001Good evening. Welcome everyone. I'd like to call this meeting to order and let us begin with our invocation and pledges of allegiance. At this time, I invite everyone who is able to join us in standing for the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance and the Texas pledge. As we begin this meeting, we are reminded that the work before us is about more than reports and decisions. It's about students, their growth, and their future. May our work tonight reflect thoughtful leadership and a shared commitment to doing what is best for every student. Guide us to lead with integrity and help us to balance responsibility with compassion. May we listen with open minds and speak with respect. May we remember the teachers who show up early, the principles who lead with heart, the staff who keep
002our campuses running, and the families who trust us with what matters most to them. As we begin tonight's meeting, may our decisions reflect the best of who we are as individuals and as a district. We ask all these things in your name. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, with liberty, >> justice for all. >> On the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, one God, one and indivisible. Thank you. >> Okay. Now, I'd like to uh conduct a roll call. Okay, just didn't show up on my screen. Okay, let's go under recognitions. And tonight is our rec. What is that? From Meo Creek Elementary, Sophia Davara. Sophia is an outstanding Meadow Creek Gator. She has excellent
003attendance and stays actively involved in both the ambassador club and guitar club. With her many talents and positive attitude, Sophia truly represents what it means to be a Gator. We are proud of her. Go Gators. family. We'd like to recognize you also from McAlliff Middle School, Annaloo Salana. It's an honor to recognize Analu Sada, an outstanding student whose dedication and character truly shine. For the past three years, Analoo has been a top student, earning honoral recognition each year while maintaining almost perfect attendance. She consistently goes above and beyond academically, participating in and placing first in academic competitions such as the Spanish spelling bee, the UIL academic events. Analoo is also college ready having met TSI requirements which reflect her strong work ethic and commitment to her future. Beyond her achievements, Analoo is known for her
004respectful nature, positive attitude, kind and kind spirit. She leads by example and inspire those around her through her perseverance and determination. This recognition celebrates not only her academic excellence but also the integrity and positivity she brings to her school community. like to recognize her family. Kylie Sanchez from Southwest High School, the Southwest High School student of the month. Kylie is a very active member of the NJOTC and embodies the qualities of a strong leader. Kylie is the platoon commander of Bravo 3, who earned the title of honor platoon this school year. She has over 34 hours of community service and was recently promoted to petty officer first class. Kylie has received numerous NJOTC awards, including the Srifi Dallas award, which recognizes a cadet who embodies the Marine Corps's value of endurance, loyalty, leadership, and dedication.
005She spends countless hours participating for uh practicing for several teams that will represent Dragon Company at the Area 18 State Championship, all while maintaining A's and B's. After high school, Kylie plans to enlist in the Navy. She demonstrates what it means to take flight as a Southwest Dragon every single day. >> We'd like to recognize you and thank you all so much. Our Southwest ISD rising stars have shown on incredible growth, making positive changes and improving attendance. We are confident that their hard work will continue to have a positive impact on their entire Southwest ISD experience. From Hidden Cove Steam Academy, please welcome Nester Sanchez. Okay, I understand we have one person that signed up for general comments. >> Yes, sir. Let me read the uh hearing rules of engagement. When addressing the audience during
006the public forum, speakers commentary must adhere to the following. Everyone must model courtesy and respect. Speakers shall not employ profane or threatening language, nor shall they engage in any personal attacks. The public has a right to make critical and harsh remarks. However, the expectation is that the message delivered by the speaker is done so in a constructive manner with a collaborative purpose. Speakers are expected to respect both the decorum of the public meeting and the authority of the board. In accordance with board policy BD local, the board shall not deliberate or respond to any subject that is not included on the agenda posted with notice of the meeting. Speakers who have signed up to speak on specific agenda item must focus their own comments on that posted agenda item. We have Miss B who signed
007up to speak for general public comments this evening. Miss Bada, you'll have three minutes to make your public comments if you could come forward. >> Good um good evening everyone. Uh my name is Stephanie Vetera. Most people know me as uh Brian's mom. Um over the weekend, my husband and I attended a Special Olympics leadership conference and heard so many schools talk about the obstacles they face when trying to get their unified sports programs off the ground. Some have funding barriers while others just don't have the admin or board support. U many of them approached uh my husband and I after um the sessions to talk about how we have so much success at um Southwest. I'm here tonight to thank you for setting the bar high when it comes to unified sports and overall
008inclusion in the district. Uh my husband and I had pretty much written off being able to cheer on our son and any competitive sport. Coaches would tell us he just couldn't do it and his peers just wouldn't accept him as a member of the team. Had it not been for the district athletic department and his coaches, specifically Shannon Wills, embracing unified sports and supporting our athletes, we would never have been able to see Brian swim his personal best at the state swim competition or cheer him on as he made a basket this past basketball game. Ryan may not always want to swim that extra lap in practice or run on a hot spring day, but we encourage him to take advantage of every opportunity, not only for us, but for all the other students and
009parents that thought they would never get to compete or cheer their child on. Again, we just want to thank the district for all you do for our community. From Penguin Project to unified sports, Brian will have the high school experience we wanted for him and will have the confidence he needs to continue on to his next chapter in life. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Board President. Um, I would like to ask Dr. Hogan to please come up and to speak about the conference and specifically to speak about Brian and then we do have something that we would like to present him afterwards. I'm going to try to do this with um without crying because this weekend was amazing. I um Dr. Well asked me to go in her place and first off there's
010no way she would have made it through that event without crying the entire time. Um there were so many stories uh that I got to hear from the leadership side. Um and there were so many stories from athletes, from the coaches, from leaders in the community. And the one thing that they all talked about was that this doesn't happen without a community. It doesn't happen without having the opportunity for people to hear the stories. And so I was able to speak at the conference um on Dr. a ball's behalf in the district and the two things that I said that I because they ask what are the things that you guys would would recommend to other districts and the reality is it doesn't happen without a board and a superintendent who can tell the stories
011of our kids. It's not just about putting these things in place. It's that if I ask any one of you, you know names, you know stories, and you come and you show up to the event. Luckily, I got to see Brian and I wasn't going to give the speech without having Brian come up um with me and I asked him to speak with me and of course he left me hanging at the end. So then I had to tell another story. Um, but Brian is amazing. And it's not because Brian is just an he is one of the individuals that no matter what is going on, that boy has a smile on his face. And he is a leader because he is helping everyone around him find their space in in the community. Um, but
012Brian is amazing. His family is amazing. And besides just Brian, he has a wonderful sister, Phoebe, who is also part of this picture that I think is really important to the to the whole piece of this. This is a surprise for you, right? But we want you to know how you are to us, how you encourage us, you motivate us to do better for all our students. Southwest. Congratulations to you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. You would like to ask Stay in front of >> consent agenda. Board members, you've had that before you. Anyone need to pull anything out? If not, we'll entertain a motion. >> I second. >> Motion uh motion has been made and seconded to accept the consent agenda as presented. All in favor, please vote now. All oppose, same size. You
013can vote at this time. Motion passes unanimous. Thank you. Okay. Items of information, construction update. >> Yes, sir. We're gonna have Thomas Krueger come up and introduce our folks to talk about construction tonight. Please bear with us. This is Thomas's first time at our board meeting in this room, so he's still learning the ropes. Good evening ladies and gentlemen for the Flores with Gasha Bombberger and Associates and uh Jackson with Bley We are here for uh you to inform about Southwest Elementary School renovation project. This slide show um the phases uh which this project has been working. Uh the phase one, two, three and five has been completed. Phase four is under construction right now. Um these are the phases uh that were completed. We're just showing the uh end product and in the phase
014four the demolition has been completed and the the Gibson uh board wall are erecting as we speak. Um the air conditioning units has been installed in phases one through five. Phase four is is going to be in place four and six. These are just pictures of uh what we found behind the walls and that's basically it. This is the completion. We just verify that the punches items were completed this past Monday. And um I can tell you that is complete. We are going to issue the substantial completion certificate for that phase. That's basically it. Oh, schedule. It's on schedule. Actually, it's a little bit ahead of schedule. So, we are on schedule and under budget. Any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening. This is in regards to Crewald Road Elementary School renovations and
015new exterior improvements. Uh we are currently working in uh phase on this project which is our final classroom remodel. See the area here. Uh we're on schedule right now and looking to complete this phase in May. After this uh 3we look ahead, we're working on the northwest canopy and uh the vestibule along with the east canopy. So we're doing interior and exterior activities right now. Uh the final phase five interior. Uh we're about to be done with our fire marshal inspection and we're going to be doing the ceiling tile, boat accessories, mill work, things of that nature. Uh once we're finished with phase five, we will start on the front entrance area which is a rendering of and uh we'll be completing that in August of this year. Uh this is the avid deck canopy
016installation that we have ongoing right now on the northwest side of the school. And uh these are the peers for more canopy construction on the east side of the elementary school. So like I said, we're doing basically interior renovations and exterior improvements uh kind of hand in hand. This is the completion of phase 4 hallway that we just got done with the past couple months. Uh the next photo is uh what the current phase 5 renovation looks like. So, it's a lot of similar work, but it's it's really g nice upgrades to the school parents in the classrooms and corridors. Again, this is phase five photos, uh the corridor area, getting some doors taken out. And then this is the restroom finish out in phase five as well, which is currently ongoing. This is the
017amphitheater area that we finished last summer, I believe. And uh it's been in full use by the school. We actually had a year of the horse lunar party there today. So, we got to see the kids and watch that activity go on. Very safe. Three of us were there for reading to children and we saw it. Looks very safe. Little bit like New York. >> Thank you very much. >> We're on schedule. >> Uh yes, sir. on schedule and on budget. Yes, sir. >> Thank you. Yes, sir. Good evening board. Thank you for your time tonight. Like to give you an update on Southwest ISD's uh Elm Creek Elementary School renovation. So we are currently in phase four largely consisting of these eight classrooms. One of the smaller phases of this project. Uh George has
018done an incredible job. They are on schedule. This phase is set to complete in March. So I believe next next couple weeks we've got an inspection coming up. Awesome. So next week final inspection and then we'll do the subsequent punch block. Overall we are 56 56% complete of the total project and about 75% complete on this phase as you'll see in the upcoming pictures. Additionally, uh George also tackled the exterior canopies. So that's consisted of just demo for this part. They have not started buildback yet, but uh we'll see some pictures of how that looks. So these are the corridors adjacent to the classrooms that we're working in. You can see the um tile Wayne scope on the side that's been completed. Walls are looking good. And Brad, I believe you'll also have the floors
019in as well. Yeah. So, these pictures are one week old uh since George hasn't got those installed. This is a good picture of a typical classroom. Again, floors are in, but we've got mill work, walls are in, uh, excuse me, walls are painted, and we also have the accessories such as the marker boards installed. And so, this was alluding to earlier, the canopies have been removed. You can see George has their construction fencing up. Um, they have maintained one of the front entries, so that's still in full use. And here they've already completed all of the masonry work, all of the buildback that was required at this entry. That's all we have for tonight. Any questions for us? >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Good evening. Uh we're happy to present a construction
020update for Juan Alvarado Elementary School. So you're all familiar at this point with the layout of the of the campus. Thanks. Um, so we're looking at the first floor there with a classroom wing at the top, cafeteria, gym at the bottom, admin is, uh, page right next. And this is the, uh, second floor of the twotory, uh, wing. So, uh, current work in progress is the work of multiple trades. Jurorus is doing an amazing job of keeping, uh, a number of different trades going on all at the same time. You'll see as we go through the photographs that they're working on the exterior of the building. At the same time, they're working on the interior of the building. So, this is a picture from last month to give you uh kind of a comparison of
021where we were last month. Next is a picture of the simpler view that shows some of the progress uh since that uh since last month. And you can see as looking around the uh the general area of the building uh work in the parking areas is ongoing u starting to pour concrete in the bus loop. Uh there's masonry or substantial amount of masonry has been completed since the last uh month and also some of the metal siding metal panels have been completed. also roofing. Uh you can see the different colors on the roof represent the finished granular granular uh surface has been added. Next, uh this is just kind of going around the school. So you can see this is more a view of the front of the school. Next, so this is looking at
022the twotory. So, uh, this, uh, north elevation still doesn't have the exterior finish on it, but has all of the, uh, uh, air barrier on. Next, and this is looking now, uh, towards the courtyard, and you can kind of see there in in the courtyard area that there is masonry already installed. And then there's metal panels around the gym and also masonry on the U music and art portion of the building. And you can see as you look again from this view more of the masonry on the uh south uh elevation of the building and also in the courtyard area. This is looking at the interior of the gym and you can see here the picture on the bottom right shows that the restrooms already have tile installed. Next, this is tile in one of
023the uh visitor uh toilet rooms. And then looking at the art and music rooms as well, you can see that um all areas are getting more and more complete. This is area C, the cafeteria. Uh you can see again um the uh the walls are being painted. There's uh paint being uh going on on the uh ceiling uh structure and also the duct work. Uh, next. And then in the uh kitchen area, you can see tile going on uh in the kitchen and the uh uh cooler freezer installed. This is looking at uh some of the sped classrooms and small classrooms and also one of the toilet rooms. Next. And uh looking at the library, you can see again much more complet from where we were a month ago. Next. >> Yes. The the on
024the right hand side, the room on the top is uh one of the uh speech therapy or uh ESL. And then below is actually one of the restrooms. And it, you know, still hasn't uh finished out as far as uh the tile and floor tile and all that. >> No, those are two separate rooms. >> No, that's a that's a larger gang or you know um multiple stalls restroom. Correct. >> Yes. Of course, it'll it'll be a lot easier to tell what's going on once they get further along with it. Uh next, so this is looking in area A down the corridor. What you're seeing there is some of the collab spaces where uh the recesses are set up for uh areas of presentation and uh and benches and that sort of thing. Uh but
025uh as you can see there's a lot more progress as far as drywall and all of that. When we showed this last month there was nothing but framing. So project schedule. Uh this shows the uh project schedule. So you can see there are multiple trades ongoing and as you go down the line uh they'll each uh complete at their uh respective uh completion times with the uh overall project being completed at the end of May. U there was one more slide. Yeah. So right after that should be our video. There you go. And so this is just a basically the same views that you saw at the beginning of the presentation but uh in a video format. Are there any questions >> and we're excited to show it to you. >> Thank you. All right.
026Well, good evening everybody. Um, uh, if I may, I'd like to kind of start off and, uh, kind of address the elephant in the room. Unfortunately, Mr. Raphael was spilling a little little under the weather, uh, this afternoon, so he he could not make it. Uh so he certainly uh sends his hellos and uh we're wishing them some healthy vibes. Uh so yes, so we'd like to kind of get started with the uh update uh Southwest uh Legacy High School edition. Um tracking very well. Uh I'll kind of begin with the sidewalk and utility uh portion of the work. The sanitary sewer uh utility work has been completed along with the fire hydrant work. So the majority of the uh utility work on the outside of the building has been completed. Uh in terms of
027the existing welding shop on the sort of back end, um the canopy steel structure uh essentially extension of the canopy uh pretty much has been completed. Uh that's kind of going through uh the final phases of uh completion in terms of the painting for that. Uh so I believe there's been discussions about uh seeing when that could actually be turned over to the district for district use. So that's really good news. Uh in terms of the actual building itself, uh the exterior facade and interior spaces, uh the first uh roofing coating has been completed. Uh mechanical roof curbs have been installed in preparation for the installation of all of the HVAC units. Um the exterior sheathing, and we'll see some of these photos here in a second. Um the exterior sheathing and the waterproofing is
028ongoing obviously on the exterior of the building uh on both floors. Uh the exterior uh window installation uh is pretty much complete. that's in progress. Um, and on the interior, we have the the drywall uh being installed. I think the uh main focus has been on the first floor and kind of working u from that up to the second floor. A lot of inwall inspections have been occurring. So, all of those are being approved. Then, uh all of those walls are now being covered up. Um like I mentioned, the uh roofing uh curbs, all of those have been installed. Mechanical duct work uh on the inside uh pretty much complete. uh really getting ready for the installation of the ceilings as well. Uh we can go to the next slide. This kind of shows the
029overview of the uh uh project. Uh the top two uh images really kind of show an overall of the building. Uh it's starting to look like a building now, which is really good. Uh like I mentioned, the exterior sheathing has been pretty much completed. Um that sort of black um paint on the uh building that you see there, that's all of the waterproofing. So that they're pretty much kind of complete except with the back end. Uh kind of hard to tell on the photo, but the brick is already on site as well. Uh scaffolding is already up for that work to begin here pretty soon. Uh they're going to essentially start from the front right hand side closest to the existing building and kind of working themselves uh clockwise uh and getting the exterior of
030the building pretty much buttoned up. Uh the next uh four slides down below really just kind of show some of the images of the interior. typical classroom and corridor where we start seeing a lot of the chipboard drywall being installed getting ready for uh paint finishes. Uh and the last uh bottom photos um the one in the bottom left is kind of through that main spine. Classrooms on either end uh really kind of start seeing that railing. A lot of the framing on the second floor. Like I mentioned, a lot of the the drywall is is happening on the first floor and they'll work themselves up to the second floor. Uh in the bottom right photo is just of one of the group restrooms already uh have the drywall in. So they'll start installing um
031uh tile and fixtures and things of that nature to get that portion complete. Uh in terms of overall schedule uh we're a little over 50% uh at this point in February. Uh we still have high confidence in Joris uh to get this. I think we're tracking for the end of June, June 30 specifically uh to get the building substantially complete. Any questions? >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Monthly tax report. You had that for it. Looks like >> Yes, sir. We uh we're about 73% as of January 31st collections. >> Financial report. Anything? investment report stop me at any time. >> Is that about normal for this time of year, Brandon? >> It we're actually down. This time last year, January 31st, we were at 83%.
032>> Uh but sometimes it depends on when when payment was made and when they make payment to us as a district. So, I'm anticipating here in February that we'll collect probably another 15 to 20% and then we have another big collection in around July. >> Thank you. Here submit requests enrollment report purchases over 100,000 required resolution for Senate bill. >> Yes, Miss Barson is going to be speaking on that and everybody has a handout also on that item. real quick. Um, going back to the, uh, enrollment report, what is our attendance like average for the school district? I'm going to go ahead and uh, you have a PowerPoint package in front of you. with this last legislative session. One of the Senate bills that came out was Senate Bill 11 um would denote a period
033of prayer and reading of the Bible andor other religious texts in our schools. Basically, the board of trustees and every school district in Texas may by record vote pass a resolution that would adopt a policy requiring every campus of the district to provide students and employees with an opportunity to participate in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts on each day each school day in accordance with this section. It also requires that the employee and student sign a consent form and that the district monitor the signing of that consent form for every individual who participates. On this consent form, they must acknowledge or the parent must acknowledge for the student that they have the choice to participate in a period of prayer or reading of the Bible and other
034religious texts. There must be a statement that the person has no objection to hearing or participating in prayers or uh readings during that period and they have an express waiver. They they wave their right um for the constitution to hear that the consent also prohibits the Bible or the prayer to be put on the public address system. It specifies that a period of prayer or reading of the Bible and other religious texts may not be in instructional time or be substituted for instructional time. An employee in a parent and the guardian may also revoke at any time their consent. The policy that would be adopted must include provisions that say that the prayer and the reading of the text cannot to violate anybody else's participation or not hearing others while you're doing it. They suggest
035doing this before school hours or before the normal school day. And it can also be within a classroom setting somewhere off to the side. In this provision, they also asked the attorney general to represent any school districts who push forward on this resolution as long as they followed the advice on the best method to comply with this requirement and that they use the model consent form that is provided to get consent from parents and from their staff. and that the attorney general will defend a school district um in the cause that arise from this action or this resolution. However, if a school district does not use the attorney general when they're sued, the district is liable for every expense, cost, judgment, or settlement for any claims that arise from a lawsuit based on this resolution.
036Can you repeat that last part because you said if we do not use the attorney general, >> if the attorney general is not, you do not use them to represent the school district, then the school district is liable for that. >> If we use the attorney general to represent us and we lose. So above that it says if the attorney general defends a school district, the state is liable for the expense, cost, judgment, and settlement of the claims arising out of the representation. The attorney general may settle or compromise any and all claims under this subsection. >> Okay. >> The state is not liable if you do not use the attorney general representation. >> So why would you not use the attorney general representation? I do not know that. It may be a time element.
037I don't know. They just have it in the clause. I wanted to make sure that we read that. >> Okay. with the with no adoption. If we vote no to the resolution, then regardless, this Senate Bill 11 also says that we cannot prohibit a student or employee of the district from participating in prayer or reading of the Bible or other religious texts during a period in the school day that is not designated for instruction. So, it also states you just cannot stop anybody from doing this if you don't have the resolution. We took this to committee because we wanted to see what our community thought. Here are the notes from several committees. Here are the pros about the resolution. Some felt that some students may be afraid to ask for mental health um or counseling
038and they thought that maybe they would join a prayer group instead. Some felt that the students may show interest in prayer groups as there are already prayer groups and clubs at a lot of the campuses. And uh one person did say anything uplifting and motivating for students should always be considered. The cons were currently students have more freedom to pray whenever they need to or want to right now. For example, before a game, a test, a performance, and the reading of religious texts. administrating administration and teachers felt that this would be very hard to know daily which students have the right to pray through a consent form or which ones do not have the right especially if this is before school because who would monitor children before school and have the right to know which
039ones have consent which one consent were revoked at any time. the district would be held liable if students joined a prayer group one day without their parents' consent. The committee felt that this law actually prohibited religious freedom to establish only certain times and areas in which students would be allowed to pray. Unanimously, the committees recommend that we that the district not approve the resolution to adopt the policy for prayer time and the reading of the Bible and other religious texts as it is written in Senate Bill 11. The reason is as it puts an undue burden on the campus teachers and administration. It may potentially bring liability to the district that does not currently exist. The current practice of allowing students to pray, read the Bible, and other religious texts is allowed at any time
040of the day and is not that is not deemed instructional time. I want to make clear that the state requires that all public schools vote on this on a record vote. They want you to vote on a resolution to adopt this policy and it's written in the affirmative. It would designate a policy to designate a specific time each day for students and staff to be able to pray and read the Bible or other religious texts. The resolution in the wording is very specific and it has to be written exactly how it states in the law. So instead of it saying yes today, the board will need to vote. If you vote to pass the resolution, then a policy will be created to designate a specific time for prayer and the reading of the Bible and
041religious texts. If you do not pass the resolution, then the established practice allows for prayer and the reading of religious texts and the Bible at any time of the day for students. Are there any questions? >> I have a comment. Um, as a person of faith, I value the freedom to express my religious beliefs at moments when I need guidance or strength. However, I do not believe it's the role of our schools to police or monitor personal expressions of faith among faculty or students. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's an item of information. Yeah. I I do want to say It it kind of reminds me of that um permission slip that everybody had to have for to get a band-aid. And so this year we had so many kids that didn't turn the
042paper in and they couldn't get help from the nurse and all of the the to be able to police all of those forms is very difficult. So I think that since our current practice already protects the students rights to pray and read and also our administration's rights, then I think we probably should just stick with what we have now and not adopt that. Although it is a nice idea, >> I agree with you. >> Thank you. Okay. Student dress code. >> Yes, many staff members have asked us to put together something more specific with more clarity for student dress code. So, I did ask Miss Barson to work on this and I know she's been sending this out and working with many committees and getting lots of input on this. >> So, we have a
043history of going through dress codes. We actually had a parent group about three and a half years ago ask us whether or not we were going to approve a dress code for students. And so during that time we made sure that we asked the question of well should we start with students or should we start with faculty? And so we decided to start with the employees. So, two years ago, we actually put together a year-long process in which we went through the employee dress code and a professional dress code and we implemented that in the 2004 2005 school year. And so, we've been I'm sorry, 2024 2025 school year. And so, with that, we are now ready to address student dress code. You have before you a sample of the student dress code. and the
044policies that govern the student dress code that follow. Basically, what we wanted to do was to ensure that we actually followed the same kind of process that we did with the employee dress code, which was we went to many other districts across the state of Texas and in San Antonio, looked at the dress codes that were already displayed and uh in handbooks. We had committees go through and delineate the different types of wording, the different types of structures, and the actual format of the dress code and what they appreciated. We narrowed down the foundational items that everybody agreed to that represented the dress code they wanted to consider. And then we had different groups sit in and listen um to presentations on dress code while still making sure that we followed through with um student
045independence and student interest in what they wore. Our next steps from this is take it to the superintendent student advisory group and then allow campuses to share the draft copy at their parent meetings so that we could get more input. When you look at this, it's simply built that says under shirts, blouses, sweatshirts, very simple. We want to make sure that it's not revealing and that it doesn't have large holes and that it's not a tube top, that it actually has sleeves of some sort. This is not only to make sure that um we have everybody dressing appropriately so they're ready for career and job development later on, but also to make sure that they're safety, especially when they're in science labs and other career tech classes to make sure that they're safety and clothing
046to make sure they're not too loose, they get caught in machinery, things of that nature. under the dresses, jumpers, skirt, shorts. We wanted to make sure that it was appropriate for school setting and something that would also reflect what the workplace or or colleges may have. And so we went ahead and put that in. We do have a section there that was pre-K through 2 grade as we do allow different types of shorts and things of that for the younger kids as they play on the floor and things of that nature. Then we have a section under shoes and this basically is a lot of safety. We wanted to make sure that shoes were tied properly. Also to make sure that we're not wearing flip flops. We are allowing Crocs. I didn't know this one,
047but I was schooled in the committee. It's going to be in sports mode, meaning that you have to put the back on it so that students won't trip over their flip-flops if they have to walk in a hallway or if they have to exit for a drill or any kind of emergency. We always want to make sure footwear is safe and that it does not expose the student to undo injuries of any kind, especially in athletics, PE, CTE classes, things of that nature, or just hallways. The next is hair and head which basically says hair is neat. Um there is nothing about colored hair because the group felt that that was not as distracting as it was 20 years ago. So they were okay with different types of colored hair. Uh they just wanted to
048make sure that uh people were not wearing hats in school unless it was something to do with some type of religious um need or if it was campus designated day. Miscellaneous. We wanted to make sure that students didn't wear anything that disturbed um the general operation of the school. nothing that referenced alcohol, drugs, weapons, tobacco, anything provocative, anything offensive. We wanted to make sure there was no gang association and things of that nature. So, that is the basis of the majority of it. The groups really like this type of poster. So, we're hoping that they want to see this poster at the schools because it says from here to here, you cover it up. Please don't have any of these things that are in our board policies that state you can't wear. And that's the
049type of poster that we would start and have in our schools to let students know this is what we that our dress code represents. Are there any questions for that? >> Thank you, Francis, for your work on this. review of strategic priorities and goals. >> Yes. So, every year as part of my evaluation, um we look at this. Um Miss Barson is really assist me with this. This is one of the things that she excels in um in helping out with these strategic uh and priority goals. So, I will just turn it over to her. We've had um Francis and I have had a lot of conversations on this. >> So, this is a review of the strategic priorities and goals for the 2526 school year. It did take us a little bit longer to
050get these out because, as you're aware, the taper report did not come out in November as it typically did. So, we received this in December 18th, I believe. And so, it took us a little while to get to our committees and ensure our our goals actually met the number based on what TEA was recording for us. As you're aware, we started this process about two years ago about developing the strategic priorities and goals. We did this through many different committee groups where we we finalized and we kind of minimize and we kind of group things into different strategic priorities. Here are the ones that we have. There are four priority areas and you guys are used to seeing those, but for everybody else, I just wanted to make sure they saw them. For strategic priority
051one that falls under AHR, the superintendent will increase the number of clinical teachers from 42 to 60, which would be an increase of 40% during this school year. We're basically attempting to grow our own. We would like people to come here and choose us. Um, clinical teachers means student teachers. They've changed the logo on it, but it's basically we want more student teachers. We think that once they come to Southwest, they'll stay in Southwest. We want them to love our area. So, our goal is to get more and more student teachers to come here at the beginning so that we can keep them here. Goal number two, the student the superintendent will develop a plan to enhance uh retention by moving from 92 to 93 of all recommended teachers. So, you know, last year we
052had a great year. We were in the 80s before. We kept a lot of staff and you guys told me at new teacher lunchon, you want us to keep up the great work with having more and more staff stay. So, we're trying to improve that by 1% to have even more teachers that are eligible stay in our district. Next, we move on to academic performance. And you'll see that this will be an increase in third grade reading language arts scores on the star um at their approaches level from 71 to 75 and the meats level from 42 to 44 in this next school year. This also will have a third grade math score of approaches from 59 to 63 and the meat score from 34 to 36 for this school year. This one has a
053third goal, which is the superintendent will ensure that all campuses receive a C rating or higher and do not decline in a letter rating grade on the TEA accountability reporting system. On the optimizing fiscal and operational efficiency, we have two goals. Number one, the superintendent will decrease the percentage of students identified as at risk for chronic absenteeism from 32.9% to 27.2% for this school year. Remember that chronic absenteeism is a new at risk indicator. It is something that the district and uh has tracked and that the state has tracked. And now that it's an at risk indicator, we've decided to move that from increasing attendance to really looking that at the students who are identified as chronically absent to make sure that we lessen that population annually. The superintendent will also implement fiscal efficiency actions
054to save $1 million toward the 2627 school year budget under foster a safe and supportive environment. The superintendent will increase the percentage of current emergent bilingual students making progress in achieving English language proficiency as measured on their TEP pass test from 47% to 51% at the district level. The next one is the superintendent will increase the percentage of early childhood special education students served in general education settings for at least 50% of the day from 5 to 8% to close the gap between the district average and the state average as it sits. This one also has a third goal, which is the superintendent will strive for safety for all students by ensuring 100% of all campuses will pass the intruder detection audit as presented by the state. Those are our strategic priority goals. We utilize
055those goals to help us with our divisional work, our department work, and is also used for doctor the superintendent's evaluations. Thank you, Miss Barson. I appreciate your help and u definitely take any comments or questions that the board has. Thank you. >> Okay. Lasso for lift grants items of information. Uh Delila has that. >> Yes. And that's a great segue from what we just heard from our strategic priorities here within our district. We are fortunate that we get to celebrate another awarded Lasso 4. Lasso is mainly for learning acceleration support opportunities. And so we continue to apply for these grants. This is our fifth year that we get to be a part of these opportunities. So this last four is going to focus on four different strategies. Out of the four strategies, we were able
056to gain some funding for two of them, which is a curriculum and instruction and education and training. Under the lift grant, which is the first one that we just mentioned, it is specifically for us to continue to invest in our leadership and instruction. So mainly we are going to be working with district leaders, campus leaders in order for us to continue to move through the work. This will be a three-year program which is a multi-year investment in our leadership and it helps us sustain the work that we have been doing over the last few years. Currently we are in our implementation phase. It does mention how this coming year we should be going deeper and into the implementation which is blue bonnet learning and we currently have blue bonnet math but which we have adopted
057from K through even high school for college algebra. Under those under that work, we are looking forward to partnering up with an approved vendor who is going to also support with monthly coaching for our principles, high quality professional learning and additional instructional supports and systems that we will be putting into place. In addition to that, there is also a piece called lift add-on. So add-on is specifically for targeted supported campus which is through our title one campuses and they will be getting additional support for PC coaching and observation feedback cycles. We also partner with HR which is along with the strategic priorities that we just heard. They continue to work on their buckets which is recruitment, preparation and mentorship. So they were also part of this grant. So I do want to say I want
058to thank our fabulous team along with HR and this is a work being led by Lisa Boli Nitra Zelene Veronica which they continue to work with our campuses and provide additional support as a year goes by. But now we get to bring in this fabulous support that the state has now granted us. So here we'll see just the amount of money that we're looking at. We're looking for prep residency, grow your own, mentorship, and the one fabulous Lyft, which we're looking at is almost $1.18 million, which it is a three-year program, and every year we will continue to get some funding. And then the add-on is just a one-year program for 360,000. So, we get to celebrate that work tonight. Any questions? Brandon, I'm just curious. How do these budget items affect our budget? Does
059the state decrease when we get a grant? No. >> No. No. These funds are given to us. What we have to do in any federal funds, we kind of front the money. So, we'll spend it. We'll bring in outside groups and whether it's contract services or it's product, we get we have to purchase up front, but they reimburse us. We give pretty much reimburse every month. So, these grants are on addition to what we are doing. Thank you. Okay. Item seven, admin and human resources. Consider the approval of the resolution for the action of Senate Bill 11. >> Yes, this is the item that Miss Barson has just presented on. Of course, we are still if you would like to ask us any further questions or if you'd like to make a recommendation at this
060time. I move that we do not adopt Senate Bill 11. >> Motion second. And the motion is not to adopt. So if you're in favor of not adopting, you would be voting yes. Vote at this time. passes. Thank you. >> Business and finance consider approval of 2425 district financial audit. >> Yes, sir. >> Everybody has a copy. >> Yes, if everybody could get out their copy. Uh we are required by law to hire a third party certified public accountant to come in and do an independent audit of our finances for uh this will be for fiscal year Thank you, Brandon. Uh, members of the board, can y'all hear me? Okay. Or can you hear me now? >> Perfect. Well, good. Well, thank y'all for having me tonight. Um, my name is Derek Walker. Is it
061and I am with the auditing firm Coleman Horton & Company and like Bran said here to present the audit for August 31st, 2025. Um we tried to get this. So actually before I start uh with the board secretary and board president please sign that certificate of board that is on page three and get that to Brandon um later tonight so he can get that submitted to us. Um, we try to get this audited out to you early so that you have a chance to review it. Um, and that way just to keep the audit presentation um, short tonight. So, with your permission, I'm just going to go over our uh, opinion letters, fund balance, and some individual funds and also your general fund budgetary comparison schedule. Are y'all getting an echo on your side? No.
062Okay. Um, our first opinion letter is on page four. I'm just going to go over all three of them briefly. Uh, the first opinion is an opinion on your financial statements and whether they present fairly and the operations of the district. Uh, you're required to have a second opinion if you receive federal funds. Uh, and this is an audit on your internal controls, compliance, and other matters. And lastly, there's a third opinion. If you receive over $750,000 in federal funds, you're required to have an audit on your major federal programs. Uh, in the Southwest situation, they had 26 plus million in federal funds. So, this requirement was needed. Uh the major funds that we did audit were your child nutrition program and idea part B. On all three opinion letters, they were considered clean or
063unmodified opinions. So congratulations to the district in that regard. Other than that, I'd like to go over your fund balance. Um, if you do have your hard copies, can you turn to page 22 and 23? This is your statement of revenue, expenditures, and changes in fund balance. Um, also considered an income statement or a profit and loss statement. I'm going go over a couple different lines here. Uh I'm going to focus from the top your total revenue uh which is about four lines from the top. Um total expenses which is about 3/4 the way down. And then we're going to look at your net change in fund balance which is three lines from the bottom. So some funds are required to be reported major. Your general fund is always going to be a major fund.
064Um, what this does is your general fund receipts the majority of your property taxes and your state revenue, but it also has a majority of your expenses, uh, including your salaries, uh, general administration, most of your repairs and maintenance, transportation. So, looking at that first column, uh, your general fund had total revenues of 171,587 389. uh looking 3/4 the way down at total expenditures of 179,000 sorry 179 million302. So when you take your revenues and subtract your expenses you had a decrease in fund balance of about 77 7.7 million. This left the district with an ending fund balance of 65 million 788441. When you divide your total expenditures, you know, by 12 months, this equates to about four months of operating reserves that the district has built up. That second column is your debt service
065fund. Uh the debt service fund receives property taxes to service any kind of bond payments that the district has. Uh you can see the net change in fund balance three lines from the bottom was an increase of 480,000 leaving the debt service fund with an ending fund balance of 8 million 87132. Your capital projects fund. This fund receipts any new bond proceeds but also accounts for the spending of all those bond proceeds as was mentioned earlier in the board meeting all those capital projects going on. So looking at that that fund that fund had a decrease in fund balance of 68 million 72,583 leaving that with an ending fund balance 127478775. That fourth column is your other funds. Uh these are funds that didn't meet the requirement of being reported as major. Uh most of
066these are your federal funds, your child nutrition funds, your campus activity funds. We lump them all in this column. Uh looking at that change in fund balance for all those individual funds was a decrease of 249, 938, leaving those other funds in ending fund balance of 4 million 336115. Last column is a total of all the funds we just discussed. Uh looking at that change in fund balance. Far right column was a decrease of 75 million 556,691,000 leaving the district with an ending fund balance of 26 million474 463. So, as y'all continue to spend um your capital project bond money, uh that fund balance is going to decrease quite a bit, you know, in the upcoming year. Any questions on those? If not, will you please turn to page 59? This is the last schedule
067I want to go over. Um, this is the budgetary comparison schedule for your general fund. What this does is it does a comparison of what was actually happened during the year and what your final budgeted amounts were. I'm hoping you got there. So, I'll start explaining that first column is your original budget. your original budgets was passed before the start of the year. The second column represents your final amended budget. After you factor in all the budget amendments during the month, this is where the budget ended up at. Third column is your actual amounts. These are the actual amounts receded uh actual amounts spent. And then the fourth column is the variance between your actual and your final. So we're going to look at that far right column. Looking at your total expenditures, four lines
068from the bottom from the top, I'm sorry. Um they came in 6,688 528 more than what was anticipated. You can see that your local revenues were a little less. Also, your federal revenues were a little less, but then state revenue was quite a bit more than what was budgeted. Your total expenditures uh four lines from the bottom came in 1 million 13689 less than what was anticipated. There were two budget over over expenditures. One was in your general administration. You can see that negative amount in that column and then also in your community services. Uh this was a result of an adjusting journal entry uh that we proposed and your management accepted. Um we did a little consultation with them and explain what the journal entry was for. So hopefully going forward we won't have
069that. But other than that, it was it was a clean, efficient audit. Um, like to thank your administration staff for all the work that they put into it. Uh, it's not it's very intrusive and it's takes a long period of time. You know, they met us with smiles during the whole time. So, thank y'all again. Any other questions? Thank you. should pass. >> Consider approval of classroom furniture and equipment for multiple campuses. Uh yes, Shamus has that. And then there's also a new handout that was passed out for that. I didn't as aware elementary this coming August three renovations we're going to be doing like we did for Bob last year where we take all the going to be Not all replacing all the desks, student chairs, all those are campuses. In addition to that,
070it's all furniture, including library at Colorado Elementary, all furniture. So through the process, district staff reviewed and prepared from multiple After the review, the staff is recommending that we purchase furniture for the library from Indico. All the rest of the classroom furniture both JR is on. Sorry JR is on region contract. So combination of those two companies, one to go for the library, JR4 classroom furniture is the best value for the district. furniture will be purchased with 2023 bond funds in an amount not to exceed 1,172,200 recommendation approve indo >> I move >> motion two seconds please vote passes. >> Thank you. We have a motion to consider approval of change order number two of the construction material testing contract at sir. So ECS southwest LLP was the construction materials testing lab job first started.
071There has been some additional testing required by the city of San Antonio on this project noticed. So they have submitted a change order number two to this contract in the amount of $9,000. It's recommended the board approve change order number two for the additional construction material test project there approval. of the re- roofing project at Spicewood Park Elementary. >> Yes, sir. So, as of as y'all know, last year we did a re- roofing project at McNair Middle School. It had gone past its warranty time. We were having leaks that could not fix continuous issue. We are in the same boat with Spicewood and Sun Valley. They both pass 2006. So, The district staff has worked with the contract for Legacy High School and they are currently working on Legacy High School and the Colorado project.
072So they are they gave us a quote on the choice partners co-op and we are recommending that we approve urethane the total contract amount of 1,513,641 this will both projects under one they plan on starting the week will be complet. >> Yes. Okay. So, my one last thing. Is that what you ask for? Okay. So, just want to remind everybody, not just the board, but our community and our employees. We are so blessed to have Deacon Larry um here tomorrow. So, 7 to 8 in the morning and then 12 to 1. If anybody would like to come and receive your ashes here, Deacon Larry is providing that for us. Then this Saturday, Legacy High School mariachi will be competing in the state mariachi festival at 4:15 at Sigin High School. We're very proud also of
073Legacy. Y'all heard my phone go off uh because Legacy uh won their basketball game. So, we're very proud of them. So, let me make sure I'm reading the right information that I got from Peter Wagner. Um, in regards to that, I'll still send it out to all the board, but I want to make sure that I'm sharing this. So, Wagner won tonight. Uh, so, excuse me, Lady Dragons will play Wagner at 6:30 on Friday and, um, the boys did win tonight. So, they will play um on South Sand um on Friday at 6:30 at Legacy. So, it looks like we might have two games on Friday. Um, so very proud of our teams for doing such a great job. Those are my things. And and Legacy was district champs. Yes. Yes. And the girls did
074an amazing job last night and they also won last night. No, just the boys at Legacy >> girls um they won uh they had not been in the playoffs for 10 for 10 years. So they are now in the in the playoffs. They won their first playoff game last night and they will have another game and they are the by district champs. Anyone else? Okay. Now we will go into close session as permitted by sections 551.001-551.146. 001-551.146 of the Texas government code showing to Texas government for code 551.074 and Texas government code 551.071 and 551 0821. We will now at 727 go into close session. We we go back into open session at 806. Um going back to section 11 um a uh discussion on personnel and administrator employment resignations, reassignments, leaders absence, and contract
075renewals. I move that we approve the superintendent's recommendation on personnel. >> A second. >> We have a first and a second. Is there any questions? If not, uh I call for the vote. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Moving on to B. uh deliberation and consultation with school attorney regarding pending litigation student verse southwest Independent School District uh before a special education hearing officer for the state of Texas um TEA docket number 214-se SH docket number 701-26-10617A >> I move to accept the recommendation of the superendent dependent and the school's attorney and direct the superintendent and the school's attorney to proceed as discussed in close session concerning student versus southwest independent school district before a special education hearing officer for the state of Texas docket number 214-E-126. >> Second. >> We have a first and a
076second. Any questions? If uh if not, all those in favor say yes. Please vote or no. >> Thank you. That passes unanimously. Um Dr. Ball, do we have anything else? >> Before close session, so if that could just be noted in the record that he did leave. Then we will adjourn at 808.