrity. It's those things that that coach Donaldson just talked about with Hannah. Those are the reasons why they are here, why they're here. This is the reason why we're here to celebrate them. Um, everybody sees the medals, right? Everybody sees the pictures on the podiums. Everybody uh they see the newspaper headlines. They see everything shared on on social media, but what they don't see is everything that's happening behind the scenes. What they don't see is is their commitment to the process of doing what it takes to actually earn the spot to stand up on the stage right now. And

043that's what I want to kind of give you some insight to right now. Kind of some inside insight to what these girls did to get themselves into this position right now with with Addison, right? She's a she's a volleyball player in the fall, right? We're out on the football field practicing at 6:30. Addison's already been out there. She's she's finishing up by the time we're getting on the field. She's on on the on the track working out in the dark unless we've got the stadium lights on for her by herself, putting in the work when no one is in the stand. That that's where it started for Addison. And then we fast forward to the first track meet and she just dominates, right? And then we fast forward to about spring break. We're at the

044Coastal Bin Coach Association meet of champions and she sets the school record in the 200 meter dash with the 25.27. And then we make our way into the district. And then we make our way to the district track meet where she finishes as the second highest female uh high point athlete, second only to her teammate who was also on the stage by a single point. And then we fast forward to the area track meet where she breaks the 100 meter school record with a time of 12.19. And then we fast forward to the regional track meet where she becomes a regional finalist in the 100 meter dash, the 4x400 meter relay and the 400 meter dash. And she became the regional champion in the 400, punching her ticket to Austin, which is why we're here

045to celebrate her today. And then at Austin, she ran a 5798, which is less than half a second off the 400 meter school record. So I anticipate next year that record's going to be broken as well. And then with Logan, right, very similar her journey to this point began many many many months ago, right? Last summer, right? she took it upon herself to uh take kind of the AAOU, Junior Olympic, USA track and field route. And she actually in her as the youngest, one of the youngest athletes in her age group, she qualified to the junior Olympics in the 100 meter hurdles, made it past the first round um at the junior Olympics for the USA track and field. Um so that's that's in August. And then she's a varsity cheerleader and a varsity volleyball

046player. And just like Addison, she was on the track three or four days a week by herself. Addison's a morning person. I guess Logan's more of a night owl. She would be there at night after cheer practice, after volleyball practice, putting in the work, ensuring that she was going to be in a position to be successful like she was this year. And we fast forward in the track season and she just dominates. Every meet she goes to she dominates. Um so much so that fast forward to spring break and not many people know this but he traveled over four hours to go to Lagoa specifically to race a girl that she knew she was going to compete against at the regional finals because that's the kind of athlete she that she is. She doesn't run

047away and shy away from competition. She attacks it head-on. She knows, she just told me this the other day. She said, "If I'm going to be the best, I have to race and compete against the best. She's not going to shy away from it." And gets to the district track meet, she as a freshman, she finishes as the high point female athlete at the district track meet where she set the school record in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 14.58 seconds. At the district track meet, she was the district champion in the long jump. She is 11 inches off the school record as a freshman, district champion in 100 meter hurdles, district champion in the 300 meter hurdles, district champion in the 4x4. Next week, area track meet, area champion in the long

048jump, area champion in the 100 meter hurdles, area champion three hurdles, area champion 4x4. regional meet. All right. She's a regional finalist in the long jump, regional finalist in the 100 hurdles three hurdles 4x4. She punches her ticket to Austin uh in the 100 meter hurdles. The other night at our awards banquet, uh I I shared this quote by Bill Walsh and I felt that it's kind of fitting to share the same thing again here tonight. uh he says that champions behave like champions before they're champions, right? They have a winning standard of performance before they're winners. I think everything about their journey and then their commitment to the process is is is just the embodiment of that quote, right? It's it's their their personal accountability to championship standards that got them to the point

049that they're here today. Of course, we're here tonight to to recognize and celebrate the outcomes. We're here to celebrate these moments of success, but I promise you for both of them, what what provides the most satisfaction, what provides the most fulfillment for them is is every single moment and all of the hard work, all of the sacrifices that that that they made in order to get themselves here. And that's what makes us the proudest coaches here. So, if you would please give our state qualifiers, Logan Wood and Addison Burton, one more round of applause. The best part, if my record served me correctly, Addison's coming back for another year and Logan's coming back for not one, not two, but three more years Coach Swinford, don't go far. Don't go far. So, we have Coach Sosa

050coming up to talk about the NHSSCA state coach of the year. as you guys have just heard him speak. Um I would like to say one thing. he did reach out and said, "Hey, I think uh can I get a letter from you uh for this?" And I just want to personally say that I absolutely said I'm going to write this letter because not only do I see as a superintendent what you commit to our kids and how amazing you are for them. I personally wrote about how, and I won't get emotional, um about how he made an impact on my own child. He was the first coach that worked with him this summer. Um, he gives them a hard time, which I love because kids know when you give them a hard time. I

051think he gives it right back, too. Um, that you care about him. And he came after that first a week of working out and summer workouts and said, "Mom, the coaches here really care about me." And I know it's because of coach Swinford. So, thank you, coach. But Eric, this is your moment to talk about it. I think you said enough. So, no. Um, so I'm here tonight for the uh the National High School Strength and Conditioning uh Association. This is a national association. They pick four state coaches of the year and we are blessed to be able to have one in all of the in all of the USA. um that what what this convention or what what this comp the association does it it it every single strength and conditioning coach can apply

052for this uh apply for the association obviously it's like any other association and that's what it is but there are over I think it was like 10,000 total or total members of this association coach Swford being one of them um and we as a school district are blessed enough to be able to have a strength and conditioning coach. Now, what coach Swinford does is more than what I've ever seen at a high school. Uh he writes all of the strength and conditioning for every single program from sixth grade pre-athletics all the way to the senior uh senior athletic periods. Uh every single program for every single day of every single um I mean every single day of the year. And so you can think about boys and girls. Those are all the lessons plans that

053he has to do and he does with such meticulous detail. Uh and like Dr. Austin had said, it goes beyond just lifting weights or running the 10 yard flies. It goes about following through in genuine love for each one of his kids that he has. And that's something that whenever I um I got here uh last year, I knew I worked with him in track um and knew the kind of love that he had for his kids. And sometimes as coaches from opponents, you don't know that relationship, but whenever I stepped foot on this campus and I saw his relationship with those pre-athletic kids, uh to the eighth graders all the way to the sophomore and just everybody in between. Uh it is very genuine and just the love that he has in the just

054I mean you see the intensity that he has. Um he's here the first one in the office. He's normally the last one to leave and uh I can honestly say he's taken so much off of my plate as an athletic director because I don't have to worry about the strength conditioning. He does that. Um but this association was able to uh they vetted through a lot of applicants. he was able to uh to come out as uh as one of the only four that are recognized in this uh in this association. So uh congratulations Coach Swinford for being the Texas State Coach of the Year for the National High School Coaches or Strength Conditioning Association. All right, that's our end of our district celebration. Good job. All right, we'll move to agenda item six, public

055comment. Miss Hill, do we have anyone signed up? All right, that brings us to item seven, close session. So at this time, the board recess into executive session pursuant of the Texas government code section 5510744 personnel. And this should take no more than uh 5 10 minutes. Thank you. And the time is 7:05. All right, the time is 7:10 p.m. and we'll reconvene into open session. We'll move to agenda item number nine. consider take possible action to organize officers of the board. In accordance with the state law and RFISD board policy BDA legal, the board members shall select officers at each board election uh after each board election or upon an officer vacancy. The board shall elect a president, vice president, and secretary by majority vote. We will consider each position separately. Starting with the

056president, I will call for nominations from the board members for this position. Once nominations are closed, the board will vote on the nominees in the order that they were presented. Once a nominee receives a majority vote, the election for that position will end, and any remaining nominees will not be considered. If no nominees receive a majority vote, the board will vote on all nominees again in the same order until a nominee is selected by a majority vote. At this time, I'll open up nominations for board president. I make a motion for Ken Kruzanne as board president. So, we have a nomination for Kenny Kruzanne. Any other nominations? Hearing no additional nominations, then we'll close nominations. Do I have a motion for Kenny Cruz as board president? So moved. All right, a motion and a second.

057We'll vote. Oh, we don't have to vote actually. Eli. Eli, we are we will vote. All in favor? Yeah. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carry 70. It said majority vote. So, yeah. Could have done an acclamation, right? At this time, the we will uh open nominations for vice president. I make a motion for Michaela Alston for vice president. Have a motion and a second. Any other nominations? All right. Then Michaela Austin is vice president by acclamation. All right, we'll open up nominations for secretary. I'll move to nom nominate Bonnie Randall for secretary. Do we have any other nominations? All right, we have Bonnie Bonnie uh Randall. That wasn't what I'm just writing. Bonnie Randall is our secretary by acclamation. Congratulations. All right, that brings us to agenda item number 10, a board of trustees report. Do

058we have any committee reports? We did have a appraisal district um board meeting on Monday. Um some of the uh there's not really any outcomes uh or anything that came out of it other than all of the taxing entities are going to be gathered together in a workshop to discuss the nomination and organization of the board and how those members are elected. But it will happen in the next three months, but the date has not been set yet. Wait, hold on. I thought they did June 10th. No, it's a potential date. There's a city council meeting June 10th, June 24th, July 8th, July 22nd, but um a date has not been set. It will just potentially be one of those four city council meetings prior to their meeting. Any other reports? Oh, go ahead. I

059have a stupid question on that. I'm not even sure if this is the right place to ask, but no question is stupid. If um I would assume there there might be um a number of folks on the board here that want to attend that meeting, but do we have to be careful with more than three of us at that meeting? I would think they would. It would it sounded like it was going to be a joint workshop, so we would have to call order. We'd have to have a quorum to attend and so would the city and the county and all the all the entities. Okay, gotcha. I missed them. All right, we'll go to agenda item 11, presentations and discussions. We'll start with 11A bond 2022 project update. We have teal and claycomb. We

060have teal. How are you all? We'll start at the high school. Uh Josh couldn't be here. Anyone saw him earlier today? His back is not good. So, uh over at the high school, uh 56% complete money authorized is uh 22.1 million. Uh substantial completion date is December 2025. Uh total contract value of 39.2 4 million uh last month. Uh as you can see, there's lots of masonry is continuing on uh in the building. We've got drywall and insulation going up on the walls. Um got lot of glazing uh see lots of windows getting installed. um continuing on the roof, waterproofing um to get ready for masonry and other exterior finishes. Um lots of plumbing in the walls and electrical in the walls. Um running uh mechanical duct work. Uh we set our final units uh

061last month and uh electrical and low voltage, not only conduit but also wire um finishing out panels. Um moving forward next then this coming month uh we're going to you'll get we're getting close to wrapping up mason veneer. Uh you'll start to see uh there's there's paint going on the wall. You start to continue to see paint. Um wrapping up some of the framing the drywall and the classroom wings. Uh moving that scope into the athletic area. um continuing the installation of uh HBC equipment and duct work. Uh wrapping insulation around duct work and um getting that stuff ready for to start putting drops down into the ceiling grid. Um continuing install the installation of all the electrical and uh exterior glazing and should be wrapping up roofing uh in the next month also. see

062from the pictures here on the left that is uh the west facade of your front entry. Um got a window up there in that multi-purpose room up there. On the right side you've got that's your corridor inside the space of that is corridor down the athletic wing. all the brick masonry going in and all the window frames. Uh on the left that is your baseball concessions. Um got roof deck on both your concession buildings in anticipation of getting the roof actually installed over there. That's the left hand side is baseball, right hand side is softball. got some interior sheetrock going on, taping and floating um on the left hand side. On the right hand side, you can see some of that paint that I was talking about installed on the wall. Uh left hand side

063is uh the face of the building that's facing the stadium. Uh that's your athletic wing right front of locker room. Um on the right hand side, that is your weight room windows. out the wait room looking over the football field at Fulton. Um 92% complete money authorized uh 11.87 million. Uh scheduled substantial completion date is not May. It's June of 25. Um and the full contract value is 12.87 million. We jump in there real quick and talk about schedule. Michael Miller, vice president of tool construction. We had a lot of discussions today uh with Dr. Austin as well as members of the um building committee, Mr. Burton, Mr. Kruzanne, and Miss Austin. Um so on Fton Elementary School, there was three delays u independent delays that were outside of our control um that we got

064uh that we've submitted. U obviously our team is a very um problem solving proactive uh type group. However, there was notification of some of those delays though we were everybody was aware of them. Paperwork didn't get submitted as far as you know the actual notice of the delay. Uh but we're working diligently on there was one of the delays was there were some structural items in within the existing building where we're remodeling the cafeteria and turning into classroom spaces that were unanticipated. And so we've worked very hard to get those uh worked through with the design team, come up with solutions that you know won't have any negative impacts to the job as a whole. Uh the job is still under budget. Um, however, those delays have led to probably turning over that classroom area

065sometime the second week of June. And, uh, we're going to do everything that we can to to beat that, but that's what we're looking at right now for Fton Elementary School. um on the high school. The date that was listed on there of December of 2025 contractually uh after some delays that were experienced obviously at the beginning of that project we had a delayed start due to things that were found during the early release package while we were digging up um old utilities and stuff on the high school project. that's actually going to contractually be pushed to February 7th, but we all had internal discussions today during the the meeting that we feel that uh the month of December is definitely attainable for that project so long as all the pieces kind of fall together.

066Uh obviously the big push on the high school is for the classroom to be complete and so we're doing everything talking with our subs uh superintendent to condense that that schedule and try to get everybody in there by August. All right. Um, so obviously, uh, or I'll kick it back over. Yeah. So, back to the schedule complete on each wing at the Folton. Obviously, the dining room were in there. Uh, classroom wing. Uh, we're still trying to get in there. Uh, next week, um, we'll have our final inspection scheduled talk with fire marble getting all those things lined out. Uh the renovated classrooms that says May it'll actually be June. So that will wrap our uh project over there. Uh we will still be in the school obviously doing punch list for the month after

067that. Uh trying to finish up things before all the students should fill back up in August. last month. Um, metal stud framing in the renovated classroom area. Uh, there's we're getting all the mechanicals in the walls and all the duct work hanging. Um, the we're wrapping up all the finishes of the classroom wing. Um, this we were hoping when Josh gosh created uh the slide, we were hoping to have final clean completed by this point. This push they're actually starting tomorrow. It's not completed yet, but coming uh next month, uh when I'm up here, hopefully I'll be telling y'all that the building's complete and we're in there doing punch list and so you'll see a lot of stuff happening. You've got new HBAC units going on the roof. Uh you've got all your finishes getting

068installed, all the paint, um all your mechanical, all the uh fire alarm access control, all the electrical, um all that stuff wrapping up and getting so kids can occupy and show back up. There's some photos just photos of some mechanical duct work and you can see some framing that's open um on both those pictures of classrooms in the new classroom area. This is blocking that goes on the wall inside the wall uh to hang all your cabinets, marker boards, IBDs, uh stuff like that that goes in the walls with your all of your conduit and electrical boxes. That's what we have. Thank you all. Thank you. But I do want to give uh Teal a big thank you for uh we have Project Graduation next Friday night and they made a donation to help keep

069our kids safe and off the streets after graduation. So, thank you for giving back to the community on that. All right, that brings us to 11B program update by the famous Martha Mloud. All right. So, uh, Dr. Austin asked me to kind of give an update in case you didn't know me doing. I am still working and I wanted to do a few pictures. I asked myself, you want pictures? My original PowerPoint slides down. But either way of all my PowerPoint. So if you didn't know my background, 30 years in the classroom, I retired and I don't know, you know, when you look at Tinder Smith, you talk about Dr. Austin, you talk. You need people that care, you need people that are hard workers, and you need people that are passionate. If you don't

070have those three things, then you're just not going to have success. So I think in my years. I wasuch a hard worker driven, passionate about what I did. And when you retire, what am I going to do now? Hopefully get started and I wonder I see a need. I look at these kids and I think there's so much more to do with them and I'm blessed that this is my third year and I've learned a lot. I've kind of l these kids into a successful program. Current programs have still been very much I started a junior naturalist class because there's so many kids that love the outdoors. We're in a climate area in the state of Texas. We need to have a natural program. I'm doing medical veterary and I'm doing two engineering classes. When

071you look at intelligences of kids, there's kids that are amazing in music. But you look at the spectrum of it, there's other areas that excel in. I think bird watching my little on here bird watching. So if you know what my program's like, obviously most of you guys do. I do weekly study sessions and get groups of birds. I had to learn is tough in Texas. We can have up to 500 species of birds. Teaching kids the anatomy and field we hear about the crown or the chest or the So kids need to know what people are talking about. So we do anatomy, we do behavior, we do calls, uh we do lots of field trips, you we use tools and we have a many activity where we compete in the Texas classes. This year

072I did seven teams and it's not for the paint. We've been practicing coach. So the daughter was with me and I tell you what, man. They worry you because girls change clothes like three times and they're constantly telling me stories. We talk about your schedule, we about sports, we talk about that. So it's not just bird watching. You're forming relationships with kids. You're learning a lot of rapport with them. And I guess they like the way I talk to them and listen to them and give them lots of advice. But it's it's a great experience. And then I had oh my gosh, I have five good boys. Oh my goodness. And listen to them and I got home and my husband's always like, "How was your trip today?" Like I felt like I had grown

073kittens in the vehicle when we were calling at each other again, knocking the hats off each other. Anyway, it's fun. I enjoy the kids learn a lot. So you might say, "Well, why would Martha do a birding program?" Basic reasons. It's relaxing. You guys, I like looking at birds. Uh, beautiful here in Rockport. We're blessed to have some beautiful birds in the state. All of those that I think my kids got to see this school year. Uh, it's great exercise. You know, I'm hyper as it is. And you're out with kids. You're trying to keep up with them. They're walking and walking and walking and walking burning those calories. And then it's a mental challenge. You know, you wonder why. Why do doctors and attorneys and accountants get into birding? Well, they want that mental

074challenge. I personally have seen all 500 birds that you could see in Texas as resident and migrant species. So, it keeps me on my toes learning with the kids. Oh, wow. Guest speakers I've had the field trips we've taken. I'm not going to read through all that with you guys. Just so you know, we're busy. Couple of guest speakers I've had. Uh what's her name? Oh, Rebecca Rylander. She's with the uh G Coast uh Observatory. She came. She did banding with the kids. I had the close of bases and estuaries. We helped out at the Hummer for two years in a row now. That's Samuel Lynch. He's on a speaker talking to a bus of tourists. Precious. Um we help elderly people get in the bus. We help them get out of the bus. We

075give them water. Make a you know good uh view of the public. You know when they see our kids shaking their hands thanking them for coming to Rockport. It's cute. It's precious. a lot more than me doing it. All right, junior naturalist class. My second one. You went a lot of places, too. And again, I'm not going to read through all that with you guys, but I had a lot of guest presenters. I field trips. Linda Cox is shaking her head going, "Yeah, tell me about field trip." Every time I turn around, it's like I was going on another field trip. But kids don't learn to sit in a classroom. You got to get them out. This is my kind of my agenda. When the Texas Master Naturalists asked me, they're like, "Do you know

076what you're doing?" I just laughed for 30 years. Of course, I know what I'm doing. Uh had to plan it all out, what, you know, what was I going to do? When was I going to do that? Who was I going to have come talk to him? Uh what field trip were we going to do? Uh a couple of my field trips this year, we went to the Finy Ranch. We're collecting insects with professional enomologists. Uh we went on a research vessel. We're collecting different species of crabs. Had guest speakers come in my room in that picture there that Dustin Windsor with TPWD. He's their mammal specialist. Wow. Field trips. Trying to find field trips that go with each of those experiences to heighten kids knowledge. And it's not just a field trip. You know,

077you you picture some field trips where you're just walking, you're looking. Yeah, that's a fox. That's a coyote. I love that the places I go to have meaningful experiences for the kids. If you look at my chart, they're asking them questions like, "Do raccoons have any?" Well, of course they don't, but you know, kids need to know that. And then something else I really like, you know, the Texas Master Naturalists I've worked with, they do a big component of their big component of their project is a volunteer service project. And so I talked to them. I said, "I'd love my kids to do that." So we set up the oyster recycling project. And I second guessed myself when I did that. I was like, "I have eight-year-olds. They're going to get so tired hauling oysters

078around. Can I do this? You're crazy getting little eight-year-olds out there. And then I went to Josh went. I said, Josh, could you shadow my littles with your biggies? You know, have their kids come out. And of course, Josh is awesome. He's like, "Sure, I'll bring my kids out there, too." I do want to point that last picture you guys see up there. A lady with the cultural arts district is doing a nature documentary, and she asked if she could come videotape and interview our kids. And I said, "Sure." So, I got a video release of all of them. That documentary is going to be made public on June 20th. When I get a link to it, I'll share it with all you guys. Oh, and I need to mention too, um, people just find

079me, you know, they'll contact me. Hey, Martha, can I come see your field trip? I'm like, yeah, sure. I don't care. Come see the kids. Um, when I was doing one of my birding trips, a lady with TPWD magazine came out and she kind of hung out with us the whole day and she's going to be doing an article in TPWD magazine on birding with kids. When I get a link to that, I'll send it to everybody as well. That could be enough, right? My husband says, "Just do two programs." No, let's do more. Let's do a med medical class. I see a need for it. When my daughter is on job sites after college, my gosh, there's so many medical and veterinary careers out there and I'm like, we got to prepare these kids

080early. Um, I did a little rough timeline of what I do each month in my brain kind of planning out what do I want to study, who do I want to bring in, what field trips I want to do. This has showed you some of the guest speakers, presenters I had this year of the high school kids came out, they did suturing, they did flabbotomy with my littles. The uh, Ransom County Medical Services came back out, Dr. came again. We had Drisical Children's Hospital, a nutritionist come out, and I'm always brainstorming, what have I not exposed these kids to? I didn't know there was such a thing as a nutritionist when I was in elementary school. If we expect these kids to be successful in that, we got to start vocabulary now with them. Start

081showing them careers and things they could do. Field trips. Wow. I had a lot of field trips, too. I want the kids to see what is a uh physical therapist, what is a nurse practitioner, what is a veterinarian, what is a veterinarian technician, all these different careers. So, I'm trying to take the kids and expose them to a lot of different uh careers in the medical field. Okay, this is cute. This is one of my students here. If I can get it to play. We were learning the uh I'm trying to think of a nice way to say, you know, you got your excrement. You got to get rid of some waste in your body. And we were at Dr. Miller's vet office and the kids were looking at bladder stones and they were asking

082Dr. Miller, "What is a bladder stone?" He goes, "Well, you know your bladder and you know urine." And the kids were just like, "We haven't studied that." I'm like, "We'll cover that." So, we did a little diagram, little flowchart of the urinary system. the kids hadn't learned vocabulary again. Vocabulary, vocabulary. And I'll say something else. Every time I go on a field trip somewhere, one of the biggest things people tell me is, "You've got to get kids to talk. They need to learn to communicate with each other." So, what do I do in my class? I'm constantly going around with my cell phone. I'm like, "Tell me that again. I'm videotaping you." They're like, "Miss the cloud." I'm like, "No, you need to talk. You need to talk to me. You need to talk to

083others." So, I'm big on having kids verbalize. Say those big vocabulary words. So, let's see if I can get this to play this. I hope I get this done right. I love that that little girl doesn't have her own medical practice. One day I told her I said when you get out of medical school I want to be there and give you a high five. And Dr. Soda was saying the same thing. It's like she is so smart that little girl going on sixth grade. She should have real medical practice one day. But she was using urer, urethra, bladder, kidneys, using all those vocabulary words. Engineering classes. Engineering is problem solving. It's thinking. and I do two different engineering classes. I do engineering as elementary and kids spark engineering. The first day of class, I'll

084never forget when I started three years ago, I had a gifted kid leaving my class, his head hanging down. And I said, well, talk to me. Did you like my class? You know, I'm hyper. I'm excited. You know, I'm like, this kid's not excited as I am. What's going on? And he goes, oh, I don't know, Miss Mloud. Your class is just hard. I go, why? Why do you say that? I think my class I was helping you, encouraging. He goes, "Oh, you just don't have ABCD answer choices to pick from." Yeah, I like had to come up with the right answer myself. Like, wow, that was profound for a 10-year-old to say that. I said, "Well, that's engineering. You've got to come up with a problem." And teaching kids it's okay to fail. As

085Logan Burton over here as an engineer knows, you know, your first design, you're going to have to go back, maybe retweak it a little bit. And teaching kids, it's okay to fail, but let's learn from that failure. Let's improve upon it. So, I'm really enjoying my engineering classes. This is engineering is elementary. And I love that first little girl. That's Oh, she's a pistol. That's a little third grader. And when I start engineering, we got to talk about what is an engineer, what's a contractor. We loved watching teal construction out the window of my classroom. We're always peeking out there and they're like, "I hope those engineers knew what they were doing." I'm like, "Yeah, I know. Look at that roof overhang." But anyway, so this little girl is going to tell you the difference

086between the two. That's a huge concept, you know, and they have to do both in my class. So little boy next to her, they the kids had to use the blocks. They had to make a structure and then they had to draw it, take their structure, hide it, and hand the paper to someone else in the class. And the other kid had to build it. And then they had to critique each other. Were the plans good enough to help them build? how did they do on building that structure? And I'm sure Logan Burton gets critiqued in his job every day in his life. And I'm just using Logan because I invited him to my classroom a couple years ago. And it was awesome. One big lesson I got from Logan when he came in my

087room. We're building a design. I didn't give the kids a budget limit. And that was one of the first things Logan noticed, you know, was like, "Did you have a budget on your building?" I'm like, "Oh man, you know, imaginary world." And you make it more in real life. But anyway, so that's what that little boy in the second picture is doing is he's uh building from a design another kid handed him. Um this is also my engineering is elementary. They had to do a mechanical engineering project. And I love this because I'm telling them, of course, they know I'm going to film them. And what's cute in here is they're having to talk. And while they're talking and looking at me, they're actually troubleshooting their designs not working. And the other little boy realizes

088why the design's not working. So this is just precious. So there are a couple stuck on the book and they realize it and they fix it themselves. I'm real big on kids helping each other. They'll come up to me and they'll ask me for help. I'm like, I could help you, but I charge $100 a question. They're like, okay, fine with you. I'm going to the next kid. So, I'm trying to make them solve their own problems. So many of our kids now, as a loving mom or parent, we want to help our kids do everything for them, and it's really not preparing them for a real world. So when they come at my room, I'm I'm not going to ever make a kid feel like a failure, but I want them to solve their

089own problems or help each other to do that in my engineering classes. Okay. The other engineering class I have is Kids Spark. And it's totally different way of thinking. I like it. It's different. It's kind of a weird way to think. You get a tub of materials like you see that one girl holding. And then I put up on the screen. I I show a design whether we're doing uh rotary motion, linear, oscillating, different designs they have to create for me and they we do one together. So, we're all good on that. Then they have to come up with their own solution. And this is kind of neat. I like kids spark because it makes the kids uh they have to figure out a cost like teal engineer was doing with you guys and they

090have to do uh parameters. What is their length, their width, their volume? All that Whereas engineering is elementary use a lot of common materials like straws, paper cups, index cards. Uh kitspark uses prefab materials there and so they have to get familiar with the names of each of the pieces. Again, it's engineering but just a different way for the brain to work. And I'll say this, some kids that is my only program they want to be in is engineering. Others only want to do birding and so on. Some kids are good and they want to be in everything. They love that brain challenge. But just kind of neat to see what each kid is really, really good at. This one they had to we did rotary motion and then they had to come up with

091their own design. There's two little girls. My first year engineering, I think I had one girl and my daughter of course fussed at me. Seriously, mom, why is there only one girl in your class? If y'all know my daughter, she's very headstrong and u very much a doer. And so she hooked me up with uh the engineering society of women engineers and they gave me a lot of things promoted and so I'm happy now. I think my engineering is half girls. So, two different designs by two different kids. And again, you could tell the first girl hated talking. She just looked at me like, I really don't want to talk to you. Miss CL, but it's important. You and I have to talk to communicate. And so, they're going to get used to me by

092the end of this school year if I have to work every time they come to my class. But they were doing rotary motion and the first girl did a ferris wheel with the little seats turning. And again, that's totally from scratch. Y'all saw the tub. They got to create this design. They got to draw it out. And I didn't make them tell you the length, the width, the height, the depth or whatever, and the cost. But each piece has a cost to it. And when they do their final design, they have to present from the whole class and to tell those parameters. This year, I even had the kids go back to their home room teacher because they were so excited with some of their designs. And I loved it because I said, "Oh, yeah.

093If your teacher is cool with that, do not ever interrupt your teacher in class if she's trying to get something done. Um, Dr. also wanted me to give you all some stats. How many kids are in each of my programs? My programs vary from 20 to 25. I've got to be careful the number of kids I have because seats on a bus, entry fees. Most of my field trips so are free, but the more kids, as y'all know, the more kids you get in a class, the harder it is to do one-on-one. Ideally, it'd be great to have 10 or 12, but to me, that's not very costefficient. So, I try and push the maximum number of seats I have in my class. Uh, second question, how many have students have been in the program

094multiple years? Most of kids that are with me in third grade stay with me to fourth grade and to fifth grade. This, of course, was my third year. I noticed third graders are terrified of engineering. They don't know what it is. Medical, they're scared to death of two. They think it's going to be scary, icky, a lot of words to learn. Once they hear what the other kids are doing and some of their friends are in my program, uh they'll come to me and say, "Did anybody skip out of your class or move? Can I get in your class?" Uh by fifth grade, I have some kids, you know, Benji Hail, he was in every program I offered. Uh excelled. I think uh Michaela's daughter was in several of my classes as well. They learn,

095they like it. Once they get used to thinking kind of a free way to u analyze, they get excited and they want to be in a lot of my programs. Um approximately 20 30 kids have been in my program multiple years in a row. Some of them are already asking me about next year trying out. I'm like wait till August. We're done this year. No, we're not doing anymore this year. Um how much was spent in this year's budget? Y'all know me. I did recycling for so many years. My metal recycling program. I still have some money in that account. Um, I got a lot of grants that people came up to me, people, you know, will write a check to me. I We did our first overnight camp this year. Thank you, Linda Cox,

096for allowing me and Leslie Austin for doing that. Uh, one of the kids experience camping and Camparan Zoo allowed us to come. They cut the cost in half per child. I found a donor that paid for that. Was like $2,600. And I didn't I just thought of that driving over here and I did not put that in the total. This year I probably spent 4,000. That includes all the buses, me driving, uh, binoculars, field guides, uh, sheep parts to dissect and all all those little things. Um, the cost was about 4,000. Right now, I'm good on grant funding. More people keep coming to me asking if I need to write grants for them, and I'm like, hey, right now, I think I'm good on my amounts. But I'm loving what I'm doing. I think the

097biggest thing is we all look at these kids going on to college one day and trying to throw a little bug in their ear about a career, something to do, uh ideas to put in their mind that I never had when I was back in elementary school. And I see myself as like a a jeweler. Get my buffing cloth out. When the kids are in class, I'm polishing them. I'm like, "Oo, you got that vocabulary down." Uh those you in here, when you are passionate about something, it's hard to walk away from that. So, thank you all for allowing me to continue helping and working with these precious kids of Brockport Fulton ISD. Thank you, Miss McCloud, for coming in. I just want us to be able to Hold on. You can stay there because

098I'm going to talk about you. Um, I just want us to be able to celebrate all the programs we do. Our core classes are very important and and all that goes with core classes, but we do amazing things. And it doesn't just start at high school. Maritime is awesome. Welding, health sciences, culinary, floral design, but the love of that starts in elementary. And we are so lucky to have Martha and that her husband lets her come and and do more than two classes. She has four. And we want to continue to find funding. So, we're actually going to work with education foundation um because she actually had to cap some of her field trips. And I don't want to do that. if she wants to take them and as long as Linda Cox says yes,

099we want her to have all the resources she needs to make that program amazing. I just ask her every time we talk, how can I clone you with other people and I've had other schools ask me to come to them and and my my husband's like, "No, Fton." Thank you, Martha. And I'm like, "No, I'm I'm passionate. Been here 30 years. I love the kids at Rockport Fton ISD and uh we have an awesome school district. We have a lot of good things going on and y'all need to apply for the HEB award. Seriously, you know, I'm a judge for them and they have a school district award, a school board award. They have principal Linda Cox awards. Anyway, and I'm sitting there when I'm critiquing applications, I'm like, our school does that better. We

100got this going on. So, anyway, just something to think about. You know, the recognition only your first year here, but down the road you got good things going on and I love what you're doing. I love your support of me. Great. Mine's simple. I got to get home to dinner. My husband keeps texting me. It's I'm keeping it hot. Okay. Before you walk off, there's two two things I want to say. One is obviously you've had all three of my children and and what that program has done is not only with the boys being older and then my being younger. They've all bonded. They're able to go out, talk about birds, do that kind of stuff, but it's also bridged with grandparents, right? Like grandparents love to go look at nature, walk nature. And so

101there's a there's a relationship that's still going with that. So, thank you for that. Second, I want to give a shout out because if you allow a teacher to teach the way they want to, this is your end result. So, thank you for doing all that you do. That's huge, Michaela, because when you have a standard curriculum, as a teacher, I look in and go, I'm going to be done that. When you allow creativity to flow, as I'm teaching and the kids are excited over the urinary system with Dr. Miller at his vet clinic, they wanted to study it. I'm like, "Okay, we'll be on the urinary system next week." You know, it allows me to get excited, my passion gets excited, the kids get excited, and that that is authentic learning when you've got

102excitement all around. So, thank you all for allowing me to do that. All right, that brings us that brings us to agenda item 12. A consider take possible action to approve application for credit cards through Prosperity Bank in the name of Rockport Fulton ISD. Miss Henderson. Yes. So, we one last thing we still had in Ranges County ISD was our credit card. So, um we talked with Prosperity. They require it to go before the board. We're setting up the same way we have with our current credit cards. And once these are approved in line, then we'll we'll shut the others down. Any other questions? If not, I'll look for a motion. I move that the board approve the credit card application with Prosperity Bank with a credit limit of $40,000 with cards issued for the

103four names listed and approve Mary Kay Henderson as the administrator authorized to make all changes to the district and individual accounts. A motion. Do I have a second? All right. Motion made by M. Mr. Rand Mr. Burton. Sorry. Second by Mrs. Jarnell. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? Motion carries. 70. Go to 12B. Consider take possible action to approve mowing contract for district facilities. Mr. Natney. Okay. So, the district went out for RFP for to renew our mowing contract. Uh it went out the packet went out to eight vendors. We received three quotes back. uh of those quotes where the district has recommended PRR who is our current uh lawnmowering contract. So not only do we have a standing relationship with them, they were also the lowest bidder by large margin. So

104that's what's coming as a recommendation uh to renew contract with PRR. I'll look for a motion. I move that the board approve the mowing contract with TRR Landscaping and Lawn Care LLC for a two-year term from June 1st, 2025 to May 31st, 2027 with a possible 2-year extension if both parties agree. All right, we have a motion made by Mr. Randles, seconded by Mr. Romos. Any further discussion? Are they supposed to be cleaning the flower beds, too? They they don't do the flower beds. Yeah, Mike. I I just had a question about um we all know about the the budget challenges that we're facing and I remember at one point talking about um reducing the scope from previous years on this contract. Did that in fact happen? We we talked with them and that was

105actually considered before and we went back in the history of it and when you there is several months where we don't do four cuts. Some months we have to do four cuts in the years whenever we start getting the weeds and everything pop up. Uh we went through that and currently what we have is we we lower it to two cuts in the fall and then it goes back up to four in the spring. But that is the way we had it and when we discussed it we we really wanted to try to keep it looking clean. So we tried that in the past and that whenever I talked with previous uh previous person of my job they said it didn't work out very well because we just had weeds and then we had to

106call them out anyways to come. We just went with what we've been doing because it's just working. It keeps it up clean. So, we did discuss it, but we recommend to keep it up with the 72 cuts a year. Any other discussion? If not, we'll vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries 70. Move to 12 C. consider take possible action to approve LED lighting upgrades for baseball and softball fields. Mr. Natney. Okay. So, yeah, this would be a retrofit to our current poles at each of our baseball and softball. So, they would uh take out our current old hologen lights upgrading with LED. Uh the consumption would be about 40% less. It' be a savings of power about 40%. This will also add control to where we're able to control the

107time they come on. We can make them turn off when we want to. It won't we won't be relying on a human to actually go up there and flip a switch. We can do this remotely and set schedules. So, this is for both fields. Any other questions? And this is um paid from the bond. Yes, this would come out of the 2022 bond. All right. I'll entertain a motion. Make a motion. I make a motion to approve the baseball and softball LED lighting upgrade totaling $354,000 to be paid out of bond funds. We have a motion made by M. Randle, seconded by Mr. Burton. Any discussion? All right, we'll vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 70. Brings us to agenda item 13, which is a superintendent report. Dr. Austin. All right, we're

108going to start with our teaching and learning report since Dr. Carter has already um done hers. So, Miss Jessica Robbins. So, this month I talked about a couple of the most recent grants that we've received. And I just want to say that um you know we aren't in a system that has a grant department right that's writing grants and helping with that implementation. They always this grant these grants always come with strings attached. However, we have a team that is just really enthusiastic and energetic about going out and looking for that. It's been fabulous. Um Dr. Austin's connections that she brings in from her different experiences that have helped us connect with some people that maybe we wouldn't have known before. We continue to look for things that the state is putting out. And while

109yes, it's a lift on the administrative side to see these grants all the way through to the end, um it is really it is so worth it. And two of the most recent grants we're looking at, one is a $140,000 grant that will help us build out a literacy framework. Um and that comes with support. So there there's we interviewed several different um vendors that we could work with um companies that have been going through this process with districts. We interviewed, we looked for the best fit and and they'll work us through that process. Um even today I was going to turn something in and they said, "No, don't turn that in. Let us do it for you." So they they recognize when districts of our size need that additional layer of support to see

110these grants through and that's really helpful. um one that we're uh that's going to work toward building a literacy framework prek12. Um the other grant is supporting our special education, but it's starting at that district leadership level and really supporting our team first and making sure that we've got good systems, good vision. Um a lot of that work that if we aren't coming from the right frame of mind as district leaders, um doesn't make it successfully to the campus level. I I can't quantify that with a dollar amount just yet, but we were accepted to be part of a pretty tiny group that was selected um to be part of this great network that is specifically related to special education. So, two areas in our data that were heavily focused on that we just attached

111pretty hefty initiatives to to help with some of that support work. And then Candy Morris, every time I see her, she wrote another grant or applied for another grant. So, um I don't know when she's sleeping, but she did. Um the effective advising framework support grant is going to help us keep moving towards some CCMR goals. Um we just got another grant that's going to help with mental health and making sure that we have ways of looking at that from um much earlier than when the need arises more proactively. So just lots of that going out and finding the access to funds and then making sure it's tied to goals we already have that we're not just layering things on for the sake of applying for grants but looking for things that are connected to

112the work that we're doing and align with that um strategic work that strategic planning. Any questions? Thank you guys. All right, so we're going to move to our business office report. Miss Kathy Henderson. So the tax uh collections are still remaining on in line from last year and a little ahead of prior years. So I expect that to to remain um at year end the little over 97% that we've been you know the last I can't even remember how many years but that looks good. Um school courses were winding down so our expenditures are line winding down as well except for what operations will do this summer and of course our payroll goes through August. So we're still online there but we're still watching all expenses on that. Any questions on budget? Woohoo. We will

113move to our human resources report, Miss Molly Adams. Um, I'm excited to uh finally announce our director of special education that we hired a few months ago. She was Yay. she was not able to attend um the meeting last month due just due to the holidays and everything that she was going to get back to her family. Um but Jane Madano has been a blessing to this district. Um we don't always get hires correctly, but we did this time. Um and during the Special Olympics this um just a little bit ago with Mr. Glaus, Jessica said, "Do you hear her? She knows them by name or nickname." and she is talking to kids as she has known them for many, many years. So, Jane, thank you. Jessica, thanks for holding out until we found the

114right person. Um, but she is a blessing to this district, to the students, um, and to the special education staff. They are receiving and will continue to receive great support by her to build, um, our special education program where it needs to be. Thank you. Did you want to say anything? She does not. Oh, okay. I'll tell her. She did come from Wakahhatchee, Texas. It's not called Waxahhatchee. It's Wakahhatchee. That's right next to May Pearl if you didn't know that. It's right next to May Pearl and Italy. Italy. Yep. Italy. Um she did um get her B sorry bachelor's and her first master's degree from Texas&M Commerce. Um and then she later went on to complete a second master's degree from the University of Texas at Tyler. Um she has been in education for over

11521 years. Um a lot of those years have been in special education. So the leadership and the knowledge that she has is just tremendous to the program that we will have at Rockport Bolton ISD. Um, also you will see that last Friday we actually uh closed the survey that went to students to staff and to the families as well. Um, and this is just a summary of those results. You'll see that student surveys, we surveyed the fifth grade students at Fulton, you had a great turnout of 152 students. Come on, middle school, we had 49 students. High school, you had 465. Um you'll see that the strengths were about teachers. They make it fun and interesting while also encouraging students to think critically. Uh many students are engaged in a ton of extracurricular activities. I

116think that's shows you exactly when they are recognized at board meetings or at banquetss. The two and a half hour banquet the other night for athletics is amazing. Three. Maybe Michaela said three, but it's amazing. That's how many kids are involved in multiple things. We had band banquetss, NHS uh banquetss, um uh ROC. I the list could go on and on. Um kids do have high aspirations for the future. Students feel like they're at least there's at least one trusted adult that they feel that they can go to for anything on campus and there is security presence visible on all campuses and majority of students feel that they are safe on campuses. I don't think that this is a surprise. The areas of concern are bullying, discipline issues, and at the high school, lots and

117lots of talk about restrooms and vaping in the bathrooms. The family surveys for elementary, live oak 35, Fulton 46, strength, strong communication between home and school. Uh the newsletters that continue to go out, I as a parent get them. There's great things in them. Always something to learn and what's coming. um teacher outreach, making sure that our teachers are reaching out to families and that they also feel that they can reach out to the teacher. That is huge that they feel that that they are welcomed. Um students feel safe, supported in their learning. Um and then this was a highlight. Uh our fine arts and our GT programs were very highly rated at our elementary campuses. Um areas of concern, bullying. Um but there was also a note um consistent about homework. Could be lack

118of homework, could be the difficulty of homework, or just not understanding of how to help my student with the homework. Our secondary campuses, 30 participants for the middle school, 62 for the high school. Families are confident assessing the school information. Same thing with those newsletters and feel welcomed when they come on campus. um and they feel uh and then areas of concern goes back to bullying and student discipline as well. Very consistent staff. So the first one is about our central office and our auxiliary departments maintenance, transportation and such. There were 25 responses. They feel that it's a professional and respectful work environment. They trust the district leadership and they have strong relationships within their departments. They are like family. uh concerns um campus safety and security. Just making sure we we're probably the ones

119that think at the district level the what could um and we want to make sure that we're doing everything possible um to make sure that our students and staff are safe. uh concerns of just making sure that we know exactly what the unification process and emergency procedures look like and as staff the rising health co health insurance cost. Live oak campus 33 responses. They understand the academic goals and how to use student data. Um timely feedback on their observations and walkthroughs and campus leadership holds high expectations. concerns um desire for more involvement in campus decision making um student disrespect toward staff and health insurance costs as well. Bolton 38 responses strengths understanding the academic goals and how to use data um and regular constructive feedback on instruction concerns student discipline campus culture mental health supports

120for students and staff. Middle school 26 responses including strengths visible security presence effective use of student data and administrators are aware of the staff's student uh strengths and areas of growth concern student behavior in the hallways and in restrooms and consistent enforcement of discipline and staff accountability and the high school 37 responses understanding of academic goals caring relationships among co-workers again that family culture and security is presence on uh on campus and concerns discipline, bullying, vaping in the bathrooms and healthcare. [Music] Um I I don't think that any of a lot of these are a surprise to us. Um and so it is something that we are really working on that's going to drive that strategic plan. That's why some of those priorities and objectives and action steps um are going to be very critical

121at looking at this data and then putting motions into action. Um we thank everybody for filling filling this out. If we don't hear from people, we're not going to know how to fix it. So, I just want to say thank you to the staff, to the students, and to the families at home as well. And just our next steps are um of course after every board meeting I do a pirate perspective. So we will be putting these results in there and just saying those go into our SWAT analysis our CNA and DNA. I know it's not all that but it's the dip and the sip and the all those things that we already have been working on. And because we have been constantly asking the questions um we knew a lot of this was coming.

122The one thing I want to celebrate, did you all hear? We know our academic goals and we know how to look at data on every single campus. Um, so I I want to celebrate that too. I just had a simple question. I just noticed that the student section was not broken down by campus like the others, but I mean I'm assuming y'all have it by campus or not the student. We do and I'm and I put it together because that was the strengths of each single campus and of and the and the concerns. They were very consistent across all three campuses. I just lumped them together. I'm going to comment because I'm on several teacher pages um deal with it myself that we're not alone in dealing with the student discipline and the bullying problem

123and it is a challenge to find those answers because we're also not the only influence on it. So that community support, that family support helps us a ton in getting that bullying and that discipline problem down and making sure that we are making those connections with families so that way they understand the seriousness and what we're trying to do to build those relationships. It's not about consequences to a bully. It is about building a relationship to stop the bullying behaviors and make sure that the kids who the kids who are being bullied are supported. The kids who are bullying are being supported because there's a loss and a struggle on both sides that we as educators, as staff, as admin all need to be able to do and work together to find ways to help

124those kids. All right. So, we're going to move to our athletic department report. Coach Sosa. All right. Um, so we did uh have our fall or our winter and spring banquet this uh this week. We gave over 215 certificates uh for everybody from all the winter sports from wrestling all the way to track and golf. So, uh and anything in between. So, that shows the the great participation numbers of just the varsity letters. Uh so that was uh that was a great event and thank you to the pirate club for helping sponsor that. Uh as we heard track uh we had Addison and Logan uh the state qualifying, Logan getting uh fifth and Addison getting eighth. Uh we did have multiple boy qualifiers for regionals. Uh golf obviously Hannah the superstar that she is. Uh

125Talon Kinfield, he was the lone boy that was a regional qualifier. didn't make it to state, but he was a regional qualifier. Uh tennis, we had six individuals qualify for the regional tournament last week. Uh they were up in San Antonio on uh on Wednesday and Thursday, and they competed really well. Uh baseball and softball, they made it to the playoffs. Uh fortunately, softball lost in a three-game series to Zapata, who is playing in the regional finals, uh I think tonight against Engleside. So uh um there's that. Well, I was thinking that we were done with our our academic or our athletics, but we actually do have four more athletes competing this weekend in the Coastal Bin Coach Association. Uh Cali Darnold, she is competing in the volleyball game at Miller High School at 10:00

126a.m. on Saturday. And then Trevor Garcia, Dawson Phillips, and Austin Broer are representing uh the Pirates in the football game that we held at Buck Stadium on on Saturday evening. So, if y'all don't have anything to do on Saturday, go out and support our kids uh one last time wearing the uh the green and gold. So, uh it's going to be a fun event. The Coastal Business Coach Association does a really good job with that. I was waiting. Where's the cheers? All right, Mr. Natany with our operations report. Okay. So, some of the projects we had uh over the past month is the Livo playground fill replacement was completed. Um the kids according to Miss Denise Poland uh tend to love it. So, it's all it turned out really nice. Uh it's blue so it's

127kind of like you're in the ocean, you know, we have that ship there. So, then you got the ocean to fill. Uh so, that was just finished I believe last week. Last week. And then uh for general maintenance and upkeep, we had James Rambler there. We had one of our SCAG zeroturn mowers uh actually had a bad head gasket, so he was able to replace the engine and do an in-house repair and got us back up and going. And then for our next slide, please our budget uh 725 725,998 was our beginning budget. So far we've encumbered 515,878. May expenditures were 32,462. Have 210,24 remaining. Uh some of the upcoming work we have. So we're preparing for graduation. Uh getting everything uh ready for that. Uh we have a stage that's going to be delivered

128the day before graduation. Get it set up. And then we have all the chairs and everything we bring. Um, also setting up the streaming. Uh, we're getting everything ready for that summer work. We have wax already coming in to get ready for waxing all the floors. All of our other materials. We have some of our summer projects. We're getting ready for that. We have uh finish all of our walkthroughs for the campuses. We have our lists of everything we have to get ready for summer. That's it. If there's any question, be happy to answer. All right, it's end of our department reports. All right, that brings up agenda item 14, consent agenda. Superintendent may consolidate items on the agenda summary for possible group action or any trustee may suggest group action or items to expedite

129the meeting board. Are there any questions or items you want to remove from consent agenda? If not, I'll look for a motion. I second. All right, we have a motion made by Mrs. Jarnell, seconded by Mrs. Austin. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 70. All right, that brings us to agenda item 15. So, at this time, 8:15 p.m., we will recess an executive session pursuant of the Texas Government Code section 551071, 551072, 5510, 074, and 551076. Are you serious?