001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> 53 the board's going to reconvene back into open session. First item on our agenda will be action item A with consideration of possible action regarding level three employee grievance appeal. Mr. President, I move to uphold the administrative decision at level two and deny the requested relief. I have a motion by Mr. McCutcheon. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Cooper. Any other discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. Motion carries 6-0. Okay. Action item B will be consideration of possible action to approve the hiring Coleman Junior High principal, Mr. Burkhalter. All right. Good evening, board, Ms. McCutcheon. This evening, we are recommending the hiring of Mr. Chris Lynch as the principal for Coleman Junior High School. Mr. Lynch has 11 years of experience as a teacher,
002coach, assistant principal, and principal and has most recently served in the interim principal role at Coleman Junior High. His demonstrated leadership and continuity in the role position him well to lead the campus forward and we recommend his hiring. We're going to entertain a motion to approve action item B as presented. Motion by Mr. Scofield. Second. Second by Mr. Pitts. Any other discussion? All in favor, say Aye. Opposed, say nay. Motion carries 6-0. Uh first off, I just want to thank God for this amazing opportunity. Um I want to thank my parents and my family for being here. Uh Ms. McCutcheon and the board and just everyone that just helped me get to this point. Um just super excited about this opportunity to work with stakeholders to uh serve our students and take Homer Junior High
003to the next level. Appreciate you. Good. Action item C is being removed tonight for consideration. So, we will move into action Adam D. Reconsideration of possible action regarding superintendent's appraisal and contract as discussed in closed session. I need a motion to approve the appraisal and contract as discussed in closed session. Motion by Mr. Cooper. Seconded by Mr. McCutcheon. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. Those saying nay. Motion carried 6-0. Okay. Item Action Item E. Consideration with possible action to review requirement for three-point harnesses on all seat belts in accordance with SB 546 and the inability to cover the cost of retrofitting all equipment in the current year budget by May 29, 2026. Mr. Culp. Thank you, sir. Good evening, board and Ms. McCutchen. Uh board, previously the the uh legislature had approved a
004law that required three-point safety harnesses on all buses that are model 2018 year and newer. This past legislative session, we had Senate Bill 546, which accelerated that timeline to all buses, period. And so, um we were then directed by TEA to come up with a list of all buses that would need retrofitting and make a report to TEA. So, tonight we give you our report. There are 42 buses within the district that do not have the three-point safety harnesses. The cost of retrofitting those would be about $891,000. Um we would like to certify to the state uh this information, but also certify that we do not have 900,000 sitting in our budget this year to go in and do the retrofitting of the equipment. So, that's the report and the request for uh your approval
005tonight is so that we You submit that to TEA. How do you need this motion worded? Um can uh approval of um requirement of three-point harness and certification of insufficient funds to address in current fiscal year. Okay. All right. So, I'll entertain a motion to approve action item E as just presented by Mr. Cobb. So moved. Motion by Mr. Pitts. Second by Mr. Schoolfield. Any other discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. All say nay. Motion carries 6-0. Thank you, board. Action item F is being removed for consideration, so we'll move into our last action item tonight, which is consideration of possible approval of 6 through 12 grade math adoption and selection of instructional materials. Ms. Ambos. Right. Two's on my notes. Good evening, board and Ms. McCutchen. Um I presented to you in December
006regarding the adoption of new materials for secondary math. Um I'm here tonight to follow up with you on the review process and to request your approval for our choice that we've made. I wanted to kind of recap our timeline. We started this process um last spring, summer um looking at all the materials that were available from the state that were classified as HQIM um to be in compliance with uh House Bill 1605. And we looked at those. Um we had teachers on a committee that um reviewed the materials that were available. In November, the state added more materials to the list, so we added those, reviewed them as well, and then we had teachers teach some sample lessons and various other activities that they were able to look at the materials and review them online
007and in print to get to a decision. On the On the screen, I added the the little W's to show that on each of those events, we had teachers involved in that process. So throughout the process, we've had teachers All teachers were encouraged to participate and as many as could participate did were involved in that process. I have a couple of teachers here tonight that want to share a little bit about their experience in the process. Um So Shelby Fossie from Coleman Junior High is going to talk about her participation. Good evening, board and Ms. McCutchen. Thanks for taking your time to be able to hear me out. Sorry. I just wanted to speak to how much we really appreciated as a group of teachers to be included in this decision. It started with us
008being able to look into multiple different curriculum sets and then we were able to teach sample lessons. We had representatives come out and give us a full tour of the systems and how the digital platform and the paper platform could work together. I just think that it's going to be a really nice touch for all of us to have had a choice in this decision and we're looking forward to working with Savvas. And Lisa Hurst from the high school. Good evening. I had a similar experience. I was able to meet with several in the small group with the teachers over the summer. We were able to look at anything that qualified and have a part in narrowing that down to the two or three choices. I very much enjoyed listening to the vendors and being
009able to ask our personal questions with our experience to be able to understand what they can provide to us and having that opportunity twice to have as many teachers as possible, not just the small group, to ask those questions and really dive in deep to make sure we made the best possible choice was a real treat. So, thank you for that. So, as part of the process, I pulled lesson materials from each of the top two choices. We had narrowed it down with the committee to McGraw Hill and Savvas. I created sample lessons and made them available to the teachers from each of the two resources that were top two choices and as many as were able to incorporated those sample lessons into their instruction. Um on the 16th of March, as they mentioned, we
010had the vendors come out and share their uh demonstrations of the products and what all they could offer. Um we had public viewings offered at the TLI building on March 26th and March 31st. So, we had all the materials out available for public to come and look at. Um the teachers were able to vote via a Google form. And on March 30th, those were vote those votes were tallied and Savvas was declared as the winner. So, that's that's our final choice that we made as a teacher committee. On March 31st, I presented to our district EMAC committee and pending board approval, they have approved the expenditure for those resources. This slide shows the state review of Savvas. This is just a screenshot of the grade six materials and how they rated in each of the
011categories on the state grading rubric. You can see that they they received a 100% score on every category. I didn't put all of them on here, but for Savvas, every grade level scored 100% in every category. They were the only secondary math material that that established that that rating. A lot of them had 100%s, but maybe there was a 95 in there, but Savvas was 100% across every category in every grade level. So, that was a big point in our uh deciding factor. The teacher participation, as we mentioned and as these teachers can attest to, um they were involved with teaching the sample lessons. Others that didn't teach the sample lessons, but did go and listen to the vendors and reviewed the materials separately online and in print. We had two different groups of them
012that voted. Um you can see the participation here from each of the campuses. So, all together we did have all five of the secondary campuses involved in this process in the voting. This slide shows the results of the voting with uh McGraw Hill in blue and Savvas in orange. Uh so, the both groups of teachers, those that reviewed and taught sample lessons and those that reviewed the materials only, um overwhelmingly chose Savvas. Um and I I did want to mention that of the teachers that are impacted by this adoption, so 6th through 8th math, Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2, 68% of those teachers participated in the voting process. Um the cost is on the screen um per uh Ms. Heimbeck's prior presentation uh last month. We will be getting about $440,000 each year to
013cover the cost of HQIM materials. Um so 1 year of that funding will cover almost 4 years of what we need for um these materials. So, on the screen there the the 6 through 8, Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 English versions is will cost about $460,000. For Spanish that for our dual language program at Howard for 6, 7, 8, and Algebra 1, that cost is about 11,000. Um that is not considered HQIM simply because the state has not listed any HQIM Spanish materials for 6 through 12. Uh so, the four that that includes 4 years print and digital access also for Savvas, um they offer for the 6 through 8 materials, one teacher uh material for each 50 students um is provided free of charge. And for high school, it's 1 to 75. So,
014basically the teacher materials are free from that from that vendor um based on our student uh participation. Good evening, Board and Ms. McCutchen. I was going to give a a quick update on the AP process. It's a much smaller scale. Uh we started a little bit later in the year. Um we are the advanced academics courses are AP Precalculus AP Calculus AB and BC, and then AP Statistics. Uh we are included in this adoption because uh College Board recommends using a book that's less than 10 years old, and our last adoption was in 2014. Plus, AP Statistics has undergone a rewrite for next year, and so the resources are out of date for AP Statistics. Uh we do have three teachers at the high school that teach these courses, and they participated beautifully in the
015um looking at the resources on March 16th. Uh we looked at the books and the online resources together to figure out the best result. On March 31st, we also offered the public viewing along with the other books. And then April 1 through 9, they continued to look at the resources and reviewing the new materials uh to see which ones that they would prefer to use in class. Um so recommended for AP courses uh for Calculus and Pre-AP, they're going with Cengage and we're getting those uh quotes recently, and AP Statistics is taking a little bit longer because of the rewrite, the books and the online resources aren't ready as we need it, so they're getting those in now. And as I stated, for um for 6 through 8, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry, I'm
016recommending Savvas enVision Plus Texas Mathematics for your approval. I have a quick question. During the public review period, was there much participation in that or Not much participation at all. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the purchase of Savvas Math grades 6 through 8, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry adoption not to exceed $471,408. So moved. Motion by Mrs. Cragle. Seconded by Mr. McCutcheon. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Motion carried 6-0. Thank you very much, ladies. Okay, moving on to our report section. Our first report will be our superintendent's report. Mr. McCutcheon. Okay, uh Okay, thank you for letting me report to you today. Just want to start with our enrollment and um ADA for attendance. You'll see we are remaining
017really steady through March 31st. We had 11,186 students. Um talking about a couple of exciting things coming up really soon. We will be um closing out our school year before we know it. So, May 20th is High School of Choice graduation. That will be at Navarro University 6:00 p.m. May 21st, Global High School graduation is additionally at Navarro University 7:00 p.m. And then May 22nd, Waxahachie High School at Lumpkin Stadium 8:00 p.m. Um also want to talk a little bit about some celebrations. We've had some great student events um happening and just some things that we're really proud of. Our Charmers competed in their national competition um and uh then they had an incredible spring show just this past weekend. Special Olympics was a special uh day for everyone who participated. I just want to
018thank everyone that put in so much work and um organizing that event, participating, and and volunteering. And it really was a uh a great day. Um One-Act Play, if you uh kept up with that, they are the area champions, and so they're on to the next round. They've done amazing things. Track, our boys' team did win first in district and our girls' team received second place. So, a lot of exciting things there with track. Um FFA, we had an uh great Ellis County Expo and and Sale of champions our students did um did incredible there. And then just recently our broadcast journalism team from Waxahachie High School did win they were the bronze winners at the UIL state competition. And also cosmetology just won first place at the SkillsUSA competition. So just some amazing highlights
019and we have so many things still happening. Our softball baseball still still in competition. Tennis I believe is still in competition as well moving past district and so a lot of great events still occurring. Did want to let everyone know we did have our first our first Friday focus for April. You know we we didn't have a great turnout the last one we had in person so we decided if individuals weren't going to come to us we were going to go to them. So we did. We went to the Waxahachie Senior Citizen Center and it was really great to get to visit with a lot of amazing folks there. Loved doing that and actually greatly appreciated that Mayor Wallace was there. And because there the lady there on my my left because you're left too.
020You know she had some concerns about roads. Well you know as a district we don't control the roads but having Mayor there it was really great we could talk about her her concerns with crosswalks but then also the road specifically. So I think she and I are going to try to team tag these moving forward so that was good. So just moving forward on our first Friday focus May 1st will be a video message and then in June we're actually going out to the YMCA. So hope to have a a great turnout there as well. And anyone that wants to attend is welcome. Okay calendar of events. I did give you board meeting dates and also our PR team gave you a great calendar that goes through for sure through the school year. Also just
021want to let everybody know we are having our Richards Park press box naming um reveal I guess it's been revealed but just our event on Friday April 24th. That is the last home district game out at the baseball park so please would love to invite everyone as we nominate our press box for Ken Roberts. Okay. And remind everyone of our recognitions night where we get to do our final recognition with our students and any staff. May 4th, 6:00 p.m. We will do that at the Fine Arts Center at 1000 North 77. And always have a great turnout there, so love to have everybody attend. And then remind our school board in order to get all your required training hours state likes us to to talk about. Do need hopefully have this on your radar Summer
022Leadership Institute June 17th through the 20th. That will be in Fort Worth. Okay. And last but not least on April 21st from 12:00 to 1:00 we will have our a grand opening for the WISD Counseling Center that is now open at 6:30 North Gibson Street old TC Whaley building in that area. And we really happy to be able to um to to move in counseling center there let the where we house our our specialized programming next steps main office and the Mind Above Matter clinic. So hope that you can all attend that as well. Okay, so we're we've been pretty busy lots going on. Anybody have any questions? Okay, thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Next report will be a very informational bond 2023 construction update. Mr. Mott. Good evening, board. Ms. McCutchen, I'm here to
023give you the bond 2023 construction update for the month of April 2026. We're going to start at Finley the the alternate the Fine Arts area there at Finley. We have it at spring break we took out the back entrance the canopy all the concrete and everything back there. That's where the choir room's going to be. So they've started working on that area back there. Starting uh the first Monday in May I think it's around the 4th or 5th we'll actually start take over the band hall and the drama that day and we'll start actually working inside the building there in those areas. We'll make it safe over the weekend some of it. Um and then we'll have it where the kids can't get into construction construction can't get into the hallways except when it'll be
024all uh temporary walls and things like that. So everything will be made safe and everything on that day. And we'll start actually working in those areas in that area. Walk at your creek. So going on there there's a lot of things going on there. We have completed the roof in areas A, B, and C. The electrical and plumbing is ongoing and all throughout that building. Um we have started the brick exterior in areas A, B, and C. CMU masonry is still going on in many areas. You can see there D, F, G, H, and J. J would be the field house. They're just about They're actually starting to mark the lines everything just to start that one. So it is litters literally in its infant stage there. Steel erection still going on in some places
025there in D, E, F, G, and H. And then tape and bedding is just starting in area A. So here's just some general pictures here. I've just different areas throughout the building. We'll go into a little bit more detail here in a second. Just so you kind of understand there's the building layout when you hear me talk about areas. Um the A 1, 2, and 3 that's going to be your generalization general education classroom areas. B is going to be your administration on two levels there as well. And then C is going to be also some general um education classes in that. Your F section there is going to be all your fine arts. Your E is going to be your cafeteria and your serving lines there kitchen. D is going to be your library.
026H is going to be your um CTE area. G the three areas of G there are going to be your indoor athletic facilities mainly your gyms and your indoor Um and then we get on the you can see across the the bus path there is you you have all your athletic fields with J being the athletic field house out there in that area. Just so you kind of understand a few of the areas and how it lays out out there. Area A which is the first area we started the brick you can see that right there in the picture there on the left. Um they're 3/4 to 7/8 finished with that brick on that one section there. Um they've started going around the building and they're starting to come down that down the right as
027well there. You can start to see we're starting to top out there in the in area A, we're starting to top out the um sheetrock and those kind of things. Starting to put the blocking up so we can start doing one side, those kind of things. We're all getting that ready to really start rock and roll in there with the sheetrock in that area. We're going to go into B and C, which is admin and classrooms. You can see there on the left you can see. So that area there on the left is actually a hallway that divides B and um and A3. So the area there on the left is going to be some of your special education area on the first floor and the area there on your right and in that picture
028there on the right side of the left side there. That area on the right is your administration. Administration will be two floor will be on first and second floor. Um so that hallway goes from the front all the way back all the way through the cafeteria next to library through the cafeteria all the way back and you can go in and if you took a left you'd go back into CTE area back there. In the picture there on the right, that's actual C and we're just getting ready to start bricking there. Here's your area D of your library. So your library is your main here's on your first floor and then we have some extra classes, have a few CTE pull out classes. We have um a small conference a small lecture hall and all
029that up on the upper level that you can look down into the library. So you can see the open area there on the picture on your right. Um you can look down from the upstairs into the library down. It'll have some glass windows and walls and stuff up there that you can look down into the library instead of just being fully closed off. Picture here on the left, this is your cafeteria. So picture on your left is an upstairs looking into the cafeteria, looking straight across into the serving line area. Picture on your right, that is the back wall of the library. So, it's going to be a glass wall where that's going to be where they're going to have their little meeting rooms that they can, you know, you can put kids in there
030doing small group studies and stuff and they'll be able to see right in from the library into the cafeteria right there. It's not a closed off, so it's really an open area there. Here's area F, which is your fine arts. You can see in the picture there on your left, that's your storm shelter there. Um we'll be pouring the second part of that, which is the side closest to us. Um we'll be pouring it Wednesday morning. Uh we've poured the back half already and this is just for the first floor of it. We'll be able to pour about We're about uh 13 ft 8 to 14 ft is what the engineers letting us pour. They were out there today to start to check everything on that. Area G is going to be your athletics. So,
031the area is a picture on your left there, that's your two um the competition gyms, but it's not your main competition gym. That's in our current gym current facility, it'd be your green and gray gyms. What it'd be at at WHS, those kind. And the picture on the one there on your right, that is your indoor um athletic complex. Here's your area H on the left, that is your CTE. And the area on your right, that is your field house um with the football field and softball field, everything right around there. And here you have your So, your field house is the long narrow one, then they'll have You see the little white area in front of that, that's our extra That's our bathrooms for there, that is your concession stand, those kind of things
032in that area of the area there. We've got a few things going on in the next month or so out there. So, Saturday the 25th, there's going to be a helicopter out there. We're going to be flying HVAC units. We're going to fly about 150 units. So, it'll be an all-day Saturday event. It'll leave Rockwall area that uh helicopter will leave there about 7:00 in the morning, fly down, it'll land, it'll get refueled. The When he's coming in, he'll fly the property to see what he doesn't like and likes. If there's anything loose that may updraft or downdraft may push, he'll land, they'll go through all the safety features and all that, and they're going to start throwing units up. On ours, it's probably going to take they're estimating 3 minutes of 3 minutes. I
033think that's probably a little fast, but they're saying 3 minutes roughly per unit to take and set up there. They're not hooking them up, they're just setting them down. They'll pick them up, put them on the curbs, and go. Um it'll be a pretty fast pretty fast and pretty hectic in a way just because it's a back and forth, back and forth. So, he's going to be out there all day just going back and forth. So, if anybody asks y'all what's going on, you do know it's not careful light, it is planned for that. And then Friday, May 1st at 11:00 in the morning, we'll having a topping out event. It'll be a little event, they're going to shut down the site, and they're going to have a barbecue and everything out there. We'll have
034an area where we put we'll have area go out to where we're parking, how we walk up through the building and go into the actual cafeterias where it's going to be held in that area. Is where we'll actually be meeting, and then they'll sign and sign the beam and all that, then they'll put it up. Prop C. So, Prop C is still currently in progress. We've submitted permit applications to the city to obtain the necessary approvals required at this stage for many of our projects. We are still working on other projects with the city to decide what they're requiring permits for, what they aren't, and what we need to when they ask for a permit cuz some of the things that they're asking for, it's not just like like a lot of these I can
035give a floor plan and I know, but some of the things they've asked for recently, I really don't know what to give them to get a permit. So, we're trying to figure that out with the city right now on those kind of things. Any questions on anything? Thank you, sir. Our next report will be report on the Board of Trustees continuing education hours. Under State Board of Education rule, completing required continuing education each year of service is a basic obligation and expectation of 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 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
036of the trustee's election or appointment or 2-year anniversary of his or her previous training, as applicable. There are eight training areas for board member continuing education. Number one, local district orientation. Two, orientation to the Texas Education Code. Three, post-legislative update to the 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. Number 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 the required training, I will announce those board members who have scheduled timely training and those who have not scheduled the training. At the conclusion of this announcement, I will announce any board members training in
037excess of the continuing education requirements. Local district orientation. No new board members were required to complete local district orientation training for the time period covered by this announcement. Orientation to the Texas Education Code. No new board members were required to complete Texas Education Code Orientation training for the time period covered by this announcement. Post-legislative update to the Texas Education Code. The following board members have completed the Texas Education Code post legislative update training for the time period covered by this announcement. Dusty Autrey, Adrian Cooper, Kim Kriegel, Judd McCutchen, Ryan Pitts, Clay Schofield, Debbie Timmerman. Team building. The following board members have completed the annual team building training. Dusty Autrey, Adrian Cooper, Kim Kriegel, Judd McCutchen, Ryan Pitts, Clay Schofield, Debbie Timmerman. Additional continuing education. The following board members have completed the additional continuing education requirements.
038Dusty Autrey, Adrian Cooper, Kim Kriegel, Judd McCutchen, Ryan Pitts, Clay Schofield, Debbie Timmerman. Evaluating student academic performance and setting goals. Note, this training must be completed every 2 years. The following board members have completed the biennial training of evaluating student academic performance and setting goals. Dusty Autrey, Adrian Cooper, Kim Kriegel, Judd McCutchen, Ryan Pitts, Clay Schofield, Debbie Timmerman. Identifying and reporting abuse, trafficking, and other maltreatment of children. The following board members have completed the biennial training on identifying and reporting abuse and trafficking. Dusty Autrey, Adrian Cooper, Kim Kriegel, Judd McCutchen, Ryan Pitts, Clay Schofield, Debbie Timmerman. School safety. The following board members have completed the biennial training on school safety. Dusty Autrey, Adrian Cooper, Kim Kriegel, Judd McCutchen, Ryan Pitts, Clay Schofield, Debbie Timmerman. Exceeding required continuing education. Board member Dusty Autrey exceeded the required
039amount of continuing education training by six additional hours. Board member Adrian Cooper exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by six additional hours. Board member Kim Kriegel exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by 15 and 1/2 additional hours. Board member Jud McCutchen exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by six additional hours. Board member Ryan Pitts exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by six additional hours. Board member Clay Schoolfield exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by six additional hours. Board member Debbie Timmerman exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by 8 and 1/2 additional hours. That concludes our report for continuing education. So, we're going to move into report D, which will be informational update on the Mentors Care program at Waxahachie High School for the
0402025-2026 school year. I'm assuming your report's going to be more more um informative and more entertaining than mine was. I hope to be. I hope to to entertain all of you. Um well, thank you very much for having us here this evening, school board and Ms. McCutchen. We appreciate um your time. We'll keep it short and sweet, um but we hope that you guys get a great glimpse of all the great things that have happened at Waxahachie High School this year with Mentors Care. Um we ask every year to choose a student. Um our coordinator has chosen a student to speak to give a short testimonial of her time and experience with Mentors Care. So, for right now, I'm going to introduce our coordinator. She's full-time at the campus, Ms. Stephanie Roy, better known as
041Ms. G on campus, and she'll introduce her student to you. Good evening. My name is Ms. Guerrero. Um I'm here as the Mentors Care coordinator for Waxahachie High School, and I have selected Bella Rodriguez as our student speakers. This is her She's going on her fourth year in Mentor's Care. She joined us late freshman year, but was paired up with her mentor her sophomore year, and her mentor is here for support as well. Hi. Um my name is Bella Rodriguez. I am now 18 years old, but when I joined the Mentor's program, I was around 15. At first, I only joined because my dad had encouraged me to so I would have someone to talk to. Looking back on it now, it was one of the most life-changing decisions I have ever made. At that
042time in my life, I was struggling deeply with depression. I was making harmful choices and surrounding myself with the wrong people, hurting not only myself but the people around me. I stopped going to school regularly, my grades were failing, and at this point, I truly did not believe I was going to see 18 years old. When I moved in with my dad, he encouraged me to join the Mentor's program, and I will forever be grateful that he did. That is when I met Stephanie, and later on my mentor Kelly. At first, I was closed off, distant, and afraid to let anyone in, but Kelly never gave up on me. She continued to show up for me with kindness, honesty, support, and encouragement. Even when I struggled to believe in myself, over time, I began to
043open up. Oh, sorry. Even Sorry. Even when I struggled to believe in myself, over time, I began to open up, and for the first time in a very long time, I felt truly seen, heard, and valued. Things I've never come close to feeling. Because of this program and the love and support from my mentors, my life has completely changed. I'm happier, have a job, I bought my own car, and I'm applying at colleges right now. Accomplishments I once never thought would be possible for someone like me. This program did more than help me through difficult times. It helped me save my future, and it gave me hope when I felt hopeless, guidance when I I lost, and confidence when I had none. I am living proof of how powerful mentorship can be. Sometimes all it
044takes is one person who genuinely cares, listens, and believes in you to completely change the direction of your life. This program changed mine, and I know it can continue to change the lives of so many other students who may be struggling in silence and need this need that same hope and support. And thank you to her mentor Kelly for being here. Um we have a huge support from the community, and it's all people like her that show up one 1 hour once a week um for a student just to offer support, love, encouragement, whatever that student needs. So, we couldn't do it without them. I have to follow that. That's my least favorite thing. My stuff is um I think it's super exciting, but it's it's your stats and things like that. Uh it's hard
045to follow that, but um I'm excited about all the great things that have happened this year, and I can't wait to share them with you. I'm the area coordinator if I didn't say that already. Sorry. Um and so, I have the privilege of overseeing 10 of our campuses, and Waxahachie is one of them. And it's uh this is Stephanie's third year with Waxahachie High School, and it's been amazing to see um the growth that the program has taken since she's been in in our in our office. Um so, I'll be sharing the stats for this school year as well as some stats that show comparisons between last year and this year as well. Uh this school year, there are a total of 22 That That is not correct. There are a total of 11 seniors.
046I don't know what happened there. Um but, there are a total of 11 seniors graduating this year, and a total of 69 students have have served this school year of the 2025-2026 school year. Um and a total of 69 mentors that are on campus every week spending time with their student one-on-one. That's 652 hours spent mentoring um and that was a stat pulled from January. So, that number has of course grown since then. So, we track everything in a database system, which is how we provide the stats. Um and so, we we found a a big need there to see, you know, what are we doing and and the impact that we are having and showing that. And so, in the database, we track certain indicators. Um of course, the the Texas state at-risk indicators,
047which I'm sure you are most familiar with, but we also saw that there were things students were struggling with that weren't necessarily on that. And so, I'll get into that as well. Um so, we track the state at-risk indicators, but also our own that we saw students struggling with. And then, of course, the ACEs, the adverse childhood experiences as well. As far as the Texas state at-risk indicators, um the students here that we serve were um the 46 of them were struggling to keep their grades above passing. Uh 20 of them did not advance to the grade level ahead of them the year prior. Uh 10 did not pass STAR. We had one that was a a pregnancy or a a parent. And 16 that were in DAEP throughout the school year. We had three
048that were expelled. Five that were currently on probation or parole. One with limited English. Three that were experiencing homelessness. We include um anything McKinney-Vento, couch surfing, things like that. Um and then 11 that were in facility placement at some point in the year. The Mentor Care at-risk indicators that we created, um I won't go through every single one of them. I know it's been a long night for everybody, but I'll I'll touch on some of them more uh largely affected ones. Um but, you know, as you see, lack of extracurricular participation was one thing that we saw a great need for students um to have some type of community within the school, a buy-in. And we really started wanting our uh mentors to encourage those those students to get involved in some way or another.
049We know that that's just another mentorship of some sort, right? A coach or a leader, something a part of belonging. Also, it encourages them to keep their grades up because they have to be eligible. So, um Miss G, she has a list in each mentor binder that shows all of the things that Waxahachie High School offers and encourages them to pick something, get involved. Um 13, that was a a huge thing is attendance issues we see across a lot of our students. Um you see anger, anxiety, depression, self-harm, poor self-esteem. Um pretty pretty even there. 31 behavioral issues, um that's a lot of our discipline referrals, things like that that are going to the offices, ISS, things like that. Um 16 of the students were were living with someone that was not a family member.
050Um 21 felt that they didn't feel like they they were they were struggling socially. Um 26 had a lack of of family support. That was That was a large one that we see across a lot of our campuses. And students that feel unmotivated as well. Um our ACEs, our adverse childhood experiences, 11 that experienced the death of a parent, guardian, or sibling. Um 56 of the students served were ex- experiencing a broken home or a blended family. 15 from a traumatic event. We see things like that, like a major car accident, um a house fire, things that will impact that student for the rest of their lives just because they've gone through something traumatic. Um 12 that experienced abuse, 10 neglect, six with domestic violence in the home, five with substance abuse, and 39 were
051experiencing poverty challenges. Um one thing that we offer as well, you know, we're we're matching our students with mentors and they're meeting once a week every week for 1 hour during an an elective class period. Um but there are times where a student has something that they feel a need to outcry. And often times if a counselor is busy, things like that, Miss Miss G is another option and those kids feel a relationship with her, they feel they feel comfortable in that space. And so sometimes she is the first line of defense in an outcry. And those are times of course where we partner with the school, we talk to the counselors, we make sure that those students get the support and help that they need from the campus as well. And then as well
052as finding things that the student might need as far as like food insecurities, things like that. Um when we find a need, we we can't we can't necessarily meet that need, but we can offer resources. So if there's a food insecurity, there's a clothing need, if there's toiletries that is a challenge at home, those are things that we can find resources or meet that need in our office. And so these are just times that there was a student that came in with one of those needs and the times that Stephanie was able to make that referral to a partner, a local community partner that we have relationship with and and set them up with something to help meet that need. Um you'll also see that there were 10 situations where there was a student that
053came in that needed to talk to somebody and they were not in mentors care. Sometimes they just know that that's a trusted space and their friend might come and so we also are also a listening ear in those situations and then of course make the referral to school school staff as well. This is a snapshot of our program as a whole. We like to show decreases in you know, things that we see um a change in. And so, these are improvements we're excited to show. This is across all of our campuses as a whole. Um we saw 33% improve their attendance issues. 54%, that's more than half, struggling with anger that are now handling those things better with tools that we we equip them with in our talking points, our curriculum that we provide all
054the mentors. 19% improved their grades to get above above passing. 17% felt that they were no longer struggling with depression, 18% with anxiety. Uh 25% was those behavioral issues. Like I said, the office referrals were were big on talking to kids about how to how to in a healthy way handle their their frustrations, their anger, their anxiety, things like that in a in a healthy manner instead of exploding. And so, we saw a 25% increase so that was less office referrals if they if that makes sense. Um they were improving. 25% of those kids were improving. They're not getting called to the office, they're not getting in ISS, things like that. Uh 27% struggled less with their drug, alcohol, chemical dependencies, learning better coping skills. 60% said that they felt more motivated. Someone showing up
055for you every week, encouraging you, believing in you, holding you accountable, that motivates you. We have um Miss G has a brag board in her office. So, when kids are doing something it could be they have 12 missing assignments and now they have four. And we're going to celebrate that and we put them on the brag board and we give them a little treat. We we celebrate the small wins because we know that when we celebrate those small wins they're wanting to do more and then they turn into big wins. Um they felt that they had better self-esteem. 14% of those students were not going to DAEP anymore. And 17% said that they felt that they were felt a sense of belonging. they were struggling less socially. These are students that were in the program
056for 2 years or more, so we're really seeing the comparison now. This is our fourth year at Waxahachie. So, we're really able to see that. 84% of your students um met the 90% attendance rule. 81% promoted to the next grade level. 100% of seniors graduated. And 57% of the students here at Waxahachie High School decrease their number of office referrals. One thing that we're also tracking is pathways. We want to know what's happening to our seniors after they graduate. And so, I thought this was really great. These are students that were struggling in the beginning. They weren't showing to school, they weren't passing, they were in DAEP. And we're we're seeing progress in their future. Two um three of them from last graduating seniors went to a two-year college, four went to a four-year university.
057Two went to the military, seven into the workforce, straight into working. And five went to a vocational technical school like TSTC. Um 56% of our students, when we first interview them, they said that they did not feel that they had a safe person to talk to before coming to the program. And 100% of them report that they feel that Mentor Corps created a safe place for them. Which is great. That's that's double. Um another thing that we do every year is we nominate a mentor of the year. It each campus gets to nominate one of their mentors. That someone just stands out. They they go above and beyond, they've served for many years. And this year, Miss G, she nominated Jesus Brajas. Um and there's this picture of him and his student in the library.
058And he was nominated for the Carl Smith Award this year. I don't know who won yet this year. We we haven't announced it, but um he's in the running, and we were proud to show his his nomination. That is all I have, but I'd welcome any questions if anybody has any for me. No? I have a question. Just thank you. Thank you, guys. We couldn't do it without them. Do you have a shortage of mentors, or do you have enough? There's always a need. Okay. Right now, we don't have any students without, but some of our mentors offer to take more than one student. Like if they see that there's a student on the waiting list, um they will I will say, you know, our maximum caseload, we say 50 to 60. Um she has
05962 right now. Um there's always a need to grow as there's students that could use a mentor, but we just don't have the capacity as far as a caseload goes. Um I'd say that is probably a great need. Um but we have a Mentors Care Community Engagement Coordinator that goes out and canvases the community and gathers those mentors, but I would love um sometimes school board members join and want to see things from the inside, and I would encourage if anybody was interested in doing that, we'd love to have you. Um I know you guys get to see it from this end, but to see it from the inside is really special as well. And Mr. Altree, uh Ms. Keener did request uh mentors for help me out, the uh the places out at the
060Ellis County farm. JJAEP. Yes. Yes, so that's our juvenile center. Immediately. Yes. And that's a that's a school that, you know, um I'm sure you're are familiar. Um there's kids coming and going and coming and going, and so sometimes those mentors form that relationship with that student, and then they follow them to whatever school they're going back to. And so she there at JJAEP is having an influx of students, but also of mentors. Some some mentors just stay there, but yes, there there is a need there as well. And those are the toughest ones. And they're the they're they're fun. They're they're a great group of kids over there. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Next item on our agenda is our informational items. You have A, B, C, D,
061and E that are included in packet for you to review at your your own leisure. We'll move into our consent agenda. We have consent agenda items A through U up for consideration. And I believe we've had a request to have a um explanation on agenda item T, which is consideration of possible action to approve Amplify K-5 RLA renewal. Good evening, board. What questions can I answer for you on Amplify? Good evening, Ms. Hamby. Can I just have a couple of questions? Um did the teachers and I I appreciate the teachers and the community input on our new curriculum. Did we have any teacher feedback, community impact for re-upping on our Amplify contract? We do not do that on a yearly basis, uh Ms. Hamby, but we did back in the fall of 2024 when I
062was the took when I came in as the interim, we did have a committee of teachers that came in and we talked through Amplify, Blue Bonnet, we talked through all of the resources, and whether or not teachers wanted to stay the course with the Amplify or switch to a different resource. We also had a community event uh at that same time. We had over 50 participants from the community that showed up on um between our two nights that we had back uh in fall of 2024. And so the teachers overwhelmingly at that time said they really wanted to stay the course with a resource for an extended amount of time. Now back, if you'll remember I think last month we talked about the old proclamation with textbooks was an adoption for like eight years. And
063so you would adopt and then pay for that overwhelming amount for eight years and then you wouldn't worry about it again for you know that time period, eight years, 10 years. We're in a process now where our math adoption was in 2014 so that's 12 years ago. The state changed that back in 2020, 2024 school year. And so now really districts have the opportunity to adopt as the district sees the need. And so for us we went through that process last fall and teachers wanted to stay the course for the majority of the teachers want to stay the course with Amplify Texas. And so that's what we have chosen to do for the next few years. Not looking to re-adopt until teachers have had some time in it. This is really just our I think
064third year if I'm correct with Amplify Texas as a full district. And so we want to make sure that they have time to to be able to understand those resources. >> $233,000 bill so speak will be for two-year adoption? That is one year. That is that's a one-year adoption. That is just for a renewal of our resources. Those are our student books, the any new teachers editions for any increased enrollment or increased addition for teachers, Um, any new editions of the novels, those novel books are a little bit thinner. They usually last about two to three years, so we have some novels we need to replace. So, that is for those items. Okay. Um. And do we receive any state resources to cover this cost? So, K3 Amplify Texas Skills is considered an HQIM and
065you can we can utilize the $40 per student to cover the K5 skill or K3 skills portion. Um, currently the knowledge portion is not covered by under under HQIM. We did meet with the uh rep today for our um like bi-weekly check-in that we have and she shared that they have uh put in for the SBOE approval in November. And so, they're expecting the knowledge portion to also be added as an HQIM as part of that November SBOE process. Okay. And then one last thing, uh the concern I have heard about the uh Amplify that does not cover the TEKS that are tested. So, are we doing something to supplement for are all of the curriculum to be taught? Yeah, that's a great question. So, Amplify Texas both skills and knowledge does 100% cover the
066standards, the Texas state standards. Um, Texas the state of Texas aligned with Amplify back in 2023 to ensure that what was the old CKL became Amplify Texas and met all 100% of the standards. Um, if you remember back, I think last year we talked about that's the basis of Blue Bonnet Reading. Um, so the Amplify Texas does cover 100% of the skills and I can send you guys information tomorrow if you like. I can email it to you with those links to kind of look into that a little more in-depth if you like. However, we have noticed um there are some areas that we wanted to beef up and we wanted to make um a little better for our teachers, for our students. CE ECRs is one of one of those areas, our extended constructed
067response areas. And so um Ms. Gilby has worked with a team of teachers and we've and our instructional coaches and we've beefed up that extended constructive response response area. Um as well as all campuses have the ability to use uh any of those other resources we listed on the um TEKS certification document, which includes Lead Forward, um includes um Benchmark, Hegarty, uh Discovery Education. All of these additional resources are there for teachers to be able to utilize as they see fit or have needs within their classrooms. Okay, thank you very much. I appreciate this document. >> Sure. Okay, at this time I'll entertain a motion to approve consent agenda items A through U. So moved. Motion by Mr. McCutchen. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Pitts. Any other discussion? All in favor say
068aye. Vote say nay. Motion carries 6-0. And I need a motion to adjourn. So moved. Mr. McCutchen by Mr. McCutchen. All in favor say aye. Motion carries 6-0. Thank you. >> Mhm.