001All right, it is 6:00. We have a quorum established. Reminder of your phones, if you can put them on silence. Uh, and then Mr. Chop is going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. And Kim will read the board mission statement. 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 flag. I aliance to the Texas one state under God one and indivisible. The board mission statement. Through high expectations and equitable opportunity, TMISD will focus on the whole child by providing a safe environment and high quality curriculum with diverse and and enriching experiences. >> Um, any public state comments? >> No, sir. >> Okay. All right. We'll jump into the agenda here. First action
002item we have is uh report TM employee survey results. >> Mr. President, members of the board, one of our strategic initiative is uh employee satisfaction. Uh so um we have the results of district goal number five. Miss Rig is going to present that. Do they have this deck? >> It was in the board. >> Yes, we've got it. >> Got it. >> Good evening, Board President Aria. Mr. Bitry, board of trustees. I get the privilege of talking to you about district goal number five, which has to do with employee satisfaction and personnel. Um, our goal is community and staff members will believe in the in the direction of TMISD as evidenced by an annual increase in community staff satisfaction and engagement. Um, our goal is to have an increase every year and to have at
003least 90% satisfaction. Um, in addition, our goal is to have a 90 100% fill rate and an increase in our retention rate of our employees. The purpose is that our staff members are our our most valuable asset um that work with our students that impact student achievement and well-being. To be investing in our staff is in investing into the future of our district, which our number one goal is our students. Um the district must retain personnel by providing competitive salaries and by creating a positive culture of support and teamwork. So, our staff engagement survey, um, I know that we have new board members, but last year was the first year that we we pulled our staff. Um, we had our very first engagement survey, and the purpose of that is to see how our staff
004feels, identify any problem areas that need to be addressed, see what we're doing good, see what we're not doing good. Um, it builds trust with the employees. It gives us data so that we can plan and we can make changes that we need and allows our employees to have a voice. So this year we distributed the survey. It's done through a Google um form. I send out an email districtwide um on July 14th um 2025. Um and employees had until the 25th. So it was two weeks. We did exactly two weeks last year. We did exactly two weeks this year. Um the survey was confidential. Um, and it required and it required employees to log in with their Google account so that we could do a validity check. Now, why do we do that? Because
005we want to preserve data integrity. We want to know that it was district staff members who responded to the survey and that they only responded once. And we want to make sure when we compare from our benchmark data, which was last year, it was the exact same way. It was a confidential survey. They had to use their Google accounts in order to log in and do the survey. So, we want to make sure that we're comparing apples to apples. We don't want somebody responding multiple times and skewing our data. Um, by the end of the established deadline, we did have 193 um responses to the survey, up from 110 the previous year. >> That's a lot more. >> So, that's about 37.7% of staff who responded to s to the survey, which is a really
006great response rate. Um, so it was really great to see that we had more responses and we hope that next year we'll have even more responses. >> Who who who has access >> to the responses? >> Only I do. So, um, I am a firm believer that we I want our our staff to feel comfortable. I want our staff to respond to the survey. And to me, it's it's super imperative that we keep this information confidential. So, I get all the information, I throw it into Excel. The first thing I do is I delete the email addresses because it does come out on a Google form and the email addresses are there. I am the only one that has access to that. Um, I will share some of the raw data with senior executive staff.
007However, they will not see who responded to the survey. I think that confidentiality builds trust with the employees and we really want to make strides. We want to make the changes that they want to see and we're not going to know what those changes are if they don't feel comfortable responding to a survey. And that is my, you know, we we've had conversations about that and that's just one of my firm beliefs is that this information needs to stay confidential. So we asked respondents what campus or department do you work in? Um the majority of the respondents 33% u worked at the primary followed by the intermediate um and then high school. We asked them what their position was. Now on this one I do ask I allow them to put in if they feel
008that one of the categories teacher or par profofessional um doesn't quite meet their needs. So they are able to input their position. So that's why you see a whole bunch of little because they might have put I'm a custodian head instead of a custodian and not resonated with um um maintenance or transportation. So the majority 51.8% of respondents were teachers followed by par professionals. the respondent years of experience. Um, it's really you really want to see a a really great colorful wheel here and you and you truly do. The majority of our respondents had 3 to five years of experience followed by 6 to 10 years. Did everyone have access to a computer to take the survey? >> Everyone who hasn't Well, yes. Well, our I'll I'll be honest, our maintenance and transportation staff, they
009don't have computers. However, we do have computers at the transportation department. Um, that's actually one of the great things that came out of the survey last year is we recognized that our maintenance and transportation staff didn't even have emails. So, as a result of last year's survey, um, with the help of technology, who was amazing, we quickly got emails for all our maintenance and transportation and now they have access to communication. Whenever we blast anything out, they now have access to that information. Awesome. So, that's one of the one of the great things that came out of the survey last year. >> I have one more question. Um, why was there a bigger um response from the primary than the middle school or the high school or any other ones? I mean, is it because
010there's are there more stu teachers in that um in that school or is it are they pretty much the same or like why is it why didn't the high school or middle school or even the intermediate you know well the intermediate was pretty good but you know high school and middle school why didn't they respond as much? >> Um it's hard to know. I know Mr. Crapree did a really great job of really trying to get his staff I I all administrators do. We still have some staff who feel wary of a survey that might think that, you know, they're going to put something down and I'm going to show up at their office and say, "Why did you say this?" Um, I really wouldn't be able to tell you. Um, you also have to
011remember, just just a reminder, this is only the second year that we've done the survey. So, they're still a little timid on on trusting the the process, right? Okay. >> Um, because that was last year was the first year. So, I know that when I started doing surveys at work, just for example, >> it took me a little while before I started actually saying what I wanted to say to make sure I trusted the the system. So, >> So, do they know that the minute that they, you know, turn in a survey that their email will be like deleted? Do they know this >> and that you're the only person that has access to the information? >> I haven't expressed I probably haven't done a very good job of probably expressing that. Um, I say
012that at staff meetings. I let staff know so that when they let their staff know that this is just something that they know. They do get aggregate data. Like after this meeting, I'll give the data to principles. I'll probably give them um like the results that you saw in the survey by category. I'll give it to them at campus level. But I think maybe I could have done a better chance of or a better shot of letting staff know that only I was going to have this information. I do put it in the email that I send out. Well, we do say it's anonymous. The details to how it's anonymous doesn't change how people >> correct >> apply to the like if they if it's anonymous, it's anonymous. The details of how it becomes anonymous
013is I think y'all just putting anonymous is enough. You start getting too much. >> I put I put exactly what's in that. Um the survey is confidential but requires an email for >> that's what I'm saying. So that's enough for them to know it's confidential. It's anonymous. if you start getting into the details, >> you start getting into questions about, well, how well who's Miss Rig's friends and who's miss like, you know what I mean? So, I think that's enough there. In my opinion, >> I I kind of uh was just by their email, they're probably thinking like if it's going to be it's going to be connected right back to them with their email. So, that's probably the reason why they don't want to >> really the high school response. I didn't notice it
014being >> Yeah. Where am I? Okay, >> it's the red. They're 15%. >> And then 13% for middle school, >> um 22% for intermediate, and 33% for primary. >> It is nice to see it ticking up though and not light staying lower. So, I think every year >> I'm gonna have to put on my cheaters to kind of help me with some of this data. But before I start going over it, I kind of want to show you the layout for how we have this set up. So, we asked 19 different statements. Like in this one, it says, "I have the resources I need to be successful." The respondents were allowed to pick whether they strongly disagreed, disagreed, had no opinion, agreed, or strongly agreed. I have the number of respondents directly on the bottom
015for each one. The gold is from 2024 and the maroon is for 2025. Does anybody have any questions on that? Looks pretty. So, the first one says um the first one asked whether staff had the resources they felt they had the resources they needed to be successful. Um this year we had 155 um respond positively. And when I say respond positively, they said they either agreed or strongly agreed. um which is an increase from 84 staff members last year. So um most staff this is an overall good sign that most staff feel that they have what they need to be successful. Of course we can always work on it but overall great and I'll be honest before we start on all of these we had really great results. I was really happy I was really
016thrilled um to share with Mr. Van Matri and the executive team the results of the survey. The second sta the second question asked whether a staff member would recommend someone to work for the district. Um the vast majority responded positively with 165 agreeing or strongly agreeing. That's a clear increase from last year both in agreement and strongly agree. Um so most the story here is that most people would say to Midway is a great place to work. >> I think what's key is you've doubled your participation. >> Absolutely. And your agreed and strongly agreed doubled. >> Correct. >> Right. So your numbers that the people that joined in this year >> are more positive >> in the So and then of course you changed some others hopefully with the plan. >> Yes. Um here we
017asked about respect from leadership. This year 170 staff members agreed or strongly agreed and that's a jump from last year and a significant increase. If you look at the strongly agree from 53 it went to 113 who strongly agreed. So the overwhelming majority told us um that their leaders treat us with re with respect and that of course is very encouraging. This one focused on transparency and communication from leadership. Um over 150 staff members responded positively which was more than double last year's positive count. Um both categories saw growth which tells us our communication and transparency efforts are having an impact. Um the next one was my district supervisor respects me. Um positive responses went from 81 last year to 164 this year. Again essentially doubling. Um this is there is a big gain in
018the strongly agree category and it tells us that relationships between staff and their super and their supervisors is strengthening and a supervisor is defined as uh that would probably be principles or department directors. >> Okay. >> Um this question was about comfort and communication with supervisors. 163 uh agreed or strongly agreed compared to 85 last year. It's encouraging improvement and a sign that conversations with supervising supervisors are becoming more approachable and open. The next one was I know how my work aligns with the overall goals. 177 staff members responded positively, a significant increase from last year's 90. Um, this tells us that more people understand how their contributions connect to the overall shared mission. For this section, we asked about recognition. 146 staff members responded positively compared to just 65 last year. That is more
019than double the positive feedback and shows that our efforts to recognize employees are being noticed even as we continue to build on them. I am proud to work for my district. Um 174 staff agreed or strongly agreed that's a clear increase from last year's 92. The disagree category dropped to zero even though there was I mean there was two there but it still dropped to zero and it shows that more and more of our team members feel proud to work for the district which is wonderful. Employees know the vision, mission and beliefs of my district. Here we asked um whether employees know our vision, mission and beliefs. 151 staff responded positively, up from 70 the year before. Um this tells us that our message is reaching more people and becoming a more visible part of
020their work. The current level of morale at my campus department is good. We saw one of the biggest shifts here this year. um 139 staff agreed or strongly agreed compared to only 54 last year. This means more people feel good about the day-to-day climate in their workplace. And if you look at that strongly agree, I mean, we went from 13 to 61. That is wonderful. >> Even if you look at the disagree, you drop from 33 to 12. >> So that's another sign, you know, that it's going the right direction. probably a bigger sign. >> I get the training I need to be successful for training. Positive responses grew from 62 last year to 141 this year. That's a sign that our professional development opportunities were providing or hitting the mark for some for our
021employees. >> And that can get better with a balanced budget. I enjoy my work. I mean, if you look at the strongly agree from 52 to 105, um, this is always a great one to see, 180 staff agreed or strongly agreed that they enjoyed their work, up from 97 last year. That's double and it reflects the pride and commitment of our staff that they bring every day. And that trickles down to the kids. >> Yes. I believe my district has a positive a positive culture. So those responses rose from 75 last year to 162 um being more being positive. That's more than double and it reflects a noticeable improvement in how our staff see the environment they work in each day. I feel valued at work. Um feeling valued is at the heart of retention
022and engagement. This year, 149 staff members agreed or strongly agreed compared to 71 last year. That's a strong another strong sign that our recognition efforts are making a difference. I am committed to helping my district achieve its goals. Commitments to our goals is highly is incredibly high. 186 staff members agreed or strongly agreed up from 105 last year. Employees are treated fairly at my district. Um, fairness perceptions increased as well. Improved as well, I'm sorry. 137 positive responses compared to 65 last year. I believe in the strategic direction of my district. Um the belief in our strategic direction rose from 81 positive responses last year to 162 this year. It's a major shift and it shows that um the trust the employees have in the direction we're going in. I believe in the leadership of
023the superintendent. I believe this is a key indicator. Um this year 164 staff agreed or strongly agreed up from 83 last year. That's nearly double. It reflects a significant growth in trust and confidence in the superintendent's leadership. This tells us that the direction and communication coming from the top um is resonating with staff across the district. And then overall satisfaction. This one is the one we've been watching closely because it's one of our district goals is to have 90% satisfaction. That's the goal we set two years ago. And I'm happy to report tonight that we have achieved that goal. Um last year we had 78% satisfaction. This year we moved the we move the needle to 90%. I'm really excited about this. It's something we're celebrating. It it means that we've we've been doing the
024work to improve the climate communication and support for our staff and it's what we've been doing is working. We're moving in the right direction. Now, I'm a firm believer in continuous improvement. There are things that we still need to fix, but today's today's celebration is that what we're doing is working and we're going to work hard to continue moving the needle in the right direction. And it's a team effort. You know, from Mr. Van Matri to the executive team to everyone in the district. We're all working together to make sure that we improve for our staff and for our district and most importantly for our students. >> Congratulations y'all. Great job. >> Great. >> So, we did have three open-ended questions that staff members could respond to. Um, of course, I can't put all of
025the comments, so I kind of tried to find some recurring themes and what they had to say. Of course, what some people think we're doing great, others feel that they could be improved. So, it's it's satisfy everybody, >> right? So, what are the three things about the district? Everyone loves our year- round calendar and our schedule. Um, they love the sense of community. You know, the family environment. We're a small district. We all know each other's name. You know, staff members, they they tell me that they're happy that they can call somebody at admin on the same day and get a same response. We we're close like that. Um our students are wonderful. Uh we have great um co-workers. People love their the staff, their the teamwork, their colleagues. It's great when you go to
026the campuses and you see teachers from fourth grade working together or you know the different groups and bonds that they create amongst each others across the district. Um they love leadership administration, our superintendent as as view as um the results of the survey show. Um they say we communicate well and we have transparency. They love what we're doing with with our bond safety and security being one of our top priorities. They love the educational opportunities, DLI, um CTE, all the different programs that we have to offer our students. And of course they love the supportive environment and the positivity. What are three things that could be improved in our district? The first two are by far they make up the majority of the comments that we receive. Communication I think was written in about more
027than half of what um was written. Uh we have done we have made great strides for communication and there's more that we can improve. um pay compensation and benefits. Um somebody wrote financial appreciation. I really liked how they put it out there that they'd like to see some more financial appreciation. Um and we have some really great news to share later on um in this meeting. Um staffing people would like to see more staffing, some more employee support, special education, would like to see more training opportunities, more staffing, facility maintenance and appearance. Um, a lot of people would like a key card um, from the comments. Um, mental health and emotional support both for our students and for our staff. Um, they'd like to see us do some advancement and technology and equipment. Um, academics
028and curriculum, vertical alignment, they'd like to see more of that. Dress code was written more for enforcing dress code with students. Not really. I think everyone loves our dress code here. Um, and then cell phone policy. Um, our teachers do want to see um, us address the cell phone issue. Um, is there anything you would like to add or provide for review? Again, on these, there wasn't as many comments as there were in the other, and it was hit or miss as to whether they were positive or negative, like what could be improved. Um, special education and staffing came up again. communication and leadership, compensation and equity, culture and morale, um resources and technology, teacher voice and empowerment, ideas for how we can grow. And then we had a few people put it's our time.
029So really, really great feedback. It was great results. It was really I mean we couldn't ask for better results. So our next steps um I will be sharing more of this data with the executive team. Um, I think it's great for the departments and the campuses to know how they're trending. So, I will be sharing this data. Of course, I'm going to be deleting the email addresses. I might tweak one or two comments to make sure that we can identify who is writing the comments. Um, we'll analyze, we'll see what what improvements we can take and then we'll meet with um administrators and then we'll roll out any new initiatives based on our conversations. Any questions on the survey? >> Great stuff. >> Yeah, >> you should all be, you all deserve a pat on
030the back, round of applause. All your team, the district, man is the biggest thing. Y'all are taking action. You know, I read here the fish thing. I really thought that was cool. Um, and then, you know, promoting a speakup culture, not just for issues. Like some people think speak up culture is only when I want to report some kind of >> negative issue, but we should have a speak up culture where you can say your opinion >> and walk out of the meeting and say, "Well, okay, I I gave my argument and they went the other way and we go whatever best for the district." So, I think it is really cool. >> So, I wanted to just briefly um hit on the fish philosophy um convocation. We got to throw fish around those that
031were in the fish. What was the drop zoom? It It was really fun and I really really love the fish philosophy. I'm really glad that Mr. Van Matri introduced it. It has four pillars. The be there, play, make their day and choose your attitude. So this year we're really going to embrace those pillars and we're going to try from HR perspective um to have initiatives so that we can be there for employees. So for the be there, uh, I'll be looking at days as to maybe we start the day and say, you know, three of your district administrators, your technology director, HR director, and your maintenance director will start the day off at your campus. If you have any questions or just want to come say hi, we're here. We're ready to talk to you.
032Um, we'll be looking at those types of initiatives, the play, finding the the fun in our jobs. Um, we'll be looking at seeing maybe we have some dress up days, different things like that, so we can play the make their day. Um, we've already started that. We dropped by ACC, I think it was two weeks ago. We took ice cream sandwiches to the staff and to the students. We then dropped by the primary to visit our special ed teachers. We took sensory stickers to the students. And it was just a really great time. And so what we're going to be doing is we're going to make an effort to drop by and recognize our employees, especially when we know that they're having their busy time or that they accomplished something. we really want to drop
033by and make their day um with a little token gift for of of appreciation. And then choose your attitude, take ownership of your mindset. Positivity is contagious. And so we're going to continue with employee recognition. Um we are going to start implementing the catch of the month. We will start that in September. I know it says August, but we're going to start in September. Right now we're getting um nominations nomination based. I send out a Google form to all of the district and I'm not looking for somebody did something that was, you know, got a grant. It's, you know, somebody opens my door for me and smiles and says hi every single day. And those are really the small things that make make it work, you know, make people's day. And so we will bring
034the catch of the month to you. Um, those that do not make it for catch of the month, my goal is to create a Facebook page for the HR department and we'll have employee spotlights for those that who do not become capt. >> Good question. Uh, is that going to be like per uh campus or is it just one person for the whole district? >> One person for the whole district. It would be cool to um see the fish philosophy once it's all incorporated with all the teachers and campuses and everything, but to see it go down to the kids >> and incorporate fish philosophy with them because they can take that from TM and go incorporate that into their success in life. >> Great idea. >> And I really I I think the philosophy
035is great. I mean, I just think it's awesome and I think the kids would learn a lot from it, too. Yes. Like just >> definitely >> pushing it down even further, right? >> Um other ongoing initiatives um from our department, we do create the appreciation day post that we post u Miss Castillo posts for us um every day on the national um and district celebration days. Um we did implement last year the welcome to the tribe email. So once a month I send out an email for the previous time. I'm actually working on the one for our July hires um to go out to the district. Uh we will continue with our teacher of the year, teacher of promise and support staff of the year. Uh we actually had feedback on that last year which
036resulted in another survey during the year and so that's how we ended up with the new format. So the survey really does tell us a lot and we do use that information to make changes. Um, of course we have our service awards ceremony and that's basically what we're doing for presentation. Any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Go number four. >> Yep. All right. Report on no more. All right. So, we're going to skip around here a little bit, but we're going to move number four to number two. So the next one is budget update for fiscal year 2025 through 2026. >> Mr. President, members of the board, you have no idea how much time, energy, and effort uh Philip and Vanessa put in to what you're going to see in the next two,
037three, four presentations. Uh it's been um phenomenal uh watching them um crunch numbers and um then they'll come to me and if it's bad news they'll go back and and they'll come back again and uh uh but it's a it's a process. Uh and u you know Philip's the best in the business and so I'll turn it over to him. >> All right. Some of this stuff's going to seem I'm gonna it's going to look real familiar to the last time, but I've updated it a little bit and tell you what's changed in the last couple weeks. Uh going through everything before I said revenue assumptions because you know I was doing a lot of guesses. I'm changing the word to projections because finally got our certified values. Got the last piece of the puzzle.
038Started working on the really looking at the template again. M >> uh so uh like we said I'm using 2425 data. No no no projected growth except the dual language changes because we're adding we're adding more dual language classes. So that's going to change the funding a little bit. Got our certified values. We knew they might go down because of the the homestead exemption, but uh they went down about uh 1.7% which uh it's about $65 million in value that they went down using the n the 98% uh collection rate. Um and then just kind of recapping starting at the top with the revenues. Uh it's a bit of a roller coaster because here here's here's the fun fact. uh all the people that have that are using um uh that help us calculate try
039to estimate revenues. There are a lot of there are a lot of features in the bills that TA hasn't even come out with exactly how they're going to do it. So I've got TASBO we've got we talked to a guy from Mo Casey. They they're interpret they're re they're reading the what was approved and they're coming up with how they think TA is going to apply these these rules. So, uh, that was what the last two weeks have been kind of a roller coaster as far as, hey, the template's not even set up to calculate the numbers. How do I how do I estimate what what what I think we're going to get? So, uh, a bit of a roller coaster. Numbers took a turn. A million dollars just evaporated, but it took a while
040to figure out where it went and how to get it back because the template wasn't fully updated and wasn't calculating things correctly. But h having said that, Philip, I think you've done a really good job of your budget calculations being very conservative. Yes. Yes. So, um kind of a summary. So, I do find since we did get the values, I do show collections are going to go down a little bit because the values went down because um the rate from the state uh since we didn't have a big variance in our values. The state really determines our M tax rate. It's not going to change. uh it's still going to be the 7575. So that didn't change but since the values went down a little bit uh collections are going to go are going to
041drop a little bit. >> Uh right now a total effect of and and this is you know I keep saying you know I build a base budget every year. So I go back to and start back at last year's budget. So, the increase of state revenue estimated using our our value our ADA from this last year, we're we're getting about $4.3 million more in state revenue than we did before, which is real close to the number we kept getting in those those runs. We kept getting some runs from u Miss Villa Lobos and we kept getting information about uh that that's that's pretty close to that's why I'm kind of comfortable with that number. I'm a little worried about some of the calculations because they're all based upon uh estimates and guesses and uh how
042TA is going to interpret things but um that's where we are. Uh investment earnings like I said uh that's got to drop that to be a little bit more realistic number. So I dropped that 100,000 adjusted our chapter 13 ADA which we're still going to get for a few more years. And then max shars is being adjusted down. So right now the base budget increase in revenues is a little about $3.7 million. Um and then this side's identical. These numbers didn't change. I was really tweaking some other things, but uh the regional insurance aotment that's for our windstorm. Uh that's that's one thing that I'm really not happy with the convoluted way they calculated that. But uh I think hopefully that's pretty close to what we're going to get to offset our insurance costs. And
043then just kind of talk about, we're going to talk about some things later, but you know, what did we get in increase? Well, the basic cost aotment, 389,000, you know, that sounds like a lot of money, but $40 million budget, it really isn't. And then, of course, the big one was the teacher retention aotment. That's real helpful, but we we've turned around and given that back to the teachers. And then talking about what they gave us for all the rest of the employees, they only gave us 142,000 additional revenue for all the other employees. So, um, that's where it talks about it was great that they gave us the money for the teachers, they didn't give us a lot of extra money for, uh, the other the other employees. Uh, and I only tweaked this
044a little bit when I initially gave you all this two weeks ago. We had a lower amount for the zero to two years, but we bumped that up to the uh, zero year starting pace going up 2500 and then we we upped step one and two 3,000. So, that's a little bit of a change. So the only thing that really changed there was the average 187 day teacher raise now is over 12%. Before uh what what I had before it was it was like 11 point something but now the average uh for 187 teacher over 12%. And then just uh we did in the last two weeks we did make a decision. We're we're keeping the librarians on the teacher pay scale. we're we're not going to get the $8,000 for them, but we decided
045to leave them on there and but everybody else uh we're taking their salary that they were making. We're we're basing it on uh the compensation plan you'll hear about later and we'll uh adjust give them the raises accordingly. Um and then just just to kind of summarize based upon base budget, >> if if you take what I budgeted last year for all the certified positions, which is uh teachers at administration and all the other certified support staff, all the other degree positions, uh we're we're budgeting almost $2.8 million more for for certified salaries than we did last year. Uh and then clerical and parah uh we're projecting uh it's a little over 200,000 more and then for maintenance transportation and what we're able to do for the lowest lowest uh uh paid people it's almost
046230,000. So a grand total of putting 3.2 we're we're going to put two $3.2 million back into the compensation uh because that's that is one of our number one goals for the budget is to uh make sure that uh everybody gets a raise. It's also what 76% of the budget. >> Yes. And then you know items to finalize. So uh we we're going to spend the next two weeks scrubbing the budgets uh uh in every effort to have a balanced budget. Uh there'll be a preview of it next week and then we'll adopt on the 25th. Um and we'll see where we we have a balanced budget. And then just real quick talking about debt service fund. That's another fund that you're going to that you're going to uh legally adopt on the 25th. Uh
047we did start selling some bonds. We we sold 45 million the first year. We sold 85 million this year. We still have about 35 million to sell, but so our payments are going up now because we've got to start making payments on those that new debt. So if you look um first column is the budget for the year that just ended. Next year you'll see uh now property taxes are going up because you'll see the tax rate but because if you look at our total expenditures our debt payments are going from 7.3 million to 11 million. So uh that's increased 3.7. So uh still projecting a a small increase there at the bottom of revenues still are a little bit higher than expenditures. Um but then if you look at the tax rate, uh it
048was a little over 19 cents last year and so now we're going to go up to almost 30 cents and that's an increase of a little under 11 pennies. But that is line with uh you know what what we were kind of looking at once we once we heard about the you know when we went after the bond you know we didn't know about the additional homestead exemption. We didn't know about the other uh the other things that uh would impact our our tax values. Uh but that's what it's going to take to uh get our meet our debt pay. >> The 10 penny increase is very consistent with what we put in the literature during the bond campaign. >> And that is a very quick uh update. Obviously, there'll be a lot more information.
049I I'm hoping to, you know, pretty much have things finalized next week and then we'll come back on the 25th to uh do the final adoption. Uh I have some more information cuz remember when you we adopt the general fund, the the uh debt service fund and the food service fund, those will be the three legally adopted budgets. >> Any other questions? Do you anticipate any budget information next week? it pretty much done till they adopt the budget. >> Um, we're just there might be some other I'm still looking at other areas now that now that this fiscal year has ended, I can really look and see where hey, maybe there's other other opportunities where we can cut and other things that we can adjust for. Uh, so hopefully we'll we'll see that. Um, >>
050the uh the cuts that we've made from a staffing perspective really has come into focus and has helped us significantly with putting together this budget. No question. >> Great job. >> Thank you, sir. >> Any questions? Are we good? only two. All right, we'll move to number three. Uh, discuss and consider approval of updates for the or to the 2025 2026 compensation plan. So, Mr. President, members of the board, we will actually combine uh two and three because I believe at the end of her presentation um she will be making um or I will be making at the end of her presentation I will be making a a recommendation based on her presentation and any questions or comments that you may have >> for three and four is what you're saying. Okay, >> that's correct.
051I guess I'm lucky. I feel bad that I'm stealing Philip's thunder here so hard. This has been a a joint combined effort. I am so privileged to be able to give you our recommendation for the 2526 compensation plan. It's a great win for our employees. And so, let's get started. So this year through House Bill 2, um the biggest thing that came out of there was the teacher retention aotment which for districts with 5,000 or less students that provided a $4,000 raise for teachers with three years um three to four years of experience. It provided an $8,000 raise for teachers that have five or more years of teaching experience. It also gave us the allotment for basic costs. They called it the ABC which gave us $106 for enrolled student um that we can use
052toward health care and employee benefits because although the teacher retention aotment is great, it didn't help for us to pay those payroll taxes that we're going to have to pay. In addition, it gave us the support staff retention aotment which is $45 per adjusted ADA as Mr. Carol u mentioned. And so that is for all staff that's not teachers and not administrators. So our librarians, custodians, um bus drivers. And so although that's great, that's really not enough. We want to do more for our staff. We are committed to attracting and retaining the best because when we have the best, our students get the best and that is our overall goal. >> Let me just interrupt you for a second. Go back. If you look at that first bullet where the allotment is per enrolled student,
053that's the first time I can recall uh the agency funding for enrollment versus uh adjusted ADA. Hopefully that'll become a trend. >> Yes, most definitely. That would be phenomenal if they did that. >> So, let's start with the teacher pay scale. As mentioned, um the teacher retention aotment gives our employees with three to four years of experience $4,000 and teachers with five years 8,000. But we want to attract and retain employees at all levels. And so for that, we are recommending that we increase the teacher pay scale starting from 52,000 to 54,500. I know every year I give you a comparison as to how our starting pay and how we are at five years 5, 10, and 15 compared to other districts because of the teacher retention aotment. I can't give you that data because
054school districts are still approving their teachers pay scales, but I think this will put us very very competitive um with our teacher with our starting pay. Um for our teachers with one to two years of experience, we want to make sure that we retain them. So, we are requesting or recommending a $3,000 pay increase for them. Um, as Mr. Carol mentioned, we have uh numerous people who are paid on the teacher pay scale. Uh, we are going to reduce it so that only our teachers, librarians, and interventionists are paid off of the teacher pay scale. Everyone else will come off and be paid off of the administrative professional pay scale. And I'll talk about that more. But with that, with these increases, our teachers would on average get a 12.06% increase, which is wonderful. >>
055Moving on to our administrator professional skill. Um, in the past two years, well, the first year it was created, the second year I gave you the scales and I highlighted in gray all the changes and you'll see that in some of the other scales. Well, this year we didn't do that for the administrator professional pay scale because we had to completely revamp it. Um, it is completely brand new. It's new categories. I think it's the same amount of pay grades, but we had to rightsize. We had to make sure that when we looked at our staff, especially that staff that were removing off the teacher pay scale, that we maintain that educator career path. So, what does that mean? We need to make sure that there is a difference in pay for someone to want
056to become a teacher and then an assistant principal and then a principal and then a director all the way up until they reach our superintendent. We want to make sure that there are differences in pay at each level. What the teacher retention aotment and the teacher um t teacher uh incentive aotment do is the goal is to retain the teachers in the classroom and that's where we want them and it really works because if you look at it you know we had some some teachers get um at primary was it 26,000 >> 18,000 I'm sorry um 18,000 plus now this 8,000 that's going to want to make them to think twice ice before they want to take that next step to assistant principles and we still need our administrators. Those are essential for the function
057um of our school district. So we want to make sure that we have levels in the pay. So that is why we had to completely rightsize and create a new scale. The other thing is when you look at the scale, it is very simple or easy for you to look at it and say, "Well, why is so and so just on pay grade 2? They're a rock star." Well, that's that's great, but when we and most of our employees are rock stars, but we have to look at the market. What would it cost for us to attract a counselor of an assistant principal from a nearby school district? So, we have to make sure that we place our um our positions and we market them and their pay um comparatively. Um so some of the
058positions that we remove removed from the teacher pay scale we removed our counselors and our nurses. We removed our two art facilitators, our athletic trainers, our speech path uh speech language pathology assistants. Um our special education specialist and our war path academy coordinator. They have now come off the scale. They are now on the off the teacher pay scale and they are now going to be on the administrative professional pay scale. and they are at a pay grade that is very comparable to the new teacher pay scale. So, the recommended raise for our administrators are those with five four five years or less or less than five years of experience that they receive a $5,000 pay increase. For those with five or more years of experience, they will receive an $8,000 pay increase. And again,
059that is to make sure that there is levels between teachers and administrators. So that is a 5 to 11% increase in pay with the average increase being 8%. For our professional staff, same thing. For those with four years or less experience, we are offering we are recommending a $5,000 pay increase and those with five or more years of experience, an $8,000 raise. That is an average um percentage increase from seven to 15% with the average increase being 11%. Now, several of those staff members do receive what I call a positionbased stipen. So, in the past for our nurses, they get a $1,000 stipen for being a registered nurse. Um our counselors get a $3,000 stipen for being a counselor. And I think that was previous administration's way to bump the pay um for those different
060employees. So what we're doing is we are eliminating those stipens. However, we're rolling those stipens into their annual salary and they will still keep their pay. We're just eliminating the stipens in the future. So no one will lose money as a result of this change. It is going to be in their annual salary. Does that help them like in retirement? Does the Because it's a wash. >> It's a wash like the stipen. >> Yeah, it just goes into their salary. >> It was still counting, but it's just a different like they get their regular salary and then they had another pay pay uh scale to give them the stipen. Now we're just saying that >> Yeah, I get all that, but it doesn't it doesn't impact their retirement, I guess, right? Cuz like, you know,
061retirement's off your base salary. So, if you throw that stipen onto their base salary, it doesn't help them either. >> No, the stipens count towards the retirement. >> Oh, they do. Okay. So, I didn't know that. Okay. >> Everything that gets deducted. Everything is TRS eligible. So, it all counts. >> Cool. >> Next is our clerical pair of professional. We kept the same pay scales. I did make some minor tweaks. So, that's why you'll see the gray. We eliminated some positions. We had a lot of changes in our titles for our special education from adaptive ed. We changed it to life skills from past to base. So that those are the tweaks that you see on that pay scale, but we are recommending a 5% of midpoint pay increase for our clerical paraprofessional staff manual
062trades. Uh we are proposing a 3% of midpoint plus a 50 cent raise increase for them, which is a a raise percentage. Uh that's a 5 to 7.3% raise for them. like why are we doing this? So why are we doing it this way for our manual trades? Because of all of the different pay groups, we're probably lacking the most um as far as competitiveness when it comes to manual trades. This allows me to float 50 cents through the entire pay scale so that we can increase the starting pay from $13 to$1350 and nobody who gets hired on will make more money than someone who's worked here. So, this gives them um this is actually a better option for them than a 5% pay increase of midpoint. So, we're really excited about this because it
063gives them a little bit more. It makes them a little bit more competitive, but hopefully it'll allow us to attract and keep um some of our some of the staff, especially at paygrade one, which is our custodians and bus monitors. It's a really tight uh market. And so, um, I'm hoping that this will be a great step in the right direction to, um, attracting staff. Stipens and other pay. Um, stipens have very minor changes. We remove, you'll see a that one section that has all of the gray and the crossouts. Those are those positionbased stipens that I said we were going to roll into the salaries of our professional staff and eliminate. Um, some of the ones that we did add is the Golden Brigade stipen that used to be uh the sponsor used to
064be a non-exempt employee. So that person would get overtime for their work. So now it'll it's with um it's with a uh exempt staff member and so that's now a stipen and then we're happy to announce or excited that we were able to start a middle school dance team and so the two stipens to support the two coaches sponsors. Um, I do want to apologize under other pay. I did not highlight in TMPM um on your board packet, but we did increase TMP or we're recommending an increase to the TMP pay. Um, right now students make 850. We're recommending that they make 950. Um, TMPM workers, the adults make $1075. We're moving that up to $12. And the coordinators make $12 and they're going up to 14. We did have uh they have not experienced
065a pay increase in a very very long time and so we think it's the right thing to do and it's the right time to do it. So overall if you approve um the compensation plan and the raises that we are recommending um quickly we are recommending the new starting pay to be 54,500. That gives a $3,000 raise to our one to two years teachers with one to two years of experience, $4,000 to those with three to four years of experience, $8,000 for teachers with five years of experience. It gives our administrators an 8% average increase, our certified professional an 11% average increase, our clerical paraprofessional staff a 5% of midpoint increase, and our manual trades a 6% average uh increase, but it also allows us to be more competitive because we're starting that starting pay
066from 13 to 1350. Overall, a great night, a great win for our employees who are very much deserving. Um, I'm super excited that we're able to offer this to them. Um, I think this is awesome. >> I think the level of creativity and the inclusiveness all the way through is really impressive. I applaud y'all for really, you know, getting down in the weeds of it and taking care truly taking care of everybody. I mean, even the TMP workers, >> you know, that's a very comprehensive package there. So, appreciate that. >> Thank you. Last year was tough. >> Last year was very tough. Uh and um this is probably one of the best board meetings I've I've had the opportunity to be at. Uh because we're taking care of our people. >> Okay. You ready, Mr.
067President? Members of the board, it is the administration's recommendation that the board approve the employee pay increases for the 2025 2026 school year as presented. >> Motion. >> I'll make that motion. I'll second that. >> Motion second. >> Definitely. All those in >> favor. Congratulations. [Applause] Okay. We do have some other business. >> It's not all fun. >> Yeah. Mr. President, members of the board, um it's a requirement that the board approve the 2025 2026 Test. That's the teacher calendar and evaluation appraisal list. And we have Dr. Sean, >> go ahead and give you that information. >> Okay. Good evening, members of the board. Tonight, like Mr. Van Major said, we are presenting the uh 2526 um T test teacher appraiser calendar, appraisal calendar. And as you reviewed the calendar, basically what we're doing is
068we're highlighting um key dates. Um this week we will be having our new teacher orientation uh for new teachers who have never been appraised under the uh test instrument as well as any teacher that has already been a teacher but has never been appraised under that test instrument. Um in addition to that the calendar also demonstrates uh TMISD um compliance uh with TA's regulation regarding the T test instrument. Attached in your um in your book you will also find a list of appraisers um which includes your principles your assistant principles and admin uh at the district level. Um and so basically that what we're doing is that we're saying that we certify that those um appraisers are qualified to conduct uh these t test evaluations for those teachers. So it is our recommendation that the
069board approved the 25.6 uh t um t test appraisal calendar for this coming school year. What are we doing? Any questions? >> Any questions, comments? No, ma'am. >> Mr. President, members of the board, it is the administration's recommendation that the board approve the 2025 2026 test calendar and appraiser list as presented. >> Have a motion. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second, Mr. Champa. All right. All those in favor carries 40. Close session. >> Yes. All right. Close session. The board will convene a closed meeting as authorized by the Texas Open Meetings Act to discuss items allowed by the Texas Government Code Chapter 551, 071 through 076, 082, 0821, 083, 084. 710 reconvene from close meeting from close session deliberation. >> Yes, Mr. President, members of the board, it is the administration's recommendation that the
070board of trustees issue an educator dual probationary contract for the 2025 2026 school year as presented. >> Motion. [Applause] >> I'll make that motion. >> All right. Second. >> I'll second. >> Mr. Chapa. All those in favor? 40. Mr. President, members of the board, it is the administration's recommendation that the board of trustees issue an educator dual term contract for the 2025 2026 school year as presented. Motion, Mr. Chapa second. >> Second favor and Mr. President, members of the board, it is recommended that the board of trustees issue an educator probationary contract for the 2025 2026 school year as presented. Motion Kim second Mr. Chapa all those in favor. All right. Next item on the agenda is the future meetings. We have our August 18th regular board meeting and then August 25th special called board
071meeting. That's correct. Uh the 25th uh you will be approving the 2025 2026 school year bud fiscal budget that begins on September 1. And then you'll be setting the tax rate which you saw what it will be um to uh fund the budget. All right, we have a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> I'll make that motion to adjourn this meeting. >> Mr. Chopa seconds. All those in favor? Thank you everyone for Thank you