Seguin ISD Regular Board Meeting 10.28.25

001Independent School District has been duly called and notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act section 551.043 of the Texas Government Code. We'll begin today with audience with the board. We have 22 speakers um signed up. So um in accordance with our policy, we will reduce the time from five minutes to two minutes for every speaker this evening. Um, I'm going to call you five at a time just so you'll know to be ready so that we can move from one speaker to another. Um, just know if if you're in in the five the I'll call you then individually, but I just want you to be ready. So, our first five speakers are Kim Saunders, Ann Craig Lynette Linux, Coallette Brooma. I'm so sorry if I do not

002pronounce someone's name right, and Barbara Thorough. Those will be our first five. Um, [clears throat] is the clock working? Okay, so there is a clock. We also have um Miss Duncan here who um can let you know when you have a minute left if you would uh like that. So um your time begins now. Thank you. Sorry, as soon as Miss Duncan's ready. Thank you. Okay, my speech was longer than two minutes, so I'm going to skip one part. Um, I am proud to have spent the last 15 years of my full-time teaching career at Sigin High School. Our wonderful Sigin Independent School District students are diverse. They come from differing backgrounds. They are various races, ethnicities, religions, cultures, socioeconomic levels, etc. And their life experiences vary widely. All of our students are important. Each

003student's life experience should be valued and this should be reflected in the literature that we provide for our students. Each student's story is different and we should validate and value all of their stories. Their stories should be reflected in the literature they read in class and on their own. In order to help grow my students literacy skills, I taught a variety of genres and styles of literature in class. However, I also assigned independent reading projects through which students could choose a piece of literature to read on their own and complete the project. Each six weeks, I assigned a project, took my students to the library, and when needed, guided them as they explored and uh the stacks and online catalog. The library visit was something my students and I looked forward to and savored each

004six weeks. Our illustrious librarians were always ready to help by asking students about their interests, then guiding them toward books that featured these topics. It was through these independent reading projects that I observed students making the most growth in their reading and writing skills, development of empathy, and broadening of perspectives. Because they were able to choose what their own reading experiences would be, they were much more motivated and engaged in the reading process. Besides participating in presentations and discussions that I had planned for them, they engaged in spur-of-the- moment, unplanned conversations about important life topics with their peers, often exploring concepts at the heart of what it means to be a human being. Sometimes this meant learning about what life is like for people different from themselves, and sometimes this meant recognizing themselves on the

005page. These books can sometimes explore harrowing topics, but life can be harrowing. Students can choose to read books that grapple with savory and unsavory topics through experiencing them variously through the characters at a safe distance. This helps them prepare for the challenges and difficult choices they will encounter in their lives. Choice in reading material is vital to the kind of deep growth and preparation for life that we want our students to experience. Thank you. Uh, Ann Craig is next. Greetings. I'm Ann Craig. Sure. Sure. Greetings. I'm Anne Craig. I've been a sigin for four years. I come by way of Oklahoma, Nebraska, and New York. And I here tell that if it happens in Texas, it happens in the whole country. What goes in Texas, it goes for the whole country. This is a town

006where I would like to say what happens in Sigin changes Texas. And I want to encourage you to be very creative in your decision- making and in your policy making. And the thing I would like to suggest to you in lie of my speech is to take that list because that list of ban books tells an entire story book by book, title by title. Publish it. Share with the library. Share with your friends. Put it out so that people know what is being banned. Not just that books are being banned, but they know the books and how absurd the the books that are being banned really are. And you know, we owe it to our children. The the the reality and the consequences of trying to hide the reality that children and young people are

007going through is that the suicide rate is going up. We need to stop that. We need to let kids know that we know their reality when they think when they don't go to the grown-ups because the grown-ups will not understand them. They go to each other and they often despair. We need to help our young people by saying, "We know about your lives. These books are banned, but they tell a story about your lives and our lives." So, be creative. We know you're in a corner with the laws that were passed, but be creative because Sigin can change history. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. All right. Next is Lynette D. Lennox. I'll let you know when to start when you have one minute. Okay. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. You can begin. Okay. I want to

008talk about something deeply personal to me, the books in our library, especially those that contain explicit descriptions of sexual assault and physical abuse. As an adult who has suffered bad trauma and became a ward of the state, I have spent years in counseling working hard to rebuild myself to find peace and to put painful memories behind me. Yet, even just reading a few excerpts from these so-called healing books, all that it did was reopen wounds that I thought I had closed. I like I was like being forced to relive the worst moments of my life without warning. and in a place that's supposed to be safe, our public li our our our our school library. Now, it's that how it's affects if that's how it affects me as an adult with a very developed brain

009and a support system and years and years of professional counseling. Imagine what it would do to a child or a teenager. Their brains are still developing. They're still forming the understanding of love, trust, and consent and safety. When they encounter graphic depictions of abuse without the proper tools of maturity to possess it, process it, it could cause confusion, fear, and even normalize the violence and exploitation that they have already suffered. We often hear that these books are educational or that they build empathy, but empathy doesn't come from shock value or trauma reenactment. It comes from compassion, conver conversation, and self-guidance by y'all. Graphic sexual violence is not a lesson. It's rather a very disgusting trigger. [snorts] It doesn't heal pain. It recreates it. I'm not saying that we should re erase every difficult topic from

010our library shelves. There's a difference between addressing hard issues and exposing young readers to explicit trauma that their minds and hearts are not ready for. Libraries have a responsibility to protect. I wish I could have got the last one out. Thank you. Um, Colette Brumba, I'm so sorry if I mispronounced your name. I have a name that everyone mispronounces, so I know the failing. Pronounced it correctly. Okay, thank you. Okay, go ahead. Okay. The reason I stand before you today is I am a mother of a son who was sub that was subjected to porn at a young innocent age of four unbeknownst to me. He is now 42 years old and this has been a lifelong struggle for him. And don't forget the mothers that suffer along with their children. Have you have you

011researched the effects of porn? American College of Pediatrics gives you a whole list of effects that follow them into adulthood. So if you allow this, whose voices are you listening to? Theirs or ours? Whose children struggle and fight every day of their lives of the effects inflicted when they were young. You may see the lines on my face, but you don't see the tears I have shed or the scars on my heart. Thank you for listening. Thank you. And now, Barbara. Oh, thanks. I couldn't. You have very pretty handwriting, but it's too fancy for my eyes. Sorry, it it's old-fashioned. I have uh close tie to Sigin. I grew up in San Bonedo. Mr. Jim Barnes was my high school principal. So, um I'm happy to be here. If I had uh had access to

012some of the banned books that we have today, I'm thinking that I might have been aware of what can happen to a single girl or woman. I might have picked up some of the nuances that I didn't know. I was innocent. So I a child will put down a book if the book is offensive to the child. That's true. I did many. So I would like to give our librarians and our teachers the benefit of the doubt and let them choose wisely. Thank you. [applause] So, I'll name the next five people and then I'll um call you up. Connie Lippen Holtz, Lori Davis, Jim Davis, Zachary Burkhalter, and Susie Carter. So, Connie Lipenho Okay, good evening. Thank you for allowing me time to speak. My name is Connie Lipenholtz. I am a resident of Sigin

013and my youngest also graduated from Sigin High School. I retired um a couple years ago, two years ago after 20 year over 20 years as a school public school librarian. So I have been in that seat and I understand in a very large district in San Antonio and I understand how it feels to select books and try to select books that meet the needs of all of our readers. As the very first speaker noted, you have all different socioeconomic backgrounds. you have different um you know um LGBTQ identifications. You have a a massive variety of students in your district across your district. And our job as a public librarian, as a public school librarian, and as a professional with a master's degree that is required by the state of Texas, our job is to make

014sure that we have a selection of materials for all of those students, not just for a select few. So, first I want to say thank you very much for establishing and utilizing policies that are designed to select the corre correct materials and to um meet the demands of all of those students as well as meeting the demands that the state has placed on all of our districts. Um but also the demands of our local community. That's what you're here for, right? You're elected by our local constituents and that's who you're representing and that's who we want to make sure is getting the materials that they deserve in our school libraries. Thank you for providing individual parents the opportunity to opt out of books that they don't want their children to read because that's what it

015boils down to. If you don't want your child to read something, there's a process that they can opt out for those students. But they shouldn't be making those decisions for all of the students across the board. Um, thank thank you. Have a good night. Sorry. Thank you. Next we have Lori Davis. That one I could pronounce. You may begin. Uh my name is Lori and I don't know what you hold to as far as your faith is concerned but the fact is there is a creator and if there's a clock there's a clock maker and the thing is that there's a creator that each one of us are going to be held accountable for and that we'll have to stand before and um the late Charlie Kirkp said I'm flesh and bone but more importantly

016I'm a soul and that soul is accountable to one being and it's a holy God, you each have been blessed with authority and power, but more than that, children are placed in your care, and that is something very precious to our Lord. You will answer for that care whether you protect it or harm them. And right now, they're being harmed. It is under that watch care, and it is your responsibility. Scripture warns that Matthew says, "Whoever, sorry, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea. I care for you and the right and I care that you do the right thing for all children." And just

017in case you haven't heard the gospel, we all have fallen short of a holy God. We've all broken God's law. We've lied, stolen something even small. And we've all taken the Lord's God's name in vain. And that makes one a liar, a thief, and a blaspher. And that's just three of God's commands. We all have violated God's law. And if we stood before him, our creator, in a court of law, we would be found guilty, destined for separation from him, and destined for hell. But Christ came in our defense. He took the punishment for our sin, died on the cross in our place. He died, buried, and rose and is at the right hand of the father. And when you put your trust in that work, and that work alone, you're not only ushered into

018eternal life, but you're given a new heart with his a spirit willing to please him. I urge you to accept him as your savior if you've not done so, and I urge you to consider the gravity of these decisions you make and to do the right thing. Thank you, Jim Davis. I'll tell you when to start, sir. Sorry. I need to I need to start the time. I want to give you If you'll can introduce yourself on the microphone so everyone can can hear you. We don't we don't want anybody to miss you. Sorry. There you go. You may begin, sir. Thank you. All right. Uh the US is number one in commercialized sexual exploitation. And our country has become the financial capital of the world in child pornography and child trafficking. It is the

019most well financed slave trade in the world. It is the number one producer of consumer and consumer of pornography. The co-owner of Pronhub uh one of the world's largest porn sites is said to have an annual revenue of 97 billion. Sigin CISD contains 200 books that contain indecent and profane content. Public funds have purchased books with obscene content, sexually explicit material for minors and hidden it from the appropriate oversight of parents and taxpayers. Superintendents of school boards have the authority and the opportunity to turn off this present fire hydrant of indecent and profane material infecting the minds of upcoming generations. We do not want to be a bait for the pornography industry. All of these factors contribute to rob children of their innocence to enslave minors of to addictive behavior, sexual behavior, objectify women and

020dehumanized sexual intimacy and marriage, mutilate uh children's bodies with sex transitioning, and to denigrate the sanctity of those bodies made in the image of God, treating them as though they're disposable objects. Take the opportunity that recent legislation has given you in SB13. Do the right thing before God, citizens, and the most precious resource that God has given to us. Promote good moral, mental, and emotional health with the hearts and minds of your students. True education of minors should promote honor, virtue, respect, dignity of others, and self-control. In the formative years, the brain has developed these qualities to produce good s citizens. The consequences of promoting profane and indecent content to minors makes this issue an emergency. That's time, sir. Thank you. Thank you. If you do um wait for Linda to um uh say to

021go and introduce yourself on the microphone so everyone can hear you then they don't miss your your introduction. I just want to make sure um everybody gets that chance. So Zachary Burke Halter sorry. Hi good evening. Uh, I would like to start off by saying that I truly believe book bans to be completely antithetical to the American way. I don't believe that's who we are as a country and that's not in a popular opinion. I pulled several polls to understand where most Americans stand on the issue. One study by done by every library institute found that 83% of Americans believe in the right of freedom to read and 80 80% believe it is not the right of other parents to decide what books are available to other students. NPR also did a poll showing that

02264% opposed bans by school boards and 69% oppose them by state lawmakers. I think this is important to note because at a time when we are one of our most at one of our most divided moments as a country, most Americans can agree on this. Those who seek censorship do not represent a majority of opinion. I can understand the worry that some parents may feel with what their children may access. However, I do believe this to be a parents personal responsibility to guide their children as they see fit and withhold literature or media they deem unfit. Like 87 80% of Americans give or take, I do not believe it is their right to uh excuse me to uh do this to other people's children. I don't believe that uh mer it represents America where freedom

023and exposure to diverse ideas has always been our strength. I believe that students here at Ski ISD and any other public school have the right to access libraries and explore ideas. Some they may agree with and others may may disagree with. And if we cannot expose ourselves to different ideas, how do we grow and how confident are we actually in the things that we believe. This is be this is part of becoming an adult, maybe one of the most important parts. I think we'd be doing a serious disservice to our students at Sigistd by letting them go off into life without that. Thank you. Thank you, Susie Carter. You may begin, ma'am. Okay. This is one of the books that you have in your libraries. It's called Sold. And it goes like this. And I

024wonder if you would like to read this to your children or have them read it to themselves. A man with lips like a fish comes into my room. He is squeezing my breast with his hand like someone shopping for a melon. I try to push him away, but he doesn't move. I close my eyes. The room pitches. I open my eyes and watch him squeeze my other breast and wonder who is this? He unbuckles buckles his belt. The fish lips man removes my dress. I wait for myself to protest but nothing happens. Then he is on top of me and something hot and inconsistent is between my legs. He grunts and struggles trying to fit himself inside me. With a sudden thrust I am torn in two. This is one of your books. It's only

025one of many like this. You want me to read another one? Okay, here's one called Crank. Hands cover my mouth. Rough held my arms. Strong tore my clothes. Vicious. Fear danced down my spine, jolted my brain, dripped onto the ground. Is this what the kids need to be reading? Why are you still attempting to approve sexually explicit books like this, which are prohibited under the new laws of Texas you've had since April and May to get your act together and start doing what the law says. Senate Bill 13 prohibits the acquisition or retention of mirror of materials and books like this which are harmful, indecent, and profane in content. Also, are you aware, I'm sure you are, that Senate Bill 412 makes it easier to bring criminal charges against teachers, librarians, ETC. All right, the

026next five speakers are John S. Carter, Jamie Aan, Mark Cadell, Patricia Buckley, and Michelle Sangerhousen. I tried with that pronunciation. All right. Mr. Carter, you may begin, sir. Why are you allowing books with pornography and smut in our schools? Pornography is addictive and harmful and should not be in schools. Why do you provide books to the children, young adults, that are not allowed in the Texas prison for inmates to read? Many of the books on your school reading list depict how to do unhealthy and unlawful things such as using addictive drugs, incest, sex with minor, beastiality, necilia, torture, and murder. Are you aware that pornography is addictive causing brain shrinkage of the frontal lobe resulting in reduced decision making and impulse control? Also, porn creates a chemical cascade in the body that increased with increased

027cravings for more vile porn, violent sex, and end up in murder such as Jeffrey Dharmmer and others. Books in your school such as Crank and many more should be immediately removed from the Sigin ISD. They are harmful to the students and any of the teachers. Weekly there are reports of teachers sexually abusing students. The buck stops with you guys. Thank you, Jamie Aan. You may begin ma'am. Hi, I'm Jamie Aan. I am a retired Sigin ISD librarian. I was at the high school and Rodriguez for 17 years plus. I was also a classroom teacher. But all the time I was a librarian. The library is a place of refuge. It's a place for children to come and study and learn and read, of course, but you know, parents have always had the ability to say,

028"I don't want my child to read these books. Don't check these books out to my children." But they do not have the right to keep books away from other children. We are there to provide for all the children in all the different needs that they have. And the high school students, many of them are adults. They are 18. Some of them have children of their own, families of their own. They are trying to make it in the world. So our librarians are so important and we need to trust them because they have the experience. They have the training. They study and read reviews and are so careful in the books they purchase and they use their budget money carefully and they are there for their patrons, for their students, for all of them, not just

029for a select few. So please consider that when you are looking at the list of books to be approved. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Mark Cadell, you may begin, sir. Thank you. My name is Mark Cadell. Uh I'm a retired uh teacher uh from Sadine. and I taught for 31 years. I'd like to make a patriotic case against censorship. Uh this coming July, we're going to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. And in that famous third paragraph, Jefferson not only makes the case that the colonists are capable of liberty and creating their own destiny, he went much much farther and said that individual human beings possess the capacity for their own liberty basically because they possess reason. So his justification for creating the

030United States was to enable people to be able to develop their talents to have an experience of freedom. Uh the words that he used were uh the pursuit of uh happiness and by that he meant the capacity to actually make a life. And he went farther than that just writing that when he was president he uh justified the Louisiana purchase because it was going to be an empire for liberty. He envisioned uh thousands and thousands of individual people who were living on small landholding and that their experience of uh self uh reliance uh working with others, looking at their own talents, understanding the nature of work, understanding the nature of aspirations and that that was the perfect way to create uh the kind of citizens necessary for a democracy. Jefferson uh and me believe in

031general human ability. Call it reason, whatever you might mean. There's a moral capacity as well. So the point is that he wanted to create citizens capable not only of living their own. That is your time, sir. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you, sir. Uh, Patricia Buckley. You may begin, ma'am. Hello everyone. I'm Patricia Buckley. Before I retired, I had the privilege of being an instructional coach for Sigin High School. We were working on improving test scores as we always are as well as preparing our students for whatever life presented. As screen use increased, sustained reading skills decreased and we constantly sought solutions so our students would not only be able to read lengthy documents and texts, but might actually enjoy doing so. Reading is something you have to train your brain to do. And in today's

032world of sound bites and Tik Tok videos, this is becoming a dying art. In an effort to keep students engaged in the exercise of reading, we sought highinterest pieces for them to read. Um, we purchased books that would make students dialogue with the text, asking questions and practicing critical thinking skills, those needed for college entrance exams and for life in general. Sometimes students saw themselves in the books heroes and heroins. Sometimes they learned empathy. Sometimes they simply were exposed to elements of society they had never experienced before. I was a sheltered kid, so reading some of these books would have better prepared me for the experiences I grappled with in college dorms, drugs, alcohol, depression, suicide, even rape. If I read a book where a teen If I read a book as a teen where

033I saw how someone dealt with any of these things, I'd have been far more prepared for the world, the real world. Board members, I implore you to trust educators to help our students learn to use critical thinking skills when reading all texts, especially those on the College Board advanced placement exam lists. Books which make students think, challenge them. How will they ever learn if they're sheltered from thinking? And this last thought, last week in church, we were told about the book of Judges and how graphic it is. If you're gonna pull a graphic, violent book full of rape and murder and killing, pull the Bible. Thank you, Michelle Sangerhousen. Sorry, I'm hope I'm saying that correctly. Uh, no, I'm sorry. That's against our policy. Let me let me start your time. Hi, you may begin.

034So, everybody's talking about the parents having their rights to for the kids to read what they want to read. And that's true. They can check it out based on what the parents parental control is. What isn't under control is the books that are accessible for them to walk in and get off the shelf. So, those books are open to anybody. I don't want anybody to force those books on my child or my grandchildren or my family members. You don't want us to take anything away from yours. I get that. I'm not trying to ban books. We're trying to do what's right for age appropriate books for children. So, it's up to you guys to control that. There's YA books that are not meant for children under 14 and 13 years old. Those books need to

035be looked at. They need to be looked at seriously. And if you want to go back and forth between right and wrong, look inside. Do you want your kids reading garbage? Take this garbage out. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next five. Um, Edie Cassell, Marissa Villal, Joyce Fox, Curtis Ford, Antoanet Matter Rider, I'm so sorry. So, Edy Cassell, you may begin, ma'am. Hi. Uh, my name is Dr. Dr. Edie Cassell and I'm here I've been a resident of Sigin for about four years. I retired here uh after living in Indiana and Texas for many years. I came to Texas to teach at Texas A&M. I was a clinical associate professor in the department of teaching, learning and culture at Texas&M in College Station. And I say that um just as a qualification to speak

036about the preparedness of our teachers and our school administrators. Um, I really believe that um we need to trust our Texas teachers, school librarians, school counselors, and school administrators. They are a highly qualified and heroic team who dedicate many years of their lives in training to educate, to protect, and to serve our children. Um, we need to allow our school professionals to do their jobs and not allow partisan national politics to disrupt our schools. And finally, of course, I would like to thank you all for your dedication to our schools and our children. Thank you. Thank you. Marissa Valyria, you may begin. Thank you. My name is Marisa Variel. Retired here in Sigin, Texas after work for a religious organization in New York City for over 20 years. My family has been in Sigin for

037over 30 years and that's why I chose to retire here which is a great city and I am here to raise my voice. Some people think that is a concern or an opinion but basically it's a fear. It's a fear that when we claim to protect our children we're actually neglecting their full education. that we're that we are banning information that is critical to to their well-being. Is fear also of the loss of trust and confidence that we should have in our teachers and the the other persons that are in the in the lives of these of these children. I also fear that the stories of the people of color can be are being erased, are being vanished. I stand here and it is not lost on me that I am one of the few

038people of color that are standing here. They used to say [clears throat] that they burned witches. They didn't. They murdered women. We can say we're banning books. We're not. We're silencing voices. We're erasing history. We're erasing the stories of people, the stories that really matter. I encourage you to dig deeper, to stand by your values, and to look at what is best for our children and the preparation of their lives. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Joyce Fox. Just sorry if you'll do it right at the microphone just so everyone can hear. Wait, I [clears throat] don't know if you can tell, but when you're out there, it's very hard if if you're not at the microphone. So, just a moment. Sorry. Sorry. I need to start you. So yeah, I promise they'll let you talk.

039Yes. [clears throat] I'm sorry. We're just trying to make sure everybody everybody hears everyone's name and everybody gets their full two minutes. So take a breath. You're fine. And I probably don't need two minutes. Okay. Well, here we go. Okay. I've I'm a recent person like the last six years and I've been tutoring kids just in grade second, third through RSVP for the past four years. So, I've gotten to know the teachers and the librarians at the school. And my point is that our teachers have spent years on their education. They have years of experience. And I trust them to make decisions for our children. That's what they've been trained for. And if someone has a problem with a book that the teachers are having, we have Sigin ISD to take care of individual things,

040not blanket things. Thank you. Thank you, [applause] Curtis Ford. You may begin, sir. Good evening. I'm Curtis Ford. I'm an aerospace engineer. I was born in the same hospital as our president, Donald J. Trump, Jamaica Hospital. Google it. I grew up in the inner city though. Thank God for public libraries because it's how I inspired me to be an aerospace engineer and somebody who works in in defense industry. Um, the color purple inspired women of color to overcome extreme hardships. That might be something that might be banned by this uh body. Thank God for libraries because we say no to censorship. When I was a little boy, my class and I were not exposed to black history for several years. I didn't know that a black man, Garrett T. Morgan, invented a traffic light. I

041didn't know that Hedi Lamar, a World War II actress, helped in invent secure wireless communication. I didn't know that a World War II code breaker, Alan Turan, was gay. These are innovations that have inspired people and children so that they were able to see that somebody else is like me that I could succeed. So, in my opinion, there should be no dumbing down of education to plate the far right. Did you know that scientists like Leonardo da Vinci rumored to be gay and Galileo were censored for their scientific innovation and and thought processes? We say yes to innovation and no to censorship. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Anette, is it Mater? Ma. Mata. I'm sorry. I I need handwriting reading lessons. I have terrible. I will take them. So, [laughter] you may begin. Hi, I'm

042Antoanet Mata. Um, I have lived in Sigin for about a yearish. Um, but my business has been here for a few years. Um, and so I didn't know this was happening. Um, I was told about all of this last minute and I was like, "Oh my goodness, this is not good." Um, y'all have been put in a tough position, you know, deciding what books to allow. Um, and you know, I think the issue comes into something we have to address to the state. You know, um, we let this go by somehow and now you guys have to make these hard decisions about what's going to be allowed in. What can the kids read? Um, people are angry that you're not being tough enough. People are angry that uh, we're being censored. Um, so books to

043meant that I could I could be a minority business owner. Um, that opened up the possibility to me. Um, I also was really uh I learned through books what I didn't want to experience sexually at my age. Um, my mother taught me that. Uh, she instilled it in me that I could make these decisions. My teachers were super influential in my life. Um, they, you know, allowed me to find my voice in books. I think it's a really slippery slope when we have to censor what is being read. Um, it's also just a it's just a tough thing that we're seeing in the world right now. Um, I think allowing children to expand their minds, um, educate themselves, try to find the positive and negative things that they want to experience through books is super

044important. Um, but I just want to thank you for the job y'all are doing, and I hope you do really pay attention to what you're allowing into the schools. Um, I think it's important. That's your time, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] So, there are two speakers left. Um, so I'll go ahead and announce those two names to be consistent here. Um, Eric Norman and Megan Elliott. So, Mr. Norman, you may begin, sir. I'm here today to talk about some of the many issues I have with our counterparts who want to end the conversations that we need to have. started by books that lawmakers have called immoral, pornographic, and inappropriate. I'm not opposed to making library book catalog listings available to the public, but I very much oppose empowering some parents at the expense of

045others, particularly when that power can be used under the guise of good faith, but can very easily lead to biased censorship. I applaud the level involvement of parents who have time to do this work. It's not that I doubt the sincerity of your interest in protecting children, which I do. It's that policies like this put our kids at a disadvantage as they enter the real world, the larger world. The value of the human experience is in making connections. A good friend of mine recently defined empathy as not just having sympathy for someone else's experience, but doing something about it. The world of tomorrow is more multicultural, diverse, and global. Not preparing our students for that new world would be a mistake. Foolishness can mean not knowing about something. But ignorance, particularly making a conscious decision

046to remain ignorant, is a betrayal of education. After all, knowledge means to know, and robbing this community of opportunities to know more about the world around them is unacceptable. Sagena has a particularly dark past with unchallenged ignorance. Our district was one of, perhaps the last school district in Texas to integrate. So, it's especially important that we write the wrongs of this community's past and ensure we don't silence conversations about the topics that make us uncomfortable. I want to be clear, empowering efforts to censor the experience our children have is a slip slippery slope to indoctrination. If you want to limit your child's view of the world, that's your choice. But these values don't represent the whole of our community. It's bad enough our state legislature is passing a nonsense like this, but it's here at

047the local schoolboard level where we have the chance to say enough is enough. I stand with the majority of people who have testified today in opposition to any step towards limiting access to information. Thank you. Thank you. And Megan Elliot, you may begin your time. My name is Megan Elliot. I am a Lutheran pastor in Sigin and a mom of a Sigin ISD kiddo. Though my kid doesn't yet read, I do my best as a parent to make sure that the books that I read to him are ones from diverse voices. I want him to grow up knowing that not everyone sees or experiences the world in the same way that he does and see his own experiences mirrored in the pages that he reads, no matter where his path might take him. Removing and

048banning books from libraries stands against my freedoms as an American and my values as a Christian. Stories and books make our world larger, grow our compassion and empathy, and expand our view beyond the horizon of our own limited experience. Reading about different subject matters gives students understanding for others. It also gives young folks who have had a difficult journey themselves the language and words to speak about their experiences. It lets them know that they are not alone and gives them strength and courage to share their own stories. As a Christian, I believe that the stories in the Bible are powerful. However, if the presence of mature and difficult themes is what should get a book banned, then we'd have to ban the Bible as well. Rape, incest, polygamy, torture, violence, our Christian holy scriptures are

049filled with stories that were they to show up anywhere else would immediately get them added to a banned book list. However, if the presence of these themes isn't actually the issue, then a more nuanced look is called for in regard to exactly what the law demands. As a parent and a Christian, I do not support banning books from our library shelves. I trust the wisdom and guidance of our librarians to help our students find books that give voice to their own stories, help them develop critical thinking skills, and expand and grow in their view of the world. Thank you. Thank you. That's our last speaker this evening. I want to thank everyone um uh who came to speak tonight. I know it's not always easy to um put yourself out there and um I've been

050on the other side of that podium so I do understand. Moving on to I'm sorry. Did you have something? Okay. Okay. Uh moving on to item three, close session. The board will adjourn into close session pursuant to the following sections of the Texas Open Meetings Act. Pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.071, 551.074, and 551.129. Consultation with legal counsel, including possible telephone consultation with legal counsel as necessary to address legal concerns, implication, and answer any legal questions regarding posted agenda items. one, safety audit findings. Um, then B, um, pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.074, discuss personnel matters including appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of an employee or employees. C, pursuant to Texas government code section 551.072, discuss the sale, purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property. D. Pursuant to Texas

051Government Code section 551.0821, deliberation regarding uh public school students, uh we go into close session at 6:52 p.m. Thank you. So we will uh or we are embarking on this new schedule. So thank you for bearing with us this evening. Uh there is no action from uh close session. Um, so we will move on to the uh pledges to the United States and Texas flag followed by a moment of silence. Um, our pledge to the American flag will be led by Avery Romano, a kindergartener from Vogle. And for the Texas flag, Imit Hins, uh, an eighth grader at AJB. So you guys can come on up. Oh, right here. Right here, guys. I mean, it's where the flag is. It makes sense. All right. There we go. What do I do? America and to the

052republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Now you're going to give him the flag. That was amazing. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you, Emit. Um, now we'll take a moment of silence. Thank you. Moving on to um recognition and campus presentations. We start with the superintendent report. Board, uh first off, thank you for being here tonight. Board, thank you to our community members who are here tonight. Um I apologize that we are a little bit late. Um we had quite a bit of uh community participation at the beginning of our meeting. a little bit different than normal and so we're a couple minutes behind. I apologize for that, but just wanted to say thank

053you for being here. Um, couple of quick announcements for everyone and some updates on what's going on across the district. Um, first for our parents, just want to say report cards were posted last week. If you've not gotten online, uh, to check that out, go right ahead and get that done so you can see how your students are doing. Um, this Friday, as a reminder to everyone, is a student holiday. I hope that our students enjoy the 3-day weekend. Um hopefully on Friday uh even though it's it is a school holiday for students that you'll join us in New Bron Falls after trick-or-treating as our Mad Matador football uh teams takes on the Unicorns. It was intentional not to wear any blue today. I see most people here also did not. So thank you for

054that. Our final home varsity football game of the regular season is next Friday, November 7th against MacArthur. Um, want to remind that students are required to bring their students student IDs and all students in pre-K through 8th must be accompanied by and seated with an adult at all times. Uh, we're at that time of the year where students events are ramping up with fall festivals, book fairs, band and choir concerts, and more. Um, hope our community knows how much we appreciate their attendance and support for our students and staff. Um, as a school district, we're teaming up with Sigin Works Transition Program and the San Antonio Food Bank for a food bank distribution uh this next Thursday, November 6th, uh, starting at 10 a.m. here at the administration building. Um, if you if you are

055are someone who wants to participate in that. Registration is available on site. Great service to our community. As you may have heard, our district is transitioning to a new communications platform called Parent Square. I hope that you'll be on the lookout for additional information as our communications department rolls this out to all of our campuses in the coming months. The goal with Parent Square uh parents and families is to make it easy for you, a one-stop shop for any and all communication that comes from Sigin ISD so that you don't have to log into three different things to see what's going on in your children's classroom. So, we hope that that is helpful. Uh for our community, I want to say thank you to the Texas Agriculture Education and Heritage Center and the Guadalupe County

056Fair for hosting several field trips before our fall break. Um, we are Matador proud of our students who participated as exhibitors and volunteers at the Guadalupe County Fair earlier this month. Um, congratulations to all of our students who won in their competitions. The Sigin Fire Department recently visited several of our schools for fire prevention month. I want to say thank you and I hope you know how much our students enjoyed that. We also had a walk, bike, or roll to school day at several of our schools. Uh, special thank you to the city of Sagin, University Health, Safe Kids San Antonio, and the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization for putting on such a great event for our students. Um, also want to say thank you to Chick-fil-A for not only having tasty chicken now that

057you are open, um, but for inviting Mariachi, Matador, and our naval JOTC to participate in their ribbon cutting ceremony last week. It was fantastic. Uh, thank you to HB Camp for hosting our sixth graders from Barnes and AJ. I know that they are having a great time um, and had have had a great time. Academically, I want to say thank you to those who attended the Sigin High School College Fair last week. It's an excellent opportunity for our students to see what's possible for them after school. Um, and we had many people who attended that and it was just outstanding. We've been very lucky to have some wonderful visitors to our classrooms recently, including the, uh, TLU financial aid, uh, counselor Carrie Hallmark, Attorney Hunter Hule, and the Sigin Fire Department. I want to thank

058all of our community members who support and help our teachers in providing valuable lessons to our students. Uh if you are interested in staying up to date on the latest happenings in our classroom, follow us closely on social media. Uh we are sharing photos from our classrooms all across campuses. It's important to note that we're showing photos from classrooms. We want you to see what your students are learning and how they are learning in Sigin ISD as part of that work. Uh athletically volleyball uh is the undefeated district champs. Uh, by district play starts this Thursday against John J at San Antonio ISD's Alamo Convocation Center. Um, we don't have a time just yet, but stay tuned and we'll get that out as quickly as we can. Uh, Matador football is currently sitting fifth in

059district with two home games or two games to go, including New Bron Falls this Friday and then a home game the following week. Um, our high school cross country teams competed at the district level and I'm proud to announce that the JV and varsity boys teams earned second place. Adrien Ranguel took the district 275A championship title and brought that home here. So, congratulations to Adrian. Uh, boys wrapped up their season this past week at regionals. Our boys and girls high school basketball teams have started their season. Middle school basketball starts next week. Congratulations to our middle school football and volleyball teams who are wrapping up all of their seasons. And congratulations to the Matador alumni who are recently added to the Sigin ISD Hall of Honor. Um, our CTE seniors visited several businesses today as

060part of manufacturing day to learn about industries and potential employment opportunities. I want to thank those businesses across Sigin, um, for welcoming our students. Those partnerships are critical. Our health science technology students have started their clinical site rotations at local rehabilitation center um, which provides them with real world practical experience. Thank you to our construction trades booster club for donating several thousands dollars worth of hand tools to our construction students. they'll be able to take those tools with them after they graduate, giving them a leg up on future jobs. Like that's a community partnership we should be incredibly proud of. Uh best of luck to all of our CTE students who are competing in Business Professionals of America, HOSA, FFA, and Skills USA. Um we have some amazing thing happen happening across fine arts, too.

061Congratulations to the 18 AJB art students who were selected for the Sigin Art League's first student spotlight show. Uh, congratulations to the AJB and Sigin High School theater departments on their recent productions of the Adams Family Junior and Aladdin Jr. Um, our young Matadors were able to take in Aladdin Jr. at the high school and I know that it was absolutely a success. There's not much more exciting than watching some of our young kids get excited about our older kids performing up on stage to see what they have to look forward to as they get older. If you had an opportunity to take in any of our fall band and choir concert at AJB Barnes and the high school, you know that we have some incredibly talented students. I'm incredibly proud of them and their

062directors. The Mighty Matador marching band has recently competed in several marching festivals, including the Midway marching festival, the Komal Classic marching contest, and the Region 12 marching contest where they earned superior ratings and head to area this Saturday in Flugerville. Uh Sigin High School color guard received outstanding color guard at the Midway marching festival. Our dance department was also invited to perform at a breast cancer awareness event. AJB's ballet folklorico also performed their inaugural dance at a recent school pep rally. And then finally, congratulations to all of the AJB and Sigin High School theater department staff and students who participated in the TLU 49h hour film festival. They won best film and best ensemble. Um, lots of great things happening. Thank you, Dr. Lee. Um, board member reports. We'll start with Mr. Bright. Uh, just

063to echo what Dr. Lee said, shout out to the volleyball team for all their hard work this season. and they've been really putting it to it and I'm looking forward to seeing what they're doing in the offseason. Um, I was able to go to Aladdin Jr. I actually went during the day with the middle school kids and elementary school kids. It was probably the most entertaining show because the crowd actually interacted with the people on stage and you could totally see how the uh people on stage, the students on stage were uh really fed off of that. Um, so that was it was really good to see that. Um, thank you to the construction boosters for their tool distribution. and I know that makes a world of difference to those young students who are embarking

064in that um path. And then um thank you to the AJB PTC for doing snow cones at lunch uh last Friday. That was pretty cool. I got to tell you though um Mr. Gonzalez runs a tight ship over there at sixth grade lunch. Like it's it's he it's it's impressive. So um thank you for all your hard work over there. And um the Hall of Honor thing, I went to that too and that was really that was really great to see that. I will note that the um AJ PJ PJ um he's one of a he's one of two people who came out of the CFPO league that a lot of our students play in. He's one of two people out of that entire league for all of the area to make it to the

065NFL. So real proud about real proud of him for doing all that hard work that he's been doing. So u and that's it. Uh highlight for me uh was the bike walk and roll day. Um probably a low light too as I should have chosen to walk or bike and instead decided to roll on roller skates. Um my birthday parties in elementary school didn't hold true and held up onto the fence a lot while greeting students. But the highlight really was So, if you see any videos, just ignore them because they're not great. But the highlight really was is to be able to be part of the car line and see the educators and how excited they were. Uh the individual relationships that they have with the kiddos as they got out of the car.

066Um seeing the different personalities of kids, those that jumped out of the car, those ones that were still asleep in the car. Um, but I it was just a good really good reminder for me is that as a school board we do a lot of things that have to do with powerpoints and paper, but to see our students in real life was awesome. Uh 9:24 I met with uh Troy and Floren and some contractors from uh that McQueen for a walkth through at the new muconeyi elementary school. Uh this coming along real well. Uh thank you for making some time to give me that tour. On the 102 to 103, I attended the National Mexican-American School Board Conference in San Antonio. Districts from Texas, California, Colorado, and New Mexico were participated. Learned a lot. On

06710:14, I attended the board development session. And on 107, I also attended the Sigin ISD athletic hall of honor induction ceremony. Thank you, Mr. Dwire. It's been busy as usual, construction meetings, board meetings. I won't bore you with all that stuff. I've got to do a lot of fun things, the shows at the schools. Uh the one shout out I want to give is to the AJB football teams. They have three of their four football teams uh participating in the playoffs tonight and tomorrow. So, go Toros and go Matadors. Um, I've been to everything from volleyball to football to plays, which was fantastic. Aladdin. Um, and I just in in my job that I get paid to do. Um, not that I don't enjoy this. I enjoy it immensely. Highlighted my life, but um, I

068get to interview um, young people at the high school for our halftime interview at KWED. Shameless plug, I know, but listen to it. It's fantastic. But what I've learned and I continue to learn from our students at the high school is they have found a place to belong and a group to belong in. And um usually um it's kiddos that are involved in a lot of different things, but it's so wonderful to hear straight from their mouths what being a part of a group at the high school means to them, what they've learned from it. And it was just fantastic. in to highlight Aladdin once more. I did interview some theater students and they actually did a scene uh from Aladdin and then they sang a song ac capella which they didn't sing at a

069capella in their in the show but they just did it and only one person that sang was actually in that song. So, they just did it and it was fantastic and I just appreciate so much because I know that our fine arts and our extracurricular um teachers just pour themselves into those students and it shows. So, thank you. Right. Um a lot of my time was is spent on visiting construction sites each week and watching the progress and things that are getting finished up at a lot of places. It's very exciting. One of the other big things that takes up my time is the education foundation. We're bought into the scholarships um that they give out and just started our Migra campaign. So, I'm excited about all of those. I really enjoyed the presentation of

070the tools. Uh when we were at the construction, I watched the kiddos un unwrap all the stuff and put it in their tool box and then we got a picture of them with their tools in their belt and they were so very proud of having their tools right with them. The Hall of Honor was exceptional to see how they honored the people there. One of my favorite places, however, though, is my home school in McQueeny. And I love to go read there. I love to feed the teachers and just whatever I can do to be on campus. I make lots of excuses. So, that's kind of where my time goes. When I went to see Aladdin, too. Thank you. Um, besides the um board workshop and safety and security um meeting, I got to go

071to the Sigin High School choir concert, the Barnes versus AJB football game, um Aladdin Jr. um which I saw all eight times and um it was great. Um and uh I also did the walk uh bike and roll with Lisa and um the other thing about the children is they had a lot of empathy and concern for us um as they got out of the car as we were clutching the fence. We um yeah, they're sweethearts. There is no video that exists of um us and our roller skates. So, thank you. We hope. Anyway, [laughter and gasps] um all right. Um moving on to student, staff, board, and community uh recognition. Uh Emily and Dr. Lee. Uh President Cretendon, Dr. Trustees, I am very excited to introduce our four students of the month this evening.

072So October students of the month are from Vogle Elementary, McQueeny Elementary, AJB Middle School, and Mercer Blumberg Learning Center. So we're going to start with one of our pledge uh announcers, if you will. Um Vogal kindergarter Avery Romano. His teacher, Miss Larco, says she is lucky to have him in class. She described him as an amazing student with a kind heart, a positive attitude, [laughter] a positive attitude that brightens the classroom. Avery is known for giving his best effort, clearly um treating everyone with respect and serving as a role model for his classmates. His father is Leo Romano. Congratulations, AVERY. All right. Awesome. Oh, you'll see in a little bit. It's a surprise. [laughter] Very curious. All right. Fourth grader Lily Dumpster, excuse me, attends McQueeny Elementary. Lily is known for consistently setting a strong

073example through integrity, responsibility, leadership, and compassion. This cons conscientious student always strives to do her best. Her teachers say she embodies the Matador spirit of excellence. Lily plays select softball in her free time and is the daughter of Amanda Rodriguez and Brian Dumpster. Congratulations, LILY. ONE MORE. One more. All right. Next, I'd like to introduce EMTT Hins. And I apologize if I'm saying that wrong. I forgot to ask earlier. Is it Hins or Hines? Hins. I got it right. Hey. Okay. So, EMTT Hins is an eighth grader at AJB Middle School. This young man has straight A's and perfect attendance, participates in theater and Spanish, and is among AJB students who have shown the most growth yeartoyear. His principal, Mrs. Guzman, says he is well respected by his peers and admired by his teachers for

074his outstanding character and work ethic. EMTT's parents are Molly Hens and Nicholas Pitzell. Congratulations, EMTT. [applause] [laughter] All right, I am excited to introduce another student with perfect attendance, MBLC junior Gavin Rio Hus. His principal Yeah. His principal, Dr. Dr. Duffik says he is a model student who holds himself to a high standard, consistently comes to class with a good attitude, and is not afraid to ask for help. He is known for staying engaged, managing his time wisely, and being diligent, as well as kind, thoughtful, and respectful. Gavin's mother is Gina Casades. Congratulations, GAVIN. Y'all know you're All right, I'm going to hand things over to Dr. Lee for the Apple Award. Word. We have one more uh exciting person to recognize tonight. Um, here in Sigin ISD, we believe that exceptional students come from

075exceptional educators who show up every day with commitment, consistency, dedication, encouragement, and passion. These words perfectly describe this month's Superintendent's Apple Award recipient. For more than 10 years, she has served across several campuses and grade levels, leaving a lasting impact on hundreds of students. Her heart for children shows in the strong relationships she's builds and in her constant belief that every student can grow. When new challenges arise, she rises higher. After changing grade levels in recent years, she once again embraced change this fall by restructuring her instructional block to support student success. Her principal, Miss Rhonda Trainer Garcia, shared that she approaches every shift with confidence and with a positive attitude. Education is not easy work, yet she continues to adapt, overcome, and keep students at the center. Miss Trainer Garcia says that she empowers

076her students to think critically, take ownership of their learning, and meet every challenge with confidence. She models the very qualities we hope to instill in our students. Resilience, collaboration, and a love for learning. Her husband describes her as crazy passionate about teaching reading and best teaching practice. That passion is making waves beyond sigin ISD, including several podcast interviews and recognition in education week. She's a Sigin ISD teacher, married to a Sigin ISD teacher, and a proud Sigin ISD parent of three Matadors learning and growing in our schools. This family believes in our mission and lives it daily. Please help me celebrate someone who makes Matador Nation the special place that it is. Our October Superintendent Apple Award recipient, Miss Laura Petronella. [applause] All right. Next, we have our campus highlights. President Kitten, trustees. I am

077proud to introduce this month's campus highlights from AJB Middle School. AJB is is in my district, district 2, and serves as a home campus for more than 800 Sigin ISD students in grades 6 through 8. AJB principal Linda Usman is here tonight to share details on how her staff is working toward one of our district goals regarding the college career or military readiness requirements. Mrs. Guzman, you have the floor. OH, WE GOT to have some fun. Awesome. Well, good evening, uh, President Kreninton. I don't know where she went. [laughter] Dr. Lee, board members. Uh, it is my pleasure. You know, I always love to come up here. And if it's ever to highlight the wonderful staff I have and the amazing students, I'm going to take it. So, um, I hope you do enjoy. We

078had a little bit of fun with this. Um but this is um our mission. Good evening. Your mission to accept it involves preparation for success. You need to assemble a team. We know you will [music] run into difficulties, but you will have our support. As always, our students will be ready to high school as they will ready. And we are ready for this mission. We are ready. Ready to go. Sorry, I can't keep them on. [laughter] All right. Our mission of course is the district goal number three and that's preparing students for college and career military readiness. And so of course these are our agents for our mission possible. Right. We have here Miss Rollinsson principal of a principles of arts and AV. Where is she at? There she is. We have Miss Alexander. She

079is over Abid. We have Miss Benvitas, principles of information technology. We have Miss Garza, principles of engineering and fundamentals of computer science. That is my mission possible team right here. All right. So, our operation CCMR of course it's to increase the percentage of graduates college career military readiness requirements from 59% to 80. Much higher. We're going to get much higher by August of 2027. It is not just a high school goal. This starts with us. We are the ones that need to get our students ready, prepared, eager, excited for those pathways. YCC in uh CCMR Middle School builds early awareness of career pathways, engages students with real world skills and applications, strengthens connections. support academics and future opportunities and encourages college and career planning before high school. So, one of the things we're we're looking

080at two things at the AGB, of course, uh early uh CCMR with our kids and the pathways. So, taking those courses through eighth grade year. Also, another part of CCMR is advanced academics. A lot of our students get their points on advanced academics. So, we're putting a lot of work, Miss Guzman, the admin team to making sure that our classes are have the rigor to prepare those kids when they go to high school. You know, they could take those AP human geography freshman year and get that point. Uh, take algebra and eighth grade year, take Spanish one and Spanish 2 again to open up their their their classes course options in high school to take those CCR uh CTE classes. So, what is CTE? CT is a sequence of courses that teaches students hands-on skills

081and knowledge for specific careers or trades, integrating technical knowledge with academics. These classes prepare students for both post-secary education, direct entry into the workforce, covering a wide range of fields like agriculture, computer science, and engineering. So, we want our kids to have those courses because we all know CCMR is changing. Uh CT has changed over the years. The state has changed where they have to take those sequences, a level one, two, three, and four. if they could take it at the middle school, they're able to prepare for those IBC's in high school because, you know, if they start taking freshman year, level one, and take that IBC their senior year, the window is very tight to pass that IPC uh IBC. But if they can get take it their eighth grade year and finish that

082level four by their junior year, we can intervene if they need extra support to take those IBCs or seniors and get them to pass it to get that point for CCMR in the CTE. Awesome. So, this is our agent. I did not introduce him before, but he is Mr. Alvarez, our associate principal at AJ. Awesome. So, I know you just aren't here to hear me. Uh I'm going to let my uh Mission Possible agents take it away. Go first. So, I'm Madison. This is my fourth year at AJB, but my 17th year teaching. Uh my first 13 years was CTE. I was a high school agriculture teacher. So I was super excited when she brought me back into the agriculture classroom. I currently teach principles of agriculture as well as principles of art, audiovisisual, and

083technology communications. In my principles of agriculture class, we started out the year talking about FFA, what FFA has to offer for our students as far as leadership, teamwork, building those skills. Uh we are moving into I should probably give this to you. I will probably fast forward. Hold on. Um, we're moving into our pathways now talking about plant science, the history of agriculture, animal science, and we'll finish up with ACE. Our kids are getting a wide variety of what agriculture has to offer. So, by the time they do hit high school, they already know which pathway they're going to follow. That way we can end with our completers as seniors and get them internship opportunities as well as um placement and careers if college is not their path. So move on and flip the oh

084FFA sorry I forgot I had slide in FFA is a fantastic national student organization that we have a chapter here in singing that is growing exponentially. They are very active. They compete in leadership development uh leadership development events, career development events as well as stock shows. The leadership and the teamwork that these kids are getting together and they're leading their own chapter is amazing. I have one of my students here that is competing with them on the middle school level. Allowing our eighth graders to be able to go in and compete with our high school kids. This is only building that network even stronger for our children. Now I'm gonna flip up principles of arts audio visual and technical career the mouthful that I teach. Um so this is actually a new class for me

085and I've really enjoyed learning it this year and teaching it with my students. We have been going through business writing, teaching cover letters, resumes, thank you letters. In the pictures was looking at him. She's like, why does this kid have instruments? [laughter] These are parts of activities that our students were assigned to do where they could show their creativity in the classroom while delivering a message. And uh we've also done marketing plans. You see my boys working on uh business writing a picture. tonight. But with this, I'm getting students ready not only for outside of high school in the business world. We said that they're going to need to know, but we're getting them ready with audio visual technology. We're going into the arts. We're getting the basics. So, I'm giving them a huge well-rounded

086opportunity to understand what is available for them after high school. Hi. It's my third year at my first hands-on learning. They have to work through the engineering design process before we start building anything. And they create their ideal energy transfers and how they work and how they collaborate with one another. Oh, so our one we just started was a small table all the characters the layout and make sure everything is measured out and we're exploring mechanical and systems. We talked about before we talked about a whole unit that they did a whole project. I try to incorporate with some of our I like my next class of computer science. So what we're going through at the beginning and then we also the middle picture all basic coding. all the different and then we started learning

087about Excel spreadsheet. Sorry. So I am a for years. I've been teaching for 17. So super excited when we got asked for education because one of my biggest questions that I always so aptid mission is to unlock our students potential through determination, teamwork and leadership. In AVID, our students don't just about it. Um so um AVID why AVID? AVID stands for advanced media individual determination which means that we are aware that our students are college and career ready but sometimes they have some challenges that they may um AVID's mission is to close the opportunity gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success. So how do we in our class? Um we provide our students with quick wicker strategies. Those are writing, inquiry, collaborization, organization and reading throughout all subjects. We also provide structured

088support that may include tutorials during class time. We help build critical thinking and problem solving skills as well. We encourage our students to peer collaborate with each other and to help. We also organization, goal setting and goodness. We also promote that college and career ready mindset. As you can see, we have our framework here. We provide rigorous academic preparedness for our students, give them opportunity, knowledge, and we also so here's uh some of our college ready students. We like to say that in avid if you provide vision for them they can enision it the opportunity for them to go to college is that much greater. So how do we do this? We give them opportunities to go to career and job fairs and also college campus visits in order to be able to see where

089you are going. Career readiness. AVID prepares students to be career ready by teaching skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem solving. These skills prepare them to succeed in school and in their future jobs. This was an entrepreneur activity that we just finished up. They do entrepreneurs and everything that had to do with it and we incorporated it into a food truck activity. It was so awesome to see the final product. And lastly, September 12th was National AVID Day where our students created because some of them were I am college and career ready. I am successful or I can bring um today I brought two of my students with me who have statements prepared for you today. Yeah, if you talk into the mic the folks at home can hear you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen's.

090My name is Nico Francis and I've been in the AVID program for about two years now. Um, the AVID program is helping me become a better student by teaching me important skills like staying organized, taking good notes, and asking smart questions. I've learned how to keep track of my work and manage my time better, which helps me not fall behind my class behind in my classes. Working with other students in groups also helps me share ideas, learn from different people, build stronger bonds, and help it helps me with my communication skills. In the future, I think AVID will help me a lot when I go to high school and college. I already know how to study better and be more prepared for my harder classes. It also helps me think of what job I know

091I will be success most successful in when the future comes and I'm older. AVID has given me the tools and preparation I need to do well in school now and to reach my goals later on. My name is Jocelyn. This is my second year of AVID and AVID is helping me as a student by teaching us skills that help in the future and give us opportunities to learn about different schools and jobs. AVID is teaching important skills like note-taking that will help remember important details and asking questions that will help understand the lesson. Collaboration helps in communication and question asking and exploring different careers and colleges will help us understand what to work towards. AVID helps me succeed in school, college, jobs, note-taking and collaboration. Another piece to this is the military readiness and um

092this also helps emphasizes on self, goal setting, accountability, quality essential for success in military. Um the pathway awareness students learn about all postary pathways including armed forces whichever mission they choose. Um this is something that we're kind of stepping into. Uh Miss Alexander has helped with on morning announcements on Wednesdays. Um we are uh highlighting a college campus uh with just what their majors, what their focuses are and uh so we're doing that with our different military branches as well. Hello, my name is A and this year I teaching school of information technology or Um our mission is to equip students to navigate any digital mission so they become confident and tech ready no matter what. Um in principles of it they're developing computer as they get older. Um they build personal and interpersonal skills

093by working together. Um this this class enhances reading writing communication skills a lot of problems and it explores a lot of time. And here is an example of using careers. Uh we had a project where students had to come up with to see if that formula would well. So we invited nurse over and she us that they compared it to the data from the formulas all in this live spreadsheet. Compared it were able to determine if those if that formula actually match. Hi, I'm Brenley Brian and I've only been in a for about a year. I'm in Miss Rollison's class. And to go over some things that we've learned, we've learned about the history of agriculture and how it came to be. Starting all the way back from when um people used to only hunt

094and gather their food. Um being in agriculture has made me want to participate in FFA because of all of the different opportunities that you get and the experiences that it provides. Um more recently we have learned about um agriculture commodities grown in different countries and how they how different countries trade commodities and become dependent on each other because of them. Um that's probably it. I will be showing rabbits for FFA in January. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jace. I'm in FCS. I'm going to tell you why I think my classes is important. Because I will get a better understanding of binary coding, make games and websites, and solve complex problems. Thank you. [laughter] Hello. Hello. I am Aan Mendoza and I want to talk about how principal art, audio, and visual can benefit my

095future and everyone else's. It teaches me future skills that I need for writing or even talking and it also helps with what I want to settle with in the future. And it gives me ideas on what I should do. Hello, I am and I'll be telling you about what I did in and fundamentals of computer science where coding helps me like figure out how to solve problems, code games and animations. Bro, not only I don't I don't got a little thing, so I'm just gonna eyeball it kind ofish. But not only has engineering taught me like a lot about teamwork and learning together with my other friends and classmates, it has also taught me how to like support different kind of building bridges and also different skyscrapers. Not only has I have I done different

096kind of projects is like fools ball table and a ramp like a skyscraper ramp thing that has taught me not only teamwork rig but what to do in the future we have another build sort of like that and engineering not only has we been using this website called tinker card has also made me build different kind of things like the Brooklyn Bridge as one uh a plane a Russian plane called the 227 and a fooball Not only have I gotten good grades in this class, but I would like to say that this class has helped me a lot with knowing how engineering works and how support and how different buildings have different kind of supports for each kind of things. Thank you for your time. Just keep coming. Sorry. [laughter] You don't have to My

097name is Kase Oric and I'm in principles of it and we've done a lot of fun assignments like finding blood pressure um like researched about computer hardware and troubleshooting uh VR headsets. This is stressful. You're You're doing great. Finding blood pressure assignment was kind of fun, but also sometimes frustrating. You had to pump it up to 160 and release it slowly and listen to the heartbeat at the same time. We researched the computer hardware. The hardware wasn't that hard to distinguish between what they were and what we thought they were. The VR headsets were pretty hard to use because there were specific step sensors where the forehead goes that you had to touch or be very close to activate the headsets. Thank you for your time. Um, my name is Dalia Fitzell and I am

098a part of the video audio communications technology class. I'm sorry I um I enjoy this class because it prepared me for my future and it talks about marketing, writing essays, studying evidence and career paths which prepares me for not only high school, college and more than that. It also I also appreciate it because at least at the end of the day I know, oh, I'm planning for the future. I'm I know what I'm gonna do. I'm and I'm excited for that. And it also it's going to cover so much that it's like, oh, I'm prepared. And that makes me a lot less nervous for the future. Thanks. Wow, that's awesome. Fresh from the audience. [laughter] So, I mean, what can I say? Like just hearing their passion, hearing the excitement, that is what we're here

099for, right? And so, uh, thank you for letting me share, uh, my wonderful staff and students. Uh, the last slide is upcoming and it's blank for a purpose because we have so many things on the works and I'm just so happy that we were able to highlight some of those things. One of the ones that's in talks right now is the junior ROC. Talked about that military readiness. Um I'm excited. Uh we're working together uh with the high school and um just planning some great things and as you can see I'm hoping that we get more of these principal classes down to the middle school so we can ignite their fire and their excitement. So, thank you again. Thank you. Thank you teachers and thank you all of you students like Yeah. Come on. Come

100on. Say hi. Before you guys go, we just want to tell you great job. Thank you. He was talking about his food truck. All right, we are going to take a five minute recess. It's 8:34 p.m. I'll see you in 5 minutes. reconvene at 8:41 uh p.m. Sorry. Oh. Um the next is item 7A, introduction of newly appointed administrators. All right, board. Um, as we start getting into a little bit more of the business piece of the agenda, uh, one of the first items that we'll do is we'll introduce a couple of, uh, new administrators in the district, uh, one brand new one that has been here for a little bit and and done some amazing work already, but was not able to make it when we introduced him, uh, back in July as part

101of that. Uh, Mr. Newman is out for a title N conference, which is why I'm filling in on on some of the HR pieces of it. But I want to invite up real quick two individuals, Mr. Melvin Hatimck, uh, and Dr. Michael Duffkick. if y'all guys would just come up here real quick and I'll I'll introduce you and and you can say who you are uh more than anything else. Uh but we have Mr. Hatimck who is our new high school assistant principal at Sigin High School and then Dr. Michael Duffik who is our MBLC principal and so I'll let them just say hello so that you have an idea who of who they are uh and that we're excited to have them part of our sigin ISD team. Hi good good evening. I'm Melvin

102Adamic uh high school. Just want to say thank you to each each of the board members, uh, Dr. Lee for your confidence and the opportunity to serve the students at Sigin High School. Very well said, uh, Michael Duff. I could follow that, but yeah, just uh just uh really appreciate the opportunity, thankful, grateful for uh just kind of renewing my faith in in education, the community, the school district, everything. So these last three months have been amazing. Um, I really appreciate the the confidence in me. So BLC is a great place to be and I'm super excited to see it continue to grow. So thank you board. We really are we're excited to have Mr. Hadamik and and Dr. Duffik as part of this. Even more uh even more excited that they managed to stay

103the entire time so that we could get to this moment in the board meeting. So [laughter] we we'll jump out. So you guys should shake hands real quick. Praise God. All right, moving on to 7B personnel information professional employees. board. You also have included in your board packet um information and acknowledgement um of our individuals that we have hired and those that that have resigned uh recently. Those are in your board packet. If you have any questions, happy to attempt to answer those as best possible. All right, seeing no questions. Um, moving on to 7C sigin bilingual English as a second language program evaluation and Texas English language proficiency assessment or telpass results. Dr. Areola is the last slide. There we go. Oh, there's done. We're done. Good evening, Board of Trustees. Uh, President Krington,

104Dr. Lee. All right. We are here today to have our annual evaluation report. It is mandated by the state of Texas code of education to have an annual review of our program. So there are big three things that we're going to review today is obviously is what kind of EB students are sitting in our classrooms. We're also going to review accountability um ratings for our emerging bilingual. Also talk about our TP pass scores which is a top pass test a students takes to measure their English language proficiency. and finally to review and notify you guys of the bilingual exceptions and waiverss that we'll be filing by this Friday. So, let's get started. Just a reminder on our program types. I know we had a board workshop earlier, but just giving you guys a refresher that

105um and what we have um types of bilingual program at our campus. So, bilingual education that is happening obviously in our primarily in our elementaryaries with dual language oneway dual ball is all one way students. They're all learning Spanish. We don't have the second language yet. And then fifth grade is the last cohort that is finishing the one-way program um as they phase out into the two-way uh program. And then we have our dual language programs. Obviously, we all know that we have Rodriguez, Potlon, and Kiniki who are implementing a full-way two-way program K5. Then we have our ESL programming. Those are students that too are a different language, Spanish. So they have another language, Chinese, Ukrainian, and so they participate in ESL program. And then also ESL students are part now of our parent

106denials. Those are students and parents that did not get could deny bilingual services in the dual language program and opt in for ESL programming. They also have the option to deny ESL program and get no programming at all. And so it'll be a true parent denial. And so when you see PD though, that's what it means, parent denial. Okay. Um and then we do have our two different kinds of uh supports that we do in preK through second. It is contentbased. That means the students are with one teacher self-contained and that teacher provides the instruction in all core subjects. Then we have our pull out. Uh and so that is for 3rd through 12th and that is this most of the time those kids are dependentalized. So they get the ESL supports through their English

107language arts teacher. So those are [snorts] the two those are the models that we have for our district. I know this is a lot of numbers. In the past you guys have asked for breakdowns between English and Spanish speakers. So I wanted to get this in front of you guys. But the big thing to look at here is the number. And I can't see that far away. So I have my cheat sheet over here. [laughter] And I'm young. My eyes are already going out. Um all right. So we have a total of 549 emerging bilingual at our elementary. Our total of ESL students are 37. Um also there you'll see the number of Spanish speakers and English speakers and dual language totaling to 717 students that we serve in dual language programming. So um it

108is I just was last week at TAB and it is one um they were talking about uh program sizes and we are pretty up you're pretty there in a what we called a pretty big program for dual language. So it's good to to hear that that our program is is doing well. Moving over now to our ESL numbers. So, we do have students sitting in ESL programs at non-dual language campuses. And you see a breakdown there. So, we have a total of 30 students service in ESL at non-dual language campuses. And I do the math for you guys for a total of 67 ASL students in elementary. The graphic to your right talks about our ESL students in secondary. It is broken down by AJB, Barnes, and Sigin. And so we have a total of

109um 245 students with a total at the high total and then 10 parent denials at the high school. Since we don't offer any more bilingual programming or dual language programming, the parents get an option again uh to either stay as an ESL student or truly deny services. And so that's why you see no parentals in elementary, but you see them at the secondary because the parents opt out of any programming at the secondary level. In total, these numbers keep changing because we have snapshot coming up on Friday. We have parent permission still coming up. So, numbers have been updated as we continue to work into this evening. So, in total, we serve 1,093 emerging bilingual students in our district compared to 14 last year. That is 79 new EBS this year. And that's pretty high

110number of of emerging bilingual coming to to our district. Any questions on numbers or programming? All right, moving over to the second part of our presentation is looking at our data. So part of the annual report is that I present to you guys how our emerging bilinguals are performing on star tests in our EOCC's. And so the reason the this graphic is uh set up this way is Telpass um reclassification is based on approaches not meets. I know we want our students to be able to be at meets but to reclassify as an emerging bilingual you have to essentially just pass a star test. And so the data is presented this way on the students that did not meet and met. The comparison here you have here first of all you have all of the

111districts on top. Then you have the different kind of programming. You have our bilingual students and then our ELL students at the bottom. So as you can see here guys there there is a lot of work to to be done. I know we we reviewed accountability last week. Um but obviously um language also being compounded as an issue here. There is work to be done with our emerging bilingual. So, as you can tell here, there's a big gap on our EB programming and um bilingual programming. Not so much on the bilingual side, but definitely on the ESL secondary component. I have a question on that. Yes, ma'am. Um where where is the state average on that? I know I I know we have question state averages. Um and so I didn't put them on on

112here. I know helped to give a obviously a comparison of where the state's at. Um I'll go a little more detail when it comes to telepass accountability and how we are here. I know there were some questions on it, but we'll definitely add the state average on top of this. As we know with additional accountability and where we are sitting with a letter grade, if we opt to stay on top of this, we would it would still be below, you know, overall as a as a district. Moving on to math. Um, and so these are math scores. Again, um, our EB students in the bilingual program do a slight better, you know, compared to the rest of the students. Of course, it's a slight um, celebration there, but we would like to see obviously our

113EB students um, outperforming will be or with their peers, but they're they do show a celebration here. our math scores. Um, this does include the algebra students who took it. Um, sorry, does not include the algebra that is on the secondary EOCC component. Um, so and we talked about this before. You lose those kids to the EOCC and so there's a bigger discrepancy when it comes to math with our emerging bilingual. Moving over to the self um subject test for science and social studies. Again, uh, bilingual programs in science and fifth grade. it, you know, to par, a little bit outperforming their peers, but again, when it comes down to our ESL programming, there there is some a gap there to to fill. Science, um, in eighth grade, um, there's a lot work to be

114done there. Science is vocabulary heavy and emerging bilingual are obviously struggling with language acquisition. This is something that Miss Vela and I have been working with our secondary campuses to make rich uh, language instruction classrooms to be able to bridge that gap. A lot of these science, vocabulary words are cognates. They're similar. So that we should be able to bridge a lot of that vocabulary, but we just need to make a rich uh print environment, have a kids turn, talk, do instructional strategies so they could be able to manipulate the curriculum. Moving over to um our star uh grades for science. Sorry, I I misspoke on earlier, but this is uh did I go next one? That one's right. Social studies. Um in eighth grade, um obviously we have our they're all ESL programming. There

115is no bilingual anymore. versus our ESL and there's an underperformance there. Moving over to our star EOC, this is algebra. Again, our eighth graders are included on this measure. Um but still overall um there's a gap there compared to our students in overall students and our EB emerging bilingual students. Our EOCC data for English one and English two um EOCC1 does um this is where we start seeing the greater gaps. This is where we are RDA um for TEA. um we have to set in in place a strategic plan to be able to help our English teachers and our students with um performance here. And this is where we see one of our greatest gaps um identified in both for EOCC 1 and EOCC 2. Want to note something different that those students that are

116emer recent arrivals um to the United States are exempt from English one. So that actually is a less a denominator is smaller, right? Um but doesn't matter, right? I know they get exempt from it, but that means that the ones that are taking the EOCC are still not passing it. And so, um, this number will look less number of tests because they're merger bilingual that are recent arrivals are exempt from ELC 1. They do take the ELC 2 though. We get the exempt from one, but they have to take the ELC English 2. Moving over to biology and history, we see a little bit difference here. We get closer obviously when it comes down to history. Uh but um obviously in science as well um overall our performance and passing rates are higher but we

117still have that gap between our normal students and then our emerging bilingual students. Um again overall this is where we're doing better but we still have to be able to close that academic gap. All right moving on to Telpass. And so Telpass is the assessment that take this uh tracks a student's English development from year to year. And so they broke it down into two clusters. That's the way the state looks at it. K2 is one cluster and 312 is another. And so looking at here, the profile for our K12 is mirrors what um language development looks like. Again, K12, they're just developing their language. So we have a lot of students in the beginner, 40% of our students are in the beginning range with 39 intermediate and we have a couple advanced and advanced

118high. This is no more for language development because again in our program two we're enriching in Spanish building their language uh uh building a solid foundation in their first language and transition them over to to English. Then you almost see a little bit of the verse in 312 which is good. Now the kids are coming out of the beginning which is good. Our 16% is actually lower but still 16% is still higher on the state. So that number needs to be lower for our our um third through 12 cluster. Um intermediate we have 43%. Again, a lot of those intermediate kids need to be now at the advance and advance high. The advanced high number know that that once the students reclassify, they are no longer our AB students. And so the advanced high measure

119will always look smaller because once they leave, they don't count they don't keep counting for us. They leave and they come they they go out. But what we need to really see here is less a little bit less beginner students, more kids in less kids intermediate and move them more to the advanced. That's where we need to move some of our of our students. The Telp pass test has the famous speaking test. Kids have to speak to a microphone, have to uh respond to it. If you know, especially secondary students, they don't want to talk to a microphone. It's funny because they could be on their phone all day long. But when it comes to a test where the kids have to produce a response, they don't want to hear themselves speak. Um, and so

120a lot of them, and I reviewed some of the answers or mumble or they skip it. Um, and so we're working with our ELPAC team to really build our students. You have to script your answer. You have to practice it. and you have to record. Um, and so that's something that we've been working with our ESL specialists to identify the students last year that submitted recordings that were zero u to be able to say, "Hey, last year you just you didn't say nothing and so this year we need to practice script your answer out and you're going to we're going to record um expectation is that um that you do." So, so that is our TP pass data. Looking over now at the growth because that's obviously where they sit, but looking at other students

121moving levels. And so we have our Topass cluster um for K2. Um this is the how many kids are in each cluster proficiency level. We had 30 uh 2% 47 kids move one proficiency level. 23% in 312 moved up uh 16% moved up one proficiency level. And this is what we're talking about. We want more kids to be able to move two proficiency levels. uh because in order to get the progress measure, kids have to move two proficiency levels. And so we see them moving in one, which is great, but we need them to move in two. All right? And so um this now also this is the last year where um we're no longer going to be using how many levels they move. They're going to go to a composite score. So TPASS will

122be um calculated differently next year. Instead of moving proficiency levels, they have to move a whole composite score. And so going back to the old Telp pass accountability rules to be get changed again in 2028. So we're going to see three different measures going forward. Apples to apples and how um we're no longer going to have four um uh domains. We're going to have five. So that in [snorts] an extra an extra one here. All right. I know I want to provide to you guys the accountability. Um the those students that campuses that have 10 students or more EB students uh generate a calculation for EB. So if the campus is not here, they didn't generate, they didn't have 10 kids to to be able to do that. This Friday at snapshot, I will email

123those campuses that met the threshold because we have I think Vogle at sitting at nine. But on Friday, if they have 10 EB kids, those the campus will have uh EB measures. So I know I forgot AJB, I added it back on there. Um the way the points work is to get one point, the campus have to just beat last year's percent score. So if they did not meet last year's percent score, they felt backwards. That's where we're trying to uh u bring forward and say we cannot go back. Our kids have to make growth. Um if they get one point, they just met last they improved last year's percent score. So they just went over the percent from from last year. The uh three points and four points are targets that are set by

124the state um at long-term measure. So they have measures um for 2028 and then 2029. So they really have them really far out. And so if you meet that percent score, you get the three points. If you get the four, then you get the four points. And so overall on our program oop you could see here that majority of our programs are doing fairly well. Jefferson just had those 10 and this the first time they're getting evaluated here but they u met the first target measure. Uh our dual language campus had the four out of four. So a good celebration there. Pontan had the four out of four. Kiki did have zero out of the four. Um and so they felt backwards 3% points and they so didn't qualify for points. This is where we

125talk about accountability. Every single point counts. And so when you add those four points to your total college base score, this could bump you over from I think Kiki was a 88 89 this could could bump you to the next um great level the next rating. Um AJB again zero um and then Barnes did get the one point. They um met their percent score from last year and the high school had um had four out of four. I will share with you guys the cut scores but just to give an idea um the cut score that you have to just meet for progress for the high school the minimum of at least three points is 34%. 34% of your kids have to make progress in in Telpass. Um and obviously at middle school we have

12644 and then elementary 49. So the state without being disrespectful also has a lower standard passing rate for EB. So we're looking at we're looking at accountability we are meeting some of our measures. Is there work to be done? Yes. Um and so but the state already has a lower standard for how many percent um growth we want for our EB students. All right, moving over to ESL waiverss and exceptions. This was just I was just working on this all day today. Um and so I want as a board I have to notify you that we will be submitting waivers and exceptions for our district. What are waiverss and exceptions? These are um EB students who are being serviced by teachers that are not ESL certified. Okay? Okay. And so we if they're not certified,

127we have to self-report to TEA, let let them know that we have students that are not certified with ESL teachers. The numbers have changed to what originally was on your packet. But we had one bilingual teacher get certified. So great. So now we went from five to four. And so I was able to recode the those students and then we had originally 30 teachers with the ESL waiver and we're down to 27. So we had some folks get their ESL cert here um in the last couple of months and so we're able to reduce that. it is um the numbers do increase from last year. Uh part of it is some of the reporting that was done I believe was inaccurate from years past. Um and so that's one reason. The other teach reason too

128also is that um we had turnover at a lot of campuses. Um so we have as we know is the teacher shortage that we have. Um we're barely getting enough teachers. We're having teachers also under the statement of eligibility who are not yet graded a degree. So they can't even have their content test yet. So they can't even test for the ESL. So out of the 27 that are there, we have about 12 teachers who are uh doing their SOE or alternative programs. So they don't even have their ALS their regular content. So they will not be eligible to take their ESL test here. But we do have to have a plan to reduce the number of waiverss and exceptions. And so um the state has a 25% uh percent that we have to lower

129our ELO waiverss and requires us as part of the submission to submit a plan. So this is some of the things that we have put together and I want to thank I know he's not here but uh Mr. Newman uh Cassim and I have been working together and how to collaborate to reduce those waivers. And so one of the things that we've done is we created Google classroom. All the teachers that we submitted waiverss are in this Google classroom. They got notified um that hey there's a waiver for you why the waiver um is being implemented for them and then their responsibility to help reduce the get their certifications um done. And so a couple things that we've done with them is obviously we didn't just tell them to get certified. We've offered a couple

130of things. For example, some folks I know they're busy. So I said, "You know what? We we purchased the self-guides for you to practice at home." So we bought those study guides for them to practice at home. Um we also uh paid for their self-paced online. You don't want to do the book, but you want to sit in the computer and do your trainings and your section, we'll pay for that. And also, uh we had some great partnerships with Judson ISD. Um Dr. Leela over at Judson does a fantastic job with her ESL Academy course. She has like a 97 passing percent rate of the kids that people that go to her course. So we said, "Hey, can I send my teachers?" She's like, "By all means." And for free. I'm like, "Even better." So

131we teachers signed up for to go to those Saturday sessions there. Um TA does have virtual Saturday sessions, but that's two Saturdays. So I really try to sell the one Saturday instead of two, but we do have teachers take advantage of it. And if teachers got their ESL cert by the 31st, we reimburse their complete test fees. So some folks that take advantage of that. We're trying to also help them incentivize this to reduce our waiverss. And this is our part in responding to lowering the waiverss for for our district. So, a lot of work going here. Just because the deadlines passed doesn't mean that that's okay, they don't have to do it. No, we're going to continue to check on them. What are you doing? When have you signed up for your test? Um

132that bilingual test um is completely free this year. And so, we told those four teachers, you just have to take it. It's free and as many times. So you need to take advantage of it and take your test because um there's a new roll out for a new test coming up not this year but the following year. So it's free for right now because it's like a trial basis for for those teachers. Yes. Are parents notified in those classrooms that the teacher doesn't it? Right. So part of the earlier process with HR when because these teachers don't have a a cert either and so part of HR takes handles that and so the parents should have a notification that the teachers are not certified that they don't have a certified teacher and so that that

133is part of the documentation happens early in the year um and so HR handles that because they're not they're not certified but yes they do get notified. All right. So, we talked about all this data. This is the last slide to talk about on what are we doing as an emerging bilingual department. And so, in elementary, um there's a couple things that we're focusing. These are our goals. Our language allocation plan and fidelity, there's been a lot of work behind this because coming into it into this position, um some things were not being followed in our programming. So, we can't we have to make sure that we follow our program, follow the language allocation plan. We have signed up with Dr. withina's group to follow the 6C framework for dual language best practices. So um

134they've come for the last two years and that's where we're implementing strategies in our dual language classrooms to have a rich environment for our students and that is uh shown through the five plus linguistic approach and so we've been working with our teachers here every month we select one of those uh six framework skills and we do walks program walks and we go see how they're being implemented at the campuses. We also worked on building ory. We know that we have to continue to not you know that's the output component part of it. So we partnership with we partnership with some K12 uh connect to literacy that training is happening this Friday and that is that Telpass prep being able to get our EB students on on the computer a platform that's similar to Telpass.

135So they could practice taking Telpass. Now this is not just practice for TPAS. This is also it's also built with interventions um for the students to be able to um continue to get those supports but also take advantage that it's also presented in a uh the TEP pass platform way. We also have a couple components with writing and vocabulary. Uh we work on our dict and our dictation. We are working districtwide on writing portfolios and be able to track our students writing. Um, and then our kinder and second grade dual language teachers um, have asked for a separate PLC time. And so I know they're nitty-gritty and planning at their campuses, but there's a lot of non-transferables or things that just specifically apply to dual language. So those teachers meet separately after school and they

136sort of came out of their own, which is great. And so Miss Gonzalez helps um, facilitate those meetings. So we look at what's different from the recurriculum, what's separate just for two for dual language. Um, and so much that they like it. Now 345 wants to jump in. I'll welcome it. will facilitate it. But it's great that those teachers are continuing to plan also outside of of school. In secondary, um, one of the things coming in straight to the beginning is we did not have a curriculum for our newcomers. Um, should never should have been the case. And so, uh, I want to thank you all because this year we got, um, our ESL specialist and so that person has been the key figure in implementing this working both at AJB Barnes and at the

137high school. That curriculum is up and going and that is knowledge links to summit K12 also the foundations program for sorry the Wilson reading system for phonics teaching our newcomers letter sounds from the beginning we don't want to teach them with a little baby you know a apple kind of little thing it's more at their level more appropriate and so those kids are learning how to decode and the letter sounds at the secondary level we also have our ESOL one and ESOL 2 are the English classes for our merger bilingual so they don't go straight to an English class they go into um an ES English one and English class that has the supports for the emerging bilingual and so we have our ESL teacher there supporting them with text. These are n 10th graders

138new to the country. We can't just give them a novel, right? Because they won't be able to do it. So we have to help them same content but be able to tailor it to meet their needs. Um we talk about knowledge links again that's using um Summit Kid 12. Um the big you'll hear this new term CBLI that is the new term for sheltered instruction. for those in education that was a term the new term coming in is uh CBLI which is contentbased linguistic instruction um and so we are having region 20 folks coming November and January to work on the what we call like super PLC's to take our teachers on training on good shelter and structural strategies we saw the scores in science social studies and it's not just the ELR problem we

139have to work with our EB kids in science social studies and the other core context as well but we have to be able to equip those teachers with the sheltered instruction social strategies or now the CBLI strategies as a district. Some and I want to thank you all. Some of you all have attended our dual language parent engagement series. We want to be able to show parents what our kids are doing and what they're going to learn. Um our parents trust our kids to put them on the dual language program and we want to be able to show back this is what your kids are doing. This is where you can work with your kids and we're here to help you with it. And so thank you all for those that have attended. Um they

140they're growing every time they're going. So now I think next time we have to get two rooms and even split between English and Spanish, but it's great to see uh that happen. The next one's in December. So you I'll send you the invite for that. And then for our secondary students for 32 through 12, we're working with those parents. They don't know what they don't know. These are newcomer parents that don't know how to check their kids' grades. They don't know about credits. They don't know about credit recovery. So we're bringing the parents in to say, "Hey, this is how the education system works in the US. This is how we could help you." We have flyers. We have how-tos, videos to be able to help those parents navigate their child's education. uh because again

141they don't know what they don't know and we need we need to equip them with those parents resources most of the time they don't want to ask because obviously they're Spanish speaking but we we break the barrier down of language we meet with them and help them grow uh and as a parent as well so that is our EB and ESL uh annual review and I'm take any questions if you have any I have one course and it's just a if you still have something because I used to I was a ESL teacher and had to do my training every year. Yes, calibrations. Anyway, do they still have the writing component? So, it used to be where that you know you had to calibrate and then you had to collect the writing samples. The writing

142has moved completely online. Okay. And so whenever start going start going start go start started going to the computer um that writing component when yes they have to type it which again it's a whole skill that we have to teach your kids before you just go type it write your raft draft you know write it out work that way and then type it right they have there's no time on t pass but we have to work them on on how to work on the writing so there's no longer where we have to correct the file writing samples all that no it is it is just done through it do they do reading and writing combined so the kids sometimes read a passage and social compreh comprehension questions then they answer some comprehension questions but in

143writing format but that's how writing is is list checked or tracked first of all thank you for the report thank you good job thank you um the waiverss is concerning it is every year so it's special ed but the important having said that the important thing is that there's a plan in place to move forward which is good yes we're trying to help our teachers out really to get to get certified and also we need to understand that this particular segment of students, you know, we hear in the news about all the political climate going on. We see it, but they're they're actually living it. So, that's another added stress that they have to go through. Yep. Something I want to share with y'all. Um, out of our 1,093 EB students, 226 are recent arrivals

144within the last three years. So, it's about 20% of our EBS. You have an idea of how much, you know, they're struggling with just, you know, acquisition and and um in the United States. So that is that's a it's two numbers but it's a big number. Thank you. With our recent arrivals, are those clustered in any particular part of the uh grades or do we Oh, good question. Good question. So we try to cluster them as much as possible. Um and so we're experiencing higher numbers this year and so this year already I have I'm getting to a point where they're starting to be in different campuses. So now I'm finding myself not thin but trying to provide support over at Vogle, support over at Keniki, support over at McQueeni. There are no dual language

145campuses. Um and so there's obviously good conversations to talk about how more we could mainstream now parents deny services. So then they go to their home campus and so we need to have a conversation of if deny services can they still stay at a dual language campus but stay in the ESL classroom because we have a lot of supports already in the dual language classroom. it's when we start sending them back. But again, it's also a whole transfer uh student count seat question because then we start taking up seats for kids that should technically go to the home campus. But that's a really good question and we'll bring it up on strategic planning. Well, and when [laughter] they Well, I um we used to have sort of um a group of students that all um

146spoke um I think it was Vietnamese and they were at Winert, right? Um, and so it was nice for them to have um other people that spoke their same language and they were all learning together. I didn't know if we had other um students who were non English and non- Spanish speakers if they're from any particular country. Small pockets. We really don't have groups, you know, like we used to, you know, like that. Um, but we do Oops. For example, we have a school specifically where I guess all the families and stuff are coming from a different country that they're all moving to that school. And so we see a grouping that way, but not for another not for another foreign language. But we do have French at the high school helping a French student

147be able to to go through that. We do have three Ukrainian students that we're trying to help immerse in the language. And so yeah, it's been fun. Can you just clarify the classification of an emerging bilingual, an ESL student, and a dual language student? Of course. Definitely. Okay. So, and we went through the workshop. Remember, it starts with the parent uh language survey that the parents do when they register. If the parents put that's the ask two questions. What child is spoken at home and what child does a the student speak the most? If they put anything outside of English, that triggers for us to test them for emerging bilingual. So, we have to test them to see um their proficiency in most say example here Spanish and English. If the student is dominant in

148English, the student does not qualify. So, they'll qualify for services. If the student is dominant in the second language, sometimes they have some performance like a one in English. It's one through four. Um and so we they the other language is uh higher than they qualify to be an emergent bilingual. Now the parent gets a choice. What kind of programming do you want to go into? We have to start first with dual language because the state says we have if there 20 kids in the whole district, you have to offer a bilingual program. And so that's what we do. We follow we follow our bilingual program. Our model for our bilingual program is dual language. And so we have give that parent that option. If the parent says nope, I don't want to do a

149language. I want to go into ESL. Then they go into ESL. Uh but if they say, "Nope, I don't want ESL," then they become a true parent denial. That means they just go into a genetic classroom. And so that is how they they they get separate. Now remember, dual language education stops at fifth grade. Well, technically sixth grade, but since we don't have sixth grade in the elementaryaries, um sixth grade and above it, everything everybody transfers to ESL because there's no longer bilingual services at the secondary level. But that is how how they move up. Hope that answered your question. I have a question kind of regarding that with um ESL and dual language. Uhhuh. You take the same kindergartener generalities. Are they going to learn English faster being an ESL student or being in

150the bilingual program? So I'll give example like a kindergartener, right? If I start lower, yes, they will the ESL student will learn English faster because the programming language of instructions are two different approach, right? in a seal classroom, you would think about it as an immersion, right? So, no Spanish, we're going to put them in and they're going to learn English. The model of dual language education is that we build them in their first native language. There's a lot of transferable skills. So, if we build one native language first, the kids will be able to transfer into the second language. We know that language development takes time. It's not just going to happen in K12. Um the research from Thomas and Collier says it actually goes into middle school. And so that's where continue our

151some of our dual language approach through our LO program. We really don't have dual language middle school, but we have those kids go into they get the credit and they go into Spanish too and sixth grade and they try to continue their language development process. But yes, the kind the ESL student will learn English faster because they're being immersed in it, right? The parents have to make a choice. We have some students that parents now that parents say, I came to the United States to learn English. I could teach my kids Spanish. We try to let them know hey we could still save the the first language and transcription to the second language but parents have choice in programming but yes sir to answer your question ESL student will learn English faster. Is there a

152push for dual language? Is it truly a choice? It's A or B or is it we prefer A but so research prefers A in that let's try to keep because remember the goal of dual language is to be also build by literacy and bilingualism right and so being able to create students in both languages um and the and talk about the research that talked about if we build them in their native language then they will grow um in their in their second language. So that is the push that goes because the research shows and models that that's how kids perform um better um compared to ESL and I can share that research with you that shows the graphics of the different kind of programs and how ESL pull out orly exit our kids um don't

153eventually when they get to high school middle school they they underperform and we see that in the graphic because at ESL at the secondary level we see ASL kids struggle when they get to I wish we could do language high school but that's a whole other approach y'all. [laughter] I just had a quick comment uh and I'll follow up on other conversation. I won't take too long. Sure. I never understood the parent denial. I mean, I was going like, why are people doing it? However, I had a good conversation with one of the parents and she explained it to me very well. So, I'll be with you later on that one. Yep. Yep. Let's get back to the conversation of some parents say, "Nope, I don't want I don't want my kid to learn. I'll

154teach in Spanish." Anything else? Awesome. Well, thank you all for your time. I appreciate it. Now, I'm going to say the whole presentation in Spanish. You all ready? No, I'm just kidding. No. Thank you everybody. You guys have a good evening. Thank you. Yes. And I give you all a little sticker. So, hope you enjoy it. Thank you guys. Good evening. Yes. Thank you. That's a multilingual logo that we have. So, yep. If you need another one, let me know. Thank you. All right. Moving on to 7D. Sigd bond construction update. Troy Spear and Liz Banks. Good evening, board member, President Kitnet, and Dr. Lee. Um, I'm here to give you an update on the 2022 bond projects that are currently going on. Um, let me see. Hopefully, I can work this because Jeff wasn't

155helping. Okay. So, we're going to discuss the uh transportation project, the Barnes Middle School project, the A science, and the McQueeny, which are the four projects that are currently going on. Um transportation currently is 96% complete. The perimeter fence is complete. The asphalt driveway is complete. Renovation of the interior is complete. The punch walk occurred on October 9th and they're probably about 90% finished with that. Uh contractor has minimal items to address. He has clean up, paint touchup, remounting of a smoke detector in an IDF room. Uh clean the parking lot and redo grass in certain areas. Uh he also has a light for the parking lot that when it came in was slightly bent. We rejected it. We asked them to send it back and get a new one. That is supposed to be

156set this Thursday. So, that's another ride. Uh, the bus bay uh storage edition is complete, which you'll see in the photos following. The sidewalk's complete. Parking lot for the uh parking lot lights have been installed. And I told you about the one that was rejected. Uh ADA inspector came out and the RAZ uh did the her inspection on October 15th and everything passed. We had no issues. So with that, you can see the parking lot that um photos that show the uh layover and I think it came out beautiful. Uh they restriped it as well. This is another angle of of the area and you can see by the buildings um where the administration is and that parking area all of it was redone. That is the bus. laser. Um, this section over is the

157new one that they added, which you can see the closeup here and they finished. What you're looking seeing here is this plywood. This area right here all the way down to the other side is a storage area. So, the plywood is going up against the wall so they can hang shelving and everything for it. Uh, this is the inside. Um this is one of the uh offices um right here and this is a meeting room. This is next to Fia's office. So this is her she can have it for a conference room or whatever she wants to use it for. [snorts] Again another u meeting area, smaller room you see with the monitor and another photo here. This is the outside landscaping. These trees are new that of course has been there a while. And

158this is the area we talked about where I said the grass has to get redone. That's one of the punch listings. Uh now with Barnes Middle School work is approximately 97% complete. We have a date of substantial completion for October 20th. Uh that was when we did our punch walk. So you just have some minor items to do. The parking lot and drop off canopy are complete. The furniture has been moved in as in and is in place. Outdoor learning area is finished. The landscape is complete. The contractor is working on their punch list items which consist of paint touchup, door closures to ensure all doors closed completely, clean up around uh learning center and touch up on the flooring around the door jambs and other areas. So, this is actually one of the things

159that I enjoy the most is when the kids come in, the first thing they say is today is a good day. And then when they leave the opposite side, it says today was a good day. So, I think that's very nice for them to have to look at coming in and out. This is your library right here. All the renovation with the ceilings and the carpet and everything, the furniture. And then uh here is of course cafeteria. And then back there is your um auditorium. And if you notice, you have some of the lights that you can see up here that they installed uh for during plays and other activities and stuff. But I think that that the whole thing came out gorgeous as far as the flooring, the colors and everything. Uh staff really

160love it. Here's the hallway. Same coloring, flooring, and everything. Just to give you an idea of how it looks. Music room right here. Excuse me. And they have plenty of storage for all their equipment right here. And this is the finished product. The kids are in here actually using this area. Kids also have an individual area where they can go in and um play and practice and it's just for a single or you could do two people would fit in here but it's uh soundproof as well. This is the wood shop area where you can see the hoses. So they attach to the u various machines that are cutting the wood to draw the dust out to the outside collection. Uh, and then of course you have the overhead uh for the uh pickup area

161that was I think a main feature and you can see how much shade it actually provides. I believe this picture was like at 2:00 and it does a really great job. These are the uh two learning centers um or learning outdoor learning areas. This one is the one located by the cafeteria which injuries right there and then outside towards around the back. This is the other one and I'll show you a closeup of that. which is right here. So, you have the butter sticks and then the covers and they do have ceiling fans. And when we had the ceiling fans on, they work very well. You'd be surprised how much air they So, those are the new uh outdoor learning areas and I think they look really great as well. Excuse me. Yeah, takes a

162saves a lot of hours over the summer for the custodial staff. I'm not sure what the AGV So um a science facility that is approximately 60% complete. The large building has been erected. The siding is attached. Insulation installed in the ceilings is all complete. Uh CMU blocks for the restroom and office has been erected. The water tank foundation has been installed and the electrical work is approximately 30% complete in the in the livestock horn. The poultry building has been erected as well. Siding and roof have been installed on that. Uh the CMU block uh work has started in the poultry building, although it's it's not going to go as high. It's just or not even that about a foot high and then the pins go up. Um, they did uh bring in the phase three

163electrical service which I have photos of as well. And that replaces the single phase that was out there originally. So here you can see uh all the insulation. There's the part of the lighting started. There's more, but they have, like I said, they were 30% complete. So all the insulations there. This was the CMU blocking went up, but they've painted that. Here's more of the CMU blocking. This is the restroom storage areas. Uh different items. Here we are also going to up top here have a small second story area uh that's going to be put up here once they finish uh the work over here. Uh this is the poultry barn which is the smaller one next to it. And as I said you can see the uh CMU blocking here but from there as

164you go up it won't be all CMU blocking. It'll be the cage type or fencing uh chicken wire. Is it right here. This is the uh foundation that they did for the tank. So, this is tank is going to hold approximately 162,000 gallons of water. As you can see, the large blue 6-inch PVC, it goes under and comes up here. This is going to be your pump area, and this will pump the water. The water comes in from out of the street, fills the tank, and then it'll pump be pumped through for here. Uh, this is mainly for fire, and it has to have a rating of 2 hours of continuous pumping. Uh, that's why we have 162,000 gallons. Well, yes, it was. Correct. Was there not a well? There's not a well out there.

165Everything. [laughter] Oh yeah, concrete's not cheap. Yes. Again, more pictures of the large uh area again. And you can see where the uh buildings there's going to be a locker set right here. This is where they will put their food for their animals. Inside this facility is going to be the uh steers and the goats, uh pigs. That's what this entire building is for. But on this end is more for the steers and the other side is for the goats and the pigs. Yes. Sorry. is that th this is actually a wash pin up and then their pins go down the sides. And as you can see, these are again more of the the pits for each individual animal. So there'll be one here, one here, one here, and then back there as well. Um

166and then right here, you can see where they brought in the three-phase service and have it. And this is our main panel right here where we will come and distribute the power to our buildings. There will be. Yes, we're going to come up with a dividers. Yes, they'll all be separate pins. U I thought it was seeing me blocking this. And then these will also get they'll have like an individual heater above them as well to make sure that the uh animals are warm. Any questions about that one? Egg facility. It's going up pretty quick and they're doing a fine job. So the McQueeny Elementary School is approximately 75% complete. I think it's actually more like 72, but okay. Um, substantial completion will be the end of February right now is the way we're looking

167at it. Could possibly be earlier. I don't see it going into March. Uh, flooring is approximately 30% complete. That is in sections A and B. That right now we're divided by uh three kind of sections in that project. So there's an A, a B, and a C. A is the one that is the uh furthest along. B is second and then C is last. So majority of the work has already occurred in area A and a lot of more a lot of work I'm sorry has occurred in B and now C is uh where they're starting to tackle it more for the flooring and the tile and the uh ceiling. Uh the kitchen area is approximately 60% complete. Although that did change a little bit. They did put in most of the um ovens and

168co or the uh warmers and the equipment that goes in there up front that's already been placed in there. So I'd say it's a little bit higher than 60%. Now the brick and middle facade approximately approximately 75% complete and the admin area is approximately 65% complete. When I say that, I mean total flooring, uh, ceiling, tile, uh, all the components that go in the ceilings and all of that. Uh, we're currently working with text on traffic at FM725. Uh, we may be required to, uh, work with them on ALOSA, which is like a local agreement, uh, as we move forward because we're going to have about 1500 feet in front of the school that will be a turnin lane and We have a preliminary design. Uh we hired Dunaway engineers. They went out there and

169did a survey. They finished that a week ago. They starting to put it on plans and they're going to turn it over to Tex dot and we're going to do a preliminary review with text dot to see what they have to say about it. Make any changes before we go for the initial permit request. board, you have on the agenda later on an action item that has to do with delegating authority so that we can sign those agreements if they're needed and it doesn't delay anything. So just FYI, that's one of the the action items later in the meeting. I have a question on that previous slide. Um assuming that construction stays on time and the facility gets done in February of 2026, what happens between February and August with the facility? So in February

170when they start bringing in materials that are required for wheelbarls and rakes and all that. We're going to do the FFN, bring that in. We're going to test um do some final testing on the large tank that you saw to make sure that water is running properly. Go through that and then that's a good question. We have to meet with the group, the egg, and um see about when they're bringing the uh animals in. We looked and thought about July, but it's our understanding that they may want to come in sooner because they don't have room for their animals at their house and they may be barring a spot for it. But I I that was a really good thing to learn too. I was glad I didn't stop because I wanted to know that

171when you said the one before because I was at McQueen though when you said the sorry my no but that was good to know too because that that should have been a question for McQueen. Um, so once we're completed, let's say we're substantially completed in February, we're going to have a punch list. Contractor is going to go in there and start working on our punch list. Around the same time, we are hoping to bring in furniture around March or April. Plus, we will be tying in some of our own IT equipment, things like that. So, March, April, May, we're hoping to bring in all the equipment we need. FF& we want to bring in uh probably Oh, I'm sorry. Uh we can't really Yeah, we can bring um bring in the FFN equipment when it

172comes in. Hopefully that's May or June. Uh there are items that we need to bring from the old McQueeny, their art supplies, their musical instruments, other cabinets. Not a whole lot per se because we are buying new furniture, but that equipment will then move in in June. So from the March to July we are going to be bringing in equipment some new some from the other school. And that's the other thing is we're working on the training, but because they're still in school teaching, we're going to have to figure out the best time to take each group and train them. and then maybe we train two or three and then they can go and train others later. So, we're looking at various options. Okay, so already went through McQueen. Uh here are the photos. So,

173this is the kitchen area. They have the freezers and coolers built in back here. Like I said, since uh this picture was taken about six days ago, maybe seven days ago, all of this area now has the equipment in here, which are the serving line and the and the warmers and everything. Uh and then the floor of course is finished and grouted. Uh this shows you um one of the restrooms, uh single unit, and the fixtures are going in and you see the tile along the wall here. Uh I wanted to show you the siding. So, this is both metal siding and brick uh matching, you know, the color similar. Uh I think the metal siding looks really great. I think the brick looks nice as well. And right here is the fins. So, on

174some [snorts] of the pictures, you're going to see where you're going to see um like steel pieces sticking out, but it's not completely finished. This is what it will look like. These are the fins that when the sun starts to come in, it's it it shades, but at the same time, it allows enough natural light in to do, you know, what it's supposed to do. But it it's a really nice look. Right here, this right here is going to be like a I guess it's a it's learning [snorts] outdoor learning. Yeah. So, this will be all uh done in concrete. As you can see how it steps down where each kid, each of the students can sit on there. And um this will all be concrete as well. And then the teacher can bring them

175out here and they can do whatever they need to do in an open atmosphere outside, which I think is a great concept. Here's another photo from a different angle. Same thing where it steps down. Uh this is the admin area. You can see the window uh storefronts have been put in. Uh like I said, ceiling tiles are in. The lights are on and working. This is area A. Uh and then towards the front, you can see where the counters are and where the people will come in. Just to give you an idea of how far along they are and with that tag team. Yes. And Lisa, just to like further talk about the February um there's going to be so much to do between February and August. [laughter] There's going to be things that don't

176work. It's going to be great to have an opportunity that we're not like trying to rush staff in there. So, it's g it'll be really good. Um, these are for our financials. Uh, we do have a bond oversight committee next uh no, Wednesday, November 5th. So, um I'm not even sure what today is. So, that might be next week. Um, and we're also scheduling uh the Barnes ribbon cutting. We're looking at the week before we get out for Thanksgiving break in November. And then for transportation, we're looking at December 1st. So, y'all will be getting invitations for those. Um, we really wanted to wait until the barn's outdoor area was done because it's pretty cool. So, uh, Troy already went through like the percent complete on these. I just wanted to point out that all

177of our projects, um, none of them are o over budget. Um, we will have a substantial amount at the end of these projects that the board will have an opportunity to decide what we're going to do with the remaining funds. We also have interest revenue on these that's substantial. So, uh, just as soon as we get to that point, uh, y'all will be in the loop on that. Um, as you, if you had I don't know if you have any questions on the numbers, I won't read them all to you. Uh, safety fencing and equipment is, uh, 95% complete. The new McQueeny, like Troy said, is 72%, Barnes is at 98. Uh, the egg science facility is at 55% and the transportation facility is at 96%. Um, for furniture, we're we're down to the end

178on that. Um, we just did a reorder for some things that people wanted um additional furniture at their campus. So, Fluger has been working on that. Um, plumbing and HVAC, we um we've done the the first scope of this is pretty much complete. So, we're looking for anything else we can do in that area. Same with uh technology infrastructure. Rubin's really gotten in the middle of that. So, that one will be done quickly. And I also wanted to point out the bond consultant. Uh, we don't have a bond consultant anymore. Uh, but the manager, we do pay that salary with interest. So, that's a question that's come out at bond oversight committee meeting. So, in case y'all do y'all have any questions about anything on any of this for me or Troy? Um, it's I'm

179I It's being installed like literally. I think that they It might even be this week. I can check my email and tell you for sure, but Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We've been renting one since we had that mishap this summer, but um it was part of an insurance claim, so we paid the deductible and then our insurance covered the difference. Can you go back to the previous slide? Sure. McQueeny paid to date 48 million and they said so that's about 89 88% but that's only 75% completion. Yeah. So you you have to remember it's encumbered and paid. So we haven't paid 48 million but we have a PO out there. So we do a PO for the whole amount. So that's including everything that's encumbered. So this is all the these are all the POS the

180total of the POS but we haven't necessarily paid 48 million. So as of now we're like you mentioned earlier within budget. Yes sir. Yes. Thank you. Are is the budget available numbers that are there. Those are what the budget is probably over. That's what's left. It's not assigned anywhere. It's not assigned, but like we know for McQueeny that we're going to pay a substantial amount for the text dot for the the work out front. Uh we still have furniture to come out of McQueeny, but we're we're going to be under budget substantially. So, and Dr. Lee did point out that that is an action item later um on the agenda. No sir. Nope. Nope. Working on that now. So, uh, real quick on the safety fencing and equipment. Yeah. Um, with the new ballpark, um,

181that back corner where was the bus storage for a little while. That's really dark at night time. Yeah. Is there plans to put any anything over there? because I noticed that we have like 8.5 right there for safety fencing and equipment. We discussed plans for that today actually at our SLT meeting. I guess my bad. [laughter] And I I was just also looking at some of the other fencing all the fencing stuff that we have going on some of the other campuses like the Vogle fencing might need to be redone a little bit to help with parking. Um and some of the other fences might need needing to be redone. Is there room for maybe to look at that? Yeah, there's there's always room for us to look at everything that's out there. Um, you

182know, I think that that as a district um on the heels of the Uvaldi situation, uh there was a lot of push from districts across the state to immediately implement quite a few safety things. That's where this bond came from ultimately. Um is part of that to ramp up security and safety and those types of things. I think that we we have an opportunity to really look at our safety and security situation at the moment. um which is part what we're going to start planning for for some of that because we have the bond money that is allocated specifically for those things. We cannot spend it on anything other than what it was approved in the legal language for the bond. Um so it's possible yes there could be. We have a lot of fencing

183that's just kind of there [laughter] if I'm being really honest. Like there was a whole lot of fencing that just kind of went up that doesn't make necessarily a ton of sense. But we also don't want to just spend good money after bad money just because to make it look a little bit nicer if it still meets the the the requirements that we're we're sitting at. Especially when we have other things that we want to look at like uh um controlled access to things, new security cameras, lighting, exterior lighting on our campuses. All of those things could potentially fall under safety and equipment. Um I think we just need a little bit of time to really look at it. Uh we just started having this conversation what in the last week probably the last week

184or so is when we as this team started really talking about it and just keep in mind this was a total bond issuance. So these budget amounts were just they came about in 2021 when they were bond planning. We've done a little bit of movement but this money is all part of this bond issuance that's very vague in general in the bond order which was a very good practice. So the money can be moved very easily between all of these projects and then y'all can reallocate at the end. So yeah, anything else? All right. If there's nothing else though, we'll move on to 6E CFB local first reading. Yes, this is just the first reading of a change in our local policy. you'll vote on it next month. This just increases the capital um thresh

185capitalization threshold for assets from 5,000 to 10,000. These are the items that we depreciate over time. Uh the federal threshold was 5,000 but has recently been changed to 10,000. So best practice would be to go ahead and change ours as well. It makes sense. Uh inflation over time things get more expensive. So we may be wasting our time depreciating items that aren't worth our time. So I do Liz uh referenced this that this is the first read of it. That will be our standard practice is that when we have policy adoptions that are not immediate policy needs um we will bring that to you in one meeting as a first read meaning you have it you're not taking action and then the next meeting it will be on your consent agenda as part of that

186work. Um in this case it's a single policy but we're trying to get into the process of having that policy in front of you twice before you actually vote on it. Any questions? All right, moving on to 7F financial statements for September 2025. Okay, so we have the general operating first. Um, I wanted to point some things out about this because you are voting on a budget amendment and the consent agenda. Um, if you remember, we started the year out with a $5.8 million deficit and then in September we did a budget amendment and we had a 7.4 4 million deficit that included the QZAB payment being added in uh a deductible for our property insurance for the weather damage here at central office and also the increase to the employer contribution for medical insurance

187premiums. So you're going to see a budget amendment that will change that deficit to 8.1 million. Sounds bad. It's actually not that bad or that's what I'm telling myself. [laughter] So, this budget amendment is going to include all of the raises that were given uh with the compensation plan that you all approved. We wanted to run that and make sure that we got those salaries into the right functions. Um it's also going to include some revenue from the legislation. Um there are when we have a lot of changes in legislation. Uh it takes some time for software to get caught up on us being able to pull the data. So there are some small numbers that I cannot pull yet, but it's not anything that's going to make a big difference. So most of that

188revenue is in there. Another thing that's in there that's kind of an outlier is Skyward. And this is a new software. Um this is right now we're using two different systems. Uh to put it simply, we have one system for our student and HR and then one for for business. And it it is um a source of a lot of issues in our district. This I'm super excited that we're doing this. This is something I wanted when I first got here and we have a great team for it now. So, um it will be a very heavy lift for for our district uh next summer spec specifically or I guess Ruben will start in January. Um but that is about $650,000. Um most of that is a one-time cost that we will incur in this

189year and then going forward we will have to keep both frontline and munis on for a little while in the 206 27 school year. So, we will have some fees tied to that, but once we just have Skyward, it's going to be less than half of what we're paying now for the two systems together. So, it's going to be it's going to cause us to really look at our systems and come up with some processes and and we're going to find funding. We're going to find things that we've missed because the two systems didn't talk. So, that is in there. Um, so we're going to be at 8.1, but some good news about that deficit going into the next school year is that some of those expenses are going to fall off. Like I said,

190Skyward's going to fall off. The insurance deductible, that's not an annual thing that we pay. Um, it's going to be a total of about 1.4 million of that deficit that will not carry into the next year. So, that's positive. Um and and I also wanted to point out that we're as of today we're down 94 kids than we were last year on this this day. So um that does that does affect our revenue that's worth about $600 $650,000 in revenue. So we will we run those reports every six weeks. I estimate the revenue every six weeks and we will stay on top of that. Um we've also tightened up payroll substantially. So, we're used to having a pretty big cushion in payroll here, mainly because our systems don't talk. We don't have a good system

191for knowing vacancies and how many people we really have. So, Skyward is going to be great for that. But, we have tightened up payroll and put less of a cushion there. So, Sally's super nervous right now. So, pray for her. [laughter] When Skyward comes in, did they bring people to train? Yes, ma'am. It will be big. Yeah, it will be big. There'll be online training people on site. Um, yeah, it's I have not been through a software change. Ruben has, so we have the right guy here and he's and he and I have both worked on Skyward before. So, that will be nice. I had the same question. You already answered it about Skyward as far as the training uh because it's going to be a dramatic change but especially for the parents also and

192the students and teachers. Yeah, it's going to be a change, but um it's going to be it's so much better than what we have now. Um I think people are in a in a a year they're going to look back and go, I can't believe that we were doing all of those extra steps and now it's this easy. Is there a registration component to that? Yes. Yes. Yes. Do you want to say anything about it, Reuben? Um yeah, couple of minutes. Uh yeah, so this when we move towards uh Skyward at this district, this will be my third district where I do a transition from a legacy system to Skyward Q, which is the product that we're looking at right now. It's called Skyward Cumulative. It's got a family portal, student portal, teacher portal. Um

193and and the and the flexibility and the capability of those of of those services for families is is is going to be great. Um, it'll be a big lift. It'll be a big lift because any any transition from one information system to the other is going to be a big big lift. But like Liz says, it's going to be an opportunity for us to look internally at as a district and set policy and procedure in place that aligns with this new information system. And right now, we're currently working in silos, kind of like what Liz mentioned. HR is in one place, businesses in one place, and student information systems in in another place. Yet we all have to report out to the state using one particular avenue, one particular system. Right? So right now we're

194compiling, data validating, making sure that everything looks good and then and then go ahead and and letting it float up to the state uh with with one unified system. Everybody looks at the same data, everybody collaborates in the same manner, and when the data does flow to the state, we're all we're all collaborating and making sure that it's the correct thing. So, total job security for you and you'll be here through the whole thing. Um, right. Yeah, sure. Um, but [laughter] but but just just to reiterate that point, I I think Liz is right. Parents and teachers will look back a while down the road and say, "This is just so much easier for me to do, and I can focus on on what's important, right?" Um, technology should be working for us, and it

195shouldn't create layers of work for us. Uh and I think this is this is one one right move in that direction. Yeah. Thank you. So will the board eventually get a presentation on the skywards? Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I was trying to look for something. I'm always looking at both sides negative and did not find anything negative on the websites that I looked at on different school districts. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. We can do that. Yeah. I wouldn't label it as a negative. One of the biggest challenges will just be training. Uh and so when we look at next year's school calendar, we'll have to prioritize professional development. We'll have to prioritize some of this roll out and and that work that happens. Um but that's just part of the process of

196us moving to a system that in the long run will be far more beneficial for the district and getting us to the level that we need to be in the way that we operate. I have a question going back to the um amendments for instruction and school leadership. Just make sure I'm understanding this correctly. Um the state revenue um increase is 2.7 which is is that the amount that's directly related to the teacher retention a lotment and then it looks like we're paying out about 3 million 2.7 and 300 with so the so so there's some other things in there. Um not to get in the weeds too much but the state revenue is actually more than that but I decreased another area that we use as a cushion. It's called TRS on behalf. So

197there's a journal entry that happens every month and we expense a whole bunch of money and then we bring a whole bunch of revenue in and um we we when we're in the business office we like to have that extra cushion but it's kind of we kind of have a large difference at the end of the year. So the state revenue was actually more than that 2.7 because there's more than there's several things going into each function. Um, and then as far as the expense function, expense functions, most all of those diff those amounts are salaries. Uh, the only other big thing in there is going to be Skyward, and that's going to be split between function 11 and function 53. Um, we've typically only expensed that to function 53, but we're going to put

198some of that in 11 because we can, and that helps our administrative cost ratio. That makes sense. Thank you. Does that make sense? Yeah. Um I had some um constituents reach out to see if um our budget or any of our functions would be um affected by the government shutdown or by any of that. Okay. So child nutrition, that's on the next page and I've got a note to talk about that. Um the child nutrition budget looks good. It always does. We have a great child nutrition director so I don't have to worry about it. But there was a federal shutdown um like Miss Kittinden mentioned in October. Um we use um of course we have national school lunch program and the school breakfast program. We are C which is community eligibility provision. So all

199of our kids eat free. If you don't know that you know that now. Um so what does this shutdown mean for us? It means business as usual. It it there's not really anything to do. Um we if we um turn in our reimbursements our our money may come slower, but that's that's all that we have to worry about at this point. I mean, they're even telling districts that aren't C that have people apply. We don't have to have people parents apply here to keep applying just like normal. So, nothing to worry about. Kids are still eating free. Nothing to change. And we do have a $1.7 million fund balance in that account in case something weird happened. So, we're good. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Uh debt service fund. Just keep in mind that um we

200make payments in February and August so that you you see a large amount there unexpended but that's why any other questions. Thank you. Yes ma'am. Um 7G new vendors. This is again just a list of vendors that have uh responded to requests for proposals. We may use them, we may not, but we can if we want to. Any questions? Okay, thank you. I get to do the next one and I don't get to practice these things. So, do I just need to read each person? Um okay. So um we have the SIGD um school board continuing education record. Um we have a minimum number of hours um that we have to complete each year and um some of them are in particular um subjects. Um so uh William Dwire exceeded um the required hours. Alejandro

201Gha exceeded. Grace Miller exceeded. Linda Duncan exceeded. Denise Cretendon exceeded. Uh Lisa Burns exceeded. And Josh Bright exceeded. So good job everybody. That would be the only time from school that I'm not competition. I would never I would never say that. I thought we were headed. It's only self-deprecation, not anybody else. I just want to thank Nancy for putting all that together because she's the one behind the whole number. Nancy keeps us on track with her extremely friendly reminders to get stuff done and then they become [laughter] not friendly when you don't do No, they're still friendly. Okay. Um, any questions or and we'll start all over again. We will start all over again. Nothing like learn it about cyber security. Don't click on that. That's the That's the gist. And don't touch the children.

202There you go. Um all right. Um moving on to eight consent consent agenda items consider. Okay. Sorry. Policy be local states that the consent agenda shall include items of a routine and or recurring nature grouped together under one action item. All such items shall be acted upon by one vote without separate discussion unless a board member requests that an item be withdrawn for individual consideration. The remaining items shall be adopted under a single motion and vote as applicable. A. Approval of board minutes of regular meeting September 23rd, 2025 and special meeting October 14th, 2025. B approval of tax collection reports for September 2025. C. Approval of proposed budget amendments for October 2025. D. Approval of donations received for September 2025. E approval of investment report for the first quarter um ended September 30th, 2025. F

203submission of class size waiver to the Texas Education Agency. And G, acknowledge public information act requests September to October of 2025. Are there any items that a board member wants to pull from the consent agenda? I would like to pull item CP approval of proposed budget amendment for October 2025 be voted on separately. All right. So we will pull item C. Any other items? Do I have a motion for the remaining items? I move that we accept the consent agenda items except for item what was it? See second. I heard Linda first. Um uh that is a um motion from Mrs. Miller and a second from Miss Duncan. Um any further discussion? All in favor? Raise your right hand. Opposed. Same sign. Motion passes 70. Um so Miss Banks, if you'll fill us in on

204item C. Um, like I mentioned in the financials, um, it's mostly going to be raises, um, for salaries. Those went into effect in September. And, um, the additional state revenue, uh, when I talked about the TRS on behalf in the revenue side, just remember that that also is a decrease on the expense side, so it's a wash. The total increase of the budget amendment is $719,000. But I'd love to answer any questions y'all have. I just wanted to comment. I just feel like because of the amount of this um budget amendment, I thought it was a good idea for us to vote on it separately um just because of the large amount. Yep. Yep. Any other questions or comments? I'll accept a motion on that. I move that we accept that that we approve the

205proposed budget amendment for October 2025. Second. All right. I have a motion for Mrs. Miller and a second for Mr. Bright. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hands. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. Thank you. All right. Nine. Uh, sorry. Moving on to action items 9A. Approval to purchase district library books. Jackie Sylvius. Sorry, we saved you for 1000 p.m. [laughter] Good evening, board president, Dr. Lee, and board of trustees. Oh, I got [laughter] All right. The recommendation, the board of trustees approval submission. Oop, I'm on the class size. Sorry. With implementation of SB13, the board shall consider that the list of library materials that have been donated or proposed by the administration district lead librarian for recruitment. Do you have any questions board? This is part of a new requirement. Um,

206typically this would not come in front of you. part of legislation changes uh changes have what has required that to come in front of you. Uh one of the big sticking points that I'll help everybody out here. One of the big sticking points is that we now have to produce this list online uh for 30 days I believe prior to prior to the board even having it. Um so you guys got this I don't know you probably got it about three weeks ago, a month ago or whatever once it was posted. Once Miss Sylvia sends it to me I then forward it on to you guys as part of that. um it just now requires your vote for library materials as part of that uh new legislative change. And so you've got books on there.

207I I do want to acknowledge that there was one change to the original packet compared to now. Um there was a book uh Wu Yi Yang Guang. I probably said that totally wrong. Um that was actually uh an accidental piece on there. It's a Chinese translation of a Stephanie Meyers uh book. I cannot remember what the name of the book is in English. Mid thank you. Midnight Sun. It is basically Twilight from one of the male characters perspective rather than the female character perspective. Not that I have read that book, but and definitely not in Chinese. I could phrase this as a question, but I don't want to put Miss in that position um of why the particular book on the book list. So, I'm just going to say it as a comment instead. And

208there is one book on the list that I'm very concerned about. Um, it is called Butt. B U T for the notes, Nancy. But U T and faces. Um, it's a picture book that just shows animals rear ends and a face and kids are supposed to guess which one it is. I think it's probably a hilarious book for a crazy uncle to give you, but I don't feel like it's appropriate material to be having in our libraries. I would just request that we approve the list without but faces. Yeah, you can discuss. Well, I that's what I wasn't sure if we were just like a amending this. Usually when we get a list, we have to, you know, just approve it. Uh I'll be honest uh with that one. Um, I would totally have purchased

209that book um from the PTC or whatever. So, [laughter] I know that yes, I know that our elementary librarians have that book in their library. It's like the third book in the series. Um, and it's a favorite. It's if you look at the book and you look through it. Um, you know, it's it's just a fun book that kids are taking off the shelf and it may be that one book that they get that hooks them into reading. Um, it's definitely not teaching the word but because they know that word. Um, so it's I understand the word but. It was not, no pun intended. Um, but it's kind of maybe that gateway book to, okay, this was good. What's my next book that I can get? So, I understand, but it's just one of those

210good humorous elementary Oh, yeah. funny books for kids. They like the basic funny things. It's your basic bathroom humor. I mean, y if y'all have questions, further questions, I'll we'll take those before we make a motion. There might be other books people have questions on. So, I want to make sure we Yes. Yes. Which part of that law requirement now is that we have to have it posted on the website for 30 days. That allows for public comment from anybody in the community. Did we receive any public comment on our lists? We did not. And along with that list, there's a form uh that you fill out if you have a question about one of the books and you talk about why it does not fall in line with the Tesla um collection development policy.

211Um but you're correct. We didn't have any um any concerns. Thank you. I was I was not certain, so I wanted to make sure. I'll make the motion that we approve the library the district library list with the exception of butt and faces. Is there a second hearing? None. I will accept another motion. Move to accept the list as presented by administration. Second. I have a motion from Mr. Bright and a second from Mr. Geta. Any further discussion? Um. All right. All in favor raise right hands. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. six one with Mrs. Burns as the one. And I'm pointing that out because that's the No, I'm pointing that out because that's the that's I just went to a I went to a just went to a training and they were like, "You

212should say what they are." So, I just did. Thank you, Tasby training. [laughter] Sorry. [snorts] Um uh and thank you um Miss Sylvius for staying with us and for all that work and for all the librarians. Yes. Thank you. All right. Um 9B consideration and possible action to approve resolution and delegate authority to administration to negotiate and approve the agreement between the Sigin Independent School District, a public independent school district and the political subdivision of the state of Texas by and through its board of trustees and Texas Department of Transportation. This is the agreement we referenced earlier. It just allows us to make improvements within the Texas Department of Transportation's rightofway. It will outline the responsibilities, standards, and cost participation of the work. Madame President, I move to approve the resolution and delegate authority to

213administration to negotiate and approve the agreement between the Sigin Independent School District, SISD, a public independent school district, and political subdivision of the state of Texas by and through its board of trustees and Texas Department of Transportation, Texas. Second. I have a motion for Miss Duncan and a second from Mr. Dwire. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. Thank you. Yes. We will all be signing that. So, yes, your signatures for that resolution after we adjourn. Uh board comments and requests. Do we have any? I do have one. Um, and it doesn't have to be like right away, but I like to take a tour of the facilities as they progress a little bit. Yeah. And I'm available on Fridays because I'm off that

214day. Now, it's not about me, but if we can make that happen and I know Floren would love to take me. So, I appreciate it. Thank you. Do I have any other comments or requests? Thank you, Trusty Bright. Um, I have one comment. Um, we are, um, doing the trustee reading challenge again this year. Um, so, um, if you're on a campus and you would like a trustee to come and read um that is from preK all the way through 12th grade, we will come and read to um, any of them. Um, some of them are more of a challenge than others. Um, uh, I thought I could read a book in English and Spanish and I learned that I was not maybe as good at it as I thought I would be. Um, but

215the kids were awesome. [laughter] Um, so we hope that you'll invite us um, uh, to whatever. And then the kids are doing uh, their reading challenge starts in November. November for third graders. So there's gonna be a campus challenge as well. So readings, it's just started. I just want to say as a dedicated Matador fan, go Matadors. Beat New Bron. I would like Mayor Dodden to come home with a case of sausage. Yes, that is very true. Yes, go Matadors. I just want to remind the board that tomorrow is that a special ed Halloween carnival down here and it's really nice event that they have every year and we also start strategic planning tomorrow. Yes. And uh central office is a voting site. So if you are so inclined that is something else you can

216do here. Um any other comments? Madam President I move for adjournment. Second. Um, I have a motion from Miss Duncan and a second from Miss Miller. All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes 70. It is 10:15.