001Welcome to our church here at building cafeteria. Welcome to this cafeteria place that's many of our students called cast them and called sixth grade campus nth grade campus and now we're calling the Welcome. We'd like to begin with our invocation of the Please stand if you're able. Lord, as we begin this meeting, may we be guided by respect for one another, for the roles we each play, and for the trust our families and community has placed in us. Help everyone who has gathered here today to consider patience. patience to listen fully before we respond, to consider perspectives that differ from our own, and patience to work through difficult conversations. We recognize that we may not always agree on the path forward or every decision that comes before us, but we as a community come together
002tonight because we share one common purpose, doing what is best for the students of Southwest ISD. May that shared purpose be the standard by which we measure our words, our choices, and our actions. We we also would like to take a moment to remember Angelina Tarasas who recently passed whose recent passing has touched many in our community. We are grateful for the way our Southwest family has come together to support one another and to extend comfort to those who loved her. May we honor her memory and continue to remind us of the power of compassion and community. As we move through tonight's agenda, may we be thoughtful, fair, and student centered in all we do. May our decisions be discussions be respectful and our decisions be wise. and may our hearts remain focused on serving
003every child in our district. We ask all these things in your name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Good evening everyone. I'm going to talk a little slow because we do have a couple of students that are making their way here. All right, so let's go ahead and begin. First, our students of the month, Alexander Zuda and Steve Academy. Alexander works hard, tackles, challenging with determination, and always gives his best. Last year, he was the only student on campus to earn a perfect score on the STAR math test. An incredible achievement that
004shows both his talent and dedication. Alexander shines far beyond academics. He's a natural leader who treats everyone with kindness and respect. He tutors classmates, helps create a positive classroom environment, and even takes the initiative to set up breakfast for his grade level each morning. Alexander's hard work, humility, and willingness to help others makes him truly deserving of this honor. Congratulations, Alexander. >> [laughter] >> Is Riley here yet? She's on her way. Okay, so we'll skip ahead now to Southwest Legacy High School student of the month. >> We have a little bit of time. Let me ask any school or personal family that's with this young family and personal family. right there. The middle here. [cheering] All these people love you. We are so proud of you. That's a great job. Great job. two. [laughter] >>
005And now Eli Sanchez from Southwest Legacy High School, please come forward. >> [applause] >> is a standout multisport athlete competing in football, basketball, and track. On the football field, he's a force ranked top 14 nationally, top two in Texas, and number one in division 2 with an incredible 18 sacks this season. Eli His humility, respect, and leadership shine in the classroom and through his involvement with the Unity Bible Club where he lifts up those around him. Outside of school, he even runs his own landscaping business, Armor Maintenance. Eli will be greatly missed next year, but his character, drive, and kindness will continue to inspire. The Titan Nation is proud of him. Once a Titan, always a Titan. Pass that to pass. She'll take a picture and then come on up. Come on up. We're so
006proud of you. Congratulations. two hand. >> Congratulations. Graduation. You're thinking about it. Okay, >> I'm sure you do. If there's anything you need, anything we can help you with, you just let us know, okay? We're proud of you. Congratulations. [clears throat] to our rising stars. Our Southwest IC rising stars have shown 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 entire school experience at Southwest Pettis from Creek Elementary. We're so proud of you. Look at this. Awesome. Okay, here you go. We're gonna look right here. >> Okay. So, we're still missing a couple more students that are on their way. Come back to them. >> Come on. Take a picture. We're so proud of you. Take a picture. And
007your mom is here. Would mom like to join us in the picture? Right there. Awesome. Thank you. to school every day. Every day proud of you. Good job. Come back. Yes, sir. >> Okay. Yes, sir. We do have speakers tonight. So, I'm going to go over the South Citizens. We heard rules of engagement when addressing the audience during the public speaker commentary was adhere to the following. Everyone must model courtesy and respect speaker or engage in personal task. The public has the right to make heart remarks. However, the expectation is that the message delivered by the speaker is an unstructed matter with a collaborative purpose. Speakers are expected to respect the public forum of the public meeting and authority of the board. The board of trustees request that derogatory statements and personal attacks on be
008avoided. specific individuals in accordance with policy local speakers. We have one person three minutes. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Sylvia Ramirez. I have been a proud mentor for this community for 36 years. I moved to this neighborhood specifically for Sky Harbor Elementary. a place that has been more than just this school to me and has been a cornerstone of our community, a nurturing environment for our children and a source of pride for all of us. Today, I stand before you to passionately advocate against the permanent closing of Sky Harbor. Yes, we are aware that the school faces challenges and while support efforts to improve our educational facilities and resources, I do not believe that closing the school is the solution. Let's consider that disclosure would mean for our communities. Loss of community harbor
009is not just a building. It's a gathering place for families, a place where friendships are formed and where our children learn the values of teamwork and cooperation. Closing it would sever these vital connections. What about our taxes? I urge you to consider this. If you close a school, will our taxes be lowered? I think many of us would agree that the closure may not lead to the financial relief that is promised. Instead, it could diminish our property values and negatively impact our neighborhood, meaning leading them to more long-term costs. Compensation for our children. If we must face this unfortunate decision, I ask that we consider more form of compensation for our children, our kids. Let's give them an extra special Christmas celebration, a memorable Valentine's Day, a meaningful field trip to help close our school
010school year. These experiences can help mitigate the impact of closing their beloved school. In closing, I want to emphasize that we love our school. It is a vital part of our lives and we do not want to see it close for good. Instead, let's work together to find solutions to improve Sky Harbor so that it could continue to serve our children, our families, and our community for many more years to come. Thank you for your time and supporting the hearts for our community. Sky Harbor Elementary School. Let's keep it open and ready. >> [laughter] >> At this time, those recognition. Sorry. >> Sorry, I thought it was a recognition. >> Did he Where's my There a motion and second to approve the consent agenda as presented to us. All in favor please say I. >>
011I motion passes items of information. We have no construction [snorts] report questions. report request enrollment report,000 at this time before we go to item seven. For our final student of the month, would Riley, please come forward. [applause and cheering] Riley shines in academics, responsibility, behavior, and fine arts. She works hard, stays curious, and always puts in her best effort both in and out of the classroom. Riley's positive attitude sets a great example for others. And her selection to the honor man shows just how talented and dedicated she really is. Although Riley's achievements truly reflect the best of the Res Middle School community. Congratulations to Riley Res Middle School student of the month. Congratulations. >> [clears throat] [laughter] >> and two. >> And if her parents will please stand up so we can recognize them also.
012Okay. Item seven is your approval of 2026 2027. >> Yes, Miss Parson has this information. They've been working hard with their committee. So at this time, good afternoon or good evening, I should say. Um, I want to let you know that as always, we start our planning for the calendar committee a year in advance. We try to give our families and our communities the most amount of knowledge so they can go ahead and make their plans. Uh this year we started off with our calendar committee in August and September. Committees comprised of many different departments, extracurricular programs including athletics, fine arts cheer, etc. Elementary representatives, middle school representatives and high school representatives. They came together to not only look at our current calendar for this year. As you noted, this year we had a very
013small summer and it was in effect for a lot of people making comments on the very small summer that we had. So that was taken into consideration for our committee. Additional committees were used. We have an ESAC committee which has representatives from every campus and we have a DIT which has representatives across campuses. um different district personnel, paraprofessional personnel and parents on the committee. And so all of these calendar selections were um given to these committees for review. Afterwards, only two two calendars were considered for voting and those were option three and option four. This allowed us enough opportunity for our construction projects to be completed and to provide enough summer that's considered an adequate summer for all of your personnel. With that, we took the survey out to all district employees in which they
014were voted. And the only switch that the vote asked for was a difference in vacation versus holiday in October of next year. Our results were 64% voted on option three. So we asked that the school board recommend option three be the adopted calendar for this upcoming school year. And you will receive that in your um in your board. >> Northight has not adopted their calendar. They actually called and asked us the question of our sent our preliminary draft calendar so they could review it for themselves. >> To make sure everybody can hear. In addition to that, um, we do take any calendar into consideration in our neighboring boundaries. Nobody had approved their calendar yet. I think some of that happens to be because of the legislative update that almost came out which would have mandated
015that no school start before the last weekend in August. It stopped in committee but they may pass it again. So therefore we're we we would be in compliance of that if it passed but people are still kind of hesitant to approve the calendar. So your recommendation is option three. >> There's a motion to second approve the proposed amendment to the southwest 267 school calendar for all comprehensive schools not including cast high school. Any questions? Hearing none, please say I. All >> oppos. Okay, joining us now, Janelle. I'm not going to say who, but someone forgot to draw her off. [laughter] >> It wasn't you. It wasn't you. It wasn't you either. Someone else, but she is one of our rising stars, showing incredible growth, making positive changes, and improving attendance. Star Middle School. I'm gonna
016hold it for you while you go around and shake everybody's hand and then come back up. here. And you have a team that's here. Awesome. >> This is awesome. And dad and everybody, right? Awesome. All my dad stand here. You want to stand there? Oh, sorry. [laughter] and stop. 1 2 3 Okay, this is fun. Approval of the district's campus rebalancing plan. >> Yes, we have Mr. Chris that has been leading this work that will be presenting the board with our plan to rebalance campuses. >> Good evenings. So, first off, I want to say that uh making the decisions, we won't take it very lightly. We've been studying this trying to figure out the best way to do this. Uh tonight's proposal will impact about eight campuses. Uh and so there's multiple parts to this.
017The biggest piece I would say is the opening of the new school Colorado. Uh reszoning uh our students to that area and the other would be to consolidate Sky Harbor. So the district campus balancing proposal will focus on long-term stability. Sorry. [clears throat] [snorts] So we're looking at balancing enrollments across the district. Uh the key to balancing our campuses, we want to make sure that our campuses are at about 85% capacity. Right now we have some that fall way way below that and we have some that are above that. And so we need to take a look at that. We want to ensure the best use of the school facility. making sure we're using it efficiently. Uh looking at ways to save money so that we can continue to do the great things that we
018do across our district. Uh focus on the long-term solid study what's happening across our district so we make sound decisions. Uh when we're talking about changes and possibly new schools or where we have areas where we have growth and then we want to continue to support strong learning environments and so that's kind of the key to this proposal. Uh so there was both zones. I'm going to start off with the zones and then talk about some of the the reasoning behind the zones. Uh the first one would be the Alono zone. Uh you can see it's a it's a part of Spicewood Elementary, parts of Southwest Elementary, Ron Army, which is currently there's some students that that go to Sky Harbor in that area and then obviously around Lake and Legacy Peter uh opening up
019uh students would be from those four campuses or three campuses with expecting growth. We do see a lot of growth in that area. So we're going to these spice parking 232 students to elementary 200 students that are currently sitting in Sky Harbor and 71 students that are at Southwest Elementary. Uh we expect to also see about 80 new students in that area as well. We're the the projection is about 583 students that would be resolved based on these numbers. But you have to take into account transfers. So students that may decide to stay or go somewhere else or other students that are other campuses decide to go to the new campus over uh we anticipate at that size with the staff that cost the district about 5.6 million to open up over the district rebalancing
020plan is to look at campuses that are being underutilized as far as space capacity. the district when we study it, we tried to see make sure that our campuses take anywhere between 620 students or 740. As you get above the 740, we need to start looking at how we can alleviate the overcrowdedness of those campuses. But when they start to fall below 620, we need to take a look at especially fiscally and how being used. So currently after all boundary changes that have been proposed um Sky Harbor would fall below 400 students about 392 in Creek currently uh is projected to have about 469 students next year and hit goal 436. The goal is to consolidate and create two campuses to meet that 620 740 threshold. Uh closing a campus would save us about $6.5
021million out of the proposed three campuses. The proposed just kind of why we're looking at this. Everybody here knows that most districts across Texas have been facing deficit budgets. We continue to have a deficit budget, but we've been working really hard to to get away from the deficit budget. Starting back in 23 24 we were looking at almost a $60 million deficit. Last year it was about 13 million and we worked really hard over the uh the last spring to look at the budget things that we can do budget wise to lower that plus with what happened with the state. The map or the chart that I have up there is the projections for the three campuses that we're talking about tonight consolidation academy currently is 5 436 but you can see over the next
02210 years the projection due to lack of basically construction in that area nowhere to really to grow uh the projection is them to fall below 400 students over time is the largest in that area They're sitting about 468 students and their growth is is pretty flat as well. It's not as doesn't as much as it does at Sky Harbor stay stable, but it's still way below the functional capacity. We believe the campus should be there. And then lastly, Sky Harbor right now. sitting right at 602 students, but once we move the kids out of our army over back to our level, they're going to fall to that 390 and their growth is is actually trending in the wrong direction as well. So, we have three campuses in an area in the same facility about 2
023miles uh with very low enrollments. And so tonight's really about uh affordability and and and making fiscally sound decisions for the future of Southwest ISD uh and getting our campuses the size that we can have them functionally at capacity and also make decisions with our funds. So the proposed consolidation plan would be to take the students in Sky Harbor and consolidate them to go in creek and bottom piece there you can see kind of light blue shaded that would be old sky harbor road would be cut in half the students kind of the southern part of that map would go to Indian creek and and then the areas around sky harbor elementary the blue would go ahead and go material behind the way there was three proposals. >> This was the best way to balance
024the campuses so that one campus was a lot larger than the others and so just the population make up of the area and the other piece of this is we looked at the city of students traveling. So the students further back that part of the Scott River neighborhood it increase closer for them all around. So the result uh after we take the students out of Colorado uh those 200 students would go to from Sky Harbor would go to Colorado uh then we would take 26 students from Sky Harbor that are in the zone and zone them to go and have a campus of 642 students and then another group of Sky Harbor students that are in the other part of the zone we go to Creek. So you can see that we would get two
025campuses close to 640 students a piece and really balancing out those campuses the long. So the question would be we get is why Harper? Um really there's three major reasons. One being that it's going to become our smallest campus as far as population uh with really no room for growth because there's no areas of growth in that area as far as construction. uh they become the smallest and then the students that are leaving we already have 200 meetings already currently that campus has some constructions and maintenance needs uh and at this time making decisions fiscally uh just the affordability of going in and fixing that campus at this point when really the campus is not needed to the size of as far as so that's why it's considered instead of any building any those campuses
026are maintenance wise and construction wise are very sound. The campus is safe, but there's a lot of needs as far as aesthetics and cosmetics and a lot of kind of foundation issues with the campus. Even some pictures that you see, I know some of you had a chance to walk, uh, but it's just across the campus that some repairs are needed. We would have to kind of get an architect in and go in, but at the same time, what would it cost? I couldn't tell you at this point but is my recommendation as we close campus that we should close this harbor due to this fact is probably very positive for us to fix it at this point. Uh the two campuses that we're zoning the kids to I would just say that they are
027rated campus very excellent in academics. Uh there was some questions about seats and you know overconidence on those campus that we put kids there. So right now at any degree we have 15 vacant classrooms 111 available seats for camp for brand new students that go into that that campus. Um there is 411 available seats that's the other classes that are not full as well. So we have classes that are smaller in size. So right now 411 available seats when we zone those students from Sky Harbor there would still be 244 open seats after consolidation at Indian Creek at Indie Elementary. There's 10 baby classrooms of a total of 129 available seats. We have a total of 340 available seats currently at head co and if we zone these students from Sky Harbor to 206 we
028would still have 140 reopen even after we do the consolidation. I want to point out that we do have a transfer policy. So we we're proposing this to any students in our district. Uh first of all, wherever you're zoned, we will transport you to your your campus. So if you're are a hidden co student or or if you're living in Sky Harbor and you're only hidden code, we are going to provide transportation if the families would want it. if they decide to go to a different campus, which is an option for any of our students across even the parents have to transportation. We just don't have the the tools and the bodies to transport uh our students across our district wherever they want to go. There is a caveat to transfer policy. The student needs
029to be in good standing. Um we are taking a look at that as well. There needs to be space. Some of our campuses right now there's some space uh some programs that are full. So it' be based on the space and the the building as far as the class sizes and would be based on the special programs and there's staff uh and availability. And so the recommendation uh from the district is to approve the boundaries for Colorado and also approve the consolidation and the closure of SCAv. available for any questions. [clears throat] So the 200 and also can talk about equity and make sure >> [snorts] >> the cost difference that so and this is not something just to stop saying I think if you visit any districts the smaller the campus is the usually
030the more expensive it is uh and it's just due to the number of students so we get it per dollar per student uh so if you have a classroom with 10 students but another campus has a classroom with 20 students you still get one teacher so It's about the math and looking at it. So the smaller the campus, you know, we're usually spending like right now at both Indo we're spending about 12 to 13,000 per student where our very campus is like a creek south about 9 to 10,000 per student. So that's kind of this is where we part of this. >> Yes sir. >> I have a question. How confident you do that? But I'm confident because I hired somebody else to help me study it. So we've hired a third party demographer who
031comes in and so the projection I showed you over the next 10 years there is a lack of growth. Uh there is no new development and and I don't know if there's areas that that they could develop purchase and and build. And so right now especially in the campuses being closed uh we're seeing all three campus. So this wasn't just a scar harbor issue was small campus loss there and so our our fix for scar harbor at the time is we had twice we move students over from our there is no really anywhere to zone students to that area so I don't see based on the data that we get and the provider that does our study that that area is not grow as far as Yes. So this would be for the fall of
0322026. So 2026 2027 school year will stay open for the rest of the school year going into next year. We're going to be opening Colorado. So this is not Colorado also going into effect next school year. So all the campuses that we are impacting, like I said, it's not just a few, it's we have eight campuses that are impacted by this plan. And so all the students are currently will stay where they're at until the fall. >> Yeah. So, so the the way bond funds work is we went out for a bond and then the voters approved our bond and then that cut it central office. So once we pass the bond and then we bought to market and sell the the bonds to get the money district we have a plan that was written
033it's a document we we abide by the plan and we tell the taxpayers what we were going to do with the money. So you cannot take the money and go use it on paying salaries. So to keep Sky Harbor open, there's two two things there. One, Sky Harbor and that area is hurting us fiscally because of enrollment. So you can't use any of that money to fix that problem. Now Sky Harbor has maintenance and construction issues. So that's the reason why we're choosing that campus out of the other two. But right now, we just have to when we close it and get an architect to look at it to see if it's worth fixing. And I also want to say that this plan doesn't mean that we're going to close it, fix government, and open
034it up as a campus because the the issue is the and not being able to have students to basically take street campuses to be functional. [snorts] question. Are we ensuring that um our students will receive the same type of services whether it be special education or any other type of service at the school that they will be transferring to? We're going to ensure that. Is that correct? >> Absolutely. We we provide those services to the students at those campuses right now. So at any like I said they they're both campuses, very good academia, uh great staff, great resources. So we make sure that we're going to be equable across we're not going to have one and have not we make sure that we're so all the services that the students at elementary will get at
035elementary right want to do this. >> So we we stick to that. We we have a ratio that we do 22 to1 is predominantly what we have in our our first through fourth grade then 25 to1 and fifth grade and then we try to keep the numbers in prek and kinder lower. So we have space for once they go over those thresholds we end up require another teacher staff. So we study and we try to project okay uh you know if you have 22 and 23 and 24 in all your fifth grade classes we want to start looking at possibly adding an extra teacher. So that's how we manage them is just kind of making sure we know where all the kids are. Once we do these boundary changes we'll go ahead and look at
036and we're going to add staff. So we're going to make sure they're not going to be sitting at 30 kids in our classroom. We'll make sure they stay within the ratio >> all of our employees that we have now. They're keeping all those. >> Absolutely. We actually need them. We're opening a new campus. So, this is why it's there's not a good time to do this, but we have availability for all the staff at Saskco. We're going to need we're going to need teachers at in Creek. We're going to need teachers at in [clears throat] CO. We're going to need custodians and cafeteria workers and aids and office staff at Alt. So we have an opportunity to make sure that this doesn't hurt anybody's job or lilihood. So everybody is guaranteed a job, right? Years
037ago, we closed a small little enrichment center. But if we don't I guess my question is if we don't close the campus and we just continue to operate in a in a deficit I think we would be facing things that other districts in our area are facing where they're not closing schools but they don't have the enrollment then they're going out to the taxpayers to ask for even more tax money. So, as board members, we're tasked with uh being fiscally responsible, right, to ask the community for as little money as possible. So, but there are districts in San Antonio that will not close a school and then they just keep getting deeper and deeper in debt and then ultimately they have reduction for people start losing their jobs. So, it's not it's not something that
038we would take lightly at all because we know it's affecting our families and our children, but it is the most fiscally sound and really the best for the district as a whole >> to stay operating. it. There's a lot of options at this point. It's it's really the goal would be to get moving forward here in the next six months to plan out to the to the public as far as where the kids are going to go. So, our first steps will be to take care of all our kids. So, making sure that we have a plan in place. I know Dr. talked about it making sure that we have a smooth transition and the kids feel welcome to their new campuses and then open Alado so we have that big event coming down. So
039those are our goals right now. And then as we get into okay now is closed we get architect in there and we look at what would cost we want to fix it if it's feasible to do that and then from there looking at either partnerships or something possibly >> Mr. Chris, I'm a little concerned over some of the areas that are going to be a little bit farther from um some of the schools that we are transferring the students to. Is there a transportation? >> Yeah. So, like I said, they are zones in the campus across the district. So, if you're a kid that lives in El transportation, same thing in same thing. If there's a two mile, we call it a two mile barrier like can walk within the two mile radius. Uh if
040there's not a hazard, we'll allow them to walk, but other than that there as long as that happen, we are going to transport students. We transport about 67% of our students right now. Uh and so we would have done but I also want to say if they decide to transfer somewhere else and that's So there's no more questions on the recommendation from the district is for the board to approve the district. We have a recommendation motion second. Any other questions? For me very diffults go through a little connection there. see reminiscing members of the school. So I just that motion pass. I also want to make a copy of the motion. This has not been an overnight decision. It's been studying finding a solution. But I do want the Sky Harbor community to know [snorts]
041that your board of trustees will do everything possible to help make this change as smooth as possible. Sky Harbor. We will make this change with you. We will take care of you with the best we can just like we do with children. Okay, moving on. consider voting in the 2026 election appraisal district board of directors our district it's been changed wise it's supposed to have those candidates before There is Dr. Ralphie Bartstone nominated by nominated by the city of San Antonio. Gerald Lopez nominated by Al College District and North Martinez nominated by Harville nominated by Southside and Becky nominated by Harville ISD. I will say that General Lopez past member and currently college district motion to give our votes to question. All in favor say I. Okay. by section 51.00146 of the Texas government code
042and pursue the Texas government code 5174 discussion of personnel and administrator nations such as a contract pursuant to the In the section 1.071 consultation with legal counsel regarding legal issues related to positive pursuit of actions against a certified educator for abandonment contract suing policy legal Texas education code section 21.105 SEA it's been pursuant to Texas code section 55.074 4074 discuss and consider possible pursuit of sanctions against a certified educator for amendment resignation or contract without active cause to policy code justice education code 21.105C 105 C. We will now go into close session at 6:53. Come back into open session at 7:50. So we'll go to item 12 a keeper's recommendations on personnel administrative resation contract reneel motion second. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any discussions? >> All against motion passes. Item
043B, discussion of and possible action regarding pursuit of sanctions against educator resignation of contract cause pursuant to policy DF legal and education code 21.15. I move that we approve the superintendent's recommendation to find that no good cause exists for Abigail Martinez contract resignation request and direct the superintendent to file a complaint with sE requesting sanctions as discussed [snorts] motion second. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Motion passes. Other business. >> Yes. >> I would like to congratulate the new principal for Mr. Maldonado. [applause] [clears throat] Love you. Thank you.