001I now call meeting school district order. Let the record show that a form of board members is present that this meeting has been duly called and the notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with Texas Open Meetings Act Texas Government Code Chapter 551. Uh quum in attendance is David Kea Megan Sullivan Andrew Riddle Julio and myself. We will now move on to item number three. Invocation. Please remain standing for the pledge of allegation. Please bow your heads and pray with me. Almighty God, we come together for the good of the children in our schools. Give us your wisdom as we make decisions that will affect them today and in the years to come. Help us work well together, recognizing that each of us, students, parents, educators, and community members are here because we
002love children and want what is best for. We ask for your blessing and your guidance. In your name we pray. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you. Item number five, public comments. Do we have any public comments? No, ma'am. Item number six, mission statement will be read by Miss Sullivan. Sherland ISTD's mission is to inspire, educate, and empower all students to reach their full potential and become leaders of the highest moral character. Thank you, Miss Sullivan. on to item number seven which is public hearing on proposed budget and tax for 2526.
003Thank you. Um Madam President, Dr. Howard, members of the board, staff, community members, this is a scheduled uh public hearing meeting and required u by TA final budget presentation for 2025 2026. The notice of the publication was uh posted in the progress signs and it and it was on June 13, 2025. Okay, one of the first things I want to start off with is budget assumptions. So there are three major bud budget assumptions used to uh project revenue. So the first one would be uh enrollment. So so we do meet with the executive director for data services, Mr. Rosinski. So the projected enrollment for for next year is 9,875. That's the top right hand number. From that uh enrollment, we do project what the membership would be 9,632. That is the maximum ADA the school
004district can generate. So from so from that membership we applied the 95% attendance rate and we come up with an ADA of 9,150. So this budget is based on 9,150. That's 150 more students than what we based the current year budget on from from last year from from current year. The second the second assumption is the property values. So these are preliminary values. These are provided by the county appraisal district. Now these values were as of late May, early June. Uh please note that uh certified property values won't be final until July 2025. So the the property values that we used were 5 bill167,292,952. Uh currently right now it shows about a 12.5% increase, but again these aren't final. We we do expect these values to come down after uh they're certified by the by
005the county appraisal district. When it comes to tax rate, we're keeping the same tax rate that we uh use LA this current year of 9575. So again, one of one of the key notes here is that once we receive the certified property values, we do go through a TA exercise and we should see some compression on the M tax rate. Right now the M tax rate, we have it at 7552. So we we should see some uh compression on it, but again we can't we won't realize that until the final certified property values are are provided. We go through a TA uh T TA uh exercise and they'll let us know what the compression is. So we do expect that to go down real quick. Okay, next question. So the board is required to approve
006the the official budget. The official budget consists of three uh different funds. the general operation fund, child nutrition program and the debt service. So here are those funds in the simplest form what we call by fund. Uh so the first uh the first fund general fund consists of about uh five different funds. They all start with the 100s, right? So that total general fund is 107,79,693. We we do uh show a balanced budget with appropriations in the same amount. The second fund official budget is the 240 child nutrition program uh 8,777,000 I mean 77,800 and again projected appropriations of the same amount and then the final official budget is the debt service 11,163,468 and again it is in balance with the same appropriations. So the total official budget of uh 126,950,961 So TEA does require
007us to uh uh submit that budget uh revenue by major object code. There are three uh major object codes. The first one would be 5700 our local revenue. So for the general fund that represents 37,161,840 about a little less than 35% of the budget that mainly consists of your local taxes, interest income, gain receipts, and miscellaneous items for the CMP program. Uh bund uh the revenue there for local funds is 330,000. That would be your paid meals, uh your auto cart sales, caterings, and miscellaneous. Uh just a little under over 4%. And then for debt service, uh 10,180,648 about 91% of the budget coming from taxes uh and and earned interest. Uh when you look at object code 5800, that's your state revenue. So for the goof 69,67,228, just a little under 65% of the
008budget. So that is our foundation funding that we receive from TA. For CMP, we do receive some commodity funds uh 28,500 900% and then for debt service we do uh receive some state uh funding 982,820 just a little under 9% of the funding. Uh when you look at your major obstacle 5900 that is federal revenues. So for general fund 940,661 that mainly consists of our charge program and then indirect cost rate uh which which is generated from the federal grants uh just a little under 1%. For CMP 7,719,300 so that is the federal funding uh from the uh USDA uh department uh a little over 95% of the budget and there is no state funding for that service. So once again, total official revenue budget 126,950,961. So when it comes to appropriations, uh TA does
009require uh require us to submit them again by object code. There are six major object codes. Um so the first one being 61 uh major object code 6100 payroll cost. So when you're looking at the GOF about 88,165,443 just a little shy of 82% of our budget is payroll. When you look at CMP uh 3,350,000 um about 40 just a little less than 42% of it being for payroll. And I'm not going to go through all of them, but I I'll point out a couple that I think are important. uh when you look at the uh supplies there are 6300 for goof 5,485,866 about 5% but when you look at CMP 4,249,300 just a little shy of 53% that would be all your all your food uh costs uh when you look at object code
0106500 debt service go 658,495 again a little less than 1% we do have two maintenance tax notes which I'll refer to in a few slides and then there is no uh debt service for CMP but when you look at our debt service fund we do have 11,163,468 100% of it goes to pay that's the only thing that you can use that fund for so once again we look at the total expenditures 126 million 950,961 TA does require us also to submit the the appropriations by major function code there are over 20 again I won't go through all of them but I'll touch on a few of them function 11 instruction for goof uh 58,948,454 so that's about 55% of our appropriations going to strictly instruction uh you see that that does not apply for CMP
011or debt service uh when you look at food service function 35 we do have some costs from the goof about 50,000 when you look at CMP most of the appropriations are uh belong to that the food service 1 punch code 357,782,800 and when you look at debt service uh again we do have some debt in in go 658,495 when you look at the debt service itself uh all of it goes into one function 11 million 163468 I do want to point out I should point out a couple when you look at function 41 uh uh 3,742518 So we do get rated on the expenditure for for administration and that's just about 3%. So we're kind of in line where we're supposed to be. So 3% of it. So once again we look at total appropriations
012by function 126,950,960. Next question. Okay. So I was curious what I was talking about. This is our outstanding bond or bond. So when you look at the fourth column there outstanding principle currently the does have 6 66,690,000 uh dollars in outstanding principal. Total debt when you do the the sending interest 84,87,795. When you look at how much of it is uh or or uh tax notes, we have about 1,980,000 in outstanding principal and then with interest 2,191,622. We do have one of our maintenance tax notes 2023 that is scheduled for another two two years after after the current budget. So we'll be done paying that off. So this is not a requirement but I do like to uh uh provide it. This is what we call our supplemental budget. These are all our federal grants,
013our active school care programs and our insurance fund. Um again in total 17,696,457 and again they are in balance with the appropriations for the same amount. Can you go back one time? Yes sir. I just want to make a comment uh on the 66 million 690 that we have the outstanding balance on the uh bond issuance since 2005. Um 2013. When was the last bond that we did for Pioneer? We did the Pioneer bond to 2013, I believe. 2013. That's when it came on the books. What how much did we owe back then? So, prior to the Pioneer bond, uh, we owed 76.3 million. And once we had Pioneer uh, come on, uh, we went up to $126.2 million. So, it's been about 12 years, 13 years, and so we're back down to to 66,690,000.
014Now, one of the things that we've done, if you look at the schedule there, is uh we have had several refinances and most of those refinances have been for that 51 $52 million of pioneers. And so, we've done a lot of savings for for our taxpayers, for the community. Uh also, the past three years, uh we have taken advantage of the fees. And so with our debt service, whatever we collected, we paid down uh as much of the bond as we could to uh to take advantage of lower interest in those years and really bring down that bond cost. And that's kudos to you and to the previous uh superintendent and previous boards also for doing that. Excellent. Yes, sir. We work real closely with Estraosa and they really look at our our our ins
015tax rate and they give us give us that guidance on that tax rate. Again, keeping keeping uh the community uh you know how they feel also, right, for the tax rate, maintaining it lower and and also also being able to pay down this bond and saving a lot of millions in interest payments. And they're still actively looking for lower rates, right? Yes, ma'am. Let us know. Unfortunately, in the past year or so, the interest rates went up. So, we haven't been taking advantage of, but mainly what they look at there is they look at the interest rates, and that's why I list them there. They're looking at the five the 4%. Anytime we can take advantage of lowering that down, you know, we take advantage of that, pay down the principal, and also, you know,
016refinance and and get those bonds at a lower lower rate. If I'm in a period of about eight, eight years, more or less, we've been able to basically get halfway down. Yes. And that's a short period of time. That's that's the exact comment that I wanted to make sure. Yes, sir. Okay, I think we got So So again, this budget was based, as we talked about in several of the work workshops. This budget was based on current law. Uh I know House Bill 2 has has recently been signed. Doesn't go into effect yet, right? But it's been signed. So these are some of the things that are still pending. uh as we move forward uh as I mentioned before the certified appraised values we won't have those till July 25th by law right once we
017receive those values uh then we can go back into TA and do the MCR calculation to determine what the actual compress rate is going to be for M and we can set the actual tax rate that we're going to need at the same time uh we'll be working on HP2 Saturday compensation plan well we're working on it right now but we'll have to have it finalized by August uh 2025. The same thing with other HB2 other appropriations that uh are built in. And then so in September once we go through those exercises, we'll have to come back and approve the official tax rate. And then also there is still something uh up for election. That's the additional 40,000 for the home homestead exemption. So again, that will take place in November. So all these all
018these items uh will have an effect on the budget we're approving right now. Again, this budget was based on current law at the time that we publicized it, right? And so again, TA does require us to submit a a budget by July 1, right? Because we're July 1 school district. So once we approve it, we'll have to come back and amend it more likely somewhere around late August, early September, depending on when we have everything ready. Uh one thing I wanted to mention uh right now this is everything I had but I did want to thank the board superintendent obviously the chiefs in the audience the directors and staff my staff honor because again this this we've had what four or five workshops and then countless of meetings in between right so so uh without
019their help we couldn't put this budget together u but uh just a big thank you this is a public hearing meeting so it is open for questions from the board or even the Hi Matt, I'm going to take us back to the revenue side. First slide. Um, you mentioned the tax levy was 5 bill167,292 million. Yes, sir. If I take the 0.9575 tax rate, that equates to roughly about $49 million in taxes in levy. In 2024, our tax ro was 41 million. Is that am I accurate? I mean, am I accurate to be an $8 million increase? Well, so, so, so if if you recall also when we did the budget, there was still some compression we had to come back and then also remember we had disaster pennies in that tax rate. So, those
020play into we had about 0317 in disaster pennies in there. So, once we figure that out and then we actually get the true preliminary values, that number should come down a lot. So for instance, the final certified values that we had last year were 4 bill590 59089 million. So we should see a lot of it come down. So you won't see that that big increase. Speaking there'll be it's still a big surplus. So so so there'll be an increase. Yeah, it will be increase. Yeah. And we see an increase every year because again our property values continue to jump. Doesn't necessarily mean that the district's going to see a whole bunch of revenue come in, right? Because TU will do is say, "Okay, you're getting more tax revenue. We're going to send you less funding,
021state funding." So, at the end of the day, the Yeah. At the end of the day, the pie is a pie. It's a Yeah. So, so let's let's let's assume it's 100 million even. So, right now, it could be showing, you know, $40 million in taxes. If the taxes go up, they'll just reduce the state values or state funding. So, we'll still be at $100 million. So, it's not true. So, again, that's what I'm saying. We'll we'll come back and bring it. But at the end of the day, uh the revenue that we project should be should be projected. And and just so you know, uh uh sir uh what we did is what we do is we we go through these revenue exercises with Mo Casey and Associates who is our one of our
022consultants, a team consultant. So we'll run our numbers and we have them double check those numbers, make sure that we're accounting for we're the middle class of the school district. you don't get the help on the housing and the food can't. So, it's it's always incredible on how we've been able to work the numbers and and survive as good as we have thanks to finance and the board including the superintendent of course. Yeah, having wonderful jobs. Wonderful job. I know it's a lot of hard work and I say this every year, but um you're um a plus and a treasure for this district and I really appreciate the hard work that you and your team have done. Yes, sir. It's a team effort. Like I said, we can't do it. Especially also forgot to mention
023HR. When 82% of the budget is HR, you know, can't do it without them. No, I tell everybody you're only as good as your assistants. questions. One more thing on the revenue. Sorry. You mentioned increase of roughly 150 students. Yes, sir. From year over year last year from the funding standpoint. Fingers crossed. Were we going to receive the same aotment we received last year for this year? No. So, so, so it'll be Yes. So, that that is not calculated in here, but what you see here is essentially yes, this budget if you just look at straight numbers when you take the 150 students more, you know, that's additional revenue. So, really though, the only way the district can really get additional revenue is if that 80 number goes up. And so I mentioned 95% because
024that's what we've been trending this year 94 95%. But if we were to go back to historical what the district used to do about 97 98% you're talking about a couple million more dollars just with what we have right now you know. So so that attendance rate is really really the true the true movement of revenue. 95 well 95 95 is actually what we're seeing right now. I guess accurate for now. It's very accurate for now. it's it's still lower than what we were precoid um and again we can say 95% all day but if the kids don't actually arrive at school and are there for attendance then we don't meet those numbers so even within the last six weeks of school we fell into 90 93% so it's really a catch 22 we can
025say it all day long project it all day long but it takes everybody so what we do m is throughout throughout the year we're monitoring that that attendance rate. If I happen to see that we're not even getting close to the 95% that we go back and look at the appropriations and we actually start you know adjusting saying you know what we can't we'll slow down on the spending we're not meeting it. So it is very critical but again you know in talking to Mr. Rosinski's department uh we think it's definitely attainable. We've talked about it several times with our principles to see what we can bring different initiatives for this coming year. So, we're hoping that we put some some of those things into play and and we can increase that rate so we
026can see that additional funding. Thank you, sir. Any additional questions from public? Thank you again. We went through this with um I'm excited about I know it always comes down to it balance but There's so much work that goes into it and there's been so much movement and change inside the spreadsheet, right? And and moving the columns and the cells around to make things uh look the same as the total but different inside that um is going to be for the employees and the students. So, thank you for for that work because I know it was hard and it took a lot of time. Thank you for that. And I believe that the all the communications that we provided to the public and to ourselves I think tremendously. I'm not having a lot of the
027public come here and question our budget. Okay. Then we will move on to item number eight which is reports item 8A legislative update. Yeah. Um the uh the legislative session just ended and there were uh almost 9,000 bills filed. Um a a lot of them having to do with education. Um and there's a whole lot that passed. About 30% of the state budget is going to public education. Um which is historic and it's great. uh uh but it also includes the state colleges, the junior colleges. Um it's not just K12. Some of the key bills that that were passed uh had to do with school finance, library books, parental rights, student discipline, safety, schoolboard governance change changes, DEI, designated protected time for prayer, mental health absences, standardization of GPA and rank determination, virtual schools, and
028prohibiting cell phones or any personal devices that connect to the internet bell to bell on public schools. Um, so we're gonna have have some changes to our student and staff handbooks, I'm sure. I know Hman, really quick, I just wanted you to add some color to something in the legislative update. I know it hasn't been passed yet, but you touched on it briefly about the the values and moving from 100 to 140. Would you mind kind of adding some color to that just for us and for the public to understand what that means when that pass? Yes, definitely. So, so our taxpayers and community, they they pay on the value of their home, right? So, right now for the taxes for the city, the ISD taxes, right? They say your house is valued at 200,000.
029Well, right now they have an exemption of 100,000. So, they're actually paying taxes on the difference 100,000, right? So if this bill passes now, same house worth 200,000 now they're going to get 140,000 in exemption. So they'll only pay taxes on 60,000 in value. So they'll apply that to the tax rate and the state makes accept. So so we Yes. So there's some homelessness and they'll make that adjustment and stuff like that. So again, if we generate less taxes, we're going to generate more fun more of foundation fun. So So that's how it work. Okay. Any more update? Okay, item B, committee reports. I don't know if any committee met besides goof I'm sorry before you go real quick skipped over Megan just had a couple questions on that. Have we discussed I'm sure you
030all have on the bell to bell cell phone and I know that's going to be well right to start with is that we are already starting to work how to revisit our current policy with regard to this. We already have policy in place that prohibits the use of cell phones during the construction day. However, the new legislation has changed the language and that it's really not even allowed to be on school property. Um, all that being said, the uh the solutions to provide secure lock down of these devices and take them out of the child's possession at the start of the day and return at the end of the day is not funded. I actually got information about that this week. Yeah, that there are grants available. It's first come first serve 20 million, right?
031We will notify schools with lower socioeconomic first. So, we'll have to really look at that. But what we are decided to do when we actually made the decision this morning is that we're going to convene a group of administrators and teachers because they're the frontline for this and um take their input on how we should best manage it so that we can have a consistent plan across the the district especially for parents have kids in multiple schools so that they know that the standard at BL is going to be the same standard at Pioneer High School like there's not going to be a question um and then that way parents aren't having to jump through a lot of hoops that they absolutely know. So, we're already going to begin the communications with that with our
032parents this week. Um, the finalization of the actual plan because we feel like the plan we have in place, the current policy, current procedures have been sufficient, but now we've got to expound upon that and the enforcement has to be a little more rigorous. So, that will be an interesting thing because um, again, it it takes some time to write kids up or to take phones out of their possession. There's concern about property writing that kind of thing for parents. We'll have something to you soon. I I had another question about it with the cell phone. We were I believe we approved I know we discussed I don't remember what the final decision was the digital hall pass. I assume a digital hall pass goes to a student's phone. No, it could but it doesn't.
033We're not requiring that. They'll do the check out on their Chromebooks. Okay. And more on hot topics designated time for prayer. How does that how is that being outlined level? So it's it can't be districtled, right? So we have to usually during the advisory period or at some point during the day. Um again, as these are coming to us, we've not received the official to the will be coming July 25th. Um Dr. has already registered to attend the legal meeting on this so that we can come back and make sure all of our regulations and policies. So it'll be in the nuances of the word the semantics of each of those legis legislative action and Lastly, Megan, you talked about library books. I didn't know if that was a positive or a negative as far
034as funding. It's not a funding issue. It's a requirement. Um, all of these legisl legislations are telling districts to come up with a policy that that does fill in the blank. Um, and for this one, it's a requirement to uh parent. It's tied in with parental rights. Parents um must be there must be a portal where parents can see every book a child uh checks out and when they return it. They can block they can choose to allow or not allow certain books. Um going forward, any book that is uh going to be added to a library must be board approved um and must be uh It's called a record vote where we individually vote uh not as a unanimous um and there must be a committee formed that includes parents, staff and I believe
035administration um to to bring those to bring any book to the board to approve. On the bright side we should do a lot more return books. Okay. And you will be well ready. On that note, Megan, thank you for always keeping us aggressive legislation. Um, I'm going to move on to item C for board operating procedures. And what I would like to do is appoint uh Trustee Megan Sullivan to um form a committee to revisit, refresh our board operating procedures. That's just part of our uh commitment to stay up to date with the public's know expectations of us and just really with as things are changing. I I'd like to ask you to form that committee and so we'll revisit that once. Thank you. Um, on to item nine, superintendent reports 9A, preliminary star for
03624. So, we're gonna just go rather quickly. I do have Miss Martinez here, our executive director for curriculum instruction and accountability, who will be sharing with you the most recent and Mr. I believe she built in your I think it's we're going to officially refer to that as the serta report. The last slide for you all for you. Good evening, Madame President, Vanessia, Dr. Howard, and board. Uh, tonight I am going to be going over the preliminary STAR 2024 2025 school year results. Um, we will begin with RLA, which is reading, language arts. So, what you have on the screen is you have every single grade level for RLA. You have the state, regional, and district performance. Um the district is in red and it will be in red in all the other slides. Um
037but what I do want to point out is that for RLA Sherland ISD does continue to show growth in overall reading language arts performance in all grade levels surpassing the region and the state. So I it was one of those tests we were really really worried about because of the writing component, but as you can see we're outperforming at every single grade. Great job. We're really proud of [Applause] um math performance. Um as you can see, um looking at the bar graphs, it varied by grade level in all areas in the state, region, and the district. Um we do have a couple of regional bright spots with our six eighth grade math, sixth grade math, eighth grade math, and algebra 1 EOCC performance. You can see that we really uh did well in those areas
038compared to the region in the state. However, um we do have an area of concern with seventh grade. Um it's not only for SISD, but it's also for the region and the state as you can see. Um and that was actually in the recent TAA, the to the administrator address, they did talk about um that 7th grade math did take a dip. Um, this year, for those of you that don't know or forgot the last legislative session, um, Senate Bill 2124 in the 88th legislative session, made it mandatory for the top 40% of the fifth grade math star performance, those students who are current seventh graders, to be placed in advanced math, so that way they could take algebra 1 by the time they're eighth graders. So you can see our eighth grade math did
039really well because that's a combination of seventh graders who were in that advanced math plus the eighth graders. However, it did have an impact on our seventh grade math performance. Uh this is our science and social studies. Uh fifth grade science does continue to be an area of concern across all three levels. Um sorry. Yes. C can we go back to that? Absolutely. Just just just numbers, right? Yes. So the same thing happened throughout the whole state. Yes. So on the on the blue and the gray, it should be up there also. So what what happened here, Mr. Soda, is that the state changed the law which said all the highest performing seventh graders will go into a combined seventh, eighth grade math, an advanced math, which left seventh grade with with high performance. So
040it drove the numbers way down. Sure. Um and that's what we saw. So same thing that happened at Sherine should have happened in the state. It did. It happened. You can see that 31 33 and 2. So I I would have thought that it would have Okay, that's fine. But we're still across the state and region. Everybody cratered because the kids were forced into this upper math. Um, and really the parents can choose to opt their kids out. And we may not have obviously across the state, region or district did our job to educate parents for the pros and cons of leading their kids in regular seventh grade math versus going forcing them up. Sure. And it makes sense. But I'm thinking on the sixth grade and the algebra uh being 10 points above the
041state, I was thinking, okay, we should have hoped our seventh grade as well. Um, now marry this with next year going in that there will And so we are very concerned. We're going to uh do a targeted effort to communicate to parents their option to opt out so that their kids may have a better fighting chance. Um it it's going to be great. There are going to be some kids that absolutely should be up in that advanced math because if you don't challenge a kid, they're going to get squirly, right? So making sure that they're there. But obviously having high performers in a classroom helps strive up scores for all students. Do you get to see other districts same eighth grade math performance level based on that opting into that? The entire state had the
042same set of rules. The only Did you see a 23% increase in like over over region in those other schools? You can see that we're unique in that because our high performers are really high performing. That's amazing. That's a huge That was that was where I was hitting. I would have seen we would have been high anyways. Yeah. Um just imagine if some of those high kids stayed back, they would have still we would have baked the 31 maybe 40 50 kind of thing. I was thinking 40 I mean 55. Yeah. 55 55 you know something that's huge. Can I share just real quick also for the sake of high school just so you know the challenge will be a lot of those high performers will have tested in seventh grade. So it counts as
043they were taking their you'll see in junior high. Yeah. So, even the that takes a lot of the high performance out of the out of the high school. So, just throwing that out there for and we all know how fun we all know how fun algebra is, especially Jennifer at it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um going back to fifth grade science, um that is an area of concern across all levels. Um if you are not aware the fifth grade science star test does incorporate TESS from third and fourth grade. So it is a three grade level uh assessment. So we are going to be working on building a stronger foundation in grades three and four to support our fifth grade science teachers. Uh that is just a heavily tested grade at the elementary because
044they do have three assessments. eighth grade social studies. Um, as you can see, it's still an area of concern across all levels. However, we are excited that we did finally add a social studies coordinator in January of this year, so six months ago. Um, so we are starting to see improvement with her really focusing um on the teaching, the instruction, and how to bundle TESS. Um, Mr. Keith, you were a social studies teacher, you know, up in my brain. So seventh grade is Texas, right? Yes, sir. And eighth grade becomes US history. US. And even US at the 11th grade level, US history, you see, I mean 70 is better than everybody else, but it's not quite. It was always a difficult thing that they have to cover so many teeth. It it's it's I
045think it's deeper than any other subject uh more to cover and so it just makes it really really difficult. Okay, that looks familiar. So this table here compares domain one scores across the state region and district. Um and just to remind you what domain one means, it's the average of the approaches grade level performance, the meets grade level performance, and the master's grade level performance. So you add all three of those uh percentages together, divide by three, and that's how you get your domain one score. So I do have the 2024 information there. Um and then I have the 2025 domain one raw score. So this is information that I pulled off the research portal uh for the state and for the region. So that way we can see how we compared. Uh anybody can
046go in look at any district, any campus and see how uh campuses compared. Um what I do want to stress and what we are proud of is that we do continue to outperform the state and the region in 16 out of the 20 assessments that are offered which is 80%. So we are doing really really well. However, there's still some areas of concern um and areas for early intervention and instructional system improvements. And those areas are fifth grade, RL, RLA, math, science, um seventh grade RLA and math, and then English one and English 2 EOC. So, those are part of our areas of focus for the upcoming year. Um, as we work with our campuses and our content coordinators, there's a I'm sorry, there's a writing component to English one, English 2, USC. Yes, sir.
047Yes. They actually have two writing components. They have a short constructed response as well as an extended constructed response because I have a daughter in high school and she came home from that and she said five words. She was short of the amount and that went from a five to a four. And I'm like, "Oh, come on. You got another word count. You got to count it." So like the formula was good, like her writing was good, but five words short created a a discrepancy. So and that's teachable. It's an easy fix, I think. And so at least in my mind, it seems like, hey, count your words, test, you know, come on, there's word count to this thing. So um and that's a very minimal amount. Yeah, the word count not necessarily. They are
048judging it based upon the content and are you truly answering the prompt and providing that? She was told that she came home to me and I'm not an English teacher, so I was like, "What? Why didn't you count?" And parents can actually see their students ECRS and SCRs um by logging in and taking a look at the at uh the student responses, you can see exactly what they wrote. Um we did send out a Sky Alert with the instructions on how to access it through Skyward. Uh you just click on the little link um next to your child's name and it will take you to their their portal that has all their information. English 2 is juniors, sophomore, sophomore. Okay. Thank you. The next slide, um, this is getting to the start of Mr. Seda's,
049uh, graphical data. Uh, this is our five-year longitudinal comparison. Um, if we go back to 2019, um, that's when we were at our peak performance. Then 2020, we all know what happened. Uh, 2021, that was the year of optional STAR. So that's why you see that huge, huge dip. And we only had a 77% participation rate that year. And then um STAR 2022 was we're back to normal. We're back in session. And then the state decided you know what STAR 1.0 wasn't good enough. We now need 2.0. So you can see how we are doing um in STAR 2.0. There is you know some progress but there is still lots of work um for us to do and to gain. Here is a graphical representation of of our performance. since 2019. The first blue line,
050the big thick one, that is COVID. And then the second one that happens between 23 and 2022, that is the change from 1.0 to 2.0. And that struggle with RLA is pretty consistent across the state from what I've heard. Yeah. And and there were increases across the state in RLA. Um this is just our performance. Um there's, you know, our goal is to get to a domain one score of a 60 because a 60 equates to an A. Thank you for doing this because really comparing ourselves to the state of always seen the same thing over and over. It's always the the previous slides that we always see. We're above the region. We're above the the state, you know, but we have never basically look at ourselves to see how we're doing. I'm just going
051to title this the Mr. Said this too. So I'll take I'll take a piece of the just the idea is for all of us to be on the same page and understand exactly what we're doing here. Comparing ourselves and you got to compete against yourself. Yeah. We're competing against ourselves. When you're the top guy, you can't get any lower than just competing against yourself. When you start going the other way, but back to me this way is freaking me out. But and it doesn't look pretty, but I know it's fixable. Yeah, we have a fantastic group of people that can fix it. So, do you see the the star 1.0 in 2019 those scores is that attainable with the star 2.0 or have they just complicated things like they did with theirs are different, the
052testing methodology is different. We're now in a digital world like it will never be like that again. Star 1.0 for all subjects was primarily multiple choice. The only writing component was in English one and in English two. And then here comes star 2.0. Not just the multiple choice, but now we have hotspots. We have uh text responses in all subjects. Uh we have inline choice. So it really does be and we have writing. I I forgot to mention we have the short constructed response uh not only in English but as well as in biology and US history as well. So, it really does become a reading comprehension test and you do have to be very very careful in terms of how you you answer the questions. And so, I really do encourage all parents, uh,
053staff members, especially if you've got kids. Right now, you can log into your students portal. You can see the exact test questions and you can see how easy it is for a student to get tripped up. They may know the skills because they've been taught them, but once you're put in that situation and it's just a difference of a word or two, for example, in the inline choice, it it it's basically complete the sentence when you drew a drop down and okay, do you choose the top word or do you choose the bottom word, it becomes really really difficult um to decipher and then if you lose focus for even a second, it it can make the world of difference. So you you go from star one op out to star two harder. Yes. That's
054a huge mountain to climb. And that explains those lines. Well, to me, okay, let's look at the red, right? Or pink or whatever that color is. And and we're we're dipping. We're going down. Yes, sir. And and and that's what I wanted to make sure that we looked at to to compare ourselves to previous years so that we can Yeah. Like they say in Spanish, let's put the batteries on and and and get this and we have three years of data to work. Yes, sir. What? Thanks. Thanks, Jennifer. Okay, so now we are at 9BH2. Um, I was just gonna circle back around and just as a reminder, um, HB2 does not go into effect. September one. So all of the budget presentation that you saw this evening is for current law. I just wanted
055to make sure that there was a clear understanding. Um the nuances of HB2 are still teased out. We've done a lot. Uh we'll talk to you a little bit later on in this meeting with regard to employee compensation. Um but there are some other caveats for increased monies that will be coming to the district. um but not in a linear line. And that is for CTE, special education, and early childhood education. And so as we become um a little more adept and understand how we're going to get our hands on that money, we'll be bringing that back to you. But it um in most of those cases, it's going to require that we start school, the kids enroll, and then we qualify. and it will be based entirely on enrollments in those programs. So obviously
056um and then it will not necessarily be earmarked for pay or um it may only be earmarked like the early child some of it's earmarked for actual materials. Um CTE has some that's going to be earmarked for actual facility improvements but again for our district lower middle class it does not look like huge money. So, I don't want anybody to be waiting in the wings thinking that we're going to get a windfall. Um, it was barely operational what we're seeing. So, I'll have some more detailed numbers. Again, we're waiting for the official um direction from TEA, the state has been to give us appropriate guidance on our implementation. We've already started HB2 though specific to HB2, but in addition to all legislative action implementation plan. So that is where we are scripting out what we
057know the law is going to require and then putting into place um administrative responsibility of who's responsible for the implementation of that portion of the legislative change to the school district. So I should have a report to you by mid July um that will show all legislative action and what our current response from the district will be and then we'll be sharing that out. Since you touched base on that, I know there was a big talk about the $88 billion that was divied out last month. Um, I wanted to clarify that it was divied out, but it came with designations and they referred to as buckets and the state decided this bucket is going to, you know, certain percentages bucket and that bucket. Um, yeah, I guess I just wanted to clarify that it wasn't
058a free-for-all check written. No, I I didn't get that email, but uh, yeah, it's it's definitely none of it. It's never linear and um some of the concern is is that equally with passing for additional money that then they hear tag and we don't actually get unless we qualify um they also pass a lot of legislative mandates that are not funded. So now we're tasked with having to figure out a way to implement or enforce and we don't have additional resources to do that. So, I will continue to say that help us buy toilet paper um still needs to be a conversation because we don't get additional monies to to operate and unfunded mandates is like sending your kid to go get the groceries without any money. No, but they have to get the food.
059They have It's a requirement, but we're not going to give you the funds to do it. Yeah. All right. So, we're gonna move on to consent agenda. And before I go and read everything on consent agenda, is there anything that anybody wanted to pull out to discuss the consent agenda? Yeah, I'm still I'm still a little bit confused on the tax collection report. In 2024, it reads that we had 41 million. Okay. Well, let me pull it out first and then which one is it? So, item B. Yes. Okay. So, we'll pull item B and then we'll come back to discuss that in just a second. So, first let me move through um item 10, consent agenda. 10 A, May 2025 month end bills. 10 C May 2025 financial reports D May 2025 investment reports
060E final budget amendments 2526 F previous meeting minutes F1 special meeting May 125 F2 regular board meeting May 19th 2025 uh G approval to renew RFP 2115 college board services H approval to renew RFP 212241 physical therapy services I approval to renew RFP 20 2223 -01 athletic student athletic and accident insurance. J. Approval to award RFP 24230 to technology uh technology supplies and equipment. K. Approval to renew interlocal city admission for six education resource officers for fiscal year 2526. L approval of interlocal agreement with South Texas College and Sher Advanced Academic Academy. M. Approval of agreement between city admission and shar for use for school year 2025 26 and amen approval to purchase branching minds and success package using a cooperative approved vendor. I will now a motion for consent agenda as well. I move
061we accept the consent agenda. Okay. I motion by second by Mr. Hector. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I posting sign passes. Now we can discuss item 10B May 2025 tax collection. Sure. I'm going to put you on the spot real quick. Um okay. So looking at this 2024 tax roll says our tax levy was 41,429,675. Yes sir. That was based off of a total taxes that were collected or budgeted to collect in 2024. For 2025 we have 5 bill167,292,000 estimated to be flooded. So that n575 tax rate. Yes sir. So when you when you break up the tax rate when you look at the INS tax rate from current year right the current tax rate for the current year was703 right because remember because the disaster pennies what we did is
062we took disaster pennies from the INS tax rate we moved them up to the M that was a one time deal we write so this year we work back to the 2023 tax rate so our tax rate actually goes up right and because you're if you're using this instead of 4.5 billion, we're using right now preliminary values of 5.1 billion. So you you have a higher tax rate and a higher preliminary number for for values and that's how we're calculating out the uh the tax rate. So it said that's 0 N575 figure fairly accurate as a tax rate. Yeah, that is correct, sir. But but I guess what I was saying a little while ago is we know that all that is going to change once the compression comes in. We'll come back and figure
063it out. And then once the uh once we have the actual certified values, then what we do is we meet with Esta and Hosa again and we look to see okay what is now the tax rate that we want to look at how much we and we adjust that. That's why we're going to come back to to the board with uh a tax rate in September that we'll officially adopt. So for budget purposes today assuming that 5.1 and that total taxes out there and that tax rate Is that accurate? Yes, sir. Is that accurate? That would bring in $49,476,830. That'd be an increase of roughly $8 million. Yes, sir. Now, I know I got somebody mentioned that that's not exactly That's where I'm It won't be because once the certified values come in, they're going
064to So, right now, the certified values are showing a billion more than we would actually get from from the actual keep. ran the delinquencies the delinquent pays also and those hit us too. So the reality is is that we have to approve a budget because of our fiscal year and we have always and will continue to always bring amendments back once we get certified values. So this is the norm we have to know it's completely on assumptions and not actuals until we get certified values. Yes sir. I think another thing also the homestead exemption kicked into that because again we approved it last year and they came back and adjusted let's say 40,000 I guess. Yes sir. So yeah, as much as I would love to say an increase to the budget and if it's
065gonna be and what they were what um H was saying before as our local funds increase they don't get bigger it's just split out the difference the more money you bring in the less they will take action on May 23rd by tax collection report. I've got a motion to approve a motion by a second by any further discussion. Just a comment, Andrew. Thanks for bringing that up. Like you do it consistently and appreciate it and I think the link is key. Um yeah, it's good. Thank you for doing that. All those in favor signify by saying I sign. Item 11. We will uh be splitting our closed session into two different sessions. Um our first session close session 11. I'm going to go through some items that we will discuss which is 11A personnel matters
066Texas government code 551.074 A1 resations. A2 employment of personnel. A1 no A2 A consider superintendent recommendations regarding employment and contract status administrative professional personnel. To B delegate hiring authority to superintendent for contractual personnel. Um A three discussion of employee public officer and or board member. A4 deliberation regarding appointment evaluation assignment duties discipline and or dismissal or district employee public officer employed by discussion. So you're just pulling C. Well, no. And then also okay C and those in a second. Correct. Um so I'm sorry. All those in favor signify by saying I Motion passes. session session 12 a discussion possible action on closed meeting items. Yes. I uh madam president I move that the board that the board of trustees approve the administration's personnel report including the assignment of certified staff resignations and employment contract recommendations
067for the 202425 and 2526 school years. Motion by Mr. David Ke. Second by Mr. Winda. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. Opposing sign passes. Yes. Uh second motion. I move to delegate delegate hiring authority to superintendent Dr. Howard for contractual personnel. Okay. I've got a motion by Mr. David Key. Second. Second by. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by say I post sign passes seven. Madam President, if we could take a moment to introduce some of the um wonderful hires uh in tonight's uh personnel report, I'd first like to start and this one is bittersweet. Um uh but I think that when we think about who we are as a district that we can look within to find talent and to move that talent to a place to better
068serve the district. So, uh, tonight we are announcing Miss Laya Cobson as the new director of campus improvements. [Applause] She has served our district as a teacher, an assistant principal, a principal, and now as a director um at the service center. We gave her every option to change her mind, but she still said yes. So, we're excited about that. Um, Miss Cersonson will be assisting um uh our administrative services department and offering um compliance oversight for the uh TIA or the teacher incentive a lotment program. Um she will also be supporting with professional development um implementation of of initiatives at the district level, I'm sorry, at the campus level and then also um just providing some student support as well. So uh she just put on a really big hat and so we're very grateful
069for you Miss Congratulations. I know a word of he will never be the same without you and that leadership and you'll be missed, but thank you for stepping up for to take this position. So, congratulations. Congratulations. Absolutely. Wonderful job at you've been there for a while. She opened it years. How many? 18. We should change the name and the only to and I'm also very excited to announce Mr. Um, George, uh, I'm sorry, I'm drawing blank. Gonzalez Gonzalez, I almost called you Selenas, but it's because I'm looking at somebody else. George, if you would stand up. Uh, and he actually goes by JL. J. Yeah, JL. So, Mr. Gonzalez is joining us as our new director of safety and security. Um, we are very excited. Uh, he has an extensive history in law enforcement and
070most recently with Border Patrol. Um he is a proud father of Cherryland ISD students and a proud husband of a Sherland ISD wife and so we are excited to have you joining our team. Uh Mr. Gonzalez will also be serving in our administrative services department with Dr. Henohosa. Um safety will continue to look very different here in the district and uh we have been so impressed with his connections. He's already established connections with law enforcement and um his awareness and and his comprehension of what new safety requirements for school districts uh look like in the future. And so we are excited to have you joining our team. Both of these positions will um transition to um the service center at the return from our break. And so we are very excited. But as officially tonight,
071we will be making those public announcements. Um the next position [Applause] um we are also though they're not with us in meeting tonight would like um introduce our new director of accountability in our curriculum and instruction uh department. This gentleman is Mr. Sebastian Bouet and he is coming to us also from La Hoya ISD having had extensive uh uh experience with um not only content um work but also in testing and accountability. I can't underate what that actually means because at the end of the day it's all of the performance data for the and how that's reported to the state. Um, and so his extensive data analyst background is going to serve us well. So, we're really excited that he is joining our team. And then I would also like to introduce our newest assistant
072principal um with us tonight. We will be hiring two. Um, the first one is Mr. Alejandro Karanza. Not related to any Karanza, but he will be working at Pioneer. So, Mr. [Applause] So, I I have this little thing where I interview people, but it's actually they've been through one or two interviews and then he come meet with me. And I can tell you that uh I I just felt such a connection with with the educator heart that this gentleman carries with him, his passion for students, um especially for um migrant students, bilingual students, um and students at risk. I think that he really has a place to be able to them uh from a genuine um experience and so I'm grateful for that. So congratulations Mr. [Applause] and then um not present tonight I don't
073think um is Mr. Abel Selenus he will be joining us as well as an assistant principal at Pioneer High School and uh then to announce that Mr. Andres Benz is transferring to Sherry High School. Um so he is the newest assistant principal there but an experience um but he is uh really excited to one be at the same feeder pattern as his children but also to be able to contribute to the campus and so we're really excited to announce that change as well. Um and then the last but not least is uh we would like to formally announce another principal change in our district. Uh, Miss Diana Montes has been named as our coordinator of intervention for the district and uh, so she will be relinquishing her duties at the campus and we will be
074in the process of making sure that all of the teens are notified and everybody will get to be a part of the hiring profile uh, building process so that our next generation of leaders as we bring them in meet the expectations of the communities they serve. [Applause] Oh yes, thank you. And last but not least, um Mr. Zara, you would stand. I would like to um announce the promotion of Miss Garza from a director to a chief of human resources effective immediately. Um, I think anybody who can put on training wheels and do what she's been able to do in her capacity, I think the years of her education background and administrative background has spoken well into her position now. And so, um, thank you and I'm honored to be working with you um, as
075an executive of our district. [Applause] Okay, that is All our introductions. Congratulations to everybody. We're going to uh move on into item 13 business. The 13A discussion consideration to approve to amend 2526 comp and salary increase. Good evening, President Venia, Dr. Howard, members of the board. Um tonight we bring to you the amended salary increase and compensation plan for the 2526 school year for your consideration which includes um updates that are aligned with the implementation of House Bill 2. Um on May 19th we did bring to you three salary increase scenarios to consider under current law and um option C was approved at that time which included a 2% raise for all employees. This resulted in a 1 $167.92 increase for all employees that were under the teacher nurse librarian schedule. Um and it also
076included a 2% increase based on the pay grade midpoint for all of our auxiliary paraprofessional um clerical paraprofessional instructional and professional staff. And um that total impact to the district was $1.4 million. The options were presented to you prior to any state legislation and were approved pending the outcome of the 89th legislative session. Um, with the recent passage of House Bill 2, we're here today to present two updated options to amend our previously approved salary increases for our staff. Um, so I'm going to go over the two options um in detail. Option D, um, do you have the slides? So that was option C that was approved. Option D um this is the first option that we present to you today. It it reflects the required increases for teachers based on years of experience. The
077increase for teachers under House Bill 2 with three to four years of experience would be a total of $2,500. And any teacher with over five years of experience would be um an increase of $5,000. the state under house bill 2 did not allow funds for our zero to twoyear teachers um that were or for teachers that were not classified as classroom teachers. So those would include employees like our nurses, our librarians or athletic trainers. Um so their increase would remain at the 1,1672 cents that was approved um in May. Additionally, in option D for our auxiliary and para instructional staff, we are proposing the 2% midpoint plus the difference of a dollar to equal a dollar an hour uh per hour increase. So what does that mean? If our um par instructional staff got a
07830 cent increase at the 2%, we would subtract that from the dollar, give them an additional 70 cents, so at the end they their um hourly rate would increase by a full dollar. Um for our para clerical staff, this is any employee who is compensated under our clerical support pay band. We are looking at a two the 2% increase from the midpoint that was approved in May plus additional uh adjustments based on the changes to their work calendars. Um this year most of our clerical staff will now be working less days in the coming school year. We adjusted their calendars but we made them we held them harm harmless and we kept them whole meaning that their annual salary did not change. So that automatically provided an increase in their hourly amount. Um and that
079was for most of our um paracclerical um staff professionals again any employee under the administrative professional pay ban would remain with the 2% uh midpoint that was approved um in May. Again, House Bill 2 specifically stated that administrative or professional staff um would not be included in any of the increase scenarios or any of the a lotment provided under House Bill 2. Option D is a financial impact for the district of $4.34 million. Our second option that we're excited to present to you is um option E. Option E I think is a robust option um which provides similar increases for teachers as an option D with the only difference being that as a district we would offer an increase for our teachers with zero to two years of experience and any employee under the teacher
080nurse librarian u matrix. So our um nurses or librarians or athletic trainers they would be included in this increase. So our zero to you zero to twoyear teachers we are proposing that um their total increase would be 1,500 and our employees who fall under that same pay scale would be treated as if they were a teacher. So if I have an athletic trainer that has 5 years of experience or more they would get the 5,000. If I have a nurse that has four years they would get the 2500. um for our parah instructional stat. This option includes um the 2% from the midpoint plus an equity adjustment based on 4% of their midpoint pay grade. Um and we also did a position reclassification on this pay band. Um and we completely it was a completely
081restructure of the pay band by updating the minimum the midpoint and the maximum pay rate. um to match current market values from neighboring districts. Maybe you can go to the next slide real quick. So an example of this is this is our instructional pay grade. If you look at the you can um kind of see on pay grade 2 the slightly shaded gray. If we look at the midpoint it was at 1520. We took 4% of that and that equals 1588. And then we took that midpoint and we established the new rate for our minimum and our maximum rate. We did this across all five pay bands for the um instructional staff. Um in addition to that um if you can go back to the next slide. Um these adjustments helped align again with current
082market value for our neighboring district. In addition to those pay grade adjustments of the minimum uh midpoint and the maximum uh rate, we class reclassified all those positions based on the intensity of the position and the skill set required. So we looked at each of our instructional support um and we took our special ed um aids. Right now in the current model, they're all a pay grade three. So we looked at those aids and we said, "Okay, an inclusion aid versus um a life skills aid." and we kind of you know we started looking and seeing what is the job responsibility, what is the skill set, what are we asking and we completely reclassified um those positions. Then we went a step further and we took every single one of those employees. We have 158
083staff members under um the instructional support band. Um we looked at their years of experience even if they've been with us for 30 years. We took their 30 years. We recalculated all their salaries using our new salary calculation formulas and we equitized their um salaries. So some of our para instructional support staff will be receiving anywhere between a 4% raise all the way up to close to 10% of a raise depending on you know where they're at. Um, so the the work that we did here is um the start to the work that's going to be done for all of our other employees. Um, and then again, as in option D for our paracclerical staff, we're looking at the 2% increase from the midpoint plus additional adjustments based on the changes to their work calendar.
084And again, our professionals remain the same, just the 2% midpoint that you all approved in May because do not provide any allocated funds for professionals. Um, and the impact on uh option E is $4.49 million. Um, you can go you can skip the next slide and go to the right there. In addition to the amended salary increases, we want to bring to you a few changes um to our siphons for next year. This is just a few changes that we identified based on um some immediate need, immediate market value. um work that we're starting to do our work with salary with stipens will continue into next year. Um so a few of the changes that we are proposing is in our CTE a animal sciences for anybody hired after the 2425 school year. Um the
085stipen would increase to $7,500. Right now it is $2,300. Um in addition we are doing a CTE a barn manager in lie of the grandfather days. Um so currently if you remember from our B board workshop a lot of our employees do have additional days as part of their contract or their stipen and we are grandfathering those in so that we can start the work on having very competitive stipens. Um our mariachi assistant director we are proposing to increase that from 1500 to 2500. um our departments and grade level chairs. We are proposing to make a one standard um stipen of 1,200. Right now currently are the way our stipend is for our department or grade level chairs. It depends, right? So if I'm a um dance teacher and there's three people in my department,
086well I get a certain amount. I get $300, $400. If I am a science um manager and I have 10 people in my department, well then I get $800. So, it just depends how many um people are in that department. Um the work is the same, the meetings are the same, what we're asking them to do is the same. So, we're asking for this to be a standard site of $1,200. Um and then the finally the last change is our additional days employees employed prior to the 2526 school year if they're currently employed with us. We are grandfathering those additional days and it varies based on what their um daily rate is. We are taking a snapshot of that daily rate and we're locking it in. As long as they remain employed with the district
087in the same capacity, they will continue to get that amount. Um and again the reason we are doing this is because next year the real work When we look at our siphons, we look at market value and we make those competitive without having to add additional days to be a little more um attractive to a candidate. Um so at this time um the administration does recommend um your consideration for approval for um option E for salary increases. Option E um will ensure one that we are in compliance with the mandates of House Bill 2 and it It represents an opportunity for us where we can begin the work on restructuring pay bands and building a compensation model that in the long run is competitive and sustainable. Um and then it it is I wanted to
088just say that I know in working with Dr. Howard. Um, option E is a rare occasion that we can be able to do this in 19 years um in one year to go in and comprehensively not just give the increase but then also do the work to empathize and reclassify all at once. This would be monumental a monumental. Can I ask a clarifying question here? Am I understanding correctly that the steps now are are and and they're in line with because there were some steps that you would go from one year to the next and have like a $300 rate. Okay. So, the teacher step scale um we continue to decompress that work on that. So, that will take more than what the state's given us to make that happen. I've already started the work.
089We did last year we did decompress zero to eight. Okay. Um now there's some compression at the far end with people over 25 years. Um that will need to be addressed. We'll come back again and ask for that next year. Okay. But um with regard to recommendation E, this is putting the pay bands for instructional aids to market value for our region. Yeah, the the pair professional pay that's um I I'm really pleased to hear about that change particularly with the the special ed life skills um aids the the yes and the responsibilities that they carry. One of the things that was very important to us was to be able to take it a step further and do the equipation because we had employees coming from you know let's another district that had nine years
090of experience. we have a current staff member that has nine years of experience and the new one is making more money because we have not done that work. So being able to do that for them, the the staff that is the closest to our students um is, you know, it's something that we would like to look forward to. And along with what Megan said, 100% support where she's saying that um par instructional equitization and because they're not all the same. Uh those who know and so it's wonderful. But to clarify for anybody that wants to know what's going on with the misunderstanding between a 2% raise that we were pushing for regardless of the state's help and then it was after that 2% that we were given regardless of what the state did that the
091state then threw this in. And then you see E come in. So no, you're not getting 5,000 more dollars than the 2%. It's going to equal to 5,000. What you would have gotten had we not done a 2% initially. That was kind of a safety net. But then you look at the equitization piece for pair professionals, the very valuable pairs that we have in this district and like you said, you don't see that happen. So this is a magical point. It's similar to the bond that we pushed four or five years ago, six years ago where it lost five, six votes or whatever where that was a no tax increase kind of bubble that you could grab it. This is one of those bubbles and we can't miss something like that because that's vital to
092right what it does for our zero to2 teachers what it does for every other teacher after that and equitizes the paris and supports everybody along the lines of student support and teacher support so that's it and this is not a one and done this this is just the beginning of the work this is an example of we will get to you know part of the compensation plan build out and the phases that we're going to go through we did phase one through all at once, right? For par instructional, but the work is going to be done for our parclerical and our auxiliary and eventually our professionals. Um, but in to have that opportunity and that window of okay, we can we can do this. You know, when we saw the numbers and say, okay, this
093is a possibility like let's pause, let's go do the numbers like can we make it a reality? And didn't have a heart attack. So, no, he did not. You guys said it was coming. And so to see it actually a real possibility right now where we're going to actually vote on this thing. I'm excited about our district and excited about our employees, too. With that being said, I'd like to make a motion. Okay. I mean, uh, we can we can have some discussion after the motion, but I've got a motion by second. I'll clarify. My motion is to uh uh option discuss and vote to approve option option. Okay, so I've got a motion to approve option E second by Megan Solen. I've got a second by Mr. David. Do we have any further discussion?
094No, I think everybody said I'm glad. I'm excited. I'm very excited for everybody. So, especially because there's other industries that that pay a lot more than than some of our clerical stuff and I'm excited for them, too. This is this tedious work. Thank you for taking the time, you know, dive in, take a deep look into it. So, I think we're taking a step in the right direction. Yes. I couldn't have done it with my HR team. Like, I had them like, you know, all uh within I think four hours we recalculated 160 um salaries. So cool files, look at their years of experience. We wanted to make this happen for them. So we're we're excited. Um on your motion just to communicate this type of changes as well. I Okay. Is that part of
095the compensation? So it's not separate. But I do want to say, you know, taking like the window of opportunity to do the equization. I know I know it's hard. I know I I' I've been listening to the work. Um I think that you're doing the work so that we can be like the best version of ourselves. sustainable version of ourselves. Um, competitive salaries is what we ask you for. Uh, teacher retention and employee retention. And I think this being all-encompassing to not only include our educators but include all of our staff, um, is nothing short of monumental and taking this window of opportunity. So, you know, having positions that are now going to be in support of of TIA and doing that for our educators and a position, you know, to to take our safety
096to the next level. I think we're doing a lot of growing up and uh really just solidifying. I I just I I just want to compliment you, your team, and and Dr. Howard. It's it's a lot of work that you guys have done. It's encompassing so much and um I'm really excited about this. So, that being said, I have got a motion by Miss Megan Sullivan, a second by Mr. David to approve to amend the 2526 um compensation plan and salary increases to uh presented option E. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. All opposing sign president before we move off of this topic um I would uh appreciate Mr. Newton to please stand. Mr. Newton is a par professional in our uh 18 plus program at Pioneer High School. He's
097also been a faithful member of my staff advisory and um the manifestation of this work has been directly from some of the feedback that I've received in our staff advisory um to be able to make sure that we stay lock step that we move all of our employees together at the same time. So Mr. Afternoon the team. I see you back there. Stan, I have two more. Thank you. Introduce yourself. Uh, I'm Jennifer Staley. I'm also in the life skills unit. Been here for three years. Thank you. I'm Rebecca. I've been with the district for going on nine. So on behalf of the district and obviously now the school board, please know that you matter and your work is significant and we will continue to keep you guys at the forefront of what we do
098when we make decisions with finances. I honor you tonight. Thank you. Great job. Want to give credit where credit is due. Um Miss Garza, if you would please stand. I wish I could take credit for this phenomenal recommendation tonight, but this absolutely was the brainchild of our new chief of human resources who on her own saw a window of opportunity and just asked what if and to be able to come and one to get me to sit still for five minutes um to to get the work going in this direction. But um Susie, thank you for looking out for all of our employees. What you were able to do tonight unprecedented. I never did as a chief of HR. And so, um, thank you for the level of care and thoughtfulness that this took to
099this recommendation. [Applause] Comment comment for Susie because I can't say anything about somebody in private that I wouldn't say in public. I called you a grinder, like somebody that worked hard to get where they are right now in the Sherland ISD school district. Congratulations on your promotion tonight and thank you so much for the hard work that you and the staff of the of the special ed and all of that that you put together this package. I'm really excited about it. I think it's so neat that it's awesome. So congratulations for all of it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to item 13. B discussion and consideration to approve the 202526 school year annual budget. Madam President, as uh just presented in the public hearing meeting for the 2025 20226 uh
100budget, we are recommending that the board approve the general operating fund, child nutrition program fund, and the debt service fund total official budget in the amount of 126 million 950,961. I'll make a motion to approve. Okay, I've got a motion by Julio. I will second the motion. Okay. And a second by to approve the 2526 school year annual budget. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I sign. Motion passes 70. Thank you very much. Oh, I'm sorry. 6. I've been writing 70. Thank you. Sorry. Yes, he is. Thank you again for all your work. On to item 13B. discussion and consideration to approve cab policy update 125. Madam President, the administration provided you a um uh redline document to show the possible changes with the text to BDAA officers and officials duties
101and requirements of board officers. Uh this uh board internal organization committee, BDF, board internal organization advisory committee. EI local for academic achievement, FDE local for admissions and FC local for attendance. This was an update provided to the district in March this year. I mean, excuse me, May. This came this update came in May. Um, and so we are recommending as presented um in attachment A and attachment B the notes that were provided for our local policy updates. Mr. President, I'll make a motion. Okay. A motion by Mr. Hector update got a second by Mr. Riddle. Any further discussion? All in favor by saying I post sign. Motion passes 6. 13. Discussion and consideration to approve to opt out of allowing homeschool athletic participation. Oh, go ahead. No, you go ahead. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, our
102athletic director Good evening, Madam President. Dr. Howard, school board of administrators. Um, I am here just to uh uh mentioned the uh the one of the newest legislative um acts had passed. Last year, this was known as House Bill 547 and this deals with homeschool participation. uh last year the option to allow homeschoolers to participate not just athletics but in all extracurricular activities light in the hands of the superintendent of all of every district. It's pretty much the same this year. The only option is instead of opting in and allowing homeschoolers to participate in extracurricular activities now school districts are tasked with opting out and that decision lies in the hands of the school board. So, just um we heard about this a couple of weeks ago at at our Texas High School Athletic Directors
103Association, and most if not all of the of the uh administrators at the uh at the conference kind of felt the same way. Um you know, in the in the fact that some of the concerns that were mentioned were the lack of ADA money that these uh uh homeschoolers would not bring to the district. uh following uh strict guidelines as far as grading uh the eight hour rule. Uh these were concerns that were brought forward uh when we discussed this in cabinet. One of the things that was that was that was mentioned is if our curriculum is not good enough for homeschoolers, how or why can our extracurriculars be? So, uh, I just want to inform you guys just, um, in speaking to athletic administrators around the, uh, the valley, most of them are are
104going to, uh, encourage their school boards to opt out. Okay. Now, if a student that lives in a district is is trying to, uh, gain access to to extracurricular activities and the district that they live in does not allow that, then they have the right or the option to go to a nearby district that does. But just talking to uh surrounding school districts, most if not all of them are going to opt out. So, I just wanted to inform uh you guys about this and then uh entertain any questions that anybody may have. I was just at a TASBY conference this last few days and um I I went to the one in Fort Worth, so it's a lot of North Texas districts and there was not a single district there uh planning to not
105opt out. the the thinking was what you were saying. It's I think if you're not going to come to school here, what you know, we're not why and and the funding that didn't even get discussed, but that's an excellent point. Right. You said I'm sorry. I got a question actually. You said most So what schools are I don't uh Mr. Keith, I don't know. I can't answer that question. Okay. So, we could assume that those that are in the really athletic high schools and high schools that are operating in the UIL and probably even taps are not going to allow home school students to participate. They have their own leagues to participate. There's a small minority that are going to allow I think one of them may be HUD. Okay. From based on the research
106that I've done, but here in our region, in our area, the surrounding districts are going to opt out. And in the policy, how specific are they in terms of the curriculum piece and the it's not very specific. It's just allow homeschoolers to come in, right? And one of the things mom grading the homework, one of the concerns is just the strict guidelines that we use for our students that are enrolled, right? And the grading procedures and policies. Uh here's another one, the eight hour rule. You know, you're you're or the 300 minutes, right, during a school day. Who's going to monitor that? who ends up monitoring that is going to be us. Is going to be myself or my staff. And so that's going to be tedious. Okay. U you know what's going to happen
107to that freshman football player that's given $800 of equipment and then decides to quit the third week of the season. Who's going to pick that equipment up when they're enrolled here? Uh we can hold their their certificate or we've got leverage to get the property back. So these are some of the concerns that have been commonly expressed. Thank you. Any other questions for Okay, I'll entertain a motion uh consideration to approve to opt out of all I'd like to make a motion to approve the opt out home school participation by a second by any further discussion. All those in favor of saying I sign motion passes 16. Thank you, coach. Yes. Thank you. On to item B. discussion and consideration to approve award to CSP 2425-28 at OAR to paving improvements. Madam President, Dr. Howard,
108school board members. So, this proposal is for paving improvement at Oak Garza Elementary. A notice inviting bids was published in the modern newspaper on May 24th and May 25th. Proposals were due Tuesday, uh, June 17th, at which time they were publicly open and read aloud. The recap is a total of seven proposals were received and thoroughly evaluated. Three proposals failed to submit the required information outlined in the bid solicitation and were deemed non-responsive. Four proposals were considered responsive and met the district's stated requirements for the responses proposals. Three were within district's budget. The lowest cost responsive proposal also received the highest overall ranking based on the evaluation. So uh we are recommending Rio United Builders that had an original price of $336,12320. We did for best and final and it did come down a little
109bit. So the new product now is $331,12320. So we are recommending approval. Okay, Mr. President, I'll make a motion. Okay, I've got the motion by Mr. to approve and this was discussed in detail in the finance committee workshop. I've got a motion second by Mr. Any further discussion on this item. All in favor signify by saying I post sign. Motion passes 60. Um on to item F discussion consideration to approve RP242-29 on property insurance. Okay. Thank you. Again, the proposal for the district car insurance policy, a notice inviting bids, was published in the monitor newspaper on May 17th and 24th. Proposals were originally due by June 12th. However, an addendum was issued and extended to the deadline of Tuesday, June 17, 2025. Proposals were open read. We only got one proposal, but uh I think
110that the board will be very happy with the proposal. Right now, if you look at proposals on the second page, our building values are 247,266,83 plus we have values of 52, or content values of 52,484,496 as well as other values at totaling 18,292,580. So, it gives us a total insured value of $318,43,269. So, the original proposal had a coverage limit of $100 million and that came in at $998,1 which is a decrease of just a little over $500,000. Um, there is there was a little small catch to it and that was that our deductible went up from a $50,000 deductible to a $250,000 deductible, but still the cost savings in there far outweighs the increase in the deductible. They did offer a second proposal and this is the one that we are asking for approval
111and that is to take the coverage limit from a hundred million to $200 million. That will cost the district approximately $106,000. Uh we feel that with the environment, with the weather, the storms coming in, we're we're at hurricane season that that would be a safe bet for the district. Again, we are still well below the budget that we had just last year. So, They're asking for approval for that option. Okay. So, just in summation, 9998,000 which is a five uh which is a $500,000 savings for $100 million. We have the option forundred how much extra for 200 million for $100 million more. So, we're going to be total $200 million. 200 million. But what's the extra cost? $106,000. $106,000. So, if we choose the $2 million policy, we're still at $394,000 from last year. If
112we choose the the 998 policy, we're at $500,000 savings from last year. A little bit higher. Yes. Somewhere in there. Yes. But one is 100 million and one is 200 million. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Deductible is the same. The deductible did go up from 50,000 to 200,000. So, but for 100. Yes. Yes. Deductible is the same. Everything is the same. Just what we're buying is more uh coverage to the policy. You are recommending the $200 million. Yes, ma'am. I am just because of the storms that we see brewing out there and the damages that we've seen. You know, we saw earlier this spring town get wiped out in North Carolina. So, those things like that and then the cost to rebuild have just been skyrocketing. So, Madam President, we just discussed this at like recommendation of
113the 200 million coverage. Okay. For the 1.1 million a second. Okay. So, I've got a motion to approve for 200 million coverage by Mr. Julio Sa and I've got a second by me David. Any further discussion on this item? How many times we use the insurance last year? Uh this past year, no. The previous year we had about a million52 million policy coverage the deductible at that point was 50,000. You know, the day we hit 200 million, we're all going to see the same. Yeah. Anyway, it's good. Well, we say that, but then when you saw all the hit a few years ago, not so then it's about 200 million about $200,000. If we don't, it's about $450,000. I know. Yeah, it's kind of one of those. My concern would be just seeing what the
114cost replacement cost. Okay, I'll take the vote. I've got a motion by a second by David Ke. All those in favor signify by saying I see sign. Motion passes 60. We are on to our final business item which is item uh 13G. Discussion and consideration to approve award RFP 25 2425-32 security guard services. Madam President, this is another bid that was discussed at the BOF. Once again, we did uh advertising the monitor newspaper on May 31st and June 7th. Uh district did receive 17 uh proposals. All proposals met the district's requirement. So we did have uh two uh vendors who submitted a lower bid than what we're going to recommend. The reason as we discussed at the uh at the BF was just experience honor. So administration is recommending protected uh protection services for a
115contract in the amount of 877,448 and that is based on 169 days of uh instructional uh days. Madam President, we did discuss this in BOF extensively and I I go with the recommendation of MLG protection services. Okay. And I will second. Okay. I've got a motion by Mr. and a second by Mr. Hector to approve award to MLG protection services. Any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. All sign. Motion passes 6. We are now Welcome back to item 14 part two. No, I'm sorry. Item 11 part two close meeting. In this closed meeting, we will be discussing student I'm sorry. Um item AC superintendent evaluation and contract student discipation regarding security devices and or security audits. Diberation regarding real property Texas government code 551.072 Z one possible sale of easement
116to county drainage uh district number one through an interal agreement and E consultation with attorney regarding A conflict litigation B a settlement offer C a matter of duty of the attorney to ship District under the Texas disciplinary rules of professional conduct of the state bar of Texas conflict with chapter 551 of the Texas government code Texas government code 551371. Um I will now entertain a motion to go into close meeting. Who said that? David. Okay, I've got a motion by a second by any further discussion. All those in favor say I. All those we will now close at 8:35. Thank you. David and waiting for Mr. Sure. Item 11 A 2 C superintendent evaluation and contract. The motion will be to approve the evaluation with revisions as discussed in executive session and authorize board president,
117board vice president and trusted sin to review evaluation with superintendent. Mr. President, I make a motion to approve as stated by Mr. I have got a motion by Hector and a second by David Keith. Any further discussion? All those in favor sign. All oppose. Same sign passes. [Music] don't be too vocal. And then we have item 11 is it D 11D one possible sale of easement to county drainage district number one through anal agreement and the motion will be to authorize the superintendent to engage appraiser and negotiate terms for the district. Second. I've got a motion by Julio and a second by Hector. Any further discussion? All in favor say by saying I. Motion passes 60. It is now time for German. I will now accept a motion to the meeting. So move. I motion
118by second. Second by David. Any further discussion? No later. All those in favor signify by saying I sign. Motion passes 6. This meeting is at 10:37 p.m. record.