001No. >> Good. Item 10, reconvene from executive session at 8:02 p.m. Item 11, discussion and possible action regarding parent student level three grievances. We are now back in open session. No action was taken in close session. At this time, the board will act regarding the parental appeal of the mandatory DAE placement. Um, Mr. Gateway, do you have a recommendation? >> Uh, yes, ma'am. I recommend that the uh board uh uphold and affirm the mandatory DP placement as required by the Texas Education Code. Do we have a motion or do we have any questions? >> Okay, we have a motion by Kirby. Do we Have a second by Donald. All in favor? Motion carries. Got to item number 12, consent agenda. Did anybody have any questions on the consent agenda or need any explanation on any
002of the legal uh policy changes? Policy update 126. >> Have a motion by Greg. Do we have a second? Second by Amber. All in favor? Motion carries. Go to item number 13. Consider approval of the 2627 multi-reion co-op agreement. Tina. Can y'all hear me? Hi. I'm just here to kind of explain a little bit about the region 10 co-op agreement. This agreement has been within districts. In fact, I don't know any district that that is not with the multi-reion co-op agreement. Uh we they we've been with them for at least 30 years. But what the they do for us is they help us procure, they help us uh get bids ready uh for we go out for bid each year because the bids have to be reestablished each year. Uh in some circumstances, they can
003roll over for one year. But region 10 co-op does not charge us a thing. It is free of charge. and they help all districts. The only thing now is over the last few years, the reason y'all probably even started hearing anything about it was because now they require that the it go through the board and that the board approve it. So that's the purpose of that. This helps us get better buying power. They actually do technical support. They do training for child nutrition, all kinds of compliance training. It also gives us more buying power when buying products. So, it is a great service that they do for us for free. And in fact, the the burden where the charges come in is for every vendor that wants to be a part of region 10 co-op
004uh for us to buy products from them. They are the one that pays region 10 co-op. At the end of every year, all any money left that is not that the co-op did not need, they actually divide it up and give it to all districts. I think we just received almost $2,000 back in a rebate. We never paid him a penny. So that's that's the purpose of this and I'll be have that do this every year. So >> any questions? >> With this uh with this agreement, does it does it force you to use those vendors or um can like if you if you can find something on your own you happen to know or whatever? >> Uh if you have to use their vendors. >> Yeah, you have to use their vendors. >> You
005can't go outside of those vendors. >> Yeah, I don't know. We have never went outside of vendors. I don't know a school district that does go outside. And to do that, you'd have to hire a whole new child nutrition to work with that just doing bidding because what these the region 10 co-op does when they send out an RFP bid. Um then everybody that wants to, every vendor, whether it be, you know, uh Benny Keith, any of the vendors out there, Labat, they can all turn in their bids and then we have to still be a part u myself has to be a part of the scoring. All of the bids come back in and then all child nutrition directors have to be there to help region 10 do the scoring. So we are just
006as much involved as they are other than they write up the RFPs. They go by USDA and TDA guidance as far as meal pattern, the things that a child nutrition program can purchase and cannot purchase. They actually take a big burden off of school districts by getting that much done. >> But they're not a If you wanted to order from Bible order, you could still order from Bible. I mean, that's not they don't they don't say you have to use them. They're they're just a great resource >> to mix with other resources that you have. >> Yes, that was your question. >> Yes. And basically the reason now that they want board approval is they want the board to know that they're doing this service for districts and basically we're agreeing that we will let
007them help us do the service. So that's basically what the purpose of the coming to you guys is for. >> Any other questions? Do we have a motion? >> The 2627 multi-reion co-op Motion by Amber. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by >> Thank you guys very much and merry Christmas. >> Thank you. You too. All in favor? >> Motion carries. >> Go to item 14. Consider approval of purchase of student Chromebooks. Mr. Hudson. >> Good evening. um making a re recommendation for approval to spend $30,000 on student Chromebooks. That that that's the amount that was budgeted for purchasing student devices this year. Um all all the bids we got were from vendors that are part of purchasing co-ops. So all all bids were competitively bid and uh we're able to
008get um about $200 a device. Um, so $30,000 gets us 150 devices, which will get us about five years worth of use out of the devices. >> Yes, sir. >> Any other questions? No. Do we have a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> A motion by Amber. Do we have a second? >> Have a second by Joe. All in favor? Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Got item 15. Consider approval of public safety data sharing agreement between Johnson County Law Enforcement Agencies and Venus ISD Police Department. >> Good evening again. So this um document, as you remember, we moved from our CAD and RMS system, which is our report management system and our dispatching system this school year. and it's a lot cheaper for us and everybody in the county went to
009this this program so someone global. So now in order for us to be able to for each agency in Johnson County to be able to see other agencies and what they're doing and access their reports or their offenders or witnesses or any kind of documentation or anything else that we retrieve in our system, they can retrieve it now. But we have to have um this agreement between every agency. So every agency has taken us to the their school board or their um city council to get this approved and everything else to where we can see each other's calls and everything else and our information. >> Would this not fall under interlocal agreements? Like wouldn't it be interlocal agreement or is this just a specific data sharing agreement? with this being more, how do I want
010to say it? Um, more secured information. It's got to be on a separate agreement. Um, because we're sharing criminal histories, we're sharing license plates, everything else. So, >> is there any? >> No, it's all upside. I mean, we can share information. If I if I have an issue with somebody here and I run their name and and another agency in the county has dealt with that person recently or local, then if I have to go to their house, I can say, "Okay, we know what's going on at their house before and stuff like that, too." >> So, that bring So, if we have a situation here where a law has been committed, a law has been broken by a student, that normally stays specific to us. So, now Venus PD or another PD would have
011access to that information. Is that something they have to request access to or is it do they just get it automatically? >> No. If even if we were to arrest somebody, that information is out there from them already. They just wouldn't be able to review our report to look and see what kind of situation. Say they they ran across a victim of it and now somebody's retaliating against them or something else. Now, there are certain situations that we can restrict who can receive that. Say if we have an employee or something else like that, we can restrict who has access to that. Any other questions? No. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the public safety data sharing agreement between Johnson County and Law Enforcement. Motion by Amber. >> Second by
012Joe. All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you. Go to item 16. consider approval of local policy changes as listed in policy update 126 and Mr. Gatewood is going to read every single one of them. >> Actually, ma'am, I did go and read through all 86 pages of them and I just summed them up here. Uh start with our board and governance meetings. Uh it's just basically some of the stuff we're already doing. It said meetings meetings must now be recorded, which we're already doing. Uh it added an uh roll call roll call option. Uh it's okay to still vote like you still do, but you added a roll call option that is added. Uh one of the things they did on the roll call like say for instance here if you voted on something and
013one of the board members uh voted no you have to record that person's name in the minutes who voted no. It also talks about uh public comments instead of we do it second now it has to occur at the start of meeting. So public comments have to go back to being first. It also talks about uh if you are a sex offender you're ineligible to serve as a trustee. uh the personnel HR uh sum those up. Uh it talks about vacancy postings were reduced from 10 days to five school days. Uh we have to do expanded background checks. Uh and it also talks about uh different stuff about DEI that we can't cover classroom instructions on DEI. There's no longer we are no longer allowed to do that. We never did to begin with. Uh
014it's just putting in writing that we cannot. Uh curriculum instruction also talks about the parents. Uh here's something new that the parents and anybody have the authority to challenge a material like say if they see a m your kid comes home and you don't feel that classroom materials on grade level you can challenge that material uh just uh something I covered with the principles already to ensure that we stick with the high quality instructional materials that the board approved because if you're utilizing something from teacher paid teacher uh someone can challenge that resource. So just be careful with that. Uh also it talks about safety and security talks about uh just uh just what they have to report child abuse within 24 hours. Now that is something new. If uh child ab abuse does occur
015we have to be that window is now 24 hours. Uh it's also talked about uh some technology and some artificial intelligence some changes with that there. Uh it also talks about the facilities and health options such as the three point uh three-point seat belts that's on buses uh that we're working through right now in our transportation department and requiring the ten commandments law which we're already doing within our schools. All the ten commandments are posted already. Just some of the things we're already doing. Uh it talks about board meetings. Uh board meetings it says they must be posted three business days uh prior, but we're already doing that before we're 72 hours. Now it's three business days. We're actually making it about five, four to five. So, we're well ahead of the curve. Again, that
016just sums up uh a lot of the different things there. It's like it was 86 pages of them, but if anybody has any questions about any one in particular, I can expand on it. >> I don't have a question about anyone in particular, but probably this is the this is the largest number of applicable changes I've seen. There's always those road changes that are just meaningless. Basically, there's something in the accounting office or something like that, but the there are more in this in this legislature that that apply directly to principles and teachers. Yes, sir. >> Have we developed any kind of I don't want to say training program, but a way to maybe sit down instead of just saying, "Hey, read all 82 pages. Have we set up something to where we sit down
017with the administrators and just like talk them through to say we really understand?" Because some of these are legal. >> Yes, sir. >> 24 hours or there's a penalty. So, >> yes, sir. That's a great question. What I did, I actually what I did just to be honest with you here, I read through all 86 pages of this again and then I developed the cliff notes for each one of the campus principles and I sent them a copy of that to read over and when we come back uh on that first day we will go over these in detail but I did give them ahead of time. I do have a copy of the cliff notes and it just started with sequester myself in my office and reading through all 86 pages of it because
018there are uh quite a few things in there. >> Yes, sir. Sir, >> anybody have any questions? >> No. Do we have a motion? >> Motion by Greg, second by Amber. All in favor? Motion carries. Go to item 17. Approval of Venus ISD secretary to the board administrative assistant to the superintendent and other designates to receive candidates application for place on the May 2nd, 2026 general election ballot at the district's regular place of business. It's to give secretary to the board administrative assistant to the superintendent and other designates to receive the applications for people for the board. >> Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve um the BSISD secretary to the board administrative assistant to the superintendent. >> Oh, and other designates to receive candidates. >> And second by Greg, right,
019Greg, did you second? >> Yes, I did. >> All in favor? >> Amber? Yes, she made the motion. Item 18, approval of the notice of deadline to file an application for place on the ballot for the May 2nd, 2026 general election. Do we should we have the deadline date on here or no? That's what I was fixing to ask. What is the deadline date? 213. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the notice of deadline to file application as of uh for to be placed on the ballot for the general election. >> Motion by Amber. Do we have a second? >> Second by Donald. Did you Did you second by Donald? All in favor? Motion carries. Item 19, consider approval of matters related to personnel. We don't have anything there. Correct. For 19 item 20,
020reports. Mr. Gwood. >> Uh, yes ma'am. Uh, good evening, board president and trustees and community members. Uh, first of all, I want to thank the board for your continued leadership and support, and I want to recognize the hard work of our staff and our students across the districts. As always, our focus remains doing what is best for kids while ensuring we remain fiscally responsible and compliant and forward-looking as a growing district. Uh some of the things I want to highlight first of all is uh student and campus highlights. Uh academic focus uh campuses continue to uh do continue targeted efforts uh that's aligned the data for recent assessments. Intervention enrichment opportunities are ongoing to ensure student growth at all levels. Again, we don't want just students to do intervention. And we also want to do
021that enrichment to show our students that are at the top that are already achieving high, they grow. Also, uh student achievement. We're proud of our students as you saw many tonight here in extracurricular activities, whether in academics, uh athletics, fine arts, and extracurricular programs. They continue to flourish and the success reflects the commitment of our teachers, coaches, and our sponsors. One of the biggest things I want to highlight about students here. I know the campus principles covered attendance here. Uh but this year our attendance is 95.19% which is up 36% from last year. Just to give you an idea, the state usually hovers around 93%. So we're doing quite well. Our kids are getting to school and that number is up across all campuses. Uh some of our staff and operations. >> Yes sir. No,
022I have not, sir. >> It's It's quite a bit. Yes, sir. We're We're hovering quite a bit. So, I'm very proud of our students are getting to school because obviously when students attend school more, the better they do academically, the better they do socially when they're in school. So, we want them here as much as possible. Uh I also want to go ahead, you know, make sure I recognize our uh teachers and our principles and our support staff for maintaining those high expectations while banning the many demands of this year. This time of year, this time of year is crazy. Uh but our students uh they're rising to the occasion. Our staff members are rising to the occasion and they're staying focused uh on students. They're keeping their foot on the gas pedal and I'm
023proud of them. I want to also I talk about personal updates. uh we continue to focus on recruiting and retaining high quality staff while ensuring personal actions remain aligned with board policy and state requirements. Uh one of the things I want to highlight to you, uh like for instance here, there's a district to the south of us. They have six special education aid vacancies. We have one. So I know there's turnover, but we're doing quite well in recruiting and retaining people just in comparison. uh just some district's initiatives uh and structural improvement. Uh the district leadership continues to monitor campus improvement and efforts and alignment to state standards and improving our tier one instruction which is our classroom structure which is our building blocks. Uh intervention doesn't work uh or enrichment doesn't work if that
024tier one that classroom instruction is not good. Uh we're also focused on bringing in that teacher incentive aotment. We do have a steering committee formed. Uh we're focusing on developing an observation tool that will be utilized. Submission date is April is in April. We're still targeting towards that. Uh the teacher incentive aotment is a way to reward our staff members and getting more money in their hands. It's a way to get people as close to six figures as possible. Uh they get uh like I say at the highest level uh staff members can get almost a $32,000 check reward in August, which is uh quite a bit of accomplishment. Yes, sir. paid by the state, not paid by the district, that is paid by the state. Uh, Head Start, we recently held a meeting on
025December 11th to continue that Head Start. Uh, they came, they looked at, they measured the classrooms, they looked at the, uh, playground needs. Uh, they talked to Mrs. Ortiz, they talked to PES. Their next step is to figure out how many students from, uh, the Venus community would qualify to go to this particular program. So, that is where we're at. And once that has been explored, we'll develop anou that I'll present to the board. uh finance and stewardship as presented tonight. Uh the district continues to operate within our approved budget which I'm really proud of. We're not uh some districts you have to constantly come back and ask for budget amendments, budget amendments. Uh since serving as a superintendent, I don't think we've have asked for a budget amendment. So I'm very proud of that.
026So we closely monitor our expenditures and revenues. Uh just remaining that always steadfast that this is taxpayer money that we spend here and being responsible for it. uh community. I'm going to finish with community support. I want to also highlight some things that we're allowed to go out in the community to do. Uh there's numerous events again they collaborate with us such as events such as the pancakes with Santa, the Miss Christmas pageant, and the Christmas on the square. That's just to name a few things. Uh we're constantly have students and staff members at numerous events throughout the community. Uh so I'm very thankful for that. That's all I have. Ma'am, >> Thank you, >> Dr. Vega. I think I got the button figured out. Hello, board. Nice to see you all tonight. Um, okay.
027So, just some kind of updates on what I've uh been out and about doing. So, I completed PLC observations at the middle school and elementary. Of course, I've been in a lot of high school PLC's even previous to this role. Haven't made it to primary yet. Um, but really what I found there was again just reinforcement of that need for some PLC structures and systems. And so, I was glad to get to be in the PLC, see what was currently happening, um, so we can make a plan to move forward. Uh we had our district leadership team meeting in November which um Mr. Gatewood and I kind of led together and we really focused on high expectations through a couple of studies. One called the opportunity myth. The other called the opportunity makers and really
028talked about how we develop consistency around our content. Basically what we're delivering to students in the classroom, our collaboration, how teachers and leaders are working together and then our reinforcement. How do we monitor and hold people accountable for what we're asking them to do? So out of that we talked about um the need for systems and structures and then what key leadership moves we need to take in order to make that happen. So really trying to move kind of that theory um into action and so that informs some common themes of PLC structures and protocols again um lesson internalization when we're using our high quality instructional materials how are teachers um internalizing those lessons and then just the consistency needed in the use of our uh district approved materials. Um, I also held a PLC
029workshop with the CNI department to kind of flush that out even more. Um, I had my coaching with my TIE coach from ESC region 11, Miss Rachel Bradley, and we again focused on guess what PLC structures and systems. Um, because without those, we can't really implement DDI, which is what she's coaching us on. Um, and so she worked through that with me. Um, I've also begun coaching cycles with teachers. I have one teacher at the elementary that I've engaged in two co coaching cycles with um in a critical need area and she was able to implement her action step that she was delivered and I went back and observed her and it it was really really great and so I have a follow-up with her this week. So my goal will be to engage in
030coaching cycles with the teacher at each campus and then I can serve as a model for the principles and how they continue um to close that feedback loop. Right? like we do a lot of walkthroughs, but are we making it all the way back around with an action step? Um, and that continuous improvement should help us foster this culture of growth, right? Like we all can grow and it ultimately will help students. Um, so that's my goal there. I know we talked last time about some need the need for uh like kind of next steps. So we have the PLC system and structures pretty flushed out. Um, and so my goal will be to roll that out to principles in January or campus administrators in January. um including um some internalization protocols and then our
031goal would be to roll that out to teachers by the end of January. So that puts us about two months before STAR and so we'll be working hard to like shure all that up so that teachers have what they need to uh help students be successful. >> Any questions? >> What is PLC? >> Uh professional learning community. Yeah, good question. >> What is DDI? >> Data driven instruction. So DDI is what we do uh with region 11, but basically it's a data meeting through a PLC. Two acronyms in one. Um and so she's working specifically with the high school. Um but data is definitely a component of the structure that we're trying to put in place. So basically because we have um the wonderful gift of having that PLC, that professional learning community every day
032of the week, um the need for like those systems where what exactly are we talking about and what are we doing so that we're making the most use of that time. Thank you for asking that, Mr. Brook. Any other questions? >> Okay. Any request for anything else? No. >> Okay. Okay. So, we will adjourn at 8:28 p.m.