Seguin ISD Regular Board Meeting 08.26.25

001Call this meeting to order. It's 6:31 p.m. This meeting of the Sigin Independent School District has been duly called and 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 with the pledges to the United States and Texas flag and a moment of silence. Thank you. Moving on to item 1 C, superintendent announcements. Dr. Lee. Uh, good evening board. Uh, welcome to your regular August board meeting. I know we had a board meeting last week for some board training. uh that was required, but we're we're excited to be back. Um to everyone else, we want to say welcome back Matador Nation. Uh it's hard to imagine, but we're already two weeks into the new school year. Um we're technically today,

002I guess, starts week three for us. Uh is coming back, and I want to say our campuses are extremely busy. Um I've had the opportunity to visit campuses and see our staff hard at work. Um, I am so proud to be a part of this team, not because uh of the position that I hold, but because I get to see how dedicated our teachers and staff are. Um, and what they're dedicated to the most right now is our students. Everything that we are doing is about them. Uh, I want to address a couple of things just from the get-go. As you may have heard in the news, um, recently we did receive ratings from the Texas Education Agency like any other school district across the state. Um, and if I'm if I'm the straight shooter

003that I am, uh, I'll address we have some great accomplishments that have happened. We also have some challenges to address. Um, but there's still a lot of news that's worth celebrating there. Um, we had six campuses that received AB ratings, including several with distinctions. Uh, we had Ball Early Childhood, who's attached to one of our elementary campuses, Jefferson Elementary, Kenny Elementary, McQueeny Elementary, Potline, and Mercer Bloomberg that did that work uh that were that were rated A or B. Uh, for the campuses that I didn't mention, that doesn't mean that we didn't see great work there. We still saw a lot of improvement across our campuses uh in both student learning, student achievement, what they score on their STAR tests specifically versus student growth. Um we saw quite a bit of student growth across the

004district. Uh there a lot of good work that happened last year as part of what happens. Um if I stand on my soap box for a second, and since I'm the one who has the microphone, I guess I get the ability to do that for a split second here. Um, I'm not a believer that a one-time highstakes test tells the full story of students or teachers that that work their tails off in the classroom. Um, do we have to play the game of accountability? Yes, that's what the state has set up with us. As a superintendent, uh, am I afraid of accountability? Absolutely not. Uh, it tells us what we need to work on. The key is to look at it, see where we need to improve, review the data, and then actually respond to

005it in a way that works. Uh and so I'm proud of what what we're looking at um and what we have to do. I will say this, I shared the same thing earlier today uh in an interview with with news media about accountability uh in our ratings. Uh yes, we have work to do. Uh yes, we have improvement that needs to be made. Improvement takes time. It takes a lot of time to to see some of the improvement that you really want to see uh that happens, but that doesn't mean that it's not happening. Uh it just means that that we've got work to do and that we're going to get get down to it. And I'm excited. our leadership team has already started having those conversations. We're working with principles to make those things

006happen and I fully expect that we're going to see quite a bit of improvement as we even move into this school year. Um outside of accountability, I want to say um that we've received several donations over the past few weeks, including snacks for our teachers and school supplies for students. I had the pre I had the privilege of joining several of you uh at to hand out box of dream school supply kits at Jefferson and McQueeny this month. Um, those of you that were there know how fun that was and how exciting that was to see the the students just light up with joy. Uh, it was a great way to start the day by meeting our students and seeing their smiles as they received their supplies. Um, a special thank you to Texas Yes,

007for those kits as well as the community members and businesses who support and continue to support our students and staff. I want to offer a very special thank you to the Sigin Art League whose gallery will host rotating displays featuring our visual art students this year. Uh Kelly Hallmark, our art teacher at AJB, will curate the students display and it will debut next week or next month. I apologize. Um auditions have already started for Sigin High School's fall production of Aladdin Jr. I can't wait to see that. I'm a big theater person. Uh I'm a big everything as a superintendent. Let me make that clear also. But I'm excited to see that. Their their fall season has already started uh for several sports teams including cross country, tennis, volleyball. Our Lady Matadors will host Matador

008Volleyball Classic beginning this Thursday, the same day our freshman and JV football teams will take on Alamo Heights. I want to just say a best of luck to all of our high school and middle school student athletes. Uh the first varsity football game of the season is just a few days away. I hope that you'll join us in making the trip to Alamo Heights. It's an away game so that we can cheer on the Matadors. That's our football team, our band, our cheer, our drill team, the students that go to support each other. If you can't make it, you do have the ability to watch that game live. Uh thanks to our new partnership with Texas Sports Productions, all varsity football games this season will be broadcast on gosp.live for those who needed the actual

009address. Uh got sp.live. Um this week's game will also be the peanut butter bowl. So be sure that you bring your peanut butter donations to your school's front office to this or to the sigin ISD athletic office this week. You can also donate on peanut butterb.com. Uh, all donations do go to our local Christian cupboard. Um, just keep in mind that this is a contest for schools as well. The winning elementary and middle school will also get an autographed football helmet to put on display. Last year, our district donated over 4,000 jars of peanut butter, and I look forward to seeing if we can beat that number this year. So, all in all, board, uh, we have had a great and fantastic couple of first couple of weeks, and we're just excited about what the

010school year is going to offer. Thank you. Moving on to um board reports. Um 1D uh would do you like to start, Mr. B? Absolutely. Uh so great great kickoff to the school year so far. Um started off at the beginning of the month with convocation. Uh I've unfortunately not been able to make it to a convocation so far as a school board member. So this was my first one and I got to tell you, I left very inspired. Um, I'm really looking forward to what everything is going to do happen this year. Um, Dr. Lee led that convocation and it was it was a really great event. Um, also the Texas Yes petting up school supplies was there for that and super appreciative for sponsor on that one and getting those children school supplies

011that they'll need to help them through the year. And then probably the thing that I was most impressed with so far was the first day of school at Skian High School. Um, the way that the staff both central office and the high school were all working together. The metal detector thing went off great. Um I watched my oldest son who stood in line outside the high school and it took him under two minutes to get from outside the high school into the metal detector and screen and into uh get his morning breakfast at the cafeteria. So applaud to the staff, Dr. Cillo for making that happen and all the planning that went into that. And from what I've heard so far this school year, it's continuing to operate that way. So, thank you to everyone

012who made that happen and uh I think it's going to be a great year this year. Um I feel very fortunate for all of the experiences uh that I get to have as a school board member and the invitations I get. I think probably a highlight for me this last month was attending the bilingual um welcome event for new kindergarteners. um to be able to see uh these new kindergarteners and their parents uh come in and be so excited uh for the new journey that they're going on and then also seeing what um really how it's promoted as a family event and the family learning to be bilingual as well. And each kid was presented with a packet of information for them to be able to start playing games at home. Um and just love

013that community school connection there. I just have three items. On the 31st, I attended the dual language celebration which was held here and it was very uh informative to the parents as far as what how the district participates and what to expect and I actually met an individual that he said that he specific specifically chose this district over Navaro because of that program. I was very happy to hear that. uh the video shoot before that for the Matador Nations and a board meeting through teams for about the A center and it's coming along pretty good and everything's on schedule. All right, Mr. Dwire, I too got to attend my first convocation. I thought that was really awesome. Uh very exciting and inspiring event. uh I thought was very cool for all of our staff and

014uh us as board members as well. And then also, of course, I'm continuing to attend all these construction meetings. Uh I can tell you that we're wrapping up our transportation facility upgrades, which is really nice. I believe they're all rocking and rolling on that. I spent the day at the A facility today. They got two big barns out there. They're running pipe and conduit. Uh it's coming along very well. Uh I got to tour Barnes last week with all the kids in it. They're very excited about their new school and rocking and rolling. Uh you got to give the Kaylor company a big shout out for that. They've done a really outstanding job on that project. And of course, uh we've got lots of folks out there at McQueeny Elementary going and blowing day and

015night, seven days a week. So, uh all those construction projects are really rolling and uh it's very exciting for our staff and our kids. Well, it's hard for me to highlight something that no one else has talked about. I I thoroughly enjoyed convocation. I think it was a great start to the year. Also attended uh the welcome back party that was at the high school for everyone in the district and that was a lot of fun. It was well attended. I'm glad we put this event on every year. For the first time, our board of trustees had a booth there as well and we played a little game called rock paper scissors. And I don't know, those kids must play in school every day because I think they all beat me. all but one. So

016anyway, but it was fun. I enjoyed that. Um, also we had our team of eight training and it was the first time I mean we have some new members to the board and we've been serving together without going through this training for a while and it was nice for us just to be together and to learn together and grow together and I'm excited about this team of eight and the work that we have yet to do. I didn't know I did as much until I started looking at my calendar. Uh the construction committee like will I'm on that one and it takes up several days each week and but it's always fun within those two weeks that you get to go back to construction site to see how far they've come. Besides what Will has

017mentioned on things, I had the distinct pleasure of helping Floren Pulpa go and take McQueeny Elementary on their first tour of McQueeny Elementary and we did that on the first day and they were so excited. I have a window in my room. Look how big it is. And they were just they were enthralled with everything. They're so excited about the whole thing. So they say, "Are we going to be ready Chris?" No. Sorry. Uh soon though during the summertime um I was at McQueeny uh opening opening up the doors and then I also got to do the um Texas Yes supplies with McQueeny out there. That was fun convocation. I had more teachers come to me and say did you know that was the best one I've ever been to? So kudos Dr. Lee and

018uh Jill for all the work that went into that. So, uh, it came across to the teachers as a wonderful experience. They all loved it. Um, I did get to go on a, uh, photo shoot with, um, Dicks Sports, um, store, donated money for athletic equipment, and we took it out there to, uh, the MBLC and donated out there, and they were so excited to get that money for some sports equipment. Um, I kind of snuck in to welcome back at Siging High School for just a bit and then the back to school. So, it was a busy month after all and it was lots of fun. Great. Thank y'all. Um, I got to go to the same uh things that some of you went to convocation, which I have had many compliments on. People

019who have worked here 30 years uh said that was the best convocation they've been to. So, thank you to everybody. um delivering school supplies um with the box of dreams. I did Jefferson and Potlon and um to see kids so excited about school supplies, as excited as I am about school supplies, um it was the best. Um and just seeing um the interactions between the teachers and the staff and our our students is always great. Um for the back to school bash, I do want to say thank you to Mrs. Burns for um spearheading us having a table. We haven't had a table before. And um it was fun playing rock paper scissors. And I actually hurt my hand, so that uh is quite the injury to have. Um I know I needed some ice

020or something. Um and um yesterday um uh Jackie Sylvia's and uh Grace and I went uh had a meeting on a reading challenge uh that we're looking into. Uh we did the trustee well actually we did both parts last year and so it'll get us back in the classrooms reading and our third third graders doing some extra reading. And I also just wanted to remind everybody about meet the matadors tomorrow. I know, Linda Duncan. I was counting on on you. Meet the matadors tomorrow where we get to meet the matador. So, thank you. Um, all right. We're moving on to item two. Um, audience with the board. The sigen ISD board of trustees design designates a time for audience participation at the beginning of each meeting to hear persons who desire to make comments in

021accordance with board policy beed local. Those wishing to speak sign up before the meeting begins stating the concern or noting the agenda item they wish to address. Audience participation is li limited to five minutes. The board shall not deliberate any subject that is not on the posted agenda. We have three speakers signed up this evening. Uh the first one is Jason Bumbok. Um and he's speaking on item 8E. So Linda will be your timer and she can give you the one minute signal if you would like. Oh, I'm not going to just go off the five minute. That stays five minutes. You can. Too bad. Too bad. All right. Good evening, trustees. Dr. Lee, my name is Jason Bezenbach. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I hope you all had a chance to

022read the bills I sent you in an email Sunday evening. The question before us is this. Do the benefits of allowing homeschool students to participate in Sigin ISD extracurricular activities outweigh the challenges? I believe the answer is yes. As coach Daly said in the September meeting, no district 135A or 275A school has stepped forward to do this. Sigin could and should be the first. The legislature has already created a framework for us. HB547 passed in 2021. It gave districts the option to allow homeschoolers to join UIL activities. That bill requires accountability, proof of academic proficiency, compliance with UIL rules, and full participation in practice, games, and events. The text of HB547 makes this crystal clear that homeschool students must meet the same expectations as everyone else. In 2023, HB 3708 addressing funding by providing $1,500

023per homeschool student per activity to support districts that participate. And just like in just this year, Senate Bill 401 reaffirmed this by allowing this to be a local decision. You have the authority to act. We could also look to a nearby example. Lockheart ISD has allowed homeschool students to participate since 2022. They require families to declare by August 1st if a child wants to participate to provide test results from a nationally recognized assessment showing academic proficiency and to commit fully to every practice workout meeting and event. Lockheart also requires homeschool students to ride the bus, follow the school code of conduct, and meet the same eligibility rules as their peers. Their experience shows that the system works and that the rules are clear and consistently applied. Some concerns have been raised in this discussion. One

024is academic integrity. HB547 directly requires full accountability. And as parents, we value our children's education just as much as every other family in this district. Another concern is extracurricular disruption that homeschoolers might not be consistent or accountable. Again, the law is clear. Full accountability is required. There's also been discussion about school culture, but in reality, these kids are already playing together in little league, youth soccer, dance, and other community activities. When they put on the same jersey or join the same dance company, they adapt quickly. They unite under their coach director and they work towards the same goal to win, to excel, and to be excellent together. Limiting resources have also been mentioned, but resources are already limited in every activity. Not every student makes the football team, basketball team, or baseball team. That won't

025change. Sports are earned. Spots are earned. And when someone asks, "How do you tell a homeschool student that they didn't make the team?" Or, "How do you tell a government school student that the homeschooler did?" The answer is simple. It's called meritocracy. The best prepared student earns the spot. That's competition and that's fairness. And that's what already happens. It's also important to remember the distinction between academics and extracurriculars. Academics provide knowledge while extracurriculars provide leadership, teamwork, and resilience. Both matter. Both shape students into well-rounded adults. The distinct difference here is that as homeschool parents, we choose to focus our children's academics on a one-on-one basis. That personalized focus does not lessen the value of extracurricular activities. It strengthens it because it allows homeschool students to bring the same drive of excellence into athletics, band, theater,

026and every other UIL program Sigin ISTD has to offer. I also know there's been a little bit of fear about the possible influx of homeschool participation, but if you look behind me, nobody shows up. The reality is participation will likely be limited and manageable. As homeowners, we faithfully pay our taxes and yet we receive none of the benefits. All we're asking here is for a chance, a chance for our students to contribute their talents and represent Sigin with pride. I'd like to close with the words of Dr. Lee himself from July 14th, 2025, quoted from the Sigin Daily News. Just like strong academics, I firmly believe in the value of extracurricular activities. If students are doing the things that they love and that's what gets them to school and that's what energizes them every single

027day so that we can still teach English, science, math, social studies, all those things. That's what we have to emphasize. That's what we have to leverage. We need kids to have opportunities to be part of something larger. We uh we we need kids to be something part of something that has meaning that has value for them. Sigin should lead the way. Let's be first. Go Matadors. And one final thought. As a current member of Sigin City Council, I know how important it is and valuable the director's recommendations are, but I would like to remind you they are recommendations. You are the governing body. You are the elected representatives of the people, and you make the decision. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jackie Bbuk speaking about 8E. And I'll just remind you, you

028have only five minutes. I'm not as fancy. No worries. If you would like, um, Miss Duncan will give you the one minute. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board, superintendent, and community. My name is Jackie Bezenbach and I'm here to tonight to respectfully ask that Sigin ISD allow homeschool participation in UIL activities. We all know that activities like sports, fine arts, and academics competitions aren't just about the trophies. They build leaders, teammates, and citizens. They teach discipline, perseverance, and what it means to be a part of something bigger than themsel, excuse me, than themselves. Our homeschool students are already part of this community. They play on the same little league fields, dance on the same stages, and and attend the same churches and we didn't. It's weird. Anyways, you get

029it. They are Sigin's kids, too, and they want to have a chance to stand proudly beside their peers as matadors. The state of Texas has already recognized this by passing legislation that allows homeschool participation and even provides funding to the districts that open that door. This is not just a benefit for the homeschool families, but it's a benefit for Sigin ISD, for the coaches, and for the programs that help all of these kids succeed. I stand here today uh to advocate on behalf of the children just as you sit there doing the same. Let's come together in that mission and reach the common goal that we all share, that every child in our community has the opportunity to succeed in life. I also understand that change takes time. Policy has a process and I understand

030that if we need to start somewhere, let's start somewhere together to make this grow for the children. At the end of the day, the decision comes down to this one question. Is it truly about the kids? And if so, let it be about all the kids of the city of Sigin, no matter how they're educated. Sigin has the opportunity to lead with fairness and unity, showing the rest of Texas that when it comes to our children's growth, development, and opportunity, we can stand together. Let's be a model of inclusion and show our kids that their community leads with courage and compassion. Thank you. Thank you. All right, our last speaker is Jennifer McDevit. Did I say it right? Um, also speaking about 8 And Miss Duncan can give you the one minute mark if you

031you'd like. Great. I want to start by thanking those of you who took the time to uh meet with us over the last few weeks to discuss this uh access for homeschoolers uh to UIL activities. uh a lot of the uh meeting was very productive in hearing what you had to say about how this could actually happen on a practical level and not just on a theoretical like way out there like this seems crazy and this seems kind of too big for us. Uh on that note, I have I know you have a very long meeting ahead of you and this is at the end of it. So I have if I can give you a copy of this a proposal that has a specific plan. None of those details are something I have to

032decide, but it gives you an idea of something that we think is actionable now, this year, this school year, and it crosses with the research we did in our homeschool community about the programs that people are asking for. And so, it's not it's a cross between those two things. And if Jackie could give you a copy right now, that would be awesome. You're very generous. You haven't even started. Oh, thanks. Oh, I got zero. Okay, you're free to read that later when you actually are talking about this, but I will just uh my thing is not very long. I'd like to speak to you for just a moment about community. Uh my children personally have always been homeschooled. Uh but they've also been able to engage with our community in a variety of ways through

033numerous community organizations in Sigin. Uh they have taken art classes and entered art contests through the Sigin Art League. They've done tours and other events through the Sigin Conservation Society and the Big Red Barn. They have bought and sold homemade crafting creations at the Sigin Children's Business Fair. They have entertained our community with their music at the Nesbbit Living Center, the Kuanas Flapjack Jamberee, the downtown skiing trade days, Holiday Stroll, and Sip and Stroll. They have sung with community chorus at the Noa de Gala. They have uh their activities at the Skin Public Library, a community treasure that we all know and love is far too varied to list here. They have done tours, they've entered crafts, they volunteered with the Guadaloop County Fair, and they are very active with TLU's community music academy, including

034a featured performance last spring with the TLU orchestra. I'm listing all of these things because all of these organizations have common goals. They bring community members together without requiring their participants to be involved in every activity and none of them require a particular form of education to be invited to participate in their events. I'd like to challenge you to evaluate your role in our community. Your first job, of course, is educators, but you also play a vital role in the community as a whole. When you provide an extracurricular activity to your students, you use community resources, but you create barriers unintentionally. Your decisions here have the power to develop connections and to replace those barriers between and to reduce those barriers between the families and the educators in our community who all share the same

035goals of raising the next generation each in a manner appropriate to their station in life. What better time than now to choose to engage and connect the Sigin community rather than to separate and divide. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to um three reports and information items. 3A personnel information professional employees. Mr. Newman. Good evening, board of trustees. I have a list of resignations and new hires for you to recognize and acknowledge. Any board members have a question? Okay, thank you. Thank you. Item 3B, Sigind 2425 and 2526 budget updates. Liz Banks. Good evening again. I have got just a real short presentation to update y'all on the 2425 year that we're just now closing out June 30th and then the 2526 school year as far as our budget goes. Um we've talked a lot

036about the 2425 budget deficit as we've gone through the 2425 school year. As we're closing out our year and coming to the end of some processes, I just wanted to give you an update where I think we're going to land. Uh, our auditors will present our audit for that fiscal year at the October 28th board meeting. So, numbers are subject to change, but um, we had a deficit of 5.6 million, and I've just listed some things that are are positively, um, affecting that budget deficit. We had a protest that was just accepted by the Texas state controller that increased our revenue for this fiscal year by about a million dollars. So that was unexpected revenue that we can decrease our budget deficit with. So um that's a really great thing. Uh we are under budget

037and payroll by about $1.7 million. I'm going to talk about that a little bit later in a slide as far as what that means, but we are under budget that amount. So we we're not going to use that as our part of our deficit. We were also under budget in um security uh ESS. ESS is the company that we use for substitutes. Um we did make a effort to use less substitutes last year. So we were able to do that. It paid off. Uh the only reason we saved money in security is because we did find some federal money that we were able to offset what we thought we were going to spend. And then we were also under budget utilities. So that came to about $400,000 that we can take out of our deficit

038at the end of the year. Y'all know this, we've talked about this before. We look for ways that we can use federal money, things that we can move. Uh we did not spend all of our assigned fund balance. We're trying to get away from assigning fund balance and keep things in the in general uh annual expenditures. And then our payments to our fiscal agent, which is our shared services arrangement with Lulling ISD, was about 450,000 less than we budgeted. So, we're projecting about a $ 1.3 million deficit for the 2425 school year. So, that's great. Again, subject to change due to, you know, journal entries that we're still making and also as our auditors make journal entries. But, uh, that's great news. Uh, for 2526, y'all do have an August uh, budget amendment this evening,

039and I just kind of wanted to explain that here. It's part of the consent agenda. We did have a $5.8 $8 million deficit starting the 2526 school year. Uh we have our QAB payment which are on payment 9 of 15 has to be paid with general fund dollars. And then we have our damage uh the roof um the weather here at central office our deductible for that. And then also the health insurance employer contribution increase that y'all approved last month. So that brings us to a $7.5 million deficit for 2526. bigger number than we had for 2425. But just looking forward in September and October, there's a lot going on right now. The legis we're still getting updates from TEA as they are interpreting legislation. Um we I did um find about $680,000 in budget

040savings that we are taking out of the budget. Just a process of going line by line through the budget looking for things that maybe haven't been spent for two or three years in a row. Let's take that out. There were some miscellaneous contracted services. Um we're planning to spend less in legal services, which is something we did last year as well. Um and also continued um monitoring of our sub system where we're getting subs for maybe things that we don't really have to have a sub for. So trying to rein that in a little bit. We are going to see an increase in revenue due to legislation. We're saying three and a half million. Keep in mind that's based on last year's staff, last year's students. That's going to change, but in September and October,

041we'll get closer to that number as we get through the first six weeks of our kids in school and see what we have and kind of do some projecting. Um, we are proposing a compensation plan this evening that the approximate cost is going to be about $4 million. And we're looking at possible payroll savings. So, on the prior slide when I said we were under budget and payroll by about $1.7 million, um we're we're getting to where especially with the hiring of our new chief human resources officer, we are going to really try to nail down vacancies. So, a lot of times you do have some budget savings due to vacancies. If you have 25 open positions throughout the year and you're paying for subs, you're going to see savings, but we it's not it's

042not going to be $1.7 million. So, we're going to try and get closer to that number, but I'm hoping to add about a million dollars back into the budget, which will decrease our deficit. So, kind of looking forward between this month and the next two months, we're looking at probably a 6.3 million deficit, but I try to be conservative, so hopefully it will get better than that. And then this is just our fund balance update. The end of 2324, we were at $35 million. Uh the unodudited estimate use of fund balance for 2425 is 1.3 million and as of right now we're looking at a 6.3 million. So again that's going to change throughout the year but we're looking at 27.4 million in our fund balance for the end of this fiscal year. And just

043a reminder our board policy for our minimum fund balance is 25% of our annual operating expenditures which is going to be about $21 million. So have any questions? Miss Max, I have a question about um there's been a lot of changes with our financials in the last year of reclassifications. Um last year we had a $5 million uh budget deficit for the slides that is back down to about a million dollar large swing. Yeah. This year hopefully crossing fingers we end up kind of in a similar position. Mhm. Is that something that will be consistently with a bigger deficit or with procedures that have been put into place over the last couple years? Will it be more on par for next year? Yeah. So, the change in CTE funding was a big part of our

044change. We hope to continue to see that swing. We hope to see it keep going up. Also, when we adopt the budget, we we have planned on a flat student number. Last year, we decreased our students by about 150 students. that uh was not expected. So dependent on our student numbers, our CTE enrollment, our legislation, our attendance, and our staffing. Yeah, it kind of swings. Wish I had a crystal ball, but yeah, it's pretty typical. Yeah, I know it's hard to explain um because you wouldn't think that with budgeting you would see such a large swing. Uh but the way that the state of Texas does funding for public schools is it's not based on enrollment, it's based on attendance. So if students aren't in school, we aren't funded for students for being in school.

045And so that attendance number, there's two there's two places that we really can make up a considerable amount of of financial gains. Three really. Um the first one being uh attendance. If students are in school, we're going to generate higher funding um because of that. Uh the second being CTE, which Miss Banks and I met today with our CTE director to talk through like what other things we could start looking at and we're trying to get a game plan together on that. And then the third thing is obviously personnel, uh, which is the last thing that we really want to look at. But when roughly 85% of your budget numbers are personnel costs, um, that's that's where it is. We can't we we can turn the lights off, but they're not going to save us,

046um, $6.3 million by turning the lights off at night, um, is what it really comes down to. And so, we're just looking hard at those things. Uh, I do want to give Miss Banks a lot of credit for what you're seeing, uh, on the unodudited estimate for 2425. Like, that's a huge swing and that's that's a testament to the work that was done over the past year. Um, and I expect that we'll we'll hopefully see some of the same things over this next year. We just got to get some more processes and procedures in place to try to prevent them from being such a swing. Yeah, you're right. We we need processes and procedures, especially when it comes to staffing. Expected the 2627 budget will hopefully be a balanced budget where we're not deficit. Man,

047I hope so. I mean, we we can tell you what to do. We just have to do it. Yeah. Can I just have a comment? Yeah. Thank you for genering the report and yeah, that's good news down to 1.3. Yep. Easy. We appreciate your work on this and team's work. Any other questions or comments? Um item 3C is financial statements for July 2025. So you'll see the general fund, the debt service fund, and the child nutrition fund financial statements. Um there there's not really anything to point out on there. Um debt service fund, we are not doing a defeasence this year. We we plan not to do one this year and next year because when we adopted the budget, the legislature was still talking about how they were going to handle that. So that ended

048up being a really good move. But everything else looks on track on here. Any questions? All right, you get to stay for item 3D, uh, new vendors. So, these are just vendors that have replied to RFPs that we have on our website, um, and they are added to our vendor list. Question. All right. Um, 3 purchases made over $50,000. And for our newer board members, this is what this looks like at the beginning of the year. Um, we buy many things. Yes, as uh, President Kittinden um, not noted, there are a lot of things at the beginning of the year. So, these are all um, regular purchase purchases through a cooperative or an interlocal. So, this is just for information. Any questions? All right. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Question. Yep. With the uh the food

049stuff towards the bottom of that that comes out of the child nutrition budget, right? Uh most likely. Most likely there could be some maintenance stuff in there. Uh dairy farmers definitely. So that's coming out of a federal fund. Yes. Like you said, um Brothers Produce, yes. Probably New World Bakery, Imperial Bag and Paper might be maintenance. do appreciate we're getting that line on for ice cream though. That's it's a big deal. It is. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Actually, you're the next item as well. Um, moving on to action items 4A, consideration and possible action to delegate authority to the superintendent to negotiate the agreement between Sigin ISD and San Antonio Will Smith Zoo School. Yes, this is just to to give Dr. Lee authority to amend the contract and in conversations with

050myself and Dr. Lee and the CFO from Will Smith San Antonio Zoo School. We want a couple things um added as a financial addendum. This way we don't have to keep coming back to you if something changes. Is that a financial addendum for Sigd or for the Zoo School? Both. Can we just tell in generalities what exactly we're asking for? Yeah. So, um they to move forward with the program with less students than originally agreed to. Uh they decided to do away with the budget requirement that they had previously asked for. Um we rewarded um we're going to look at the state funding at the end of the first six weeks for all of the eligible co-enrolled students at Sigin ISD and Will Smith School. That's a little different. And um also want to be

051sure and call out if there is any defic deficient funding that that is build back to the zoo school for their 85%. Yeah. What we've really pushed for more than anything else is to make sure that we were very transparent with the zoo school on what that agreement what that amount meant. The original agreement basically said that we were going to pay a lump sum to the zoo school to offset the enrollment cost and then at the end of the year we would do a settle up. Um, and the way that it was worded though, I don't think their CFO quite understood school funding much like enrollment versus attendance. Uh, and so we just wanted to make sure that there were no surprises if there was suddenly a payment back to us um as part

052of a decrease in enrollment or attendance or whatever else. Uh, we think that we've got it all settled now once we had a good conversation with them. So, we should be good. I think the last update that I got on zoo school enrollment was out of the 40 slots we were at 29. Um, which is pretty solid. It may be a little bit higher. I think that was about a week ago uh was the number. But like we're all set. This action item is really just to keep us from having to keep bringing you any type of change that happens. Although I don't really anticipate any other changes after we get this next one fully signed and everything else. Their CFO has probably learned more about school finance than she wanted to. Any questions? Madame

053President, I move to delegate authority to the superintendent to negotiate the agreement between Sigin ISD and the San Antonio Will Smith Zoo School. Second. Oh, that was a tie. I'm going to give it to Mr. Bright because I was looking his way. Okay, so that is a um a motion for Mr. Dwire and a second from Mr. Brite. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose, same sign. Motion passes 70. Thank you. I have had a request to move act uh item 4B to after close session. If there are no objections, I'll make that change in the order. Okay. Thank you. Sorry I didn't get to give you heads up about that, Miss Line. Um, so, uh, we'll move to 4C, designation of non-b businessiness days for public information act requests. Emily,

054uh, good evening, President Cretendon, Dr. Lee, and trustees. Uh, this is actually pretty simple. This is the same thing that we bring up to you each year in regards to our non-b businessiness designated days. And I probably said that backwards. Uh, hey Jeeoff, would you advance it real quick? Sorry. Would you advance the slide, please? Oh, I do. Huh? See, surprise. Okay. Non-B businessiness days for PIA request. So, this just means under House Bill 3033, which was from the 2023 legislature that we can choose 10 days that we do not have to count against our PIA days. Um, these are the exact same days we proposed last year. So, it's going to be the first three days of spring break, the first three days of Thanksgiving, and the first four non-h holiday days of the

055winter break because Christmas falls on a Thursday. So, that's it. Any questions? Just kind of surprised you guys didn't add anything in for the fall break. We did not this year. No, sir. Some of it really just has to do with we only get the 10 non- business days. Uh and so it just made more sense to keep it the way that we've done it. Uh as part of that, um we don't receive an over abundance of public information requests. I mean, we get them every now and then. I know, knock on wood, right? Um this is probably my busiest time. the beginning of the year. We get we get quite a few that are more with staff lists and contact information and things like that, especially at the beginning of the year, and then

056they ramp back up at the end of the year as retirement companies especially are looking for retirees uh to be able to do some of those things. And so, it's really just us designating a handful of days over lengthier periods of time to prevent us from running into the deadline while we're not here. That Christmas break especially is one of the bigger ones because we're we're out for the solid two weeks and becomes part of that. And just to be clear, we have done I mean this is not to toot my own horn necessarily, but also to really emphasize the um the work that we have here in our district that the teamwork that we have that we've been very good about meeting all of our deadlines spot on if not earlier. So people are

057getting the information that they're requesting in a timely manner and those 10 days really go toward whether or not we're going to challenge anything with the Texas Attorney General. So, as long as we keep in touch with the requester, that 10 days doesn't always apply. It just means that's the window that we need. You know, we can let them know it's going to take us a little longer. So, it's not been an issue. Madam President, I move for approval of the designation of non-b businessiness days for public information at EIA request as presented. I have a motion from Miss Duncan and a second from Mrs. Miller. Um, any further discussion? All in favor raise right hand oppose. Same sign. Motion passes 70. Thank you. We now move into close session. The board will adjourn into

058close session pursuant to the following sections of the Texas Open Meetings Act. 5A. Pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.071 551.074 551.129. 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. 5B, pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.074, discuss personnel matters, including appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of an employee. C. Pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.07 072 discuss the sale, purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property. And D, pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.0821, deliberation regarding a public school student. Uh, we're going into close session at 7:19 Okay, we're back uh from close session at 8:45 p.m. Um there is um no action there in 6A. Um, moving on to consent

059agenda. Consider and possible approval. Um, 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. 7A, approval of board minutes of special meeting July 10th, 2025, regular meeting July 22nd, 2025 and special meeting July 29th, 2025. 7B approval of tax collection reports for July 2025. 7 C approval of proposed budget amendments August 2025. 7D approval of donations received July 2025. 7E designate the chief financial officer to calculate the new revenue tax rate and the voter approval rate for the 2025 tax year in

060accordance with tax code 26.01C [Music] said officer previously prepared and published all required notices and calculations. 7F, authorization of agreement between Sigin ISD and Thrive Learning Services in the amount of $12,600. 7G, 2025 2026 student code of conduct. 7H, consideration and approval of school health advisory council, SHAK annual report, shack goals and committee members. 7 I consideration of approval of certified appraisers for the 2025 um and 7J acknowledge public information act requests July to August 2025. Are there any items that a board member would like to remove from the consent agenda? I would like to remove uh item 7H consideration and approval of school health advisory council annual report chat goals and committee members. Okay, so that's 7H. We will pull that and discuss that after the rest of the items. Any other items? I

061move that we approve the consent items A B C D E F G I and J. I have a motion from Mrs. Miller and a second from Miss Duncan. Any further discussion? All in favor raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes 70. So now we'll go to 7H. Consideration of approval of school health advisory council shaq in a report shackles and committee members Mr. Sylvius. Well, good evening. Good good to see you, President Kittens. Uh members of the board, superintendent Dr. Lee, it's good to be with you guys. Thanks, Miss Burns for pulling it. You know, it's a sincere pleasure to speak with all of you always. So, um it's great to be with you guys tonight. So, I think all of you have a a pretty um significant uh relationship with the

062SHA committee. Our our newest board member, Mr. McGuire, your your wife has served on it, but I think the others have have either participated or or have been a part of hearing some of our annual reports. So, uh a lot of this is uh kind of ordinary routine, but but uh to Mrs. Burns uh pulling the the agenda item. I really appreciate that because it does emphasize the importance of of student health and and addressing all of those foundational needs that we know are so important to to the academic goals that we have for our kiddos. So, um it's a great opportunity to to put this forward uh so the public can can be reminded of how important that is. I'm gonna ask Jeff if you don't mind just um jump to Oh, do I

063have a clicker? I do. Thank you, sir. Um, so Texas Education Code, uh, chapter 28, section 28.004 requires that you as a school board appoint a minimum of five members. Um, and of those members, the majority must be Sig parents. So the concept here is to really engage the community um in a way to hear the values of the community as it relates to sometimes some really um controversial topics related to everything from sexual health to health instruction uh to child nutrition. And there continues to be more and more opportunity for the shack to be utilized as a sounding board for you to really uh the values of the community. So, it's a it's a really a wonderful opportunity that the state provides for you as a school board to have an advisory board that

064reports directly to you. There's there's very few boards that or very few committees that work on behalf of you and report directly to you. On the the board on the shack, there uh needs to be a chair or a co-chair um that is a parent. So, we've been fortunate to have a chair that has been a parent and he gets nominated and and elected several years in a row. Um, he's done a great job for us. Mark Dibble has done that the past several years. So, we'll put that to a vote again this year pending approval of a new slate of members that you'll see in just a moment. Um, in addition, the board of trustees is required to hear an annual report where we can share with you the goals that Jack has and

065any achievements that we'd like to highlight. So with that, Jeff, do you need to press those for me if you would please? With that, I'll go into the annual report. So as a shack, we have four goals that that we try to anchor all of our efforts around. The first being to promote student nutrition. Um the second is to increase opportunities and access for physical activity for all students, staff, and the community. Third being oh thank you increased parental and community involvement to include support of coordinated school health and the shack and coordinated school health is it's uh another state mandate that is required for pay to 8 um and in sigin ISD we have adopted the catch curriculum and that has been our adopted curriculum for for many years um it's a evidence-based program

066out of born out of UT in Austin and is now being managed by a global foundation. But it's a it's a great program and we we're very satisfied with that. Um and then four, educate the whole child with health and wellness at the center of academic achievement. Um this year the achievements that we'd like to highlight, we spent several several meetings talking about uh a triannual assessment of our wellness plan. And to make sense of what that is, the wellness plan guides us as a district. And the wellness plan is is a requirement of any school district that's receiving federal funds through the child nutrition program, but the assessment is of the wellness plan, not necessarily an assessment of our practices, but an assessment of our plan. Um, and so we we had to remind

067ourselves of that several times. And so what we're doing when we're reviewing the assessment is we're looking at our plan and seeing does the plan provide enough detail for us to really give direction to the practices that are happening within the school. I'll give you an example of one of the topics that we spent a considerable amount of time on. There was a question about does your wellness plan address caffeine and our wellness plan did not at the time address caffeine. there are some protocols that that can be put in place on the wellness plan to say we're going to allow this amount of caffeine to be a part of of the diet. And so that was one of those things um where where we needed to decide if the wellness plan was going to

068be edited to have to meet all of those expectations that um and let me let me back away. Sometimes in the the assessment there might be some reasons why you might say no that doesn't really fit our goals. We we don't need to measure that um because it's not relevant to us at this time. So, so we looked closely at that um and that took several meetings. Um and then we did a complete edit and revision of the wellness plan. One of the attached u addendums for you to to look at tonight. Um we welcomed new members. So, it was a great year to have new participation on the shack. New faces are always a wonderful thing. Um and so we are excited to have some new members. And Jeff, if you scrolling up a

069little bit. Um, I want to thank all of the the members publicly. I won't read their names, but but those names are listed uh for the public to to view and we thank them all for their service. And then the last uh achievement that we always like to highlight is that um we're so thankful for the great efforts of Jacob Galvan and the child nutrition team and and we really appreciate working closely with with the child nutrition. So, we'll pull out of that annual report and move on to the SHAK applicant list. So, we posted the Shack application early in the summer and we kept that open as long as we could until um we needed to turn in the agenda for the board meeting tonight. And so, what you have here is the uh

070first 21 names that were that had signed up for application uh to the And all of you also in addition in your packet have a copy of the applications. We did not make the application content public but um we've summed it up there. As a point I want to re uh talk about the representation column. That's one of the questions that is asked on the application. Are you representing an organization that you would like to mention? And some people did list it. So you can see where some people say sigen ISD employee. I didn't want to add any words that were not their own. So if they left it blank, I left it blank. If they added words, I put them there. But you'll notice that some people might be a sigist employee, but they

071did not claim to be represent representing Sig. So that's not So that is the the roster that we're um putting before you for potential appointment. those 21 names, you you do meet that five uh minimum number and you also meet the 50% requirement to that that must be um parents of current sigenist kids that are not teachers or employees of the district. So they really want to engage the community here and not be biased by the input of the employees. And then the last exhibit, I'm not going to Actually, the last two, I'm not going to read these in detail because they're multiple pages, but I want to provide you a copy of the bylaws. The bylaws are a guiding document for us as a school health advisory council. So, they we always share them

072with you annually, but there have been times when we need to provide edits to us. It just gives us context to how we operate our business. It's more of an administrative document for us that that we can vote as a shack to make amendments as needed to that. And then the last uh is the wellness plan with the edits. Um and again that's multiple pages. Um but if you recall not only what we were tasked with was assessing the wellness uh plan um and not changing practice. So we added some language in there and you'll you'll recognize there's longer caffeine. So, I'll pause there and ask if anyone has any questions. And again, I want to say thank you for for pulling the agenda item so we can talk about it. I just have one

073question. Is the wellness plan approved by the board or just approved by the shack? It's just approved by the shack. Yeah. So, but we definitely want you to see it and and we because the shack is an advisory board to you. If there's anything that that you would see in the wellness plan that you want edited, that certainly would be a a good task for the shack to take on is to to meet those needs. Um, and to to really live into that. And I want to add one more level to this. all of you as board members and and maybe you're doing this already, you have the right and and I think it's a really a good opportunity for you to really if you have constituents within your area that you would like to

074say, "Hey, I really want your input into school district decisions." The SHA is a great way to engage community. So, you can invite them to apply that way. Thank you. And they can also attend the shack meetings but not serve on the actual shack. publicly uh open. They're public meetings. The membership, the reason for that is to hit forum if we needed to take a vote. We always want to hear the community's input, but if we needed to take a vote that was uh a potentially um significant decision that you needed to really gauge the membership that you've appointed, that's where that roster of names would come. But certainly anyone could attend the Shack meeting and say, "I I'd like to share this as a community member on that topic. Thank you so much. Thank

075you, Madam President. I move for approval." All right. Uh have a motion to approve uh from Miss Duncan and a second from Mr. Dwire. Any further discussion? All in favor raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. Because we moved um the action item we uh 4B uh we will take that up first. Um so uh before uh the action items in eight so lines good evening board president Dr. Lee and board of trustees I'm going to review the district and campus improvement plans. Well I'm not going to re review all of the campus. I'm going to review the district, but you do have copies of all the campus plans. How we do the district improvement plan? We look at some data points. Uh we assess the comprehensive need assessments with demographic, the

076academic achievement, progress um and programs and then perceptions. DIC then reviews these and comes up with the goals and the performance objectives. Our first goal is to increase the percentage of third graders who go to meets in our star reading from 36% to 55% by 2027. Then our performance goals for the year is to increase our third grade in meets reading from 38% which is our 2025 ratings to 47% by June 2026. Then we'll go to increase our RLA in English one two and our EOC from 41% to 47% by June 2026. And then our last performance objective is for our K2 in reading and proficiency using our RENSTAR assessment form from 40% to 48% by May of 2026. And we'll do the same exact thing for our math, raising our third grade level or

077above on star math from 28% to 52% August 2027. And then we have our three performance objectives for third grade who scored meets or above. will go from 35% in 2025 to 41% in June 2026. And then we'll increase our third through 8th and algebra scores who meet on STAR from 28% to 35% in June 2026. And then for our prek 2 proficiency in math in Renstar from 29% to 41% by May. I'm sorry. I was looking at the ones we've gone up to so far. Um and they're all like six 7% but 29 to 41. That's pretty significant. Yeah. So I so we have I can actually tell you we have about 1,544 K through2 students. Okay. So we have,544 students in K through 12. We didn't take Renstar last year. We took Ice

078Station for K through 2. The platform for the assessment this year is RenStar. So, in order to make the goal for 2027 at 52%, we're going to have to raise our students in Renstar platform, which is a a little bit different platform. It's still a screener. It's still the same type of assessment. It's a different platform. So, it has the Lelo Freckle um adaptive learning. So that the students actually have a faster rate of growing. So we have to add 170 more students to our existing 633 students that are proficient. So we're adding 170 students to proficiency. Correct. It's because that it's because that student population is smaller in comparison. So, it takes less to get that percentage up is what it is. Yeah, it averages out to 170 students. Then for our CCMR, our

079college career and military readiness, uh we want to increase from 58% to 80% by August 2027. We do have three components in CCMR. We have our TSI, we have our IB certification, and our dual credit and AP courses. So, we want to raise our TSI from 29% to 42% and our TSI math from 24% to 32% by June 2026. Our IBC from 26% to 40% by June. And our dual credit from 23 to 37 and our AP from 9% to 15% by June 2026. And then our last is to improve our well maybe not our last but to improve our student parent and community and staff satisfaction determined by a district survey. The first one will to improve student satisfaction by fall of 2025 and fall of 2026 to be determined by a district survey.

080And then two and three. two is parent satisfaction and three is staff satisfaction and just so community is clear and stuff we're devising those surveys um instead of using the outside correct we're no longer using Gallup it'll be a district survey and then our last one goal five based on school performance framework our QSA our campus tiering from 80% or more of Sagena ISD students will be enrolled in a tier 1 campus or tier 2 campus by August 2027. Our performance objective is to in increase the percentage of students enrolled in a tier 1 tier 2 campus from 62% to 75%. improve district attendance by 2%. And realize a 5% drop in discipline infractions for this school year. So, so looking at this, like I I don't want it to be a thought that where

081we're not reporting discipline and fractions. Like I want to make sure that our staff is aware like This is like over overarching idea but at the same time like I'm not going to sacrifice discipline in the classroom to for this objective. Correct. And we are um implementing some training for our APs and our principles coming up real soon on some of that topic. That that also came up a little bit in that DEIC meeting as part of that that that performance objective specifically um is not necessarily about reducing um recorded discipline infractions as much as it's about reducing student behaviors that result in discipline infractions. Um, and so already, uh, we have started that process of, as as Miss Lions mentioned, uh, working with our campus administration about us setting district-wide expectations for behavior and

082how that works. Um, I'm a big believer, I said this about accountability. You have to look at the data and respond to the data appropriately. Um, we got to have the data in order to be able to respond to it. So, if we have more discipline referrals, that's how we know what we need to respond to. it does. The goal is not necessarily to reduce the amount that go in the system as much as it's to reduce what's happening so that we can avoid those types of behaviors more than anything else. And so we we've got an idea and a plan in place um to start working on that specifically with campus administrators. I just I just I've seen it seen it previously like where things just happen and I don't want that to be

083the case. I I don't even like seeing a discipline thing as a performance objective because I think discipline is discipline and if you start trying to and I know that comes from the state and there are things that the that the part of the accountability like they can hit us on having too much discipline but I will take that hit all day long if we are as long as we are having a good safe educational environment for students that that's the priority. Sure. Yes. I have two questions and I'm so sorry that I didn't do these in advance, but they literally just came to me in rereading this of the 15th time. So, um, the attendance percentage, so are we raising it by two percentage points? Like it's 90% and we're going to 92% or

084we trying to raise it 2%. Correct. Which one? We're raising it going from 90 to 92. Two. Okay. So, it's it's two points. Okay, perfect. I just want to make sure we're all speaking the same language. Yes. And then um we had some numbers for dual credit and AP and I wanted to see we added on-ramps. So, are we counting that in the dual credit numbers? We didn't have on-ramps when this was um going through the process this summer. Um, we did get our application and it's up and running and going. So, it will be added to our dual credit piece because it counts as the same type of CCMR point if that makes sense. And it also hit me that we probably need to update the policy for the waiting of the GPA for

085on um that is actually that's TEA. they are rolling out a new policy for how classes are weighted according to AP dual credit all the advanced courses. So, um there's a hold on that and so it should be out hopefully by the end of September. I just didn't know if we needed to update any of ours that we just get to wait for them. Yeah, we were going to but we're waiting for them so we don't have to update twice. Perfect. Yeah, we wait. We'll wait until we get that from the TEA. That was a law that was passed in this most recent legislative session that talks specifically about GPA calculations. Each district has their own local decision-making process. Um, what I would caution and what I anticipate happening even with it coming from TEA

086is typically when you make adjustments to your GPA calculation policies, they go into effect with incoming freshmen so that you're not changing the rules of the game for students midyear. Um, so you wouldn't change how you calculate GPA for seniors because they have gone four years at that point, three and a half, four years almost uh with the way that it's calculated. So, what I expect is that we'll get some guidance from TEA to make that uniform across the state. Um, but I don't expect that to take effect until potentially next year's freshman for those changes. Would we adjust, like I said, for on-ramps, would we adjust because those kids are taking a harder class, correct? It's weighted differently. We've never had it before. It just it just depends. We'd have to look at it

087and we'd have to give legal counsel just to make sure that we're not creating a situation. I if it's labeled as like a dual credit course, then it would probably fall right in line with it. Um you just got to be cautious of if a student took a class already and then somebody else gets the opportunity for a weighted class that didn't exist when they had the opportunity like it could turn into an issue. So we just got to make sure that we follow that process correctly. Thank you. It gets really complicated. Student rank. Yeah. Yep. Any further questions? Thank you. It's an action item. So I will entertain a motion. Madam President, I move to accept the DIP and CIP as presented by administration. Second. I have a motion for Mr. Bright and a

088second from Mrs. Miller. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. Now we will move on to 8A, personnel action, professional employees. Mr. Newman. Good evening, board. I just have one uh professional employee to present for recommendation. It is uh Troy Bear, our new or for construction manager position. Any questions? Be very exciting to get a construction manager. Sure. Liz Liz will Liz will throw a little party. I can't see so tall. Okay, yeah, it's actually Madame President, I move for approval. Second. Um, I have a motion for Miss Duncan and a second for Mr. Dwire. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Post. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. Next we have 8B 2025 2026 fine arts stipen schedule recommendation Mr. Newman and Dr.

089Parrot. We're pretty excited to present bunch of compensation this evening. So we'll get started with uh fine arts. Good evening board. Uh President Dr. Lee, thank you for having us tonight. All right. So, just some information on the fine arts proposal. Uh, an evaluation of all fine arts stipens has not been completed in many years. I do know that there's been some spot checks here and there, but um there's there has not been a complete research and overhaul of fine arts in many years. Um the proposed stipen schedule moves away from duty days and held harmless is built into the new proposed stipen. So we're moving away from duty days uh for this particular schedule that we're presenting. Uh goals of the fine arts stipen proposal is to show the fine arts team that we

090value and appreciate their work and to show our employees and the community that fine arts is important to Sigin ISD. Uh our justifications uh Dr. Parrot met with each member or each department within the fine arts to receive employee input and determine workload. You'll see that on another slide where um it's super fine. You probably won't be able to read the specific information on it, but it shows where he uh really dove into each department on u on the specific workload. We research compensation with comparable districts and salary surveys to set stipen amounts and stipens are proposed based on fair and equitable best practices. So I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Parrot to talk about these next two slides. Uh so when uh I was on the I was on the phone call

091for the board meeting in May sitting there with my wife and hearing the new fine arts director will take care of this when he gets there and and I sat there and said I have a task tomorrow. So I we started this pretty quickly. Um what we what the the process was pretty intensive. Um took all the information I did not create anything brand new. Took all the previous information that was created. um uh with the previous finance director and the previous HR person um took that and analyzed to make sure everything was correct. We found some glaring mistakes. They were not by uh they were not intentional mistakes. They were just things that were left out. Um uh some numbers that were uh incorrect. Something that really stood out to me was in a

092comparison to New Bron's high school head band director was listed at 1600 on the original presentation when it's 16,000. um that will cause some really drastic changes really fast. So, I wanted to make sure we got all the numbers correct um and then started to look at the workload of of all of our teachers. Um during that May meeting, we had lots of teachers who came in and said, "Here is what we do." Um I did push the idea of looking at required events, events that the district or that the community felt were required. Um I won't say who I used as our as our uh model for who would be our person who would say yay or nay. So we went up to that person and said, "We're going to cancel children's show." Uh,

093what would happen? And everyone would say, "No, you're not doing that." So that's what we use as our sniff test. If it was the 14th program twice removed, we may not always need to do that every single year. We wanted to narrow down to the things that were absolutely required. When I finally asked all my people um what they what they were supposed to be doing every year, we noticed some glaring challenges that there were just some a lot of events that were required and we wanted to match the compensation for that. So I made a couple of changes. I'll jump down to number three first. Um I wanted to add a siphon um for our color guard director. our color guard director has not received a stipen um in Sigin ISD and there are

094many districts around us that p that have a color guard uh director as a stipen position. Just wanted to make sure that that was included to honor the additional work. You'll see her uh her list in a little bit of the additional work there. Um I did make a reduction. Um this was made uh by looking into other districts that uh gave visual arts a siphon. So I wanted to make sure that I did this intentionally. Originally, it was posted at $1,200 per teacher. Um, which would have put it at the the exact same amount of work expected as middle school theater. Um, that would have been a a really robust amount of outside of school activities for art. Um, which I haven't seen before, but I wanted to start them somewhere that honored Vay,

095Junior Vays, um, county fair, all the competitions that they do, they do go to the extra days, um, to make sure that it made sense. So, that was a reduction of visual arts. um not by much by a little bit. Um we also in we also increased our our um number of visual arts teachers in the district or secondary arts teachers went from seven to eight. So we did addition there and there were many that I saw that needed to boost for a couple of reasons either for the to match the hold harmless clause that was put in place. While hold harmless was defined it wasn't defined enough to make sure that we knew how it was going to work. The primary challenge is we had two teachers that would have been positively affected by

096holdless. That would have been our our high school dance and our one of our middle school headband directors because they were staying in their current position. We had two teachers that could potentially have lost money based on this. Um so it would have been a middle school director who went from assistant to head and our headband director who went from assistant to head of high school as well. So because it was it was not completely defined, we wanted to make sure that we uh put that work that into our schedule so that we remove the hold farm list and we match with a a flat rate that makes sense. Um there were also some groups that were not part of the conversation. I want to make sure that they were included. Um that includes uh

097cheerleading and dance which are now going to be officially fine arts groups. Everyone knows I love cheer. Everyone knows I love it. Um, so there were some changes that we made. Uh, as you can see all them listed right there. And then we can take a look. Never done this before. Okay, it's a lot. Um, put it in perspective. Um, items that are green are uh events that happen during the school day on school campus. pep rallies, veterans day, things that don't take an additional trip in some capacity. Yellow is during the school day off campus, and red is everything that happens outside of the regular school day. Um, that one kind of square in the middle, that's high school band. The first one of the first items up there is just labeled as nine

098football games. If I listed it all out, it would get a little too much. Wouldn't fit on the screen. So I asked everyone to to put their input. Um what are they working on? What are their their uh semesterly activities? There is a separate slideshow or a separate uh uh form for uh elementary. The majority of the elementary groups are doing at least three outside of their uh regular workday. So once I took this in perspective, I started thinking about um what's happening around us. we did compare to districts like San Marcus and New Bronals since they're our two most comparable districts in size and activities. Um but I was really I was really moved by the questions that were asked during the the May meeting which were how do we know what we do

099here in Sigin ISD um matches meets beats whatever any other district around us. Um, I took that to heart along with how do we know that every school is doing the same amount of work. And so this is now labeled as our uh expectations of excellence. I love a good title. So this is what is expected of our programs outside of just the normal classroom the classroom teaching. Uh and then we're going to be doing a year-long study of our surrounding neighbors mostly San Marcus and New Bronals to understand what is it that they are putting out and how does it compare with Okay, I'm not going to read them all out unless you want me to, but um the new proposed stipen schedule is an increase of 23,55 to the current. Um, and then

100one note that I want to make is the current sip stipen schedule amounts include the cost of duty days. So that's what you're seeing. It's 23,55 over the current, but we included the duty days in in that amount. So um, you can see the dollar amount from what was proposed in May and then the new proposal amount. Mr. Newman, Dr. Barrett, um, could you possibly touch a little bit on some of these positions are seeing a larger percentage increase than others on like how that number came to be? So, for example, like I'll use, uh, choir director that's showing like a 25% increase or the theater head director that's seeing a 50% increase versus some of the others that are seeing like a significantly larger like how did y'all determine what was the best option

101there? So, we started looking at our surrounding data. Uh, the task data was was was good. U but we were also looking at those two surrounding or the surrounding districts uh what their average was going to be. Um so we were trying to meet or beat the averages. Um some of these things like head high school band director used to be a stipen of $8,000 plus 33 extra days. So transitioning from that into a flat rate of 1600 16,000 does look like a 100% increase but it's actually about like a 15% decrease from what it was three years ago. So there are some there are some modifications that are missing the extra days within there. Um some of these when we were looking at um the additional work that uh specifically theater was a really

102big one looking at the additional work that was going on there. When we compared out all of the organizations, we started kind of it was it's hard is apples to oranges, but we started looking at how many additional extra days are required of events and start to try and piece together what that looks like in in a monetary value, which it's a challenge. It's not going to be perfect, but it's a a much closer representation of the work that's being done within our programs. And so with the hold harmless, that is included in the new proposed stipen amount or the teachers that are getting the hold harmless are getting that on top of this new proposed amount. So the hold harness was worked into the final proposed amount that you see in the green. Um

103so for our uh headband director was proposed at 11,000 head high school band director was proposed at 11,000 their hold harmless would have technically put them right at about 17,000 plus. Um so after communicating with him about like that how the hold harmless was not completely uh explained with was it going to be the current position or the future position. Um we we landed on 16,000 because that is the average within the area. Um the other people who were affected by that like our head uh our head middle school band directors that is with working in the the highest paid old harmless what that would end up being. I have a question about expectations. Um looking over the expectations for choir and mariachi. Um choir has a stipen of 5,000. Mariachi has a stipen of

1047,000. Um compare those to high school and cheer, which um high school dance is 8,500, high school cheer is 6,500. The the list of expectations um choir and mariachi are significantly smaller than high school dance and cheer. You kind of talk to the rationale between there not being a bigger distinction between those amounts. If you kind of look at it per hour of expectation, it looks like there's a much higher value assigned to choir and mariachi than cheer and dance. Um, it's kind of in the same way that I looked at uh the difference between head high school band and and assistant high school band. They're doing the same amount of work, but the the averages across the area, their pay is much closer to the the proposed amount. Um, so same thing with Mariachi.

105across the area does receive traditionally about a six to seven six to7,000 um stipen whereas cheer has such a wild a wildly varying amount that it's when you pinpoint it it landed closer to that 65007,000 um but one of the things that we are trying to do this year is start somewhere positive and then do the research and see what is actually happening within these programs to understand are we meeting the expectations the expectations and then going back and reviewing those um more often than every 10 15 years with that dance and cheer are $2,000 difference between the two of them. Is the same thing is that dance is traditionally high school dance is traditionally a higher compensation than cheer. Dance was one of the challenging ones because that was the one where we had

106to work in the whole harmless um because the director is staying in their position. Um, if we had put them at the proposed, which was, I believe, $5,600 was the original proposed back in May. Um, if we had left them there, they would have been losing $3,000. U, we do have two brand new cheer coaches at the at the high school. Uh, but again, now that they have been since this is a how we describe a recent absorption into the purview now, we're actually going to be looking at it more and trying to find a if there needs to be an an increase after we work with this. I'm just going to be honest with you on this one, like looking at the duties and everything like that. Um, and I understand like propeller guards

107and you getting siphons and stuff, but if we're doing like I'm just kind of looking at all the duties just going along with like high school football games, you know, that's high school high school color guard, high school dance, high school cheer, all doing football games. And then looking at like mariachi, high school mariachi has a fall concert, um pep rally, and then middle school recruitment for the entire you know what I'm saying? And then like and then the color guard getting like 2,000 but yet still has almost all the same events as the high school band or high school or high school cheers or about time maybe more. So I just I don't really feel like I still think there's some work on equity here through the program um as far as amounts. Can

108can I clarify something because I think it'll help with Mr. Bright's point. So those are the expectations. So those are the ones that you said you boil down to things that we couldn't lose from those. Those aren't necessarily an exhaustive list of all the things that they do. Because for instance, I could look at it and say there's no improv for theater. But if that's something where yeah, if you tried to take away children's show, that would be a whole different story than if you said, "Okay, we're not going to have an improv troop this year." Um, so it's the things that are expected as the baseline, not necessarily all the things they do because if you see all the things that Mariachi plays at, they play at so many events. But that's what I'm

109talking about. I'm talking about the expectations. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm saying like we're expecting high school cheer, high school dance, high school color guard to do nine football games, but we're only expecting high school mariachi to do one fall cross one fall concert, some p and then middle school requirements. Like that's the expectation. Whether they do more or not, that's great. And a lot of our programs do a lot more than what's actually on this list. And I know that. But our expectation is those three people or those three groups are at all of the high school football games. They're at all of the meet the match. They're at all the pep rallies. They're at their own shows, their own competitions. Um, and I just I don't feel like the expectations is equitable necessarily for

110what's being provided at the site. Yeah. And so our big process this year is to make sure that we are analyzing what those expectations actually end up being. So in those in that list, that's what I sent out to the teachers. What I got back is is what I got back during the the busy season. This was during July when they're off duty. Um, that poses a challenge whenever we're trying to request things from teachers outside of the the school year. Makes it makes it a slight challenge. Um, but there also comes from from knowledge of the programs themselves. I I can also openly say that I I wasn't sure how far we were able to push. I was I want to make sure we understand that. I was not sure what my limits are,

111especially since this was a a fun gift I received before I started working here. Um, so I want to make sure that I like we are really going to be digging into this. There's a this is a long research process to actually make sure that what we are doing is appropriate and that we are able to compensate our teachers appropriately with my the way that I'm observing these programs is much more intensive um where I'm trying to go see I should see every single teacher every so they'll get they'll get seen. I'll be at all their performances all their all their events. I just want to make sure that they we are really dig into one what is the what is the average of area around us to make sure that we're not just wildly

112overcompensating, but also looking at the programs that are happening here and looking at the programs across the area and making sure that we are excelling beyond what other programs are doing. But I agree, we we want to make sure that we're also modifying that list of expectations to make sure that it is equitable across all. So will it help if they document is this year pretty much going to be research up to the instructors or teachers to document everything that they do as far as for example I want I did this event for five hours on Monday that that may help you in the long run. I am I'm leaning away from hours because I I agree with Mr. Newman when we've had a conversation about that there are if we say I work a

113certain number of hours I rehearse a certain number of hours that may be a required amount of hours. It may be something that we want to make sure I just need those extra five hours just to make sure I'm I'm comfortable with it. Um so we more about the events. Um we want to make sure that we're we're basing on the events that are necessary and required. So some of those are required like tech rehearsals. Some of those are required rehearsal processes. We also want to make sure that we're not trying to include every as a choir director in this district. I would have loved an extra 150 hours of work with my kids. Um I just wouldn't it wouldn't have been necessary. So I want to make sure that we're that I'm working with

114the teachers directly so that they can classify what they are feeling is actually necessary. So at the end of this year when we come up with a final number of this is actually how many events how many extra days that we can come back to this and look at it again and say were we correct or do we need to continue? Uh yes, the events will be the documentation and my observations of them will be and the conversations and the meetings that I'm having with every teacher. We're having coaching meetings um pretty often so they're able to I'm able to see their events. I just want I think for for me as a board member is it's really important to me that what we're expecting teachers to do they're being fairly compensated for. And so

115if because of the stipen, because of budget constraints, we can only get we can only pay this much of a stipen, I would like to make sure that the expectations we have of them means that they're still being fairly compensated. And so it may mean that the theater we can't compensate. The stipen doesn't include what did you say about the theater? The improv. It might not, but the theater teacher can still do improv, but just know that's above the expectation. Um, I think it's really important to kind of move that direction to make sure that whatever that stipen number looks like is that we're fairly compensating for what we're requiring, especially across the board when somebody with three events makes way more than somebody that has 25 events on this. Yes. And that's why also

116I don't think there's ever been a a dive like this in any district. Um, I I've spoken to a lot of fine arts directors and this is not something that's happening in their district. There is a something they inherit. So, we're going to be paving the way in a really interesting in an interesting way, something new. Uh, but it is it's going to be really valuable because I agree like we want to make sure that what our teachers are being asked to do is compensated fairly. Um, and and that there's at least an understanding of how that compensation compensation reflects the work done. I don't I don't want to speak for Dr. Perro or or for Mr. Newman by any stretch. I think that if we were to sit here tonight and say, "Hey, you

117can triple those stipens." That he would do it in a heartbeat. Like, let's be very clear there. I think Miss Banks may have the heart attack back there, but everybody else would be good. Um, Dr. Parrot, just has anything like this ever been done here that you know of like that's even documented what some of the required events are? I got no I've been with the district for 10 years in some capacity either as an observer or eight years as a teacher. That has never been asked of us. Thank you. Yeah, I I know how much work and care went into this. So, we appreciate it tremendously. And I know yeah there'll be some things we'll we'll have to adjust but we'll have the knowledge to adjust things as needed and that you know that's

118a huge u win. So yeah board and I know that you also have another action item that has to do with compensation plan but just just for your information um and Miss Banks Mr. Newman will probably talk about this a little bit, but we will have a compensation plan review um that is done this year also that's going to look at all of these things again to compare us with everybody that's in outside TASBY will come in and do that for us. That will just be more data for us to look at as we make adjustments or changes because we may get something wrong. It may not be at the level that it should or we may have something that is too high and we just don't know it yet uh until we get some

119of that information. So, just I just wanted you to have that information. Any further questions? Sorry, did you have something to say, Mr. and just lastly, the goal is to have a thriving fine arts program at Sigin ISD. Madame President, I move to approve the 2025 2026 compensation plan. I'm on the wrong one. Fine arts stipen schedule recommendation. All right. I have um a motion from Miss Duncan and a second from Mrs. Miller. Any further discussion? Uh I just want to say is that I do think the fine arts is very important to our community. me it's very important to our school district. I think that this is a great start. Um I think we have some positions that are being fairly compensated and I hope over the course of the year um is that

120when we see this uh stipen schedule next year is it some of those other positions there's a bump up in those stipens um of the expectations. All right, seeing no further discussion all in favor raise your right hand. Oppos same sign motion passes 70. Thank you very much. All right, moving to 8C 2025 2026 compensation plan teacher hiring table pay grades and substitute pay. Mr. Newman and Miss Banks. All right. So, we started out with uh substitutes. We paired down the substitute rates. We didn't pair down the rates rather, we raised the rates, but we paired down the schedule. Um, it just was a little bit complicated. And so, uh, as you can see on the right hand side, the 2425 group versus the 2526 of what we're proposing. We did pull substitute rates from

121several surrounding districts as well. So, that's how we decided if we needed to go up or down. Um, probably six or seven different districts. We pulled all of their rates. Um, and as Mr. Newman said, uh, we kind of had a lot going on in 2425 as far as classification of people and it's a little hard to manage. Um, so we wanted to streamline it more. So, I'm gonna let him talk a lot about this because I mean, I know he hasn't been here for very long, but this guy is super smart and has learned so much about our compensation plan and I don't want to embarrass him, but he's I mean, he's phenomenal. So, he knows more about the compensation plan than I do and he's hasn't been here for very long. So, um

122I'm just going to let him go through it. Yeah. So excited to come here right when HB2 threw a wrench in the system of compensation. Uh so uh starting out we had to we Liz and I went round and round on this. We had many hours of meetings. We decided the best thing is to pull nurses, librarians, and in instructional coaches off of the teacher pay scale and move them to our professional pay scale, which is the P1 scale. And then um counselors, we ended up moving to the P2 scale. And that really was based on looking at what um the compensation was of our current nurses, librarians, and instructional coaches. and um our counselor as well counselors as well as looking at TASBY studies and other schools. Um we decided to go with a

123straight um recommend a straight 2% raise on the daily rate for those people. So not off the midpoint. That's important because we'll talk about um what we're offering for um the non-teers, but to make it fair for those uh folks that were on a step scale, we decided that it should be a straight 2% increase. And just a side note, um there's a handful of those folks that were on uh so our pay scale on years years 8 to 9 and years 28 to 29 are a huge jump for whatever reason. So we're going to make sure that um no one goes down in pay or that 2%. So years 8 to9 is slightly over 2% and years 28 to 29 which we didn't have anybody 28 to 29 but we do have a couple

124of people on the 8 to9 scale they're going to we're going to give them what the step would have otherwise been which is slightly over the 2%. And then uh CASBY uh is going to do a study. We're set to start sometime this year, I think early this year. And I think that's going to be uh helpful as well to just give us more guidance on compensation. Pay scale and then the other is the um the actual pay scales. If you want to kind of look at those to we're going to talk about classroom teachers now, but um those nurses and librarians were on the teacher before, right? And counselors were there but not it's kind of convoluted. So again, we're trying to streamline by the way that we're moving things. So for the future,

125would the pay scale for librarians and would would that stay up the same uh proportion that it would have if they stayed on the teacher pay scale? To go up. Okay. But they'll fall in with the regular staff in correct. I just want to make sure we weren't putting inadvertently putting them on something to where they hit some kind of wall. And you know, I love librarians. So, I mean, I love everybody, but um keep up with and Jackie's right there. No. Um I um it's something I I just know a little more about just like some of the other things. So, I just want to make sure that some of the that we're not accidentally pushing somebody off into something inadvertently. Sometimes when I can't see all the numbers, it makes me nervous, but

126I trust. Well, when we go into the attached exhibits, I can uh point that out for you as well. Just to clarify that. So, nurses, librarians, and instructional coaches, and counselors, by moving to a different pay scale, no one's salary will decrease. But there's actually more of an opportunity to improve. Is that what I'm hearing? So, it'll be in line with what like uh like if y'all were to do a 2% midpoint as we're recommending, it would be in line with that like it is for all other staff. The hard thing this year is that TEA is saying well the legislature and TEA is enforcing it that we have to give teachers a larger bump and they are not including librarians in that or counselors or me or custodians or anybody. So they teach classroom

127teachers or what TEA is interpreting as classroom teachers. They are going to see a higher raise this year and we can't give it to everybody but we wish we could. And to be clear with what Miss Banks is saying like that is per the state that is I mean we would love to uh be able to do that. I think I can speak openly and honestly and that our goal would always be to give as much compensation as we can to our employees to make sure that they are set um and to do the best we can to keep us competitive and everything else. And in this case, like the state was very clear on what the teacher retention aotment can go to and what they will fund us for and what they will not

128fund us for. For every other employee, they're giving us what $40, $70. It's like a So we get $270,000. We and $270,000 that is supposed to be spread out among every other employee throughout the district that is not a teacher a classroom teacher that's teaching for half the day or more. So a quick question we would was the district had more flexibility if the legislators would have increased the per student aotment and that's what they didn't want to do. Well, actually they increase but barely. H hand hands down. Um as a superintendent, as as a CFO, as a chief human resources officer, if the state were to ask us what you want, like what would work best for Sigin ISD in any district in the state, it would be give us the lumpsum amount of

129money that you want to give towards pay increases, and we will guarantee you that it will go to pay increases. We're not going to use it to buy tires for school buses. We're going to pass that along to employees. uh they don't trust that schools will do that and instead assigned it specifically to PE's coding. So we only get that funding for individuals that are coded very specifically inside our PES data. And that's where the struggle is for us. Uh because we want to be able to give it we could I'd give $5,000 to every single employee in the district if they gave us the money for it. We just don't we didn't get it. So uh we gave uh for the increase on the teacher scale we did the step plus the teacher retention

130allotment. We noticed that a lot of other schools were were building in the last year amount and the teacher retention allotment but we ended up giving them the entire step increase that's on there plus the teacher retention allotment. Um, and then for steps 0, one, and two, we added a 1250 increase. That's just something that the school is is putting in there. That is nothing that the TRA is giving the school. And so then um and then we're adding in a new uncertified teacher hired after September 125 pay scale basically to put them at 55,000 and freeze them. Our practice in the past was that we were putting them on the teacher pay scale even though they were uncertified and um giving them increases. For those who are currently uncertified and are at the school,

131they're frozen for the 26 27 until certified. So we are not taking away compensation even for those folks. Um I asked this in a different meeting but I'll ask it so we we can hear it here. So does that include our district of innovation like CTE and people like that? So you're saying those are uncertified like the they're considered certified so they're not going to be frozen. Right. Perfect. That's that's correct. CT is a carve out. One thing I wanted to point out on the step plus teacher retention aotment for classroom teachers. So do you understand what that means? Like our teachers were moving up a step and then we gave them 2500 and some school districts are not moving them up a step. they're just giving them 2500 more than they um made next

132year. The reason or the reason that we decided to do that is because we pulled uh teacher salary schedules for area districts and looked and we wanted to stay competitive and we were not going to stay competitive with what we consider our competi compens uh competitors if we didn't do that. Um smaller districts if you remember got more money um if they had under 5,000 students they received more money than we did in the teacher retention aotment. So, we're trying to stay competitive with some of those districts. Does that make sense? Okay. To to go back to the carve out the t the nurses, librarians, the group of four, are we competitive with those rates where they are because they're not receiving the increase? Yeah. So, so we he's going to show you where we

133set the their pay scale. We set that according to our current staffing. We looked at their years of experience and their salary and we have kind of a wide range. So, we were that that was great information, but we also pulled um a study from TASBY, which is Texas Association of School Boards. We we have them coming in to do this salary compensation study, but we can kind of do some of our own and we do a lot of what they do just in smaller increments and we did that to make sure we were competitive and we were. Keep in mind that's old data. So yes, so we'll look at that again. We set our scale according to our staff and a raise, a 2% raise, but we will re-evaluate that when they come and

134do the study. And it's a great year to do the study. I had wanted to do it last year and I'm so glad that it didn't work out because now we have a great year to compare to other districts. This current one is the teacher pay scale and you can see where the teacher retention aotment kicks in and you can see where we put the uh the 1250 on the 01 and two scale. It also makes it look a little cleaner as far as the dollar amounts going all the way down. Uh if you scroll Jeff scroll down all the way to year 30. Yeah. So remember that number the 75700 which is at the 30year mark. If you go Jeff go to u the bottom uh or the the next sheet there. Yep. So

135this is the uh professional scales which includes the pro proposed 2% if you remember on P1 and you probably have to calculate that because I didn't put the salary amount in there. Um right daily rate but that daily rate on the far end of P1 I believe that is higher than even that um for the teacher scale. So they actually have more potential uh as they move up in their years of experience than even what the teacher skill was. And so, uh, librarians, nurses, and, um, instructional coaches are P1, just as a reminder, and, uh, counselors are on that P2 scale. And the instructional coach stipen is on top of the P1. So, we were planning on taking the instructional coach's uh salary and building in that u stipen that's in their current salary and

136make that their base. So, they're getting that stipen like they were on the teacher pay scale which we there's been a lot of moves in the last couple of years um as we've done research there's there were different um goals different years for how we were going to pay instructional coaches. So, it's kind of convoluted. Um, so they're going to be that $3,000 is being considered when we put them on the pay scale. Can you go back to the teacher hiring table? I think I think there's an old I think you have an old one. Yeah, we took it off. Yeah. Yeah. So, so the classroom teachers with a master's degree um will be compensated an additional thousand dollars annually. We were doing that before. We'll still do that. Jeff, could you scroll down again?

137I already forgot what I read. Sorry. Right there. Um, and then we just talk about the current uncertified and new uncertified teachers like we did on the last slide. And then capping retirees at step 25. I have a quick question. So like an ISS teacher, where do they fall? It it depends on whether that ISS classroom is staffed by an actual certified teacher that's employed in a teaching position or if that is staffed by a paraprofessional um that's in that classroom for ISS, which sometimes does happen. So it it's going to depend on whether they're a pair professional or a teacher. Okay. So a pair of professional fall under the P18 category. I was just I have a quick question. If you go to the top of the slide, uh, zero experience for teachers. If

138I remember correctly, historically, we always were above surrounding school districts. For example, San Mos, New Bron Falls. Are we up there again or We are up there again. The trouble is is that what we were finding is we're pretty competitive with 0, one, and twoish, and then we start to fall off a little bit. And so that's part of I believe TASBY is going to come and help us, but um uh it's part of us including the 2500 on top of that step so that we can be externally competitive. It's like Miss Banks and Mr. Newman said that the challenging piece of it is going to be that we have folks that other districts around us like Navo ISD is the closest one that I can think of that their pay scales were competitive with

139us. Um but we were always above them. They're now getting $8,000 per teacher instead of 5,000 which the legislaturator's intent and design was to make it competitive whether you're in a rural smaller school or a bigger urban school. like that was the intent of the legislature was that those smaller schools could make as much money as the larger schools. Um so it was designed that way. What we're going to find is that we're probably going to end up being a little bit more competitive or have other districts that are more competitive with us than what they've traditionally been based off of them getting significantly more funding than we are. Jeff, can you go back to the slides? And I did check. We have ISS aids and they're on a C2 pay scale. So pair professionals

140are are hourly employees versus daily rate employees. So, I think we talked about it a little bit, but the 2% off the midpoint raise for all other staff, pair of professionals, clerical uh and auxiliary support staff and administration. We also um are recommending that we do a one-time $500 stipen for full-time employees and a $250 stipen for part-time employees to be paid on their prospective November payroll. Happy birthday on Linda's birthday. And I guess and and the approximate cost that we have is uh 4 million. But if you have one um for for every percent we go up, it's about 300,000 total cost to the district. Just so you have that in your mind. Um just looking at what other area districts and just districts across the state were doing, especially dealing with a budget

141deficit that we thought that 2% was in line. We're hearing 1% some 3%. I mean, it can always be all over the place, but 2% was kind of what we were hearing. Um, and we're going to the next slide, I believe, um, is it kind of explains the midpoint because I know that's always something that's really hard to explain to people. So, I wanted to go through that. Um, not that you can't ask me questions on that last slide. Um, but, um, I wanted to explain the midpoint. And this is a slide that we're going to email to all of our staff along with a graphic that we have going out for whatever the compensation plan uh, is adopted uh, to kind of explain it to them. But basically, a midpoint is a best practice

142so that you don't have employees growing growing growing beyond um beyond what other employees are growing. So this this is an example. If you have a pay scale that's the minimum is $8, the midpoint is 10, and the maximum is 12, just like those pay scales we just showed you, then everyone's going to get a 2% raise on the midpoint. So 2% of the midpoint is off of $10, which is 20 cents an hour. So no matter what employee is that employee is making, if they are in that pay scale, they're all going to get a 20 cent raise. If they're below, they're going to get a 20 cent. If they're above, they're going to give a 20%. Otherwise, you have staff that might be closer to the maximum getting a 2% raise and they're

143going to grow f and it it's inequitable. So, we did not do that with the staff that had not been on a pay scale prior because we did we wanted to make sure that they got um their little different situation because they didn't have a min and a mid and a max. Does that make sense? And and part of the reason we thought about the November um stipend, I know that's something that I mean every every school district likes to be able to do that, but that also gives us some room after TASBY comes in and does a salary a compensation review. That's money that we're just giving this year. So it's not an annual expense in our budget. So that gives us a little bit more room, you know, like $600,000. TASBY will make

144recommendations for us to become more equitable maybe over a fiveyear period. So that gives us a little bit of money to put towards that plan next year. We're happy to go ahead. Oh, in previous districts where I have done a compensation plan review, TASBY actually does what they call equitability adjustment. Um, and they are specific for positions that need to be adjusted based off of whatever it is that they do um where they're compensated versus where they compete with others. Um, so it's not just about adjusting pay scales. It's also about they look at individual employees in their position and what their hourly rate or daily rate is comparative to other positions that are similar. Not just like what we're talking about is over one full pay scale. They'll dive into individuals and give that

145that equity raise or that equity increase or no increase or whatever it is depending on where they fall in that scale. I have a few questions just about implementation. Um the first one being is that uh it's a little complex about where everyone sets. So if you're an employee of the district and what how do you find out exactly what you will be making? Yeah. So, tomorrow I'm gonna get a whole bunch of emails and they're going to be like, "Hey, can you tell me what my first paycheck is going to look like?" Um, so this is a complicated process. We are literally going to put we have a spreadsheet of every employee in the district and we're going line by line uh to make sure that there's no holes. Ideally, we want everyone's first

146paycheck in September to be correct. I don't want to say that's impossible, but it would be quite amazing if that happened because there's just too many things. So, um, as we get emails from people, we're going to I'm going to answer them as best I can. I don't want to take away from being able to implement the program for the district, but we're sending out information in an email tonight that will hopefully give them an overview, an explanation of the midpoint, and just trying to get their questions answered ahead of time. And I'll be honest, I've heard from a lot of employees this summer already. Um, so hopefully, I mean, they'll be able to log in. The way that our system works is after everyone's paid off in August, as their information gets put into

147Munis, which is the system we use, they can log in once it's live and they can see what exactly what their pay is going to be. So, we will make sure that they know when they can log in and do that. And that's typical. We'll have them sign off on it. And then when this is effective as of September one, so it's it's hours work from September 1st. So employees that are on a July contract will it'll be retroactive if like I'm a July one so it'll be retroactive. August will be retroactive and September ones wouldn't teachers for instance don't get their first paycheck until September so they won't have anything retroactive for July and August but other employees will employees that work year round. hourly employees would be they're they're in both um situations

148where they're year round and September, but they'll um if if they're a custodian uh or maintenance person that works year round, then they'll see retroactive pay for July and August in their September paycheck. So, their September paycheck will be higher than what it will be in October. Thank you. Any further questions? Thank y'all. I know this was a lot of work and um I mean thank you. I could not have done it without Mr. Newman. Like yeah great and you know as Dr. Lee said I think uh yeah we'd give everybody so much if we we had it be fun. Yeah that would be that would be fun. Madam President, I move for approval of the 2025 2026 compensation plan. Second. Um I have a um sorry I just want to make sure that would

149include the teacher hiring table, the pay grades, and the Do you want me to say it all? I'd feel comfortable. Well, it wasn't on the screen and I couldn't see the paper, so I It's now right in front of me, so I won't read that. No, that's no judgment on anyone in the gallery back there. Madam President, I move for approval for the 2025 2026 compensation plan, teacher hiring table, paygrades, and substitute pay. I still second. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. I It just makes me feel better. I um that is a motion from Miss Duncan and a second from Mr. Brite. Any further discussion? I just would like to observe I feel like Miss Duncan used her radio voice on the second reading. It's true. I am who I am. All in favor? Raise your

150right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes 70. We'll have some happy employees tomorrow or tonight if they stayed up to watch. All right. Um 8 D, adoption of order setting the tax rate for 2025. Uh and this is just adopting the tax rate as we do every August. Again, it's our maximum compressed tax rate which is set by TEA according to our property value growth and then our six golden pennies and then our INS rate which is also staying the same for a total of 1.0828. Any questions? Which is no change from last year. No change. It's the same. Madam second. Right. I have a motion from Mrs. Miller and a second from Mr. Gheta. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Post. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. Thank you. All right.

151Now we move to 8E. Discussion and possible action on homeschool UIL participation. Uh Dr. uh board, before I uh jump into some of the explanation, um I just wanted to apologize to our friends who had to sit here and wait until the evening uh late in the evening when that was the one item that you were looking for. I I deeply apologize. Um in fact, a lot of what they said uh is going to be some of what I addressed uh what I addressed. Part of this uh House Bill 547 um was that initial bill that allowed for school districts to opt in to allow homeschool students to participate in those UIL events. that that really took effect for the 21-22 school year. The most recent legislative session is where Senate Bill 401 came into

152effect um and was passed. The primary change with that bill for Senate Bill 401 to Senate House Bill 547 was that school districts were automatically opted in uh for allowing homeschool students to participate in those UIL events. Um and what the law did is it gave us uh deadlines as school district to opt out each year rather than opt in. um otherwise we are automatically opted in and that typical deadline moving forward other than this school year will be August 1st. Um this school year is the only time that it is set as September 1st which is why it's so late on our agenda. Um and that is because the law really doesn't take effect until September 1st uh based on that legislative session. Um I think it's it's important to acknowledge a couple of

153things. Um, anytime that we are talking about students, um, children and their ability to participate uh, in anything is is a very important discussion. Um, I'm the superintendent for Sigin ISD. Uh, and as as uh, Mr. Bison, I hope I said that right. I hope I Bezenbach Bison, I apologize. Uh, as Jason pointed out, does that work a little better? uh as as Jason pointed out like I I do I deep I I deeply believe uh in the ability for students to participate in events. Um I think that that that's incredibly important. The reason that I think it is so important though is that is often one of the things that get them into the doors for school for us to teach those English, math, science, and social studies. Um, as the as the superintendent,

154my my responsibilities and my roles and my role relies heavily on me doing what I think is best for the students that are enrolled and the students that attend Sigin ISD. That is not to discount students that do not, and it's not to discount parents that make decisions one way uh or the other. Um, I don't always agree uh with everything that happens out there, but I respect individuals rights to make those decisions that they believe are best for their family. Um, that they believe is best for their children, just as I would want to do as a parent, too. And sometimes that includes wanting your children to do homeschool rather than than public school um or private school rather than public school or whatever that is. Um but as a superintendent, my recommendation and

155and my my responsibility is to do what I believe is best for the students that are enrolled. And I I think that in this case um what is best for our students is that we continue to operate as we have done in the past. Um that we continue to to opt out for this year uh as we move forward. That is the action that we took last year. I think that that's what's best for our kids who do attend Sigin ISD right now. Of course, I would welcome any student, anybody who lives in the district to attend Sigin ISD to take part in all of the great things that we have happening, not just the extracurricular events, but also the education that happens in the classroom. Um, and I know that that is a um

156a passionate thing for everyone, whether you're a parent that has kids who attend or you're a parent that chooses not to have your children attend, that's that's 100% yours. But um I also recognize that being in a leadership position sometimes means that I have to make recommendations that not everyone agrees with. Um and not everyone thinks is the right recommendation. But that's that's that's what leadership is is sometimes making the hard decisions or the hard recommendations. And so my recommendation is that we continue to operate as we did last school year and we opt out of allowing homeschool students to participate in UIL events. Could we pull up the proposed um resolution? So you can see that. Thank you. Uh are there any questions for Dr. Lee? I I'm gonna ask a question. Do you

157see I know that this year there's a lot of changes going on with the new high school principal, new superintendent, everything like that. As we move forward and and as things progress to um a better level, if you will. Um would you see that this would be an opportunity that we could explore in the future? I I think that there is I think that there's always the possibility that we could explore something into the in the future. Um I don't believe in just shutting the door every single time um or shutting the door now for for moving forward. Um you know, it it's a newer thing that's come about with homeschool uh and being able to participate. And so like I don't want to say yes, it will be a reality next year or no

158that it wouldn't be a reality next year. I think that it would be dependent upon um what is best for our school district at that time. Um and we'd have to get our group together. We'd have to look at it. We'd have to explore and do some research to figure out if we think that that's what's best or not. I know that's the most non-answer answer I could give. Uh Dr. Lee, I have a question as well. Um, with being the district six six weeks um and kind of a level of priorities, do you feel like uh opting into this would create some priorities that don't align with your current priorities for the district? But the the manpower time needed to I think that if we opted into this um if we chose not to

159opt out um could we make it happen? Yeah, of course we can make anything happen. I have a great team that would be willing to put in the effort to be willing to do whatever it takes to make things work as best possible. Um, we wholeheartedly believe in what's best for kids. Uh, I just think that in this instance, my recommendation is that it's what's best for the kids that are enrolled in Sigin ISD. That's my priority. Um, and it will be my priority moving forward. Um, I'll fully admit if I was the private school superintendent, I'd probably recommend what I think is best for the private school at that time. That's, you know, you're, if you're not doing a job because you're passionate about it, then I don't know why you would do it.

160I'm I'm passionate about public school. I'm passionate about my kids, um, being a part of public school. My kids attend here, too, and and do extracurricular events. Um, but they also attend school here every single day. Um, I don't think that it is fair for them to compete with students who do not attend here. Madame President, I move to adopt and approve the resolution as written in the agenda. Second. I have a motion for Mr. Dwire and I have a second for Mr. Geta. Any further discussion? Um, I just want to acknowledge that I appreciate um all of the feedback that's been brought forth. I think um feedback is always really good. Um I feel like that for me that this is not the the time um until there's some more sturdy things kind of

161developed um that are ready for us. But um I just want to say publicly that I do hope that we continue to keep that door open and keep discussions happening. Um with the deadline being in six days, it's it's very tight to do it. But I hope that in the spring um we can open up the discussion again and look at the potentials and possibilities. Uh yeah, echoing what Lisa says, uh I see this is a great tool for our um district to get access to some u outside exposures kind of like what Mr. Silvas did with the private public venture that we're doing with the zoo school um allowing homeschool students to compete with our UI. I don't think right now is the best timing for it, but I I think that it's something

162that we could definitely look at especially for some different programs in the future. And yeah, I want to say I appreciate um y'all meeting with us and talking and all the work that you've done. It it's not for nothing. This is um some great stuff to consider and look at. And I think there are programs where um especially new programs or small programs um where uh looking at this in the future is definitely something that could be a win-win for for everybody. We have a lot of people moving in um to our district that are expecting some some new things we've never had before. They're moving from other places in the country, so they're looking for wrestling and things that we've we've never done. So, um, you know, there's I played lacrosse. Um, and I

163had never heard of that before, uh, I got to college. So, um, you know, I think there's some some things to look at and and yes, I think it's a discussion that has to be had, um, throughout the year. Um, you know, we didn't hear I I don't know about anybody else, but after we we had the discussion, I didn't hear from anybody else until we came to this summer. So, I think for planning purposes and and um things like that, we would just have to um talk more throughout the school year. So, any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes 70. All right, moving on. I have too many papers. Moving on to 8F. First reading for consideration or approval of local district update LDU, EFB, EI,

164FD, FM, and FNE. Dr. Lee and The recommendation for the board of trustees is to approve uh amended local board policies ef local policies may be adopted or amended by majority of the board at a regular or special board meeting provided that board members have had uh written notice and proposed of the change. Do you have any questions on any of the changes to any of these policies? Well, just to add on there, what what you've got in front of you are just a handful of policies that are related to those legislative changes that have just happened um specific to uh UIL participation, personal communication devices, cell phones, that's what the state has labeled them as personal communication devices, uh library books and progress reporting. Um, none of these are are changes due to anything

165other than the legislative changes that happened in us making sure that we're in compliance with those, that our local policies match the legal policies. Right. And then what's in red is what's been stricken and what's blue is what has been added. Uh my only question on the policies was is there under the uh um under the personal electronic devices under compliance it is annually the superintendent shall report to the board on the implementation and compliance of this policy. What what does that mean? Yeah, it it basically means that every year we're going to give you um a report that just that implement that talks about how we implemented that. Um and so we've talked about that over the last couple it's in your code of conduct as part of that uh and just how we

166have complied with it basically that we're following the policy and the law because the policy now matches a law rather than it just being a local policy. It used to be just local policies on cell phones and now it's flatout law. Any further questions? Madame President, I move to accept the first reading for consideration or I'm sorry, I move to approve the local district update policies LDU, EF, EIA, FD, FM, and FNC. I have a motion from Mr. Bright and a second from Miss Duncan. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Post same sign. Motion passes. 70. All right, moving on to nine. Board comments and requests. Yes, Mr. Geta. I would like to make a comment on the most recent uh accountability ratings. I would like to acknowledge our students, families,

167current and former staff, and administrators for making significant year-to-year progress in several areas throughout our district. And as Dr. Lee alluded to earlier, the work is not done yet. There's still areas that need to be improved. Thank you. Um any other requests or comments? Seeing none, we move to 10. Move to adjourn. That is a motion for Mr. Bright and a second for Mr. Dwire. All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. 70. It's 10:23. Good night, everyone. Okay. I have two sign pages for signatures, gentlemen and ladies.