001We do have a quorum. This meeting of the Sigin Independent 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 start tonight with our pledges to the United States and Texas Flag. And we have Calvin Baker, a fifth grader at Potlon that's going to lead us. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, and justice for all. I on the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas. One state under God, one invisible. Thank you, Mr. Baker. Um, we'll now have a moment of silence. Thank you. We're going to move in a slightly different order than it says here.
002We're moving to item two, audience with the board. The SiginD Board of Trustees designates a time for audience participation at the beginning of each meeting to hear persons who desire to make comments in accordance with policy be local. Those wishing to speak shall sign up before the meeting begins, stating the concern or noting the agenda item they wish to address. Audience participation is limited to five minutes. The board shall not deliberate any subject that is not on the posted agenda. We have one speaker tonight, um Al Burns, and he's speaking about the Guadalupe appraisal district. [Music] Five minutes. The clock should be working, but also Miss Duncan can time you. She can she can give you a warning if you like. I'll give you a one minute warning. You guys are almost as scary as
003a four-year-old with cavities. All right. Um I'm excited to be here tonight to talk for a few minutes. First thing I need to mention is that my name is Al Burns and um I am here on behalf of myself tonight. Okay. I am my my opinions and my thoughts here are strictly are my own and should not reflect certainly the other uh the member of the board who happens to be my wife. Um so I just want to make sure I clarify that from the get-go. So uh tonight I'm here to uh to talk to you for a few minutes about the Guadalupe appraisal district's expansion and um their new building which is a former property owned by the Sigin ISD. Um you you received an email today from me if you saw it perhaps
004you already saw it. Um and uh which detailed some of my thoughts and feelings and my concerns over this matter. Um in addition to that tonight I will be providing for you um some documents that Nancy is going to pass out with with further information pertinent to this. And there's a lot of things that could be gone. That's it right there. Um there's a lot of things that could be gone into concerning this matter but I'm going to just kind of keep it kind of brief and you can sort through that on your own time. Um uh but in addition to you, I said this to nine other voting entities which totaled 81 elected officials today in the Gualupe County so they could be aware of these concerns uh because it's a countywide uh uh
005issue and certainly the scheme school district plays an important role because they actually a a large tax entity at the appraisal district. So, um I uh there's again a lot of information we can kind of go through, but the first thing I really just and the most important thing I just want to point out is that currently underneath the voted and approved on uh proposal from the uh the appraisal district, the Sigin ISD will be spending a large chunk of money on their new expansion. All right. Um and their expansion is large. In fact, it's way too large. um they're looking to get a building that's three times the size of the average building of a of a county that we that you see in any of our adjacent counties. They're looking to restore a
006historic building and the costs are astronomical. In fact, when you break down the cost between their proposal for the Mary Beers School and also the the buildings that was their alternative, there's about a $5 million plus difference between those two. Um and there's reasons for us where they picked one over the other, but the other ones provided adequate space. um not perfectly ideal unlike like and neither was Mary B. Erskin but the space is en is enormous and in turn uh with my research and what I've done it came out that there's roughly a $5.3 million increase by using the Mary B Erskin building versus the alternative of that $5.3 million uh the Sigin School District is making a commitment to cover $842,000 of that over the next 10 years. That's in excess of what
007they would spend if it was just the $5 million. Okay, so over $800,000 a school district over the next 10 years is going to be giving to this entity for this building versus the alternative. That's a lot of money. And in fact, across the entire uh county, all the school districts will give about $250,000 per year, uh which comes out to $2.5 million. That's a lot of funds to take from our students and from our teachers. Okay. Um so I provided you with information about this. You go into further detail. Uh there's a QR code here which links to the public media uh that I've been posting and creating on this issue which goes into various details of this uh proposal and I guess in the end um what I hope to do is persuade
008you uh to uh reconsider. All right. Uh in May when they gave their proposal uh they came to this very building. I happened to be here. This that's kind of the night I learned about it myself. After the presentation I had some reservations but overall I felt like a good thing rehabbing an old building here in Sigin that we all love. I love the Mary Beers building. It's a block from my house. We've we've done family activities there. That's where I threw baseball for my sons. I love that building. All right. But this is the wrong use for it and it's a waste of funds. We're taking it from the children. We got to give it back to the kids and use it in some other way. All right. So, what I'm asking is after
009I watched that a couple times, I was kind of shocked. Of course, the board had a lot going on that time. Um, but I was kind of shocked at how this just got rubber stamped. It was an 8 to1 vote that night. All right. There was one person that dissented. Um, and so what I'm asking is for those of you who did not descent that night to reconsider and contact those people who still have voting power to switch this. All right? There there's a meeting on October 8th that can put a halt to this and we can go a different direction or at least pause and reconsider. And I'm going to ask you to consider contacting those people on behalf of our students and tell them to change their vote. All right. Um the the
010people locally that you all probably know are Josh Brightite, Jim Livvens, uh and also Pete Silvas. All people who are local members of our group, and we I'm hoping that you will reach out to them and share your opinion about how you want them to affect uh the vote. All right. Um I'll send you all a text with that information in case you need it. All right? Um or I should say an email, I should say. Um I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight and uh your your listening ear and hope you'll take the chance to read through some of the information I have or visit the local community page I've created. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um moving on. Um we're going to go back up to section one um to superintendent announcements.
011One seat. All right. Board. Uh well, first off, uh thank you for being here tonight. I know that you get paid so much to be on this board of trustees that uh we're so thankful that you're here, though. um mostly because we get an opportunity to highlight some of the amazing things that happen across the district. Um and we're going to get to see some of that in our recognitions here shortly. Some of our students and staff uh that just go above and beyond. For announcements though, uh we have a handful of things that I I just want to make sure that get out there for parents. Um progress reports do go out tomorrow. Uh we're quickly approaching the end of the first nine weeks. We're about three weeks away, two and a half weeks
012away from there. And so those progress reports go out tomorrow. Um if you did not realize, it is homecoming week. Uh we have a homecoming pep rally for our community scheduled to start tomorrow 7 p.m. at Matador Stadium. Uh we hope you are there in your black and gold. Please do not wear uh any color other than black and gold because we're all about Matador Nation. You can wear any color you want. Just for the record, you can wear any color you want. Um just make sure that that you're there to support our kids. Um we hope to see everyone Friday night here against Bernie Champion for that game. Um, if you are a student, uh, you need to bring your IDs and all students in pre-K through 8th grade must be accompanied by and
013seated with an adult at all times. Um, our schools do have a lot of o important events coming up, including open houses, parent teacher conferences, school carnivals that are all getting ready to hit. Uh, I want to thank our families for supporting our staff and our campuses by being a part of those. Um, a quick announcement for staff. Uh, probably one of the most exciting things that you do each year is your compliance training. Uh, that is due Friday. Don't forget to do it. Um, if you're a staff member like the superintendent, uh, you still have some to do and I hope you get that done by Friday. For our community, I just want to highlight a couple of things that we had happen over the past several weeks. First, uh, I was honored to,
014uh, take part in a September 11th uh, remembrance ceremony hosted by our Naval Junior ROC at Matador Stadium. Uh, I want to thank those students for their hard work, our band students who performed, uh, the staff who who made sure that that was an exceptional event. Uh, and for our community that was able to join us there. We also had 79 units collected during the HOSA blood drive on September 11th. Uh, when we put that in perspective, that's enough to save roughly 237 lives. Um, all thanks to our community, to our students, to our staff for the work that they do. And so, we want to thank anyone who did donate. I want to say thank you to the uh, Sigin Education Foundation. And I know we have a few representatives in the room today.
015Uh and to the Roland and Jane Bloomberg family uh STEM grant for bringing Dinosaur George to Sigin ISD and thanks to our community for coming. If you were able to be here last week when that event was going on, you know how important it was for our students uh to have an opportunity to take part in something. Uh this building was alive. It was exciting. Uh I made the comment to several people, we need to do things that get students in this building every week uh because that reminds us of what we do um academically. And a few things that were going on. Our high school students were able to enjoy the STEM breakout box by learning undefeated again this year. I was able to go over there and witness our students doing some of
016that work. Uh they were able to do hands-on experience designing and running an eyeglasses eyeglass production line. Uh and so we want to thank Learning Undefeated and Caterpillar for providing that opportunity for our students. Uh I also had the chance to witness a chemistry in action outside of the high school last week. Uh Mr. Stevens and his students completed an alkaline metal demonstration. Uh, I know our communications department put several pictures online to be able to see and so I'm thankful for that uh for those hands-on learning opportunities for our students. Athletics, we have tons going on. Our volleyball team right now is 7 and0 in district play. Um, it's great accomplishment. They're playing again tonight uh and then again Friday against Sam Houston. Our boys and girls cross country teams are expected to advance
017to regionals this year. I want to congratulate Adrien Rangel and Noah King who have placed in the top 10 of every meet so far. Uh you can cheer them on and cheer on our teams uh at the Sigin Matador Cross Country Invitational this Saturday at Starky Park. Um I've said this before uh I'm not sure I trust people who run for fun. If you see me running, you should also be running. Um but we have several students who enjoy running in cross country and so I'm thankful for that. Tennis is three in one and will host uh Laneir tomorrow. Uh football's fresh off off its first district win against Victoria East and will take on Bernie Champion this Friday at Matador Stadium. And then you can cheer on the AJB Toros or the Bonds Tours.
018Uh football plays on Tuesdays, volleyball plays on Thursdays, and our cross country teams are also competing in Saturday's meet at Starky Park. And so just want to say good luck to everyone. And then finally for fine arts, um congratulations to our Sigin High School band and band boosters for hosting the Sigin marching festival over the weekend. Uh I was there all day. It was an outstanding event. A lot of credit to our our band boosters for their work to make that uh such a success. And then our band uh choir and mariachi students started the week uh parted started the first round of auditions for all state jazz band choir and mariachi over the weekend. So best of luck to them. And then thank you to our folklorico group and mariachi matador for sharing their
019talents at several of our schools last week in honor of Mexican independence day. So board, lots of great things happening across the district and we want to make sure that we highlight those things and so just a very exciting time for Sigin ISD. Thank you Dr. Lee. Um now we'll do uh board member reports just to mix it up. I'm going to start with William. Good evening everyone. Uh it's been a busy month as usual. Got to do meet the mats. Been to several football games at Breezymeister the Matador football game. Last weekend we attended a schoolboard conference in Houston uh which took up five days of lots of learning uh which was very interesting for me on my first go. Uh got to learn a lot about what goes on here and in the
020school districts. Uh of course I got to attend Dino George as well. This room was a mad house. Uh and it was pretty awesome. I will say that just like Dr. Lee said. Uh and then finally still going to construction meetings. I spent my day today or part of my day at the uh a facility. The buildings are already up. The electrical and uh mechanical is all going on. It's rocking and rolling out there. They're making great strides on that project. I think the transportation project is almost finished and uh so we're moving in the right direction on those construction projects. Um I I do have a lot on my list. I'm going to read it and then highlight one thing. Um, I MCE the Sagine Sports Boosters meet the Mets and I absolutely love
021that and I think I get to do that gig all year. So, I'm excited about that. Also attended a high school pep rally. Um, a couple of football games including the away game in Victoria last week. That was an exciting comeback after a little slump in the first quarter. So proud of those guys for grinding it out and getting that win in their first district game. Uh we did a team of eight board training on board operating procedures. We also went to the TASA TASBY conference in Houston. Um I also attended Dinosaur George. And this is where I will stop and tell you that had an opportunity to meet Dinosaur George and when he found out I was a board member, he couldn't stop gushing about our students. He does this at very many districts
022and other places for young people. and he said that our students were so well behaved, congenial. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Um it was just such an honor for him to gush about our students. So, uh congratulations to those teachers and administrators out there who are really working with them especially through great expectations. Thank you. I have done quite a few things as well. Um, I started my reading over at McQueeny. Um, the librarian sets up times once to twice a week or it just depends on my schedule and I go over there and spend some time reading books to the students and that gives me the time to be a teacher again and I love that. Uh, I did we did do the team of eight together which was um doing talking about board policy
023and so forth and I'm on the construction committee as well. Um the McQueeny construction has just boomed and it is blooming out there. If you ever get to go down 725 towards New Bronals, you will definitely notice the building and it's going to be a flagship. I tell you, it's good. Um and then I also got really dusty at the a barn today. White dust everywhere. Um I got to work with the special um services, special student services in the food distribution the day that they had it here and that was a lot of fun. I did get my hands good and dirty with potatoes because I was in helping with the take making big bags of potatoes go into little bags and so it it was a lot of fun to see all the
024students working together uh the construction crew um CTE group as well as the special students that were there. So that was lots of fun. And I went to the 911 remembrance and then did the um breakout box, the engineering breakout box and the chemistry in action as well. So those were all excellent things. Oh, September 3rd, I attended the Barnes open house and also the Jefferson new furniture introdu introduction. Uh the teachers were having a blast out there with their new furniture. September 11th, I also attended the remembrance ceremony by the ROTC. Once again, they did a great job. Followed right after that, I went to the CTE sections and got a tour with SEO and then it also included the breakbox at the high school parking lot. So, that's a great collaboration with the
025staff from learning undefeated as they did a simulation on manufacturing process. Also went to the text ed 25 in from September 11th through the 14th in Houston. attended several sessions. Some of them that stuck out to me was one from China Spring ISD which they actually have a they call it a champions ambassadors where they have people from the community learn more about the school districts. They do like a Texas public school funding seminar or a class uh local school tax rates how it's determined uh vader elections and the budget the school budget. So basically they give them the basic information on how the school operates and then they in turn are advocates for the district. That's all I have. Lots of awesome things happening in our district. Uh like several other people mentioned, uh
026the highlight for me was Dinosaur George. Um I love the fact that the students were able to come in um during the week and then it was open to the community um for three nights. Every night where I drove by, the parking lot had was full of people. Um, and uh, it was fun to bring my family um, at the end of the day and and go through and and and see all the dinosaur things and I am a proud owner now thanks to the gift shop there of a megalodon tooth. So, it was a good day. Uh, yeah, lots of good stuff that happened in this month, you know, um, second month of the school year, so it's been busy. Uh, echoing what Linda said, I came in during the day with um to
027see the Dinosaur George thing and see the kids running around, but then we came back for the gift shop that night and ran and talked to Dinosaur George and and also when he found out I was a school member, he just glowed about our students and how they didn't have any and it was the third day. They hadn't had any problems with anybody crossing the the ropes. There was no incidents with anybody touching any of the exhibits. and he was just very very impressed by the way our uh elementary uh students behaved and like a lot of our ent every single elementary school K through two and then several schools all the way up to fifth grade all came through here. So it was busy busy here that entire three-day period. So it was awesome.
028Um shout out to volleyball tonight. Let's go get let's go get that eighth win. Also text Eggcon. Um, probably the the session that I found most interesting was there was a couple um, chief of staffs from Texas representatives, Texas state representatives, and they kind of gave an inside look about what the representatives do, especially when it comes to policies and and writing legislation and how that goes down. And so it gave a lot of good information for schoolboard members and how to interact with the legislature to or representative to get their attention especially if we don't like something that they're possibly talking about at the legislative uh level. And then um the the Matador Marching Fest, I did make it there for the exhibition performance and it was fantastic. Uh really like the Nevermore theme.
029was really, really pretty neat and I look forward to seeing that whole show when that comes together. All right, I'm the last one. In no particular order, I got to go to meet the Mets, uh, the marching contest, which was fabulous. Uh, Dinosaur George, I have loved Dinosaur George for many years, and I keep trying to get elementary schools to to bring him here. So, I'm so excited that the education foundation um did that, and um, that was awesome. We are also tooth owners as well as some woolly mammoth hair. So, um, always fun. Um, pep rally, football games, including middle school. And going along the lines of what they said, um, our students are super polite at the middle school games. They say please when they're asking for their hot Cheetos and cheese or
030whatever they're asking for, and I'm I'm pretty proud. Um, it's uh, it's pretty cool thing to see. Uh, and then Tassa Tasby. My intention is to write up a little thing about all the things I went to a test asby and in my spare time I will make sure that I I get to that but um it's been a wonderful time to see all the things that are happening at the beginning of the year. So um our teachers, staff, parents and students have a lot to be proud of. All right. Um moving on, speaking of being proud, um we have recognitions. Um uh first is the student uh recognition. Um Dr. Lee and Emily. Uh good evening, President Cretendon, Dr. Lee, trustees. I'm very excited to introduce four students this month. So see if I
031can get the mic to work for this week. All right. Uh the separate September se superintendent students of the month if I can talk are from Rodriguez Elementary, Potlon Elementary, Jim Barnes Middle School, and Sigin High School. Our first elementary student of the month is fourth grader Arcadia Kasus from Rodriguez Elementary. Her teacher described Arcadia as a star student who always follows the rules, meets expectations, and volunteers to help. She is also known as a kind friend and a responsible student. Her parents are Maria Isabelle and Noi Casus. Congratulations, Arcadia. [Applause] Do you want to take a picture with her? It's your paparazzi moment. Yes. What you want that here? I'll give you this and the mom. you. There you are. [Applause] All right, our next student of the month is fifth grader Calvin Baker
032representing Potlon Elementary. Calvin's principal, Miss Rangel, acknowledged his integrity, kindness, and respectfulness. This A honor role student also participates in student council, STEM club, and Guadalupe County 4, and I'm told is the 2024 state champion in his division for the archery shooter division. Is that right? Yeah, we'll roll with it. We'll go with it. Okay. His parents are Bradley and Lorie Baker. Congratulations, Calvin. [Applause] Who would like to hold these lovely? I knew we'd get there. I know. Thank you. Okay. Hope I don't knock that over. Thank you, sir. All right. Barnes Middle School is proud of its student of the month, seventh grader Rebecca Crane. This young lady is committed to academic excellence. And not only is she a member of the all A honor role, she is also the top reader in the
033Barnes Library, which is totally something I would aspire to. So, I love that. Rebecca also participates in athletics and theater arts. Her parents are Amy and Christopher Crane. Congratulations, Rebecca. [Applause] Watch out for a second, sir. Our final student of the month is Sigin High School senior, excuse me, Senobia Wheeler. As a member of the early college high school program, she is known for demonstrating consistent growth and leadership. Soia participates in athletics and other extracurricular activities while still maintaining a commitment to community service and a part-time job. Her mother is Willhamina Living. Congratulations, Cynobia. [Applause] We want everybody. You want to come take a picture? That is something I would do as well, ma'am. It's all right. Or we can have if we could have a couple of you come down here as well. That
034might help. There you go. Look at you. You're such a good helper. [Applause] Yeah, that's for you. I can hold on to that while you walk out. No worries. Very welcome. All right, let's have one more round of applause. Okay, and now I'm going to turn this over to Dr. Lee for the Superintendent Apple Award. All right, friends. People say if you want something done, ask the busiest person you know. This is certainly true of this month's Superintendent Apple award recipient. His impact on Sagin ISD is undeniable. As one colleague shared, he shows us the importance of giving back to his school and community and reminds us that we are better when we share our time with others. The matador, this matador generously gives his time to capture the excitement, spirit, and memories of our
035school and district events, reminding us what Matador Nation looks like in action. As a dedicated member of the Sigin High School staff in the career technology education department, he helps students earn Adobe certifications and grow skills in graphic design, photography. Did he finally realize? That's always my favorite. Photography and video production production through Mattcast. He co-advises our business professionals of America chapter and beyond the classroom teaches the value of connection, inclusion, and respect through the meet in the middle program. That is Matador Nation at its best. We believe exceptional students become exceptional citizen and his work cultivates, inspires, and empowers our learners every day. I'm proud to recognize an educator who has devoted nearly 20 years to serving students with more than 5 years here at Sigin. He is a te he is a Texas
036A&M Kingsville graduate, a husband and father, and a US Marine veteran who served our country for eight years. His life of service reflects the heart of Matador Nation. Please join me in celebrating our September's Superintendent Apple Award recipient, Mr. Timothy Cantou. [Applause] You know those people [Applause] [Music] All right. Um, next will be item 3B, our campus highlights, um, which is from Potlon, and they'll be introduced by Mr. Dwire. President Clinton, Dr. Lee, and my fellow trustees. It is my honor to introduce our campus highlight presentation from Potlon Elementary. More than 460 students in kindergarten through the fifth grade attend school in my home district of district number one at Potlon. Potlan principal Anaisa Rangel is here to share her school's targeted improvement plan which focuses on four key areas that her staff believes will
037support student growth. Miss Rangel, the floor is yours. Okay, can you hear it now? You can all hear me. Okay, so the year prior we were that A and we made a a slight decline. So when we're looking at our data, we are looking at it very intentionally because we're striving for that A again. So, we're going to grow from that B to that A. So, like uh Mr. Dwer said, we are working on four areas to get to our goal and they uh consist of intervention, writing, science, and great expectations. So, I will talk about each one of those areas a little bit deeply or deeper so that we can um move from that B to the A. The first one is intervention. every student, every need, every day. Um, when we looked at
038our data, we are growing our students that are struggling and that my campus is really good at doing that. When I looked at our overall data, we were missing the mark on the students that were already mastering and meeting. So, we need to look at that more intentional and see what can we do for those students as well. And then also balance it because we still have students that are struggling. So really looking at that and looking at our intervention schedule and making some adjustments so that every student is seen by a teacher even if they're already on target or already mastering uh teacher led groups at every table handson meaningful centers that whatever they're doing in the centers is going to lead to growth and then accountability for every learner. We have to look
039at every student on our campus. So, those are some pictures of intervention taking place already with our campus. And then that was some kindergarten stations and they're messing uh with shapes. The next one is I've presented to the board before is writing. Uh we've been working on writing for the past three years and we've seen growth in writing. We're still not there, but we're going to keep going. Our plan is continuing from the year past. We're writing daily. We have journals for every student from kinder through fifth grade. And then we want it to be a safe environment for writing. Students enjoy writing now and writing's all over our hallways and you can see it and it's ingraed integrated in all our subjects. We're utilizing race and ACE for those ECRS and SCRs. Something that
040we do every month for the past three years is one of our PLC's we bring in writing our grade levels analyze it and then we make plans on how we can help each other. if one teacher stronger, how like share the wealth and then we assist each other through that PLC process. Um, one thing that we've been able to attend is Gretchen Barnaby. We continue to use her strategies and they work well for us. We have portfolios. We just got those distributed as we had to take their writing and we gave them all to the grade level. So, they looked at their writing from last year to kind of see where they left off. and we're planning to give them to them at fifth grade so they can see kinder through fifth grade all their
041writing uh the entire year. Um I already said it's displayed prominently and um one thing that we want to add is to have some writing contests. So I might be calling you all to be some judges. Um that's writing at our campus that let's see this the one at the bottom is fifth grade and that's already the first month of school. Um, and they're utilizing some Gretchen Barnaby strategies. We have third grade writing at the top using race. And the one over here is first grade and it's in Spanish because our dual language students write in English and in Spanish. And then we have a student going through the writing process. Science, I'm going to be very um transparent. Our fifth grade scores for math and reading are sitting around in the 80s, but our
042fifth grade scores in science are about 20 points lower. So, we're looking at a systematic kind of problem. So, I'm going to see how we can address that as a campus. It is kind of a state issue as well. So, we just kind of added last year science was not all by itself in there. It was embedded. So, we have that in the master schedule. So, that is a change. We're focusing on vocabulary. That fifth grade test is no joke. That vocabulary is difficult. So really uh honing down on that vocabulary, increased opportunities for those hands-on investigations. They have to be able to see it and actually get in there and use their hands to get that concept cemented in their brain. We're also using writing in science. In fifth grade, they also have to
043write on that science test. So, that's what we're doing for science. Those are some pictures. Um, a second grade student doing a lab and he's writing that out. Our fifth graders in the middle. We're doing a property of matter lab. And then our new science teacher was doing a hands-on demonstration. And I'm glad to say every time I come on, he's doing either a lab or some kind of hands-on. Our last thing that ties everything together is great expectations. I'm very excited that we got to pilot that last year. Uh McQueeny and us. Um it was it went handinhand with our campus because their core beliefs go along with potlon and my core beliefs all children can learn. Uh building their self-esteem that mutual respect is key and then holding high expectations. So great expectations
044has a lot of different pieces to it. So I kind of broke it down. Um there's 17 practices that go along with curriculum and character education. In September, we're uh working on building that positive environment and those strong relationships. Um I think Arita Pearson students don't work for people that they don't like. So building that relationship and getting to know our kiddos. They're just not a test score. they are students getting to learn from them and then um holding that I high expectations and making sure our teachers are in the power zone teaching on their feet uh that's when you're going to notice stuff happening and monitoring adjusting in the moment our campus practices if you come visit you knock on our door you should be greeted by a student they should say hello and
045come up with you great expectations is trying to make students good citizens being able to talk in front of people. So, our students lead our assembly every morning. Our student council started it. We're now on fourth grade and it will go all the way down to kinder uh doing our call to excellence. We encourage them to speak in complete sentences and address each other by name. Another practice that is used is each week we have a life principle that we talk about in our assemblies. This week is courtesy. And I just put some examples at the bottom of all the words. And there's a word of the week for each of the entire school year. So it's just to motivate, inspire, and challenge every learner to achieve excellence in learning and living. We want to
046make sure that they're excellent after they leave and graduate as well. Um so that's great expectations and that goes along with our other uh academic portion. So those are some examples. Um those life principles we give students u teachers nominate them. They received their awards on Friday. That's fifth grade leading the call to excellence doing the pledges. Student council has a big part to play in our great expectations. Um they let led it and they do a lot of things throughout that and call to excellence and that was our first student council meeting. And then our door if you greet that's just an example of a sign. U so if you knock you should be greeted. So our goal is going from a B to a A. So together we dream big, believe we can
047achieve and shine bright as pot matadors. Thank you all. Do you all have any questions? Okay, thank you. I know it's not easy to do the first one of these of the school year, so we we we give you some extra appreciation. Thank you so much. We are moving on to item 4A, introduction of newly appointed administrators from Mr. Newman. Good evening, board. We just have one uh new hire to introduce and that's our new construction manager, Mr. Troy Spear. We promise not to grill you too much. Oh, that's okay. I'll get used to it. It's finally nice to meet you. I've met Grace. I've met William on a couple of jobs. Uh Dr. Lee, see I got your name right this time. First week I called him Dr. Bell twice. Not to him, but
048other people. And they looked at me like I was crazy. So, uh it's just good to be here and good to meet all of y'all. Finally. Actually enjoy this school district. I've been here 12 days and I have seen every employee that I've come in contact with who smiles and seems like they enjoy their job. Uh, and just everything y'all are doing on construction in it looks great and the money you're putting towards these kids I think is wonderful. So, I'm going to be a great part of that hope. Thank you. Do you have any questions? Yes. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chair. [Applause] All right. Um, item 4B, personnel information, professional employees. Okay. We just have a list of new hires and resignations for the board to acknowledge. Any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
049All right. Item 4 Cine Education Foundation's annual report, Jill Nash. Good evening, President Kittton, Dr. Lee, and board of trustees. Thank you so much for once again having me here today to share in our wonderful year in review. My name is Jill Nash. I'm the executive director of the Sigin Education Foundation. I am also the director of community outreach for Sigin ISD and the district mentor coordinator. So today I want to start off with reminding you of what we're here and why we're here. Sigin Education Foundation exists to enrich um learning and inspire inspire teaching and enrich learning. Okay. And so many of the ways that we do that we're going to share from this past year. So the goals that we want to talk about is where we're going to encourage all students to
050achieve academic excellence, support staff for innovative and exemplary teaching, build community awareness for the SCF and sigin ISD, and inspire parents, community, and the alumni to participate with the school district. One of the big ways we do that is by celebrating our teacher grants with our prize patrol. And this past November, we were able to award $15,000 to teachers and staff across Sigin ISD. [Applause] We are thankful for the community support to help us raise those funds. How we do that is through our Marty Gro. Marty Gro this year has once again broken records. Every year we have been able to raise the funds that and raise and break those records. This year we're at $160,811. That is massive for Sig Education Foundation. But stay tuned. Our event is coming up and this time next
051year, wait till I'm standing in front of you with the goal of $200,000. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Now, within our Marty Grow event, we have a paddle race. Each year, Sigin ISD helps us identify a group that doesn't have the funding that they need in order to be as successful. And so, this year, the group identified was our district counselors. And so during our paddle raise, we were able to raise $11,000 to divvy out between all of the campuses to help give them supplement needs to be able to do their jobs as well as they would like. Now, this year for our prize patrol, which is going to take place in the first week of November, they don't know when, but it's the first week of November, we're giving away $100,000. Yes, that is all.
052All thanks to our community partnerships with our businesses and sponsors to help make that happen. At the end of the year, we're able to celebrate the top 10% of the graduating class by giving them a small scholarship. But what's more is we're able to then celebrate their mentor teacher, their teacher hero that helped them get to where their where where they're at in the top 10%. Whether it's their kindergarten teacher, whether it's the custodian that made friends with them in third grade, whether it's their senior year that just helped them push through, we're able to recognize those teacher heroes as well as the top 10%. This event is not really a um fundraiser for us. What we do is we just like to break even as far as our sponsors. But I'd like to share
053we actually raised $14,574 for that event. We also received a $10,000 grant, a STEM grant to be specific, from Centerpoint Energy. That was one of the ways we were able to meet that $100,000 mark. We also received a $2,000 um grant from Dick Sporting Goods that we were able to give to MBLC and the DEAP in order for them to expand their PE program. Exciting news for you guys is Sigin Education Foundation has our very first intern. She is here tonight and I'd like to introduce to you Mary Hansen. Mary Hansen has a wonderful passion for community service for the business practicum and we have partnered with Diana Weber through the CTE program in order to help us help her and sign off on her practicum. So, we're very excited to have her here. One
054of the great things is she has a legacy here. She is the granddaughter of the late Jack Lee and as you know he gave his heart and soul to Sigin ISD and the Sigin community. So the full circle of having her as the very first intern is just magical. So we'd like to um welcome Mary to Siging Education Foundation. This is a list of our um executive board and directors. The education foundation is comprised of 35 board members. We are very fortunate that those board members we stay full. We generally have more application than seats available. So we love the fact that the sigin community wants to be a part of what great things we are doing. Um items coming up. We are currently in the employee giving campaign and that is where the employees
055can get back through a payroll deduction into Sigin Education Foundation. So we're running that campaign now. We will be doing our welcome wagon in October and what that is is Sigin Education Foundation gives $50 to every single brand new teacher to the district to help them get started to spend on whatever they like. And then our surprise patrol is in November. Marty Gro is set for February 12th, 2026 at the Coliseum. And then our celebration of excellence is set for May 12th, 2026. Any questions? I have a I just have two questions. um when the employee giving campaign, can you kind of talk about the rationale of having employees contribute and then give grants back to employ back to the teachers? Sure. Kind of explain that in more depth. Sure. The employee giving campaign gives
056the opportunities for employees to give back to the education foundation um in ways that I don't know. You might be able to better answer that for me, Dr. Lee. I got you. Okay. So, it's really uh Mr. Burns, what it's really is is it's an opportunity um for employees who want to support things that are happening in classrooms. And so, all of that money that is given to the education foundation is 100% turned around back to the district. Um so, anything I I don't know what they have I'll be honest, I don't know the numbers um just because I wasn't here last year to know what the employee giving ended up with or not. Um but it's just an opportunity for employees. Almost every district that has an education foundation has a employee giving program
057as part of it. Um often the employees will get shirts or sweatshirts or something in return for a $5 a month donation or something like that. Yeah, we do have the range um anywhere from $1 to the maximum amount that they would like to give. Um we have seen Education Foundation shirts that we do give if they select that they want to participate for maybe $10 a month. We give them a shirt, $25 a month, they get a shirt and um free tickets to Marty Gro and so forth. And I believe um as of the October or se August distribution, it was about $996 that Sigin ISD gives back to the foundation. I'd also like to add that this is something that we've been doing almost since its inception that we've had this program going
058with the employee get back and we're so grateful for their and it gives them an opportunity to be involved at not a large expense you know it can be as little as a dollar so we're very grateful for that as well. Does that answer your question? Great. Anybody else have any questions? Thank you. All right. Um, now item 3D, 2025 STAR assessment and accountability update. Um, Miss Lions and Miss Miranda. Bringing Christie up for me today. Good evening, board president. Dr. Lee and board of trustees. We're going to go over Sagin ISD accountability. We're going to compare 2024 and 2025. Just to kind of go through how our accountability works, it is three parts. It's our student achievement, school progress, and closing our gaps. our student achievement and school progress is better of the two
059whichever is higher and that's 70% and then our closing the gaps is always going to be 30% of our overall grade and we'll dig into that a little more as we get through each domain um and break down our own data. So this slide kind of shows our overall campus rating results compared for 24 and 25 across Texas. You'll kind of see here that 31 campuses increased in ratings from the prior year. 86% of campuses stayed the same score or improved for the prior year. This is across all of Texas. So these are all schools in Texas. 86% of campuses stayed the same or they improved from the prior year. Looking at our campuses in comparison from 2024 to 2025, we had 58% campuses increase in ratings from the prior year. And we had 75%
060of campuses that stayed the same or improved from the prior year. If you look at the breakdown across 2024 to 2025, we had two A-rated campuses in 24, one in 25, one B-rated campus, five B-rated campuses currently. 2024 we had one C-rated campus, we have three currently 2025. Last year we had seven D-rated campuses. This year we have two D-rated campuses. Last year we had two F rated campuses. This year we have one rated campus. So you can kind of look through that a little bit. So we did have some improvements. We had 16% of our campuses stay the same. Se 58% increased and three decreased. 25% sorry. Our overall rating ends in a 66 scaled score for 2025. The letter grade is a D. Last year we landed at a 67 letter grade a
061D. And here are overall ratings across Texas. We had 24% of district that increased from the prior year and 88% of districts that stayed the same or improved from the prior year. And that's across all schools in Texas. Miss Miranda is going to dig into domain one, student achievement. Good evening. So, domain one um really tells us a lot about how students um what they know and what they can do. So, um STAR performance is what's measured for our middle schools and our elementaryaries. And then our high school includes CCMR and graduation rates. So the district rating is a based on a proportionality. Each campus is assigned a domain one score. Um as you can see here um and the number of students enrolled in grade 3 through 12 at that campus is how a
062their proportion or their weight is generated. So, for example, if you look at our largest campus, Sigin High School, it has um 200 or excuse me, 2017 students in grade 3 through 12. They um scored a 70 for domain one and their contri um contribution towards the district's domain one was um approximately 27 points. Our smallest campus which is um MBLC with 73 students they scored a 92 however proportionally they only contributed about 1.2 two points to the overall district. Right? Any questions about how the proportionality is calculated? Okay. So, when you look at our um comparison from 24 to 25 um the district for domain one, the points totaled 67 and 24 and 68 and 25. And you can see how the districts did across the state for domain one with 91% of the
063districts in the state staying the same or improving from the prior year. Our domain 2 school progress is two parts. It's academic growth. This is the growth from year to year. How students grow from year to year. And we also have relative performance. how our students perform compared to other schools that are similar to our demographics. So if we look across Texas between last year and this year, we have 23% of districts that increased rating from the prior year and 86% of districts that stayed the same with the same score or improved from the prior year. Now remember that the best out of between academic performance and relative performance is what's scored. It's the higher of the two. So in our academic growth in 2025 we had a 66. In 2024 we had a 62.
064So we did have some growth. In our relative performance 2025 we had a 68 dropped by one point. Uh from 2024 at 69. Higher of the two is a 68. So, state scores us at a 68. This is it how it breaks down between the two. You kind of see from school to school between A and B how they calculated their 66 and how they calculated the 68. We did have a lot of growth um in our so like all the blue that's growth. So, those are schools that had a a great amount of student growth. I'll let you kind of look through those scores and how they compared out. Again, remember that 2B is um how we performed against schools like ours, demographics like ours. And so just so people understand um when you're
065looking at those schools, so like they'll take a a school like Rodriguez with those demographics and they they find other schools. So it's not like they take all the Sigin schools as a chunk. It's it's correct. It's different schools um because our even our schools have different demographics from each other. Correct. Yes. the more people can understand about the star and closing the gaps. Domain three like Miss Lane said the domain one and two the greater of the the greater score is used for 70% of our overall rating. However, uh domain three kind of stands on its own and 30% of this domain is used for our overall rating. Um, domain three, closing the gaps. It's really just measuring um, are all students in all groups performing, meeting or exceeding their targets that the state
066has set. Um, we want to make sure that there's um, equity in in our educational experiences. So, let's look at that. Closing the gaps. So again um the proportionality you can see that each school is um given a domain three rating based on um all students and their um lowest two socioeconomics and their high focus groups. High focus is um includes any students that's identified as um needing special ed services, economically disadvantaged um maybe an emergency bilingual um migrant, homeless, and foster. Um and across those subgroups, um again, performance growth is then looked at again through those those lenses. And so you can see how each campus scored for domain 3. And again the proportionality with our highest campus with 2017 students scoring at the 49 they contributed the um approximately 19 points for the
067district overall average. And again, Mercer Bloomberg, NBLC being our smallest campus, they scored an 85 for domain 3 and they contributed um approximately one point towards the district overall. So you can see how the proportionality impacts um the overall campus rating. Uh this is our overall campus rating. I'll give you a minute to kind of look through there. We put our 2024 uh by campus their rating and 2025 by campus their rating. So we did have some growth uh between campuses. Um I'm going to highlight Jefferson who went who last year in 2024 uh was rated as an F and this year rated to a B. We had several campuses that grew exponentially and so they actually did a really great job. Some things that we have done to close our gaps and grow our
068domain one, two, and three focusing on tier one instruction uh through our HQIM across the district K12. Uh we're making sure that we we have our weekly triad meetings. uh curriculum instruction team goes out, making sure that um we are tracking our student, tracking their progress, ensuring that um they're able to see where their students are, where their students were in 2024, and how with each benchmark they grow. Um so we're driving that instruction through that DDI model. We're making sure all campuses have their target improvement plans focusing on effective school framework. Um, every campus has a target improvement plan. They have their four priorities that they focus on and ensuring that they're seeing those milestones through and moving through each cycle as they go grow through the year. We have our curriculum professional learning.
069We have uh started off super strong in August with a lot of PD. We had Matador U which was our Matador University uh and teachers went through several different trainings uh and that continues to this day. We have our blue bonnet IM implementation. We have our PLC implementation. So we have coaching happening throughout the year. We have um Sydney that helps our co uh principles and instructional coaches coach um their teachers and then again we have our blue bonnet coaches that come from TIA that work with our campuses. We monitor the implementation of the target improvement plans uh campus walkthroughs and their PLC tools. So some of the things that we put in place to help progress. I do have some campus rec recognitions. Some campuses that did fantastic with some designations. We had potlan
070uh who had a designation in academic achievement in reading and language arts, academic achievement in mathematics. And uh you heard Miss Rangel, they were high in reading and math. Um and next year they will add science. Then we had our top 25% comparative academic growth. That was their growth from last year to this year. And then their post-secary readiness. We had McQueeny who had a distinction with a top 25% comparative academic growth. That's they're closing their gaps. And Jefferson with a distinction with top 25 comparative academic growth. And Kiniki again with their top 25% comparative growth. All of these campuses focusing on their subgroups, making sure that they're closing gaps with all our subops. Any questions? I just had a quick question. Um, so I know there's a lot of variables as far as what
071determines the final grades. Is there something that sticks out that we did different in 2024 versus 2025 or we just pretty much polished the current programs that we have? Uh well difference I think is we have some implementation in our curriculum and instruction HQIM. So we are focusing and making sure that our teachers um are coming in for planning, coming in to unpack a teique, planning backwards, focusing on that tier one instruction and focusing on all components of their HQIM. HQIM um is kind of just an outline. It does take teacher creativity to roll that out. And so as they get familiar with the curriculum, then they're able to kind of add themselves into that curriculum. But we are just tightening up some systems that was needed. Making sure that we're driving instruction through a
072data lens and making sure that we're focusing on that tier one instruction. You'll hear a lot of intervention, but intervention actually comes second because if you're focusing on that tier one instruction, that first time teaching, right, you want to then look at the data outside of that. Did 80% of my students get what I just delivered? And so then how do I focus on the 20% that didn't? And so that's where my scaffolding and my differentiation comes in. And so we're just kind of tightening up some systems. Principles are tightening up their systems on campuses. Um just to kind of compare um hopefully our big buckets is secondary. So we're really focusing on our secondary campuses. Those are the big buckets. They are our accountability. um our elementary can grow and we need them because
073they can give us that little push but um we really are focusing on secondary this year. Thank you. I think um just to add to that I think a little bit of what we saw from 24 to 25. So if we look at at campuses that um we saw some fairly significant improvement that happens Jefferson Kenny uh are good examples. You got to keep in mind ball is not part of accountability. they're tied directly to whatever Kincki scores are and that's what they're going to be. Um in Jefferson and Kini, a great place that we as a district last year saw um significant improvement was in that school progress domain uh where we're compared to uh how much growth we had in general and I was going to say if we can click back to
074it that school progress domain domain two um specifically looks of the best of within domain 2. So are we how are we doing just in growth in general from our students and how are we doing in growth when we compare ourselves to districts and campuses that are are in campus or district comparison groups that the state puts us to that look like us. Um a lot of the big gains that we saw on campuses were scored in that school progress domain because for an elementary campus especially almost well all of their accountability is tied solely to star performance and star performance alone. So they get the better of what's in domain B or domain two um A or B and then they even get the better of domain one or domain two. So did we
075perform well on on academic achievement just flat out how did we perform in star tests versus how did we perform in growth? Whichever one is the better there is what counts as 70% of our overall scores for those elementary campuses. So when we saw significant increases in a short period of time it almost always drilled down last year to that school progress domain. We saw lots of progress and growth happen. Um, that's why you hear Miss Lions talk a lot about tier one instruction being the focus uh for this year because that has to be the focus. We're not seeing the improvement in student achievement, just flatout star performance that we want to see. Our kids are performing better than they did the year prior, but that doesn't mean that they're still performing well and
076they're performing where we want them to be. And so expectations are put solely on tier one instruction. I was able to attend one of uh their department meetings today for curriculum instruction specifically. I just popped my head in and sat in there for I don't know maybe 30-ish minutes or so. Um and a lot of the conversations were focused on what can we take off of teachers to make their jobs easier so that they can focus on what really matters high leverage instructional strategies that are happening in the classroom. So, how can we take some of the administrative burden off lesson plans, test creation, stuff like that to allow them to focus on what they need to, which is instructing kids every single day? Um, because when we look at where we didn't perform so
077well, um, if we look at, um, Barnes or even the high school where we saw decreases there, um, sometimes it was not student achievement or student growth as much as it was closing the gaps where we've got to focus on individual student groupings within how they perform on STAR performance. I know it's a lot. It's easy for me to talk about it because I deal with this every single day. They deal with this every single day. You guys don't deal with it every single day. But um the short of it is we saw lots of gains because we saw school progress. We saw growth in our students. And that is the game. That's the name of the game right now is how can we make sure that students grow. Um I think what Mr. Rangel
078said uh for potlines specifically about every student every day like that is the the mindset that we have to have because it's no longer about how can I just get kids to pass the test. is how can I get kids to be better than they were the year before? Um, and so the focus does have to be on tier one instruction. Um, that's that's designed specifically for individual students to be able to see that that happening. So, I did not mean to take over. I'm so sorry. Um, yes. Um, you can, but it is a little harder in the secondary level because there's not as much to compare to. So, we really have to focus on our domain one when it comes to our high school kids. Like you have English one, English two. So
079that's something that you can compare. But algebra 1 is algebra 1. There's nothing compared to algebra 1 in high school. So they just have to meet grade level. When it comes to algebra 1, it will be interesting this year because of the way they've redeveloped accountability. Typically at the secondary level, the high school specifically, you would only see academic growth being calculated from English one to English two. Um, and that's it. So, English two is the name of the game when it comes for school progress and growth. The the difference this year is the state is saying they are going to calculate growth between 8th grade English and English one. Um, which I'm interested to see how that is going to go over across the state because they are two very very different curriculums and
080two very very different sets of teques and expectations that are being taught. So, I'm not sure how that's going to play out for anyone yet because we've never had that calculated before to even know how they're going to calculate that. Right. And then something Denise mentioned to me the other day was the difference between our algebra students. Our algebra one uh eighth graders can take algebra 1. And so they essentially pass their EOC and don't ever have to take it again. And those are eighth graders. So what you're calculating in algebra 1 at the high school level are students that had eighth grade math and then as a freshman have algebra 1. So it's a little different because your advanced students kind of take that at algebra one early. So the eighth graders that take
081the algebra one doesn't count for us at all. Yes, it does, but at the middle school level. Oh, okay. Yeah. Only only on the middle school campus that they are on. Um so traditionally what you see is um students who taking advanced math and are taking algebra 1 as an eighth grader. They're advanced students. Uh it's almost guaranteed that they are your higher performing students when it comes to math. That's why they're in that algebra 1 class. And so they traditionally perform high on algebra 1. Um, so then when the ninth grade students or eighth grade students become ninth graders, those that are taking algebra 1 are those that are in those regular classes. Um, there's not the guaranteed pass, the guarantee high performance, or otherwise they would have probably been in that advanced math
082class to begin with. Um, and you also have less students that are taking algebra 1 as ninth graders. So, one student counts for more in overall percentages of approach meets and masters versus when they're included in a full grade level. And then those advanced students will never, sorry, the advanced students will never take the seventh grade math star. They skip, right? They take the sixth, they take the eighth and seventh, and then they take the algebra 1 and eight. Right? So, some of our seventh graders take the eighth grade test because they're advanced seventh graders. Can we go back to the slide where it shows the schools, the the A's, the B's, the C's, the D's for the state? Yes. Yeah, I think that was wonderful. Yes, right there. Um, wherever kids are taking that
083algebra test, we're a D district. If you see that line, we are a D. I think I I really think that something drastic needs to happen here because we are way down on that line and I really feel like like we are we have a failing campus um that has a large potential of students. We have our our secondary campuses that that these this is our future. And I I'm I do not want to take away from the elementary school campuses that had huge improvements because I think that is fantastic. But we're a D district and I don't think it matters how those other districts are doing having the eighth graders taking the algebra test. Those things are all happening. it. Can we get a report back to the the board each month about what's
084going on at those DNF campuses? Because it just it makes me sick that we have this many kids that are on these campuses because we're f we're failing kids. I look at this, I'm like, if you in order to play UIL, in order to be participate in UIL, you have to be a C. And those kids who can't participate, we take them we take them off the game and say, you got to do all this extra work to get there. I don't know. It just it's their grades for you, right? But we as adults as adults were failing. I don't know. It's just it's it's really hard to see, especially that slide right there where it shows like how other districts are figuring this out. I don't know where we go from here, but that
085side is just very concerning to me. Yeah. I think I think it's also important that we acknowledge um I I've been very upfront as as a superintendent that's been here for what, two months roughly. Um I've been very upfront with the community on we've got work to do. Um I've been upfront with our team that we've got work to do. Um a big topic of today's conversation was we have work to do. Um that we have things that need to happen. I I think I even said something to the effect of I'm not I'm not interested in in titles at this moment. I'm interested in who has knowledge and who has skill set that can offer what needs to be offered um so that we can make those things happen. Um can we start doing
086some regular reporting? Absolutely. Let me get with you to figure out exactly what you want though. Um because we're not always going to have data from month to month um just depending on what it is. But we can we can absolutely make sure an update about what is different because the list of things um on that very the second to last slide it was the same list we had last year is that what what are the new things what are we changing particularly in those secondary campuses certainly and the the elementary school with the big drop what's changing there the strategies I think we had a great presentation from potlon today about what strategies they're doing something similar to that about here are some of the things that are happening um just So, I feel
087like the board has a level of accountability of of watching this before the next scores come out. Yeah. And some of it like we talked about um today is very much we have to tighten systems and processes across the district. Uh we have to get out of operating with with 12 individual campuses that are evaluated as 12 individual campuses and instead being one Sigin ISD uh that is focused on what needs to happen. And so we do have work to do. Um, we've got some important things, but I will I'll get with you to see exactly what it is that we're looking for, and I have no problem with that. And real quick, I I agree with Miss Burns on a lot of this, but I will also like to recognize that there was a
088secondary school that made a significant improvement from 2425, and that'd be Middle School. U, they did a really good job, and they're just barely shy of making that be, which would have been super cool. I know Miss Guzman's working real hard over there. So, I applaud her and her efforts, you know, and then almost having new admins on every single middle school this year. I really think that we're going to see some some improvements over there. Okay. On both of them. So, yeah, but it's good job reason. And just so you know, Lisa, what we were talking about with the algebra is not this report, but when you look at it from home, when you look at the stuff, seventh grade looks weird and ninth grade looks weird. It's like, why are they so much
089better at teaching algebra at the middle school than they are at the high school? Like, that always seemed really strange to me. And we had just talked about things that sometimes look like weird anomalies and trying to help people understand why they look the way they they look like it looks like that for all seventh graders and it looks like that for the very first presentation I got I was like why why are Barnes and Breezy so much better at teaching algebra. It's not. It's that the advanced kids take algebra in eighth grade. So we tried to look for some of those things that always look a little strange. not even in this report, but just um if you're looking at the whole report, which you can which you can access. So, if there's anything
090else that people have found over time that you had to ask for explanations of or anything like that, please let us know because it's always um something good to share with people. But that was that was one of mine from my my early days on the board. All right. Thank you. Um ladies, we're moving on to um e financial statements for August 2025. Miss Spanks, good evening, President Cretendon, board of trustees, and Dr. Lee. Uh I have the August financial statements here. Uh there there's not really anything big to report on these. Next month there will be a lot to report on these. So for now, you know, we're missing out on the compensation plan. It's being implemented right now. The new revenue the first six weeks was ju which just ended. So you'll see
091a lot more next month. So I don't really have anything to point out unless you have questions. Okay, seeing none, um we'll move on to new vendors. Okay. Again, this is just a report of vendors who have responded to RFPs uh to SIG ISD. It may be someone we've used before or um we will use in the future. Doesn't mean we will use them, but we can question. Okay. Thank you. And finally, purchases made over $50,000. Item G. This is just a listing of purchases that were made over $50,000. Um, we're required to report this as information to the board every month. So, these are the August purchases. I don't, again, I don't have anything to point out unless you have any questions. Yeah, some some of them are. Yes, ma'am. We have some technology
092purchases on here. Um, a bond purchase for some cameras, um, copier charges for Toshiba, but yeah, normal normal things that you all see. Any questions? Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. Moving on, we have one action item before close session that is 5A, appointment of directors to the ski education foundation. Jill Nash board, this is uh just an action item for you as a board to appoint up to two members. Is that correct, Miss Nash? up to two members from the board of trustees that would serve on the education foundation board of directors. You just come up. Sorry. Sorry. I was trying to help Miss Nash out while she was I don't think I had come up in the past for this section, but I'm That's okay. I don't think anyone will have any questions.
093Um we we only had um uh two u members who expressed interest in continuing on the board. So that's uh Miss Duncan and uh Miss Miller, unless an email went astray. So just making sure. Okay, I will accept a motion from somebody that's not move to accept nominations for um Miss Duncan and Miss Miller for the board of directors for skin education relation. All right, I have a motion from Mr. Brightite and a second from Mr. uh Dwire. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your right hands. Oppose. Same sign. Abstensions. There's two of those. Um motion passes. 52 five zero with two abstensions. So don't make me do math at 8 o'clock at night, guys. Okay. Uh thank you. Thank you. We look forward to working with you guys again. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay,
094we will now move into close session. Um, the board will adjourn into close session pursuant to the following sections of the Texas Open Meetings Act 6A pursuant to Texas Government Code sections 551.071 551.074 074551.129 consultation with legal counsel including possible telephone consultation with legal counsel as necessary to address legal concerns, implications and answer any legal questions regarding posted agenda items. Um including one safety audit findings um then 6B pursuant to Texas government code section 551.074 074 discuss personnel matters including appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of an employee. 6 C pursuant to the Texas government code section 551.072 discuss the sale, purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property. And 6D, pursuant to Texas government code sections 551.0821, 0821 deliberation regarding a public school students. So, I think we'll take a couple minutes
095recess before we um go into close session. It's 7:57 p.m. Okay. Uh, we're returning from close session. It's 8:59 p.m. Um, and we have, uh, no action. Moving on to eight, consent agenda items. 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 for team of eight training August 19th, 2025. Public meeting August 26, 2025. Regular meeting August 26, 2025. Or yes, and team of eight training September 9th, 2025. B, approval of tax collection reports for August 2025.
096C, approval of proposed budget amendments September 2025. D. Approval approval of donations received August 2025. E. Consideration of possible action to delegate authority to chief financial officer for easement purchase agreement with the city of Sigin. F. Authorization of agreements between Sigin ISD and Tan Graham Rehabilitation Network in the amount of $839,500. G. Submission of a class-size waiver exception waiver to the Texas Education Agency. H request for professional development waiver 2025 2026. I approval of blue gene consulting agree educational consulting agreement. J. Acknowledge public information act requests August to September of 2025. Are there any items that a board member wants to pull from the consent agenda? I would like to pull items F and G, please. Okay, pulling F and G. Anyone else? I would like to pull item H. Oh, no, sorry. Item I.
097Okay. So I have requests for F, G, and I. Any further? I will accept a motion on the other parts of the consent agenda. Madam President, I for approval of the consent agenda item excluding items E, F, and H. Is that correct? FG and I. Second. All right. I have a motion from Miss Duncan and a second um from Miss Miller. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes 70. So we will start with F. Authorization of agreements between Sige ISD and Tangram Rehabilitation Network in the amount of $839,500. uh board. The Tangram Rehabilitation Network agreement is um a residential facility for students uh that receive special education service that need that in uh independent uh residential facility to be able to uh be successful in education. They're required
098through IDA, the Individuals with Disability Education Act, um up through the student reaching 22 years of age. We would pay that fee monthly beginning in October of 2025. I realize that it's a a fairly substantial amount. Um we actually have two students that receive those services. Um one of those students uh results in the $383,250 and another student results in the $456,250. Uh just so that you are aware, we do receive I would say out of the $800 about $600,000 $650,000 back in highcost funds reimbursement each year from the state. uh which is where the state reimbursed us for having to have those high-cost funds. Um but it is one of those things that that we will do just about every year moving forward until those students have graduated uh and even after they have
099graduated up until they reach 22 years of age. Can you expand what are the additional needs that those servants those students have that require this level? Those are usually students that have to have 24-hour care like they are there all the time. uh as part of that work. So the contracts are actually for 365 days on both of them. Madam President, I move for approval for the authorization of agreements between Sigin ISD and Tan Graham Rehabilitation Network in the amount of $839,500. I'm sorry. I still have a question. Well, there's a motion on the floor after she repeats it. I have a motion from Miss Duncan and a second from Mrs. Miller. Uh, any further discussion? So, this is a facility that they're at that we have to pay for. It's not just contract services,
100but it's actually a facility. It is actually They spend 365 days at those facilities. Yes, sir. It's in San Marcus. question that I had was how does this play in with the audits that we get every year for special ed? Do they go to that facility or do they just So our staff still has to provide um testing. So whenever they have to do state assessments because you know the state's not letting them get out of state assessments even though these students um are at the level that they are uh pro severe and profound with some of their disabilities. Um, but it's all part of the regular audit like the these students are coded from FEM's perspective of being exactly in that type of facility. Uh, and so there's an IEP, their individual education plan
101that identifies that as the need of what they have to be. And federal law requires that we have to provide those services. And we've had this on here for as long as I've been on the board and and for at least a couple years before I was on the board. So, this is a longstanding contract with this um facility. Any further discussion? All right. Um all in favor raise your right hands. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes 70. Now G submission of class size waiver sorry size exception waiver to the Texas Education Agency. Dr. Lee. Yeah, absolutely. Board um each year we have to do waivers for classes in kindergarten through fourth grade uh that have higher than 22 students in those classrooms. Uh and so in this instance, what you've got is we have 17
102sections districtwide, which sounds like a large number, but I want to put that into perspective for you a little bit on what we're looking at. Um, Kenneck, for example, uh, has three sections of second grade that all have 23 students in them. Uh, and so those are three separate sections that happen. The same thing in fourth grade. They've got three sections with 23 kids in each one of those sections. So, there's six sections total. Jefferson has one fourth grade classroom that has 23 students in them. Uh, Rodriguez has two fourth grade classes that each have 23 in them. Vogle has uh a first grade uh their first grade classes that are set at 23, 23, and 24. And then a third grade that's 24, 24, and 25. Uh both the first grade position and a
103first grade position, um first and third grade position, I'm sorry, have been posted for us to potentially hire another teacher if we get a qualified applicant. And then Vogle also has two second grade uh classrooms that each have 23. Um I did a little bit of research to see where we fall. A lot of times you will see districts in our area that do not do waivers at all and it is because they have in their district of innovation plan that they don't have to provide waiverss for classes over 22. Um Kale ISD is a perfect example. They've doed out of it. They actually staff their classes at 23 to 1 for kindergarten through 2 grade or 24 to one for third through fourth grade. Um Navaro right up the road also DOIs out of
104it. So they don't do waiverss for class sizes either. Um Bernie uh in our district does not do that. Um, as a leadership team, we've identified what we think classes need to stay at as best possible. And, you know, we're really trying hard to keep kindergarten through 2 grade um at 22 students or less, third and fourth grade at 24 or less, and fifth grade at 25 or less. Um, even though fifth grade is not required. Um, but the state requires us to do these waivers or hire a teacher to be able to to fix that. And so, that's that's why you have the waivers in front of you. Um, you'll likely get these every year, which is why they were in the consent agenda as part of that work. Um but I just wanted
105to give you an idea of where it was. Originally the uh exhibit did identify potlon as also having two classes um that were over. We had kindergarten um two sections, one with 26 and one with 25. We actually moved internally some staffing across three district uh three campuses. We shuffled some things around um and eliminated those at Potline um so there's not any that's over staffed there. where we added a kindergarten teacher to that campus by reducing a teacher on a different campus. Um, but I just wanted you to have numbers of where we're at. So, when we say that we're seeking a class size waiver, we're not seeking class size waiver for 30 kids in a class. We're seeking class size waiver because the law says if it's above 22 and almost all of
106them are at 23. Happy to answer any questions though. Madam President, I move to grant the submission of the classiz exemption waiver to the Texas Education Agency. Great. I have a motion from Mr. Dwire and a second from Miss Duncan. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose, same sign. Motion passes 70. Now we have um I approval of Blue Gene Educational Consulting Agreement. Dr. uh board. What you have in front of you is an agreement uh with Blue Gene Education Consulting. A couple of you, handful of you, maybe three of you, I think, were able to meet um Dr. Hashka uh who is is one of the representatives, the the main person with them. Um what the agreement does is it allows us to do a handful of things. Uh the
107primary function of the larger pieces of it are strategic planning. We've already identified four days in October where we will do true strategic planning and start working on uh getting that. It involves a an instructional program review where they will come in with an outside lens look at what's happening in our classrooms to see where we need to focus on that tier one instruction um that we talked about earlier today. Uh it also includes focusing us on being able to develop a professional development plan uh specific professional development series with our instructional leaders, our campus principles, uh central office folks that need to on accountability and leadership. And then depending on what the findings we find or what we see uh develop in our strategic plan um or the instructional review program other professional development
108that would be tied directly to that is what you've got. The reason it's in front of you is because it exceeds the 50,000 at 54. Um I honestly probably could have reduced a day or two from the agreement and lowered it below the 50,000. I just felt it was important that you saw it because it is significant work that we are doing with strategic planning, professional development, instructional review, those types of things, which is why I wanted it in front of you to be able to see it. But happy to answer any questions. Again, I was actually in that session at the TASBY conference and met the consultant. She was fantastic. Sometimes at those sessions, I get, you know, they're not always as engaging. This one kept me just I was on the edge of
109my seat the whole time at 7:30 a.m. Yes. 7:30 a.m. in the morning. And it was just fantastic the work that they've done. And they had a a gentleman that was just hired from what district was that? Grand Prairie ISD. And they took us through the process of him on boarding. It was kind of um here's how you onboard your new superintendent. And they actually have a lawyer on staff that went through that process. but it was a a way to share with other districts how this can happen in your district. And the consultant, she was fantastic. So, I'm looking forward to the work she's going to be doing here. Anyone have any questions? [Music] Madame President, I move for approval of Blue Jean Educational Consulting Agreements. Right. I have a um motion from Miss
110Duncan and a second from Mr. Geta. Any further discussion? All in favor raise your right hands. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes 70. Moving on to action items. 9A approval for approval for non-tuitionbased pre kindergarten for Sigin ISD employees. Dr. Lee uh board at the March 2025 board meeting. So before I was here um it's my understanding that the the board of trustees that you approved the introduction of tuition fees um for our pre kindergarten enrollment for district employees. Um during the most recent legislative session, there were some law changes that occurred. One of the most significant that has to do with pre kindergarten programs is that certified or teachers, those employed in an actual teaching position, uh, no longer have to pay for pre kindergarten if they are a teacher. Um, what it did not
111include, what that law excluded was it did not provide the same benefit for employees that are in food services, employees that are in custodial services, bus drivers, pair of professionals, those those types of employees. Um, one of the things that I think that we have been adamant about as a board superintendent team just in the two months that we have been here is that we want to provide the best opportunities for our staff as possible. Um, there's an opportunity here and my recommendation to you is that um, we look at that legislative change and we expand that internally for Sigin ISD employees to include all employees for tuition free uh, pre kindergarten services rather than it just being teachers um, that are there. Uh I'm not concerned about class sizes at at Ball who are
112sitting in a spot where we will be good. Um I'm not so sure that we even have a whole lot that would enroll, but we do have a handful that already have students enrolled that it would be a financial strain for them to have to pay some of the tuition based. And I just think that this is an opportunity uh for us to offer an incentive for employees who are part of Sigin ISD uh to be able to have their students attend preK. I also wholeheartedly believe if we can get kids in the building at the youngest age possible, we can start teaching at that youngest age possible and get them where we need to be. And so that's why my recommendation is that you approve the non-tuitionbased pre kindergarten for all sigin ISD employees.
113Again, happy to answer any questions. Madam President, I move for approval on non-tuitionbased pre kindergarten for all sigen ISD employees. All right. I have a motion from Mr. Brights and a second from Mr. Dwire. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hands. Oppose. Same sign. Abstensions. I have an abstension um from Miss Burns. Um motion passes 6 with one abstension. Okay. Um, and then, um, 9B, nominate candidate for the Guadalupe County Appraisal District Board of Directors. I only heard from one of you who wanted to be that candidate, and that was Mr. Bright. Unless I missed an email from someone. Now is your chance to say how you would like to go to some extra meetings. All right. All right. So, I I do need an official nomination. Madame President, I
114move to and nominate Josh Bright to be our candidate for the Guy County Appraisal District Board of Directors. A second. All right. I have a motion for Miss Duncan and a second from Mr. Geta. Any further discussion? All in favor? Raise your right hand? Oppose. Same sign. Abstensions. All right. So, I I have an ab extension from Mr. Bright. So motion passes 6 with one abstension. Uh number 10, board comments and requests. Do we have any of those this evening? I have a comment. Go ahead. Oh, go ahead. Oh, you said 15 minutes. I'm just kidding. 15 minutes. Um I just want to u talk about 9A. I know we voted yes. That particular uh item is going to go a long way. um employee retention and incentives to bring them in. I just want
115to say to all um current students, staff, faculty, and my fellow alumni, I just want to say happy homecoming. Yes, happy homecoming. And um the uh October contains one of my favorite uh things and that is the children's show for theater. So um all of our elementary students plus our theater students from the middle schools get to attend. Um but there's two public performances. So if you get to come and see Aladdin, uh you will enjoy it. So u uh you're invited to that on the I know one's on the 25th of October. I'm not sure about the other one. Um, I just wanted to say is that I appreciate all of the invitations to um the school board um to attend various events on campuses. Um, I love being able to be on the
116campus, see educational activities. It helps so much to give a a different perspective as we see everything in black and white that comes in board packets. So, just want to encourage everyone to continue to invite um the board on campuses. Um, I love it. I know I can't speak for everyone, but I love it. for sure. One more. One more. Okay, Mr. Okay, go. Mr. One of the things that I learned among several things at the uh the conference that we went to was one of the school districts, and I can't believe I can't remember which one it was, that they had what they call the gold card. So, anyone in the community that was 65 or older, they were eligible to go to any event, any fine arts athletic event for free. So, that's
117something they may want to explore. that'll give the opportunity for them to see our cabinet. Of course, it'll be mainly grandpas and grandmas that'll be coming, but still something that we could look into. I know it exists or has existed in the past. There you go. Because we get them at theater. I I accept them. So, where do you get them from? From athletics. They're $5. They're good for the year. And what do they get you into? everything that the the district does. Okay, there we go. We'll get out some more information. Advertise it. Yeah, we can do that. Mr. Brag, did you have something? Yeah, I just had one uh quick thank you to all of those that stepped out last week uh or stepped up last week while all the chiefs and all
118of us were up at the board at the convention. It was a great time for all of us. Um and I really appreciate Nancy and everybody else stepping up to fill those halls while we were gone. So, thank you for all your hard work and thank you, Dr. Lee, for taking care of us while we were at the TASBY conference. I thoroughly hope you enjoyed lunch on Saturday. Yes, there's a story there, but I will refrain. Move to adjurnn. All right, I would accept a motion to adjurnn at this point. Move to adjurnn. Uh that is a motion to adjurnn from Mr. Bright and a second from Mr. Dwire. All in favor raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes 70. It is 9:19 p.m. and 54 seconds. Nancy, I'll have to get Nancy,
119I have to get this back, too, because I don't have all the information with me. Do we have to do it?