2026-04-06 Special Called Board Meeting

001Oh, no. No. >> Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Think >> test one, two, one, two. Because y'all have all the doors open and you're all standing right in the same general area with all the stuff. >> Are you though? >> I'm not hearing you come through. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Oh, that's right. >> Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Hello. Mic check one, two. Mic check one, two. Mic. Mic check one. Mic check one, two, mic check one, two, mic. Mic check. >> Mic check one, two. Mic check one, two. anywhere. >> Porpuses and dolphins are very similar, except dolphins often have a longer nose, while porpuses are short and stunted. >> Candace is giving me a thumbs up. Good afternoon everybody. I think we have

002maybe a couple more people rolling in. Um, welcome to the special call meeting of the San Marcus CICD board of trustees. Today is April 6, 2026. It is 12:02 in our district offices. Um, I am going to call this meeting to order. Uh, we have a quorum. We have five members present and I believe at least one more on the way. Um, nobody's on Zoom. No. Uh, do we have anybody signed up for public forum this afternoon? We do not have anybody signed up for public forum. So, we'll move directly into the agenda preparation for the regular April meeting. Dr. Cardona. >> All right. Madame President, members of the board, good afternoon. I think uh so we can focus on budget which is a a big area as we're moving forward. I won't go over

003everything on the agenda uh for agenda prep. You can read that. There's just a couple of things that I want to comment on. There are a couple of budget amendments. Uh one is for career technology and it's money we have but we're moving funds around for these competitions so that we can get the kids into the uh state national competitions. Uh the other one is a revenue thing and Miss Garcia and Marcus will talk about it uh during the budget presentation. We previously mentioned the money we received for the hail damage from a couple years ago. Um Denise and her team have been in contact with the auditors and so they've suggested we kind of revise when that is actually reflected as revenue. So she'll talk about that in the budget presentation because it affects

004our our bottom bottom line. Uh, I think those are the only two budget amendments. And then, uh, Dr. Sanders, we added a a legal update in close session for the regular board meeting, and it's about placement of a student that has been an ongoing, uh, legal matter for about the past two years, I would say. Uh, and so, Walsh Gyos wants to um get in front of you all uh, at the regular board meeting and kind of advise you as to where we're at. Those are really the only two agenda items. the rest. We'll have CIS and uh presenting their yearly report. Um and that'll be in the board book. Uh but I think we probably all want to be here for budget. So I'll turn the agenda presentation over so we can move forward

005to what I think we all are here to worry about. Marcus, and if y'all could So make sure that no board members have anything to add to the April agenda. So I think the other part of the April agenda is us reviewing the appointment applications. >> Yes, the application. >> I just had a brief question regarding the upcoming agenda regarding the proposed calendars that we were soliciting input from like parents, community staff. Do we have preliminary data for that? Is it going one way or the other? So, as of right now, we have 558 responses. And of those responses, 58% are voting for option two and 42% for option one. >> And so, I don't have option one or two in front of me. Can you explain what the differences are? >> Yeah. So, uh

006option one is keeping the first day of school the exact same based on the calendar that was approved in January. Option two or option going back to option one keeps the first day of school. It takes out the professional development throughout the entire year and the only professional development is in that first few weeks in August. Option two, it changes the start day to the Thursday uh prior to the approved Wednesday. And so that adds about four extra days of school at the beginning while keeping the professional learning throughout the throughout the year in option two. Those are the two major differences. And then something we threw in there as well is parent community weeks. And so just based on feedback from principles, we have parent community day in the spring and in the fall.

007Well, one day is usually not enough. Trying to jam in 20 to 25 uh parent teacher conferences. And so throughout that week, if they want to schedule some after school or even before school, you can as a parent and teacher and while still giving a parent community day on that Friday. >> Cool. Thank you. Mhm. Anything else from the board? And then Alicia is going to pass out the hard copy of the and Stephanie after she does her presentation with the team will be sending y'all an executive summary regarding the TAS TASBY uh survey regarding salaries and such. >> Yeah. Similar to how we've done this before, can we just for the sake of procedure, if something is like revealed in this presentation, we can return to agenda prep if we like are inspired to

008request an agenda item. >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Good afternoon board, Dr. Cardona. Uh we are in our April budget workshop and uh hopefully today we can share some information on you um both that we have been working on in preparation of our 2627 uh budget and as requested by our board on some agenda on some items that you wanted us to consider. So we're going to jump in and I'm going to turn it over to Miss. >> Hello everybody. Um, we have a lengthy uh presentation. So, we wanted to make sure we go through the whole thing so everybody can hear it so we can keep the questions to the end. That would be great. And we have a a new tool that we wanted to share with you

009guys and that's really going to help with the conversations. Um, so first of all, I wanted to go over our year-end estimates. Um, as you can see here, um, and as Dr. Cardona talked about earlier about the 3.6 6 from TASBY. If you notice at the bottom, uh the second line to the bottom, there's a new tab called other financing uh sources. Um after talking with auditors, because that 3.6 that we got from TASBY is really not revenue to the district. It's for expenditures to be used. We're not going to count it as revenue. It's going to be counted as other financing because we're going to turn around next year and use it all for those specific expenses. So, we don't want to calculate that into our revenue, making it look like we got more

010revenue in this year than we should have. Uh, so if you notice on here, our um compensation um estimate, this is still an estimate, uh, for the rest of this year, we're looking at about 76.2 million. Our other operating expenditures about 16.6, which gives us, um, expenditures of 92.8. Right now our revenue is looking about 87108. Um so that is going to leave us with a deficit of about 5.7. Um there's several reasons for that. Uh one of them uh if you notice on the second page here's our summary of finance. I wanted you guys to look at this to kind of see how we track a summary of finance. If you notice, uh, back in September of 25, um, we started off our year with a current aotment of about 19 million. As a

011year, as a year goes by and as we submit our PES data, our taxes, the tax collector and our controller goes over our taxes and our appraisal values, these numbers change. So as you can see down in May the last column we have been reduced down to 13 million um in our allotment which means that we um are in the negative 1.5 so we will not be receiving that. Now we have already received those payments. Uh if you notice on the payment amount column that's the third column we have received the payments so we have been overpaid the 1.5. So in our new aotment when we get in September that amount will be reduced. Uh now we want to kind of look at what are we looking at for 2627 budget. Um I did put

012in here our target range and we talked about that on the first um budget workshop of where we should be at where we where we want to try to be at. Um right now we're looking at our compensation to be kind of in the in the range. It's at 83.4. 4 uh other operating expenditures is out of range a little bit. That's at 19.4. And again, we're not putting any money back into our uh fund balance. So, we are the negative. Um right now with our current salaries, not any kind of additions, only current moving everybody over into the next year, we're looking at uh 76.9 million. Uh other operating expenditures about 17.9 which gives us a $94 million uh budget. Um we are looking right now for revenue about 92 million. So that's going

013to leave us with a deficit of about 2.5. And then you'll notice again we're coming in with that other financing resources at the 3.6 which is money that's going to go out. So that does reduce your fund balance to about 29.9. Um, now we're going to shift over and Miss Munos is going to talk a little bit about salaries. Sorry. All right. Um, so today we are providing um you all with an overview of our uh pay um compensation study. As Dr. Cardona mentioned, I'll email you over um an executive summary of those findings for you all to be able to review. Um Claudia will also be sharing um with you some of our additional positions that were were requested following our staffing meetings um with each campus um along with our current vacancies and

014proposed uh compensation models. Good afternoon. In front of you, TASBY compared our con um district with a group of peers across the district along with similarsized district across the state. These districts represent our labor market as we compete against recruiting teachers, support staff, and also administrators. As you will see here, teachers represent our largest group and account for more than half of all of our payroll costs. Because of this, even small percentage increases in teacher compensation can have a significant impact. Our teacher workforce is younger and less experienced than the state average. More than half of our teachers have 10 or few years of experience. You'll um see here a large percentage of our new hires are entering the profession for the first time. This makes competitive starting pay especially important if we want to

015retain um talented staff. On this graph here, you'll see that our study found that teacher compensation is the district's largest challenge. San Marcus teacher salaries fall below our market at every major experience point. orange um you'll see up there is our district when comparing it to our local market. Our um starting teacher salary is currently 2,000 below in the zero years category. Um and that's comparing it to the market median. And then our average teacher, if you'll see there to the far right, um is at the bottom of our comparison group. So, I will transition now back to Stephanie on those remaining slides. Um, so as you'll see in our market study, um, TASBY is recommending some increases to our stipens for our hard to fill positions, um, specifically in our special education. Um, and

016then recommending an addition or an add of general resource teachers um, in order to remain competitive. Um we also um would like to present to you all following our meetings with all of our campus principles um some additional requests for positions along with rationale and the total cost um will be shared on the next slide. Um some of these uh positions impact instruction directly. Um others um other requests support operations of the campus. Should the board approve the following request, we would have to um add it to our proposed budget. Um we also want to keep you informed of our current teacher vacancies and this is as of Thursday. One of the um I know it's a little hard to see, but one of the things we wanted to highlight is we have about uh

01714 vacancies in our special education. Um these are not current vacancies. These are vacancies where they put in their resignation for next year. They've just informed us already. Um so as we move into our budget development um we want to present to our board for consideration um to either address our our compensation um or really looking at the realities. um in just a bit um the finance team will show you um some different um things that you can add into our budget or change so that you can see the impact overall. Um but we want to just highlight here um what the cost of a 1% model would look like, a 1.5 and a 2%. Um again um in the study that I'll provide to you, it will give you a very detailed uh overview

018of all of these increases um in comparison to our market. So we are um when we have our finance team come up and show we are asking the board um to uh make recommendations what our next steps would be when looking at um compensation because this is our month where uh we present and we ask uh for feedback from you all what you'd like us to um agendaize. Good afternoon, board of trustees. Uh what we wanted to do at this this time also is to give you just a quick uh bond budget update as well as taking a look at some supplemental projects on the next page. But um so what this is is just a snapshot of March 30th. Uh right now the text pool account that reflects the balance that we have 91.4

019million. uh the projects that are remaining technology Marqueis Mendes the high school natorium middle school uh that's yet to uh yet to be paid or yet to finish and then we have set aside $4.7 million in in arbitrage leaves us a balance of about 14.8 um as we as we looked at March 30th. So, this is a list of the um of the items that um we feel are supplemental worthy, I guess, if you would. I know at one time uh this board had mentioned about looking at supplemental bond funds to try to add as many projects as we could in there to keep it away from general funds and from local funds. And and that's what we've done. I think from where from where we sit as a cabinet, from where I sit as

020chief of operations, I think our district facilities are in good shape. I think capacity is good. I think that um when we look at equity across the middle schools, we've addressed that. Uh so now all that's remaining is a lot of maintenance type items. I think the three most important things that you'll see on these list of projects are obviously the buses that we've talked about for a couple of months now. uh not only because of the um Senate bill that's coming out, but because we do have to replenish buses, uh the HVAC at three of our most problem campuses, which is the high school, Desaala, and Buoy. And then this buoy site work that I mentioned last time about we're not having problems with the buildings. We're having problems with the the the site

021um around it, the found uh not the foundation, but just we have some sidewalks that are cracking and we have some um entry and exit ways that are are are actually falling. Uh the rest of the uh items on there are, you know, I what we did is we prioritized them between high, medium, and low. Um and yeah, you saw on the other on the other page that we have 14.8 million. Um, I would like to at least maybe tackle the first 11 projects at a at a at a cost of 13 million and just leave us some funds in case we run into higher costs addressing those or if there's something else that y'all want to see that comes up. So, um, that's really it for for the bond supplemental. I will ask um

022if this is an agenda item for next for this coming u board meeting uh we can we can write it so y'all can tell me which projects or tell us which projects you want to see addressed. We do want to take advantage of the summer months. Uh so we are going to plan to get this in front of y'all and I guess the question is do you want to see that in a in an agenda item to say yeah these are the the projects we want to do. Okay, you can wait. Okay, thanks. Good afternoon, board. Uh, the next item is student devices. So, in 2018, we're very innovative, right? Right before the pandemic hit, we became a 1:1 technology district. And the last time we had a bulk order was in 2018 2019 school

023year. So, just like school buses, it's time to replenish our onetoone devices across the district. And I told Gray for the next 6 months, I'm going to blame him cuz he's not here to take any of the consequences. But Jeremy has done a great job researching um he has a great plan moving forward, but that plan does require us to spend some money. And so, just to give you um not a full full detail, but just a quick summary, that first item, the 1500 Chromebooks. So the high school the uh the high school device replacement has to do with we move we've moved to online testing and so with that online testing is updated software and so we've done our best to make sure devices work for as long as they could. We're reaching the

024extinction with some of those devices and so a big $525,000 is trying to get our our devices up to date with our testing software. Same thing with our student iPads. 600 iPads for 194,000. Uh this replaced generation 6 iPads which are no longer supported by district testing platforms. And so like I said, a lot of these increases are due to software updates. And so again, last quarter was 2018, 2019. We've replaced we've added some along the last few years, but it's time to replenish. Uh this ticket number is 1.3 million. And that that would get us up to date for next year. And again, we would probably come to you in the next few years just to replenish the whole district. But uh just to get us through to next year is 1.3. Not asking

025for any money for teacher devices, but we wanted to put on your radar. Uh we've done a great job of making sure all of our teacher devices are working and we they have the most updated technology as far as screens and devices, but it does come with a cost. And so this is what it would cost to uh replace every elementary and middle school teacher, which is right under half a million. And that's pricing for this school year. Um to update all of our high school teacher devices is around $143,000. Again, we're not requesting that for this year. we can we feel like our teacher devices are in a good state and we can get us through next school year but in the next two to three years if we come to you asking for

026teacher devices we at least wanted it to be in the back of your mind and Jeremy and the team are here to answer any questions when we're doing our activity but again just wanted to put these things in the in the back of your mind student devices there's a great need right now we have to get that in for next year uh teacher devices can be on hold and with the student devices going back to that 1.3 million There's two options here. One, we go into the general fund um and cuts it cuts it by 1.3 million or there's vendor there's vendor finance options where you're going to pay interest on on on those types of payments. But we at least want to options to y'all. >> Did somebody hit you or you got hit

027with a ball? >> Miss Kane, we can hear you. Okay. And we u kind of just wanted to refer back to our timeline. Uh this is a month and I know we we've kind of put a lot in front of you. Um but but we did want to uh get some input from you. Uh we wanted to try and finalize a budget uh planning and uh get an idea of staffing and salary recommendations so that we can bring a a draft budget to you next month. and then um that will keep us in line for finalizing and adopting a budget on in June. Um so what we'll do is I know there's a lot of information that we presented and I'm sure there are questions you have. Um we we put and I have to

028say thank you to Jeff and the academics team for um kind of helping to to get this into place. But a lot of the scenarios that we have mentioned in the presentation uh were put into this uh um we call it a simulator tool. It's a budget simulator tool. And so we wanted to as you um wanted to give us some feedback on what would happen if this was added or that was removed. Um this tool will do that. So it'll give us an idea in real time of of how much um our budget will wind up approximately um as we look at drafting something. And so just as you um take a glance at it, it's you know we broke in the compensation and M at the top it was the information that Miss

029Gonzalez presented to you at at the very beginning. Um that gives us that adjusted total of about 94.8 million. Um which puts us at currently at about a $2.5 million uh budget deficit and and leaving about a little under 30 30 million our fund balance. Um any changes that we make I will either add or remove to. Um, so I am let me just uh um kind of go quickly through these tiles, which ones they are. And then you're free to ask whichever questions you like about any of these tiles or any about uh the presentation that we provided. And then we'd like to actually um ask you to to give us some ideas that we could drop in and see how that impacts um our budget. Um so we we put our our pay

030increases in here um that um that were presented um as well as the adjustments. And then uh we also put an option we have brought this before as if uh if you did not prefer for a a salary increase and we have um onetime stipens um that would be an impact. Um we also have caps uh that we've um brought forward previously to our health insurance. Um so this would be a 225 cap. Um and you see that the in green um what that savings would be. We have a 350 cap on our health insurance. Um we have some student teacher ratio adjustments. Uh again the HR team has done quite a bit in um trying to to finalize things. This would be tightening the belt uh quite a bit more but we did want

031to present that option. Um here's a removal of longevity pay. And then all of the positions that came about as discussion um with the uh principles and campuses um were separated here by each campus. So you can see and then um we do have a uh uh the aquatics uh our niatorum uh we have the request here for an additional aquatics manager to help manage that. Um this is that technology updates that Mr. Fernandez just mentioned. Um the board had requested a scenario on what the savings would be to the district to close Travis. Um so we provided that as well as it um the board had requested um a scenario as if we um close down bottom and change it to a K campus and so we've put that in there as well. Um

032now we have already reduced our our um budgets for departments and campuses by 5%. This would be an additional 5% um savings. So we put that number there. And then if you remember at our last board meeting we presented on the ads program and um that's the the calendar um and that would be an approximate savings there. Um and then again here is a removing that dual language program at DC which we had discussed and uh maybe looking at going into two um two campuses districtwide and and that would be the statements. So, I guess at this time, um, are there questions or anything that you'd like to see the impact in in moving on adjusting our budget? >> Go ahead. I do have two questions. >> Go ahead. >> Um, the first is, can

033you remind us once again, I forget this every time. I know we're supposed to have three months of savings in our fund balance. What is that dollar amount that we're aiming for at this point? that 3 months would be approximately 26 million. >> Okay. Thank you. And then the second one, I know that it won't affect this budget, but where are we in the teacher incentive aotment process? Is it going to be evaluating next year and then allotments will be given the following year? Correct. Um so in April you will be approving our spending plan. Um, and then we'll submit that to the state and then the payout will be August of 2027. >> Thank you so much, >> Mr. >> Uh, thank you, President Holly. First, shout out to staff for making this. I've

034been asking for like a Wolf Blitzer election night screening for 11 years, and it's it's finally here. So, thank you for that. Before I get into like the gamification of of the budget, I do have some questions about the presentation. I'm just going to start in reverse order since that's what I remember most clearly. I wanted to talk about the student device replacements at the high school, the 1500 Chromebooks, the 3900 Chromebooks, etc. Do we have data on or is there a way to track like what teachers are using Chromebooks with like fidelity or not or like how often a student is on a device like when we say you know a class a teacher is using Chromebooks exceptionally well you know they're integrating it into the curriculum kids are learning cuz I I'm comfortable

035replacing all of them today if I know a kid is actually learning on said device. But if it's something in between or we don't have a way of tracking it, I'm very hesitant to then say let's replace all the Chromebooks at San Marcus High School because understood. Uh I don't I don't have anything prepared right now that I would be able to tell you yes or no, you know, with Fidelity that you know certain things are being used or not. Um I do know that they are used heavily in a lot of environments, but that's anecdotal. I don't have any any hard for you today. Uh, but we could try to find something hard for you. >> Yeah. I'm just curious because obviously that goes into like teacher evaluation as well, right? Like I have

036numerous devices and on any given day I'm using it. Does that mean I was productive today on all my devices? Maybe, maybe not. Right. To be determined. And so I guess I'm just curious from curriculum instruction like if we proceed with device replacement, how are we gauging the quality in which these devices are being used? >> We share that question with you. We have seen a change in the use of devices as the co years are behind us. Um teachers have seen a desire and through our instructional materials for a little bit more traditional learning. So they've been balancing it out. Um but the primary driver behind this is the testing platform. So kind of in some ways regardless of what's happening in instruction from day to day, we absolutely need it for the purposes

037of the testing environment. Um but but outside of that, the um technology in instruction is a really interesting place right now. Um, and then you never know what unfortunately the next thing that might happen when you need those devices to be deployed back out um into their homes. So, it's also kind of a an insurance policy too. >> For sure. And I appreciate staff providing that distinction. I guess for me to take that thought process a step further is if there were I guess numerous proposals of campus-based devices for testing purposes I would want those devices to be adequate functioning >> up to date with whatever program is needed to facilitate that testing versus then you know I'm also very like cautious of like kid bring your device has it been maintained is it in

038good working order you're now going to be administered a very high stakes test on this device and let's hope that it all works out the day of, right? And I can just only imagine the staff time it takes to make sure little Johnny's device is ready for ELA at San Marcus High School and just that process or knowing that hey, we have them in a safe, we have them in a classroom locked up and we can just deploy them the day of and they work, right? So in terms of like this slide, I definitely don't need or expect any answers today, but I would really like some additional information of what a plan looks like if we have campusbased devices or district devices that we use for the purposes of state testing. And if, again,

039this is just me personally speaking, if I'm a ninth grader at San Marcus High School and I'm in a cohort of teachers that have proven they're using devices well, they're being used with fidelity, they're accomplishing the TE standards and all the things that we want them to, then like I want those kids to have those devices, right, and have them readily available versus I could deploy 2,300 Chromebooks today and like what's the percentage of them actually like using them for school, right? So again, all of those things rattling around as we talk about spending 1.3 million to replace even just like a small segment of devices and and again like I'm I'm appreciative. I know how dependent I am on all my things. I was without Wi-Fi this weekend and I almost went mad. Um,

040so with all that being said, if there's any way we can get supplemental information from staff that is not time critical, but it's going to be information I need if or when we pull the trigger on where does 1.3 million, >> right, come from. >> Something to to keep in mind is next year is our last year of the star test as we know it. And then in 2728, we'll move to what's being called SST. Now, that's not the official name, but three testing windows throughout the year. So, the high stakeess will be distributed throughout the year. So, these laptops as early as September 1st will be needing to be up and ready with that testing platform across all of our elementaryaries and have to be really um tight for results and also related to

041to TIA. And so, >> that was going to be my comment. So our teacher incentive aotment we are utilizing I ready for our elementary. So that's I would think something we could run data because that's an everyday use like teachers are doing intervention they're prepping our students and then that uh beginning of the year test they're taking the end of the year to show that students grew and are on grade level that data will be what we utilize for our TIA payments. So it it is impacting all of our teams. um and it's going to turn around and help support teachers directly >> and and I appreciate that comment being made and I'm even more appreciative of the curriculum walks that we've been invited to as board members because I have seen at the elementary

042level where you do have these high performing teachers and again it's totally different from when I went to school you have a kid with a Chromebook in front of them the teacher is facilitating you know the lesson of the day and then they're partic participating in real time on their Chromebook. So I I believe that and I've seen it and so even then in this conversation of replacement devices and what this looks like next year, I guess I'm look interested in looking at it holistically. Um I appreciate that this is being put on our radar now. I have no doubt in my mind that, you know, 2018, 2019 devices, like again, if I had a device like that at home, I'd be probably pretty frustrated with how it was operating going on year 6 or

043year 7. Um, so again, I am intrigued and interested in pursuing this and and what this looks like longterm and short term, but having that additional data will be extremely helpful um for me. Similarly and and again just trying to do this in reverse order going to the teacher replacement schedule again you know 2020 2021 we're about to go you know we're almost halfway through 2026 um looking at replacement devices I would want to understand how teachers are using those efficiently I'm assuming everything is based on the Chromebook now or whatever device that they have um we don't still have teachers on like desktop like tower computers and classrooms, right? Like this is their device. >> The teacher laptop that they use for instruction. >> There's a few there are a few out there. There

044are it's true. There's a few out there cuz again back in my day that's how it was, right? Like teacher had their computer at their desk and that's where it stayed. >> Yeah. And so again, I'm I'm assuming if that's the case, even now, I'm still very interested in a replacement schedule that is not asking our teachers one, you know, use this technology efficiently, effectively, and if anything, in a in a very robust way on a device that is 6 years old, right? Cuz y'all can only do so much to refurb, rehab, and maintain those devices. And I can appreciate and understand that. So all of that additional data would be super helpful. I don't know if any of my colleagues have comments on these two slides cuz I'd have like more in the presentation.

045>> My only question my only question on the device replacement when we gather all this device and Chromebooks and everything that we're done with. Is there any way that we can get money back from somebody that can work with them, you know, is there any like >> like recyclers, >> salvage? >> Yes, actually. So, the iPads, we recently got uh some pretty decent information. If we were to take these devices and sell them back, we could get a little bit back. It's not a whole lot, but it it's something. Uh, for instance, for those uh sixth gen iPads and the seventh gen iPads, if you put them together, we would probably get closer to $100,000 back. Um, at least according to Yeah. And so we do have that in a quote formal, too. And so

046that's just an estimate. They would take them, of course, they would assess them and, you know, make sure they're in good condition >> depending on condition. >> Correct. Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. That was my only question on this page. >> Yeah. willingness to consider the the device replacement in the supplemental bond package. >> We uh we reached out to our bond attorney and so unfortunately we cannot purchase these devices with bond money. >> We've done it in the past >> based on the original >> has to be a separate proposition now like the stadium was in >> that's unfortunate but we'll definitely ask again. No, I mean >> my I guess uh Miss Cantu's uh question inspired me now that we've had Chromebooks, iPads, Kindles over the past several years deployed across various grade levels

047and campuses. Do we have a better understanding of like what works well, what what doesn't? And even if that's just the experience, I'll take that today because I know when we first started the onetoone initiative and even before the onetoone initiative, there was well, we're going to give kids Kindle Fires and iPads and Chromebooks. And so we've done that and I really hope the answer isn't it's all of them. Um, but I guess I'd be interested to hear what staff have to say. >> Sure. I mean, I can actually I can give you a pretty strong opinion about about devices. Chromebooks are probably of the best devices for our students. Um, they're they're the best response. They're lightweight and so whenever you turn on the device, you get everything that you need comes through with

048policy very very very fast. And so Chromebooks are excellent. iPads are very very good. Uh, they work really well for the younger students. Um, and then Windows PCs are a challenge in our environment. We still have some at San Marcos High School mostly because there are some uh some software needs there, right, that you can't necessarily fit into uh you know into a Chromebook. And so we utilize all three, but by far our our favorite and easiest to work with are are Chromebooks. If if that answers your question. It >> it does. And so I guess my second question is who are who's still using the iPad? When you say like the little kids, like what does that look like? I believe it's kinder and first grade >> and they're doing what on an iPad.

049>> I'd have to I mean I need I ready? Okay. I ready. Yeah, we deploy all sorts of apps and so I'm not all 100% on what all apps they're currently using, but we do deploy apps to them. >> And the K K1 students tend to be more handson with them. So they they're >> they handle better with that age cuz we put we get the honor boxes and the cases so that they drop them. >> Correct. You also don't have to log in to an iPad. >> My apologies. >> Yeah. >> And so again, I I think as this conversation moves forward and we have these and we have this dialogue, it would be super helpful for me to like understand like Chromebooks at the high school are used in this way, form or

050fashion with this regularity. This is how we we need these for testing. At the high school, we need these for testing at the middle school. Same thing with like some background information of it's the little and how they use iPads at prek, kinder, etc. Just so like I understand like in the abstract I could say, "Nah, I don't want any of this." But then realizing like, well, you need it for testing or whatever. I ready when it comes to TIA like that's going to be super mission critical for me as I make decisions. One more question and I apologize in advance because I'm having issues to hear everything that's been discussed over the last 10 minutes getting bits and pieces. Do we get a number or dollar amount on what these devices would go for

051um if we were to make this replacement and then you know shuffle these used devices off to whether an auction or or however they are um resold. Do we have any idea about what the cost or the dollar amount would be attached to each device like like an iPad or a Chromebook? >> Sure. So, for specifically for the iPads, those are the ones that'll get you the most money back. And we recently got a uh a quote, I guess you could call it a quote, is uh for about $100,000. If we were to send all of those back and they ended up, you know, inspecting as in good condition, we would get a credit back of about $100,000. Now, as far as Chromebooks go, the ones that were replacing, those will be in pretty rough

052shape uh that we're trying to replace. So, I don't expect a whole lot there as far as uh a return. And so, I guess the estimate would be around $100,000 for all this equipment if should we recycle it and then maybe a little bit more for the Chromebooks. >> Gotcha. But like I guess I'm looking to find go down a little bit finer. Do you have any general idea about what an individual iPad in good working order in good condition might be valued at? >> Uh I can get that number. I was looking at it the other day. Um maybe $50 around then. I'll have to look at the actual quote. Um but around there somewhere I believe. >> I just asked because um you know in in this consideration if we were to move

053to something like uh Mr. Arando was kind of you know discussing where we had like a classroom set of Chromebooks or a classroom set of iPads where students aren't necessarily taking them home again. Would it be possible or could it potentially be possible to sell these devices to families that might need them at the rate that we would potentially get them back for recycling? Um I that might be a very difficult undertaking. I just kind of think again, you know, sometimes families can't afford to go out and buy a brand new one, but they might be able to buy the less expensive um white clean but still usable iPad that we've been having to replace. >> Sure. staff can drop back and we can try to answer that question for you. So, just for the

054sake of time, y'all have asked a lot of great questions. What we'll do is we'll put together a better summary of what we use each device for, what each device is worth, how much we can resell it. You have better we'll put a better summary together just so we can I know we have a lot to discuss today. So, we'll put together a better summary for student devices and then we'll bring that back in April. That works for everyone. Yes. >> Okay. >> I have some quick questions. Um so in this the um the projections on salaries without any increase was that compensation accounting for maintaining our benefits schedule? >> Sorry. Yes ma'am. What we have here um this would be if benefits stayed the same currently. Um and then with our our salary increase,

055I'm sorry, what you're looking at um these potential salary um adjustments and general pay increases would leave the current current benefit. >> Right. Right. I'm not talking about the I'm talking about the 76.9. Does that include maintaining the level of insurance that we've been providing? Yes, it does. >> Okay. Um that but that's before we would know if there's an increase from Okay. Um, and then when they were talking about the market comparison group, I want to know what districts that those markets are. So, our um market group includes uville, Round Rock, Hayes, Sigin. Um it includes New Bron Falls, Komal um any close by um school districts within a 30 mile radius where teachers would typically move to. Not like a Dallas, right? Our teachers >> include it includes like all of Austin, all

056of all of Georgetown, all of those schools. every school within the >> San Antonio also >> not San Antonio just the two that uh flow into it which would be um new Bronals Com and then Shirts Clemens. >> Okay. Um and then on the cost for stipens, um can you put show like I want to know what the projection would be if we increased the stipens to meet the market value the market targets and I'm not sure if that's one of your variables there or not but the if we um we're doing well the masters already head there. But if we increase secondary math, secondary science, bilingual, and special education to meet the median stipend, I'd like to know what that looks like. >> We don't know. We didn't we don't have those. >> Okay.

057So, I'll need to have that next time. >> Our executive summary will include that increase. >> Okay. Um and generally um one I think that we should put onto the April agenda uh the approval of the supplemental budget items unless anybody disagrees cuz I think we need to get moving on those. >> Uh so I do have some questions there. I'll I'll leap frog that way. President Hollyy. So I guess today as an individual trustee I'm comfortable with the purchase of additional buses and let me find that slide or someone could put on the screen for me. That'd be great. Um yeah. Um so the HVAC can I get some I don't need that additional information today but if it's supplemental vote in April then I'm going to ask like what why HVAC um HVAC

058Davala HVAC movie I'm cool with as well all the playground stuff I have questions about. Can you explain to me what pit movie number two? that is p it's called it's stands for pour in place and basically uh it is ADA friendly surface for our playgrounds right now >> like the squishy stuff that they are instead of like wood chips or >> instead of wood chips instead of uh mulch which we spend about 23,000 $24,000 a year in mulch for our playgrounds this replaces all the mulch and this is not so this playground I'm sorry >> so the playground say the And we're just taking them off, putting the squishy stuff down. >> And so are our playgrounds like adaptive? Like so a kid in a wheelchair can go and use stuff or we're just

059making the ground ADA? >> Not all are adaptive. Not all of them are wheelchair accessible. >> Are the ones that here that are listed, are they adaptive playgrounds? Because I guess I'm confused if we're making them ADA compliant, but then the playgrounds themselves are not. >> No, there's equipment out there. We've placed equipment out there for for ADA ADA compliant equipment. It's just as accessing it. And if we put something in an area uh for ADA, we've made it accessible for them to get to that area. But of course, the whole playground should be open to every student. Okay. I was just trying to understand. So it's we're making the ground accessible which means they can then get to the equipment which is also accessible at these locations at >> Right. Right. And then an

060answer to your your Hback question. So those three campuses are our largest work order generated for HVAC. And just some quick numbers in Buoie as an example. We went back to 2022. We've spent over almost $150,000 either in parts or or or staffing to get uh work orders done. Days of all is about 80,000 since 2024 and the high school is about 360,000 um in supplies and and manpower. And a lot of these like the boolean and the high school are 2019 systems that we're running and then days of all is a 2017 system. >> Do you have one? I think 17 years old, 19 years old. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Not Yeah, I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Yeah, it's they're they're 17 and 19 years old, not 2017, 2019. So, they're they're showing some

061age. The concern that we have on our end and the parts continuing to go up has to do with the refrigerant. So, those campuses are 100% what they call R22 refrigerant. EPA has done away with R22 and we're actually on our third refrigerant now. They went from that to a 410 to a 434, which is what you will find now out in the market that they're putting in all these new buildings. So, for us to be able to get a part that 5 years ago, a compressor that was $250 is now in excess of $2,600. um a jug which looks like a propane tank that you'd buy at home. That was $175 years ago. I can get it on sale for $1,300 now. And at the high school, for instance, we have large units that

062have six different compressors. They'll take six jugs. So, if we did the math very quickly, you're talking 78 $9,000 just to for the refrigerant alone and then part. but we bring them up to where we're at now. Then obviously we're warrantied and everything else. So the the sticker shock is is pretty amazing, but the ROI is is good. >> So speaking of uh that return on investment, and I know Mr. Sandival just kind of anecdotally said it, but just for the purposes of this conversation and preparing for April, so you said about 300,000 is spent every year at the high school to maintain the current equipment. Was that the correct comment or estimate? >> Yes, sir. Roughly. >> So, in that scenario, I could spend $300,000 a year for 13 years to get me to

063the $4 million mark. Right. Correct. >> So, I guess my question is, if this $4 million is spent through supplemental to bring everything up to date to be under warranty to have all the things that you need, does that mean I will receive I can see it as like a $300,000 increase in my general fund then? cuz I'm not spending that 300,000 at San Marcus High School every year. Cuz you if I got 300,000 extra, I'm sold, right? Like I'll vote for it today. So is that something that I can count on if this is spent then? Cuz now we're not using it to maintain and buy equipment at, you know, $9,000 or 2,600 or whatever that comment just was, right? So for can finance or can somebody tell me is is that the case

064then like I will have that 300,000 in general fund to spend. >> I I'm going to use your math on the 13 years. >> Yeah, >> I would say no to the 13 years, but I would say yes to the parts and labor on any type of warranty or extended warranty that we can get on that. Normally they're going to give you right out of the factory one year. They're going to offer you three, five or 10 year warranties on top of that for an additional cost. Right. And then so to say replacement parts and labor and everything else, yes, you would see a return on that and not those outgoing funds where the only thing that is not under warranty would be a replacement of the refrigerant unless it was a part that failed

065and then that would be covered under warranty. So conversationally right now, I would tell you yes, you would see a considerable drop in the amount of money that is outgoing to what we're currently seeing now. Would it be the total 340,000? Probably not, but it would be considerable. And and so that that is what I guess I'm interested in or intrigued by is if these HVAC replacements at Buouie de Zavala and the high school res result in additional M dollars to be spent elsewhere as we use the Wolf Blitzer screen then that that is a convincing argument to me but I'm interested in what those dollar amounts are come the April meeting where I say yes to 4 million at the high school. Yes to 1.5 at Desabala. Yes to 1.2 at Buouie. Is what

066is that immediate savings then once these HVAC systems are replaced? Cuz if it's I'm spending 4 million at the high school but I'm not seeing any change in my budget my main and it's an operation budget then >> why am I doing this is is my understanding. So, uh, in addition to that, I wanted to circle to Miss Hoy's comment. So, based on the market study, did that capture the announcement from HCISD last week where they're like getting rid of their siphons where they're decreasing their tea aotment or where staff are having to pay those things? Um cuz I I guess to say that we're capturing Louisville or Westlake, there might be a handful that >> travel an hour and a half to 2 hours every day to go to work. Could it be me?

067>> Um but understanding and if we can get a distilled information of like what our immediate neighbors are doing, right? like within a 30 minute drive H pay Hayes Kale Wimberly Dripping what is that Prairie Lee Navaro like I think those are our market competitors versus I don't know how many teachers we're losing to like Flugerville every year but so if there's a way to understand that I am interested in trying to make us more competitive with our direct >> neighbors and like we're not that far off of the of the median right like we're within $2,000 of each of those benchmarks that were captured in that study. So, I guess I would be interested in a budget scenario that brings us up to that median market amount, but taking into consideration the new hisd

068numbers and not competing with like West Lake. >> Mhm. influ because I I just think that's a like on the dark side of the moon >> and the data is only going to show this school year, right? Because none of our um like neighbors have proposed new salary schedules for next year. So it is just what is posted currently. >> Okay. >> But to your point about Hayes reducing some certain items futuristically, yes, we can evaluate that too. >> Cool. Thank you. Um So, I know we're supposed to adjourn at 1, but can we not stay longer? Like I I have nowhere to be. >> We can stay a little longer, but I think we need to get back. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Cuz I know I'm just like going through. >> Yeah. I'm trying

069to play the game. >> Okay. >> But >> well, so I I mean I'm I'm interested in seeing it too, but I think that the things that I want to see aren't actually here. So, what I want to look at back at though are those stipens. Um, and what I would be interested in seeing is increasing the secondary math stipen to 2,000, increasing the secondary science stipen to 2,000. Um, I feel like the bilingual stipend is pretty good, but if I could be convict if there's a compelling reason, if we were saying we just have a shortage of bilingual teachers, I'd be I'd be persuaded. But I feel like that seems like it's really pretty good. But it seems like the special education stipen given the number of vacancies that we have in special ed

070really needs to come up. So I'd be interested in doubling that to 4,000. Um so I'd like to see what that looks like. And then I'd like to make sure that we're maintaining our benefits so that we, you know, when that inevitably goes up that we keep our health insurance premiums at zero for employees. Um, and I think that we don't really have a choice but to cover the devices since they're going to be required for testing. So, I think that has to be accounted for. Um, so I'd want to see those three things first and then depending on where that meets out, I would be uh next I'd want to see what all like granting all the um the campus requests for additional positions look like. Um because once we put all that in,

071I suspect we're going to have a significant deficit. Um and as unfortunate as it is, I am not going to be immunable to doing salary increases. Um at that point, uh I'm like I've said previously, I want to wait until October and see what we find out from TEA. And if TA comes through with the money that they owe us and that they have said that they're going to pay us, then I would be um wanting to look at >> No, we got a no on that. That's already >> and we got additional information this morning actually from OKC on the unintended consequences. So, I'll send an email out to you this afternoon talking about it, but there's not going to be additional funding for that. So what's what wait >> they're adjust >> they're

072they're adjusting these weights that you see on this one is what their answer is they've adjusted the weights to account for the unintended consequence is what >> adjusted the ways where >> we don't know that's what >> so I will send you the I I can't explain it it is really complicated and I'll send it to you cuz they kind of broke it down like where you can look at it really has to do with home harmless from previous years to current year and then the new laws that come in with the exemptions. So it is a I I really just can't explain it to you. >> Yeah. Where where we were protected previously and harmless um under the new uh we're not and so that that is a factor as well as our um

073a lot of property values and taxes the exemptions. So, it's a couple things that that all put into play and they said um yes, you're not in a situation where >> Okay. But when we initially when this came through, there were other districts that were in the same boat as us and I my understanding was some of them got paid out and we were still waiting to get to this point. >> Yeah. A c those 12 initial districts and then one drop out after their weights were fixed. But the 11 of us, Richardson, Round Rock, um, Bernie, Kale, uh, all were told it's been fixed. >> Okay. Well, I think we need a really good understanding of how it's been fixed because I don't see it being fixed and I don't understand how we told

074voters that they wouldn't be held harmless and or they'd be held harmless and now we're reacting on that and saying that that's not true. I mean, I know people that specifically would not have voted for those tax increases if they just if they thought it was going to come back to us like that. So, I would like to at the April meeting have Walsh in those or Cruz or Mo Casey, whoever it is that needs to be here. And I think we should should consider like legal action if they're not going to actually hold his promise. Um, that's infuriating. So, but that all said that I don't know how we can I can't consider cost uh increases if this is just going to keep >> So, I I do have a couple of questions before

075I guess you going to keep populating Miss Hally's uh preferred scenario on the closure of Travis and PreK tok at Bono. How is that dollar amount calculated? Cuz I mean it's not just like a layoff of all employees cuz those kids are going somewhere, right? like we're still going to need the counselors, still going classroom teachers, we're serving more lunches somewhere else. So like where does the 3.4 million closure dollar amount? We we looked at >> uh Yes, sir. We looked at uh four positions. I think we held one uh one position back per grade level um just as a as a we knew that there would still be a cost um to to keeping that. Um those kids have to go somewhere. They need teachers to teach those classes. we can't we're already at

076the you know pretty close to the max of our ratios. Um so that was kind of a number that we used. Um it's approximate. It's not an exact dollar amount but but it does give an idea of what um that there would be that amount of savings if we if we chose to close it down. >> Okay. Um I don't think that answered my question. Like where does that dollar come from then? Like is it electric utilities? Is it like you when you say that you kept one teacher back, what does that mean? >> So essentially it would be looking at removing um yeah removing all those other positions of of teacher positions as well as administrative positions and uh I believe we looked at the um gas, electric, water um for for the cost

077of that kind of approximated throughout the year. >> If I could get a breakdown of that. I guess I'm just curious still not being able to wrap my head around that cuz I would assume but how many kids are at Travis right now? >> 365 I believe. >> So look those 365 students would still need teachers somewhere else cuz the ratios would be just off if we dispersed them to six other elementary schools. But we're saying we're only getting rid of one teacher per grade level. >> We would we would hold we would hold um we would get rid of the remainder. So if there was three at a kindergarten level, we'd keep one and remove two. If there was four at a first grade, we'd keep one, hold three. That was just a scenario

078we did just to try and get an approximate number of keeping one teacher per grade level and then remove the rest. Do we have any knowledge or access to folks who like how they calculated in like Austin ISD or neighboring school districts when they consider campus consolidation or where that number comes from just because if it is like a mass layoff in employees then that's not how I'd want to like save the the money. Um, so I I guess understanding more of like the Travis calculation would be helpful for me, but if it's just a mass layoff, then never mind. And then will you explain to me bond and prek cuz I know we get prek money now. There was like a big state thing where we get paid for prek, but it's not enough.

079And so I'm just trying to understand where that comes from or is it just like a mass layoff of prek teachers? >> Uh, well, so that one we did look at. Um I believe the question was asked if if um we went away from the prek program, move the kindergarten to bottom and what would that entail? So a lot of that um would be in in the prek staff. Um and we would move all the kindergarten over. We would keep the operational costs because the building would continue to to need to function. Um so that that approximation is is um unfortunately going to mean salaries of staffing. Didn't y'all send us uh some information on the state requires as long as there's 15 students or more that the state requires us to keep a prek

080program going doesn't have to be in a separate school. It could be in another elementary school. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Right. We uh we want to provide this because this was a request. So, we just wanted to make sure that it was. >> So, when we say more than 15, that's like the kids who are eligible for like free free prek, correct? And we have like several hundreds of those. So like there is no way to >> Okay. >> Can you go back to the um the dual language program at DZ and just explain what that would actually look like. Uh so on that one we uh we would envision taking those students and uh seems the majority of them would move over to Mendes. Um however there need to be some consideration for um

081some heading out of Hernandez but but that would result in um the staffing of those uh of those DZ uh disol uh teachers being either I think we relocated one and then removing the rest. >> So how many kids and how many teachers? >> I I cannot can tell you off the top of my head how many teachers were removed from there. Um we pulled it from our staffing models. I could get that information to you. Okay. >> Um but but yeah, we did look at pretty much the the DZ classes and removing those. >> Okay. So, I want to know specifically how many kids would be affected and how many teachers. And um also want to know, are we already phasing out DZ? Like is this the last year of dual language at DC

082or are we maintaining it? What's happening? >> We still are maintaining the dual language. >> The plan is to continue it in perpetuity at this point. >> Not in perpetuity at for this upcoming year. Yes. >> So, it's just for one more year. That's what I'm asking. Like are we just is the plan to phase it out after next year? >> We were looking at phasing it out this year and then after having conversations with campus principal and the community we felt like continuing continuing it for this next year. But the reality is we could with Mendes opening we could conceivably move that program to Mendes and Mendes could house and we would have an east side west side dual language program. So are the families who are enrolled in dual language at men at

083Davala do they understand that they it will be there only for one more year or do they think that it might continue for the next 3 years? So at this point we have not had a conversation with any um family members or any teachers or anyone about that. It's been an internal discussion as we look at different areas where we can possibly um look at the program in terms of the viability of being able to sustain it. And we have Mendes that's um also going to who has a larger um program. Right now we're stressed very thin in terms of trying to staff fully staff the program. That's been one of our major challenges. So we have to ask your question we have not communicated to any families any intentions for 2728 at this point.

084>> I >> Okay. So I want to know that of that those numbers of kids and teachers at the April meeting >> in that similar vein. I guess I'm curious what what dual language campuses do we have currently in the school district? Your bottom has the dual language program that feeds and then you have Hernandez, you have Mendes, you have Desavala and you have an exiting fifth grade dual language class at at Buoie Elementary. >> So our dual language program just goes to fifth grade and then you like take Spanish one at Miller Middle School or the good guy. >> So is that like the way that it currently works? Like if I went through the dual language and I'm like almost bilingual, am I then encouraged to go to Spanish one or is that

085like a requirement? Like is it dual language or like I'm making a four on my like AP Spanish test at San Marcus High School? And like if it is, why is there not like a plan after fifth grade, which is like a whole different dual language conversation? I guess my question is why haven't we consolidated to an east and west side dual language campus if we're having staffing challenges? Like rather than doing like three uh dual language programs, why not just have one either side of the highway? Has there been like a rationale for that? I know I had a lot of colorful feelings about moving dual language from Menddees to DZ in terms of consolidation of the east side dual language campuses, but as Mendes is set to open, I'm wondering why this isn't

086like an opportunity to just do it well on both sides of the highway. It is a conversation we've had but you can hear the conversation up here at the dis and it starts stirring up emotional issues of people owning a program in a campus instead of understanding that it's a pro district program and that program is going to be moved. It's kind of the same conversation we had. We try to propose having Mendes as a KA dual language and the community came unglued and that stopped very quickly. So I mean we're proposing this to you all right now as a potential for next year but if it's an academic change we will look at that if we can continue it and yes parents might get upset but if we can maintain it and staff it

087appropriately then we will look at consolidating the two. The second part of that is we did look we have been trying Dr. Valadez have been trying to solve the middle school dual language dilemma. But as you all are very well aware, we cannot find math, Spanish, science, Spanish, social studies, Spanish certified people. They're just not out there. And so it really kind of morphed into this Spanish one, algebra one kind of hopefully some geometry. And so yeah, it's the discussion, but it stops with you all and it stops honestly with us for fear of getting everybody all around us. >> Well, and and I appreciate that at background, Dr. Cardone and I understand and I'm sympathetic and I guess if it takes support from the board. I understand where like the location of a program

088then creates a perception of this campus owns the program, right? Which again that's people are people and that's just who we are. But I guess even for me doing a program well on both sides of the community versus like I mean Deavala is what like less than half a mile away from Mendes, right? Like you can see it from certain windows. So the proximity thing isn't so much of an issue. If I get a cost savings of 800,000 like I guess my question is if we provide like bus transportation to those days of all the kids. I'm assuming it's not going to cost me $800,000 to to to do that. And so if it's like continuity of offering that service to those families as they're being displaced for a year or two, I would be

089interested and supportive of that and like lean lend my political capital to that effort because it just if it comes down to like efficiencies, lack of teachers again, then don't say it's like a dual language program at Menddees. say it is like our ISD's dual language program for families east of I35, right? Like whatever that looks like and and on both sides of but but well it's too specific saying it's dual language at Menddees because it's not for Mendes kids. It's for every family east of I35. >> Then redefine your dual language program, but don't make it specific to one side of town and not the other. Well, the west side has one and it's Ethnis. So, if I'm zoned that way, I go to Ethnis for close then. We're talking about days of Olive.

090>> Okay. >> But we have two programs east of 35 that serve that population. I guess I'm just trying to even from like a marketability standpoint, it's complicated to market my dual language program cuz it's kind of all over the place, right? Like Isabella, it's at Mendes. It's Mandez kind of based where you live. So anyway, conversation for another time. That's what I got for the language. But >> I mean, I just think we need to, you know, we made significant cuts last year. I think we need to be really strategic about how we are staffing this coming year and what we are funding so that we can get into a place where we're obviously not getting more money from the state. So that we have to get as close to possible as a balanced

091budget and get that staffing meed out so that it matches the budget so that then we can make sure that we are doing what we can to offer competitive salaries and offer segments and hopefully get to a place where we can get back to giving raisins. But but until we're right-sided, I don't see how that's possible. >> Yeah. I mean I guess and I'm hesitant on increasing FTEES when we're not adequately paying current FTEEs, right? Right. So like to say we're approving the request for these positions at a at as like a canvas based request like dual language. I have additional questions on dual language. So hiring like an additional dual language teacher as we discuss consolidation or future academic planning that's confusing to me if we might be moving FTEES and consolidating services. Similarly,

092like a sped IIA is different than like a band teacher or science or social studies. So again, I I guess I'm trying to >> and I I would just to clarify, I wouldn't say our sped is necessarily request, it's compliance. So, we want to meet the needs of those students and our sped director has said, "Hey, these are what um disabilities our students have." And so, we want to account for it and show you these asks, which really aren't cuz our students really need them for services, but just being able to show you the change in our budget. Um they're like you said, the band and um things like that, those are an increase to the program. Could the program still run without the addition? Yes. Would it be a lot on that teacher? Yes.

093So, we want to be able to paint the whole picture so that you have an understanding of the impact >> and and I appreciate that. But I guess in this current format without me saying what I just said in your response, it does lend itself to be like I get to choose whether I have a sped IIA or not if I'm willing to vote for it. So even teasing out what is compliance and then like what is quality of life for a teacher in that program versus like this is making the band program at Miller more robust. Like that is a conversation I think my colleagues and I need to have versus like it should be a no-brainer that we need to approve a budget that brings us into compliance in every program. Right? So

094understanding that there's an additional cost to that is great and I appreciate that. But, you know, I don't have the option to say no sped up days and that's going to save me 37,000 or 67,000 a campus, right? So, I mean, >> we're legally bound we're legally bound to provide services with special needs. I mean, we that's not an option even to discuss. >> Can you send me this link? Can I play with this at home or how does where where does this live? Yeah, it's a file which I can certainly um share with the entire board and that way you can go through different scenarios and models and see the impact. Absolutely. Uh we could maybe just update a few things that have been brought up here and then um were discussed and we

095can send you an updated file. >> Any other questions? >> I did want to circle back to Miss Hy's comment about the tax ratification election. So had we not approved that, would we have more or less money today than we would have had without >> Well, that was for the two additional golden pennies, which automatically we got that has nothing to do with the funding that was talked about for the unintended consequences. That has nothing to do with the hold harmless. >> Okay? So, I just want to make that like perfectly clear as we discussed that >> it's not like we're paying here more locally and we're not getting state money or any version of that. It's >> even with the TR money, the formula changed afterwards and it was like valuations that were getting

096>> screwed off. Correct. Essentially, >> correct. Yeah. And hopefully I'll send you the email this afternoon. Hopefully that helps you can understand a little bit more. But I will have uh somebody come in in April and kind of just give more clarification on that. >> I have a question. So basically we're doing what other school districts are doing, closing schools in order to save money because the districts north of us that have a lot bigger deficit are having to close several schools. >> Correct. And the reason why um it's taken a little while is they might have had a huge fund balance and they've been using it year to year. Every time you hear that they have, you know, a $95 million budget deficit, um at the end of the year they're reducing their their

097fund balance. And so you get to the point where you have no more fund balance. And so you have to do something drastic as closing the school or >> So how far away are we right now from not having the fund balance we're supposed to have? >> We're we're getting close. I mean we're at 29. We should have at least 26 to make sure that we operate. >> So we don't have a >> Yeah. And it will impact our first rating as well. >> So So there have been a couple of months where we're like waiting for money from the TAC. >> So we like front. >> Yes. So >> payroll and salaries. So when we do that, >> can you provide us the number of like when we're waiting to receive those funds, but

098we're running payroll, we're paying utilities, >> like our bills are still due regardless of whether or not we get the money from TAC. And so do we have like historical data like how low we've spent down fund balance in cabinet >> moment of time? Cuz that will help me >> Yep. stay further away from the 26 million and whatever that draw down amount threshold is >> because I'm not going to be up here when we can't make payroll. I can tell you that right now. Um Excel leadership team, what is $200,000 for Phoenix now? Excel Academy. >> I I will go back here. I believe it was um specified here. So the additional staff that uh is Lamar RXL um they the request I believe through the conversation with H um HR just going into

099next year is that um they have a current counselor on campus um that deals a lot uh more with the social emotional supports of students and so they wanted to have uh requested for an academic halftime counselor. uh they also or asking um because they have the Excel Academy there that um that they'd be staffed with the dean and then just um so a registar and pair uh pair professional to support the office in general. So it's my understanding that the Excel Academy is very electronic based if I'm not mistaken. So, I'd be very interested in understanding what an academic dean has to do to oversee the modules of kids on Chromebooks all day. And I don't need that answer now, but if it comes back for a vote, I'm going to need the Excel

100leadership team here to explain to me, no, I'm graduates of the program that gets them through, get them their diploma. I need to know how to need an academic dean to facilitate that. >> Understood. Um, and then I know when there was like a consolidation of APS and we moved some folks around, there was like a a principal for DAP and then an admin for Excel. Do we still have that like where there's two administrators in the same building for two separate programs but still in the same building? >> No. Um, we do not. We do have a lead teacher who um helps with the Excel Academy um and because once sat in a role um acting as an administrator can help out with that. So no, we don't have an FTE as a another

101administrator, >> two principles, >> but there are still two principles. No, we no longer there's one campus where we used to have the two principles, two counselors. >> On the current vacancies that we have uh on one of these pages that you gave us, >> did you calculate them at entry level to for replacement or midle? Um so our standard budget process for uh teacher FTEES at 3 years so 67,000 is what um our finance team budgets. >> Okay. I was just curious. I think we just have a couple other house cleaning issues. Um >> welcome. Can we, and again, I know we're now half an hour over, but given just like the intricacies of some of our questions and the proposed votes to staff these programs as is, is there any way that we

102can like do like a more robust like to have a request for additional dual language when our dual language program is like in flux is like very troublesome, confusing to me just cuz I' I'd much rather your staff's recommendation of this is where we're going to be next year and this is the staff and dollar amount we need to get us there, right? Same thing with like the ban requests and the the compliance stuff. I guess giving giving this presentation today, it lends itself to like I have options. I can choose what not to fund, what to fund, but there are programmatic things that I'm not aware of when I say I'm not funding the dual language teacher or the spat IIA. So, I don't know if that's at our April meeting or whatever that

103looks like, but >> would you like us in our April meeting then to be more detailed like without this dual language teacher request, then this fifth grade class will have one teacher and 28 students. with this dual language request, then split that in half. It'll have two teachers with each amount of class sizes. >> That and we have issues staffing the dual language program currently. And so in year two, we're looking at consolidation of an east and a west side >> program stand alone. If we were to consolidate then that would look like a reduction in five teachers that we would attrition which would be a cost savings of this and increase our class sizes up to the 23 to1 ratio which is our goal. You more kind of that detail. Okay. >> And I

104guess like last but definitely not least I am just curious again because if Dr. Dr. is looking at this um what we are doing to bridge the elementary dual language to then high school dual language cuz I say that as we are becoming like public education is just becoming more competitive right like I was harassing Dr. Cardona last week when I heard that some academic issues at Miller might have resulted in a student unenrolling and going to Prairie Lee or Navaro, right? So like those are the things that should concern all of us as we try and increase student population and and ADA. And so yes, I want to monitor efficiencies. Yes, I want to monitor compliance. But the things that we are spending money on, like to spend as much money as we do,

105to hype up his dual language as much as we do, for it to then kind of like disappear after fifth grade is like what's the point then, right? like so yes to all the things that you suggested but also in that same vein I just don't want to be cutting and and saving dollars if I'm saving money and can reappropriate it somewhere else to make a program better even if it's like revenue neutral I'm interested in doing that right cuz we still have to provide a robust product to our constituents to our students and so anyway that's like more philosophical And I think the same along the same lines I would like to hear from administration with some of the campus requests to say like you know if we're going to we need these positions

106to be in compliance and also we think adding this position and this program will help alleviate some of the burden on the existing staff there and meet the enrollment needs and help for these reasons. But these these are the priorities. These are the lessons. So so sort of wrapped in that vision of how we're getting to where we want to go. >> And in in that same vein like the band thing at Miller and I don't know again it could be I could be mistaken but those are two very like polar opposites, right? like do nothing and just say like good luck with all your kids or like can we give you a a stipen for like $10,000 because you're now serving an an additional 75 students, right? Like there's an in between fully funding

107a full-time position in perpetuity or like hey man you're you're stuck stuck holding this thing but like we're going to compensate you because we are going to be working you to the bone, right? So, I would be interested in even those types of strategies. And as we talk about stipens, I can't give raises. And Dr. Fredon and I have talked about this before, but even recently, like I've seen some coaches, some fine arts directors, the choir director, some art teachers who just continue to go above and beyond. And same thing with classroom teachers. until I get Tia and even Tia can't even reward those employees. I'm looking at when I have like a phenomenal art teacher or fine arts director or coach and I know they're going to go to Hayes for $8,000 more dollars,

108how do I stop that? Right? And so as we have to get more innovative and competitive, like can't we offer a retention stipen for like highquality employees and create a system of what that looks like if I'm going to lose the choir teacher at San Marcus High School for 15 grand in in another district, right? Like what what does that look like? So again, like I got to protect the programs that are doing well in this district in addition to trying to balance the budget. So, I'm just kind of venting all my feelings slightly. But anyway, >> all right. If there's nothing else, there's just a couple items. Um, one, please let Miss Gunther know if you're going to be attending the Stars of Texas Gayla. Also, make sure that you get your board training

109hours in before the April meeting cuz they will be reported out then. Um, and the final item is the city of San Marcus wants to have some joint meetings. >> Yes. Yes. So they reached out to us. If you remember precoid, we started with Burke with he was city manager uh some meetings and so they had sent us some requests to start those meetings back up. The board had two representatives. I think Miss Ku and John Mclofflin were two and then CO hit and we stopped that. that they want policy maker to policy maker so that then that can support some of the work the administrators are doing uh if the city county and university are taking a stance on certain things and so um they're looking to start that back up. I was given

110some information. So I'll forward that information now that I've talked to Miss Hollyy and it references charges but those charges are from 201819. They just wanted to give us a historical look. It could change completely but there was something already. So we'll bring that back up because they want to start those meetings hopefully. They initially were targeting April 7th. Um but I think I told them our board meetings not until the 23rd. So they're looking now at the May board meeting. >> So I think we need an agenda item to discuss and potentially appoint people to serve on that. >> Yes. Agreed. >> Anything else? Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion made and seconded. All in favor, please raise your hand. Thanks everybody. Have a great