001e e e what's today okay it is 5:00 March the 31st I call this meeting of Santa Fe Independent School District order let the record show of mord board members present this meeting has been duly called this notice has been posted in accordance with the Texas open meeting act Texas government code chapter 551 and our first order of business board members will now adjourn to Executive session is authorized by the Texas open meeting act Texas government code section 55101 concerning any and all purposes permitted by the ACT should any final action final decision and final vote be required that final action final decision and final vote shall take place in Open Session and we are in executive session at 50:1 p.m. he he just texted e e e meeting of San highd Board of Trustees
002it's important that meeting be conducted and organized an efficient manager and that M would like to outline some ground rules for all of us to follow during the evening first and foremost recognize this is a board's meeting and by law most of the discussion and all of the voting must be done in Open Session but public participation by necessity must be limited to to that part of the agenda that's reserved for public input occasionally the board May seek comment or clarification from an administrator or even someone in the audience it's the board's prerogative to seek that information from non board members as it chooses however unsolicited participation from the audience is inappropriate secondly it may seem at times we're voting on issues of importance with little or even no discussion just be advised that board
003members get a packet of background information about the subject on tonight's agenda several days before coming here to participate in the meeting and after receiving those packets the board members often exercise the opportunity to contact various School administrators to ask specific questions about things that we're expected to vote on thank you for being interested in your school district is witnessed by your presence here tonight we encourage your active participation in the educational process of your children appreciate your cooperation and helping us conduct The Business of Santa Fe ISD in an organized and civilized Manner and I hope you you enjoy the meeting let's see here cheat she here all right Mr Davenport would you lead us uh in our invocation and pledges please yes we please bow your heads Heavenly Father we have come to
004you tonight to just say thank you for everything that you've done for this District Heavenly Father we just ask that as we go into the last nine weeks of this academic calendar that you give all the St staff and all the students the the the energy and the the fight to just finish real strong with all their grades and all their achievements and all their different uh extracurricular activities that they have planned heavenly father just ask that you give this board uh the wisdom tonight to do what's best for the district to help it move forward to help this community move forward and do everything we can to set a set a great future for everyone heavenly father as we go our separate ways tonight we also ask that you take care of each and
005every one of us and bring us home safely thank thank you for dying on the cross and forgiven us of our sins for it is your name we pray amen amen please stand stand pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all hon the Texas flag to Texas one state and indivisible okay do we have any action from our Clos session uh Mr President we do uh I move that we approve the superintendent recommendations for administrative contracts and related action for the 2025 2026 school year as detailed on the prev on the related Pages Cas been moving in second that we approve approve the uh superintendent's recommendations on these contract employees any other questions
006or comments yes sir not would you cast your votes Please Mr grass did you hit the button okay it is pass unanimously with those trustees that are in attendance do we have any other action from our executive session Mr President we do we have one more um Mr President i' like to make a motion that we move to approve the superintendent's recommendations for employment assignment or reassignment of personnel as presented as well second okay it's been moved and seconded that we uh approve the superintendent's recommendation on the assignment or reassignment of those employees any other questions or comments yes do you cast your votes please is pass unanimously do we have any other action from executive session Mr President we do not all righty Mr Davenport I believe you've got a few uh recognitions for
007us tonight we actually have quite quite a bit of recognition tonight which is super exciting so we would like to start our recognition this evening by inviting Mrs Ryan up to recognize the junior high UIL academic sponsor and students who participated in the UIL academic competition and she will also recognize our junior high band directors and some of our junior high band students so Miss Ryan good evening I'd like to recognize our academic UIL sponsor Miss Kayla Andrews also an an amazing 8th grade social studies teacher she's going to announce some of our winners at the academic UIL contest this year good evening um I only have a few here but um in our eighth grade team we have Michaela Gibbs paig hamah Vega Gonzalez Anda dagel and then for our seventh grade team we
008have Benjamin Bailey um overall as a team we made third place um with all of their hard work and everybody else that was not able to to attend [Applause] there and parents once we get their picture you'll be able to get up there and get a picture as well congratulations good job okay if you uh students if in Miss aners if you guys will shift that way just a hair Perfect come on in oh yeah good timing who is this Liam all right hi Liam good job all right one two Mr Kelly can there you go one two three all right got it thank you okay parents y'all stay there parents who want a picture feel free to get up and get a picture anybody anybody somebody got to start I'll drop you good job
009okay you guys congratulations guys y go that one okay our next recognitions go to our junior high band I'd like to introduce our head band director Archie Cass and our assistant band director Janet Henderson they were able to take a large group of students to the solo and Ensemble contest and they did very well so they're going to recognize their students coming okay okay okay awes all right good evening ladies and gentlemen thank you for joining us this evening as we take a moment to shine a well-deserved Spotlight on some truly outstanding Young Musicians from the Santa Fe Junior High band on Saturday February the 22nd our students proudly presented the the pride of the tribe at the very first Santa Fe Junior High solo and emal contest and what a remarkable debut it was
010a total of 14 students performed 15 individual solos earning first division medals and class three and class two solo categories a perfect sweep and they didn't stop there eight small ensembles stepped up with Incredible teamwork musicality and dedication earning an astonishing 44 first division medals and Ensemble performances from hours of preparation to confident performances these students poured their heart into their music and the results spoke volumes the judge shared glowing feedback praising their talent Artistry and commitment we are Beyond proud of each and every student who Rose to this challenge please join me in giving a big round of applause to these remarkable Young Musicians for their pursuit of excellence and their inspiring passion of Music way to go Santa Fe Junior High band you continue to make us proud keep reaching for greatness all
011right conations squ away go guys [Music] okay okay y'all know what to do squish in hey guys if you guys will kind of shift over this way just kind of scooch this way Mr Cassidy will you have your group scooch that way just a little bit that's the official word scooch keep going the world squ don't make me point five this one okay guys all right okay got you in the frame everybody smiling all right one two three keep smiling okay parents don't move don't move parents don't free to get up and get pictures wait for moms and dads to get pictures too guys awesome job guys way to go right thank you [Applause] guys next we would like to invite Miss Brown up to recognize our tribal Bells out this way you're facing that
012way so come around in front make another row yes you can and we're going to take pictures of yeah thank you thank you thank you make another W hello tonight we are proud to recognize the tribal bels for their dedication and hard work throughout the year they've upheld tradition while representing our school with Spirit enthusiasm at football games basketball games community events and competitions they are currently gearing up for our Junior clinic this weekend and our spring show next weekend Friday April 11th we're grateful for their commitment and can't wait to see them continue to shine congratulations you guys want to walk up there and then turn around on the board take a picture with the board in the background for us okay you guys are professional and you go up there with them and
013take their pict take a picture with them you know how to look they already know they're like we have our spots you can take a picture I sure will absolutely it's pretty weird so it might be easy just to this scen this is the camera we grew up are you uh are you listening because I want to know how to do this y'all scoot back just a little bit more watch that strip and then front row y'all know okay there we go you know everybody just kind of levels Lev go nope that's good all right perfect no you're perfect all right ready okay one two three did you get my hand nope okay hey don't be question to me that's a Vint camera there okay I'm move parents y'all should know this by now smile
014okay block sorry y'all okay thank you guys so much y'all go that way and get your pen and just so youall know I'm not sure if Miss Brown really did bragging enough bragging these guys did phenomenal at competition just just wanted to say that one more time I from what I heard they went to a a first competition and did really well their second competition was a really large competition if I'm correct and they really stole the show so I just wanted to make sure we really plugged that cuz she was just a little blacklight pep rally performance was a pH was amazing in the dark so she was just being a little um you know modest that's word I'm looking for thank you so okay next we would like to invite Mrs Britton up
015to recognize our FCCLA and Taffy [Music] students all right I'm going to start with my FCCLA students um so if you guys don't know what FCCLA is it stands for family career and Community leaders of America um this is a really new student organization in fact it's so new I didn't have a leadership team and at the beginning of the school year these two lovely young ladies came to me after I told them this is a student-led organization I need students to help me I tried to start it last year and it just fizzled out and they said we'll be your officers and um we'll make sure that we get recruits and that we make this chapter happen and they did um so we actually um started and recruited so well that we had five
016FCCLA members decide they wanted to compete at the Regional Conference um Aiden Rico and Antoinette Bill both competed in the Texas cake presentation challenge which was through their culinary the things they're Leed in their culinary classes Nico Cole Hubble and Tean Flores competed in a team event called promote and publicize FCCLA we thought that would be a good event for them since they were basically doing that the whole school year and they um received third place at Regional and they Advanced to the state competition and if I can I would like to read some of the judges comments for their presentation because it shows you what kind of students we have here at Santa Fe High School school they said um it takes courageous individuals to step up and be the first to do things
017congratulations on being a leader and examples to your future chapter I am very impressed with your initiative to take on and not only the task of starting an FCCLA chapter from the ground up but inspiring your peers to buy in and be competitive your chapter being here this weekend is evidence of your hard work and resilience I've never read judges scores or comments like that in my 20 some odd years of teaching I've never read judges comments like that um we also had another student of freshman firsttime competing she competed in an online event and she actually the day right before we got out for spring break they announced that her online event her video is the top 20 in the nation she is invited to the National I don't know what I'm going to
018do cuz we are like so new we have no money I don't know how we're going to do it so I lost a lot of sleep over the weekend or over the break trying to figure out some way we can raise some money we're going to be asking for all kinds of help but so she has been invited to the National Conference to to present her video and do a speaking portion and and to be hopefully announced in the top 10 of the nation that's what we're hoping so I just want to say that I'm really proud of these students and the character that they've sh um and have stepped up and competed even though it was the first time I'm amazed I can't even believe it um they are what makes working at Santa
019ISD a joy for me and I'm so proud of them so thank you so much girls I don't know if you want to do Taffy and FC you want to do a picture with them or do you want to let's do a picture with FC yes you guys are all Taffy I'm assuming okay like wait I was counting heads I was like we're missing one Perfect all right one two three all right got it thank you hold on parents let me move my head congratulations guys y'all go that way yeah get your PIN now gotp over on all right so now for Taffy um the following Taffy members advance to the state conference in Galveston Texas um cydney Boren competed in three events that's Sydney over here career portfolio interactive bulletin board and breakout section
020session sorry receiving gold and silver recognition for those events Sydney ran for an area officer position this year and has been voted in as the 2025 2026 area for secretary so that means she's in charge of the Greater Houston area so she actually is already going to start planning at the end of this month she's going to be going to planning sessions to start planning the next conference for the next school year and she's going to do an amazing job I'm sure of it um Isabella Beltran competed in two events career portfolio and interactive bullet board and she received gold recognition on both events Hayden iSell competed in career portfolio and breakout session and received gold Rec recognition for her career portfolio Sarah Sarah AA and Emily Lara where are they're over here um competed
021in the project visualized service project event and they received gold recognition for their event that means go if they received gold that means they were in the top they none of us Advanced to Nationals we're a little sad about that but I'm I'm actually kind of glad because I don't know if I could take two groups toight Nationals I'd be in trouble so um maybe that was God intervening and helping us but um we did get a recognition that I was really really proud of you guys want to unroll that guys our entire chapter was recognized with what they call the outstanding chapter award which basically the state is saying they're given their stamp of of approval and saying we're doing all the things that we should be doing to have an excellent run student
022organization on our campus so that made me very proud of them as well so I wanted to invite all my uh Taffy members to be in the picture too because they're part of our chapter anyway and that's it thank [Applause] you Yay good good job yeah scooch back I think Perfect all right everybody ready scooch uh right in the middle yep that way yeah I could no no no no not you baby right behind you B yes okay I'm sorry I was going to say girls with the pom pom but you know that was not going to work there's four of yeah there's a million of them so perfect all right I think that's it hold one don't go anywhere excuse thank you congratulations ations guys if you'll go that way and get your pen
023good [Applause] job yes sir yes sir Miss Britton Miss Britton sorry where's the national competition held orando Florida awesome thank you good question also I wanted to point out not that you guys probably can't notice this but something that I'm noticing as they're walking in if you notice how many of our kids are involved in multiple organizations so our Junior High academic kiddos went out and came back in as junior high band kids our Tribble Bells went out and came back in as as Taffy members the FCCLA I know one of those girls is a cheerleader so it's just nice to see our kids are stretched thin and they're doing all of it and they're they're great are up here and anyway we've got great kids I could stand here all night but I know
024you want to go home also I told Miss brenon we pay for kids to go to the state or beyond the state she want to take more we can go I mean especially if I mean we can all go next we would like to invite coach homes up to recognize our girls soccer team we can all go just L yeah so you can start on that side look at that they listened okay hello everyone I'm coach Holmes uh your lady Indian soccer team had a successful season with an overall record of 146 and4 and a district record of 84-1 we placed third in District to put us playing against Barber's Hill once again we battled as hard as we could but we fell short I couldn't be more proud of these ladies though in the
025growth and the resilience that they had this season and that they have shown over the past year um soccer is a very long season for those that don't know we have a very long preseason and they never stopped and I couldn't be more proud of these individuals we would like to thank the community parents teachers and the staff members of Santa Fe for your support throughout our whole entire season thank you for everything [Applause] it's also the most brutal weather so y'all yeah y'all are champions for sure okay remember my little pep talk out there about people at the front okay perfect all right all right ready one two three keep smiling keep smiling got [Laughter] ready one two [Music] three great job girls to [Applause] go good J great season good job yes job
026good job great season at this time we would like to invite coach Shepard up to recognize some of our powerlifters good evening uh my name is James Shepard I am the powerlifting coach uh here at Santa Fe I'm surrounded with Jennifer Webb my assistant uh Addie Webb her daughter um leny Gillis uh Hannah uh mcro Jolie van hton and then um Brooklyn Matthews uh we had two young ladies that were not able to be with here tonight uh that also uh made it uh to the regional meet Breen plight and Taylor rif and then um our representative from the boy side uh Mason Murray uh had an emergency and couldn't be with us this evening as well so it's kind of Shame he was uh qualified for state and did really well at the state
027meet um but uh these young ladies uh but this year as far as uh 5A goes for small schools cuz the girls break out uh 6A from 5A and then within 5A breakout big school from small school uh we were extremely competitive I put it to you like that um the girls PR um as far as totals go and we were sitting right there fighting to get into second place or hit qualifying totals to make it the state meet when when you get into a meet like that you can't ask for anything else uh and the girls loading up I know um what they needed on their last deadlift to to go do it and go make it to the state meet and just you know fell short but it wasn't for a lack of
028trying and uh it was a real just growth to see out of the young girls uh the way that the the seniors finished off the year uh to leave that this is how we do things you know what I mean on their way out was awesome uh there's a lot of girls that are interested coming out um and so I think the the success that we've had now uh uh definitely you know is breeding uh interest and just just overall competition that you know you don't just do one sport you come out and during the off season you go do another Sport and you keep competing and and showing what this community is all about so uh thank you uh and just real quick just Mason uh he uh qualified he was our lone boy
029qualify in in uh make it to Regionals on the boys side in the 308 weight class uh he set the squat record for the Regionals uh he set the bench press for the Regionals and I think he tied or broke the the the deadlift record but ended up with the overall record at 2,000 pounds that's a lot of weight uh and at the beginning of the year he told me he wanted to break 2200 at the state me and I said well Mason well let's get there first uh but uh the this past weekend or two weekends ago when we went up um he ended up uh setting the division one so that's all 6A and all 5A schools and the 308 class he is now the the total record holder in that weight class
030at uh 2,15 PBS um and that's remarkable you know words can't uh describe just to watch this kid lift and and throughout the course of the meet he ended up with one red light so there was only one lift that we had where one judge found he was in some sort of rule violation or infraction uh and it was it was pretty amazing so um I wish he could be here with us but but he wasn't able to attend so you know just doing a quick tally that's more weight than sitting up here at this whole T up here that's a lot of weight so uh no that just it was amazing and it was it was an honor and a privilege to coach him it was an honor and privilege to co coach these
031young ladies uh we will definitely miss on uh the girls side uh Addie Breen and Taylor next year uh but uh they are definitely leaving me in capable hands with these other young ladies and the and the amount of work and the hours that they're that they put into this so I'm I'm excited I'm sad to see this this season go but I'm excited to see what the the future holds [Applause] great job L all right ready one two three keep smiling all right no she's done congratulations [Applause] conat awesome job congratulations we need to do5 per rep but he gets to bench bot bench can make some money bench bot on bench bot on a backboard spot that's a good idea be our next yeah whatever the district would like to recognize our inspireing
032Indian for the month of March Taylor Lansford in the business department was nominated as our inspiring Indian at this time we were going to watch a short video so you can see why she was chosen from students who demonstrate exceptional responsibility and kindness to classmates to District employees who are making a significant impact in students lives these remarkable individuals embody the true Spirit of what it means to be an inspiring Indian coach Shephard reached out he reached out to me wow and he told me about the time that you went to visit the high school and kind of talk some of their to some of their classes about the things that you do in the district yeah so we thought that was pretty amazing so he emailed me and asked me if I could come
033out to um his seniors and talk about different work rated benefits that they might have as they graduate soon and enter the workforce themselves and things that they might need and information that they need to be successful so it was really awesome and it was it was a good experience yeah how do you feel being nominated as the inspiring Indian I'm very surprised that is very nice of him to do that I was not uh not expecting it at all yeah good well thank you so much for supporting not only our business department but our students as well yes thank you please join me in congratulating Taylor all right man now you get to go solo pict [Laughter] Tak two three oh Janes I'm sorry I catch you out Mr grass thank you thank you
034Taylor come on come [Laughter] on the congratulations Taylor thank you the district would like to announce the proclamations that we will be celebrating during the month of April um occupational therapy month National Library week National assistant principal week administrative assistance day and public school volunteer week and at this time we would like to recognize our employees of the month if you are in attendance this evening please join me at the podium as I call your name from Barnett we have the fifth grade team we have Ellen Blackwell Jennifer Parish Lisa Smith Tracy kabiki and Pamela Keller from kubit we have Carolyn Gaspard is Miss Gaspard here there you are from wam we have Shannon Davidson from Junior High we have Clarice Gentry come Stand By Me from the high school we have Cody Watson from
035ALC we have Billy Miller from the Transportation Department we have Nicole Noto Nicole here from maintenance and operations Chris Pearson from the custodial Department Shayla davala from nutrition services Maria trino from Administration Tera ma she was here is she still here it's out there directing traffic and from the police department Crystal Huggins congratulations and thank you for your service to our students in the district and now yall join the board up there place this way for thank you thank you thank you so much there we go all right here we go all right one two three got it thank you hold on took Cody a year and a half don't be rubbing that into congratulations great job guys good job y'all go that way we have your certificates for you thank you guys for everything
036you do and Mr Norman that's all of our recognition for this evening thank you ma'am okay next on our agenda we have our public comment on agenda items the Board of Trustees will hear public comment on agenda items at all open meetings in accordance with Texas government code section 5517 public comment on non-agenda items be heard at the regularly scheduled board meetings of April August and December per our policy and tonight we have no one signed up for public comment so I will pass that down to miss Julie and we will move on to our information items Dr bot you have a few things for us yes sir just one Miss Harris is going to give us an attendance and accounting procedures update new recommendations I never know how to start these presentations like this
037is going to be the most exciting thing or this is all great news but it really is information that we need to discuss so I'm not going to promise that it's the most interesting um but hopefully tonight you'll walk away with a little bit more understanding of how um we have been um setting up our attendance and accounting for our attendance and how we're um we're planning to do it next year um attendance is very confusing so my charge along with with my friend Alex who is also you know we kind of partner with attendance um because it's directly tied to funding so if I look at him it's because I'm going to you know phone a friend uh but U we're going to take our charge today was to try to take a very
038confusing topic um make it concise and understandable to the the public here because that's our ultimate goal in the end is to make this more um understandable to our to our parents and our students so first thing is is that uh we have noticed over since I've taken over attendance and since we've been here that there's a great deal of misunderstanding and um miscommunication when it comes to the definition versus a meaning of an excused absence and so tonight we're going to try to talk a little bit about that just that one area is excused or unexcused absences so the first thing is I'm going to very briefly go over what is in policy this is in state law and policy I will not go into these you know hugely but you definitely need to
039know they're in our our board policy but things like observance of religious holidays Court appearances things that are are um deemed necessary by uh the Department of Family and protective services the US naturalization oath things like that are always and all the time going to be an excused absence and that's said by the state and our district policy as well um our state and District policy allow for higher education visits as well as career visits there's some stipulations things like two days beginning in your junior year these are also allowed so that kids can go you know find out which college they want to go to our uh explore profession also as far as our district policy we have added that if there is anything that they need to do for um an any armed
040service enlistment early voting clerks or learner and driver's license we've deemed those as all excused okay so far we have not talked about illnesses so the health care excuse um or Health Care issue um the way it is written in policy and in State uh law is that if I am at school on like if I was at school today and I got sick and I went and I got a doctor's note for the day that is an excused absence by the state that day only or if I'm at the doctor say I go to the dentist first and then I go to school that day and I bring my dentist note or my doctor's note that is an excused absence for an illness by the state so it's not for you know 5 to
04110 20 days whatever that does follow follow fall in line with serious and lifethreatening illness that has required a certification from a physician they even say practicing in the state of Texas so it's very clear what those illnesses are now this is where it gets really sticky so that's all our policy state by state law as far as what to excuse medical issues currently in 2023 and 2024 that is the number of absences that we had so I'm going to use Santa Fe High School sorry Santa Fe High School you're just at the top Santa Fe High School had uh the number of excused absences the total number was 47,800 abs es 2,545 were excused by a parent note could be for an illness could be for a vacation could be whatever and you can
042see all of the numbers go from there the number of unexcused absences meaning a parent didn't send a note or anything like that was 100 o over 100,000 100 15 so you can see the totals at the bottom and see why we're dealing with and struggling with our attendance currently in this year here are the numbers so parent notes of excusing absences have a lot of absences mixed into that and so when I say definition versus meaning for a lot of students and a lot of parents when we excuse a note for whatever it is for you know that tells them it's okay and so I feel like we may need to relook at that definition uh because it it really it begins to sink into someone's practice so it's one thing to know the
043definition it's another thing to operate a certain way so why is is happening because our policy does State policy is great about putting a little catchall phrase in there policy states a person required to attend school may be excused not shall not must but may be excused for temporary absence resulting from any cause acceptable to a teacher principal or superintendent so that's very very vague and why while I'm sure we've all everyone in this room me included have excused plenty of absences in my day but they're really cute little kittens that that tiger just ate it's come back to kind of bite us so us trying to work with try to oh we understand you know parents will make the right decision those kinds of things I do believe over time has created a situation
044where we feel like it you know it's okay to be absent another little piece of state law is that the state requires that students attend 90% of the time in order to receive credit so this usually doesn't come up when they're younger they don't keep a keep kids back for the 90% rule all you know very often but 90% of the time means that you have missed eight to nine days each semester a total of 16 to 17 days per year now I know they're children but as adults I don't know many um businesses or or work related fields that would be okay with above 16 to 17 absences so so that gives them quite a bit of absences prior to treny or prior to us saying you you know it's unacceptable it's 16 to
04517 days a year so our goal next year and it truly is the goal is to clarify the definitions that the state gives us with what our practices are because if we are saying it's okay but then come around junior high or high school we say no no you can't get your credit unless you're here 90% of the time and we don't care any longer if it's an unexcused or an excused absence because the 90% of the time does not does not differentiate between excused or unexcused so that's two different messages that we give parents and students so what we would like to do is clarify and create true Clarity with our practices by only labeling excused absences as those that were outlined by the state in the original policy and all other absences would
046just be labeled absence they're just out they're just not there whether there's a good excuse or not a good excuse they're still just not present at school um parents will still be able to make the choice that's needed for their child there are going to be illnesses there are going to be flu um but anything with the doctor's note we will excuse but the rest of those absences would just fall in line with the 16 or 17 absences to stay within the 90% rule so we don't have to have quite so many makeup hours students um having being denied credit and we don't have the confusion because parents get very angry when when you're like well that one's excused and that one's unexcused and then when they get to Junior High and high school they're
047still just losing credit no matter what and of course as the board you know that's funding so our goal next year is to really preach that an absence equals an absence you're just not there it's not it's just absent we want to preach the 90% rule that they need to try to stay within the 90% Rule and then we ALS o want to try to really be clear that treny begins after the 90% rule has been broken or you've gone beyond the 90% is when our truancy policies will start kicking into place so Alex is there anything you'd like to add to that I have a couple of questions for you Absolut excused unexcused is there any difference in between those two and what you allow a student to make up work for great purposes
048no I think that's what happened a long time ago um but that's very easily none of our teachers would keep a kid from making up work um but uh I can double check policy at any I can like do a deep dive into policy just to make sure that there's none I'm just curious if the state had something that I'd never heard of mm- it doesn't any Ada impacts we are impacted for whatever we claim is excused or unexcused we are we do not get the funding whether they're here or not so there's no Ada funding for an excused absence if it falls under the state rules yes okay so parent goes to the doctor gets the doctor's not that falls under State rules so then it's as if they were here yeah yes now
049we we don't get funding for all the other days but I feel like that's the right thing to do so we've decided to still mark it as excused we will get the funding for the day that the child was half here like let's say I go to school to today I go home sick today I and bring home a doctor's note I will get F we'll get funding for me on Monday but if I still have to stay home Tuesday and Wednesday because the doctor said stay home with the fever or whatever then we do not get funding for those two days what about any type of I'm going to call it homebound for lack of a better term if we have a student that has some type of issue where they've had a major
050and they're they're laid up at home for weeks or months at a time that's where the that second one comes in it is covered so when we have a physicians's note and they go on homebound that's when those kinds of things kick in to effect that's why I said it's very confusing but it's it really I think the biggest issue we're facing is that we're going to have to adjust our parents and clientele to the understanding that that that note from home that just says hey my kid was sick I wrote my kid a note even though we may have been excusing it on paper in the past it's not excused excused and it's going to be an adjustment yes going into the next year because we are ultimately not funded for any of those
051on and you had a lot of red up there right and the 100,000 all that that's a lot of unexcused absences for which we are ultimately not funded correct but I think what I was hearing you say is are we maybe even in some ways by not communicating effectively maybe perpetuating that problem a little bit by by excusing certain things that really by the state standards are not excused right I mean and when they say you've got to be here 90% everybody gets gets that but it but we're saying it's okay but it's not okay it's okay but it's not okay and you go back and forth with that and and so um you know that's why we think it it will help and now I'm not we're not I'm not going to say that
052there won't be some confusion at first because we have been our practices have been very lenient and because who is to say you know what's okay or what's not so if we're going to excuse a parent note then it's almost like you have to excuse them all and so that's kind of where we're at and so that's why we thought well we don't want to call them all unexcused because that is that's a struggle for some people so we thought we'll just call them absence because that's what they are they're just gone well there's some tangible things there though in money you've lost or money that you could gain Ada wise but to me it's not all about money there's an intangible number there were the loss of learning correct that probably concerns me more
053in the whole mind set of getting kids back where they need to be right and there are going to be situations where there's going to be you know like you had brought up kids with chronic illnesses there are um there are attendance committees and there are processes for that to excuse it and to bend this 90% rule but I still feel like and that's I I said I'm not saying just I um our attendance committee I want to give them credit too for helping us come up with the these ideas um Alex and I meet with a whole group from all of the schools made sometimes of attendance clerks sometimes of of teachers administrators that we've been facing this problem for so long and and we we really just feel like Now's the Time to
054tackle this connotative understanding that excused means it's okay and so you know as long as I don't have too many unexcused then I'm I'm good but they're really the same you're really just not there you're not learning and you know is that bottom number 121,000 yes sir and that's for the entire District that's plus 71,000 for this year that's for the district that's 121,000 this year absolutely currently out of an enrollment of roughly 4300 300 yes sir there 28 absences per student in this District now obviously not every kid has 28 absences correct if it averages out to 28 absences per student every single one in this entire District there's a whole lot of people abusing the system or they should have but also take into consideration that the $100,000 is at the high school
055attendance is taken at every period at the high school so those excused absences are unexcused absences are per period so there are eight periods in the day and that would be making up a more realistic number 1400 kids I can get you just like a third period then it comes out to 71 if I do it by 1400 kids it's actually going to be more than that 121,000 no no no what what I mean is it's we're talking eight periods so you would have to divide the 66,000 by eight to make sure that you get a standardized number across the daily uh um periods it's still a massive still lass capacitor 1.21 GW right correct and that number has to be reduced there is no reason that that number should be that high CO was
056horrible because Co taught people it's okay to stay home for anything and Co is gone and those times have passed I don't get to stay at home anymore I used to get to work from home too I don't get to do that anymore I have to go back to the office and everybody's going to have to start getting back into that mindset we don't get to just stay home because we don't feel like getting up today it's costing this District millions of dollars which I don't want to make it all about money but that hurts their education also because we're losing funding that's used to provide for their education not to mention the massive amount of hours they're losing in classrooms I mean we know what it's like to miss work for two days and
057come back to 50 60 100 emails correct you got kids missing 30 40 days a year way more yes it 100% yes we do it's got to got to change I mean Miss Harris I have several questions and uh if I seem a bit abrupt don't don't take that personally I'm not attacking you um my understanding uh maybe this is in the elementaries in junior high possibly but not uh not high school but there's a certain time that we take attendance and I'm assuming they get counted if they're there until and I think is it 10 10:30 at some of these campuses is that correct well so that happens at campus it it that has to do with the the the state funding piece so like when we go to say a student was here
058yes um that's generally around the third period mark So in junior high high school it's around 9:15 to 9:30 and around 10:30ish for the elementaries that's how they say whether a kid is here or not yes but for credit it is by class but like elementaries they don't do it by like were you here during the reading meting block and the math block you know they just do it per day so do we get funding though for attendance in the elementary yes yes right so what I'm getting at I I think it would be good if we communicated that to the public as well as long as they're staying we do okay they do and they do they try to do some some things like hey if you can just yeah come here for at
059least that time yes and I I will do I'm guilty of that I will do that from time to time appointments at the end of the day things like that right right so I think we need to just reinforce that I I I think we're probably uh communicating that fairly well but that's something that I didn't know I had to I had to ask that question [Music] um the uh can you tell me once again the the state requirements for an excused absence is it only if you've got a doctor's excuse is that what I understand pretty much for yes and and so if somebody is out for three days and they've got one doctor's excuse that's only good for one day the as far as the state funding part of it it's only for
060the day that the student was actually there in the building and then got sick and left but but for our purposes we would like to excuse the three days for the doctor's know I'm looking for for in terms of funding here funding for the half day like the partial day that they were there so if they leave after 10 or 10:30 we can count them as being present if they leave in the morning and don't come back they need a doctor's excuse is that correct yes and if they did have that doctor's excuse we would get State funding for that day for that day which is part of the reason we'd like to include doctor's notes in general because there for two reasons one so we can get the partial the funding for that one
061day because a lot of people are like oh well it's not a big deal my kid is only absent two or three days a a year and I just won't submit it but we could get the funding for that day where they're here part of the day the other reason is if that child does have significant medical issues and then goes past that 90 days if they have several doctor notes then an attendance committee is going to meet and say yes this is sub substantial the child has some some medical issues and we will award credit so there's there's multiple reasons we want them to turn their doctor's notes in so but even though if they're awarded credit they're still we're still not getting correct funded by the state correct correct we are only funded
062for the day they sitting in the seat yeah and I was a little except for these things right and I was a little confused because you said that we've got students taking uh time off due to sicknesses and they come back and they have an excuse from their parents and that's not any different from somebody else just missing school correct the way the state sees it yes you know and I I have a little concern about that that that's and maybe that's not anything we can we can do anything about but there seems to be a big difference between somebody who stays at home sick with the flu versus somebody who for lack of a better word just plays hookie and they're looked at from the state from basically the the same thing right is
063that correct yes so the state is only going to look at like the doctor's note so that if any parent note um we are allowed that's where it gets into the may we are allowed to excuse it but the minute that we excuse it then how do we tell the the parent the difference between the parent note that well the kid really did have the flu and the parent note that said my kid had a headache and it really they just the other thing that bothers me about all this is that you could get a doctor's excuse saying that the the the student was sick for five days and they're only going to count one day one of the days if they were at school that's correct that's yeah that's nuts I mean I'd love
064for you to call them yeah we don't agree with it either but yeah and and we've looked at all the updates from the state regarding the attendance yeah has any of this changed like has any of has changed lately no not since I've been around um I mean around as an an administrator I don't I didn't know about the attendance funding when I was a teacher but it's been like this for a long time yeah yeah I got a quick question sure I may have miss it earlier so uh do communicating with the parents next year are we just going to do away with notes unless you have a doctor's note so we're still working with our attendance committee and with our principles there we have discussed possibly just continuing to take them up but
065just saying it's an absence that way we have at least some type of documentation as to what the what the kids's doing um but I was going to leave that I was going to get with them over what kind of practice we want to but as far as like what it will look like in Skyward is it will just look like an a it seems to me like it was just be a little bit misleading if you just say you know you send a note in to me it'd be better communicated as if you don't have a doctor's note there's no season there's no reason in the note in at all that's true because then we may be creating the same type of communication that we've been creating now yeah we and no one intended
066to to create that sure communication but it happened yeah I think where I think where that came from uh came from originally was uh if you had uh an excuse an excused excuse then you wouldn't lose any academic uh points or Z you wouldn't get a zero if it was unexcused you used to get a zero for all that work during that day that that's how it used to be not yeah yeah so what happens when the state gets involved and the federal government gets involved and the local people are not in charge so yeah any other questions well if we have if we had nearly as much illness as is as those records perceived that we have the government would already got involved and fouy would have shut us down again I mean it's
067just a fact there's no way we have that much illness I agree the entire hospital system in galon County would be you know in gridlock and shut down there's some serious stuff going on out there headaches mental health days I have headaches a lot and my boss makes me come to work me too and after I miss five days he tells me to use my vacation and after that he tells me to go home we don't need you anymore any other questions from Miss Harr thank you very much thank you that's all I have sir all right will move into our consent agenda what all do we have on the consent agenda standard items and our proclamations for the month Mr President make a motion that we approve all items on consent agenda 10.02 through
0681010 second been moved and second that we approve the consent agenda was presented any questions or comments not would you cast your votes please and it has passed unanimously thank you very much okay we've got a couple of regular agenda items to get into uh Mr Sanchez you going to do the first one I believe okay now I have to walk further to the podium um so as the school year comes to an end it's also time for our fiscal year to come to an end and uh we have to bring to the board a letter of Engagement from our Auditors Ma and Associates um as you know every year we have to have our financial statements um audited by an external um audit company so that they can present them to the public and
069present their opinion on whether our statements are fairly presented we would like the board to consider and approve the terms for the audit engagement with Mason Associates to perform the 2024 2025 fiscal year end audit not to exceed $48,000 any questions this in line with the usual amount we spend yes sir good enough Mr President I move that we can consider and approve independent auditor terms of Engagement for the 2024 2025 fiscal yearend audit second case been moved in second that we approve the audit uh engagement with Ma and Associates any other questions or comments cast your votes please and it is passed unanimously thank you all right Dr bot you going to move out to the podium for our next item yes sir I know it's unusual but by nature of this particular item
070I wanted to present this myself it's obviously with tremendous difficulty that I uh make the following recommendation to the board uh as you're aware we we entered into this school year before the year started before the students came back we we did uh come back and after July and August with with a balanced budget and that was largely due to the resignation incentive that we had last year and the hard work of the principles and directors and the cabinet in this room working very very hard to creatively absorb as many positions as we could coming into this school year and so um I'm very proud of everyone in this room for trying to get to a balanced budget before the year started however once the year did start we did notice a decrease in enrollment
071which obviously translates to a decrease in Revenue that combined with the school health and related Services reduction from uh the state and federal government it's a significant loss in Revenue there along with the ongoing increases in inflationary costs um obviously created a deficit budget for us this year and so um as the leaders in this room will tell you they've worked very very hard to reduce their budgets and expenditures in almost every way possible and we still have not not seen an increase in the basic allotment since 2019 in spite of all those changes and in spite of the inflationary costs continuing to go up and so we we've worked very hard to try to cut and trim everywhere we can to the greatest extent we can and even as it stands today there's still
072no significant legislation on the table in the house or the Senate that is going to by our math get us to the place where we can still have a balanced budget moving into next year and so having said all of that the only path forward we see for Santa Fe ISD to present what would even be considered close to a balanced budget next year is for us to consider reduction in staff and so um in order to avoid the loss of any campus or School positions we're considering central office and administrative positions first and so we are forced to recommend to the board the reduction of eight central office and administrative positions and I I need to read these our Mentor facilitator intern supervisor our director for the alternative Learning Center our two secondary curriculum
073coaches our executive director for maintenance and capital excuse me direct executive director of operations and capital projects nutrition services supervisor Human Resources public relations support specialist and our business services clerk now I want to reiterate to the board to the public that there are no school or campus positions on this list that does not mean that these are not important positions to use Mr Norman's term this is not us trimming the fat or trying to get rid of position that we don't need we need these positions but if we have to choose between reducing school or campus positions that work directly with students or central office positions and administrators we're going to have to look at central office and that's what we're doing this is our best uh worst scenario and um again it's very
074difficult recommendation but one that I'm ultimately compelled to make so I'll entertain any questions about that at this time just comment I I I really appreciate the burden that you're having to to carry here and this is uh not a uh not a good move for us that that we like or or even have to uh accept but uh considering where we're at financially I it's just giving us no choice and uh I think you've done the best for uh what we have and and uh I appreciate uh the administration and yourself working to uh lessen this as as much as we could um so I I just want to say I appreciate your your hard work at this and I appreciate the administration's hard work uh regarding this uh I do want to reiterate
075that the people who are working in these positions we're working very very hard as a team and uh constructively professionally to provide them a job somewhere either in the district or outside of the district the people that held these positions we still want to make sure that we're supporting them in their careers and in their livelihood and everyone's working very hard to do that positions themselves in actuality are still going to have to go away any other questions whether I should or shouldn't do this I'm going to go ahead and do it but on behalf of our cabinet and our district leadership I do want to give uh just a a special tip of the hat and appreciation to uh Bob Atkins he's been a tremendous employee in Santa Fe ISD for the last 16
076years he's been a loyal Cabinet member and adviser and friend I don't think this District would be as successful as it is without Bob Atkins and um been ultimate ultimate professional throughout this process knowing that that the position itself had to go away I just wanted to tell him thank you on behalf of myself personally but also everybody else in this room uh not that not that we're not thankful for the other people I just meant I know it's one of the people sitting up here tonight and I just want to tell him thanks he's been phenomenal bring it back in a second sorry much pleasure Mr President I move we consider resolution declaring program change reorganization reduction in force in accordance with board policy D ffb local as applicable and consider employment areas affected
077as listed in resolution second okay so I moved in seconded that we consider this um resolution uh clearing and riff any other questions or comments not would you cast your votes please passing in sleep thank you Dr pot okay that is all the uh items we have tonight on our regular agenda so we'll move into some communication uh Mr grassmuck you have anything you want to add tonight well that was horrible um uh Gayla is coming up looks like record turnout um please attend it's one of the that is the biggest fundraiser for U Education Foundation um I'll leave the fair to Rusty I'm sure he'll take care of that um and I don't know my head's not really in it right now after that vote so sorry Mr dport thank you all for coming
078out Mr Kelly uh I just want to thank you all for organizing all the the recognitions I mean it's really nice to see all these kids come out and see this Smiles on her face and some of the embarrassment and everything else and just to add my daughter was supposed to be here for U on a reading second place but she was at a soccer game so she couldn't make it but I just want to add to U what Dr bot said about the positions we have to get rid of and know especially to Bob because you know we we worked with Bob a lot you know one-on-one sometimes and in group settings at other times and you know that was probably one of the hardest things that I've done as a board member and
079that's saying a lot you know to to have to do away with positions for no fault of the employees so to everyone that's that's being affected by that we appreciate you and hopefully uh you have a great career moving forward thank you Mr CCH you have anything you'd like to add yeah I would just reiterate the same thing that this this isn't a pleasant situation and none of us wanted to do this we were we just felt like that we didn't have any choice um the other the other thing I'd like to point out is I think it's April 20th um that may be Easter I'm not sure but also uh is Texas uh Independence at San jento day a lot of times we will uh we'll want to celebrate CCO de mayo and I
080think our Texas Independence of San gets forgotten so I would encourage teachers and the staff to uh make sure our kids know that uh uh you know Texas gained its independence at serson on April 20th thank you thank you sir Dr bot you have anything you want to add again just I know it's been difficult but uh thank you everybody that that worked hard that try to get us to this place and that includes people that obviously are returning people are not returning but been proud to work alongside all the individuals that that are on that list and um this this doesn't this doesn't change that so thank you all for everything big shout out to principes and directors for the great work you keep doing thank coach Ryder know you U Been been trying
081to check a lot of boxes lately and so appreciate all all that you're doing but uh as difficult as the day as it is very proud to work in San thank you everybody for all you do thank you sir Rachel thank you for that's probably one of the better explanations about intend attendance that I've heard before and the numbers just blow my mind I'm not going to repeat some of the things that Mr grassmuck went into so eloquently earlier but that that's that should be an eye opener for folks to see that and applaud the the work of the campuses and your attendance committees or whatever because this is something we really need to get a handle on has an effect on what we just had to do yes very it has a direct impact
082and again I'm so M what I want everyone to understand though is that while this board is responsible for dealing with the finances of this District this to me is not our top priority with this it is a important piece of what we do but the loss of learning is unacceptable and that we know it's been proven it's there's National Data there's State D about data about the loss of learning during Co and and having kids in remote locations and all that and this just makes it that much more difficult so I applaud all that work um would like to remind everyone that we will have a bunch of students and teachers involved starting this way they've been involved all year but the the galison county fair and rodeo does kick off this week first
083night is Thursday night we have kids checking in animals Thursday and that will go on through the following Saturday a week after that so uh invite everybody wants to come out and there's a little something for everyone at the galon county fair and rodeo so um appreciate everyone being here tonight um as everyone has comment that this discussion has been going on for quite a while about the budget and I I truly have to tip my hat to Mr Sanchez and his team for just going in and and crunching the numbers and trying to take the the the personal things out of it and just this is what the budget looks like and then Dr bot and your team going in and coming up with positions and again the there are people that are involved
084there are livelihoods that are involved but this is about positions that you have to make some tough choices sometimes and I don't like it and there's nothing on the horizon if you can read everything you want to read with the you know certain people in politics telling us that we've been overfunded for years and there's no answer to why we haven't had any funding increases since 2019 yet the cost of everything has gone up uh double digits since 2019 but the reality has set in and I do applaud you that every bit of effort was made to try to have the least amount of impact on our kids and the campuses but everything we cut today hurts everything thing hurts other people are going to have to pick up and do extra and go beyond
085this is not just something to where we said we really don't need that we'll just kick it to the curve that is not what happened the administration did not present that and the board never discussed that from that standpoint whatsoever this was things that if we have to do with something without something to balance this budget what are we going to do without and who's going to pick that up because there was nothing that was just hanging out there is low hanging fruit that we could just kick out and get rid of so I want everyone to know that that board knows there was a lot of work went into this and no one likes this and we are hoping Dr bot went to Austin again last week and doing everything we can do we
086encourage the public we encourage our employees reach out to your representatives and let them know how you feel about these things when it comes to public education or school choice or vouchers or whatever the topic of the day is the bottom line is you just saw action that is a direct result of some of that and we did not do it there are other districts around us that have done it we did not do it for that reason just trying to keep up with the Joneses or anything else this is what Santa Fe ISD needed to help Santa Fe ISD through these tight budget times period had nothing to do with what anyone around us is doing so again thank you all for all your hard work you your team the board this has not
087been an easy thing I know it there's been a lot of discussion behind closed doors about the personnel and the positions and the legalities and all of that this is not something that was taken lightly believe me with that I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second been moved and second that we adjourn all those in favor please raise your hands and we are are adjourned thank you this was