2026-04-20 Regular Called Board Meeting

001Test. Test. How does this sound? >> Mhm. >> Hello. Mic test one, two. Mic check one, two. Sound good in the room. No, I can hear you great, actually. Don't know how we sound on the stream. Lisa will know. Uh, probably not good, but you know, we try. I might turn you up a little bit. This is the same thing. >> Okay. Zoom stuff that we I mean >> This always works best on iOS devices. I can hear you just fine. >> the the levels are good. It's fine. It's a Cool. I'm going to go ahead and hang up. >> Mhm. >> Good evening, everybody. I would like to welcome you to the April 20th regularly scheduled meeting of the San Marcos CISD Board of Trustees. I'd like to remind everybody that this is a

002meeting held in public, not a meeting of the public. You're invited to observe and listen as the board conducts its business. During the public forum portion of the meeting, you are welcome to address the board per our published guidelines. All items that will be discussed and voted on this evening have been posted as required by law. In compliance with the state government code on open meetings act, this proceeding is being recorded and will become part of the San Marcos CISD's permanent legal record. To ensure the recording accurately reflects the proceedings, please refrain from speaking while others are talking. In accordance with state law and district policy, disruptive conduct must be avoided so as to not to interfere with the meeting. The board shall not tolerate disruption of the meeting by members of the public. This

003statement serves as the first warning from the presiding officer to the public, and if an individual decides to disrupt the meeting, the assistance from law enforcement will be requested to have the individual removed from the meeting. Thank you for joining us this evening, and thank you for your support of San Marcos CISD. This time I'd like to call the meeting to order and declare that we have a quorum with six board members present in person. And now I would like to invite Jennifer Gonzalez and her Hernandez heroes forward who will lead us this evening in the pledges. Good evening board Superintendent Cardona. We do have some amazing Hernandez heroes here to help us with the pledges today. We have Say your name. Landry Morgan Luciana Cadence Gracie Camden Adelina Liam And we will be saying

004the pledges in English and Spanish as we are dual language campus. Ready guys? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. >> Thank you. Thanks very much. Um Ms. Gonzales, don't go too far. And we're going to take a few things out of order this evening, so everybody bear with me. I'd like to at this time ask Dr. Cardona to recognize our attendance award winners. Dr. Valadez Dr. Cole, would you come? Good evening, President Halsey, members of the board, and Dr. Cardona. Dr. Valadez is not here tonight, so I have the honor of introducing our

005top attendance award winners. And we have, once again, Hernandez Elementary for our TOP ATTENDANCE AWARD. WHO'S TAKING THE PICTURE? ALL RIGHTY. ALL RIGHT, here are 1 2 3. Very good job. GREAT WORK. AND FOR OUR SECONDARY, IT KEEPS ON going back and forth between Miller and Goodnight, but we have Goodnight Middle School for March. THANK YOU. WE HAVE TWO SPEAKERS this evening for a public forum. The first is Matthew Young. Good evening President Halsey, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Cardona. My name is Matthew Young. I'm one of the special education teachers at Travis Elementary. Tonight, I was supposed to stand before you wearing one of my master's graduation robes, but the robe is missing. In a way, that feels fitting because some of the most important things in life are not all the things

006that you can see. In a few short weeks, students across the districts are going to put on their robes. They're going to walk across the stage. They're going to hear their names called and step into a moment their families have hoped for, prayed for, and worked for. There will be pride. There will be joy, and there would also be tears. But no student gets that moment alone because a graduation robe is never just fabric. It's sacrifice. It's perseverance. It's growth, and it's also change. And when our students put on the robes, they're not just wearing their own story. They're also carrying the stories of the people who helped them get there. Behind that robe is Miss Zapata, who built us literacy, connection, and confidence. Behind that robe is Miss Fissel, who teaches with both structure

007and heart. Behind the robe is Mr. G, who brings learning to life through storytelling. Behind that robe are Miss Christopher and Miss Nichols, who helps give students one of the most powerful gifts that they can receive, the confidence to read, to learn, and to believe in themselves. Behind that robe is Miss Willett, who gives students one of the greatest gifts they can receive, the gift of reading. Behind that robe are Ms. McCloud and Ms. Olson in special education, who meet students where they are and helps them believe in their own growth. And behind that robe are also leaders like Mr. Messina and Ms. Bland who support teachers, serve families, protect students, hold a campus together through challenge and change. But these are only a few names. These are only a few stories because every campus

008in this district has educators and administrators like this. People who stay late, people who show up early, people who keep pointing to students even when the work is hard and the recognition is small. That is why contract renewals matters tonight. Because it's not just about paperwork, it's not about positions, it's not about numbers on a page, it's about people. It's the about the people whose fingerprints are on every graduate that celebrates in the coming weeks we're about to celebrate. So tonight, even though my robe is missing, what it represents is not. The sacrifice is still there. The service is still there. The love is still there. The change is still there. Please renew these contracts with compassion, dignity, and gratitude. Because if you believe in the power of education to change a student's life like

009I do, we must stand by the people who make this change possible. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Young. The second speaker this evening is Jim Davis. Good evening, board. I'm Jim Davis, pastor of Grace Bible Church here in San Marcos. And I respectfully urge the board to remove all sexually explicit material from our school libraries. These materials harm students, violate Texas law, and are not protected by the First Amendment. And those that we've previously read fit all of those categories. As I shared previously, the US Supreme Court in Miller versus California established that obscenity is not constitutionally protected. Many books in our libraries meet this test. They are profane. They focus on explicit sexual content. And they lack serious value for minors. These books also violate Texas Penal Code 43.24, which prohibits the distribution or

010display of material harmful to minors. Material whose dominant theme appeals to a minor's prurient interest in sex, nudity, and excretion. And we've read some of those to you. Superintendent Dr. Cardona previously raised First Amendment concerns. However, SB 412 effectively in 2025 closed that loophole by removing the educational justification defense for providing harmful material to minors. Continuing to make these books available risk violating state law. A recent Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in April 6th, 2026 strongly supports our position in the challenge to Iowa Senate File 496. The court, judges Zertsan, Smith, and Kobes, vacated the preliminary injunction and held that schools have a legitimate pedago- pedagogical interest in curating age-appropriate library materials. School libraries exist to enhance education and develop students' knowledge and skills. They are not public forums. The First Amendment does not

011guarantee students the right to access books of their choosing at taxpayer expense. Restrictions on explicit sexual content are reasonably related to legitimate educational concerns. This federal precedent confirms that removing explicit materials is not book banning. It is responsible curation of taxpayer-funded school-sponsored resources. I respectfully ask the board to just remove this. Apply the statutory requirements of SB to these rules, to these books, and remove them from our schools. Remove and restrict books containing descriptions of sexual uh that the depictions of sex acts uh they don't belong in our schools. I urge you just uh remove these things. And I know that it's in the elementary schools as well. Things that are inappropriate to be putting in the minds of children. So, in the name of Christ, please do what is necessary to be done to

012protect the children in our schools. Thank you, Pastor Davis. Uh next, I'm going to request that somebody make a motion that we move into executive session in order to uh let me get the right um for consultation with the school attorney regarding pending litigation student versus San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District before a special education hearing officer for the state of Texas docket number 138 SE0125. So move, Ms. Halsey. Second. To the extent necessary, can we Can you handle A, B, and C while we're back there or did you want to go back and then come here and then go >> it's up to my colleagues. I don't >> I'm I'm supportive of AB and C. Okay, then uh we will if move into closed session as authorized by sections 551.071, 551.074, 551.076, and 551.0821

013of the Texas Government Code and section 11.060 of the Education Code to consider remove Sorry. Consider reviewing applications from candidates for appointment to represent the single member to represent the single member district two, deliberation regarding safety and security including safety personnel systems and/or devices, or security audit, and consultation with school attorney regarding pending litigation. All in favor, please raise your hand. That motion carries. Thanks so much. >> Mhm. >> All right, it is 7:09 and calling the meeting back into order. The board is now going to We are reconvening from closed session to take action if necessary on items discussed. There is no action to be taken. I will announce that we are going to continue accepting deadlines for the upcoming vacant seat on the board until May 18th. Um going back up to the

014top of the agenda, Dr. Cardona, would you please give us the superintendent's report? Madam President, members of the board, good evening for those of you who waited riveting fashion to see what's happening, thank you for being patient. Uh this time I'd like to call up Lacy Mariaski got to do just a couple of announcements and introductions. Good evening, Board of of Trustees, Dr. Cardona. I am pleased to introduce you to our new coordinator of Fine Arts and enrichment programs, Mr. Tyler Sammons. Mr. Sammons comes to us with more than 15 years experience in the fine arts classroom and a degree in music and music theory from the University of North Texas. His teaching background is in music with a focus on percussion and guitar. Prior to joining our family, Sammons taught in Leander, Eanes, and

015most recently in Coppell in the Dallas area. He is happy to be back in the South Central Texas area where he was raised. Uh Mr. Sammons is active at the national level as a clinician and adjudicator for organizations including UIL, US Band, and Winter Guard International. I understand he judged our high school band last year and gave them high marks, so we appreciated that very much. He has great taste. He's also very involved in the drum corps. Um and he is has just been a great addition to our team. Passionate about fine arts, approachable, knowledgeable, and ready to get to work. So, again, please help me welcome Mr. TYLER SAMMONS. I ALSO WANT TO MAKE ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT. I know he's back there hiding, Anthony Shields. We want to wish him well as he moves on

016to his new journey of Pearland somewhere ISD, perhaps. Uh I joke with him a lot, but he's made a major difference for our transportation department. And also want to announce that Walker will be the director of transportation as we're going through these budgeting issues. Um this is some of the things we're looking at as positions close, so it's one of those where we just kind of said, "Walker, other duties as assigned. Guess what, buddy? You got transportation." So, uh Anthony's going to be his mentor and not leave him high and dry, so we wish Anthony very well in his new journey. AS WE DO UM BEGIN MORE serious talks, everything's serious about the budget. I do want to ask the board if you all could let me know by email if we can move the

017May 4th meeting to a 6:00 meeting. Some principals, I'm sure teacher organizations would appreciate that a meeting is held at 6:00 as we talk about budget. Uh, and if you could just shoot me an email yay or nay, that'd be very kind. Uh, the second part of that is, you know, as we're going through this process, I think we've done a really good job since COVID of getting a handle on our voters past the Vader, but the reality is we have a $5 million budget deficit. Each of you have priorities. We respect those priorities, and so I've asked Denise as she is working on the budget calculator that Marcus and Jeff LeRoyer building out, whatever it is that you have in your idea for budget priorities, so we can start building that out for May

0184th, so that you can see. There's going to be a cost if you want a 2% pay raise, well, that's $2 million if you figure the average teacher costs about $73,000 with benefits. You can divide that into 2 million, and you can get a rough number. If you want to use, um, uh, hourly employees, 43,000 plus 44,000 uh, with benefits, we can start figuring out what it is. First part is to tackle the $5 million budget deficit that the board tasked me with in my evaluation. So, as we move forward, just know, uh, was we are going to propose a firm administration a balanced budget. That comes with everybody having to put their hands in the pot. We've done a really good job in this district of not being our neighbors to the north or

019to the south that are riffing hundreds of positions, but I do think we all recognize we want to take care of our staff. But we need to have a good idea of what our priorities are so we can build that out and get a better sense of what it is. On the positive news, we did have a conversation with TEA Commissioner Thursday. They are shifting special ed funding, which we all know has been a big issue uh statewide. They're moving to an intensity-based model, which for our district may come with a lot more resources. And I think they explained it in a pretty simple way. You have two special two special education students in a class. Right now, 6460 plus roughly $1,800. Now, one of those students might have a nurse assigned to them and

020the other one just has minor resource supports, but yet we're getting the same amount of money. So now they're going to kind of ask us to identify the intensity of service that each child gets, so that we submit that to TEA, then that will hopefully result in more funding. Now, that's a lagging amount of funding. We're probably not going to see that till next August during settle up, but at least there's an attempt by the state to now recognize that some groups of kids require more resources and fund them that way. But um That's August 27th. August 27th. Yes, everything seems to lag. And Josh, who's back there with Mo Casey, uh is going to talk about some of the complexities. Well, he was back there but went to go get something to eat. Uh

021yeah, he's riding his car. Uh we'll talk about some of the complexities of school finance. Uh President Hall said we got to listen to one call from the experts, and I think we both walked away more confused than we walked into the meeting, but he's going to be presenting on that. Um Thank you to our teachers last week and our administrators. We're in testing season and all our staff um really went really smoothly, but um kids did really amazingly well and I think that's in large part due to the staff who have just a good handle on taking care of the whole child and getting them safely through uh the testing environment, but we do appreciate everything that that they've done and continue to do for our students and we appreciate them very much. That's

022all I have for superintendent's report. Thank you very much. Um the next item on the agenda is the Board of Trustees resolution for Child Abuse Prevention Month. Uh Trustee Cantu, would you please read the resolution? Child Abuse Prevention Month. Whereas April is recognized as Child Abuse Prevention Month, San Marcos CISD reminds us that child abuse can be prevented and everyone has a role to play. And whereas positive childhood experiences, like loving caregivers and safe, stable, and nurturing relationships can help mitigate trauma and the negative impact of adverse childhood experiences to promote the social, emotional, and developmental well-being of children. And whereas children childhood trauma can have long-term psychological, emotional, and physical effects throughout an individual's lifetime and impact future generations of their family. And whereas the childhood trauma, including abuse and neglect, is a serious

023problem affecting every community in the US and finding solutions requires input and action from everyone. And whereas we lay the foundation for children's later growth and development when the entire community takes responsibility for creating healthy environments in which to raise our children. And whereas effective child abuse prevention programs succeed because of community partnerships created among families, social service agencies, schools, businesses, law enforcement agencies, faith-based organizations, and other child-serving agencies. And whereas San Marcos CISD is committed to ensuring that those impacted by child abuse receive supports that are trauma-informed and responsive to their individual needs. Therefore, the San Marcos CISD Board of Trustees do hereby proclaim April 2026 as Child Abuse Prevention Month, reaffirming our commitment to prevent child abuse by increasing awareness and supporting parents in their critical job of raising safe and healthy children.

024Thank you very much. Um could somebody pull up the report for me from on the board members training hours, please? We can skip through this page. Next. Next. Next. Here we go. Um as required by the Texas Administrative Code Title 19 Rule 61.1, at the last regularly scheduled meeting before an election of trustees, the board president shall announce the name of each board member who has completed the required continuing education, who has exceeded the required hours of continuing education, and who is deficient in meeting the required continuing education. The announcement shall state that the completing that completing the required continuing education is a basic obligation and expectation of any sitting board member under state Board of Education rule. The report showing that those hours as of today is before you. Questions? Comments? Seeing none, thank

025you very much. Move on. The next item are the report on academics. First up is Communities in Schools. Can we pull their report up, please? Okay. Ooh. Um good evening. Hello, everyone. There we go. Okay. Um thank you all for having us back. Uh this is a mid-year report. Just to let you know um where we stand. Uh but before I start, I just wanted to take a a few minutes or a moment um to celebrate some of the work that we've done in our partnership. Since we've started here in San Marcos, um our partnership has gained national attention. It started off with a with um a US Department of Education and really learning about our AmeriCorps and our internship program that we've been able to leverage for San Marcos. Then after that, um The

026New York Times created a uh a report on how high attendance and attendance interventions were working, and they chose um San Marcos and CIS to highlight. And then most recently, there was a report in The Atlantic that um interviewed your superintendent, two of your families, and about four of your kids really talking about economic mobility and the wrap-around mental health services that we've been able to provide here. So, I hope that you are as proud as we are of the work that um we're doing together. This is a brief reminder of our services. Um last time you all asked a little bit about our tier one, our tier two, and our tier three services. So, this is just a reminder that we do much more than just group work or one-on-one case management. We actually

027provide services to the entire um student body. Right now, we're serving about 94% of your student body. And later on in the presentation, I won't talk too much about it, but you all will see all the title tier one activities that we do at the elementary, middle, and high school just as an example. Um I also wanted to pause and share with you all a little bit about a Harvard study. Um it's why The Atlantic was here. Um Harvard studied 16 million students in Texas to look at the impact of CIS. And what they found was that when students received CIS for 3 years or more, they were more likely to uh have higher attendance rate, higher um academic scores, and higher test scores. Um they also compared us to um other uh interventions that

028a school can provide, and they said that CIS is 10 times um has a greater impact than class size reduction. And when they looked and compared us to putting a highly qualified teacher on campus, we were as effective as doing that when it comes to attendance, academics, and graduation. But they followed our students all the way into adulthood, and what they found was that students who had CIS were more likely to have higher income, less likely to be incarcerated, and less likely to be dependent on federal government assistance because they were a part of CIS. So, you know, it's important for us to to talk about our short-term, but the long-term outcome is for our community as a whole about CIS. Okay. So, we're in 13 schools. Um we did not reduce our footprint. Um

029we have provided a little bit over 7,000 tier one activities to students in San Marcos CISD. We're doing that intensive case management to a little bit over 1,000 students. And as a reminder, these were numbers from last month. So, which means that we are on track to exceed our numbers from last year. Um, and we thus far have provided a little bit over twenty-seven thousand dollars of direct family assistance. So, when a family loses uh their lights, or maybe um they can't pay for their mortgage, we provide a one-time financial support to make sure that that barrier doesn't does not um become a barrier for for families to be successful, and we don't want families to be in crisis. Okay. I'm going to stop here very quickly. Um, you all have asked, "Tell me exactly

030what CIS does." And if I were to tell you, we'd be here for 30 minutes. So, instead I put it in a CIS menu. These are all of the resources and services that are available to students and to your campus when CIS is on a campus. We don't have to offer all of them because we layer assets that are already on the campus, or not every student or campus needs this. But, this is when we talk about what CIS does, this is what we leverage directly on campuses so that your teachers, your counselors don't have to do it. We're doing that directly for you. Okay, we've done about 733 home visits, and thus far we have completed a little bit over 18,000 hours of direct service. And these are unique service hours, they're not duplicated.

031Um, here's some more work that we do. Um, we provide additional staff free of charge for you all, so you all have higher um higher education coaches and leadership coaches at the high school that are working with boys. We also have a mental health and wellness counselors that are roving, um and if there is a crisis or there's a suicide ideation, we come alongside of your current staff and provide layered services for free. Okay, I'm not going to talk too much about this, but these are all of the tier one activities, um some of them that we've done at the elementary school. Here's some at the middle school, just so that you all have a flavor and some of what we've done at the high schools um campus-wide services. Um and then here are some

032partnerships. Um we have you all signing lots of MOUs. One of the things about CIS is that we're leveraging resources and partners throughout the region and we're bringing them directly to San Marcos without you all having to go and research and find them. So, these are some of the MOUs um of some of the partners that we've brought we've brought directly to your campuses. Okay, the last thing and I'm happy that I came a little bit about about the budget because not only do we do good work, but we're a really good deal. Right now, um you all are investing um about 31% of the total direct program cost. School districts never get charged for my salary or for my colleague over there, Dr. Reach, the COO. No administrative cost are ever passed on to

033districts. This is all direct cost. So, you all provide a little bit over half a million dollars in funding, but we're leveraging nearly two million dollars and that's of direct cash. This does not include all of the food, the coats, the basic needs, um the diapers, everything that we provide in addition to. This is all hard money that we go out and leverage. Um and this is something that's really important to me, especially for counseling services. Um because we're providing a lot of counseling for you all, that's about $125 to $180 that families would have to pay out of pocket if they don't have insurance and we're providing that completely free to you all. Um and so for every hour that we're spending with your students, um it's coming out to about $17.24 cents to

034have professional clinical licensed individuals supporting your students. Okay, that's it. I I stayed within 10 minutes. Um I appreciate you all. Thank you so much for all your support and for your leadership. Question? Thank you so much. >> so much. We appreciate you. And Jenny Parker? Good evening. Oh, it's already on. Uh good evening Board of Trustees, uh Superintendent Dr. Cardona, and Ms. President Cosley. Um thank you Board of Trustees, district leadership. First off, I'm Jenny Parker and I'm part of Project AWARE, for those who don't know, and I'm here um with the honor to get to represent this message from TEA that I would like to share with you. Um and I'm um representing our whole AWARE team tonight. So, I've got a little script. Um thank you Board of Trustees, district leadership, staff,

035and community for your unwavering commitment to supporting student mental health and well-being. We are grateful to share the following message from the Texas Education Agency recognizing San Marcos CISD's successful completion of the Project AWARE grant. The Project AWARE grant, we are in our fifth year and it will be uh scheduled to close out the end of September. So, not done yet. But here's their message. Um this was delivered to us in one of our AWARE state AWARE team meetings that we have that people from our outside teams that we worked with throughout this 5-year grant had uh we had our final meeting on April 8th. So, dear San Marcos ISD community, I should have put CISD, I but you know, whatever. On behalf of the Texas Education Agency, it is with great pride and gratitude

036that we congratulate you on the successful completion of Project AWARE. Over the past 5 years, your district has demonstrated an extraor- extraordinary commitment to the mental health and well-being of Texas students. The work you have done have undertaken to build organizational capacity, support school-based mental health services, and contribute to a growing body of knowledge surrounding best practices for student mental health is a testament to the dedication of your staff, administrators, and community partners. Project AWARE represents something larger than a single grant. It reflects a shared belief that every student deserves access to the support they need to thrive academically, emotionally, and socially. Your participation has helped make that vision more of a reality for the students across Texas, and the impact of your efforts will be felt long after the project concludes. We are deeply

037grateful for your partnership, your perseverance, and unwavering focus on students. The Texas Education Agency is proud to have worked alongside you, and we look forward to seeing the computer continued ripple effects of this work in your schools and communities for years to come. With sincere appreciation, Texas Education Agency. And during that meeting, they presented us with a notice of cert- a notice of award and a certification. So, just wanted to share. Thank you so much for your time. Do you all have any questions for us? Thank you, Ms. Parker. We appreciate all of the work of Project AWARE and of our communities and schools. Thank you both. The next item is the update on the Bluebonnet math curriculum. Good evening again, Board of Trustees, Dr. Cardona. Tonight, we are recommending the adoption of Bluebonnet math

038to be implemented starting in the 2026-2027 school year in grades K through Algebra II. The purpose of this presentation is to provide some background on the development of these instructional materials and explain the funding impact. So, Bluebonnet learning materials has its origins in these two products on your left, Great Minds Eureka math, and Carnegie Learning's Texas math solutions. You can see we've been using Eureka Math in our elementary since the 22-23 school year. In 2020, TEA worked with Great Minds and Carnegie to develop versions of their products that were more exclusively around the Texas essential knowledge and skills. And more recently, TEA bought those Texas versions, made a few revisions, no more than 10%, and rebranded them as Blue Bonnet Learning. Uh this made TEA compliant with House Bill 1605, which required them to develop

039more open education resources. And so a quick note as far as Blue Bonnet Math goes, it is not to be confused with Blue Bonnet Reading. Uh there are no religious references in the math materials. Uh many changes were contextual changes, for example, moving from the New York Knicks to the San Antonio Spurs. So more relevant for our children. So uh Blue Bonnet Learning is considered an HQIM, a high-quality instructional material. And this is important to know because it is tied to funding, which I'll explain in just a moment. To be considered an HQIM in math, a product must meet these five standards you see on your screen. I'm going to highlight just a couple. Uh that second one, Arby's, it's not the sandwich. It's a research-based instructional strategies. Uh this is what may feel new

040for um some educators and parents. So you'll see an emphasis on um bringing in more of the um conceptual learning um in a in in balance with procedural, but for most of us, we learned pretty procedurally. So this is a little bit of a difference for some. And then you can see with uh number three, materials must support all learners. This is important because if it's able to do that, it should reduce the need for purchasing additional programs and materials for other for various students. This next slide is just another view of those RB's, but it's a good sort of industry term to be aware of right now. So shifting to a math product that's designed based on these research-based instructional strategies, as I mentioned, will be a little new. Um as you saw earlier,

041our elementary teachers have been using Eureka Math, which was built around the RB's. So while they'll be navigating maybe a new platform, a new look, the design elements are the are the same. And then we are training our support or launching our support training plan for teachers as early as May if we go this direction to get them up and ready for our next year. So I've talked about kind of the favorable aspects of the material related to the design. And so I want to look at the financial piece with you. So until House Bill 1605, we could purchase instructional materials only from our IMTA allotment, which you see is that purple box off to the left. But HB 1605 added two other funding sources. Your SBOE approved entitlement in that green box and your

042OER entitlement in the yellow. If a school district purchases instructional materials that are SBOE approved and therefore HQIM, we can use funds from that green box. And so Blue Bonnet, if we want to print, we could we pull from the yellow. So Blue Bonnet Math is an SBOE approved product, so we can use those funds from the green and yellow boxes to purchase. And what that does is allows us to not touch the funds in the purple box. And instead, that funding can go for subjects that are not yet uh do not yet have an HQIM. So, that would be social studies. Uh we're still hanging on till 2030 for social studies, our low courses. We have some elementary reading programs to renew. So, it allows us to keep that money in the purple box

043for all of those, and we can pull out of the new funding sources for these um HQIM. And so, with that, staff recommends the approval of adoption of Blue Bonnet Math this evening. Thank you. Questions? I have some of my questions for the agenda Okay. Thank you. The next step is our finance report on the budget from Moak Casey on unintended consequences. Oh, thank you. Got to learn your new your new system in your shiny new building here. This is very nice. Um my name's Josh Haney. I'm uh from Moak Casey. Uh we are a uh school finance consultant firm in Austin, Texas, and uh we've been working with you all uh in light of House Bill 2 passing out of this last session. Uh there were a lot of uh good things in House

044Bill 2. Uh it allowed uh districts to uh increase funding for for teachers, uh teacher pay. Uh uh I heard mention of the uh special education funding that the commissioner talked about this past week. That's um we got some more details from that. Uh so, a lot of good things were in House Bill 2. Um unfortunately, house uh school finance is complicated. Uh and so, even though, you know, the state increased overall um spending in in public schools by about $8 billion with House Bill 2, they also uh passed some property tax relief bills um that uh increased your homestead Excuse me, homestead exemption statewide. Uh that lowered property values and um uh with any changes in school finance, there's a layers of uh of hold harmlesses that uh start interacting in strange ways, right?

045And you guys, unfortunately, due to so, where you were with recapture, um put you in this position where the the benefits of House Bill 2 didn't get um fully felt by districts uh like San Marcos. And there's about a dozen other districts across the state that again, due to um historical hold harmlesses that you guys had gotten in the past and how you how close you are to recapture, um that funding didn't uh fully uh we didn't think would fully um benefit uh district like San Marcos. So, that's that's sort of the the context on on why we uh reached out to districts like this uh like San Marcos and again, about a dozen um across the state. Uh we we identified this issue with House Bill 2. Um the agency also identified this issue

046with House Bill 2. So, we've sort of been working on ensuring that uh that there's a a protection for for districts like um San Marcos uh across and others across the state. Um so, this is this slide shows a little bit of context um how we got here. Um you can kind of um think about this as layers of of hold harmlesses that have been put into the school finance system over the years. That first bullet point uh talks about a protection that was put in place with House Bill 3 back in 2019. Uh that first layer of protection only applied to districts that were actively recapture actively paying recapture. Fast forward to when Senate Bill 2 passed in 2023. That increased the homestead exemption if you guys will recall up to 100,000. All right,

047that pulled districts out of recapture. It also had some tier one rate compression which pulled districts out of recapture. That was the case for San Marcos. And so the fix for that to continue allowing districts like San Marcos that were pulled out of recapture to enjoy the the benefits of the prior hold harmless was described there number three uh put in place with Texas Education Code 48.283. And San Marcos did in 2023-2024 get about 2.4 million dollars from that hold harmless, right? So basically what's happening there is instead of having a hold harmless that flows to you as a reduction to recapture, it now flows to you since you're no longer a recapture district, it flows to you as positive state aid, right? So it sort of takes that benefit that you got under House

048Bill 3 in 2019, that reduction to recapture. And so it translates that to positive state aid. And so that's the that's the story as it was through 2023-2024 school year, right? So you guys were no longer recapture but you were still getting some of those benefits that recapture districts get. But again as positive state aid. And this kind of protection that I'm I'm talking about you can kind of see it it occurs when certain conditions are met, right? So if your if your tax collections are lower relative to your state certified property values, um uh or if uh you get state values assigned through the controller's property value study, right? If certain uh conditions apply, you can get either uh reduction to recapture or positive state aid uh through that that new provision. And so,

049uh this slide just kind of shows this is how how we visualize that we kind of um see it as a safety net, right? That first safety net only protects districts that are actively tier one recapture districts, right? So, so, Marcus has now been pulled out of recapture uh for tier one, so you're kind of locked out of that hold harmless now. Um you had previously gotten that a second safety net to catch you uh um from Senate Bill 2, uh that sort of extends that safety net out to those that were former recapture districts. Um and then House Bill 2 and 25 included a third safety net um that uh basically extends that protection to districts that would have been recapture prior to House Bill 2, right? So, this is kind of Marvel universe

050of you know, layers of of hypothetical situations. Uh that's again, I didn't write this. This is this is what the legislature put together uh to to provide some protection to school districts. Um and then it's it's uh it's our job to try and explain this very convoluted system that that they put in place. Uh but in short, that's the story. Um the problem, however, with House Bill 2 is uh kind of focus on that text in orange there. Um it only uh looks at your uh recapture status uh on the basis of House Bill 2, right? If House Bill 2 alone pulled you out of recapture. Of course, uh this past session, we didn't just have House Bill 2, right? We had Senate Bill 4 that increased the homestead exemption uh to to 140k. We

051had Senate Bill 23 that increased over 65 disabled exemption up to 60k. Uh and that also had some impacts on your property values and your recapture status. Um and so basically what we've asked uh the state uh when they're doing this calculation for this third safety net there is to not just look at House Bill 2, right? Look at all of what the legislature did uh in um in the 89th session, right? We need to take a a holistic approach um and understand that um increasing the exemptions uh also uh has an interaction with recapture. Um and that should go into uh account, right? The state should account for that in terms of holding districts harmless across the state, right? That's our basic argument with uh with TEA. Um and so um uh this slide

052just shows sort of those three factors that contribute to your benefit uh under this uh sort of our request to the agency. Um again as I mentioned, you know, the the benefit of this unintended consequence fix is going to depend on how your property values change over the time, all right? Cuz that's going to uh determine if you're recapture or how close you are to that recapture line. Um it uh the second factor there is your actual tax collections and how that compares to what the state expects your tax collections to be. Um and then the third one uh sort of related to that that that second safety net in the prior slide um that's is a a hold harmless that flows to you if your collections are less than what the state would expect

053given your state certified property values, right? So all three of these things are kind of all in the mix uh to determine what your hold harmlesses would be uh under existing law. And then um if you would benefit from the this unintended consequence fix that we've asked uh uh TEA to implement. Um and so our uh the estimates for uh your benefit under this fix has changed as we've gotten some updated data on your um your property values and your tax collections. Uh again, all of that it um you know, your hold harmless amounts and a potential uh financial benefits of a fix are all dependent again on your property values and your tax collection. So as as those pieces have come into focus, um your potential benefit has shifted as well. Uh and so

054you can see that first column there is what we had initially estimated. Um and then the second column is sort of the the um most up-to-date data that that uh we're um uh that we have access to today. Um and so you can see we were expecting a lower uh lower tax collections uh than what we have um than what we see um in the system uh in TEA system today for you all. Uh I'll draw your attention to that 95% uh collections ratio there. Um under that um scenario, you would have generated about 3.1 million in uh uh under this fix, right? The the what we're asking TEA to do would have generated 3.1 million dollars for you. However, your collections are higher relative to your property values, right? So you're kind of squeezing

055more juice out of the the tax base, so to speak. Um and so uh the consequence of that is under state law, TEA's going to think that you deserve less hold harmless, right? You don't need as much uh hold harmless state aid uh to ensure that your entitlement is fully funded. And so, that's uh in short, the the relationship that's being um uh displayed there on on that table. Um I'm going to skip over this slide for a moment. Um And so, you know, we've we've been having this conversation with the agency on um making sure that all districts benefit from House Bill 2 uh and that House Bill 2 doesn't uh you know, diminish your funding in one one area of the school finance system uh while putting, you know, more burdens on the

056district in other areas of the school finance system. Um and so, uh we're we're continuing those conversations with the agency. Uh we do believe that uh pushing for this fix is still worth fighting for um for a number of different reasons outlined there. Um really the the the first one is uh it uh uh getting the agency to implement this in the way that we're that we're asking them uh would still provide a safety net for districts like San Marcos, right? Those that are I'll call them bubble recapture districts, right? Those that uh that could be uh uh put into recapture depending on on on your value growth in future years. Um and so, we still we think that that um that protection is important for districts. It provides um you guys some some budgetary

057certainty. Uh and we don't want um districts to be hurt by future property tax relief or um you know, unexpected changes in your tax base. So, we think that that safety net is important. Uh and so, that's one reason why we are continuing to push for that um at TEA. Um and that's sort of echoed in that second uh box there. Again, we want to we want to broaden out that safety net as wide as we can and include as many different types of districts as we can. Uh so that way again, uh uh um if you guys have an issue with the controller's property value study or your tax collections are lower than expected, uh there's an automatic provision that that kicks in and flows you state aid. Um and uh again, and that

058third bullet point there just uh speaks to that that your your need for these hold harmlesses are going to depend on future conditions, right? Future property value growth, future tax collections, um all all these different kind of variables. So in a in particular year, you may um your tax collections may come in higher than expected, uh and the state may not um generate any hold harmless for you. But uh you know, we view our job as at least making sure that that safety net is there to protect you. I know that was a lot that was uh that was a very complicated corner of the school finance system that we just walked y'all through. Um and so uh happy to answer any questions. Um I tried to condense that down as quickly as I could,

059but it is very complicated. So thank you. >> Can you go back to that last slide, please? Uh this one? That one. Yeah. >> Yes. So I just don't understand where the $3.1 million that was owed to us went. So it was it I think the way I would describe it is it would be owed to you if certain um conditions were in place, right? So if your basically if your tax collections were lower, the state would have flowed you additional hold harmless dollars. Your tax collections from the data that most recent data that's available now are higher. >> because people paid their taxes. Basically, the state is leaning on those tax collections and pointing to that as evidence that there's no need for a hold harmless. Any other questions? Is there any from the

060other 11 >> Can you turn your mic on? From the 11 peer districts that are in the same situation, is there any pending litigation? Uh no, I don't because this is not um this is an area of interpretation uh and um so I I don't know if litigation is uh is being considered at this point. Um but uh yeah, I think we're having these conversations with TEA and and seeing where those go. You know, uh TEA has not closed the book on on this uh by any stretch. Um and so I I don't know if anyone else is considering litigation at this point. Thanks. Thank you very much for the update. Yeah. Uh the next item is the approval of consent agenda items. A, approval of the minutes for regular scheduled board meeting on March

06123rd, 2026 and special board meeting on April 6th, 2026. B, consider the approval of the administrator contract renewals and extensions. C, consider approval of teacher and other professional personal contract renewals. And D, consider approval of budget amendments. Ms. Halsey. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion that we approve uh consent agenda items A and D as presented in our board book. Second. Any questions? Discussion? All in favor, please raise your hand. That motion carries 7-0. President Halsey. Yes. In terms of consent agenda items B and C, I'm going to ask that they be pulled. And I'm going to then motion that under section 55.1074 of the Texas Government Code related to personnel matters at the board adjourn into executive session to discuss items B and C. Motion made and I will second. Any questions?

062Discussion? All in favor, please raise your hand. Did you raise your hand? Opposed? Abstaining? Are you abstaining? No, I'm sorry. I voted before. Okay. So, that was six four and one abstention. All right, the board will move into executive session. >> Mhm. >> All right, it is 8:50. The board is reconvened in open session to take action on items discussed in closed session. Is there a motion from the board? I'll move to approve uh consent agenda item 7B. I'll second. Any questions? Discussion? All in favor, please raise your hand. That motion carries 7-0. Ms. Halsey, I'll move that we approve consent agenda item C. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any conversations? Questions? All in favor, please raise your hand. That motion also carries 7-0. Thank you very much. Thank you to all of our administrators

063and our teachers and other professionals. We appreciate you very much and are grateful to have your services. Uh the next item for action is the board of trustees consideration and possible action regarding City of San Marcos Community Partnership Committee appointments. Dr. Cardona, can you explain this for us, please? Wait a minute. Okay, so this was in 2018 a committee that was started. I think Mr. McLaughlin and Ms. Skandur, when she was board president, were the members. And so the city brought this back to start this back up. They wanted a policy maker to policy maker for Hays County, for the city, to meet so that we can be in better alignment when y'all are voting on policies. I think this was the where you could talk about the storm water and some of the other

064issues that seem to drive us. I think it's they So everything you see is just what was done in 2018, and they want to begin the process. They've already appointed two members. Um so they're asking for the the board to appoint two members also. Do we know how often this committee is intended to meet? Quarterly. And they're typically held there at city hall, um and that their city clerk will be responsible for posting it, for taking notes. The district would just be responsible for attending. Is this like a nominations thing, or are we just asking who's interested? What um I think I'm happy to ask who would be interested in serving on this committee, if anybody is interested in serving on this committee. Mr. Alva? Yeah, I just wanted to like express my interest as

065an individual trustee. I think there's a lot of opportunity for collaboration between our two entities. So looking forward to exploring and teasing out what those exactly look like with our representatives on council. I am not interested in serving and I hope it's better than last time. It was like felt like we just we're getting lectured by the city and the city was setting the agenda and then we couldn't act, you know, so you can't act cuz there's just two trustees. We had to bring stuff back and then they have to bring stuff back and it was like we just chased our tail. So maybe someone else will be more effective in that role than I was. So I'm going to lay out. Miss Cain I would be willing to do it if no one else

066wants to. I think it's a time commitment I can take and stuff I'm interested in as well. I'm happy to have you serve in that capacity, Miss Cain, and you, Mr. Arredondo. Um, do we need to vote on that? Sure, I'll move to appoint Mr. Arredondo and Miss Cain as representatives for the school district to the newly reconstructed community partnership committee. I will second that. All in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you very much for your willingness to serve. >> Thank you all. Was that a 7-0? I think it was a 7-0. Go with God. Um The next item is the academics consideration and possible action regarding the Bluebonnet math curriculum adoption as we saw earlier. I will make a motion that we approve that. Is there a second? I'll second. Motion made and

067seconded and now um Mr. Mr. McLoughlin, I think you had some questions. I did ask some questions. I'm probably not gettable on this, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Is it Is it all like multiple-choice math questions on a screen or do we get like books and they work through problems because how does it mechanically lay out? Good old fashioned books. Oh, yeah. So, the students get consumables or what are they called? So, there's instruction pages that teachers can guide them through. There's practice problems. There's So, it's similar again, it came from Eureka so I can speak as a parent. There's really nice parent pages in there so if you're helping your kid with homework you can read those and act like you know what you're doing. Then there's TEs, teacher editions, that have all

068the lesson materials that can guide a lesson from a fluency problem to application problem to some uh uh practice problems some spiraling so it it's I would say the classroom experience is rather traditional. Um the materials, just the the format, the the layout of the lesson, and the design over time of how things build conceptually over the course of a unit or a semester is what's a little different than maybe back in the day where it was just um drilling problems and it was very procedural. Okay, and did was there dis- is this our normal adoption timeline? Yes. We were due to redo all math this year. Right. Our Eureka elementary Eureka time ends right now, at the end of this school year. But Eureka we're only using at elementary. Correct. So, was there >>

069is what we use at secondary and last year the teacher committee they said, "Let's just do it for one more year." and so that ends at the end of this year. I see. And was there was there engagement with our secondary math faculty on moving from STEM Scopes to um to Blue Bonit because that seems to be a big change seems from what I understand elementary is kind of a small change they're doing basically what you were already doing but the secondary is more significant. It is more it'll be more significant for secondary. They we had that committee last year who looked at a variety of materials and chose to stay with stem scopes for the current school year we're in knowing there were some upgrades going into next year primarily around that financial piece

070and it was kind of administrative desire to go that route but we brought those teachers in walked them through explained gave them early access to the Blue Bonnet math materials just to begin that process with that leadership team as early as possible. Okay, thank you. Is there a motion? Thank you President Halsey. So removing the I think controversial aspects of Blue Bonnet curriculum into totality. My concern that I have just based on what I've read online that is extremely anecdotal is that there are teachers who have started implementing this and the sophistication of the material for like kindergarteners is like leaps and bounds above even what they are like just even supposed to be like reading as far as literacy in kindergarten that just the material is extremely advanced the hands-on manipulative aspects are just

071not implementable in the classroom and even the state board across all of Blue Bonnet curriculum had to approve something like 4200 changes to the entire 200,000 pages of what they've laid out which I understand is not just math but I'm just concerned as this is being refined as implemented it is concerning to me as far as changing it. So, I don't know if you have any if you've seen that or if your teachers have seen these curriculums in in a big way which they're like, "Hey, we can do this with our kindergarten students, our first graders." What is the feedback from staff on that? >> Right. So, elementary when they moved to Eureka 4 years ago now, we definitely had that feedback. These materials are on grade level and on grade level is pretty sophisticated

072to use to use your wording. As TEKS get revised, a lot of standards across subject areas are starting to push down. You know, with the science revamp a couple years ago, we've got second third graders learning science standards that used to be fourth fifth grade. So, in one way, you've got your standards, the rigor of standards is getting more rigorous at a younger age. But, these materials are on grade level and if a student's coming with gaps, that can feel very challenging especially for a teacher. Our elementary teachers have been incredible at tackling those gaps. They have supplemental materials that help with that, but we are pretty we've been really guided by the opportunity myth. I I can't recall if that got presented here when we partnered with TNTP, but just showing that um over

073time over time and reasonable and now on the students aren't getting access to on grade level material cuz they're constantly working below. And so, these materials are designed to be on grade level with lots of spiraling and if used with fidelity, you can get there. It is but it is challenging. An example that I was talking to Dr. Cardona about the other day is >> stand fractions at this depth right now and trusting the process that right now we're just going to understand them in this conceptual way and then we're going to build and move to more of a standard algorithm later. Like that can be hard, but again our elementary teachers have been doing it for 4 years and they've I think they've really kind of got their stride and I think they'll be

074a great resource for our secondary teachers as they kind of learn this new material and the and the way it's designed. So yes, we've heard some of those concerns. Elementary's come a long way and I think they'll be a great guide for our secondary teachers. And I will say I think our secondary teachers are already seeing the impact of having Eureka at elementary because now they're getting sixth and seventh and eighth graders who are saying things like, "Do we put this in the standard algorithm now?" And the secondary teachers like they haven't We haven't used this academic vocabulary before. So it's it's moving up and I think that the secondary teachers will really appreciate seeing that alignment. So my second question to your point of where we've seen how Eureka math has done well for

075our students, then why switch and not continue with Eureka? They are pretty similar and if we stick with Eureka, it's not an SBOE approved material, so it would have to pull out of that purple funding box. Which then would take away from the ability to fund low social studies, some reading materials. So and I guess that and that was something that I heard during my time at the legislature, right? Like we are they did incentivize adopting this curriculum because we're getting paid to do that, which that isn't like a San Marcos issue, right? Like that is a statewide issue that we are incentivizing the implementation of what could be problematic curriculum, right? And although we're not adopting the other aspects of Blue Bonnet and and other courses, what we are saying is like, yeah, districts

076will chase the money if we're choked out financially in in other means, right? So, given those concerns especially like I'm very hesitant about voting for it today, changing the curriculum even if it is very similar because it is communicating a message in and of itself of like given we we don't know given that this is a new product, we're going to go after it because we're getting paid to, right? And and I think that's not a knock against the administration. Like that is just where we are as a public school system in in the state of Texas, which is frustrating and does not reflect on anyone in this room, but like we are playing into the game that's being played at at the legislature, right? And and that's just very frustrating for me that we

077are all put in that predicament today. So, I just wanted to say that and clear my conscience as we tee up this vote, so. Yeah, I can understand that sentiment. I was worried about the messaging there, too. Um whereas in the future, if we consider other elements, we might need to dig a little deeper there. I will say with this math, it is I mean, it's essentially just erasing Carnegie and slapping a Blue Bonnet on it. So, um I think we're I think it's better than other areas, and then you're right, it's part of this um funding game, and so we have been approved for a Lasso for Lift grant, which is another kind of um way schools are getting funded, and so that should help us with this implementation roll out smoothly. And a

078lot of school districts um applied for that grant, received that grant, and are going this way. Um Hutto, Round Rock, Pflugerville are some of the ones off the top of my head who are moving in this Blue Bonnet math way. It's helping save some money. Um they're using that lift grant money to do it. So, they're finding financial resources in other ways. And I I hear you on the problematic pieces. I think when we talked about this previously, it was said that the Eureka math isn't going to be updated, either. Isn't that the case that it won't I thought we'd talked about that that there were some of the supplemental materials that were going away, or is that a different curriculum? I don't recall. >> Okay. I thought that was the end. But But my

079other question is then we're certain, I hope, that the Blue Bonnet curriculum is going to be matching the changes that are happening with the STAAR test, right? So, it'll all be keyed to the new, whatever it's going to be named, to that, even though that's not yet. But that's what our kids will get. It's not going to be a lagging like they're going to >> Correct. Okay. Cuz I mean, that that should be the only I mean, the the primary benefit regardless of the money from the state is that if the state is going to implement these TEKS and these STAAR questions, then the curriculum that they're developing better be keyed to it. Okay. Other questions? Yes. I have one question and one request. Um the first question is I don't know the full scope

080of what math looks like after 7th grade, cuz that's my oldest kid. Um so, I saw this goes all the way to Algebra 2. After that, is it just AP classes? So, we have curriculum based on that, or are there other options, and where does that curriculum come from? >> we have other instructional materials for courses beyond Algebra 2, and those instructional materials we have to pay for from that purple box of funding. So, kind of again, that incentive to have that available for upper electives um that these HQIMs don't provide through. Okay. And then, my request is just um I think everybody knows that Blue Bonnet materials have had a lot of scrutiny. Um, I had did some deep dives into the ELA stuff and I am aware that that's not an issue in

081the math products. Um, but I think assuming we approve it today, I want to make sure that the messaging to the community is that there are not concerns of implementing some sort of religious instruction through our instructional materials. >> Absolutely. Any questions? Seeing none, all in favor of adopting the Blue Bonnet math curriculum adoption All in favor of adopting the Blue Bonnet math curriculum, please raise your hand. Who was making the motion? I made the motion. Five, all opposed. Two two. McLaughlin and Arredondo. The next item is to consider the approval of the certification of provision of instructional materials, formerly known as the TEKS certification process. What is it currently known as? Uh, so it is now the certification of provision of instructional materials. Um, it's been that for maybe I guess last year was

082the first year. So, it's a yearly thing we do where we have to tell TEA, these are the instructional materials that we use per content area, and that's what's all listed there in your document. Is there a motion? So moved. I'll second. Any questions? All in favor, please raise your hand. Opposed, that motion carries 7-0. The next item is to consider and take action regarding the teacher incentive allotment spending plan and authorize administration to continue implementation of the district's teacher incentive allotment system and related expenditures. Good evening. President Halsey, Dr. Cardona, and Board of Trustees. I am Beth Cantu, Director of Talent Acquisition. I am joined by Beth Nash, our Director of Data and Accountability. We are both the TIA leads. I do have a few slides just to take you through where we are

083so far in the TIA process before you take action to vote on the spending plan this evening. Here is our timeline and it is a 3-year process to obtain full system approval within TIA. So, last year was year one, we participated in system development. We had stakeholder engagement and we submitted our system application. We are now in our data capture year where we are capturing our T-test data in domains two and three and then our student growth data points. Next year, we will submit our data. That will happen in October of 2026. We will find out if our system is approved in February of 2027. We will then be able to let teachers know if they are designated in May of 2027 and then teachers will be compensated based on those designations by August of

0842027. So after that, we will be able to submit expansions and modifications to our approved system and teachers will also be able to obtain higher designations that did not reach that exemplary level. To review, these are our eligible teaching assignments. So kinder through math our kinder through eighth grade math and reading and then the co-teach and resource special educations that support those grade levels and content areas. Fourth and fifth bilingual reading and math teachers and then the co-teach and resource special educations that support those content and grade levels and then English one, English two and Algebra one and then those co-teachers and resource special educations that support those content areas. Are those eligible teaching assignments determined by us or determined by the state? So they were determined by us and we did work with region

08513 and they suggested that we use so based on our pre and post post test use assessments that we already have access to. So for our K through eight well our K through third is I ready and then fourth, fifth and up is star. So can we add additional categories to this at any point? We can once we obtain system approval, yes. What does the process look like? I mean how many years out would that take then? So next year we'll know if we have obtained system approval. So we'll find that out in February. So we find out in February but then I'm assuming if we wanted to say that we are going to add music teachers, art teachers, social studies teachers, history teachers to this list, what would the process how long would it

086be before teachers in those categories would be able to be eligible? So we're able to submit every April a expansion. So we could, you know, next year potentially submit an expansion in April to then collect data for the following year. So, then it'd be another 3-year process. No. Once our system's approved, it's only a year. Okay. Thank you. This is how a teacher earns a designation. So, the T-TESS appraisal and domains two and three, those are averaged together for one score. And then student growth, that's going to be I ready and star. These are the T-TESS and student growth points. They did add a new acknowledged designation. Um so, now there are four designations: acknowledged, recognized, exemplary, and mastery. And so, teachers have to obtain the observation score you see and then hit that student

087growth point to earn a designation. These are the 25-26 campus allotments. So, this just gives you an idea of what a teacher would earn based on the recognized, exemplary, and mastery designations. As you can see, the acknowledged is not yet there. Um that will come out in um the summer of 2026. They will add that fourth designation category. We did want to show you some examples based on our Bowie data from this year. So, we have three teachers here. So, teacher A is a teacher at Bowie Elementary School. This teacher hit 65% student growth and a 3.75 on their T-TESS. So, based on that data, they would be designated exemplary. So, they would receive $9,381. Teacher B is at Miller Middle School. 55% student growth and 3.75 T-TESS. That teacher would be designated recognized and

088they would receive $5,495. And then teacher C is a teacher at San Marcos High School. They reached 61% student growth and a four on their T-tests, so they would receive the exemplary designation and would receive $10,854. So, does that go into their base salary, or is that just a one-time bonus? It's on addition to what they're receiving, and it's for 5 years. So, they have this record for 1 year. So, say teacher A meets these metrics 1 year, and then for the subsequent 5 years, they receive an additional $9,381 on top of their regular compensation. Yes. So, I know that there's all sorts of complicated formulas I'm looking at Ms. Meno's when you're determining like your retirement benefits and all of that. Does this count for teachers' retirement? Yes. It will count towards their TRS,

089and as and yes, they will. And then, do they have to continue taking their data during those 5 years? So, once they're um designated, we don't take it away, but the highest is uh master mastery, and so they are able to like level up. Um and get a higher designation. >> year, they could their data could change, and they could go to exemplary, but they won't go down. Correct. And then at the year at the fifth year, do they have to wait a year, or are they eligible to automatically go the sixth year? What happens there? Well, I mean, as that the data is lagging, um so in their fifth year, we would that would be the data that we would be submit for the sixth year. Mr. McLaughlin. Does the incentive travel if they

090leave the district? So, if they earn this in year one, and they go work at I don't know. Make up a school that also follows the the TEA program. Does their incentive travel or do they have to stay here to receive it? So, as far as um money's traveling to another district, no. Um in our plan, you know, we do want this to be a recruitment retention tool and we want them to stay here. So, if they do travel to another district, um if that district has approved has an approved system, they can pay. Well, yeah, I know we wouldn't have to pay it, but other districts can pay based upon the distinction earned while working for us. Yes. Okay, thanks. Yes. So, in your board bid, you do have the one-pager spending plan. Um

091so, this is what the y'all will be voting on. So, um our spending plan, 90% of the funds will go directly to the teacher, and then 10% will be retained by the district. That 10% will be used to, you know, continue to support uh TIAA and the initiatives supporting our mentor teachers, um instructional coaching, and teacher development through professional development, um continue to support our teacher residency program, recruitment and retention, and then also costs associated with the program implementation, data management, and training. This outlines deduction in TRS, so employees will be responsible to pay, you know, the taxes and the benefits, um with the additional money's that they earned, and then TIAA compensation will be included um with TRS in calculating their retirement benefits. These are the resources that we have available. So, we do

092have a 25-26 TIAA guidebook. This is available on both our internal and external websites. Um but you know, and then of course Ms. Nash and I are available to teachers for questions as well. Questions from the board? Thank you all very much. Is there a motion? We have to adopt them. I move that we adopt them. Uh motion made by Ms. Vieau Ponder, seconded by Ms. Cantu. Any further questions? Yes. So, I understand that this is like very data-driven, very like ISD dependent on tracking progress through individual teachers. So, when we talk about as we talk about the budget, as we talk about staff raises or lack thereof, I know we are collectively leaning pretty heavy on like TIA saying like the money is coming. But in the subjects that like aren't tested or tracked

093or data-driven or part of the state assessment system, they're just left behind, right? Like you I mean, you can't be a TIA in a in a in a non-tested subject, can you? I mean, how do you track growth or or progress? So, you can, right? It just takes a little bit more planning and prep. So, there are other assessments that are used that can include student student learning objectives. It can include portfolios. Um and then there's one more method that is not coming to me that can be used. Value-added measure. Um but that does take a team um vetting, creating, implementing, piloting. And so, it just takes a little bit longer than to be able to use the pre- and post-assessments that we already have. Um and that's really truly why we started there because

094we have access to those. For sure. So, I guess is there a timeline on building out those other systems for the other non-tested educators who are I guess potentially eligible, but need to have some process implemented. We do have a a timeline. Um we really went in phases. Um but it does include everybody by the end of the phases. Um we really wanted to you know, get our feet wet, get our system approved, and then work with our steering committee to then start adding those other eligible teaching categories. Okay. And and again, the only reason why I say that is cuz I know as we talk about our financial constraints, one of the arguments is going to be like, well, we're going to have TIA next year, right? Okay. Maybe. But in that same vein,

095that isn't all inclusive of everyone until this phased-in process happens and obviously I don't think I know like the marketing around the teacher incentive allotment is great, but I think there are some things that aren't fully fleshed out, but I digress. So, the only reason why I say that is again, as we talk about it as as a board in a district in replacement of salary increases, being cognizant of what that timeline looks for everyone is important, so thank you. Thanks, y'all. All right. Did we We voted about We didn't vote on Oh, all right. We have a motion. And a second. All in favor, please raise your hand. That motion carried 7-0. Thanks. There you go. 9:30 almost. All right, let's keep moving. Um human resources, consider and take action regarding the teacher incentive

096allotment spending plan. Oh, I'm sorry. My god. Wait. Um Communication considering a possible approval on rescinding the previously approved 2026-2027 school calendar, and then consideration to approve the additional days school calendar for the 2026-2027 school calendar. I think we can do item one. Is there a motion? Yes. I'll second. Motion made and seconded. Questions? All in favor, please raise your hand. Motion made by by Cain, seconded by Arredondo. All in favor to rescind is six. All opposed is one. Mr. McLaughlin dissenting. Ms. Olse, you'll make a motion. We need to know which one. The first one. And do we have a presentation on We already asked for one. Item two, consideration to approve. I was just going to go over option two, and if there was any questions. Uh we did send a survey out.

097We didn't get as many responses as we usually do. Uh we only had 602 responses this time around. We usually get, you know, a couple thousand. And we sent it out the same amount of times, I think. Um people just trust us at this point, you know? So, we had 56.6% vote for option two, and so that is staff's recommendation to go with option two. Uh that does change the first day of school to August the 13th. The last day of school remains the same. Uh this calendar also provides additional professional development throughout the entire school year, which is what we have in this current school year. So, it's really aligned with this year. It's It gives us our six extra days for Etsy uh to get that funding for next summer. And happy to

098answer any questions. Will you just show us option one again, please? So, option one, uh the first day of school would remain the same as you just voted on. We res- uh to rescind the calendar that was approved in January. So, the first day of school would be August the 19th. Uh the professional learning was taken out to get the six additional days before the last day of school. And that's the major difference is professional learning it is front-loaded in this option, and in option two, it's more spread out throughout the year. And what was the vote count again? 56.6% voted for option two. And 43.4 voted for option one. Uh most of the feedback was pretty positive about the additional six days. Obviously, there was some concerns about cutting into summer time and family

099vacations. Um but with student learning and getting our teachers more days with their students, you know, we hope to see better student outcomes. Mr. McCollum. Question. Well, this is really just more for discussion. If I don't have a question for Andrew, maybe I can hold it till the people finish their questions. I have a question. I have a question, Mr. McCollum. On this, the 56% like in distribution, was that So, that's like parents and staff voted for option two. So, do you have the distribution of which ones were parents and which ones were staff in that 56%? Uh I don't have it broken down by option two and option one. I can just tell you 602 responses, 369 of them were parents, 179 were staff. Uh I'll I'll tell you this, after looking at the

100data, uh the staff was pretty split. Uh some of them were okay with the front-loading of the PD, and the other half were good with the spread out of the PD. So, that's where the big split came from. And can you distinguish which one is the split PD and which one is the front-loading just for Yeah, so for option one, it is front-loaded. Uh option two, it's spread out throughout the school year. So, I really like I really hate that we keep moving the start of school. So, I mean I feel like we're basically starting on in July. Like I really hate this, generally speaking. Sorry. Um and I also feel like we moved the professional development throughout the year because we thought that there were pedagogical things that were going to be improved by

101that, but it doesn't seem like that. Like I feel like if we actually saw real results that were direct and meaningful, then we would all be like all in on keeping the professional development all throughout the year. So, I really I understand that the vote went 6%, but I feel like we got a low turnout vote. It's basically split. I would much rather have us go with option one. Um that's my personal feeling. And I will make a motion that we adopt option one. So. I'll second for the purposes of discussion. Is there any way with all the tech happening around us that we can get like a side-by-side of both of them? I have a comment while we wait >> Yeah, go ahead. for this technological breakthrough. I know no one really wants to

102hear a lot at 9:30. And I am keenly aware that Pluckers has $4.20 teaching junk sandwiches tonight. Um so, I don't want to hold everybody too long, but I think there's like a I want to make a voting statement, I guess. I'm concerned because administration brings this idea after idea to save the district money because we're in these financial straits that the state has put us in. And then I don't like what the state has put us in. And then I don't vote for an idea. And I don't want it to be seen as like me not supporting you guys. I know y'all are trying to do what we have to financially, but I just think it's rotten. We don't have any significant reserves or fund balance. We're constrained by what the state gives us.

103And they're really not working for us. The policy makers of the state they don't care if we succeed or fail because our children are primarily poor, we get a high special ed population. They just don't care one way or the other, but they don't give us enough resources and then they will throw us crumbs if we do certain things like adopt the curriculum or have additional school days, things that our mobile parents don't even want. Like they want a rich curriculum and they want a limited school calendar. Pretty soon we won't be able to afford art or music because we don't have the money for that. So we'll cut that. And And those are the things that our parents are asking us for and so our enrollment will continue to decline because parents will choose

104choices with a more favorable calendar or a richer curriculum or more arts and um I just think it's rotten. So, I'm against this because it seems to be mainly motivated by money um and I just wanted to say that. Thank you. Ms. Payne. Um I think we started on the 13th of this year, didn't we? But it was a Wednesday. So date-wise we're actually a day super concerned about that. Um I do also share the concerns of like throwing this out in the middle of things and also we need money um and the overwhelming response that I heard from this was I don't really care which option we choose if it's going to get us more money for the school district. Figure it out, but figure it out earlier next year. So, I would like

105to go with the majority based off that. Yeah, and to speak on that, right? We approved the calendar in January. Uh we weren't aware of this program. We found out in February or March and we turned it around as quickly as we could because, you know, we the board tasked us with try to cut the budget as much as we can. And so we did we did the best we can and and honestly, you know, we surveyed the staff or we surveyed the community as quickly as possible uh because feedback was important to the board. And you know, we're we're here to listen to any feedback, but at the same time um you know, we're going to present you with whatever we can to cut the budget. And not only that, we're in the education

106business and we want teachers with students as many days as possible. And so if we can if we can we apologize for the delay, but at the same time we turned it we turned it around as quickly as we could. I think that you are being responsive to the information you had when you had it. And I think that Thank you. And to be clear, the the message I got was we we need to figure it out sooner next year, not you. Hey, we're a team, right? What they say about y'all, they say about us and vice versa. >> Mr. Arredondo. So just to clarify, both of these options have like the parent community week thing, right? Like there's not a traditional parent conference day anymore in either of these. Uh so yes, and option

107two or both calendars will have a parent community day, but feedback we got from principals was sometimes it's a lot for elementaries to get it all in one day. So open it up for the week. So if teachers want to offer the option of before school, after school throughout the week to limit limit all in one day, we wanted to open up that option. Well, now that I'm now that I'm like looking at it more, the key is the same on both calendars, but only one of them has a parent community week as as indicated, I guess, or no? >> So they're both supposed to have a parent community week. The green >> Oh, it's like it's a bracket. Yeah. We just may have left the We may have just the graphic thing. We may

108have left off the bracket, but parent community week's going to be the same on either calendar. Okay. Any other comments, questions? All right. All in favor of the motion so made, raise your hand. That is for All right, that is for option one. Option one. right. You got it. That motion is four, four opposed. So, four, that motion carries then. Okay. Option one. Or two. Oh my goodness. The next item is purchasing consider ation and possible action regarding approval of a vendor for the SMHS kitchen cafeteria serving line, including possible delegation of authority to the superintendent or designee to negotiate and execute a contract. I move that we approve the action for the approval of a vendor for the SMHS kitchen cafeteria serving line, etc. Second. I moved. You second. >> I'll second that. Any

109questions? Do we need further information on this? Was that Miguel or That was Miguel and seconding. All in favor, please raise your hand. Opposed, that motion carries 7-0. President Halsey. I'm F, yes. I move to table item F till the May board meeting. Um I there wasn't seek sufficient information in the board materials for me to form a final position on the proposal. Motion to table? Yes. On the discussion of possible action to approve the 2020 20 2023 supplemental bond projects. I will second that. President Halsey, if I could just make a comment. >> Yes, please. >> At the special board meeting we went through a lot of the information. So, I refer you to maybe take a look at the special board meeting that we had and then if there's anything else that you

110need I'll certainly supply that. We could just go until I think we moved the next meeting to 2 weeks from like in the evening that first Monday. That's fine. That would be enough. Well, we haven't officially moved it to the Monday evening, but if we're moving it to Monday evening, then we can vote on it. If we're going to have it Monday at noon, we we are not voting at noon meetings. Right. >> Um so I think everybody needs to agree that they're going to be able to do on the evening meeting on that May 6th. Yes. Like that seems feasible. Um Mr. Sandoval, I do have two questions though about the buses. Okay. Um one when we purchase those buses how quickly will they be on the road? Like if we approve to purchase

111if we approve the purchase on May 6th, do can we assume that all of those buses will be ready to start driving kids in August? I'll let Anthony answer that. His last Congratulations Mr. Shields again. We are sorry to lose you. Thank you. I will definitely miss everybody. Um so the buses there's a current lead time of anywhere between 6 months to 9 months on them. Um >> I'm procuring them. Yes, I'm procuring >> get here, how long does it take from the when they arrive in our bus barn, how soon are they out on the roads? The current quotes that we have um have everything but radios and the uh the tablets for the student accountability put in there. So uh depending on how many buses come in, um it would be maybe best

112guess 2 to 3 weeks after they come in just so that our team can go in and put those radios and the tablets in them. And when does the warranty on the bus start? The warranty on the bus starts when it is when it is delivered. And there's a it's either depending on the vendor it's either a 2-year 50,000 mile or 3-year 60,000 mile. Um and then I have one more question and that is um are the buses that we plan to procure buses that can take students to and from school and buses that can take students to band activities, athletic activities, etc. or are they single purpose? So they are home to school, school to home, extracurricular, um whatever we need to do within the purpose of student transportation. Um they are diesel-powered buses

113so they can go longer distances um and it is something that's a little bit more reliable for said longer distances for any type of purpose that we need it for. Okay, but do they also have the the capacity within them to say carry batting bags and baseball equipment and dance line costumes and band instruments or are they really not outfitted for that carrying capacity? So yes and no. Um they are standard 77 or 55 passenger vehicles and depending on the amount of people on the bus would determine the type of equipment but these particular buses would not have undercarriage storage for them. That was not an option that was put on them. Can we look before the May 6th meeting at seeing what the cost differential would be is if we had the same carrying

114capacity for transporting students within the district but then also gave us the extra carrying capacity to transport student instruments, etc. etc. with the same vehicles. Correct. So we can put undercarriage storage for that reason and we also can put the storage above the seats if you will up on the ceiling and so we can get the quotes revised to reflect that. That would be great. All right. >> I'd like to see both. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Uh the next item is to move to adjourn. Can we vote on the table? We need to Oh, sorry. On the table. Okay. Uh all in favor of tabling this until the May 6th meeting, please raise your hand. All opposed? That motion carries 6 to 1. Now I need to approve what? Okay, we're good.

115Oh, uh we need to take action on the item from closed session. Um item B, deliberation regarding safety and security including safety personnel systems and or devices and security audit. Is there a motion Is there a motion to approve? Miss Halsey, do you Yeah. Miss Halsey, I I'll make a motion that we approve the three candidates for the school marshal positions as presented by staff in executive session. I'll second. Any questions? All in favor, please raise your hand. Opposed? Is there a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. Second. All in favor, please raise your hand. Anybody opposed? I want to say >> carries 7-0. Thank you very much, everybody. Please stay tuned. Please stay It's flooding.