001[Music] Okay, good evening everyone and welcome. It's time to call this special call board meeting of the San Felipe Del Rosd Board of Trustees. Today being Monday, August 11th, 2025. Mr. Secretary, would you call role please? >> Yes, sir. Mrs. Miss Luna Chavez >> present. >> Mr. Alamarez >> here. >> Mr. Overfeld >> present. >> Mr. Mesa >> here. >> Mrs. Web >> present. >> Mrs. Haynes >> here. >> Sir, you have a quorum. >> Thank you very much. Let the record show that we do have a quorum of board members and that this meeting has been duly called in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. This time we'll have opening ceremonies. First with a moment of silence for personal reflection, followed by the pledge of allegiance. Please stand.
002[Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. We don't have any citizens to be heard. So, we'll go into the consent agenda. If there's any questions, there's one item under consent agenda. And if you have any questions, now is time to ask this one purchase order. Any questions? Okay. Then one action will approve all items, which is only one item on the consent agenda. I will enterain a motion for approval. Mr. Valido, seconded by Mr. Maras. All those in favor? Motion carries. We go on to administration. First item we have is item A, consideration to approve an order calling a bond election making provisions for the
003conduct of the election and resolving other matters incident and related to such election. Sandra Hernandez and Daniel Martinez, Windset, PC. >> Good evening, President Messa, Dr. Rios, and members of the board. This evening, I'd like to begin with just a brief recap of the capital improvement projects that were presented during last month's regular board meeting. These will uh be the discussion for today's presentation for the bond election. So the recommendation of the citizens committee uh during the regular board meeting in July, the administration presented a recommendation on behalf of the citizens committee following those capital improvement projects for the 2025 bond election. These projects are as follows. You'll see that first project is the Delray Freshman Center. It is a construction of a new freshman center located at the existing campus. You'll see a a
004rendering. This is the front facade. This is another uh picture where you'll see an aerial view of the project. And this is another uh wider view of the freshman center. The second project is the project for the brickandmortar campus for Roberto Bobby Barrera Elementary STEM Magnet School. And again, this is a replacement campus of a new brick and mortar campus replacing that existing campus. And you'll see here, this is what that rendering looks like for the front of the school. This is another picture of another rendering of the STEM school. And here you'll see a wider aerial um view of the campus. The third project is the San Falipe Memorial Middle School renovation project. This is the construction of a new tech center and San at San Falipin Memorial Middle School and it's a gym
005expansion as well. And here you'll see uh the center area where it's the gym expansion next to the Philip Ricks gym. And this is a rendering of the San Falipe Tech Center, new tech center. And this is another angle from the Philip Rick's gym where you see the additional gym um centered in between both buildings. The fourth project is the Buenav Vista Elementary renovation project. The building renovations are to classrooms and administrative offices and a cafeteria expansion for this elementary campus. And you see at this picture is a rendering of what it looks like um at the entrance. This will be the uh a rendering what it looks like inside of the campus coming inside of the hallways. And this is another rendering. This is of the cafeteria expansion. So the next steps um in
006the presentation today you will see a bond election analysis. Um we'd like to welcome Mr. David Gonzalez from PFM. He is our financial advisor and he will provide a presentation to us first and then followed by the order of election by Mr. Dan Martinez who is our bond uh consultant or bond council from Winstead PC. At this time I'd like to introduce Mr. Gonzalez. >> Good evening Mr. Board President, members of the board. For the record, David Gonzalez with PFM Financial Advisors. Y'all should have a packet like this in front of you. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to I'm not going to go through every single slide. I'm just going to kind of stick to the main ones. If y'all have any questions at any point on any of the
007slides, the numbers, dates, etc. Just feel free to interject and I'm happy to answer anything as we go along this this presentation. Uh if you jump over to slide number three, this is just a uh kind of a gives you an an idea of what's going on with interest rates. If you look on the on the chart on the far left, the dark blue line is where rates are today. If you look at historically from a year ago today, rates have gone up. Uh the Federal Reserve for a long time was saying we're going to maintain rates. We're going to maintain rates. within the last two weeks, they've said that they're going to cut rates probably two to three times before the end of the calendar year now. So, there's a really good chance that
008rates are going to be much lower of December of this year and next year, even lower than where we are today, just kind of given uh what the Federal Reserve has been indicating. If you jump over to the next page, this is a timetable uh provided by your bond council, Dan Martinez. This gives you just an idea of what we're looking at the process works of when you call a bond election when you have an election canvasing and so on and so forth. So on the top item right there today we're here passing uh recommendation discussion to pass an order for a bond election if the board decides to move forward. Mr. Martinez and his team are going to work basically along with uh the elections office the county school district work on all of
009these items. We would have the election day on the bottom there of November the 4th and then we would canvas the elections 30 days thereafter. Um and and and that's kind of the schedule that we would be working. So from now to then what we would be doing with your with your staff with the district is having some more meetings, talk about numbers, some town hall meetings, things of that nature. But this is just to give you a a basic timeline of the process and and what we have to look forward to for the next several months. On the next page, this is a sample ballot measure also provided by your bond council. So on the lefthand side, you have the the very detailed measure, very detailed uh the project types of projects uh uh
010statistics and data. On the far right, when somebody would walk into the voting booth to vote on this, this is what they would see when they would actually vote uh one way or the other. on the proposition. If there's no questions on this one, I'm going to jump over to the next page. >> Sorry, David. Mr. >> Yes. Yes, sir. >> Mr. Alita has a question. >> Yes. >> And looking at the proposition at the very bottom, >> the last sentence, right? >> Even >> this is a property tax increase. Although we're understanding that it would be a no new tax increase. So how would that be able to is that something that I'm guessing with the legalities it has to be on there and we would have to explain that it would be a
011no new tax type of bond or >> That's exactly right. That's a very good catch. I'll let Mr. Martinez uh uh proide provide some more detail on that, but that's basically correct. Even though it doesn't matter what school district Cedar County has a bond election, if there's no tax rate increase, you still have to put in there per the legislative session. This is one of the things that they require. Mr. Martinez, can you provide a little bit of color on that? >> Board President, members of the board, uh, for the record, Dan Martinez, WPC, your bond council. Uh, thank you, Mr. Galindo. Great question. Um, we actually they passed a new law this session. This was a couple of sessions ago and we had to have that language there. And so as David mentioned and
012it's been described in the workshops, there is not a tax rate increase, but that language is required. I will want to share and this is even more difficult now and it's not out of our hands. The legislature just changed it. We actually have to move that language that says a property tax increase to the top. So it's at the top and it's it confuses the voters. It confuses the average person is not really familiar with the process. Um, I'd say by design by the legislature, but it's something that's out of our hands despite what David has has presented before that is not a tax rate increase. It's something language that has to be there. We have in the past tried to put what we call qualifying language that said, "Hey, lang this language provided or
013required by law." They said, "You better not do that anymore. I got my hands slapped doing it." So, we just have to put that language. This is a property tax increase towards the top. >> Okay. Thank you all for that information. Appreciate that. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Ma. >> Yes, I've got one >> real quick and and just to piggyback off of uh what Alio said, is it possible to have a sample of the current tax rate and the proposed tax rate in that? So, it says, you know, this is our current tax rate. This will be our proposed tax rate should the bond, you know, just because it's a plain word. It's not a tax increase, but then here we are saying or it is a tax increase, but we're saying it's not.
014Would we be able to put those two numbers on there? >> Not in the spec, not in the proposition or in the ballot. However, we do put information say on pamphlets or materials the district might present. We have it on our website kind of really in bold and and maybe in community meetings if we have that, you know, David and I will go and talk about that. But we we usually present that in the in the materials that you might have to offer to the public. But with respect to your exact question about putting in here, they they do not allow us. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. I just want to mention, you know, for years we've been trying to deal with that in regard to Texas Association of School Boards. That language
015hasn't changed at all. And I think it makes it worse now to have it at the very top. You know, they might not read at the very bottom, but it comes to the very top. And it's confusing for voters. >> Very. >> It's always very confusing. >> Yeah. As Mr. Martinez said, it's by design and they just want to make it as difficult as possible for districts to to have bond reference. >> And Mr. Mesa, to your point, you know, they did that to the school districts. Well, this past recent session, it's now for all bond elections. So, even cities and counties have to put that at the top now. >> So, the likelihood of success, it's going to be a challenge, I think. So, hopefully we'll get out to the public and then we
016explain. >> It's just very confusing because, you know, we tell them one thing and then they see the writing there. Yeah, >> but thank you for explaining that >> and this is this this really good point because it kind of you know uh brings us to another topic which is this is why it's so much more important as Mr. Martinez said to have pamphlets, mailers on your websites, things of that nature, so that the you know, anybody, a citizen here, can just go onto a website and it it it lays it out for them and you're just more transparent. And the more communication and transparent you to have, transparent you have, uh, the clearer this could be for the average citizen that comes in and votes one way or the other on these bonds. Okay,
017I'm going to jump over to the next page. Um this is just to give you an idea. This is so slide number six. This is just a history of the state assistance that some Philippo's bonds have received from the state whether through IFA or the EDA programs. So starting from the left to the right back in 2010 you all were receiving almost 58% state assistance on all of your debt service. You fast forward to the far right today you're at about 17.8%. That's strictly a function of your property value increase and your average daily attendance. It's a formula. All districts have to use the same formula. Um, but if you look at 2025, you're still receiving about 18 uh percent on all your debt service payments. You're receiving state assistance on all your debt service
018going forward. If you jump over to the next page, this is currently where the district sits at as far as your underlying bond ratings. kind of your everybody has a a personal credit score. This is the exact same thing for the school district. So currently the blue box in the middle uh currently the district is at a double A3 and A minus. That's a very strong bond rating. So um when you all would go out in the bond market and sell any type of bond you all would receive some very favorable interest rates because your rating is very very high. So it's not a AAA which is the highest rating that you could possibly get. Uh but that's you know the only types of entities that have AAA bond ratings are city of San Antonio,
019city of Dallas, things of that nature. Just really really ginormous metroplex governmental entities. But you all are at a double A3 and a double A minus. So so that's that's still a a wonderful rating to have for the district. So if you jump to the column on the far right, what does that really mean? So you look at the credit rating commentary. So where the green uh uh pluses and crosses are there on the far right, healthy general fund reserves despite historical draws for capital projects, history of modest annual taxbased growth with expectations to continue. And then in the red dots, you have below average though slightly improving income levels and elevated poverty. And then you have moderate top taxpayer concentration. So the the with respect to the income levels and the poverty levels, that's
020anybody in South Texas along the US Mexico border. It doesn't matter if you're Macallen, Laredo, Brownsville, El Paso, they kind of have the same strikes against them just because of the geographic location. So uh but all in all, this is a very strong credit rating. You've been able to maintain this credit rating through the years. So that's kudos to the board and to the staff for several years uh to maintain this at these levels. If you jump over to the next slide, this is slide number eight on the top chart that we have there, that's a list of all of your debt, uh the different outstanding bonds you have. So, you have your 2020 bonds at the top all the way down to your 2007 bonds. You jump over to the to the right and
021column in the middle there, it says the principal issued. So, those are the original amounts that were issued. And then next to that, you have what's outstanding from those specific issues. If you go to the chart on the bottom, this is what is allowing you to issue $50 million uh to to take to the voters at no tax rate impact. If you look at the bar graph there in 2025, you're going to drop significantly from 25 to 26. If you were to move forward with the bond, if the bond were to pass, you would be able to maintain the same debt service payment because you'd be layering 50 million now into the rest of your debt service schedule. So that this right here, the fact that you're going to have debt coming off the books
022significantly about $2 million from 25 to 20 26, this is what allows you to have this bond at no tax rate impact. [Music] If there's no questions on this slide here, I'm going to jump over to slide number nine. Um, this is just kind of a a comparable illustration of some of the school districts in the region, uh, that are, you know, sizewise, geographic location, etc. when they had their last bond elections, how big those bond elections were, and what their current INS tax rates are. So all the way from the top you have Larredo ISD. I'm not going to go through every single one of them, but you have uh Medina Valley, San Angelo, um you have Divine, you have Ciso Springs, United ISD, uh Eagle Pass Independent School District, uh and then you
023have there in the middle San Filipe Del Rio at about 18.77 cents on your interest in syncing fund. On the next page, slide number 10. Here we basically just kind of have a breakdown of what this looks like. Um, currently the district has an INS tax rate of877 cents on your INS. after if if if you move forward with a $50 million bond, you you won't be selling all $50 million right away because you cannot uh spend those proceeds fast enough. So you'd have two bond you'd have two bond sales over a period of time. So here the analysis that we have for you is we have the first bond sale in 2026. So you'd issue about $25 million in 2026. you would maintain your current tax rate even after issuing $25 million. So you'd
024stay at 1877 and then you would uh sell the balance another $25 million in 2028 and after that sale you would still maintain that 1877 cents on your INS. So this is this that's all we show here. Just a quick summary and what that would look like. A little more details parameters. If you jump over to the next page here, we have all the bond assumptions for those individual bond sales. One in 2026, one in 2028. And again, this is just an analysis. The district can carve this up however you want to carve it up, but this is just to kind of give you an idea uh of what we're looking at in our numbers. So on the box on the bottom left, you'd be looking at a principal amount of 25 million, project fund
025of 24.7 million, an interest rate of 5%. We don't uh expect rates to be that high, but we have just kind of a conservative rate for for these purposes. You'd have your first interest payment in 2026, and then you'd have a term in uh for 30 years. Jump over on the far right side. Basically the same thing, only this would be the 2028 bond. and what this looks like in a tax rate impact format that you all have seen in the past. Lastly, if you jump over to page number 12 here, we just kind of have a breakdown of what this looks like from a tax rate impact analysis. So, you have your property values, you have your existing debt, and then in columns 2, three, and four, you have the 2026 bond. In columns
026five, six, and seven, you have your 2028 bond. You have your total debt service in column 8, which includes your existing debt service plus this proposed $50 million. Then you have the state assistance portion. So, you're able to back out debt service using column number nine. And then in column 10, you have your net debt service requirements. And if you jump to column 11, this this illustrates that you're able to issue $50 million and maintain that 1877 tax rate for the next several years. And in 2031, it's actually going to drop. So that's all I have. Uh but I'm happy to answer any questions. I know it's a lot of information, but I'm happy to answer anything regarding rates, the numbers, timing, etc. and and Mr. Martinez is also here to answer any questions y'all
027may have uh on the legal side as well. >> Any questions from board members? >> I I have one. How does this um you know the increase of the homestead exemption uh going from it's added what 40,000 40,000 more. How does that come into play? >> Sure. Well, that's a very good question. Originally, when we were sizing all of this and having our initial discussions, we were looking at a $60 million bond. And then once the new appraisal numbers came out from the state, it obviously it kind of dropped uh to the point where we could not go out for the 60 million anymore and maintain the 18.77 cents. We had to drop the total bond amount from 60 to 50 in order to maintain that877 cents. So, so it did have an impact. It
028had an impact on everybody. It it it changed the amount that we could actually go go out for. So, we had to reduce everything by 10 million. That's the impact that we saw with the new homestead. >> Okay. in Wales. >> There are no questions. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Next item we have is item B. Consideration to approve a contract over >> Oh, >> the next item. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> The next agenda. >> Daniel, no. Sandra, >> you need to vote on A. You have to make the recommendation. >> It's an action item. >> Correct. So what you have also you have your financial information and attach you have a copy of the order of election. This time I'm going to read the recommendation that the board of
029trustees approve the order calling a bond election for the San Filipe de Rio Consolidated Independent School District making provision for the conduct of the election and resolving other matters incident and related to such election. >> Any discussion from board members? >> Just Mr. Orel >> comment there. I I think it's it's a a a great thing to to do to go and ask the the community for this. We're in a really great position uh financially as we've already indicated. uh the idea that it will not be a a true tax increase and we can remain at the 0.1877 uh I think will also be the the key to going in and making that known to the the voters through conversations and meetings and so forth and so on. there. The uh this this will greatly
030help improve student student life and and um teacher life within the district by taking some of the really old buildings and bringing state-of-the-art ones in. It'll improve uh quality of life for for Laughlin and Air Force Base for those airmen who are coming in uh with a new brick and mortar. um greatly reshape San Filipe Memorial, especially the the face of Delro freshman there. So I I look forward to it and hope we can get the community to go along with it, too. Thank you, Mr. Anyone else? I I think uh for those of us that were at the last attempt for a bond election. You know, it takes the whole team to go and talk to faculty members and community members and again um show that it is not an increase although you know
031the wording sounds um that it is an increase but as long as they can understand you know and be uh we be transparent about it. I think that has helped us a whole lot especially in the last election participation of board members as we go and talk to everybody sir. >> Okay. >> Want to read the recommendation? Oh, you already read the recommendation. That was discussion. >> So, there's a motion made by Morville, seconded by Mr. Moras. All those in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you, gentlemen. Now we go into item B. Consideration to prove a contract um over $5,000 in purchase order over 25,000 with the elections officer of Valverie County, Texas in the amount not to exceed $70,000 funding source fund 199 general funds
032for election services for the November 4th, 2025 bond election. Sandra, >> thank you again. So pursuant to the authority under section 31.092A of the Texas election code a contract may be made and entered into and by in between the elections officer of Valverie County, Texas and the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidate Consolidated Independent School District for election services. So this contract that uh I am presenting this evening is for purchase order over 25,000 with the elections officer of Alvetic Balbert County, Texas in an amount not to exceed $70,000 for election services for the November 4th, 2025 bond election. >> Any questions? >> Hearing none. Recommendation, please. >> Yes, sir. It is a recommendation of the administration that the board of trustees approve the contract over 5,000 and purchase order over 25,000 with the elections officer
033of Valdde County, Texas in an amount not to exceed $70,000 for election services for the November 4th, 2025 bond election as discussed. >> Further recommendation motion made by Mr. Alindo, seconded by Amy Haynes. All those in favor? Motion carries unanimous. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> We go on to item 14, human resources. Item A, consideration to approve the second observation appraisal listing. Amy Childress. Thank you, gentlemen. Dave Charles. >> Good evening, President Mesa, Dr. Rios, and members of the board. This evening, um, I bring to you, we are needing to update our, um, second observ observation appraisal listing. Um, in the event that a second observation is requested by a teacher, um, it is recommendation administration that school board of trustees approve the following second observation appraisers for the 2025 2026
034school year. And this would be the campus administrator at the same campus or a campus administrator at another campus or a district administrator from the following listing. The chief academic officer, the director of special education, or the director of curriculum and instruction. >> Any questions for Amy? >> Want to read the recommendation, please? >> Yes, sir. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of trustees approve the second observation appraiser listing as discussed. >> First the recommendation from administration. I'll entertain a motion. Motion made by Mrs. Web seconded by Becky Chavez. All those in favor motion carries unanimously. >> Thank you. Go on to next item under human resources. Item B, consideration to approve the updated 2025 2026 district compensation plans. Amy Chvers. Good evening once again. Um at this time we are
035asking uh to update our 202526 district compensation plan under the administrative professional pay plan under the pay grade five. On the dean of instruction secondary, we are updating the dean of instruction for the new tech at San Felipe Memorial Middle School to be 212 days instead of the 220. >> Any questions for Amy? >> Okay. You want to read the recommendation? >> Yes, sir. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of trustees approve the updated 20252026 district compensation plans as presented. >> Heard the recommendation. Is there a motion? Motion made by Michelle Mara. Second by Becky Chavez. All those in favor? Motion carries and >> Thank you very much. The time is 6:02 p.m. There's um we're going to go into close session pursuant to policy 551.07. 074 and 551.071. If any
036action needs to be taken, it will be taken upon reconvening to open session. We're now in close session. Okay. The time is 7:57 p.m. We're reconvening to open session. No action was taken executive. We're down to item 18A, consideration to approve personnel report to include the following. New hires district vacancies, retirements, resignations. Amy Chers. >> Good evening. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of trustees approve the resignations, retirements, and vacancies as discussed in close session and the following new personnel. Ricardo Pena, art teacher at Garfield Middle School. Isaac Garcia, social studies teacher at Del Rio High School. and Nicole Lubeno, mathematics teacher at Del Rio Middle School. >> Further recommendations. Is there a motion for approval? Motion made by Mich, seconded by Amy Amy Haynes. All those in favor? Motion carries
037unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Item 18B, consideration to approve the position of dean of instruction, New Tech at San Falipe Memorial Middle School, Amy Chris. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of trustees approve Christy Baretta for dean of instruction new tech at Del at San Felipe Memorial Middle School. >> The recommendation there's a motion by Mr. Galindo, seconded by Amy Haynes. All those in favor motion carries unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Item C, consideration to approve the position of dean of instruction at San Felipe Memorial Middle School, Amy Childress. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of trustees approve Melissa Rivas for dean of instruction at San Felipe Memorial Middle School. >> The recommendation there's a motion by Becky Chavez, second by Michelle Maras. All those in favor?
038Motion carries. Item D, consideration to approve the position of speech language pathologist with the special education department. Amy Childres. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of trustees approve Sarah Sunderland as speech language pathologist for special education department. >> Defer the recommendation. Is there a motion for approval? Motion by Mr. Maras, second by Amy Haynes. All those in favor? >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Item E, consideration to approve the position of librarian at Dr. Lonnie Green Elementary. Amy Childress. >> It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of trustees approve Mona Mendoza for librarian at Dr. Lonnie Green Elementary. >> For the recommendation, is there a motion for approval? Motion made by Michalindo, seconded by Linda Webb. All those in favor? >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Next
039item F, consideration to approve the board of trustees composite summitive evaluation of the superintendent for 2425 school year. Is there a motion? >> Mr. Tot move to accept the board of trustees composite summit evaluation of the superintendent as the clo as discussed in close session. >> There's a motion. Is there a second to the motion? Mr. Galindo seconded the motion. All those in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Item G, consideration and possible action on the superintendent's contract. Is there a motion? >> Mr. Ort motion to accept the to approve the superintendence contract as discussed in close session. >> The recommendation motion made by Amy Haynes, seconded by Israel Moras. All those in favor? Motion carries unanimously. There being no other items on the agenda, is there a motion for adjournment? Mr. Shalindo, second by Amy H.
040All those in favor? Thank you. Good night. We are adjourned. Good night, everyone.