001[Music] Welcome to South Island School for San Antonio, Texas,000 students achieving excellence. As an awardwinning district, we offer a Spanish minor program involvement of town hall meetings, summer nights, and a monthly food distribution. We're the only district in Texas with a dedicated mental health facility supporting student success in school and life. is driven by the teamwork of our teachers, staff, superintendent and board of trustees. Strong, successful and levels. Okay. Good evening everyone and welcome to this regular called school board meeting of the Southside Independent School District. Please let the record show that there is a court present. Jesse Hernandez, present. Mrs. Faras, present. Mrs. Olivarez, present. Mrs. Morales Garcia, present. Mrs. Salazar, here. Mrs. Silva, here. Mrs. Sang Robles, present. The time is now 6:01 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28th, 2025. As president, I just
002Hernandez call this regular meeting of the Southside Independent School District Board of Trustees to order. At this time, I'd like to welcome Mrs. is Angles to welcome our visitors and guests. Good evening students, parents, staff, and distinguished guests, Mr. Damidas and esteemed board members. Thank you for being here with us tonight now that school is over with. I hope that you all have a restful summer and we look forward to having you back when the time is right. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Mr. Serles. and also like to welcome you to read our mission and vision statement. Our mission Southside ISD seeks to be the choice when it comes to providing a quality public education by upholding the highest standards of our core values. Our vision Southside ISD will lead educational excellence by
003providing innovative programs. Thank you, Mrs. and Groves. Please note that this meeting is being held and has been posted in accordance with government code chapter 551, State of Texas Open Meetings Act. If during the course of this meeting, the board should determine that a closed or executive meeting or session of the local board is required, then such close or executive meeting or session can be held as authorized by the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551. At this time, we please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. All right. Uh moving on to our next action. uh administration of oath of office of newly elected
004board members. Okay, Mrs. Powers, we had an uncontested election this year, so the three that were up for election uh won by default. We will start by um swearing them in by position. In position number three, we have Brenda Olivetis. If you could come up, please. You'll raise your hand, please, and repeat after me. I, Brenda Olivetis, I, Brenda Olivotis, do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of SISD position 3 the duties of the office of the SSID position three the state of Texas the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend preserve protect and defend the Constitution and laws the Constitutions
005and law of the United States of the United States and this state and this state. So help me God. So help me God. Okay. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. [Applause] Next, we will swear in position number four, Mary Beller. Robless. Raise your hand, please. I Marbel Robas. I, Mary Bell Anger Robas, do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully that I will faithfully execute the duties execute the duties of the office of of the office of SISD position 4 sisd position 4 of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend preserve protect and defend the constitution and laws the constitution itution and laws of the United States
006of the United States and of this state and of this state. So help me God. So help me God. Okay. Congratulations Thank you. [Applause] And last in position five, we will swear in Jesse Hernandez. Please. I uh Jesus Jesse Hernandez I Jesus Jesse Hernandez do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office execute the duties of the office of SISD position 5 of SISD position 5 of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend preserve protect and defend the Constitution and laws the Constitution and laws of the United States of the United States and of this state and of
007this state. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you very Okay. Uh next item we will move on to discuss and consider election of officers for uh the executive board. Um so at this time we'll proceed uh in the order of the president, vice president and secretary. Uh so at this time do we have any nominations for the president of the board? Yes. So I would like to nominate Jesse Hernandez for president. Okay, thank you for that. Um, Mr. So Mrs. Solivades makes the motion. Mrs. Salifar second. Okay. Mrs. Faras. Yes. Mrs. Olivarez. I will take myself. No. for for Oh, for him. I'm sorry. Yes. I'm sorry. Uh, Mrs. Morales Garcia, yes. Mrs. Salazar, yes. Mrs. Silva, yes. Mrs. Sang Robles, yes. yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you.
008Uh, moving on for vice president uh position. Uh, do we have a motion for a recommendation for the vice president? I vote to nominate Brenda as vice president. I'll second. Okay. Okay. We have a motion for uh Mrs. Olivarez uh by Mrs. Morales Garcia and second by Mrs. Faras. Mrs. Farz. Yes. Mrs. Olivarez. Mrs. Salazar Mrs. Silva. No. Okay. Sorry. Mr. Sang Robles. No. Sorry, just trying to keep track here. Okay. And I just hear none this yes. So that is two abstensions and two nos and three yes. So motion carries. Congratulations. Thank you. Okay. Uh the third uh office is the secretary. Do I have a motion for the secretary? I make a motion uh that Maggie Morales um for secretary. Okay. Uh Mrs. Faras makes a motion for Mrs. Males Garcia. Seconded by
009Mrs. Olivarez. So, Mrs. Faras, yes. Mrs. Olivarez, yes. Mrs. Morales Garcia, abstain. Mrs. Salazar, no. Mrs. Silva, no. Uh, Mrs. Sangobles, no. Nas Hernandez, no. So, motion does not carry. Uh, do I have any other nominations for secretary? I'll nominate Miss Andreas. Okay, we have a motion for Mrs. Sangarobas for secretary. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Silva. Sorry. Okay, we have a second from Miss Silva. Mrs. Faras. I'm going to abstain. Okay. Mrs. Olivarez. Mrs. Morales Garcia. No. Mrs. Salazar. Yes. Yes. And I just hear this. Yes. Motion carries. Congratulations, Mr. Ro. Thank you. All right. So, we have um our next item is our public comment. And we do have some public comments today. So, if I'd like to welcome Mrs. Faras to read our public comment. The board will
010now hear comments from those persons who have signed up to speak. Pursuant to board policy beed local at regular board meetings, the board has allotted for public comment regardless of whether the topic is on is an item on the agenda with notice of meeting of the meeting. Individuals who wish to participate during the portion of the meeting designed designated for public comment must sign up before public the public meeting begins and shall indicate the agenda item or topic on which they wish to address at the the board. Generally speaking, the individual's comments to the board shall not exceed three minutes per meeting. During the public comment portion of the meeting, the board will listen, but it will not engage in dialogue or debate with the speakers. The board has adopted specific complaint policies and specific
011pro procedures for presenting complaints. If the presiding officer determines that the presentate that the presentation during this portion of the meeting is a complaint, he or she will respectfully ask the person to stop speaking and to use the board's adopted policies and procedures to have the matter heard through the fashion during through the appropriate channels. The board expects all members of the audience to behave in a polite and orderly fashion during this and all other portions of the meeting. Speakers who use profane, obscene, threatening, or abusive language will not will be ruled out of order and asked to discontinue their comments. Disruptive conduct will not be tolerated. Thank you, Mrs. Fios. Yes. Okay. At this time, if I I could ask my colleagues. Um, Mrs. Angor Robles, if we can do the chair swap. Okay.
012And so move over and then Miss Hungarob moves over. Yes. So if you So if you want to stay, we just need a sign of your choice. Do you want to move or stay or I can stay here? It doesn't matter to me. We can do it at the next one. Yeah, the next one we could do the switch. For right now, we could stay where we are. Okay. They want to stay, let them stay. And if they move, then move. Okay. So, for for now, we just switch the signs and then we can decide for next next meeting. All right. So, thank you for that, Mrs. Faras. Uh next item, uh we'll move into our public comment. Uh we do have some speakers today. So at this time I'd like to invite uh Mrs.
013Mary Cortez to the podium. Good evening. Welcome. Good afternoon. My name is Mary Cortez. I'm a bus operator for uh Southside School District. I've been here for over seven years and I'm also a community member. I've been a member for over 50 years. Um, so today I'm here to speak for a couple of things that's going on here in transportation. Um, at this point we are trying to figure out why is it that we don't have enough funds to make sure that we have proper buses to be able to drive over 2,000 students a day. We have buses without AC units that are not working. We have buses that are literally being held with zip ties for the wipers. We have buses that the air pressure goes out as we're driving. And I'm trying to
014figure out why is it that we don't have the funds. So when we go to our mechanics and we find out, hey, when is our bus going to be ready? All we hear is we have no money. Now, and I me mean this with all due respect to the superintendent. I don't understand how is it that we don't have any money to make sure that our children are driven back and forth safely, but we have the ability approved by the board of a raise of over $21,000 raise to our superintendent and $1,000 monthly allowance for transportation and technology again for the superintendent. But we have no money for our buses. We drive over 2,000 students per day. We haven't seen a raise in over two years now. We are up at the crack of dawn.
015And some of us work to well over sunset. And I don't understand this. This has been going on for the past seven years when I first was here the first year. and I've been asking and asking and yet it's still the same status 7 years. So I'm here to try to make sure that everybody even the community hear and understand of what our needs are. We are the legs that this community stands on. We deserve respect, gratitude, appreciation, but instead we're overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated. We have a lot of drivers that are in agreement with this. A lot of bus aids that are in agreement with this. When COVID hit, we were the one of the schools that did not panic, did not get overwhelmed because we were dedicated and loyal and we were here
016every day. And we're still here. A lot of us are over 40 years old. We have people coming in to apply, but they come in to apply, get the experience, and leave. We are still here. Some of us have been here for over 30 years and we plan to stay here, but we ask you to please take a good look at the legs y'all are standing on and realize it. Appreciate your comments. I appreciate it. Thank you. [Applause] Moving on to our next speaker, Mrs. Uh, Linda Trinda. Good evening. Welcome. Good evening, board members. My name is Linda Freder Trinidad and I have proudly served as a school bus driver for 34 years working in several districts throughout my career. I am here tonight to respectfully request a change of our sick leave policy. Right
017now, drivers and assistants are being penalized for using their earned sick leave even when the absences are for legitimate health reasons. If we call in sick on a Monday or a Tuesday, we lose our extra duties for the rest of the week until Saturday. If we are out Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, we lose our extra duties for the entire following week from Monday through Saturday. This practice makes us feel like we're being punished for taking care of our health. Sick leave exist exists for a reason. No employee should have to choose between their well-being and their job. I strongly urge you to reconsider this policy and create one that supports not penalize those who dedicate themselves to safely transporting our students every day. Thank you for your time and your cooperation. Thank you. Thank you
018for your comments. Our next speaker is uh Delma Pedrosa. Good evening. Welcome. Hello. Well, I'm in agreement with what Linda had said. Uh that's what I was going to speak of because out of my experience, I got sick with strep throat on Tuesday morning. showed up with a mask on the AM went to the doctor and it and turned out that I had strep throat. So the doctor said you can't go back to work for the rest of the day until Thursday. So that falls into what she was saying. If you miss Monday or Tuesday, you know, they take away the rest of the field trips for the rest of the week, which I had field trips and then I had to come back on Thursday. So I missed Wednesday, which I lost the field
019trips for the following week. So that pretty much affected me two weeks of work. Now, I love working here. You know, the environment's very good. You know, love my boss. I love everybody. But the thing is that that is a punishment. We can't we can't be sick and get penalized for that because if they need drivers now, you don't have me all week and the next week for field trips, which is rewarding, but at the same time, paying us, not paying us is paying somebody else, another driver overtime. So, if you're trying to save money, I would I would reconsider that, too, because we need our hours, too, in order to live our lives, you know, and pay our bills. We just can't afford to lose time like that. So, that's just something I'd like
020for y'all to reconsider. Also, that's all I have to say. Thank you very much for your comments. [Applause] Okay, moving on to our next item, which is our consent agenda. Please note that the following items make up the consent agenda, which consists of routine and non-controversial matters that will be approved with a single vote unless a board trustee requests a separate discussion on a specific item. Trustees have had the opportunity to review all supporting documents related to these items prior to this meeting at this time. Uh are there any items that would warrant a separate discussion? Okay. Uh hearing none. Uh do I have a motion for approval of our consent agenda items A through E? I'll make a motion to approve agenda items A through E. Okay. Second. Mrs. Salisar makes the motion. Mrs.
021Solivare seconds. Mrs. Faras. Yes. Mrs. Solivarees. Yes. Mrs. Mrs. Morales Garcia, yes. Mrs. Salazar, yes. Mrs. Silva, yes. Mrs. Sang Robles, yes. And it motion carries. Moving on to presentations. Our first presentation is attendance awards. Superintendent. Mr. board president. The district continues to work on improving the attendance with the with the uh with asking students to come to school every single day and providing incentives for our students and making it exciting for them to come to school every single day. So with the report we have Miss Scorina Sanchez. Good evening Miss Sanchez. Welcome. Good evening board president, board of trustees, superintendent Ramirez and parents. This is our last presentation for the year for the six weeks. This evening we're recognizing the 66 weeks attendance winners. First we're going to recognize our secondary campus which is
022tada soya middle school. Congratulations Principal Blackman on your 66 weeks win. And for our elementary we have Heritage Elementary. Congratulations Principal Buente and staff. Thank you, ladies. If you'll stand here for a picture and then I have one last slide out. All right. [Music] Congratulations. Okay, moving on to our next presentation. One second. I'm so sorry. I want to recognize you say that. My apologies. One last slide. At the beginning of the year, we did set a 93% attendance goal and we had three proudly we had three campuses that reached that goal overall. That was our P pierce elementary [Applause] school, Heritage Elementary School and Freedom Elementary School. And as a token of appreciation, sorry, Pierce Heritage and Freedom will receive attendance incentives at the beginning of the year. So, the amount will be announced
023uh at a later date, but thank you very much to all of our principles and to our families and to our students for making the effort and staying dedicated to Southside ISD. We appreciate you all. Thank you. [Applause] All right, congratulations to everyone. Uh okay, moving on to next presentation. in recognition of outside partners and agencies that assist our students with disabilities. Superintendent, Mr. Board President, Special Programs Department works well with some outside organizations who have partnered with the district. We are extremely grateful for their assistance. Dr. Selenas and Mr. Hay will recognize these organizations. Good evening, Dr. Selenas, Mr. Hyatt. Welcome. Good evening, uh, board president, board members, superintendent Ramidas, and community members. My name is Gary Hyatt and I'm the special programs coordinator. On behalf of our director, Dr. Ernesto Selenus, I would
024like to recognize some of our very important outside partners and agencies who assist our students uh and their families. Uh first is ACOG ID Services and that stands for Alamo Area Council of Governments Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services. I think it took me 10 years to memorize that. This is the agency that we really try and get our students um at Manaka even before that and at the elementary school. Uh and these are waiting list of 10 to 15 years. So uh very heavy push um to get families connected with them. Uh Mr. Andrew Barry is our liaison and he's out of town today so he'll not be able to attend. Let's see. And there's a list of just some of the things that they provide. So, um they provide a wider range of services
025uh for students who have an intellectual disability or a related disorder and that includes autism. So, it's very very important. And our district does have anou or me memorandum of understanding with them which gives our students priority um if a student is in crisis or if there's a high priority ARD meeting and we have actually had to use that before and they've been very helpful uh to our families and they're actually currently checking our list uh for the whole district. they they're going to check it this summer to see who's connected, uh where they are on the list, who's not connected, so we can really pinpoint um to get this information to our families. Uh this year we actually held a district-wide handson workshop and where parents could meet ACOG uh the intake counselors and
026get connected. And this proved to be very very effective. They actually want to do two or three next year. Uh there was very minimal presentation. The families just brought their information. We let them know what to bring ahead of time and we had scanners, everything. Uh so several families that night got connected and special thanks to principal Brenda Gonzalez for allowing us to host it at Pierce. It was very successful. And another very important agency is the Texas Workforce Solutions. Uh, and they provide employment and in some cases college or technical school for students who have a disability. Our person is Mr. Quinton Thomas and he visits our high school approximately every 3 to four weeks. So, he's very hands-on. He came to our parent night um there he is right there um for he
027he visits with students who receive special ed services and those in 504 and they can have a disability outside of those programs. Uh so we try to make sure and connect uh all those students as well. So the next outside a or outside partner and this was new this year um it was with Texas&M University Institute for Autism and Related Disorders. Uh so this year we had a one-year partnership with them. Uh they provided five parent nights. So it's very very good information for our families on various topics including behavior, self-determination. Um let's see. There we go. and two teacher trainings. Um, I'd like to recognize Dr. Emma Savage Davis. She's the dean. Uh, she's not here today. Uh, Sarah Miner, uh, executive director, and Dr. Rebecca Lopez, who is here. We'll call them up,
028uh, at the very end. Uh, and then two of our staff members, uh, they were assisting them in getting their BCBA, um, which is the autism credentials. uh Britney Viliva at Freedom and Erica Ogene at Gallardo. So, it's a very very good partnership. And there's one of the staff trainings before uh back in August of last year. And then this is one of the parent nights at Manaka. I think we had like 21 families that night. So, it's very successful. And then another uh professional development at Matthew Okay, the next one I'd like to recognize is the Believe It Foundation. So, the founder is Mr. Andrew McAllister, and he started this program while he was in college uh to promote physical fitness for students who have disabilities and to promote inclusive practices. And they donated
02912 bikes totaling over $25,000. So, it's a very, very good um program. We really started way back. Uh they had a scholarship for one of our high school kids way back when and then it kind of grew from there. Uh our students who have disabilities were fully able to participate in the bike rodeos this year. And one student when they interviewed him said this is only the first or second time he was able to ride a bike. Um so he was really able to and here are some of the pictures. Um, so thank you to Mr. Andrew McAllister, Mr. William McGinness, who's actually here, and Mr. Robbie Pierce. They're both here. And there there's um a student from Freedom, and he's writing actually with Andrew McAllister. Okay. And then the last thing is our work-based
030learning. And this is our post-secary transition program at the high school. Uh the teacher is Mr. Ricky Laws and of course the principal Mr. Mater. And currently we have partnerships with HB City Base, Angolad, uh Peter Piper Pizza, and our very own child nutrition. So we're really planning to expand this uh in the coming year. And students rotate to these different sites and learn social skills and job skills. In fact, HB is wanting to hire four of them right now. So, we'll keep stay tuned on that. So, uh we'd like to thank Miss Aubrey Smith, and she's the HB top store leader. Um and also, uh our child nutrition, Miss Janie Ramirez, who's the director and the assistant director, Miss Marisa Chapa, for giving our students, so I should say inside and outside partners, right?
031Because some of them are in the district. So, at this time, uh, I'd like to wrap it up and call, uh, Dr. Rebecca Lopez with Texas&M. There's HB right here with the management staff and our students. And Mr. William McInness with the Believe It Foundation, and Mr. Robbie Pierce, also with the Believe It Foundation, and Miss Wana Ramirez, and Miss Marissa Chapa. All right. While while y'all are getting set up, just want to want to thank y'all on behalf of myself and my colleagues for for everything you're doing for our students to to continue to to nourish their learning and and keep them engaged. And I know it's it's not an easy task, but um you know, every single day uh there's improvement and having partners like this, it's it's a great great deal. Uh
032definitely takes a village and we couldn't do it without the partnership similar to this. So, thank you all to to everyone involved and appreciate all the support that you do for our students at Southside. Thank you. [Applause] One, two, three. Hold it. Thank you. All right. Thanks again. [Applause] [Music] Okay, moving on to our next presentation. Recognition of the Southside ISC Special Olympic Olympics athletes. Superintendent. Mr. Board President, our athletes competed in the Special Olympics in the Southside basketball challenge in the Somerset track competition. They were successful and more importantly they enjoyed the competitions. We have Dr. Salas and Mr. Hyatt with the presentation. Okay. Good evening again uh board president uh superintendent Ramides and community members. My name is Gary Hayyatt uh special programs coordinator and this is Dr. Akila Bank. She's actually our
033district physical therapist and also Special Olympics coach. On behalf of Dr. Selenus. Uh we'd like to recognize our Southside ISD Special Olympics athletes. Um I think because it's summer, um most of them or all of them couldn't come, but we have some videos because we definitely wanted to recognize them and highlight as many children as we can. Uh on Wednesday, March 26th, uh Southside ISD special programs hosted uh the San Antonio Area Basketball Individual Skills Competition at Matthew. This is the second year in a row that our district has hosted for the San Antonio area and the fourth time Southside has hosted Special Olympics for the San Antonio area. So, it's a big honor that they trust us and uh it went really well. [Music] Um, just a little aside, I'd like to uh thank
034Mr. Ramirez um and Miss uh Anger Robas and Miss Silva for coming out. And not to put you on the spot, but Mr. Ramidas really revved up the crowd. Uh we had athletes from all over the city and I was even motivated that morning. So, all right. I was kind of sleepy but not after that. That was very good. And also of course u Mr. uh Martell for in the campus for once again really rolling out the red carpet. The Matthew Jazz Band played under the direction of uh Mr. Gregorio Garcia and assistant band director Jose Rodriguez. And the Matthew choir actually sang the national anthem and that was really beautiful. That was under the direction of Miss uh Leandra Winfrey. And also thank you to Miss Bianca Ramos and the Hype Squad. Um would
035really like to thank the San Antonio Special Olympics area leaders who helped lead the event. Uh Miss Jenna Weaver who's the community outreach director of the South region. Um and she's here tonight. We'll call her up in just a minute. and of course our very own uh district transportation, communications, maintenance, and police department all working behind the scenes. It was a pretty big event. Um so they competed. Let's see. Oh dear. [Music] [Applause] So, our Special Olympics athletes that day competed against five other districts and delegations. Uh, two of the Mati athletes, which were shown in this video, participated in the opening ceremonies. Uh, seventh grader Isaiah Bison led the crowd in the Special Olympics athlete oath. He's not shy, let me just tell you. He's a natural. And then eighth grade Marcos Garza carried
036the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony. Um, and then we're kind of doing two in one. So, uh, we did go to, uh, Somerset ISD for the track and field where we competed against, well, the kids competed against about a thousand kids. It's a big deal out there. Come [Music] on. [Applause] At this time, I'd like to call up uh Miss Jenna Weaver, and she's with the area Special Olympics Office, and also uh Mr. Miguel Marchel, if you're here, the principal of Matthew Stand up. One, two, three. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Weaver. Mr. Martell, [Music] congratulations. Okay, thank you. Thank you all very much for that. I appreciate it and thank you for everything you continue to do for our students. Uh, moving on to presentation of the Southside ISD Education Foundation top campus
037student honors. Superintendent. Mr. Board President, the top two students from each campus who had the highest GPA moved on to another campus for their next grade level will be recognized tonight. They will receive a Chromebook from the Southside Education Foundation. With the presentation, we have Meron. Welcome, Mink. Hello. Good evening, board president, trustees, superintendent, our community here and at home. We are grateful to be here once again for this amazing program, one in which on behalf of the education foundation, I'm grateful and proud to be a part of. The foundation is very excited this year as we have raised more than $65,000 and still counting. Money is still coming in to fund everything from scholarships to teacher grants, top 10 banquet, and even recognitions just like this one. Um, it is now becoming a tradition
038here at Southside and it is part of the vision of Mr. Ramirez and one of his great initiatives. Southside ISD does believe that promoting, recognizing, and rewarding the highest achievement of all students will serve as an incentive to strive for better grades. Each program is aligned with Southside ISTD student outcome goals to improve grades, enrollment, and attendance. And this one is no different. Tonight, as Mr. Mr. mentioned each of our top ranked students who will be announced here shortly get a brand new computer and at this time I would like to start introducing them and we start with our two top ranked students at Menaka Early Childhood Center. Please welcome Miss Luna Venueva. Come on down. [Applause] [Laughter] Okay. And our our young man over here, he's very excited, is Leonardo Rico. And I think
039we're going to give your computers to your parents or do we want to? They're kind of big. They're big. Okay. Up next. We'll place them in front. We'll put them in front. There you go. These are brand new computers for elementary school. Yay. I just want to say what I say. Okay. Um and up next we have Gallardo Elementary's top students, Gabriella Vargas. Come on down. And Isaiah [Applause] Mara. There she is. Okay. Do we have Come on up. Excellent. Congratulations. Up next, we have Pierce Elementary's top students. Congratulations to Roelio Rodriguez Duke and Isaiah Gonzalez. All right, up next we have Heritage Elementary's top students, Briana Ramos and Matthew [Applause] Vasquez. Congratulations. And Freedom's top students, Alejandra Pena Casita and Azanet Aion Martinez. [Applause] And Loya's top students are Alejandra Flores and Alan Ellison.
040[Applause] For Matthew Middle School, we have Eli James Dy and Sydney Chavevel Gutierrez. [Applause] And finally, we have our two top students of the entire school district. Our validictorian Juan Palma and our saludiatoran Sema Daniel. Our top rank students received their computers at the top 10 banquet and today we'll be receiving a special gift. Ladies and gentlemen, our top students [Applause] Big smiles everybody. [Music] [Laughter] Congratulations. Great job. [Applause] All right, you may all go sit with your parents now. Don't forget your computers. The bags. Oh, they're over there. [Music] Thank you. We're so proud of you. [Laughter] [Music] He likes to talk. Oh, yeah. [Laughter] All right. Congratulations again. Moving on to our next presentation, the 2025 Fiesta Medal Art Winners. Superintendent, Mr. Board President, students at each campus submitted drawings for what was
041selected as the Southside ISD and Southside Education Foundation Fiesta Medals with the presentation. We have Marin Kon. Welcome again, Miss Kon. Hello. Hello. Good evening. Thank you for having me back. We're excited to announce that we brought back our Fiesta Medal contest. It is an art contest that takes place and begins in the late uh fall semester and really gets going in the spring. And this year we had two winners. And um we would like to say that the winners of fiesta medal contest of course become the image that is placed on our fiesta medals for this year. And for our big winner, our first place winner, it is Mr. Aspaldo Garza from the high school. Come on up if you're here. [Applause] Congratulations. The image you see in this year's medal, if you guys
042there, uh, is his original artwork that he produced in Miss Christina Robinson's art class this year and he did a great job and it's been seen all over the city and even the state and it has been a hot item. And our second place winner became the medal for the Southside ISD Education Foundation. And our winner, our second place winner, which has her image on the foundation um medal is Cameron Naomi Sva. If you're here, [Applause] Cameron Cameron, it doesn't look like she's here, but we are grateful for her entering. Her medal has been very popular as well. It image, it's an image of our cardinal, of course. So, congratulations. Congratulations. And they're receiving a copy of their medal today. I will be getting their original artwork. Come on up for a picture. Great job.
043Congratulations. Awesome. [Applause] All right, congratulations again to all the winners. Uh, moving on to our next item, which is the review of financial statements for April 2025. Uh, superintendent, the board president, to get an update on the finances for April, we have our CFO, Mr. Carales. Welcome, Mr. Carales. Good evening, board president, uh, Superintendent Ramirez, members of the board. um financials through the end of April. Um it's a little hard to see, but um what I'll point out this month is um federal programs revenue. If you look at that third line down, we have $1.3 million budgeted there. If you look at that line item, it's 1360. So that's that's a budget we have there. So far, we received 381,000. that that is a that that is a chars number inside um that we keep
044mentioning to to the board that we're not seeing come in. We thought there would be some relief in like I think it was a house bill 500 or something like that. We thought there was some money coming and of course that's been pulled out now. So we thought um you know one of the things we were we were trying to do this year was reduce as much as we could hold the line and and wait for some additional state fund knowing this legislative session was coming up. Um and we we we should see some relief coming. Um we're we're waiting. We don't have an answer for anybody right now, but but that's an example of somewhere that um we left the number a little bit high hoping to survive this this one year and and
045knowing that relief will be coming. That that'll the reason I'm sharing that information with you all right now is that that would be an area where even with the state legislature appropriating additional funds next year, we we have a reduction on that line item. So if they were to give us $2 million and we need to, you know, reduce federal by half a million though. So we're going to really see a one 1.5% increase, not quite to 2 million just because we we still have areas in the budget we need to reduce. And and that's that's just one area. Um that line for federal programs for us as a district, we have indirect cost that actually comes in and and then our SHs are the two two major um numbers that actually make that up.
046But that that's an area there that we continue to watch and we'll kind of see what happens with the legislature and see see how much we actually um receive and then where we're going to actually reduce in in our in our current estimates that we actually have right now. Other than that um looking at the expenditures inside the general fund um we spent $ 47.1 million. So we're averaging about 5.8. Um we're we're hoping to bring that down. Um our goal is approximately to average $5.4 4 million the rest of the month and keep this uh keep expenditures as close to $69 million as possible. So, um that's that's the numbers we're shooting for. Um January we had 5.2 million in expenditures. December 5.4 million, March 5.1 million. So, we think we can get there.
047So, anyway, that's a goal and we'll keep you updated on how the general fund is is going this year. um child nutrition, even though we have April, they they're the way the state money comes in there, there's still two months of revenue to actually book for that. So, um they average about $928,000 of revenue per month. Um right now, their revenue is 6.49. It's about $6.5 million that they've brought in this year. Um we do anticipate another 1.8 million just for this school year. Um then of course we'll have um some some money in in summer and then August. We're starting earlier and earlier and earlier. So we'll see some additional funds coming in August that will actually be booked in this school year. Um so we should hit our revenue estimates right now. Um
048if not we're not off by much that it's a good number. Um debt service. Moving on to where our debt service is at. Um we budgeted 6.6 million. We've received 8.6 million. That's $2 million over what we budgeted. Once again, waiting for all of our tax collections to come in so we can apply that to our uh debt and pay pay some debt off early. Um we have a 4 point I think it's $4.5 million left to make a payment in August. That's only because we have the two payments a year. So, uh February and our August our payments. Um so, we do already know exactly how much our payment will be in August at I think I wrote an estimate here 4.5 million. we do actually have that real number um that we'll actually
049use. The the balance of that is what we will bring to you to pay that off with the resolution that was adopted during during the budget process. That's what I have for the April financial reports. Thank you, Mr. Carales. Any questions or comments for Mr. Carales? Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving on to new business. is uh discussing consider approval to purchase 1500 Chromebooks and accessories from CDWG through the text by cooperative contract AEA number 022-G for the amount of $475,470. Superintendent. Mr. Board President, through the use of grant money, the district would would like the board to consider the purchase of 1500 Chromebooks. We have Mr. Hering with the presentation. Good evening, Mr. Garla. Mr. Herring. Okay. Good evening, board president, Mr. Hernandez, superintendent Mr. Ramides, board members, members of the community and staff.
050The purchasing department is requesting approval to purchase the 1500 Chromebooks and accessories through CDWG through the text by cooperative contract as referenced in the amount of $474,470 and is recommended as well as by the technology department. The technology department uh conducted an informal procurement process by obtaining competitive proposals from seven cooperative vendors that are contracted co-ops and in accordance with the required specifications. An evaluation committee individually scored each proposal uh resulting in the highest ranked uh response by CDWG and uh is recommended for uh this contract action and they were the lowest cost uh proposal as well and Mr. Herring is available for additional information. All right. Any questions? Miss Silver, I do. Um I know in the years past we bought gobs and gobs of these Chromebooks and I know that they become obsolete.
051We're buying 1,500. Do we have uh enough hiding somewhere that that are still usable that our kids Okay. So, so yes, we spent the last uh uh years just making sure that the district does have enough and that our classrooms are covered in regards to Chrome because we know it's an integral tool that is being used every day in all the classrooms. So, yeah. This is sort of Yeah, I was just um kind of piggybacking off what she says. Um what do we do with the computers that aren't usable? Do we put them on an auction to sell them to get some money back or do they just go to be destroyed? Yeah. So, um uh a good number of them do get put aside. And the reason for that is um when we do
052get other Chromebooks that have cracked screens, keyboards, we use those that we put aside. Mhm. We take those um that have the good um components and we switch them out on the other ones. So that's part of it. The other part of it is yeah, if it's completely obsolete, we do uh send it off to a surplus that does come pick them up, wipe them, and they do give us a little bit of money back for them. Mr. Salazar, Mr. Herring, do we have a rotation schedule on those Chromebooks? Do you have like a fiveyear plan or a 10ear plan, however you do it? We we do have a a five-year plan that we're we're going to work on that's going to help us um rotate the older devices out of of uh circulation, so
053to speak. And on what year are we on? Are we just beginning that or are we We are just just starting just establishing that. Okay. Yeah. So, we're we're looking because these are going to replace the Chromebooks that um we bought back in 2020. So, typically Chromebooks have about a four or five year span. And so, that's where we're at right now. Okay. It's basically the first year. Any other questions? No. So, just follow up on in regards to software. Does this come loaded with all the software necessary for for the district to use or the students? Yeah. So, um a lot of the um the apps used today are cloud-based. So, really all it really needs is just internet access. Okay. And so, and these Chromebooks, they're just built for that for pretty much
054cloud-based applications. So, they do get what they need on them. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. No other question or M I just want to I just want to note that am I correct that most districts use cloud-based? Yes. That that's where a lot of people are going now for security issues. Yeah. For exactly that reason. Okay. Right. It just lets the community to know that we're on the right track with that as well. Definitely. All right. Uh thank you. No other questions. Appreciate it. At this time, do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the purchase of 1500 Chromebooks and accessories from CDW-G in the amount of $475,470. Second, Mrs. uh Salazar makes the motion. Mrs. Faria second. Mrs. Faras. Yes. Mrs. Olivarez. Yes. Mrs. Monales Garcia.
055Yes. Mrs. Salazar. Yes. Mrs. Silva. Yes. Sorry. Mrs. San Robles. Yes. I just hear none. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Uh moving on to our next item discussing consider approval of FEA local policy. Superintendent, my my apologies, Dan. You were right there in front. I'm sorry. Um Mr. President, administration is requesting the revision uh to FEA local policy for students who have moved elsewhere and did not go through the formal withdrawal process. We have Mr. Castillo with the presentation. Welcome, Mr. Castillo. after your workout with the laptops. Good evening, members of the board, President Hernandez, Superintendent Ramirez. Our uh non-attendance policy states that the district can decide the withdrawal date for a student uh who never officially withdrew from school and whose whereabouts are no longer uh determined or or known. So withdrawal
056can be done 10 days after he or she last attended and there have been repeated efforts to locate the student. So there's got to be some some effort on behalf of the campus before we do the withdrawal. What we are proposing is this. The items highlighted in green are the two other conditions that we are wanting to add to the uh policy. The uh the third one would be the documentation uh for the repeated efforts to be kept for audit purposes. It's not that we don't do that now. We just wanted to put in policy to make sure that that in case anybody asks uh we we do have it on file. And then the last one would be that uh once a determination has been made for um uh withdrawal for non-attendance that the
057withdrawal date shall be retroactive to the uh day following the last day of attendance. So uh let's say uh a student uh last attended uh at a certain date and then it takes 15 to 20 other days to go through the whole process for whatever reason. Uh there's documentation there. uh and the concerted efforts are documented. When we withdraw them, we can uh in the system code that you know the last day that they were here was that day. So what we'll do at the campus in the district uh count them uh as withdrawn the after the 10th day as per the accounting uh attendance accounting handbook. Thank you. Any questions? Could could you speak a little about what um constitute a repeated effort? So when a student uh just stops showing to uh school,
058you know, at the campus level, there are several things that we do. So uh our our campus principal or designate or uh we do have a uh truency officer from the uh municipality that sometimes comes in stationed out of the high school. Uh so we start off with phone calls, right? making first contact, calling mom or dad. Uh when that doesn't uh work after repeated uh uh attempts. Uh we also try um um uh email. Uh we do home visits. We conduct several home visits documented. We talk to the neighbors. Sometimes it's it's that they just go elsewhere other than in our community. There's instances where uh the people that conduct home visits, you know, they leave uh door hangers, they they go multiple times, they talk to the neighbors, uh uh and then there's
059been some times that there's nobody in the home. The home is vacant, like not even curtains on the windows. So, um in those instances, that's when this would come into play. But we go above and beyond to try to uh find these kids because our goal is to get these students in our school school districts or campuses so uh we can get them into the classrooms. Thank you. Does um chief get involved at all with PD and just doing some additional research on missing students when we do the levers uh in the beginning of the year? So, right right up until the the uh um the end of uh August, uh uh myself, the uh student services department uh comprised of Mr. Ornas, Miss Ggo, our social workers, uh in case there's a uh home
060where you know they feel unsafe, we do send a police officer with them to make uh uh an attempt to make a a parent contact. So, um, that's that's their involvement in this whole process. Okay. What about kind of what he just said? What about after you did what about the kids during the school year? I understand your lever processing, but what about the kids that are not attending during the year? Does the chief get involved on going to look for those students? Well, it it it'd be different. What we do is we typically have our our uh our counselors or our uh social workers try to make contact. So um they don't get arrested. We do uh file truency charges uh on the on the parents of those students. Um that's a a different
061path. What we're looking at is once we try to u do those uh attendance roundups or attendance forums, what we call them. Um then uh and we've decided that we don't know where they're at. Uh that's when we we go and use this policy. So why oh I'm sorry. So why can't we use this policy during the year? I mean why are we waiting till the beginning of the next year when we're doing levers if we can clean up our attendance? Well, that's what the update is for. Update is for any student. So, let's say it's October and uh or January, right? Whenever. And then, so a student doesn't come back after winter break, you know, it's been more than 10 days and we go and do those home visits and we don't see them.
062Let's say they went to Mexico and never came back, right? Decide to stay over there or Europe, wherever it is. Um, what they what we do is then that's when we we take action. So you're not just doing it during the lever time during PS, you're doing it all through the school year. Yes. So the the question uh if if I'm correct uh uh President Ernes asked was that what's the police officers involvement in this whole uh us doing the home visits? It's only when they they kind of feel unsafe, the social workers. Now they could be dogs, they could be a neighborhood that they they're not familiar with, which is rare because they know pretty much our our community. Uh but we also have administrators go out and do home visits and I I
063I can attest that even I went I've gone myself uh to uh conduct home visits. We don't have a home lison or a truency lison for the district or do you just have one assigned to the school? Uh we do have like this specializes just on looking for the levers and dropouts and kids that don't come to school. Uh no not not at this time. We do have uh we participate in a program from uh the city. Uh so the municipality does have somebody that comes in uh not full-time but uh on and off and they're stationed out of the high school and they help us with a truency process. So when we file for truency there's a lot of paperwork and a lot of interventions that need to take place. So that's what their
064main um focus is on but we have to wait on them. Yes. Yes. And so I mean they work in conjunction with with our school administrators and our student services department. So um but that's that's their involvement. Miss Silva being ex attendance officer um I remember the police. I have ridden with the police to homes and during PE uh testing time, our police would go out and round up all the kids that didn't show up to come and take the test. So, but the rules have changed and so we can't uh put we cannot utilize the police officers. That's correct. That's correct. But our social workers do the best that they can. uh they they do go in pairs uh for safety reasons and uh you know sometimes they'll even go in in a district
065vehicle uh so they they know it's not somebody trying to sell them anything you know it's coming from the school district it's they open they're more open to conversation when they see a suburban that says southside ISD on the side so my my comment in regards to PD and the chief was in regards to looking out for the student and if they just disappear and stop showing up to school, um want to make sure that that we don't we're not quick to write them off and say, "Hey, they just didn't show up. They went somewhere else." If if it's a maybe they're having a home issue that we're aware of and it warrants some additional investigation, right, where where maybe something's going on at home um and we need to make sure the students is
066is well and protected. Um that's that's what I'm was referring to. Yes, sir. and and and we don't take it lightly when somebody stops simply stop going to school. Uh our our social workers uh we have three social workers in in the district that do make parent contacts. They actually know a lot of these uh uh special cases right at the campuses. They know um most of the families. So them and in conjunction with the student services uh department, Mr. Misayo, they're really good about reaching out to to the families to see if if something happened, you know, home life, what happened, you know, why why the sudden change in in attendance. So, it could be a matter of, you know, uh simple things like uh uh uh food or or hygiene kits or or
067what have you. Uh sometimes it's a simple matter of transportation, right? So, we got to figure things out there. So um but a lot of times once we make contact uh the kids come back. Now in these other there's certain circumstances where the families just simply leave and they don't tell anybody. They don't go through the normal channels of the withdrawal process. So that's where we're we're stuck and we just want to make sure that that we uh cover all our bases and and uh and are are able to to back up our concerted efforts in trying to recoup these kids. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments, Miss Alazar? So, are we still withdrawing students? And I know it's more on the special ed side when they're hospitalized or there's something that's going
068on with them in reference to their disabilities. Are we still withdrawing them when they're missing the 10 consecutive school days? Yeah, it would depend on the circumstance. Usually, uh uh this the the special ed department really uh is aware of the situation. they contact the campus, the uh social worker gets involved. We try to come up with a plan, you know, is again it would be depend on the on the situation. So, uh we wouldn't want to burden the the the children in in getting sent to truency court because for obvious reasons they can't go in uh into campus because they're hospitalized, right? So, if we can uh we we adjust their uh IEP and see about providing additional supports, maybe homebound services or or what have you. If the if the child simply uh
069isn't if the if if the situation is not conducive for the student learning, we wouldn't want to burden them to having them somebody go in there and make them them do homework, right? because we do have Chromebooks that we we send with our our homebound teacher and uh we we we can do modified assignments, but if the child is si uh too sickly to want to learn, we we we don't want to burden the the child with that. Okay. Any other comments? And and I asked that because I know that there's been times when um not only myself was affected with this and I didn't know about this until I got involved, but um other other families have have had crisis mo moments and then we get we get truency letters, right, to where we
070have to provide the documentation of our child being sick, which isn't an issue, but because we want to be treated just just like everybody else, but like all of my colleagues, I think we just does we don't want this to be like a crutch to say, "Oh, it's easy enough to write them off and, you know, move on." So, and I'm with Brenda in reference to um cleaning up the attendance, but doing it the right way and not the wrong way. Um because those that attendance factor is a big deal, but the community also needs to understand that not only is is cuz I hear a lot and there was a lot of posting on Facebook about attendance being money initiated for the school and we don't care about our kids. That's not it at
071all. I don't think any of us think about ADA. I mean, we do with the budget, but we don't as far as family me members, right? So I I want that to be put out there that when we do pass this or we don't pass this, it's it's the best interest of the district. Yes. And and if you look uh the third uh condition is doc documentation from repeated efforts uh must be kept for audit purposes. So we're documenting everything that we do. We're not just going to write them off so the community knows that that that we're doing in the best interest. Where did this come from? Where did this ideal come from or the basis of of the presentation come from? So, so if I may. Yes, sir. So, so it came from
072students that can't be found through all that Mr. Castillo spoke of and involving the police as well as an escort and them checking and talking to neighbors, police also taking part in that. um and and these students can't be found and and the district was not withdrawing these students which were accumulating the the absences but for the student it doesn't change anything if if they're withdrawn at any point they can come back and you know they just reenroll so it it doesn't affect the student in any way. Now, as far as students who were sick or in the hospital, we never withdraw the students unless the parents after they're informed and they have a discussion on how this is affecting the child. It's up to the parent whether or not they want to do it.
073So, we don't do it ourselves. So, it's only what we're asking for is for the students that after attempt after attempt, we cannot find these students. I mean, we talk about going knocking on doors, talking to the neighbors, talking to their friends, going repeated times, and there is absolutely no one there. And what we're asking is to have that discretion to be able to do that. Now, we also added this part where we have to document the repeated efforts that that has been done so we can make sure that we do our due diligence. Now, when a student leaves, it has a an impact on our on our accountability. So, we shoot ourselves in the foot if we're just saying, "Okay, this student is no longer with us and we're going to withdraw the student."
074It still counts towards the district. So, we're not doing it for that purpose because we know that we need to find the child to be able to help the child. And of course, it has an impact on the district's accountability. All we're asking for is that if the student cannot be found after repeated efforts, that that student be withdrawn. And again, the student whenever they decide to come back, if they left elsewhere, all they have to do is reenroll. There is no negative impact on the child. Okay. Can I just get a clarification? It did do they still have the role that if a child is in the hospital, I mean, of course, I've been out of teens for a while. So, but like after so long, the districts that the hospitals in will take
075over. Like we have to withdraw the student either way because like North Side or San Antonio will take them over since they're in the hospital. I'm I'm talking Yeah, I figured you would say that. Yes, please. Yes. any student that is needing or requiring services from a independent facility, those facilities do have either a charter school or another school district in place that provides the services to the students. So, um the students are always being served whether they are from Southside ISD through our homebound services either through special education or regular education homebound or they're being served at the facility. So we cannot have dual enrollment. So no one can have dual enrollment. So if they are being served through a charter or north side or through a different uh facility, we will then retroactively
076withdraw them as of the date that they started being served there. So that's that's that's what we're asking for. So, in the event that a student is um found non-attendance and they are attending at Cardinale or they're they're attending at East Central, we would still have to retroactively withdraw them as of that date. Um, as far as I know, and I don't want to um the the campuses are doing everything that they can to recover the students and find out where they're at and serving them in any capacity that's available. What we are asking is that we no longer eat those absences. What we're trying to do is funding wise recover some of those days that we've been eating for absences for these kiddos that are not the kiddos that are requiring um medical services
077or that are in medical facilities or that are special education students. These are just students that have decided to stop attending school. Repeated efforts are continuing are being made by the campuses and we are just eating those days absent. What we want to do is just kind of recover some of those days. That's all that we're asking for. Um thank you. Thank you. Thanks for that overview. Any other questions or comments? Thank you, Mr. Castillo. Thank you. Okay. At this time, do I have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve FBA local as presented. Mr. Salisar makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Seconds. Miss Faras. Yes. Mrs. Olivarez. Yes. Mrs. Morales Garcia. Yes. Mrs. Salazar, yes. Mrs. Silva, yes. Mrs. Serves, yes. I just unless yes. Motion carries. At this
078time, we will not be going into close meetings. So, uh, do I have a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion. I'll second. And Mrs. Brenle makes a motion. Miss Alisar seconds. All in favor say I. I. I. The time is now 7:22 p.m.