001We're going to call to order the regular meeting of the board of trustees of the Venus Independent School District on April 21st, 2025 at 6:38 p.m. And we do have a quorum. If everyone would please stand for the invocation and pledge. Heavenly Father, we presial this community. We'd like to welcome everybody who's here tonight. Thank you for coming. Rosie, anybody sign up? No. Okay, we're gonna go to Item number five, presentation of campus reports and recognitions. Okay, good evening. First, we want to start off and we got a lot of folks that we want to recognize tonight, but we do want to welcome uh one of our new police officers. So, Chief Wood, if you could come on up real quick and Congratulations. Welcome. Thank you. Welcome to Venus. Okay, we've got several student groups
002here. This is always the funnest time of the year and the funnest time of a board meeting is to recognize our students. That's why we're here. And so, first uh want to introduce the middle school principal, Miss Buck. And she's going to bring up uh and recognize her folks, her staff, and her kids with TSA, Technology Student Association. So y'all come on up and just kind of This is a good problem to have. We've got a lot of kids. Just kind of keep Yeah. Hey guys, probably have to do two rows there. Keep going. It's a good problem to have. All right, it's your floor. All right. We have uh 26 middle schoolers and eight. It's It's on now. It It worked for a minute and then it doesn't, but right now it's working. 26
003middle schoolers and eight high schoolers are for sure going to nationals in Nashville in uh June 26. I mean, if y'all approve that, we're we're also here to ask for that. So, next. Okay. So, um some of y'all did y'all pass your stuff out already? Okay. All right. As you're exiting, they did bring some something for you guys from the state competition. So, congratulations. Super proud. Don't go anywhere. She's gonna take pictures. Banners come out in front. Yes. If you have something in your hand, please come out. Yeah. Get a picture here real quick. All right. Or get out of the way. One or the other. Hold on. I got one more banner. There we go. I'm just making sure I get everybody in this picture here. All right, guys. Just do your best to
004look at this camera if you can. Uhhuh. Mr. Buck. Yes, that was for you. I love it. All right, guys. Good job. [Music] Do you want to recognize Elena? You saw how great of a speaker I am. Okay, we have one more recognition. I think for the first time in Venus history, we have representation on the board of TSA. Is that correct? The student board of TSA. And we have Vice President Elena Roer. You want to come forward? We have I have pictures of that already. So, we've already celebrated. All right. Thanks, guys. If you have a shirt, pass it to the people we talked to. We'll roll these out some more. Congratulations again, guys. And good luck today. Where' the other go? Thank you. And parents, you can als if you with our parents,
005parents, if your child has already been recognized and you don't have anyone else, you're more than welcome to also go ahead and go. Yes, you can stay for the meeting. You're more than welcome to, but you don't have to. It is our board meeting. It's our monthly board meeting. Okay, Miss Price, which group we got next? We will have Taffy. BMS Taffy. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Y'all come on up. Next is uh Texas Association of Future Educators. Go ahead, Miss Cox. All right. This year for Venus Middle School Taffy, we took 22 to area and out of the 22, eight advanced to state and we are taking two to the sunshine state of Florida for nationals. And am I asking for money? No. No money. Just asking for permission in a minute. This is Jacqueline Rodriguez
006and Thank you. And y'all are done. If you want to go wrote a children's book for Great job, ladies. Congratulations and best of luck at nationals. Yeah. Okay. Item number four. Yeah. Patriots pen. We doing both. We're good. We're good. We're ready. Go for it. Okay. Uh I'm here to present an award to Shayla Rosendez tonight for her uh uh essay that was entered into the Veterans of Foreign Wars contest back in the fall. She was picked uh as one of the best uh essays in the area. Congratulations. While he's taking that to her, she won $150 and she advances to the next round. So, we haven't heard. They could advance all the way to Washington DC, but we haven't heard. Okay. So, we're recognizing Bo Gaskin for being a top 10 finalist in the
007Veterans Day pin, which is a future engineering and an AEOP conglomeration. Um, we're going to say he got top three because that's what it looks like on the website, but he will get a 3D print of his, like a a paid for and a certificate from them as well. So, that's a competition this year. Yes, it will be given. Yeah. And it's given at um the museum in Utah, the National Museum in Utah Veterans Day. Take a picture. Come on. Congratulations. [Applause] Choir. Next we have choir. Y'all come on in all the way up here. Don't be shy. Come on up. There you go. Face that way. And you can move back towards us. We won't bite. I promise. We'll just kind of make a line there. There you go. All right. Yeah. Y'all come
008on in. Okay. Awesome. So this is the Venus Middle School Advanced Choir and uh this year we won sweep stakes at the UIL concert and site reading competition with straight ones which is the first time choir has done that in its uh existence. So yay to these amazing ladies. Um so thank you for having them here for recognizing them. Uh, we have Chelsea Ruiz, Italy Escalante, Kaden Lennon, Liliana Alvareo, Michelle Martinez, Leon, Samantha Lorent, Isabella Weisbrook, Michelle Guatemala, and Alicia Sierra, and then, uh, Kylie Scarboro and Chloe Ramirez weren't able to be here with us tonight, but um, these ladies have, uh, really done an awesome job embracing our music and working hard, and it it shows off. uh choir originated in well it's not originated but was reestablished in Venus uh five years ago
009and so we started from nothing and have built our way up to um having straight ones at UIL. So there you go. Congratulations ladies. While while y'all are getting pictures, I do want to say that uh five years ago when we hired Miss Gazy is when this program started. And so she has done an outstanding job with these kids and the high school kids. Yep. Pictures. engineering. Thank you. Okay, engineering, we are ready. Welcome y'all. Come on in and just stand over here and face the audience. All right, come on in, gentlemen. lady. Kind of slide down a little bit. Good looking group. All right. All right. Yeah. Go ahead, Dr. Moore. Hello everybody. um here to recognize what we have here are three of our teams that went to an engineering competition hosted by
010CEN. Every year CEN um hosts a competition with an engineering manufacturing company and opens it up to everyone in the CEN network. Uh this year over half the teams got disqualified because they couldn't even make a product that would work. But we got three teams that actually did make a product that work. And on top of it all we got first, second, and third place. Um, we got first place with uh D uh Gabriel, Diego, Anthony, and Cooper. Second place with Edgar, Brian, Brandon, and Christopher. And third place with uh Braden, Adrien, Dakota, and Naa could not be here today. She had to work. Um, what's more incredible than them just getting first, second, and third, the other main school competition from Abalene Academy of Technology, Engineering, Math, and Science, and their facility reflects that
011name. and they beat them handedly. So, if you could give them a pause, I appreciate. If anyone wants to take pictures, this would be the time. Oh, I have to Thank you. Okay, next we've got boys soccer. Come on in, guys. Y'all come down the front here and face the audience. Kind of. There you go. Slide down a little bit. There you go. All right. I think Yeah. Missing one. All right. Well, we thank you for having us here. Um, boys soccer this year. Um, it was a tough season. Uh, I think our preseason was harder than our previous two years. So, uh, the boys did a lot and we met some injuries later on in our season. But, uh, I appreciate these guys, their dedication, their hard work. uh they show up every day
012and they do what's expected. I mean, that's all I could ask. So, uh hopefully next year we'll turn things around. We have some new some newcomers coming up from from JV. So, uh I think next year will be a little better. I mean, we're losing some players, some skilled players, but uh I think these guys are ready to step it up. So, I appreciate their hard work and I thank them for this year. For our awards, we have we got a fifth in district. So, uh we only had one nominee for first team all district. That's Mario [Applause] Marquez. Uh we were allowed two for second team and that's Saul Vasquez. He's not here. And Steuart Pasada. And uh our three honorable mention are Anthony Rico, Miguel Strada, and Omar [Applause] Karion. Uh we'll be
013losing Mario and Rico this year. They're seniors. They're graduating, but the other three and Steuart will be returning as seniors except for Omar. He'll be a junior. So, uh I look forward to good things from these guys as the year comes up. Thank you. Thank you. Get a picture, guys. I want to interrupt for a minute because there's there's a story here that's not being told. Mario has left the country and he's come back. Uh, he was selected to go to Portugal, right? Why don't you tell us about that? How long were you gone? And who'd you play with? Okay. So, how much time did you spend in Portugal? So, you spent two weeks and you came back. So, kind of different soccer, higher level like that. I'm very, very proud of you. Okay. You're
014great. not only in the classroom but on the field. And now you're taking it to a different level. Okay? But when you sign the contract, just don't forget us. Okay? [Applause] Okay, we got girls soccer bringing that ball. Y'all come on in, ladies and just come up here front and turn and face the audience. Slide down a little bit for us. Okay, there you go. All right. Come on in. Come on in. We got a few parents coming in. Coach Ward and then you'll the floor will be yours. So, hey, uh this is Lady Bulldog soccer. Had one of the best seasons, actually the best season in school history. Uh we went to Bay City for a tournament and ended up winning it, going undefeated, four wins in three day three days. U we had
015a chance to finish second in district, but we finished third. So, we were up in the top with Godly the entire time back and forth with them. We played life. Uh, we lost the first game two to one, lost the second game two nothing and until the playoffs. That was their toughest game. It was against us. So, that's pretty good. Um, we advanced to the playoffs as a second seed and we ended up playing Little River Academy and we won that game after trailing one- nothing at halftime. We've coach Ward talked for a full 10 minutes for the first time all season and the girls responded and came back and won that game. So it was the first playoff win in school history. Very proud of trophy right there that uh Yennefer has. Um and
016we moved on to the area round where we played a very good Ben Brook team. Fought fought fought and then finally lost one nothing. But that was a tough game and we showed that we belonged in the state playoffs. So, uh, most goals scored in a season, least goals against in a season, and most wins in school history with 14. So, very good. So, the first award we're going to give out is for honorable mention, all district. And the first recipient is Juliana Science. Good job. She's a freshman, by the way. Uh, another honorable mention, also a freshman, Hannah Norris. Is this second team? Yeah. Okay. There should be more honorable mention. Okay. Okay. Oh. Uh, honorable mention but not here is Gloria Lasa. She's a senior. Vote well deserved. We have one more. We
017had one more. No. Okay. Uh, second team all district Miley [Applause] Almagar. I did. I know I did. Uh, also second team all district senior Elena Visera. Oh, this person's not here, but second team all district September Chrome. She had to work. Oh, it says it on there. Okay. Oh, Gloria. Okay. Sorry, I didn't realize it said it on there. Uh, second team all district senior Jalissa Castillo team. And first team all district, Aaliyah [Applause] Par, first team all district senior London Ramirez. [Applause] And last first team all district leading scorer for our team with how many goals? Okay, we round we moved up yesterday. It's okay. 26. We'll go 26. We'll go 26. Val Miranda. Okay. And um I put up two other players for superlatives and we didn't win that but but we
018got votes and we got acknowledgement from other coaches because they're starting to see our players but we did actually win one and this is goalkeeper of the year Jennifer Sans. How many saves did you have? 98. We keep count. So great job ladies. I am so we are so proud of you. like everything you did this this year from start to finish, you far exceeded our expectations. [Applause] Yep. Yeah. Let your parents get one. [Applause] 30. Right. Okay, we have track. Come on in, coaches. All right, ladies, y'all come on in. Coaches, come on in. All right. All right. Go ahead, coach. All right. First off, I want to say it's a great day to be a Bulldog. How about that? [Applause] I'm going to be real quick, do my little Easter speech, and get
019us out of here. So, we had some very talented young ladies who qualified for uh in track and area and regional. So, we did a really good job. The coaching staff and I, Coach Revas, excellent coach. Um, Coach Hayback also helped out and we did a fantastic job with these young ladies and they showed some grit, grind, they did everything it took to get to that next level and it shows right now as hard work pays off. So, we are truly truly thankful. We got Miss Valerie Miranda who qualified not only in the 800 meter dash, but she also qualified in the 400. We also have not here um we have Amariana Cross. She qualified in area for the 100 meter dash. So, to to qualify in that 100, you really have to be moving
020a little bit. So, let's give her a clap. She couldn't make it tonight. And we say, drum roll please, our regional quarter uh qualifier is none other than Miss Jada Sassy. I tell you, freshman just whatever it takes. I mean, she's an excellent worker, hard work, does whatever we ask her to do and it most definitely paid off and she qualified in the mile run, the 1600 meter mile run. And you know, I know many of you know that's four times around that track and you really got to be getting it. So, she ran for all of us. So, we really appreciate um Jada's hard work making it to regionals and we're just thankful to be here and we thank you guys who supported. I know we sending emails like crazy just letting you know
021what we were doing and so we sure thank you and these young ladies deserve it. So, round of applause. All right. All right. Go. [Applause] So, we're still on item number five, the campus reports. First, in all Yeah. No, I just, you know, I like I like I like things the way they were. So, I was like, "Oh, this is weird." Um, Miss Box and I stood outside, but there was a lot of recognition. So, um, we wanted to make sure we had room for them. The primary school, we're staying busy and it's a great time of year. Our numbers, our enrollment keeps uh it it fluctuates. So, we're hovering around about 40748. Um, but great news is we've done one registration event for preK and kindergarten students next year and we have enrolled 50
022students. And so that's probably almost uh tripled of what we had at this time last year. So I think our enrollment numbers are increasing. Um, we have 40 prek students and 10 new kindergarten students. Um, out of those 16 are prek bilingual. So um, our bilingual numbers are jumping and so that's fantastic news for us. So we're excited. Um, and then a countdown to the end of the school is literally here. We're in the middle of an ABC countdown. So, every day is exciting and fun at the primary school. Just a few things that we've done this uh past couple weeks. We've gone to Yogi Bear Park, Perau Museum. Our first graders got to go to Medieval Times. They they walked in and said, "This is the best day of our lives." So, um it
023was a great opportunity for them. They were able to connect it to fairy tales and include lesson plans. So, um, we were able to, we're fortunate to provide that for our kiddos. This week, we do have field day and then we're, uh, you know, gearing up for kindergarten graduations. For teacher of the month, Miss uh, Lena Leonard. Most of you know her. She is just absolutely amazing. just a wonderful person, kind, thoughtful, um always has a smile on her face, willing to step in and help, and uh she truly is a wonderful teacher, and you know, we're all thankful to to know her and still have her at the primary school. And then staff member of the month is Miss Rachel Groom. She is kind of the jack of all trades. Uh she came to
024us last year and she does bus duty every morning, afternoon. She helps with life skills, ECSC, helps changes students. I mean, really does all the dirty jobs that are that are hard, right? And never complains, always has a smile on their face, and has really just kind of been a a good uh contribution to our campus culture. So, she's well deserving of this award. And then student of the month is Jethro. He is a fantastic little kindergarten student in Miss Rodriguez's class. Um he's a true leader leader, respectful, uh responsible. He's another one of those kids that is six, probably going on 15. um you can always rely on him to do the right thing to take care of the kids and uh so he's a true role model for our students. Thank you. Okay,
025on to the elementary. Let's see. We had our UIL competition that was hosted by Mrs. Jarrett um who is our GT teacher and I put the whole list of students in there and their places for all the categories that we had. That was an amazing event. Also uh we have now completed Battle of the Books round two since I turned in my uh board report. So next month uh the winners for Battle of the Books will be coming. We had our second grade music program and I think it cut off the second grade music program picture and then uh we started star testing at the beginning of April. In fact, we finish up tomorrow with a star reading and all of our paras jumped in and took third, fourth, and fifth grade hallways and decorated
026them for star to get the kids all pumped up. And this was just a picture of the fourth grade hall. They were walking down the red carpet. And then I included some more writing. These are uh second grade writing. Second grade is just rocking it out with the writing. They're writing whole pages. They're illustrating. Um they've been writing their own plays. Some of them they come and they want to read their plays in the office all the time. Uh they are just so entranced with writing. That's that's all they really want to do. They just want to write right. Um, then we had a huge uh star pep rally for our students and some of our staff dressed up and they had a dance competition for the kids to vote on who uh who would
027win the dance competition and we had a set of dinosaurs. You can't see the second dinosaur, but they danced together. They threw out um little toilet paper rolls with goodies in them. So, of course, they won because they gave out gifts to the students. So the others were a little upset about that because they think they cheated. The dinosaurs cheated, but it was really hard for them to throw the things because their arms were so short. So kids got a big kick out of that. Um the staff member of the month was Miss Debbie Fruit. Uh she consistently goes above and beyond her role. Uh she assists everybody across the building. uh takes care of everything and keeps everything running efficient efficient and smooth. So, she is wonderful to have in the office. Our teacher
028of the month was Miss Jamie Adams. She's fifth grade science teacher. We got her from Mrs. Buck and she came down to uh the elementary school to also finish up her counseling um certificate that she's working on and has done some things with our counselor also. but she has done an amazing um job in uh really ramping up our science program at the elementary to meet um the science teaches and the STEM stuff that's going on at the middle school. So that's been a perfect bridge and transition and she talks to the kids about the STEM program all the time getting them excited for that. And then our student of the month was Ariel Dominguez. And as soon as we walked in, it's kind of hard to see in the picture because there's so little
029on the on the screen, but as soon as we walked in, he started smiling like he already knew that he was going to be student of the month. And it's really hard to even see see him in the building at all when he is not have just a huge smile on his face. But he is in Miss Ma Miss Babbitt and Miss Marble's class in third grade. He has excellent character. He's always respectful, kind, and considerate to his peers and his teachers. And he always has a positive attitude. And I've even seen him like at lunch if there's been a conflict, he will try to resolve the conflict. So maybe he's going to be a counselor someday. You never know. But great kiddo. And that is it for the elementary. All right. at the middle
030school. Um I I will let you get caught up because I No, you're good. I just didn't want to do Okay, so at the middle school, we've had lots of things going on. Um we have middle school soccer happening. So that's new this year and the kids were so excited. We have over 200 kids signed that they wanted to play. Obviously, we don't have room for 200 kids, but we do have some playing soccer. Um and it has been huge for the kiddos. Um, so since last time we opened or we had spring open house, um, tied that with the book fair, we had lots of parents show up. They were able to make $5,000 at the book fair, which is a large amount. Um, not unlike Miss Box, we've been star testing. Tomorrow is
031our last day and we will have math. Um, so lot lots of things happening. Um, I want to brag on some of my adults a little bit here. So y'all met Miss Reef just a little while ago. um she wrote a presentation and luckily she lets me you know ride with her. So um her presentation was chosen so she and I will be presenting um at the CEN summer workshop this this summer about student directed research. So we started that last year. Kids are working on that right now. Um but it's it's amazing what kids can do when when given the ability here go research this and and find out. So um and then Mr. Weary and Miss Nickel uh both wrote presentations to present at TASSP summer. That's the uh principles conference and they
032were both selected. So they will both be presenting uh Miss Nichols presenting about student data and Mr. Wary is presenting about um c culture and teacher appreciation stuff. So we're excited for them to be recognized. Mr. Wary is also running for the board of TASSP um representing region 11 and so we we're excited for him to to do that. Um that's that's really the big things. I attached the TSA results for you guys on the board report. Um there was a lot here so we didn't call everything out. Um, but y'all have those those results also. All right. Teacher of the month this month is Miss Melissa Burrow. Is that who's up first? Okay. Yep, that's her. Um, so she's a math teacher on our campus. She's the math department head. Um, does an outstanding
033job. Has really brought that department together. Um, she's improved instruction with students. She leads the way by example. there. If you go into her room, they're in stations. She's pulling kids to teacher table. Um we are very lucky to have her and we have seen so much growth this year in their data that we've tracked all year um with with her leading them. So we we appreciate her. And then let's see who's next. Okay. So our parah our support staff was Miss Lucas. Uh, Miss Lucas came to us after the beginning of the year, but she she came and hired in one position and then I went and said, "Hey, I need to switch you to a different position." And she said, "Yes, Miss Buck, whatever you need." So, she has been doing um inclusion
034time with kids. She's willing to do whatever. She shows up in the office first thing in the morning. Where can I help? What do you need me to do? Um, kids kids do well with her. The teachers appreciate her in their room. And so we were very happy to add her as a staff member on our campus. And then our student of the month, unlike what Miss Box had when they walked in and the kid was smiling because he knew when we anna announced that Eduardo was student of the month, he was like, "No way. No way." Um, so our student of the month is Eduardo Zatina. Um, so Eduardo is he has just come so far. Um he is dedicated, he's hardworking, um he's a great example to his peers. Uh he's active, he
035participates in honor band, he's in athletics, and he has um set the tone in his group of friends that this we're going to do these things. And I've had since since he has made this turn, I've had those kids come say, "Hey, I need to be in that teacher's classroom because I feel like they're going to help me work harder." like that when kids are having those conversations, Eduardo was my guy. So, he was he was funny though because he was he was like, "No way." And then we called his mom and she was like, "No way." So, it was awesome though. But that is it for the middle school. Thank you. Okay, the high school. We're going to start with teacher of the month and that is Mr. Andrew Kadel. He's a gentle giant,
036but if you've ever seen him work, he is assigned to the BAC unit and whether he is providing services to those students or if he's outside of the classroom, he um brings a lot of passion and inspires others. And by others, I mean uh some of the boys that he's affiliated with, baseball, football, and even uh the teachers. He's a mentor. his impact goes beyond the classroom and uh his colleagues look up to him, kind of a a mentor. So, we're lucky to to have him. Our staff member of the month, Miss Latoya Hawkins. If you ever need a hug, come see Miss Hawkins, okay? She's a hugger and has a lot of um smile and good energy around her. She's not a stranger to kids, and I mean that by She is our ISS
037uh person. She gets to know them once they're released. She checks on them. She continues to go out and check on them, and she gets to know kids from those kids on how to build relationships. She did play a important role in our Black History Month. She pretty well took it upon herself. She showed the initiative and displayed posters. of um accomplished notable American African-Americans. Uh one of her favorite things which is now a faculty and student favorite things is she plays music of different genres that uh are from African descent and the kids love it. So lunch has never been quieter. So once that uh African-American History Month is gone, everybody kind of misses that that ambiance. So, we're trying to work something out with her to be a DJ, but she does have
038the ISS kids, but she's unwavering in her duty and very deserving of this recognition. Our student of the month is Cotton Daty and he exemplifies kindness, respect, and dedication in everything he does. He treats his peers and his teachers with the utmost respect, creating a positive and supportive classroom environment. He's a talented athlete that is a pleasure to have in class and embodies the true spirit of being a bulldog. His positive attitude make him a role model for other students. Uh the one thing about coin and I noticed this early in football is after every single game he stays on the field and he makes it a point to go to every single coach on the opposing team and shake their hand. So uh you see that in the morning during the cafeteria, you know,
039he visits table kind of making sure everybody's okay. So the last thing I'm gonna say about that is you're raising him right. He's a good kid. So we're glad to have him. Okay. Uh, I know you've seen a lot of sports through the high school. We're going to do some academics here. Hill College has announced their president and their deans list. For their president's list, you have to have a 4.0, which is the highest grade point average and at least 12 uh hours per semester. We have the following students that are on the president's list. We have Jenny Nuin, London Ramirez, Haley Rivers, and Chassity Simon. On the deans list, you have to have a 3.5 with at least 12 hours per semester. And you have Gloria Lea, Stephanie Rico, and Cadence Thrasher. And what
040I want to say about those individuals is if you look at our sports teams, they're on there as well. So, in off the field, Uh, I think UIL competition is next. Yeah, UIL competition. Um, Coach Gotting put a team together. And, uh, we do have two regional qualifiers and that will be this Saturday at East Texas State. Do they still call it East Texas State? Texas A&M. East Texas&M. They changed the name. That's it. So, uh, we have Jenny Nwyn who qualified in the calculator applications and we have actually Ashley Junker who is a regional qualifier for copy editing. Then we have Gage Britain who's an alternate and we have Michaela Jackson who's also a alternate in uh, copy editing. The engineering results u, Dr. Morgan introduced them and the numbers by the Venus is
041the team. So, they're listed from first, second, and third. And I knew he was going to recognize them, but I went ahead and put that up. Uh I wanted to uh bring attention to group number three who got second place. If you look at those boys, three out of those four members were uh EB kids last year. Uh could barely speak uh English. As a matter of fact, from time to time, I still have the translate forum in a parent conference or with teachers. But if you look at them, they're in their second and third year here and um they they won second place. So, it goes to show, you know, if you give them something to participate in, if you put the right teacher in front of them, as Miss Bug said, they can
042do it. You just got to make sure you put them, you know, in that right uh position, that right opportunity, you know, and ask of it and they'll do it for you. Okay, of course you've seen Jada, okay, our regional qualifier. She uh freshman, so we've got great hopes for her. Up next, uh the fifth annual Venus FFA welding contest. Some of you were out there when I was out there and um this year Mr. Web's team won first place and we had Sllayton, Sil, Sweetwater. I think we had total of eight schools there. But uh the next paragraph is what I uh visited with Mr. web about because you look at PEK, PEK, you need to start uh building partnerships and um Panther City was there and uh they're they donated approximately $6,400 as
043far as uh supplies for welding to the uh winners and the computers out there. Martin Sprocket dominate uh donated $500 of welding helmets and those helmets have come a long way. I learned that this is not like they used to be. Arc Labs uh is a constant and they donated 34,000 in scholarships to their their welding school. So, uh they're beginning to build partners which gets our kids ready for employment once they get out, which is, you know, the whole intent there. So, uh, upcoming events, we have prom coming up this weekend. We have fine arts night on the 28th. We have the career expo 8:30 to 11:30. We have taffy banquet. We have the sports banquet. Then we have AP testing coming up. We have the senior walk, which I know we visited with
044the principles. And then we have graduation to tie it all up. Thank you. We go to item number six, annual announcement of board training hours. Under state board of education rule, completing required continuing education each year of service is a basic obligation and expectation of any any sitting board member. As board president, I am required to announce the name of each member who has completed the required continuing education, has exceeded the required continu continuing education, and is deficient in meeting the required continuing education. The requirements for training are measured as of the first anniversary of the date of the trustes election or appointment or two-year anniversary of his or her previous training as applicable. There are eight training areas for board members continuing education. One, local district orientation. Two, orientation to the Texas Education Code.
045Three, post- legislative update to the Texas Education Code. Four, team building. Five, additional continuing education. Six, evaluating student academic performance and setting goals. Seven, identifying and reporting abuse, trafficking, and other maltreatment of children. Eight, school safety. To the extent applicable to each board member, I will announce the completion or deficiency as to required training. For members who still have time remaining to complete required required training, I will announce those board members who have scheduled timely training and those who have not yet scheduled the training. At the conclusion of this announcement, I will announce any board members training in excess of the continuing education requirements. Local district orientation. The following first year board members have completed the local district orientation training. Randall Buck, place one. Donald Shaw, place three. Orientation to the Texas Education Code. The
046following firstear board members have completed the orientation to the Texas Education Code training. Randall Buck place one. Donald Shaw place three. Post legislative update to the Texas Education Code. The following board members have completed post- legislative update to the Texas Education Code training. Randall Buck place one. Donald Shaw placed three. Team building. The following board members have completed the annual team building training. Randall Buck place one. Joe Russell placed two. Donald Shaw placed three. Amber Craftton place four. Kirby Sansom placed five. Greg Hoffman plays six. Tasha Gore placed seven. Additional continuing education. The following board members have completed the additional continuing education requirement. Randall Buck placed one. Joe Russell placed two. Donald Shaw placed three. Amber Craftton placed four. Kirby Sansson placed five. Tasha Gore placed seventh. The following board members are deficient in meeting
047the educa the additional continuing education requirement. Greg Hoffman placed six. Evaluating student academic performance and setting goals. The following board members have completed the bienial bienial training on evaluating student academic performance and setting goals. Randall Buck placed one. Joe Russell placed two. Donald Shaw placed three. Amber Craft in place four. Kirby Sansson placed five. Greg Hoffman placed six. Tasha Gore placed seven. Identifying and reporting abuse, trafficking, trafficking, and other malreatment of children. The following board members have completed the bienial training on identifying and reporting abuse and trafficking. Randall Buck place one. Joe Russell placed two. Donald Shaw placed three. Amber Craftton place four. Kirby Sansson place five. Tasha Gore place seven. The following board members are deficient in meeting the required bianual training on identifying and reporting abuse and trafficking. Greg Hoffman place six. School
048safety. The following board members have completed the bianual training on school safety. Randle Buck placed one. Joe Russell placed two. Donald Shaw placed three. Amber Craftton placed four. Kirby Sansson placed five. Greg Hoffman placed six. Tasha Gore placed seventh. Exceeding required continuing education. Board president or presiding officer of the board announced as applicable for each board member. Board member Randall Buck exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by 14.25 additional hours. Board member Joe Russell exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by 8.25 additional hours. Board member Donald Shaw exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by 10.5 additional hours. Board member Amber Craftton exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by 8.25 additional hours. Board member Kirby Sansom exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by 8.25 additional hours.
049Board member Tasha Gore exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by 8.25 additional hours. I have 10 more pages to read. I'm joking. That's it. I know it was a lot. We'll go to item number seven,formational update regarding mentors care. Mr. Blackwell, it's an honor to be here with you tonight. I I just want to brag on this community as I start. Uh we work with 20 different school districts. We have new startups every year. It's been a model startup. Uh you guys are producing results that are um that we see in school districts three times your size. So thank you Dr. Torres, Mr. Gaywood, Mr. Kabacho for your vote of confidence. What I'm going to show you briefly tonight is stats from August of 2024 through January of 2025. So, all right. These
050the first slide, these are overall program stats. Uh, as you know, we have our coordinator at Venus High School. She works for us. She's u there to serve your students. Her name is Nicole Welen. She's right here. She's been amazing. Does a great job with our kiddos. Um, and we went out into your community and we recruited mentors for your students that were identified by your staff as uh students that would benefit from having a mentor. And so, uh, just the just the the support we received has been overwhelming. I'm going to be honest with you. I was a little nervous because you guys, uh, are a smaller enrollment district. You guys have numbers right up there with Cleburn on the number of kids that are being served in the number of mentors. Um, just
051to show you some programwide stats, these are some of the issues that we deal with with students. Things like self harm, being bullied, behavioral issues, drug alcohol use, and struggling socially. uh of students who struggled with self harm as reported uh to our coordinators, 48% now say in their post interview that that's no longer an issue for them. Students being bullied, 38% of the kids that reported being bullied say that's not an issue for them. And you can read the others. We are going in and we're working with kids. And what I love about our program is every student in the program has two adults in their corner. Number one, they have their mentor showing up every week to be a friend, a role model, and a confidant. And number two, they have their coordinator
052they can go to if they have a need. So those are some of our programwide stats. What I'll show you for my remaining minutes um are stats that are specific to Venus High School. So if we go advance, who's running the show here? All right. Thank you. Uh just to show you some numbers, uh we do depend on the staff at Venus High School to refer the students to us. And I'll show you some of the indicators we're looking for. When we asked teachers and principles and coaches to refer kids to us, there were 75 students referred. In January, uh we had 39 students match uh with mentors and we had 44 total mentors. And what's unique to Venus is it's one of our very few districts where we have mentors on a waiting list,
053not students. In most schools, it's 10 kids on a waiting list. They're coming by every week. Do I have a mentor yet? Sorry, buddy. You don't have one yet. At Venus, we have mentors waiting and that's what we want to see. We want to see that get those kids matched as quickly as we can. You have five seniors. Uh the people of this community uh by the end of January had donated 35 hours of their time for an average of eight hours per volunteer. Uh and you'll see those numbers go way up. You'll see mentors that uh have 23 24 hours of volunteer service to to the school. When we go to identify students who would benefit from being in the program, we're looking at three things. The first thing are Texas state at risk
054indicators. The state of Texas TEA's identified factors that affect kids and can affect their ability to be successful in school and graduate. They're called at risk indicators and I'll show you some of those in a minute. But we also at Mentors Care, we note that there are more factors than that that affect kids in school. And so I'll show you those next. So the three things we're looking those are the three things we're looking at. First thing I'll show you are the Texas state at risk indicators. This is just a few. These are some of the ones that we see most commonly. Uh we see a lot of kids who have been in DAP. Uh you have 44% of the students at Venus High School who are in the program who have been in DAP.
055You see 85% with semester grades below 70. You see 3% who have been homeless or are homeless. Um not passing STAR, CPS, limited English proficiency. These are all factors that affect kids at school. And those high numbers that you see, the 44% and the 85% that has that's not a reflection on your kids. That's a reflection on your staff sending us the right kids because we want those kids who have been in a DAP. We want those kids uh who are struggling academically. Our goal is to see them come to school, pass their classes, and be be the best citizen they can be and ultimately to graduate. These are some of our at risk indicators. These factors aren't on the state list, but they affect kids. You see, and these are these are in line
056with other school districts. You see lots of kids struggling with getting involved in an activity. And one of the things Miss Welden does is she helps get them she tries to get them plugged in to either a sport or choir or uh band or sometime if it's just a club, just get involved in something at school that makes you want to come to school. uh we see lots of kids who are arm motivated and uh struggling socially, lack of family support, behavioral issues. These are all factors that kids in high school today are struggling with. We also know if we can go to the next slide, you'll see these are we're going to rename these next year. These are all adverse childhood experiences that affect a student can affect a human for their entire life.
057uh the death of a parent is traumatic. And you see that 5% of the kids in the program at VHS have suffered the loss of a parent. Uh 26% come from a non-traditional family or uh where there's been divorce or a blended family or a single fam single parent. And then 49% of the students report uh their family struggling financially. And we can help with some of those things. We do help with some of those things. Uh and that's our next slide. We we refer students if they need uh food, we can help them with that. If they need clothing, uh if they need medical care, if they need graduation assistant, and what that looks like is we have kids at every one of our schools who can't afford the $40 for a cap and
058gown for graduation, we pick that up for them and and get that to them discreetly. So, uh Miss Weldon's done a good job of helping meet uh the needs of the kids that kind of go beyond what the school uh may be equipped to handle. She also deals with what we call outcries. These are just situations that kids are dealing with that can be overwhelming to them. Uh she dealt with 45 outcries from August through January. That number will be higher at the end of the year. Uh she provided support to students seven times from August through January for kids who aren't even in the program. So we're an open door for kids if they need to talk to someone and that helps us get to know them and we can get them in the
059program. So she saw lots of anxiety. Um other could be I I don't have school supplies. It could be I need clothing. I just need someone to talk to. Basic needs. Uh it's usually food. And then uh we also help kids who are struggling with depression. And we do get them to a school counselor if if it goes beyond something that we feel equipped to handle. This is a a VHS stat as well. uh 47% of the kids in mentors care report that before they came into the program they did not have uh a safe person to talk to. So your mentors are doing a great job. Uh they they show up every week to be a friend and a role model and cover things like school attendance and why it matters, grades, why they
060matter, uh the cost of living, respect for authority, the dangers of drugs and alcohol, uh avoiding risky behavior, choosing good friends, just things that every every kid needs to hear. I love uh Miss Weldon's quote. um she just loves watching uh the program produce meaningful growth and mentees gaining confidence and mentors finding renewed purpose. And what we hear from our mentors is that I get as much out of this program as that kid does. Um and so yeah, if we could go to the next slide. Um Mr. Gabewood, you were in one of those. Thank you for being a mentor. So, um, we have Miss Weldon's going to come up and introduce one of her awesome students and he's going to just share with you briefly his experience with the program. Hello, this is Ethan
061Sanders. He's a junior at VHS and I'm just so thankful for his leadership and um just want him to tell you his thoughts about the program. Um, for me, mentors care, as he was talking about on the statistics, has helped me helped shed a new light on where I'm headed in life. I've always felt like I've been part of a negative statistic in that struggling at home or whatever in my, you know, um, my grades, my behavior, everything. But when I got matched with my mentor, she really um, shed a light on my future. She made me look at school differently. I didn't think I wanted to go to college before this, but now I'm seriously considering community college. I'm considering trade school. I'm considering all these different options that I couldn't even see before
062I joined the program. And so I wanted to thank give a thank you to Miss Weldon for matching me with such a great mentor because I feel like we get along so well. And she's done that with a lot of the kids in the program. I have friends that come to me all the time like, "Ethan, my my mentor is way better than yours." I'm like, "Dude, there's no way." I was like, "There's no way you beat Miss Storm. She's amazing. She brings me canes. She's awesome." And so, I really appreciate what she's done for this school and what our mentors have done for this school. And so, thank you guys for letting us be a part of this program. [Applause] Any questions for me? Yes, ma'am. Yes. Yeah. Mhm. Right. Those are referrals and
063if a student says no, we don't force them to be in it. There are students who decline. Uh there are kids who move away. U there are reasons that that they don't go into the program. But, uh, yeah, that just the staff's done a great job of referring kids, but not every student says yes. So, yeah, thank you for that. Any other questions? Thank you very much for for all that y'all do. We really appreciate. Well, we hope this is a long-lasting relationship. We love your kids. We love your community and we can't do it without everybody in this room pulling together. So, thank you guys. Thank you. I It's not a question, but I just want to compliment the young man, Ethan, that stood up there. Eye contact is something you see very rarely
064out of out of students of high school age. And he scanned he scanned the board probably twice. So I want him to realize how important that eye contact. I don't know if somebody coached you on that or if you just did it on your own, but uh either way that's that's a valuable trait when you get to be my age. So thank you very much. You made me cry. You're good. Thank you. It's good to see you back. We'll go to item number eight, executive session at 7:46 p.m. for 551.071, 5551.072, 551.074, 5551.076, 551.082 and 551.0821 0821 746 Six. We'll go to item number nine, reconvene from executive session at 8:55 p.m. Item number 10, consent agenda. Did anybody have any questions? No. Do we have a motion? Motion by Kirby. Do we have a
065second? Second by Joe. All in favor? Opposed? Yeah, she's she'll be back. Got item number 11. Consider approval of the sustain ed leaders proposal for the strong foundations planning grant. Dr. Morg It's up to you. Okay. Okay. The strong foundations planning grant is the grant we applied for through the state's system of consolidated grant applications for next year. We were awarded the uh strong foundations planning grant to uh develop a math instructional framework. You can go ahead to the next. Oh, I have this clicker. Sorry. Um the goal of the grant is to develop a strong instructional framework in math uh to help teachers understand the researchbased instructional strategies that are provided by TEA. Uh our goal is we want all of our students in Venus to have access to rigorous grade level math content
066and instruction every day. So as per the grant we do have to um contract with a technical assistance provider. Uh we did have to select providers from the TEA approved list of providers. So these are all um either independent consultant education consultant companies. Um for example our the service center was also an approved provider. So we had to um select the ones that we were interested in in talking to um meet with them and get their proposals and so through that process we have selected sustained ed leaders and their job is to assist us with these tasks per the grant. So this is all per the grant requirements. Um no matter what assistance provider we selected they would still be helping us with these tasks. Uh but the reason why we chose sustain ed leaders,
067we feel that based on the conversations that we had with them and their proposal, they're going to give us the most customized support um and are very um in tune to our the needs that we have expressed in the current context of our district. So uh we feel that they're going to give us um that that true attention to the things that we're asking for that they'll respond to. Uh the timeline it really starts um at the end of this school year and then it goes all the way through the end of next school year. So by the end of um the next school year we should have a district math instructional framework um and through a very collaborative um process with district leaders, campus leaders, teachers um and any other stakeholders that want to
068be involved in in developing that framework. And then you can see phase five, which is really all of next year's second semester, is the teachers will then be teaching from that approach. Um, and letting us know what works and what doesn't work. So by the end of next year, it's possible that we'll have selected a different math curriculum, but that is not the goal of the grant. So we're not changing our math curriculum going into next year. We're going to focus on the instructional framework and the training and the learning and then see what happens through the process for next year. Um so that that is the grant. The proposal that you should have uh to review is the sustained ed proposal. Um per the grant guidelines, we do have to use 50% of the
069grant award to pay the the provider. So please don't be shocked at the sticker price. It is $70,000 and that is 50% of our award which was 140,000. Um, and they that's what they asked for. They didn't ask for more than that. And so that's the expected cost going into it. And that of course is 100% funded from the grant. No sir. Correct. And it it is also um the supplement not supplant does not apply. So anybody have any questions? No. Do we have a motion? A motion by Randall to to approve. Second by Greg. All in favor? Motion carries. Go to item number Well, we did that. So actually what we just did was item 12. There's an item 11 that I don't think do any of us have the item 11. Okay. Okay.
070Okay. Um consider approval of TSA and Taffy student travel. We don't have that. I don't know who's presenting that. Is it you presenting it? Uh, no. But I can tell you all about it. Did she know it was added to the Do you want to present for her then? If not, I mean, so we can vote on it. It doesn't matter. We're It's not on our agendas. It was on the one that was posted. Yeah. Yeah. It's on the one that was posted. So, this one's actually pretty easy. The the students that you saw earlier for TSA are invited to the national competition, which is in Nashville, Tennessee. So, of course, that's out of state travel. And then our two uh middle school ladies who are moving on to the national uh taffy um assignment.
071And so, from what I understand, the the the costs are we have the money for them. So, we're not asking for a budget amendment or anything like that. Just a permission for the out of state travel. Yes, Miss Buck budgeted for that for this year. Going forward, um, post district will be budgeted at the district level and not at her campus level, but it was budgeted for this year. Any questions? No. Do we have a motion? A motion by Randall. Do we have a second? Second by Amber. All in favor? Motion carries. Oh, here. Okay. Okay. Well, go to item number 12 13. Consider approval of 2526 certification of provisions of instructional materials. Dr. Morgan. Okay. So, this is a document we do have to submit to TEA every year. Um it it's gotten a
072little more uh involved in the past couple of years. Um so, we do have to address these areas in it. And so, you should have a copy of the full document. Um the page that you sign um miss at the end is the page that I will upload when I submit it electronically. So the first section is quite a few pages but it goes through all of our core content. Uh we are required to certify to the state that we do provide instructional materials for all core content for kindergarten through 12th grade. So you can see on the screen these are the um responses that I'll submit in the digital um form. And so there are two changes to core content curriculum instructional materials for next year in kindergarten through fifth grade. Um our our
073curriculum team that consisted of our RLA coordinator uh campus leaders and teachers decided that they did want to switch third through fifth grade over to Amplify Texas, which is what our kindergarten, first and second grade teachers have been using for the past couple of years. Um so we do want to make sure that that K5 alignment is there. The curriculum um comes from a much stronger knowledge base than our previous um curriculum. It has a very strong phonics foundational reading uh system which is grounded in the science the science of teaching reading. Uh so we think it's going to be better for all of our primary and elementary students. Um other than that nothing no changes at um primary, elementary or middle school. The only change at high school for core content we are going
074to switch our instructional materials for math. um the teachers and the students um did not respond well to the math curriculum that we had in place this year. Our math coordinator also suggested um highly recommended that we switch for next year. So the teachers did take a look at this new one which is called agile mind. It it was really the only other option on the state's list of approved materials for math for secondary that provided for algebra algebra 2 and geometry. Um but they did like it. um they def they they want to try it instead of continuing what we're going to use. And so uh with campus's uh approval, we're going to make that switch for high school math. But everything else um has been used and we'll reuse again next year. Uh
075the Children's Internet Protection Act, we do have to certify that we provide um for the protection with the requirement. Mr. Hudson assures me that we do these things. So we'll check yes on that. Uh we also have to in uh indicate what assessment platforms we use and so we continue to use Eduporia. Uh we do use the Texas formative assessment resource. Uh we also use MClass. I did not include U map growth because we're having a discussion with campus principles in the next couple of weeks if we are going to continue to use that or not. It's not required by the state that we do. Um so rather than say we use it and then we decide not to, I'm just leaving it off. Uh and then we do also have to just check boxes
076that we provide instructional materials for these other subject areas that are required that we teach the TEICSS. Um not all of these necessarily have state adopted or state approved instructional materials. Um each of these content areas is is a little bit different. Um but in the cases where we do provide the instructional materials, we do that. in the cases where the teachers um for example in fine arts the band teachers they know what they need and and they get what they need and if they need help with that they can always come um and we'll we'll work on making sure they get what they need. Um so we do make sure that every all the teachers in these areas have what they need to teach the students the required TECIS and that should be the
077end of the packet that's all the information that we are required to submit. Are there any questions? Do we have a a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 certification of instructional materials. Do we have a second? Second by Donald. All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you all. Thank you. Go to item number 14. Consider approval of application for participation in the local government investment co-op logic. Sorry, I didn't turn it on. Um, we've got logic that we're requesting um and recommending to um have as another tool in our toolbox for investments. Um, it is a a pool fund. So, the money we put in there, if we need to pull it out for liquidity the next day, you can pull it out. It's always liquid. But, it's just another tool and
078looking at where the best interest rates are. And so, it's just another tool to have of options for where we could put our fund balance basically. Any questions? Do we have a motion? Motion by Randall. We have a second by Greg. All in favor? Motion carries. Item number 15, consider approval of the amending resolution for Techstar. So, Venus has an account with Techstar, but it has been dormant for quite some time. So, Techstar and Logic go together, but they're two different pools, so they've got different rates. So, this is just to amend the resolution and reactivate that account. Again, it's liquid just like the other one. Any questions? Um, I can't answer that because I haven't been here. Um, other than we've been using just text pool, it's nice to not have your eggs all
079in one basket. So, having these other options would have us split some money. Not that any of them are, you know, in danger of going under or anything, but it just gives you some more options. Yeah. And I just want to say she's done a great job when we started talking about all of our investments that we have. She was asking some good questions about that. Not risk, but where are when we were very limited to where we had all of our our, you know, our finances. And so, um, I appreciate her doing that. And we're going to try to spread that out with no higher risk, uh, just so that we can obviously make better interest on our money. Any other questions? Do we have a motion? I'll make that motion. A motion by
080Kirby. Do we have a second? Kirby, do you have a second? Donald, all in favor? Motion carries. Item number 16, consider approval to give the superintendent authority to hire contract personnel from April 21st, 2025 through August 31st, 2025. Any questions on that? No. Do we have a motion? Make that motion. We have a motion by car. Why do I say like that? Do we have a second? Who seconded? Joe. Joe. Second by Joe. All in favor? Motion carries. Item number 17, consider approval of matters related to personnel resignations, employment, position, or contract amendments. to consider approval. A motion by Kirby. Do we have a second? Second by Randall. All in favor. Motion carries. Go to item number 18, reports. And I know Tina, did you want to go ahead and Yeah. Too short. Yes. De
081Miss Deian has asked me, would I come and give just a short presentation uh talking about the five-year audit that we've just been done. Every five years, TDA comes and um reviews the entirety of the of the child nutrition department from A to Z. Um, basically there's two parts to the procurement and one of them is just basically they're asking for our procurement procedures, written code of conduct. Um, they want to know all of our micro small purchase formal contracts, so source procurement, USDA food reconciliation reports, USD food processing contracts and co-op agreements. also including uh would be the detailed general ledger of all the revenue and all the expenditures that we have done throughout that year. Um this way they literally take some vendors and then ask us to show all the payments that
082we made to them and all of them must have to match what our bid process is seeing that we were to pay for that item. So that was one part of the review. The second part was the administrative review. and they came in sections. Sections 100 was counting and claiming which is a very very important part of child nutrition uh because this is where we get our money but yet we have to make sure that we are in compliance with everything we do to count that tray as a reimburseable meal and be able to claim it for that reimbursement. Section 14 was about menus, food production records, dietary specifications, our nutrient analysis. This also includes our CN labels, product formulation statements, and all recipes. Section 18 was our justice for all, our media released, and
083our complaint procedures and our complaint form. 900 was our on-site monitoring. This is a form that must be filled out by February 1 of every school year at every campus. And this report goes to show to make sure that all areas of the campus is running sufficiently and in compliance. Uh we have also uh excuse me section 1000 was our local wellness policy that is a district policy. Uh we are required to show all meetings, all agendas, and we're also on our website have to keep up the current uh three-year terrenial assessment and keep up with our wellness policy and our plan. Okay. And then 1100s is a list of all of our smart snacks in school. Everything that we sell in the cafeteria must be smart snack approved through the USDA smart snack calculator.
084a printed copy of that for us to before we can even purchase that item. Um the last thing was uh 1,200s which is professional standards. All child nutrition department staff are required to have so many hours of training a year that would depend on if you were a worker, if you're a cashier, you're a manager, you're the director. So all of those have to be in place and accounted for. And then lastly, they did go over a little bit of our summer feeding from 23 24 school year. Uh that was all good. And they will be here because uh this is our five-year audit as an they go they also come in summer feeding to go ahead and audit it for that program as well. And that'll be good for five years. And I know
085that was a lot, but does anybody have any questions for me on any of this? Yeah, I thought I had read um that there were findings. That's where I was coming in next. Okay, perfect. There on this particular part, there were no findings. There was one finding and Deian asked to explain that one. So the one finding was on indirect cost ratio and so I'm explaining it because it was something I did, not what Tina's department did. So indirect costs have not been charged previously at Venus. And an indirect cost is basically recouping money from federal programs back to the general fund that the general fund spends. So you have two different rates. You have an indirect rate and an unrestricted a restricted rate and an unrestricted rate. Child nutrition can be charged up to
086the full unrestricted rate. Most grants can only be charged the restricted, your title one, your normal ones. However, ESSER, you could do the unrestricted rate. So, we did the unrestricted rate on ESSER. However, for child nutrition, if I did the unrestricted rate, that would have charged back $159,570 out of child nutrition back to the general fund, which took most of half of their fund balance. If I charged the restricted rate, it was at 37,929. that doesn't really pay the bills back to what they did. So, if I charged either of those two amounts, we would have gotten no finding. However, I chose to try charge two times the restricted because the way I understood it is I could charge up to the full unrestricted amount. So, I charge 78,858 to child nutrition. because I didn't
087charge either the restricted or the whole 159. We got a finding. So, I take ownership. That was on me. Um going forward, we submitted our corrective action. We can only charge the restricted rate. Um the two auditors went back and forth of trying to figure out how not to give us a finding because they said if I was in Deian's spot, that's what we would have charged to. So it is a finding and there is no fiscal note to it. Anybody have any questions or anything? No, that's okay. Thank you Tina for coming in and presenting you. Okay. Just a couple of things here. I know Mr. Gatewood has a few things. Um just um as you know um this evening had a lot of saw celebrations from a lot of different groups and departments.
088Um it's hard to believe that we have four more weeks after this week remaining in the school year. You heard all the activities. There's something going on literally every single day and we have a lot of celebrations going on. Our kids are doing some amazing things. Our staff is working tremendously hard and um we will finish up um star testing this week. However, there's still AP testing. There's other testing that will go on and then we'll get into final exams. So, there is a a lot of great things going on. Um, every night for the next three or four weeks, you're going to have something. Um, so we encourage folks to come out and support our kids. I just want to let you guys know that the turf is complete. Uh, I don't know if
089you've had an opportunity to walk out there. They've done a tremendous job. Uh, not only is complete is early. Uh it's going to enable us to host a middle school soccer game. Uh so we're going to switch back over here to uh Venus High and host a middle school soccer game on the field. There's only two items that still pending. Uh the goalpost, they're being shipped from New York. We won't have them until May 6. They'll come out in May 6. They'll replace them. And there are also some damage to the asphalt. Uh Helis is fixing that on their own dime. So they will be fixing that. And we did check the uh the scoreboard, all electronics. Uh, it all works just fine. I have a question about just the usage of the turf now
090that we have it installed. What is our plan? I would I would almost assume we would just lock the fields at night, use the gates and everything, but what is our kind of proactive approach to making sure we don't just have people showing up on Saturday, you know, having a full out soccer match or, you know, Yeah. all all the things, you know, like maybe utilizing our facility rental agreement, like restricting some of that access, putting up signage or something like that. What what do we have in place for that to really protect the turf? I'm glad you asked that question. I actually stopped by here Saturday and saw a group of uh young students, some of our students, playing soccer out there. And so we are putting up signage and we are locking the
091field and it's sending out messages that this field is restricted unless you have uh purchased to utilize that because we are we'll charge you if you are going to utilize that and to make sure that we have uh all the forms and insurance uh collected correctly now. And have we notified like Venus PD or if they see somebody on it? Like what happens if we see somebody on it or if we've told them hey you can't be here? Like I mean cuz I I think it's going to take a minute for them to realize that they can't just be on it without any approval and I I mean I have kids I don't want to like be to where hey you can't use it at all but I mean just to restrict a little bit
092but has is Venus PD aware that like hey you know if they swing through or this is kind of the plan if you see kids out there etc. Uh no ma'am but I will make them aware of it that is a uh trespass. We will ask you give them a warning. We you know majority of them are kids like the students are there this Saturday last Saturday they were kids we want to give them a warning uh we don't really want a criminal trespass unless they are continually doing it the second time obviously the same students we did a criminal trespass warning those students uh that is something I can notify Venus PD to swing by to ensure that no one has used that uh unauthorized and so if because I have a kid who
093would come up here and use the facilities over spring break working on discus etc. So, are we going to make sure that our kids know if they need to access facilities, talk to one of your coaches that one of our coaches need to come up here, unlock the facilities for them, give them access. Like, do we have a protocol, I guess, is what I'm saying. Like, if their kids are going to be up here, make sure you contact your coach, whoever, somebody needs to be up here with you guys while you're here, and then lock up when you leave. Yes, ma'am. We can put that in place also. I'll put some procedures in place for that there. We don't currently have anything in place. Yeah, just wor however that works out for everybody. Sure. Thank
094you. That would be my question in regards to just facility usage as all. Do do we have a person who's responsible for for enforcing that? I don't think Venus PD will do it. In the past, they have not shown any interest in uh patrolling a a private field. Uh you think they would, but they haven't in the past. So, is there on Saturday there's 400 people up there, tents in the stands, and there's a full out soccer tournament going on. Who who do you call? I know we've had an issue with people using the gyms and stuff and it just seems like every time I just don't know who to call, who who do you call to say and whose job is it at nine o'clock at night to go up to the gym to
095say, "Do you have insurance? Show me your Do we give them a certificate? Do we give them a a pass? Do we give them something that says you're allowed to use the gym or the football field? How do I I don't know. I don't know the procedure. I haven't read the procedure, but is the procedure that detailed to where it's it's chief is Chief Wood. Chief Wood is contacted at his home at 10:00 at night. Therefore, he drives to Venus and and changes this. Is it Verdell? Is it is it the building principal? Is it long question? Maybe I didn't have a question in there, but we just had we had some issues with the gyms and that that kind of got bounced around for literally about until the sport was over. Miraculously, it all
096got fixed about that time. So, you know, but I've seen I've seen the events at the football field where they it's full out. They use it for it's open to I mean, these are Mansfield people. These aren't even Venus people. They're just they got an open facility. The gates are open. They come over here and looks like they're having fun. It's not only the gyms and football field. It's baseball, softball, the whole all sports facilities. I don't know. Is it is it is it well published to who we who who was supposed to be contacted. If VPTC or if yeah if VPTC sees it, they're not going to go run anybody off. They're not going to do all that, but they could call somebody. Maybe they'll agree to call the Do we have a person
097that's responsible for that that would drive to Venus since very few people live in Venus that that will come enforce that? Yes, sir. That's something I can put in place. Also, right now, if someone wants to use utilize our fields, uh they do go through the athletic director. We have been charging individuals like I'll give you example. Uh it was no one no there's no free anymore with any school districts. Uh someone from Mid Loafy wanted to come out here and play softball because Midloafian is now charging actually we were going to charge them once they figured out that fee. Uh they chose not to utilize our softball fields. But I will put a plan in place to make sure the chain of command who to contact after hours. Uh because right now again if
098someone wants to utilize those fields they go through the athletic director uh which is coach Ferell. Uh then to me, like for instance here, uh they submit the application, they submit their insurance, and they pay the fee and they have a permit on site. Uh no sir. So if if if somebody went up there, if VPD decided they walked up there and said, "Who's the director of this? I'm the I'm the coach on whatever it is." How would how would they how would I know? How would Mr. Hoffman or whoever walks up there, Dr. Torres, how would they know they've they've complied with all of the the uh requirements of the agreements that that we've, you know, the insurance, everything that we've asked them to? I assert now for the gym uh is our normal
099people, they normally have a badge with them, but for the fields, we need to put something in place. You're right. If you're utilizing the gyms, uh again, that's Mr. Cvantes and all them, they do have a uh visitor card that they actually scan to utilize that facility. But I can go ahead and put something in place for the fields. I mean, even if even if it's just something in email, you know, where you you've emailed them the receipt and it says on there you've got the field from this time to this time or, you know, just something because, you know, if I'm driving by there, I know how much money we've spent on that field. You know, if I'm driving by there and I see a big group out there, it wouldn't bother me for
100a second to stop and go, "Hey, who's running this? Do you have your authorization to be here?" Yeah. like a permit just you know that's a for for a dis person that makes it easy on the person that's hey do you have a permit if you don't have the permit then you got to go if you do have the permit then you're allowed to stay and email yeah just something simple you're already just some way that they would maybe would help us if there was something that simple or I could give them a copy of the signed uh application fee they there's actual application that they utilize when they're authorized to use use our fields in our facilities I can give them a copy with uh my signature and the athletic director's signature. Give them
101here's your copy. We haven't done that in the past, but I can go ahead and give them that instead of reinventing the wheel. They do have a uh contract that they signed that has their insurance who's responsible for it for cleanup and different things like that. And just let them know that they need to keep that available during their time there. Uh that's a negative, sir. No, sir. You said that? Yes, sir. I will make that signage. Put that sign up there because that is something that uh and I'll give you a little bit of history this year. When I first showed up, that is something I started putting in place many months ago because we weren't really, we weren't in charge of anybody. It was just much a free fall at our fields. It
102was pretty much everybody out there. But we've cleaned that up quite a bit. Uh rarely do people show up and host practice at our field anymore. rarely ever occurs unless they're affiliated with the district in uh some kind of way. You normally don't see that anymore. So, we've cleaned that up quite a bit. Now, does the occasional I snuck up here on Saturday and I can host a soccer game happen? Yes, there that happens. That occurs. Uh but we norally don't have people just showing up hosting a whole event here at one of our facilities anymore, but I will put procedures in place to tighten that up for the individuals that's going to show up and conduct the soccer game. Procedurally, we did get the maintainer with the field. Uh, yes, sir, we did. Have
103we have we put anything in writing that sets the requirement for regular maintenance of the of the turf? We didn't maintain the last turf at all. And something that's going to last past you and me. So, you and I may be here next year. We may not be here next year, but whoever is here, there needs to be something in writing that says this is a procedure. It will be maintained by week, I mean twice a month, every week. something to help get them more time out of that field. Yes, sir. Right now, the guidance they're given uh weekly you have to clean the field and before every game have to clean the field. Yes, sir. That is the uh maintenance procedure that we're on right now. Uh several people on the maintenance crew were
104actually trained on that how to maintain that field. Yeah. And we've got we we coach Fredell put some pictures and it's nice. He was out there. Uh Ronnie was there. Thomas was there. The guys from Hell were explaining how to use that that um that thing that clings that pull it up there. Yeah. Scroll all the way down the bottom. Says the way board policy works. Uh we can charge people fees and stuff like that, but the school board and the superintendent has a the authorization uh to authorize longstanding organizations that we have relationships with to utilize the fields for for free. Uh but they still like Mr. Cvantes, he turned his insurance to me. He had to fill out the forms. Uh in fact, you can go back and ask him. I turned his
105key off to the gyms and he turned those things into me. I was going to not lose gyms anymore because we didn't have I told him explain a kid uh hurts their ankle blows their ACL the other way. Yes, sir. There it is, Mr. It's nice. Yeah. Yeah. And there's the sweeper there that we got. Uh that's the piece I was just talking about there. Anything else on any of the reports? Nope. Okay. Um, number 19, board request for additional items and our next scheduled board meeting is May 19th. and then also on the meeting on the 19th we're going to start at 6 and then afterwards we're going to go into our budget workshop limited meeting a meeting we're just going to not have a lot on it and then we're going to go
106into the budget which will probably be longer than 30 minutes. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Any other requests for additional information? No. We'll go to item number 20 and it adjourn at 9:32