Roma ISD Regular Meeting

001you foreign uh good evening everyone it's it's already six o'clock clarissa might be a little bit late so i'm going to start conducting the meeting for now and hopefully she can join us in a bit okay but do we have a core uh i believe so let me let me start understanding i i hadn't opened up the screen i was just seeing the first screen all right and then she might just show you join us in a minute now so let's just start with the meeting uh good evening everybody we're about to start this meeting it is now six o'clock and we will call this regular meeting of the board of trustees of the roma independent school district being held on this thursday september 24 2020 to order let the record show show that this

002meeting was newly posted according to the texas open meetings act texas government code 551 agenda item number one roll call board president clarissa b alvarez board secretary da roberto salinas president board member p moreno jr here board member ricardo ai perez here board member miss mrs laticia garcia i'm here uh mr science i'm sorry just before okay i wasn't getting a video on anybody i just want to make sure that my uh that my device is working properly but i just saw mr salinas thank you okay all right and board member mr reynaldo rodriguez and myself board vice president of quantity science here although members are not gathered in a central physical location let the record show we do have a quorum in attendance at this meeting by video conference notice of school district regular

003meeting to be held by the video conference and to the conference for the benefit of the members of our community who are listening to her to this meeting either live or via a recording i would like to make a few announcements in response to the coordinator writer's cover 19 on march 16 2020 texas governor greg abbott temporarily suspended a limited number of open meetings laws for the present time school district can conduct board meetings but via media conference or teleconference instead of holding face-to-face meetings to promote proper social distances distancing and in the interest of maintaining the safety of roma isd employees parents students and board members the district has elected to conduct this meeting via video conference let the record reflect that the district has complied with all applicable applicable meeting open meetings act

004posting requirements notice was posted both physically and online on the roma website for more than 72 hours before this meeting for purpose our meeting tonight please be advised of the following number one at tonight's meeting board members are not gathering a central physical location but we do have a live quorum in attendance by video conference members of the board are meeting by use of the microsoft zoom software application members of the public engaging in public comments will provide access via micros microsoft zoom to allow for two-way communication zoom is available for download in your computer or smartphone all members of the public will also have live access to the meeting via live stream feed available on the district website this is a remote meeting and obviously we cannot promise that those sorry that this system

005will be free of complications but we generally anticipate that the systems will provide enough capacity to accommodate everyone three to avoid potential connection problems i would also encourage all members of the public to make sure you are in location with a secure internet or telephone signal four the district has provided notice that members of the public who wish to participate in public comments can register to do so by emailing the district in advance of the meeting for anyone who register in advance you will receive an invitation to participate in the zoo meeting at the appropriate point in the meeting and and then afford and and giving afford afforded time to provide public comments for future meetings conducted during the present emergency the district may also allow members of the public to submit reading comments in

006advance which will be ready for the which will be read by the board secretary into the records of the meeting five all other procedures regarding the conduct of this meeting will adhere to board adopted rules six please be aware that a recording of this video will also be made available to the public as required seven if any person has any questions about the procedure associated with this board meeting please feel free to contact the district agenda item number two invocation and is presented actually by me and then the pledge of allegiance by mr daverto salinas lord may your goodness and love be present among us today come bless our gathering with unity hope and vision lord we pray for unity build in us all the deepest prayers for one another lord we pray for hope

007come stir your hope within our hearts and renew our faith lord we pray for vision make your vision fill our life as we seek to revere your love we ask all this in the glorious name of jesus amen amen i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america enter the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you mr salinas agenda item number four public comments do we have any um mr no we don't mr science we don't have any but he signed up thank you mr guzman okay now we have agenda under five it's a consent agenda and uh we have items a through h approval of minutes from previous meetings we have presenter mr alfonso perez we also have approval of

008bills investment report financial update report transportation report tax collection report fixed assets report and student enrollment report mr perez good evening good evening i have a question uh mr science to mr perez on on a transportation report uh how many how many buses mr perez are running uh i guess the meals on wheels and what have you other i mean i don't know i believe we have about eight buses right now running and throughout the summer there were the same number of buses or they've increased i guess as the school starts yes from the meals areas to cover yes correct thank you sir yes uh i have a question uh mr science uh for mr pence thank you sir mr pitt is uh the the the funding uh for the transportation for the meals on

009wheels um do we get additional funding for that it's a different funding source it's it's uh is there like a grant or something that that helps us pay for the transportation they do reimburses for it it's it's the same as a as a regular solution that we're using okay okay because i saw that we had a lot of savings obviously right because there's no school so that that's great uh we have a lot of savings because uh i guess the fuel isn't being used as it was before um are we still getting the same funding for the transportation department from the from the federal and state funding or was that some of the funding that was cut is that something the way that works that's why the miles run so they they usually pay us

010for the miles we actually use so it's actually going to be less it's going to be less okay that was my question um i also have a question for for mr garcia regarding the student enrollment i don't know if he's available yes ma'am hi mr garcia good evening how are you doing sir good evening uh mr garcia i was looking at the numbers and and they look pretty good i was i know i initially i was a little bit concerned about that but it looks pretty good it's i think it's less than 100 students less so i know that that when they're doing or working on the budget that you're usually pretty conservative and go with about 100 students less so we should be within within the funding within that means right that is correct

011man we are 40 about 42 students below from the snapshot to today so uh um the the large number where we had our losses was our pre-k students so we had about 90 students less this year which is uh high for considering obviously the pandemic issue that we have it's uh sort of expected i would say yes and and i think that some of these kids stayed at the head start mr garcia just because they were i guess they were familiar with the program and um they really didn't know you know what uh maybe what the process was but i think that we'll pick them up hopefully within next year so no uh i'm glad uh that that the numbers are good in regards to student enrollment and we won't lose any any funding there

012you mentioned on the snapshot 42 less between last year in october and uh and today do we anticipate more enrollment or we do yes usually we start going up uh we usually peak around april so we do expect uh the following year that's when we peak so we do expect to start growing hopefully from now obviously because uh it's a a virtual enrollment we uh a lot of things are are are unknown uh we do have kids that are actually moving out and we're allowed to service them out of the district so we're working with those uh those different uh new rules that were put in place well that's good is it just a benefit for the for our students i mean having that the flexibility yes all right anybody else thank you and i

013guess uh administration staff uh thanks to director ricardo esparza from transportation and mr j.j trevino for providing those meals you know not in the sun not only in the summer but you know they kept going throughout the school year i know there was a break for two three weeks without because of endemic but many kids and you know thanks i know a lot of parents are are grateful and because a lot of kids you know they depend on the school meals uh especially when when there's school class you know when there's regular classes and to keep uh you know providing meals it's it's something you know something great from uh from isd so so my hat's off to everybody who's has part in it yeah and they're also providing any separate mr suddenness uh no

014it's three meals yeah yeah i do agree with mr salinas they're doing an outstanding job job and just continue doing serving their kids that's what we're we're about that's that's about it uh anybody else has any questions on items a through h and if not is there a motion i still make a motion to prove uh five eight through eight as presented you have a motion by mr moreno second second by mr salinas any other discussions or any other questions before we vote on it all those in favor raise your right hand or say hi okay so we have three against one of staining standing i'll be upstanding as well mr suns okay so three three eight okay before four three in favor two obstaining one f two absent so mochen does not pass yeah

015passes it passes oh yes three two sorry yes sorry sorry it does pass it does that sorry i'm thinking about the four sorry yes we do have the three against two all right um item number uh agenda number six public hearing on the application of the star solar range llc controller application number 1438 for an appraised value limitation on qualified property pursuant to chapter 313 of the texas property tax code and we have presenter kevin o'hallon o'hanlon yes good afternoon um thank you all so much for having us here my name is eden ramirez and i'm here with mr kevin o'hanlon who's also here i'm here there you go yes sir um so what are we going to do tonight one of the first things is that we're going to present the findings for the

016board regarding this uh text limitation i'm sorry do you have questions are they just cutting off so no no i'm i'm sorry i'm on the road and excuse me it's my husband's birthday so we're uh [Music] that's fine we're gonna go celebrate but i didn't want to miss the meeting um so the first things that i'm going to be doing uh in my part is we're going to be presenting the findings of the roma independent school district board of trustees for the economic development uh 313 star solar ranch llc and so part of the process that we need to do is we need to um present the findings and adopt the findings so i'm going to be covering this i'm going to see if i have the ability to share my screen i don't know

017if we have that as guest alright so i i won't be able to share my screen that's fine but i am gonna go over it it's gonna be a little bit of reading and i'm gonna just have it ask everyone to be patient with me uh we do have to get all this in the record so um i'm gonna you know go over this and condense it as much as possible where i can but i want to make sure that we hit the findings um so we know exactly what we're gonna be approving uh so i'm gonna go ahead and start that's okay with everyone yes sure go ahead thank you sir so essentially uh you might have a copy of this in your board packets uh the first page of this is just reciting

018uh the history and how he got here back in 2019 and september the board proceeded to move forward with the application and move forward with the 313 tax agreement for uh star solar ranch llc who's going to be doing some investment in your district and the first two pages is that recitation to an extent um the first board finding that we have here tonight is that the board finds that the property described in the application meets all the requirements for the texas tax code uh sub chapter 313.024 the eligibility for a limitation on appraised value what this is essentially is just that we are acknowledging that the piece of land that is coming here meets all of the limitations under 313024 b5 of the tax code essentially this is an eligible property for us to

019work with a tax abatement agreement finding number two the project proposed by the applicant is reasonably likely to generate before the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the limitation period tax revenue including state tax revenue school district maintenance and operation ad valorem revenue attributable to the project and any other tax revenue a attributable to the effect of the project on the economy of the state in the amount sufficient to offset the district maintenance and operations uh ad valorem tax revenue lost as a result of the agreement you're going to see this breakdown of these finances and how the numbers work out and that's going to be part of attachment b of the comptroller's certification that should also uh should be there so finding number two is essentially that you know we make the appropriate findings

020the numbers work out for an agreement of this sort and the the district essentially was not going to be out of money at the end of this project number three based on the information certified by the comptroller the limitation on appraised value is a determining factor in the applicant's decision to invest capital in construction the project uh in this state and that's detailed in attachment c of the comptroller certification essentially that because of the appraised value limitations we're going to be granting the applicant we're going to be they're going to be able to justify their numbers for this large investment in your district finding number four the board finds that the application fee received was reasonable and only in such amount that was necessary to cover the district's cost of the processing the application under

021uh consideration that you're going to be able to find in the application fee payment uh in the attachment a of that schedule also essentially that the fee that was paid and everything was you know within reason and business finding number five based upon the application and the comptroller's economic impact evaluation and certification attachment a the board finds that the number of jobs to be created and the wages to be paid comply with the requirements and statute of the law and the board further finds that chapter 313 tax limitation agreement attachment g contains all required provisions and information related to the job requirements to which the provisions set forward in section 9.1 c and d of the agreement essentially we're making the finding that the jobs that are going to be coming in thanks to this

022uh project that we're going to be uh helping out with are going to meet the definition of a qualified job as defined on 313.021 of the tax code finding number six based upon the information provided to the board to the district with regard to the industry standard for staffing ratios of similar projects in the state of texas the district has determined that if the job creation requirement set forth in the tax code was applied for the size and scope of the project described the required number of jobs meet or exceeds the industry standard for the number of employees in other words we're making sure that the numbers that are required to be developed under this project are going to be part of this project and that there are sufficient jobs they're going to be created

023to meet the legal requirement for this project finding number seven the applicant does not intend to create any non-qualifying jobs that means every job is going to be created will be a qualifying job uh board finding number eight the revenue gains that will be realized by the school of district if the application is approved will be modest in the long term with special reference to the revenues used for supporting the school district debt as you know there was an analysis that was done and we'll be discussing more of this with milk and casey coming up uh in terms of what the project would actually be and that would be initially add up to about 77.7 million of your tax phase board finding number nine the effect of the applicant's proposal if approved on the number

024of size of the needed for the school district instructional facilities is not expected to increase the district's facility needs with current trends suggests little underlying enrollment growth-based impact for the project you're going to be finding these evaluations from ta as part of your attachment letter f board finding number 10 the board finds that with the adoption of school district policy ccgb local implemented in conformance with both the comptroller and the texas education agency rules governing chapter 313 it has developed a process to verify either directly or through its consultants the accuracy of the completeness of information in the annual eligibility reports and biennial progress reports regarding one the reported number of jobs created and two the reported amount invested in the property finding number 11 the board of trustees has hired consultants to review and

025verify the information in the application based upon the consultant's review the board has determined that the information provided in the application is true and correct we can rely on this because your consultants have prepared and signed statements that the consultants have reviewed and verified the contents of the application and have made it determine that the current statements of fact contain the application are true and correct board finding number 12 the board of trustees has determined that the text the tax limitation amount requested by the applicant is currently 25 million dollars which is consistent with the minimum values set out by the tax code you're going to be able to find this in the limitation agreement on attachment letter g and that of course conforms in accordance with the form 50-826 of a texas comptroller finding

026number 13 the board finds that the chapter 313 tax limitation agreement which is attachment number g that we went over contains all necessary provisions and information related to the establishing of the required investment amount the amount sent forward in two point five asset agreements we rely on this certification because of the consultants and there's a statement that they've made and you're going to be able to find that in attachment letter i we have board finding number 14 the applicant a taxpayer 3206-7903-784 is eligible for the limitation on appraised value of qualified property as an active franchise tax paying entity this basically says that we comply with chapter 177 of the texas texas tax code and we certify that they're an active uh franchise taxpayer from the comptroller's office board finding number 15 the agreement for

027the appraised value limitation on qualified property pursuant to chapter 313 of the texas tax code attached here to as attachment g includes adequate and appropriate revenue protections for the district such as provisions to comply with the 313 you're going to be finding this in support through the reports that were developed by moke and casey the district does have protections for its revenues so as to make sure that the district is protected finding number the board finds a chapter 313 tax limitation agreement attachment g contains all the required provisions necessary for the board to assess performance standards and require periodic deliverables that will be enable it to hold business accountable for achieving the desired results requirements set forward in article 8 of the agreement board finding number 17 the board finds that there are no conflicts

028of interest at the time of considering the agreement the board finds that with the adoption of board policy bbfa and bbfb that are set forth in your local in your policies online uh the district has taken all appropriate action to ensure that district trustees and the superintendent have disclosed any potential conflicts of interest and that such disclosures will be made or have been made if they arise in the future under texas local government code 171.004 board finding number 18 the board directs that a link of its website be established to the comptroller's office website where appraisal limitation related documents are made available to the public so the public knows exactly how the numbers are working out and board finding number 19 considering the purpose and effect of the law and the terms of the agreement

029that it is in the best interest of the district and the state to enter into the attacks agreement for limitation of appraised value of property for school district maintenance and operation taxes it is therefore ordered that we adopt these findings uh as we move forward with the project with star solar ranch llc uh mr o'hallon is on here right now i know we have milk and casey also to present some of the finances in case you have any questions so we're hoping to answer any questions you might have at this point uh thank you mr ramirez um i have one question to our school attorney mr weller um have you all reviewed this uh with uh mr perez and mr guzman i know i know it states public hearing but i i know it needs

030action so that's why that's the only reason i'm asking stephen mr suns i've not had a chance to review it as of yet i can i'm certainly available to do that as soon as the district would like me to if you would like me to do that mr perez since this state in public hearing i mean we will take action on it you're not new that isn't isn't that what's called isn't that on number seven i'm sorry yeah uh you don't take action on the public hearing the the the action comes after this okay from seven to ten seven seven okay that's fine i have a question mr science yes uh mr mr perez uh our school attorney wasn't wasn't uh reviewing this contract this isn't something that that he was working on no uh

031we were dealing with with mo casey and with mr o'hanlon and we're going back and forth on it and and uh and then of course this is what this is for and then it'll be reviewed afterwards just it was the initial application correct right right yeah we we got hired to do the legal work on this uh yes you go by the board yeah you're right so then so then this is the application um to see if it's gonna be a benefit or are we already approving uh the actual because i know you read like all the the results or what the the findings i guess so uh those are that's already like the recommendation like it's already been submitted uh and is is coming to the board for approval for the actual project correct

032yes the the we'll get to the draft in a minute dan casey's on the line and he's going to go through the finances of this i can talk there's an agreement which is attached to the findings as well uh the finding the agreement uh as is required prior to present to the board has to be sent to the controller's office and reviewed by them for statutory compliance that's been done the controller's office has signed off on the agreement it doesn't mean you have to uh it's still going to be up to you in terms of that but it is up for uh approval tonight if you're ready to go on it so we've been through all the the vetting of it we've been through the compliance issues we've been through the financials daniel talked about

033that in a sec so we we should be good to go if you guys are mr or hanlon when did we initiate this contract i don't recall the date i know i know i think mr ramirez mentioned it do we have that date when we initiated that contract with y'all if you'll give me a second i'll look it up but uh that's fine okay mr signs these are um the function in which mr o'hanlon's firm is working for the district is in relationship to this agreement particularly we have they have worked in this function on prior agreements yes so it's a it's a um it's a circumstance where it's it's a specialized engagement for this contract um we've reviewed their contracts in the past didn't have adjustments to the last one i'm certainly willing to

034look at it if that would make the district more comfortable if that's the board's wish but but we have handled matters like this in this manner in the past and you're right i know i know we you said i mean i know they're the other attorneys that take care of all this particular projects and then it's we always recommend for your your i mean your for you for review in case we have any questions but yeah i know it's the norm that they they are the attorneys for this project yes sir and i just wanted you to be comfortable with that process and anything you'd like me to do i'm obviously willing to do that that's fine thank you thank you for that clarification mr weller that that would that was that was going to

035be my question uh mr uh i think you you just mentioned it right now we've gone through this process if i'm not mistaken uh maybe once or twice uh wasn't it not with the water mills mr o'hanlon was here we've kind of done this so this is pretty much isn't it the same thing but just of course it's not windmills now it's it's solar panels but isn't it the same process yeah it's essentially the same process so you're looking at the same situation thank you sir uh mr o'hanlon i'm sorry um where is where exactly is this property sir that you all are working on this initial this initial property and um uh i mean obviously it's in roma is the jurisdiction right because that's why we're approving it uh but but do you have

036the address for that property or or i don't know we can discuss the owners or um i just want to know where the property is and is this the first solar project uh solar power project i know we've done the wind farms um i i i don't know i mean i remember that that mr willer i think reviewed that contract but uh it may be like he says that after after we approved it then he just made sure that everything was handled and was done uh correctly if you look at the the if you have your books in front of you if you look at exhibit four which is right at the back of the the agreement behind tab g there's a propeller there's a map it is mostly is is there a problem mr

037hanlon was saying the name because you know what there's there's nothing wrong with is is there a problem with that stephen with saying that the the name i don't have the names of the landowners i can tell you approximately where the land is there's no problem mentioning that but we we all we all know and and there's nothing wrong with it it so happens that he has a property and if i'm not mistaken i think isn't it mr veda's property judge vera's property you all have to ask the company representative so this is the property on loma blanca it's north probably it's mostly north of 83. it's mostly look at it i could use better lighting in here [Music] not to interrupt again this is evan horn i'm a representative of star solar ranch and

038bill weber who's the local developer of this project's on it as well so you know if this would be a point that you would like us to speak kevin um mr signs mr perez we'd be more than willing to do yeah if you guys have got more information about the location i mean just for the benefit of the board members are asking that sign no problem and bill's the expert in this so bill's on mute but i'm going to turn it over to him and let him kind of give you a general idea um bill pleasure to be with the board and i was trying to get my uh video to work i'll try to get it to work efforts but uh and thank you for the opportunity to speak um yes the the project

039is approximately four and a half miles north of us highway 83 on loma blanca road um it was on the east side of loma bronco road uh and actually today i was at the uh the county offices we were just awarded our uh 911 address so the official address for the 911 address is uh 424 loma blanca road um and if you're traveling north on loma blanca road you would see the uh there's a substation uh the roma tap substation which is on the left-hand side the west side of the road but the project is on the right-hand side and there are uh judge vara is uh is one of uh seven landowners there are seven surface owners um in the project um and so i'd be happy to if if you need all the

040list of the surface owners i'd be happy to get that for you as well thank you mr webber um thank you later david we need more information we'll contact you anybody else has any other questions on item number six okay we're gonna move on to also mr science i don't have a question i just have a concern uh can you hear me i'm sorry you're you're coming [Music] we do approve it i i think we may need the names is that better or no yeah that is better a little bit better yes hello is that better yeah we can hear you i don't know if you can hear us or you can hear me is that better mr science yes it is can you hear me okay uh we need the names uh yes yes

041i can hear you okay can you hear me yes i i think what you're what you're trying to ask it's a list of the names and i'm pretty sure we can get that information is that correct mr ozman i believe uh bill just said that he could uh provide that information i don't know if he had with him right now or not but i believe he did say he could provide the other names mr signs this is evan horn again with the project i have a concern i don't know if uh maybe we may need the property owners uh just i guess that list of uh property owners if it's in in that area of loma blanca i would be uh i would be concerned uh over there being a conflict of interest on my

042part so i before i would decide anything that i just want to make sure that a family owner is not part of that list i know mr ramirez mentioned something about conflict of interest correct mr ramirez king can we get some clarification for each board member in case there is uh a need for that uh yes yes um sorry there you go uh yes of course if you know right now you currently have a policy for conflict of interest and i'm not sure that it will extend to the landlord owners here and if it does unless you are a direct landowner or something then i'd be more concerned about that i mean do you have any concerns right now with family members that you might have there that we we need to look at specifically

043that would probably be the best way to to to address that but that's that break but let me address that briefly the conflict of interest policy is a little bit different than the nepotism policy conflict interest policy requires that you uh abstain if you have an interest in the property uh or the if you're a direct lessor of the of the lamb or your parents or your children have an interest it's not like nepotism where cousins get nephew nieces mr mr o'hanlon i'll make it real easy and i hate for things to be in other words back and forth beating around the bush let's let let's just be where it is if i'm not mistaken i think they're getting my brother-in-law might have uh a a piece he might you might want to talk if

044that's what they're getting at because you know what let's if there's something there let's say it if you want i don't know why just mr moreno this has nothing to do with your family it has everything to do with my sister and i just want to make sure that everything is uh above board so don't get ahead of the game let me just one second let me just excuse me one second i've already heard my brother's name being mentioned out that's why i'm mentioning it that's why if you own the land or are getting a special benefit from it your children have the land are getting a special benefit from it or your parents do that's it okay that's that that that's the reach of the conflict of interest law it's more narrow than the

045nepotism prescription that's just how the statute's drawn so if it's brothers or in-laws no all right thank you appreciate it what i'm going to say on that is that um you know as a district we're extremely careful with those kinds of issues the statutes um are complicated in the way that they're written um there are a series of family members or extended family members it could potentially be brought in and there's two different statutes involved potentially there's a couple of different chapters we're very very cautious with those types of issues and and i'm more than happy to help any board member who has any concern about a family member or an extended family member to fully vet that and make sure that everybody was comfortable before they vote on something of that nature in a

046situation like this what we would really try to do is to have those conversations so that folks know whether they should comfortably be participating in a vote or not um so mr weller i think that's an excellent idea because that's the reason y'all have a monitor is a violation of one of those conflict of interest statutes and so i think that would be great so that we can avoid any other investigations or problems well without commenting on that um i i will just repeat that we would be very happy to make sure that we um are fully complying with those disclosure rules in this instance thank you stephen for clarifying that uh i guess if anybody i know they already mentioned the their relation and i think there is no conflict right now so i

047know mr owen helen just clarified that so with that said anybody else has any discussion for item number six even though it was a public hearing enough so we can move on to item number seven uh i have one question for from mr weller uh stephen weller i'm sorry so so do you recommend that we wait to discuss this because that i mean that was my concern that i didn't want to approve something without um without making sure that proper disclosures were filed or or anything like that um you know now that we're aware of everything so i'm i guess my question is do you still recommend that this item be be put on be put to a vote right now or can we postpone it for the next meeting or what is your recommendation

048i guess is my question are we up against any sort of timing considerations one thing that we can offer up from the project is again right we can type out in the group chat i know this isn't ideal right but we can type out the names of the landowners that are involved and again based on you know o'hanlin's recommendation that it either has to be your parents your brother or your sister and those few others right i think we can you can probably pretty quickly read in this chat box whether or not you think there would be and if you think there would be then maybe we can have that conversation if you think that would be helpful for the board members yeah i mean without your wife uh it would also be included okay

049well then give me please one second and i'm going to type these names into the anybody chat have questions besides mr perez and mr moreno anybody else has any family members in that area especially children parents that mr o'hallon mentioned mr mr signs may i make a suggestion yes um do we have the capability of going into closed at this point yes i believe so i would have to put everybody in a waiting uh waiting hall get everybody out except for the board members and the superintendent yeah if i may uh uh mr signs i would suggest that we go into close to talk about this among the board and myself and the superintendent uh so that we can and can can do this i would rather not have us try to speculate as to

050names on the screen uh on the on the fly on the record in open session um so if you don't mind if that's acceptable and the last thing i want to do if we have a if we don't have any concerns at all is stop the meeting or stop the vote but i think it's just better to be safe and going to closed at this point if you think that's okay uh what do you think mr osmond it's uh really what the board wishes so you're presiding so if you want to go ahead and go into exec it's your call if you want to go into close what you would need is a motion and a second to go into closed otherwise um that you would you would need permission from the majority of the

051board voting to go into closed okay i so move that we go into closed session there's a motion to close to go into closed session by mr perez is there a second oh second here we have a motion and a second all those in favor all those against can't we discuss it out here stephen we can um you know but but to the extent there's some sort of possible issue i'd rather not discuss it than open we need i mean it's clearly within the confines of legal consultation on a subject like this we can go into closed on it um if we need to sure absolutely i totally agree i believe we have and let me check the agenda just as we're you know yes we do we have a running um exception at the

052bottom of our agendas that notes that the board can convene and close at any time on any subject on the agenda for the purposes of consultation with attorney without even having mulches correct you know it's appropriate to have a motion if there's any dispute about whether we should go in i would recommend the motion uh mr sanction just for the record i the only reason that i'm okay with the closed session is because our school attorney is recommending it um i i don't have any concerns whatsoever if you know whatever he recommends i'm just going based on what he's recommending um i know there was a motion on the floor and and there was how many were in favor of the motion i'm in favor i'm sorry i'm cutting off i'm in favor okay and

053all against i i won't go into the in other words things i've i've seen things being uh turned around when we're going to executives so you guys can go on to executive there's a conflict uh that comes out that has to do with me you know what let me know and i'm fine with it but i i'll i'll stay out there's a motion in a second mr science you need to call the vote uh there's two votes in favor anybody against okay so we have two again i'm voting against two so we have two two and raul is not voting and then the motion does not pass mr o'hanlon excuse me uh mr president mr o'hanlon said that there wasn't any time constraint uh i guess he could go back and and and and mr

054uh weller could go back and if there's a conflict of interest with somebody you all let us know i'm fine with that i agree i agree with mr unless someone let me be clear about this this is governed by section 171.002 of the local government code there's a conflict of interest if somebody has a substantial uh the interest in real estate uh that that means that you essentially are leasing it to these guys or would be directly benefited uh from their installation uh personally or someone within the first degree of consanguinity or affinity what that means is kevin i i understand i understand what you're saying we can talk about the statutes and there's two of them um we're just very cautious with circumstances like this i guess the question is is there a time

055timing issue on this on this matter i'd have to ask from the company's point of view that legally the controller's authorization uh would not expire okay oh i don't know i don't know what the company's time time schedule is i think they were in a bit of a hurry but they're here okay uh miss mr o'hallon and i'm sorry i'm sorry for for the concerns but as you heard miss uh mystery heart uh you know there's concerns with uh with possible conflicts of interest uh you know i i understand you know that there's uh that there's issues or that there is uh you know maybe maybe a reason why this uh wants to start maybe it's a timing maybe it's uh you know certain times of the year where these uh where these panels need

056to be set up uh it's not something that we're against i'm not i want to make that very clear you know we we want you know more jobs for our community we want uh we want the opportunity for for the solar panels at this point we just want to make sure that we're doing it the right way and that and that you know we don't get in trouble or that we don't do something that we're not supposed to do if the board wishes you know i mean uh if two members uh wish we we can call a call meeting for for friday for monday for for saturday you know the three days but i think that it's important for for whatever board members have any concerns with a conflict a possible conflict to meet with

057our school attorney before uh before it's put out there so i i move uh to postpone this agenda item until uh board members uh meet with with uh school attorneys and uh whoever needs to meet so that we make sure that uh there is no conflicts and if there is a conflict uh i believe the the the issue is just they need to file the disclosure and abstain from voting like i say so um that that i just wanted to make that clear if i could make a suggestion uh what i would pref just in terms of just for posting reasons and that that kind of thing but if you want to do that there's nothing wrong with being conscious about conflict of interest my recommendation would be we could if you want to do

058that we close the public we finish the public hearing which is the agenda item we're on now and then postpone uh if you want to postpone the action item that's that's that's different but i prefer that we since we haven't since we're up there it's posted for this that we at least get the public hearing taken care of uh for a period of time to consult with mr weller there should not be any issue in that uh like i said i'd i'd like to hear from the company in terms of urgency but a short delay in this is probably not going to make much difference mr o'hanlon and i'll just make one comment wouldn't wouldn't these be the same complete conflicts of interest that we'd be looking at maybe like with the windmills and stuff

059like that we'd be still looking at the same thing if if water if the windmills were built on family property and stuff like that it has to do with the same right yes it has to do whether or not the land that you own uh if you own it or someone within the first or second first degree of affinity or consanguinity is going to receive a specific benefit that is different from that of the general benefit that the public at large gets so if the economy picks up then that's not a conflict of interest but if you're getting if you're getting lease payments uh or they're they're the uh they got easements they got some you're getting a direct benefit from that or somebody within the first degree of consequently or affinity which is parents

060children and wife are getting that that's conflict and it's it is wise to explore that uh to to before you take a boat and i applaud you for that uh with respect to making sure that doesn't happen this is something that the that the state auditor looks at in these things so i i think it's a good thing that you're that you're making sure uh that uh is is happening we we as part of the adoption before you do the final vote on these we will ask you whether or not there's a conflict so if you want to consult with your council prior to that uh before you answer that question i don't have a problem i want to make sure y'all are as comfortable as you can be uh with respect to to that

061and the only issue that i have is let's close the let's finish the public hearing uh so we don't have to repost that if you want to recognize the action items but again mr highland just real quick it it has to do with the same conflict of interest with the windmills the conflict of interest takes place it's not it's not specific as to to any particular vendor it is a conflict of interest with any vendor that there any party that's doing business with the school district uh that by virtue of that business there would be a specific benefit conferred on uh on either the trustee or essentially their immediate family but that's what i'm saying it would be the same for the for the windmills it's the same set of conflict of interest why for

062for it's it's not specific to the type of transaction thank you my concern mr owen helen is if we delay the project i know it's item number seven and noise we we're still in the public hearing and we're still gonna be at the same point like i mean we already mentioned the two possible persons that might have a conflict of interest and to me there is none but that's fine i'm just i'm just going to clarify that i mean this i know they mentioned about the time are there going to be any issues if we wait on this this is evan from the project i'll address that and again i would echo what mr o'hamlin has said and mr weller that we obviously want all of the board members to be 100 competent in the

063vote that they're making um before they do that now ultimately right that it's important for this for the project's viability for this to get imper to this for this to get approved as soon as possible so i know one of the board members mentioned you know if it doesn't get voted on today that the board would be willing to consider maybe a special meeting sometime you know shortly after this when you have gone through all of the conflict of interest concerns that would be a great benefit to the project right if i think if we were talking four to six weeks plus out that would be a detriment to the project potentially so that's what we would ask from our end is that if these issues could be discussed and sorted out quickly if there

064are any and if the board would consider a special meeting to approve this before their next regularly scheduled board meeting if at all possible that would work for the project and i understand and i understand and i appreciate that comment uh mr horn uh and and if the board is it's okay with it i mean we can come back uh once we deal with item number seven i know we're not there yet so so do we need a motion mr science to close the public hearing or or you just uh make the announcement that the public hearing is closed and move on to the next agenda item yeah we can move on yeah the public hearing is not closed there's no more discussion nobody have they don't have any other questions we're going to continue

065item agenda item number seven uh this is discussion and possible board action to ratify the extension of time for the approval of pending application star solar ranch llc texas controller file number 1438 for agreement for limitation on appraised value or of property for school district maintenance and operations texas and we have of course we have mr o'hallon again we we would prefer this isn't the final approval the superintendent's granted a short extension your policy says they can do that uh but we got to bring it back at the next board meeting this is not the final action mode do final action we would recommend that you uh approve the extension that uh a backdoor approval of the agreement this is okay buy yourself a little more time to consider it all right i agree with

066you mr science yes sir mr science wouldn't be item number seven up to ten or just number seven now this number seven is just to ratify the extension like mr o'hallon just mentioned so this is not the final approval of the project so we can approve item number seven if we have the the votes and then continue on the others uh eight and down and then and it doesn't this doesn't commit you one way or the other with respect to final action on it this is just the superintendent it was given the authority by your policy to grant an extension which he did but your policy says we've got to bring that back after it's done so we'd like to get the extension because in the final analysis it's the board's determination i want to

067be clear that granting the extension does not commit you in any way shape or form final action on this it's simply a a procedural requirement uh that that needs to be getting out of the way i'd say grant a 30-day extension or something of that nature so that we can get done with this and uh that should take care of us great grant extension to the end of october i'll give you time to do it all right do we have a motion to approve the the extension uh mr science can i just ask one question uh mr whaler school attorney uh do you recommend uh that we continue with the extension it's not voting either for or against it's just uh recommending that the project be extended there won't be a conflict with anybody there

068is that correct how quickly are we talking about coming back within like next week correct something like that i'm fine with the three days i mean if you want to post tomorrow in the next three days just make sure that that you know whatever disclosures need to be filed are filed given your policy we would recommend you extend it at least till the next meeting date whatever that date is and then you can take it up at that time mr guzman can we meet next week believe we could meet that quickly um i believe so if the the key question here would be that each board member that feels they need to consult with you um have enough time to consult with you so that you can look at their specific case and their concerns

069so if uh if it's okay with the board we can do it as on mondays cutting it pretty close but i would say anytime after maybe thursday of next week if if the board so wishes but mr science you you as the uh acting presiding judge vice president right now you can go ahead and make a commitment if you want for for next week i i will make myself available to talk to board members tonight and tomorrow i you know just on just understanding our history and our culture and how quickly we can put things together when we need to take care of things and we've demonstrated that many times before i don't anticipate a problem uh obtaining a quorum that being the situation if we don't truly have a time concern i would just

070as soon postpone everything so because by my account i have one two three four five board members so i mean if anybody has any remote concern you could abstain and we could still have a motion to extend but i if you have any doubt in your mind i'm gonna recommend you don't vote i would rather you i would rather resolve any conflicts or potential conflicts or any semblance of a concern over one before anybody and puts themselves in a position of voting on anything related to it okay uh that being said go ahead mr science i'm sorry mr mr winter and you're talking about basically all the all the items presented by mr o'hanlon correct just just items i mean if we're going to meet quickly on this you know and there's no reason we

071need to take up seven eight nine ten seven seven through 10 yes then based on based on on the recommendation from the from the school attorney and uh and you know hoping that we can get this for the next board meeting uh i so move to postpone agenda items seven through ten uh to give board members enough time to meet with local attorney before uh before uh taking in the action second motion i have a motion to postpone items seven through ten in a second a motion by miss uh leticia galvano the second by mr perez to postpone item seven through ten and uh i believe we are going to meet next week right mr wuzman or next tuesday next thursday we can go ahead and make meet as early as monday but i think

072that's cutting it a little close to make sure i just want to make a board member uh has an opportunity to to consult with mr welder and to feel comfortable enough to make a a decision so i would say thursday of next week would be a a good day giving everybody plenty of time over the weekend and earlier we can post on monday for for thursday mr woodman i'm i'm so sorry yeah and and i and i think i made in the motion just clear that that before the next board meeting and that way if you all decide monday or thursday or friday or next monday after that uh as long as it's before the next board meeting and that way it'll be on the next agenda that that's why i use that so i

073mean we don't want to delay uh again mr science if you want to schedule uh a meeting i mean i think you need to board members for for a special meeting if somebody wants to call it right now i'll be one of the members to to vote on it for it uh i don't mind having a meeting on monday that would be a 72 hours as well i just uh want to make sure everybody meets with the school attorney before well on the meeting i think we'll get back with mr osman on that and uh and uh other than that if the timing is not not an issue right now the only problem i have is are we gonna get the information soon enough to have it for next week by mr weller and by

074the project i guess mr horn are we going to get those names out and get the information that we need i don't want to come next week and say well now rachel with another relative no so what yeah i do what we'll promise to you from a project perspective is probably following the conclusion of this meeting we are going to email to mr o'hanlon uh a list of the first and last names of all of the landowners that are participants with this project so they will have the first and last names of all of those participants your attorneys will have it probably again this evening so that and then mr o'hanlon can share that with mr weller and then in your discussions with mr weller you can walk through those concerns i appreciate that mr

075holmes thank you very much thank you no problem no thank you thank you all and then i'm sorry i'm not trying to get recommendations to delay anything unnecessarily you all know how protective i am of all of you and how seriously we take this so i would rather err on the side of caution my recommendation is going to be that we post tomorrow for monday and uh even for thursday that way if monday has to be canceled we can cancel if there's a board member that feels uncomfortable with it but we have already posted for for next thursday so possibly on monday mr o'hallon uh if not then for sure thursday of next week if that means pencil i will pencil in monday which is the 31st that's correct with the follow-up on the 30th

076we got a problem we'll we'll do that we'll do the atmosphere osman and uh i know there's emotion on the floor in a second uh let's just take all those in favor just say hi raise my right hand hi hi but isn't it isn't it the 30th the 28th i'm sorry i heard i heard mr o'hanlon say 31st oh no monday the 28th correct monday is the 28th 28th i'm sorry i was in i was in august we'll get it right about september okay so so motion passes uh i'm on postponing items 7 through ten all right motions carries uh we had a five fours silver against well five four and two epson thank you guys thank you gracias we'll see you monday we'll see you i'll forward that to you as soon as i

077get it thank you sir thank you so much have a good evening are we done yes we're done yes yes you are next monday yes sir thank you on the 28th yes yes sarah thank you for your time we are going to move on to item uh agenda item number 11 discussion and consideration for approval of private bid submitted for suite number suit number 8226 roma independent school district versus sisidora flores etux margarita garza flores uh we have mr cano michael cano from limeburger thank you mr science good evening everyone everybody here the good news is uh compared to the previous item this would be really small potatoes this is a really we have a really unique situation that in all the years of practicing this type of law i've never seen uh but the

078good thing is we have a solution and that is back in uh before my time with this vermont and certainly before anyone was serving on this war back in 1991 rome isd and stark county took a judgment for taxes that was owed on this piece of property that dated back from 1977 through 88. so the judgment was taken in 1990 in and then in 1991 a different law firm put the property up for sale did not sell at the tax sale so the property was struck off to the school district and the county the problem is in 1991 the star county appraisal district did not reflect that ownership change that the property now belonged to the county and the school so it remained on the tax rolls under ms isadora garza so or i'm sorry

079i'm sorry flores so what happened is over the years from 1991 through 2017 it accumulated about 23 000 worth of taxes and then in 2017 star county finally picked up the difference in ownership they made a change and and then at that time the mapping was wrong as far as where this property is located so no one could actually identify the property on a map to understand you know it was it was just kind of a big problem anyhow now we have actually located the property the the the the person who's occupying the property is one of the descendants from mrs flores she's been there all this time she is over 65 and she does want to purchase the property so she can stay with it and her name is rios the flores and again

080this is so what we did is we asked her a while back if she could at least come up with a judgment amount which was a little over five thousand dollars back when the judgment was taken and we've been working with the florida's family and the most they've been able to come up with is three thousand dollars so the the tax code does allow the district and the county to enter into a private bid you have one of two options with this property you can either put it up for sale at a public auction and obviously the higher the highest bidder wins it and takes it or you can entertain a private bid but if you go down the private bid option then we do need consent from all the tax and entities which in

081this case would just be stark county and rome isd i did take this matter over to stark county last week and they did approve it unanimously uh commissioners court did so really now the ball's in y'all's court and determine whether you want to entertain or accept the bid for mrs flores again it's three thousand dollars total you're looking at receiving just over eighteen hundred dollars for the district it's not a large amount of money as far as we're concerned we make less than three hundred dollars in attorney's fees but the reason why i've been pushing this item is just for the equity the the you know just from an equitable stand up standpoint i think it's you know it's a it's a problem that was created back in 1991 that just kind of was allowed

082to grow over the years and now that we know what happened i think you know we have an obligation to try to fix it and once we if the board chooses to approve this property or the sell of this property back to the florida family at least we put it back on the tax rolls you know obviously they've been maintaining the property and and you know they should have the opportunity to continue paying taxes on it from this point forward and more importantly they should have the opportunity like every other landowner to pass that property on to their heirs once they're deceased because at this point they're technically not the owners the school district is the owner along with the county so it's a rather unique situation but again we do have a remedy and

083uh if you all have any questions i'll be happy to answer them for you all right so move to approval item number eleven as presented by mr cano a second any other discussion any questions for mr ortano just a quick comment uh mr cano and and you're right i mean the important thing is uh is to get this back on the tax roll and hopefully start collecting taxes uh on that so uh i mean the judgment may not be as high or what was owed uh but there was a mistake i believe also you know it hadn't happened before but it did happen um and and i believe that this family deserves to uh like you say you know keep and and pass on uh you know to family members as it goes uh but

084more importantly we will get it back on the tax roll and hopefully be collecting you know on a yearly basis for that property that's the goal yes i appreciate that mr conor yeah it will be up in the role so that's good uh all those in favor any other questions any other discussion sorry i just one question uh mr perez uh alfonso is uh is this your recommendation as well uh you're a mute sir i'm sorry yes yes it is we've i dealt with this before with these ladies and i think it's the best thing all right thank you mr perez uh all those in favor to approve item number eleven say aye original hi all those again say okay we have five four two absent motion passes uh item number 12. before before i

085sign off mr science i just want to since i'm here and i have everyone you know hear everyone's attention so i'll let you know we just completed the the fiscal year the last fiscal year as far as tax collections we we completed in august uh last year ending in august 2019 we collected just over 1.4 million dollars for the district and i'm really proud to let y'all know that this year despite kovid and you know the impact that's caused you know across the entire world for the most part we were able to you know still collect 1.4 million dollars for the district i think we're we may be down about 20 000 bucks which is not a whole lot we're pending the final numbers but i just want you to know that we're really proud

086that we're able to to collect that money but most importantly without having to displace any of your families from their homes i do not sell homesteads the type of tax sales that we perform in foreclosures for the most part are you know empty empty lots commercial lots and this kind of stuff that i brought before you so this is just for information purposes obviously there's nothing no action item but just want to know that despite government we're still working hard we go to work every day we never took a day off and we continue uh to do to we continue to hopefully do the same for for home isd going forward and we appreciate that for helping helping the families in need thank you we i mean we do appreciate that and our constituents uh

087keep on providing during kobe that's it yeah you all stay safe thank you all very much thank you mr akano have a good evening we're gonna move on to item number 12 consideration possible action regarding approving uh contract with stark county juvenile probation department we have mr usman yes uh we're requesting that we go ahead and start picking up uh the same contract we've had before he will not be attending the campuses obviously but we've had a lot of cases uh where the need is a lot of our kids need some site some type of help emotional help uh abuse help uh and we feel that we we need uh that individual to come in and start helping us out with those cases at home sir is is or maybe you or mr pettis is

088that the same amount that we've always paid the they're cutting it down this year sir because the situation i think it's the uh yes ice will move to a cool item number 12 as presented by any discussion any other question for mr wizwan all those in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye all right we have five uh five four two absent motion carries item number thirteen consideration possible action on on success maker us learning company formerly pearson k through 12 learning and we have miss mary lou cruz presenter yes uh good evening uh members of the board superintendent mr carlos guzman office directors i am here before you this evening to request for your approval to renew our contract with success maker service for the success maker program for the 2020 2021

089school year i would like to make you aware of what has occurred with a success maker throughout the years in our elementary campuses and middle schools way back in september 2019 the technology department decided to upgrade success maker to the pearson hosted version because of the software compatibility and server hardware issues that we were having a success maker which is a software application that has been used for many years at the elementary campuses and most recently at the middle school campuses each elementary campus had 25 site licenses of success maker enterprise which were local server based and also 25 site licenses of success maker 2019 which was a hosted which is a hosted online version the middle schools both had 75 licenses of success maker uh 2019 which is again the hostess hosted online version

090success maker enterprise was becoming more difficult to maintain operational because the application was no longer compatible with windows 10 and the old servers were all failing due to the hardware age last year three elementary campuses had this issue and the servers were not repairable to make this easier for us and to have consistency mr frank rodriguez our technology manager contacted pearson and inquired about an upgrade having one type of version which was the online version of the application solved the problem of the software and the hardware compatibility issues mr frank rodriguez spoke to the sales representative and they checked the prices for us and came back with an offer but by that time that they came back with an offer we had already uh been invoiced uh to pay for that um 20 20 19

09120 school year and federal programs had already paid the software renewal and pearson was willing to upgrade all our licenses at a no additional cost to the hosted version of the virtual so they waived the upgrade and conversion fees of the success maker enterprise license last year so now this year we are being charged for the actual costs of running the software for the amount of licenses as indicated on the chart that was included in your packet i don't know if you've got a chance to see the the chart the chart indicates excuse me is that the second page yes [Music] the chart indicates the number of students per campus and uh and grade level and it will no longer charge us by site licenses we were paying by site licenses now it's by the

092total number of students that will use the program the total number of students to be served is 2835 students and the amount that was going to be charged for the district or to the district was a hundred and seventy thousand one hundred dollars but we were very lucky that a fifteen percent discount was given to us and now the total was reduced to 144 000 i mean 144 585 this full amount will be split funded as the chart indicates by the early education allotment fund the title three part a grant and the answer grant as you can see the principles have written some emails i believe the emails were attached to the the chart and the letters also indicating how much the students have benefit from this program and also i would like to make

093you a give you an overview of the benefits that our students have by having success maker in our in our schools success maker full curriculum is a digital website web-based intervention program supporting tier 2 and tier 3 students in reading and math these are the students that need more intervention success maker is a highly interactive and engaging in continuously adaptive kinder through third grade reading and math intervention program with more than 50 years of proven results not only with rom within roma isd but for a large and small districts nationwide the students love it because it's user friendly and every time they complete a strand they get like a little game testing them but actually it's not really a game it's just a test and the teachers also embrace it because of the progress monitoring

094data and it also provides a course course customation and its alignment to the core program meeting students where they are to help them excel in their star exams and it also provides a strong consistent home school connection with progress reports informing and allowing them to celebrate their students successes for five decades success maker has helped millions of students and meets the essa strong evidence criteria and uh myself as a principal i i was sold out in this software completely and every year there's new things that are upgraded and our principals love this program and now the students can even use it uh through virtual also so for this school year 2020 2021 we would renew at the new price point and this is where we're today asking you board members for your approval to renew

095this software is the price went up yes uh the reason is because before the district would pay by site licenses like every elementary campus had 25 site licenses so students would go into the computer lab and use let's say one computer that was one site license the next period more students would come and use that same site license but now it's not being charged like that the the new program is charging us by the enrollment by the number of students that are using the the licenses so before we would only pay for maintenance and support and staff development and now it is being charged according to the number of students that you success maker it has gone up the funding sources that you have uh will take care of that yes sir yes sir and

096how many do you know how much i know that like you just said right now if you you have in other words you have funds for you've already uh budgeted for it but my question is how much would we spend when it was um okay i had already been paid for but every year what the company would charge us was just for the maintenance and support and also technical support and maintenance but the site licenses we already had them okay yes and now it's according to the number of students that we have that go in into the labs or that there that the program is being used and again this is something that's already budgeted for miss cruz okay uh at first um it wasn't budgeted for but we got this invoice uh last i

097believe it was like two weeks ago so i got together with mr pedro alanis mr frank rodriguez mr joe martinez because he's the director of the early education allotment program and we spoke about it the early education allotment program funds it's a it's a great new funding that our district has been receiving and in fact the early education allotment this year uh paid part of the expenses that we made purchasing some of the computers that were bought for the students so hoping that next year we don't have to purchase any computers these funds would also take care of the customer the following year also and title three is a program that funding source that we get every year also and the yes or grant we we are able to pay for that too of course

098this this is all something that our elementaries want um isil move to approve item number 13 as presented by miss troops i have a motion by mr moreno second by mr salinas any other discussion or questions uh for miss cruz follow us in favor say raise your right hand to say hi hi okay we have five in favor two absent motion carries thank you miss cruz thank you thank you ms uh item number fourteen consideration possible action on selecting of early voting clerk deputy clerk and the maximum number of clerks and we have mr luis garza as a presenter yes um good evening uh trustees superintendent guzman and guest good good evening um at this time i'm respectfully asking for the board to consider naming an early voting clerk and a deputy voting clerk to

099process the applications or ballot by mail also i would like for the board to consider providing the opportunity to uh for the early voting clerk in naming an additional clerk or clerks if the need arises to work during the period where the early voting clerk review each application for ballot to be voted by mail this is for uh to review the early voting applications that's correct that is correct sir okay and you need two particular individuals one and then one just in case it needed right i mean i'm asking for for the early voting clerk and also the deputy voting clerk in addition to that i'm asking the board to consider the opportunity of uh for the voting clerk uh to name another clerk or maybe two clerks if the need arises for help i

100can tell you this two years ago the board selected a voting clerk and a deputy clerk and also gave the opportunity for the voting clerk to select an additional clerk if it was needed but both individuals were able to handle the the task without naming that additional person uh i personally will request the same thing just in case uh um we have received a lot of a lot of applications and the need might arise that we might need that additional clerk and i don't want to come back to the board and ask you know permission to to add that additional clerk uh so at this point i'm asking just for you to name uh a nerdy voting clerk and the deputy voting clerk and given the opportunity and giving the opportunity you know for the

101for the clerk to name another clerk if the need arises and it would be only one more right a total of three if needed correct if needed if you say uh the clerk uh will be allowed to name in two clerks you can do that uh two years ago as i stated you gave us the opportunity or you gave the opportunity for the voting club to do that but you know they were able to handle it with two individuals so basically when you say mr also the early voting clerk would have uh if they need a rises they would select one two or three whatever they need that's what we need to approve that the authority that you all have is to select the maximum number of clerks okay you you have that authority to

102say mr garza we're giving the authorities for the early voting clerk to select two additional clerks if the need arises or maybe three so what authority do you have just naming the maximum number of clerks that that person can can select like you're saying that that we're gonna i mean they're gonna need them and just to be on the safe side that is correct sir i mean with this covet you don't know if let's assume that the deputy clerk gets sick and now you have only one uh you have only the early voting clerk and that person might need another additional individual so we're thinking ahead now who's to say uh maybe the early voting clerk might get sick and the reason that we're selecting a deputy voting clerk just in case the early voting

103clerk is absent not necessarily sick maybe absent for one or two days then the deputy clerk basically is using demand for that particular day so you're right mr salinas by adding that additional clerk or clerks um you might have that up that person might have the opportunity of selecting someone else oh mr science i have a question for you mr garza mr karza so you're asking uh the board to actually name a clerk and name a deputy clerk and then and then approve let's say a maximum of three clerks at the uh at the discrepancy of the of the clerk right of the early voting clerk which is like the judge i mean i'm sure they're not going to want to take advantage of the situation and i'd much rather be prepared like you say

104i i know there's probably going to be a lot of uh mail-in ballots uh some because of covet others you know being out of town or whatever the reason so um i i don't think that if we put i mean we can put a maximum of three or four whatever it is that you recommend uh and i'm sure they're not going to take advantage and hire just because i'm sure that um the person will be responsible to to decide whether or not you know those are needed and how many uh so so again would your recommendation be three mr carson or i will say yeah you can go with a maximum of three and believe me i will i will be monitoring that i will i will check the number of uh um applications that

105came in let's say uh two years ago and then the number of applications that will be coming in this year anybody's i mean i i will compare that data so if the individual tells me i need to more individuals the right away i'm going to say hold on two years ago two individuals were able to handle this with two people i don't think you need an additional person or two other persons so i will monitor that the only thing that i'm asking is for you to give me that give that opportunity for that individual to to select that those clerks or aren't those individuals also the presiding judges at the site no this is uh again this is only to uh review the applications that were sent by mail and the other items that i'm

106gonna cover is for early voting right now these individuals is just you know to review the applications in the past and i'll cover this in a few minutes when we get to that particular item uh these individuals have also been utilized for the early voting for let's say uh two years ago we had only one point in sight that's what i'm feeling like the same individuals yes sir that that's what i'm saying it it last time it was the same individuals right that is correct okay of course plus more clerks okay yes you gotta say we decide on one additional clerk and we need more do we have to come back and make an amendment or is the safe side and go with three and if we need the three then uh higher those three

107and not just one two or the three if needed okay i understand that is correct yes all right thank you and that's what ms galvan stated yes yes so at this point what i'm asking uh is for the board to consider naming again the early voting clerk what we have done in the past is that uh one of the board members will say i nominate or i you know throw another name and then the board will vote on that particular individual and and then the same thing for the deputy deputy uh voting clerk so at this point what i suggest is for you to um if i may you know give a recommendation for for the early voting clerk it will name that person then we'll go to the deputy voting clerk sure and to

108get some kind of clarification uh if whatever names are thrown out there and for whatever reason then that particular employee can or not employee individual cannot perform we will have to come back correct like report i can tell you this mr science and it happens in every single election okay i've been i've been doing this for the past 15 years it always happens for whatever reason and you just have that in mind yes select one particular individual and then for whatever reason that person is not going to be able to to do it um then at that point yes i had to come back and and present the uh the same agenda item yes so someone has to present the name mr garza uh yes it's not what we're waiting for yeah it's not up

109to me to present the names it's up to you all to present the names and then the the you know the vote will i mean the trustees will say yes or no so it's too it's to recommend that uh to oh yeah to recommend the name and then we'll take it out for vote the motion is going to be after we decide the name right and the motion is somebody gonna provide a name do you have any nominations do we have any nominations by anybody and then i guess take it out for votes mr garcia who was the presiding judge for or or the early voting clerk last year sir or last election in 2018 i believe 2018 the early voting clerk was ms cruz ester cruz and the deputy uh deputy voting clerk was

110miss perez sandra perez it's breaking up can you hear me mr garza yes sir yes sir i can give i give uh for for uh for the uh for not deputy uh the early voting clerk yes the earlier [Music] so you want the early voting clerk is ocean garza mr salinas yes yes and then the for the for the deputy which is like the assistant uh you want esther cruz that's correct okay [Music] um okay so so these two individuals will be reviewing the the request forms is that correct yes the applications uh the application for them to uh you know whenever they send a request to vote by mail yes and they will be mailing out the ballots right correctly yes ma'am okay and what about mr sarinas um oh no i guess the

111maxim the the max number of perks would that be decided by i mean just uh are we just going to take it into a motion better i think that's the best thing to do right yes uh the three rules okay okay so so you're nominating those two individuals and three um so the best thing to do is mr also just take it into a motion correct yes it's an action uh and uh yeah but first i know you said throw out names and then we'll just come back to the motion that's right right i guess i guess i don't see any other names so what i see on the floor is a motion to have mr osiel garza as early voting clerk we have uh esther guzman cruz as deputy clerk with a maximum of

112three clerks correct does the motion do i have a second on that motion second any other discussions um does it i mean obviously there's already a motion uh i'd recommend that ms cruz be the the early voting clerk uh because of her experience and because there's so many uh ballots coming in and then uh can can obviously take over the deputy voting clerk um but if if the motion is the other way then yeah well i'll give off the motion because that's the that's how it was presented by a board member uh and i guess we'll just if there's no other discussions we'll just uh we'll just take it to a vote uh all those in favor oh mr signs with one one more question questions okay yes uh but uh do we background checks

113uh mr garza or anything we're not supposed nothing is required we're not supposed to nothing we're not supposed to be training mr versa training yes okay training yes they will be trained okay okay going back to the motion uh all those against say i raise your right hand so four what about four all those in favor there you go that's right all right let's set against all those against okay we have three in favor one against did you vote i'm sorry yes uh i'm i'm in favor mr science okay so we have four in favor one against and two absent motion carries okay agenda item number 15 consideration possible action and selecting of early voting judges and deputy judges for early voting site and we have of course mr versa yes at this time i'm

114respectfully asking for the board to consider naming a nerdy voting judge there's only one and a deputy voting judge uh for each early voting sites just as a reminder the old intermediate gym and the escovaris community center will be the two polling sites for early voting so in this particular case we need a an early voting judge for roma and another one for escovaris we're also going to be needing a deputy voting judge for roma and another one for escobar's so it's a total of four individuals correct but but those that you just or that were just mentioned right now sir can't those be the same ones what we have done in the past yeah since if you remember correctly instrument i'm pretty sure you you do uh we have had only one uh opponent's

115side for early voting so yes those individuals that serve uh assertive voting clerks they also served as a as a judge in that point in sight so is it possible for to have the clerk to serve as a judge for one of those sites the answer is yes i have a question mr science mr mr garza um do we need to wait until the county decides what they're going to do with uh with the different precincts i believe that they're going to uh be asked to to create new uh uh i guess new new sites or that they're going to have to break up the precincts because there's over 5000 voters or i don't remember the exact number sir i'm sorry but um but i understand that there are some issues that that are rising

116with precinct 6 and with uh precinct 10. and uh the issues that that that were brought up by i don't know what entity was that yes if you had more than 5 000 in a particular precinct you're supposed to divide that uh right away the following day will take it back that evening it was late in the evening when i when i read the the monitor and and i saw that article i made contact with the uh the election election administrator at the county level and he stated that he he was looking into it that he was going to have an answer by the following day the following day i contacted the individual which is john and uh he mentioned to me that they have been in communications with uh with uh with the state

117secretary of state and the secretary of state indicated that at this point it was too late to divide those precincts that it will be done at a later time so based on what the information that i got from the county everything was going to stay the same so at this point everything will be the same it will be too late for them to split those those prisons that that is what he was told uh i mean what the what the attorney told um john um and uh he made it very clear that based on statue it would be too late to divide those reasons the precincts at this time thank you mr garcia anytime okay so we're waiting for them to present names uh that is correct uh you know naming a judge for his

118opponent's side let's let's start to make it easy if you don't mind me giving a suggestion let's start with the voting judge the early voting judge for let's say uh roma isd uh i make a motion for uh the the same that we're named right now to be the uh the judges okay so for roma the the early voting clerk uh and and the deputy will be the same for the judge and the deputy voting judge in roma okay uh mr garcia just also before uh i think one of the requirements is uh for for the election judges uh for both is that they're uh eligible voters um in the in the roma isd jurisdiction so uh just confirmed that that both are eligible voters that's one of my responsibilities as administrators i looked at

119the you know the the information that the county provides me and i look to verify that they're uh uh registered voters yes ma'am okay and then uh mr moreno uh you you're recommending uh ocean garcia as a the the presiding judge for the roma side or for the escobar decide sir and then esther cruz for the escobar site she's the backup right sir uh okay so you're just doing roma okay because you said that both of them for to judge okay so then uh the presiding judge uh for roma will be ocean and the alternate judge will be esther that's for the intermediate side that's only for roma right this is correct the two first quarters correct that is correct if you want to take a vote at this point for these two individuals and

120then we can go for escobar's you can do that also mr science but that's a recommendation it's up to you if you want to do everything together i'll leave it up to you sir yeah well i think i mean we pretty much have those set i mean they just throw out the other two for squatters and then we just do the motion okay and and vote on the motion for all four no problems yeah first of all why does that make a motion for yara mean monte mayor and as a backup or as a alternate judge elodia cruz okay we have emotions again yeah well that's my motion for escalators yes whoa okay so we have a motion for agenda item number 15 by mr moreno do we have a second second by mr salinas

121any other discussion any questions if not all those in favor raise your right hand or say aye aye all those against i'm gonna abstain mr saints okay abstain so we have three favor one against and one abstaining and two absent motion passes agenda number 16 consideration possible action on determining the maximum number of clerks for each early voting site and mr garza mr science i'm so i'm so sorry to interrupt mr science uh mr garza uh and the rest of the board i'm i'm gonna excuse myself uh i'm i've already been in the car for an additional 30 minutes and my family is waiting for me uh so i'm going to excuse myself at this time uh thank you all for for your time and and i'll be available for the next meeting i'm i'm

122sorry there's still a quorum right we should still be okay okay yes we only have about two three hours more okay let the record show you have a good night the meeting at 7 48 thank you item number 16. okay it's already there so go ahead i want to remind the trustees that you all have the authority to determine in determining the maximum number of clerks which are basically election workers so i'm sorry before you go did did we put the number of clerks for for 15 that's what i'm doing right now it's on the yes i broke it down into two agenda items sir it was just the judges on the previous agenda 15. yes the judges and the presiding charges for item number 16 is the number of clerks the maximum number of

123clerks under the judges yes yes yes okay go ahead okay okay okay okay so basically instead of reading what i wrote a few minutes ago is you all have the authority to decide the maximum number of clerks that are going to be helping out the judge per pony site so at this point uh i'm asking requesting for you to say the maximum number of individuals that will help out let's say in the old intermedia into intermediate gym will be let's say five or six uh same thing let's say for escobar's this is the maximum number of individuals so that is what i'm asking for you to figure out the uh the number of clerks that will be serving for responding sites for early voting well sir real quick what would you recommend and we know

124the numbers that there's been before but because of the situation right now do you recommend more clerks are we um last time it was it was it said it was up to it said up to five clerks well for early voting if you remember correctly there was only one polling side that's correct yes there was only one point in sight uh and this is for early voting and you're right mr moreno uh two years ago we had five clerks we had the presiding judge we had the alternate judge and five clerks and that was only one point in sight in this particular occasions we're gonna have two polling sites you asked for my recommendation mr moreno i would say that for roma isd instead of having five you can say a maximum of maybe seven

125individuals again we don't have to hire all seven if you remember correctly uh for early voting we're gonna talk up i mean we're gonna be working for three weeks instead of two weeks we don't know what's gonna happen someone can get sick and and maybe uh we're gonna need more more individuals so i would say with five i mean with seven uh by the same token we can start with five and then if the judge decides i i'm gonna need extra help i don't have to come to the board and say i need two additional individuals so you can go with seven we can try it out uh we can try it out with seven and then we see if we see that uh um you can score that after the first week then the

126the numbers go down then we can say we just and we can work with five instead of seven okay so i will go with seven uh in roma i will go with probably maximum of maybe three uh at the escobar as being that it's a smaller location that would be this is just a recommendation and again and i want to make something clear the board does not have the power the authority in naming those clerks the individuals that have the authority in naming the clerks is the presiding judge from each polling inside on those seven and then those three correct that is correct yes sir all right so your your recommendation mr arsenal will be that's only in three floors go out is correct and that's only for early voting sir this is only for

127early voting yes and then we we come back later for uh next day later on yes we can come yes yes this is certainly for early voting user i shall move to approve item number 16 16 uh with as as recommended by mr garza with up to seven clerks in roma and up to three clerks and escobars i have a motion by mr moreno is there a second i'll check in mr science i have a second i have a second by mr salinas any other discussion and if not all those in favor raise your right hand or say hi all right all those against okay we have three in favor one against and three absent well no one left early and two absent motion carries agenda item number 17 consideration possible action a notice of

128election for november 3rd 2020. and we have mr madison yes mr science based on the and the election code the board has to approve the notice of election on page 487 on your board book uh we provided you with a copy of the notice uh at this point i i am asking for the trustees to consider approving the notice of election i shall move to approve the notice of election which is item number 18 17 18 17 17. 17 as presented by mr garcia i have a motion by mr moreno do you have a second right second second by mr salinas um any any any other discussion if not all those in favor just say aye raise your right hand all right we have uh four in favor uh three out motion carries having trouble

129seeing mr garcia the letters are too small i understand okay agenda item number 18 consideration possible action approving a newspaper to publish the notice of election mr garza yes sir since the notice of election was approved and based on the on the election code the notice of election may be published in a newspaper published in the in the territory that is covered by the election therefore i'm asking for the board to consider selecting a newspaper so the notice will be published is it one two three four how how does that work mr elsa are you talking about the uh the statue indicates that you can you can publicize it only one time one time will be sufficient and for you all to select basically the newspaper that is in the territory um you know so

130i can send that notice that that was approved an item number 17 so it will be publicized who makes is it one newspaper is it two newspapers is it i mean i've seen in previous uh previous uh elections where sometimes they say send it to two newspapers that most of the time it's only one papers but have i seen have i seen um in previous elections you know elections be you know five six years ago where they will say put it send it to two newspapers um instead of one yes are we obligated in doing that the answer is no uh this will not be the only uh notice that we will notify the the voters we will place it on the on the website i'll send it to the county we can send that

131also to the different locations of uh public public buildings for example where wherever they're gonna vote so and besides that there are in my opinion there are thousands of signs all over the communities i'm pretty sure we're not hiding the election so everyone knows that there's going to be an election but i want to send it anyway so it's not like it's a lot we don't want we don't want for the community to know that there's going to be an election everyone we want them then also we want them to grow up yeah definitely and and the good thing about the notice is that it will specify for example that is going to happen in two locations in escobar's and also in roma it shows that times uh uh saturdays from this time to this

132time on wednesday so basically that is one of the reasons that we're publicizing this so that the voters will know when we are going to have that election and what buildings are going to be open so yeah we want for everyone to know mr garcia i think i think that a local newspaper would be best than than the one from uh for example the monitor i don't know right i'll be honest with you uh i don't recall sending it to the monitor uh from the times i've been here i i don't recall to be honest with you it has always been a local paper because this the local paper basically covers uh most of the territory i'm also the school district if you want to give me that authority you know for me to decide

133if you don't want to make that commitment and i'll decide but you have to give i would like for you to give me that authority i so moved to approve item number 18 uh with the authority given to mr garza to choose the local newspaper i have a motion by mr moreno to have a second nice second one by mr salinas uh all those in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye all right we have four in favor three out motion carries thank you trustees thank you sir agenda number 19 consideration possible action on policy update 115 affecting local policies bf local board policies dia local employee welfare freedom from discrimination harassment and retaliation dmd local professional development professionals meeting uh meeting investigate meeting and visitations e.i local academic achievement fb local equal

134education opportunity fd admissions feb local attendance attendance accounting uh what is this ffg local student welfare child abuse and neglect ffh local student welfare freedom from discrimination harassment and retaliation fmf local student activities contents and competition fng local student rights and responsibilities students and parent complaints grievances gf local public complaints and we have mr garcia as a presenter thank you mr science before i begin i want you to look at this um this is part of the board book that we provided you it consists over 700 pages okay our policies basically uh you know the update of 115. my goal is to provide you with an overview of the local policies uh in that you know you know that you have the legal policies and also the local policies so i'm going to give you

135an overview so bear with me i know that policies are very cut and dry but i'm going to do my best uh so like always i mean i've been doing this for the past 15 years you have any questions i'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have at the end of this uh of this policy okay so let me start with my presentation the purpose of my presentation for this agenda item is to provide you with a brief overview of local policy recommendations included in update 115 presented by taxpay policy service many of these policies were affected by revised administrative rules from texas education agency and the state board of education and by new federal title nine i titled uh nine regulations there are also a few recommendations to remove existing administrative

136details from board adopted policy like always i can entertain any questions you might have after the presentation of each uh policy if i may i'm going to refer you to page through 522 in your board book 494 through 522 my goal is to present local policy fb dia and ffh at the same time policy fb covers equal education opportunity policy di covers employee welfare freedom of discrimination harassment and retaliation and policy ffh addresses the issue of student welfare freedom from discrimination harassment and retaliation i would like to start with the new federal title ix regulations from the department of education that went into effect august the 14th of 2020. since this federal regulations went in effect last month this three uh these three of the district local policies will need to be revised minor revisions

137are recommended to fb local to adjust the text addressing title ix coordinator and to make corresponding warning changes to the ada section 504 coordinator text there are substantial revisions recommended to both dia local and ffa local to comply with the new federal regulations the most significant changes addresses the development of the district's title ix formal complaint process and the standard of evidence the district would use to determine responsibility in a title nine formal complaint other changes addresses the process of reporting prohibited conduct and revised the definition of sexual harassment to align with the federal regulations dia local has also been revised to incorporate the recent united states supreme court decision bostock versus clayton county georgia which held that an adverse employment action against an employee on the basis of homosexuality or transgender status violence title

138vii prohib prohibition on sex discrimination in in employment as a result the policy clarifies that the discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of biological sex gender identity sexual orientation gender stereotypes or any other prohibited basis related to sex are there any questions over that okay bf titled board policies is on page 492 of your board book 492. the revision to this policy reinforces it that the practice that legal policies are not adopted by the board they serve as legally referenced material to provide information on existing law and in some instances the context of our district's local policies it is important to always read the legal and local policies for the same code together dmd professional development professional development professional meetings and visitations uh this is on page 501 uh in

139your board book dmd local is a policy that addresses attendance at professional meetings because the board adopted policy is not required in this area this policy is recommended for deletion guidance on attending professional meetings can be addressed in administrative procedures it's not required to have it in local policy policy e i academic achievement this is on page 502 of your handbook administrator code rules permit districts in accordance with local district policy to award course credit proportionally to a student who successfully completes only half of a course a new board policy provision has been recommended to address this option which matches common practice and i want to point out that what we're doing at the high school this is what tasby is recommending so not that we're in compliance we're ahead of the ball because this

140is the practice that we have been doing policy fd local titled admissions is on page 507 new administrative code rules effective march 30th of 2020 address transition assistance for highly mobile students who are homeless or a substitute care and require districts to adopt local policy to assist with awarding credit to a student who is homeless or in substitute care for a course that was earned prior to students enrolling in or transferring to the district policy feb local provides information on attendance accounting the policy is on page 50509 administrative code rules were amended to delete references to taking attendance during the second or fifth instructional hour and this is very important now the district can determine its official attendance taking time the recommended policy text assigns the superintendent the responsibility to designate this attendance taking period

141there is not a requirement to include the official attendance taking time in board policy it may be designated in administrative procedures policy ffg titled student welfare child abuse and neglect is on page 510 significant revisions have been made to this local policy and child abuse and neglect to comply with the amended administrative court rules recommended text addresses sexual abuse trafficking and maltreatment of children this information must also be included in the student handbook and in the district's improvement plan to ensure that all policy elements and addresses in the board adopted ffg local chassb has moved provisions from ffg exhibit to the local policy the exhibit is recommended for deletion on page 523 we have fm local cover students conte contests and competitions there is no requirement for board adopted policy on these topics the district

142can include guidance to these activities in administrative procedures the student handbook or the district's extracurricular handbook policies fng and gf are on pages 524 to through 536 and i'm going to cover these two policies together fng local and gf local address files a complaint after being ejected or removed from the district property is entitled to address the board within 90 calendar days rather than business days you know all of them are local policies correct yes sir the board has of course the the the book update 115 it includes legal and local but the board has uh the authority just to to approve the local policies yes sir thank you thank you let's move mr minister science i shall move to approve item 19 and uh as presented by mr luis garcia with the updates thank

143you sir i have a motion by mr salina do i have a second second and the second by mr moreno uh all of us in favor say aye or raise right hand i we have four in favor uh three out motion carries thank you sir thank you mr garcia anytime item number 20 employment and resignation of professionals and paraprofessionals and we have mr usman yes there are no changes from uh what was presented on board book if there are any questions that's pretty good that's almost item 20 as presented second i'll have i have a motion by mr salinas and i have a second by mr moreno all those in favor say aye raise your right hand i we have four four three out motion carries item agenda item agenda item 21 adjournment i summoned

144to adjourn i have been motioned by mr moreno to adjourn do i have a second second second by mr salinas all those in favor bye four four three out uh [Music] motion carries meeting adjourned at 809 everyone have a great evening we'll see you next week uh probably monday or thursday all right thank you have a good night thank you very much everybody uh stay safe take care bye stay safe