Waxahachie ISD Board Meeting 8-11-25

001meeting of the Wakatchi Independent School District Board of Trustees to order. Please let the record show we have five trustees in attendance and this meeting has been duly called and notice this meeting has been duly posted for time and manner required by law. First item on our agenda will be our budget workshop number four. Mr. Collin. >> Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, board and Miss McCutchen. As stated, we are doing budget workshop number four this afternoon and get all my little stuff together here. Okay. So, uh quick overview of the agenda. We've got a couple of topics that we'll uh talk as we go through um this workshop, but more importantly, let's just get right to it. Current year budget update uh board. Right now, uh we are looking like a pretty balanced year. Uh

002we've had some things kind of creep up here at the last little bit. Tonight, you'll hear a request uh for additional student devices as part of Senate or House Bill 1481. Uh that's a a good chunk of change that we were not otherwise planning uh that was otherwise going to go to fund balance that we'll be needing to spend to be in compliance with state law. You'll see the percent of expenditures. This is assuming that we don't add any money to fund balance uh as it currently sits with next year's uh projected budget. We're sitting right about 22.4% which would be about 82 days of uh fund balance on hand uh to hit operating expenditures for the next year. So, a little bit below our target. Our target would be roughly 90 days. Uh, and

003I would even caution you uh or implore you as we go into Walkset Creek High School. Um, this was just kind of a a quick listing, a quick overview of uh positions I could think of off top of my head, but um that 25% that 90 days really uh we would benefit from it being a little bit higher to be over that 25 days because we fully anticipate that we will probably be looking at a deficit budget in the year of opening Wetche Creek. Uh just giving the personnel involved with opening a new campus, especially a high school campus. uh identifying our budget priorities. Uh board, you helped us back in March with identifying our priorities and you affirmed them uh back in June. Uh but that is to grow fund balance uh and that

004minimally adopting a balanced budget and then staff salary increases for all of our staff. Uh we had also presented at the time that we had some improvements we'd like to make to the Lumpkins practice field. uh those improvements are on hold as we talk about going through this budget. But um that is what we took from you as our priorities and that's what we've been working uh on with our budget. Give you an idea of enrollment expectations. So this year uh about snapshot day we were sitting just under 11,200 students. Next year at snapshot we expect to be about 11,600 students. Uh so that's roughly a 400 student increase. Uh, but I tell you, every year when we go through this budget process, we are not paid by enrolled students. We're paid by average daily

005attendance. So, we do not budget plus 400 when we go through and we set the budget. I will fully admit that this year we're taking a pretty cautious approach. I only increase the budget for about 250 ADA this year. Um, again, trying to build a little bit of a gap, a little bit of a delta, uh, so that we have, uh, a little bit healthier fund balance as we get into that opening of Waxi Creek. Uh overall local revenue is expected to decrease in the general fund alone about seven a little over seven and a quarter percent. Uh a lot of this is spurred by the increase in the homestead exemptions. So if you remember last year we had an increase in the homestead exemption that the community voted on in November of 2024. So,

006right in the middle of this fiscal year when we were presenting the budget information to you, we assumed that that uh we were assuming current known budget at that point. Current known $40,000 homestead exemption. Legislature went ahead and told us with the passage of uh this bill to increase the homestead exemption, plan on it being approved. Uh I want to tell you last time was in greater than 80% approval on that homestead increase. So the legislature told us to go ahead and assume that it's going to be approved in what you're budgeting. So you are seeing the uh homestead exemption increase twice go into the impact of local revenue. So that's why you're seeing such a large drastic uh decrease in that local revenue uh percent gain increase in state revenue. As local revenue goes

007down, especially through property values, you see an increase in state revenue. And then we've talked before about federal revenue. The only general fund federal revenue that we have is the SHRS program, the school health and related services. And we've seen a significant decrease from about 2.5 million to about 100,000 in our SHAR's revenue. So last year we wrote the budget down from 2.5 million to about 1 million. And this year we're writing it down again to about 100,000 to more better align the revenues that we are seeing in that SHARS program. Overall we're expecting the general fund revenue to increase about 3.3%. Uh and then at the top of that screen, you'll see that the expected student enrollment about 3.7%. So you're seeing that the general fund is not exactly keeping up uh with student

008enrollment. Part of of the funding bills, funding formulas, but uh just something that we're going to continue to monitor and watch. So we just had a budget workshop two weeks ago. So what's changed since our last budget workshop? Since our last budget workshop, we have received our certified taxable values from the appraisal district. So, at the time of our last uh meeting on the 28th, uh we got those certified values on the 25th. That was a Friday. Um that was actually the last Friday of our 4-day summer uh work schedule up here. So, those numbers were not looked at until the 28th and it was a little too late to be incorporating that into the budget workshop for that afternoon. Uh so, realistically, all of the information from our budget workshop was derived off of

009the certified estimate that we got uh at the end of April. So that's a really big change for us to know that our our taxable values really are good and really are set at this point. Uh we developed that initial salary proposal for you the week of the 21st. So going into that meeting on the 28th and then we've researched incorporated uh your suggestions for additional salary enhancements and we'll talk about that later on tonight when we have our compensation plan in the regular meeting. So budget highlights uh priority two honoring and supporting staff uh board. what this is based off of what you have already approved at that July 28th meeting. So, we're looking at a $57,000 starting salary for our teachers and certified professionals. As you remember back um up until this current

010year or well up until the fourthcoming year, teachers, librarians, counselors, and nurses have all been on the same schedule. They've all been on one scale. The legislature has decided that they're going to give additional funding for teachers only. Uh so in our original proposal we separate those two teacher scale librarian counselor nurse and then we also add athletic trainers because they're certified professionals as well. So we have one scale for librarians, counselors, nurses and athletic trainers and then a separate scale for teachers. Uh you asked us to or we uh you approved our increasing of the starting pay from 54,600 to $57,000. Um and so that's a significant increase that will will keep our uh teachers and certified professional staff competitive with our surrounding districts. Uh we propose staff salary increases across the board. So

011every employee in the district uh SANS 2 are looking at an increase for next year. Uh we are not proposing an increase for the superintendent board. you determine that on your own through that contract uh with the superintendent. And then because an adjustment was just made to administrative level 11, which would look like administrative level seven in our new uh pay scales, uh because that increase was just determined by the board, there is no increase for that step for next year. And then board, you also approved increasing the monthly health insurance contribution from $245 per participating employee to 200 or to $300 per month per participating employee starting with the 2526 school year. Uh the plan that was approved at July also had a 5% increase for all staff on the auxiliary, paraprofessional, clerical or

012professional pay scales and then a 3% increase for staff on the administrative pay scale. Uh right now board of view or anyone else goes out and looks at our pay scales. We have professional and we have administrative on the pay same pay scale. So to make it easier for our staff we are going to separate those for the coming school years. And so that's why you will see professional pay scale and certified professional pay scale. So uh not to be confusing but we wanted to provide more clarity for our staff in terms of who has uh an approve an approved 5% increase and who would be on that approved 3% increase. Additionally, uh while it is good to honor and support our staff, we also need to uh respect priority four, which is our financial

013integrity. Uh we continue utilizing the Cardonics program to ensure that our staffing uh is appropriate at our secondary campuses. Uh we are generally returning our campus staffing to more of a pre-COVID allocations uh to help improve our efficiency. That's where a lot of our budget reduction uh staffing work has come from the past year is getting back to those precoid uh allocations. Uh looking at allocating some budget this coming year for improvements uh to the FAC, the fine arts center that's over at the Coleman building and the PAC, the performing arts center that's at Weti High School. And then also start uh putting some funds away so that we can replace turf fields uh as they come uh to their end of life cycle. So, you remember back with uh the completion of Wachi High

014School. There's a lot of turf fields out at Wakuchi High, but we also replaced the the turf at Lumpin Stadium in that same year with the opening of Wsachi High. Uh so, those all have finite life cycles. As we get to the end of those, we'd like to be able to use actual district funds, fund balance to do that instead of asking for a bond from the community. And then we're budgeting an increase right now in a fund balance about 100,000 um for 2526. again, not fully budgeting all of the additional uh or potential student growth. We'd like to see that happen and see the attendance actually back that up, but uh there is room for additional uh revenue increase uh from that end. So, we're trying to be conservative, make sure that that we

015can live within our means, but also make sure that we are not um overounting revenue before it actually occurs. Give you a general idea of what the proposed budgets look like. um about $128.45 million uh in revenues and expenditures. Uh you will see a little bit of a variance. Right now it's $89,000 difference uh between revenues and expenditures. So we are to the good um about 89,000 and so again we're targeting about $100,000 increased fund balance. Uh you'll see our salary and benefits are still hovering around 85%. Um overall we talk every year about that's a little bit high. Um, generally anywhere between 80 to 85 is where you'll see most school districts. Um, so we're on the higher end of that range, which we're still in the range, but we're a little bit on

016the high end of that range. Uh, and then uh you kind of see the other major categories between contracted services, supplies, other expenditures, capital outlays. Uh most of those are are uh not significant on in and of their own as you're looking at them as a whole with the general fund budget. 8.2 2 million in contracted services is significant. Yes. But uh compared to 109 million in salaries and wages, not exactly the most significant number on the screen. For the debt service fund board, uh we asked for your approval back in um August, no June, uh to issue a 100 million of additional funds for Proposition B to take advantage of a hold harmless that was written into state law. So with that, uh you will see that our debt service fund is a little

017bit upside down for next year. Uh but not to worry, our debt service fund balance right now is about $13 million. And so a $1.2 million draw off of debt service uh really is fine. Uh our financial adviser tells us that that debt service fund balance really needs to be about 6 or 7 million. So we do have some flexibility which will allow us uh to continue exploring refunding and possibly early redemptions of some of our outstanding debt as we go forward. Uh so that's why we uh we like that fund balance number in there. But a $1.2 million draw on it for next year is not a uh crippling number that we're looking at for the debt service fund. Child nutrition fund overall is balanced. Uh it's about 5.9 million both in revenues and

018expenditures. I truly believe that that revenue number may be a little bit low. Uh and if it is that that will help with some of the equipment replacement within the child nutrition fund uh as they continue to operate. But right now, we're being a little bit conservative and kind of going with the revenues that we've ex uh seen this current year. Uh and so within the child nutrition fund, we are not asking for any increases in student meal prices for the 2526 school year. Property valuations and tax rates board. This is uh the one requirement that we have to go through every year for our first rating is to make sure that you have had an update on property values before you adopt the budget. Um so this year our 20 25 certified freeze adjusted

019taxable values about $ 8.3 billion. Uh last year's certified freeze adjusted taxable values were about $8 billion. So an increase of 265 million or about 3%. Uh these are adjusted for the increase in the homestead exemption. Uh so what impact did that homestead exemption play? If you look at the total market value um this year's total market value is about 15.2 2 billion for Wachi ISD. Last year's was about 14.3 billion. So you see an increase in total market value of about $880 million, but freeze adjusted taxable values increase is only about $265 million. So the increase in the homestead exemption is having about a $500 million impact on those freeze adjusted taxable values in Wache ISD. With that, our increase, the uh 3.3% increase in freeze adjusted taxable values is below the state expectation.

020I want to tell you this year was about 5.2% across the state. Uh so we are proposing to leave our M and INS tax rates level from where they are currently. Uh so you'll see no change in the 7552 for the M rate and the 4129 on the INS rate. total tax rate of $11681 uh per $100 in valuation. Again, that would be unchanged for the 25 year uh from the 24 year. To give you a 10-year rate trend, uh back in 201617, you would see our total tax rate of $15539 and it has come down uh primarily through compression required by the state legislature to $11681. And that's the proposed rate for 2526. So almost a 40 cent decrease in that tax rate. A little over 39 cent decrease uh over the last 10

021years. Next steps to budget adoption. Tonight board we will talk as one of our action items about um Robin Hood or excess revenues uh from the state. So, we were recently notified by the state uh that we are on pace uh to be a Robin Hood district where we will have recapture. Uh that's not new. We've been in recapture this year. We've been in recapture uh at least one year before that as well. Uh the difference is this year our recapture bill is close to 800,000. Uh next year we expect it to be closer to half a million, about 500,000. Again, that's the impact of the uh increase in the uh homestead exemption and the fact that those taxable values uh freeze adjusted taxable values are not growing as fast as our student enrollment is.

022Uh we have five options to uh to remedy our excess revenue with TEA. I would tell you that three of these are permanent solutions to a temporary problem. um number one consolidate with another district and number two detach territory and number five taxbased consolidation with another district. These are all permanent solutions to a temporary problem uh as it relates to excess revenue and recapture. Uh realistically board we have focused on priority or uh option three which is purchase attendance credits from TEA. That's what we have done in the past couple of years with recapture. That will be the recommendation later tonight when we get to that part of the agenda. And then we also have the ability to educate non-resident students. As a reminder and for our community, we will have a public hearing for

023the budget and tax rate. It will start at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, August 26th, right here in the boardroom at 411 North Gibson. At that point, uh board, you will hear a lot of the information that you just heard. Uh but we will invite the public uh to give their input as well as part of the public hearing. uh board. That same night, you'll be asked to vote uh to adopt the budget and to adopt the tax rates for the 2526 fiscal year. And then the budget will take effect on September 1, uh 202526. And that will be the last holiday that the budget gets for the rest of the year. Punny joke. Punny punny joke. Any questions or comments that I can answer for or questions I can answer or comments you would like

024to make uh with regard to this budget update for this year? Yes, >> I've got a question. What's the price tag for the um improvements to the FAC, PAC, and turf? >> So, right now there's not a specific project that we're looking at doing. What we're trying to do is put some money aside so that when those improvements need to be made, whether it is replace the carpet at the FAC or PAC or technology upgrades or or any other projects that would happen at either uh facility that we have some money set aside so that we can do that without asking the public for a bond. >> So, how much money is that? >> Um, honestly, I don't know because I don't know what the projects are at this point. uh pulling up the carpet

025and replacing the carpet is going to be a significant sum, but we haven't priced it because we're not at the point that we need to replace the carpet over at the FAC. Um in terms of stage curtains, I'll tell you those at an elementary run about 35,000 uh per campus. So, at a much larger facility like the FAC or PAC, uh it's going to be significantly more. I just don't know how much more at this point because both are in in relatively good shape and do not need to be replaced. The FA is getting replaced. >> Remember the amount? >> No, I don't. >> The FAC stage curtain is actually getting replaced as part of Proposition C. Uh, and I'd forgotten that point. Uh, but this is to set some money aside so that the

026next time it needs to be replaced or replacing chairs within the uh seating at at the FAC or painting or any other upgrades that we'd like to make um that we have a little bit of extra money to help do those things without asking the public for another bond. >> Thank you. >> It's like a deferred maintenance program. >> Essentially a deferred maintenance program. Um the last time that we replaced the turf at Lumpkins, I want to tell you was about 460,000. Um, so if we put our plan right now in the budget is to put 300 aside and dedicate about 50,000 for PAC and FAC and then about 250 for turf. Uh, so a couple of years of that would get us the turf at Lumpkins. Uh, but we also know that we have

027at least three football-sized fields of turf over at the high school in addition to softball, in addition to uh the baseball fields that are over there. So, uh, it's really just trying to put a down payment towards some deferred maintenance. Mr. Colin, how often do we need to replace those uh fields? What's maintenance life on those? >> Yeah, great question. Generally, those turf fields are going to wear out faster with use. So, the more heavily used they are, the more the more quickly they're going to need to be replaced. Um there's always a finite life cycle on them. Uh we do our concussion impact test to make sure that still a safe playing field for our student athletes. Um, but the ones that are in the the outdoor fields uh are going to degrade faster

028than an indoor field just because of the UV. Uh, so Miss Creel, the answer to your question generally is going to depend by field, but you're going to be looking anywhere from 8 to probably 15 years uh for any of those fields. And I would tell you Lumpkins is probably closer to the 8 to 10 year side. And uh some of those practice fields at WHS are probably going to be closer to the 12 to 15 years just depending on the frequency of use that they're going to run up against. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So, you said for this year it's about $300,000. Is that right? >> Yes. Uh, so for 2526, yes, our plan is to put about 300,000 in that deferred maintenance pool. >> Does that answer your question, M. Timberman?

029I think that was the number you were looking for, right? Okay. >> Anyone else questions? comments. >> Thank you, Mr. Paul. >> Thank you very much, sir. Work on this. >> Thank you, sir. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. >> So, if there were no other questions or comments, I guess we'll conclude our budget workshop. Now, the board will convene into close section according to section 551.001 ETSC, the Texas government code. It is now 4:22. It is now 4:52. The board's going to reconvene back into open session. Our first item will be our invocation given by Mr. Cooper, followed by the pledge of allegiance and the state state pledge by Oliver Bowen and Anthony Bowen. Let us pray. Most gracious heavenly father, we thank you for this board meeting and all that has taken place in

030anticipation of this up and cominging school year. Father, we pray that you would help us to continue to make the best decisions in regards to our school and our communities. Father, Father, bless the teachers, the students, and all staff as they prepare for this school year. And Father, again, in any area that we've erred, we ask that you correct us. and we thank you for the ability to be able to serve in Jesus mighty name we pray. Thank God. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Okay, next item on our agenda is our

031open forum. not believe we have anyone signed up to speak tonight. So, we're going to go a little bit out of order. We're going to move straight to our action items, which would be action item A, which would be consideration with possible approval of policy FNCE local. Mr. Kegel, >> good evening board. Mr. Mr. McCutchen, uh, as we discussed at the last, uh, school board meeting and certainly been a popular topic around the state, uh, our policy here prohibiting the use of personal communication devices during the school day. We reviewed this uh, at the last board meeting. And remember to remind everyone, we are only prohibiting the use, not the possession of these items. And there are certain uh exceptions given to students that might have an IEP, a 504, or other emergency situations. So,

032we are asking for uh the board's approval for this policy change this evening. Any questions? >> Anything, Mr. K? Okay, I'll entertain a motion to approve action item A as presented. >> So move. >> Motion by Mrs. Timberman. >> Second by Mr. Pittz. Any other discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Post say nay. Motion carries 6. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you very much. Board. >> Okay. Action item B, consideration with possible action to delegate contractual authority to obligate the school district under Texas Education Code TEC11.151 C number 4 to the superintendent for the 2025 2026 school year solely for the purpose purpose of obligating the district under TEC 48.257 257 and TEC chapter 49 subchapter A and D and the rule adopted by the commissioner of education as authorized under

033TEC 49.006 including approval of the agreement for the purchase of attendance credits netting chapter 48 funding. Mr. Cton, >> sir, I don't know that your mic was on. Can you do that again? Just kidding. uh board, we kind of talked about this a little bit earlier in the uh budget workshop, but we have received notice from TEA of the likelihood of the district um receiving revenue in excess of our entitlement limits. Otherwise, we are subject to recapture. Uh we talked previously that we believe that our recapture bill for next year would be about $500,000. Um and again, we have five options upon which to satisfy uh this excess local revenue. Uh we can consolidate with another district. we can detach uh territory from our district and send it to another district. Uh and tax base

034consolidation with another district. Again, all three of these appear to be permanent solutions to a temporary problem. I say temporary because uh as our student population grows, if our taxable values do not grow at the same pace, we can see that recapture bill actually decrease. Uh and then with a change in uh state law uh specifically the basic a lotment we can also see that recapture bill reduce as well. Um the two options that we have left are purchase of average daily attendance credits or education of non-resident students. Uh with that board the recommendation of administration is to purchase average daily attendance credits from TEA and this is consistent with what we've done for all of our years as a recapture district. questions or comments? Okay, I'll entertain a motion. I move to delegate contractual

035authority to obligate the school district under Texas education code TEC 11.15 1111 C4 to the superintendent for the 2526 school years solely for the purpose of obligating the district under TEC 48.257 257 and TEC chapter 49 sub subchapters A and D and the rule adopted by the commissioner of education as authorized under TEC 49.006 including approval of the agreement for the purchase of attendance credit netting chapter 48 funding. >> A motion by Mrs. Creel. >> Second by Mr. Cooper. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> Post say nay. Motion carries 6. Thank you, Mr. Colton. Moving on to action item C would be consideration with possible action to approve the modified 2025 2026 compensation plan for WSD. >> All right. Board want to just kind of walk through and Miss Burke Alter

036is going to going to join me and we're going to kind of tag team it. So, just as a reminder, at the July 28th meeting, you approved all staff to receive a pay increase. Um, you adjusted the starting salary for teachers on one scale, librarians, counselors, nurses, and, uh, athletic trainers on a newly created scale to have a starting salary of 57,000. Uh, this is anywhere from a 3.74% increase to a 4 point I mean an 8.48% increase for those along those scales. You also approved a 5% increase uh for all employees on the auxiliary, clerical, paraprofessional, and professional pay scales and a 3% increase for all current employees on the administrative pay scale. As a reminder, no increase for employees on pay seven of the administrative scale and no increase for the superintendent as

037that is determined uh within her contract. You also approved an increase in the health insurance contribution uh from $2.45 245 per month to $300 per month per participating employee. Uh at that same meeting, uh the motion requested that we research and look into um some additional options for uh potential additional uh staff salary increases. And so we would like to kind of give you an update on where we were with those additional increases. Uh so the request one request was to increase um from 5% to 8% the increase for auxiliary clerical paraprofessional and professional pay. Uh that would have a net cost of about 740,000 to the district. We also had a request to look at uh the teacher scale and librarian counselor nurses and athletic um scale uh athletic what am I looking for?

038>> Trainer trainers >> trainers. Thank you. I don't know why I'm blanking. uh to increase those two scales with a starting pay of 58,000. Uh that would have a cost increase of roughly $300,000. And then uh an increase for all directors uh by an extra $1,000 that had an increase of approximately $20,000. And then an increase to the admin pay scale of an additional 1% to take it from a 3% uh to a 4% increase. And that would have a roughly $140,000 cost to it. uh board just my job is to advise you. So the realities of additional compensation uh that would create a deficit budget situation for us for 2526 and like we talked about in the uh workshop I do believe it is our best foot going forward if we can start uh

039increasing fund balance to help offset some of the fiscal impact of opening Wachete Creek High School. Uh I will tell you this is kind of more me personally but I do have some real concerns about the consistency and stability of our state funding going forward. Uh we know that our legislature uh generally has limits on the appropriations but they also received a lot of federal money uh that they were able to appropriate out for this bianium. Uh what we have seen so far from Washington is less of an environment which they are are wanting to send those federal dollars to states. Uh so I do anticipate that we're going to see a little bit of a pullback um specifically in federal dollars that are available to our legislature. Uh so absent really really significant growth,

040I don't believe we're going to be in a real um surplus position going forward as a state. And we all know that education makes up uh the largest pie of the state budget in anywhere from 40 to to roughly 42% uh of the state discretionary spending is on education. Uh so there are some concerns with that. uh a lot of the funds that got sent through this year are through the use of aotments. Uh we know that at any point the state could put a cap on how much money it's going to spend in that allotment. It could also remove that aotment. Uh so those are all things that going forward with the absence of those federal dollars from a state budget perspective. That would be my concern with looking at enhanced uh additional compensation

041spending for the next school year. So administratively, my recommendation to you would be to keep the board approved compensation plan uh that was approved already at July and then reject additional staff compensation for the 2526 school year. >> So I I have a quick question. >> Yes, sir. >> So if it creates a budget deficit for 2526, it would probably one for 2627 as well. >> Likely. Yes, sir. >> I mean there not going to be another legislative session. So unless we had an huge increase in enrollment. >> So uh realistically there would be a couple of ways that we could uh solve that. Uh one would be yes a significant increase of enrollment. Um that would be about the only revenue side that would actually change uh with that. The other side would be

042to look at expenditures again. Uh we know that that our expenditures we've gone through the budget reduction committee now twice for two different years. uh they have not been the most popular of moves, but they've been moves to try to set us up uh for that consistency and for that longevity as a district with all of our expenditures. Uh the only other place, sir, that that we would have to look if we adopt a deficit this year would be to uh to look hard and fast at those expenditures again and make even deeper cuts. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Calden. When I talked with you about this, uh, I was led to believe that we could do this budget and it still have a positive budget or whatever, not have a negative budget and through

043contingencies. Has that changed since last week? >> Yeah, great question. So, Miss Creel, um, one thing that I don't like doing is coming up here with a firstrun look at things. And so as we continued working uh myself and the payroll department as we continued working through it, we noticed that not everything that we had budgeted was pulling into Skyward. And so that created a new fiscal reality for us when we uh went back and reconciled our numbers. We had two different reports uh or two different numbers on reports. So we finally got that solved um in a total capacity. And so now that we have new numbers where every employee is pulling into the actual budget for next year, it did change that landscape for us. And so yes, we are looking at a

044balanced budget at this point um without heavy contingencies for us to be able to pull from to do the additional increases. >> Can you go back to the cost? Yeah. I don't know why we should be forced just because the state made up their mind that librarians, nurses, and counselors don't fit with teachers. I don't see why we should do that. We've always had them on the same scale. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um, and I still think that we need to raise our starting pay to 58,000 and they I I haven't changed my mind. I don't want a deficit budget, but I want to treat our people right, too. >> Absolutely. >> Mr. Cen, >> excuse me. >> I'm not seeing or I didn't see the appropriation of all the extra monies that we did

045get from the state. You know, I know that they're not coming till whatever September, but we do I do believe that we will be getting extra funding through all the different bills. >> Yes, ma'am. Uh so a lot of this would be covered by that. >> So >> it could be covered by parts of it. Um to your point, we have with the proposed going 257 and with the proposed 5% and 3% uh we have exhausted all of the required spend on staff pay increases. So our teacher staff will see the $5,000 if they have five or more years of experience that was expected by the state. and our teaching staff with at least three years uh will see that $2,500 increase uh as expected by the state. The aotment that we got for the

046support staff was $45 per ADA uh which generally works into about uh 300,000. Uh so a 3% increase on that scale is about 740,000. So we've exceeded the expectations of the state with that staff that support staff a lotment. Uh so we're also eating into uh the increase to the basic a lotment. We're also eating into uh the allowance for basic cost. Is that yeah ABC allowance for basic cost. Uh so we do we are keeping some of that aside for increased uh property insurance because we know we've added Wyoming in the middle of the year. So we will have insurance coverage for that. We are expecting a minor rate increase uh like 5% on our premiums for insurance. We hope that it will be negligible or it will be no increase in addition to

047the coverage of Wyoming, but we are pulling a little bit of funds to make sure that we have coverage for those unknown costs at this point. We anticipate that we will get our workers comp premium and our property casualty premium this week or next so that we can bring that to you. So, uh, Miss Creel, in in all reality, uh, we are trying to put as much money as we can and be fiscally responsible towards staff increases because we know that that's priority. That was identified to us back in March. U, actually, it was identified to us last year, but we are taking it to heart and trying to put as much money as we can to it. So I guess in real numbers um how much of a hit are we taking above what

048the state has given us and I understand that the state has not given us enough and they have not given us anything to impact inflation or anything else. They did not give us enough. So how much of a hit are we taking uh to our general fund if we >> So in reality at the last budget meeting we talked about the additional monies from the state if we took all of those a lotments to be about 3.1 million. Um this compensation increase is about 6.4 million across the board. So, uh, those monies that we told you that we were using as part of our budget reduction subcommittee work last year and this year, you're seeing that being reinvested back into our existing staff that we have going forward. So, I I would love for it

049to be larger. I would love for that to be a more significant number. Uh, but we're moving our budget from about um we had 124 million adopted budget last year. the number is really closer to 119 once you have um the additional uh homestead exemption because again remember we we budgeted last year based off of the known not the expected. Uh so we budgeted the 124 based off of local property values. Uh those we are not going to collect anywhere near what we thought we were going to. That's going to be about a $6 million hit on the uh local revenues for the 2425 school year. Uh so realistically when we start taking that out, you're seeing a $3 million increase from 124 that was approved last year to 127. But we also know that

050we're not going to collect all of that money uh that we had in local revenues. Some of that will be offset by additional revenues from uh the state government because of uh lower property values subject to taxation. And then the other big hit in that is we're writing down our charge revenue by 900,000 for next year to more appropriately match uh what we're actually collecting. So there are some readjustments and realignments in there. Uh but Miss Creel, overall to your question, uh we are spending more than the state is giving us on staff increases for next year with the plan that you've already >> What about uh the difference in all of the cuts that uh the budget reduction committee made? because I know that we're running a very tight ship with all the cuts

051that the budget reduction committee made and uh so that is a huge thing that they they agreed uh the principles people agreed that they would take those hits and work at a very tight shift with the understanding it would go to salaries and so uh I'm not seeing that >> well so the state gave us about 3 million 3.1 million for um all of the various aotments that they gave us. Uh and then we're also we talked about 1.6 million was our best guess for the budget reduction committee information. Um but we also know that a lot of those positions were repurposed and so those were not really like a reduction in force. We did not necessarily get rid of staff. A lot of those positions got reassigned within. And then we also know that

052we have um plenty of positions within special education that we've been unable to fill and we're actually turning to contractors at this point uh to help fill those positions. >> Go back to that uh that they were repurposed, but weren't they taking positions? Were they were there new positions created or were they taking a position that was left open? um the people who were initially repurposed or reassigned um they were taking open positions. Yes. But we've also had students moving in over the course of the summer that have necessitated additional separate setting classrooms and and one-on-one uh settings throughout the district. And so those are some of the positions that have been created with some of those um other positions that we were vacating in the past. So, if we had a an FTE that

053was open, um take all of our elementary librarians that are being converted into uh or being phased into um aid positions, the savings from that would add up to an FTE that has been now used uh within special education for a special setting placement or for a one-on-one aid. So, uh, we've tried our best to save as many of those as we can, but some of those are actually turning into, uh, needed staff positions as we go. >> And then one one I'm not going to say one last question. But, uh, so next year when they there is a new funding formula that the state is going to increase. Um, and so we should receive a lot more money for special ed next year because of all these specific causes. So, we would receive ne

054a lot more money because of you said we had a high really high percentage special ed and that was one of the issues. >> Yeah. So for special education we're going to more of a um servicesbased model of funding. I have not seen the draft at this point to know what that revenue might look like. It is my understanding that it should yield more revenue uh for the district based off of the special placements of our students. But right now, I don't even have uh any information to give you a guess on what that might look like. >> Ryan, if we vote to do this, we have, you said we got 82 days in the fund balance. How many days would that take us down to? >> So, this would add another million dollars or

055so to uh the budget. So, that would take the budget to 1295. So that fund balance expectation would be 323. Um we currently have 285ish that's not 32 and 28 is four. So, I would be short about 4 million out of fund balance uh in terms of getting to that 90 days because I have about 285 right now and I would need about 323. Uh so, a little bit about 3.7 million. Um, and then that 37, we wanted to put that into days. Um, I don't think that's the right number. It's not 10,000 days. >> Well, if you did it now, it's going to create a a budget deficit again for next year. >> Yes, sir. >> Right. >> That that would be the expectation. >> That would be the expectation. And then the following

056year when we're going to be opening a new high school, we're already projecting to be at a budget deficit, which would make it even bigger, barring any divine interventions from the state, which I'm not expecting that to happen. >> Yes, sir. >> On top of the fact that we're already 8 days short of being in our 90-day recommendation of the fun ballot. So theoretically, we're going the opposite direction. We should be going up, we'll be going down. >> Agreed. I mean, that that would be the way I would look at that. Yes, sir. Is that uh this would be creating that long-term um expectation of continued pay uh andor improvement to pay going forward. And so it's a deficit this year barring some uh significant turnaround either additional revenue that we're not expecting because it's

057not a legislative year or some other cuts to expenditures. This would create a continued expectation of a deficit budget going forward. Debbie mentioned um I think at our last meeting and I agree with her. She'd like to see Wati at the top of that list amongst our peers around the area, but everybody's budget's different so it just depends on what we're dealing with. you've kept us in a very good financial position for a long time and um I think it'd be foolish to not to not take your advice on what we have coming and what we expect as far as the new high school and the positions and whatnot. U with the with the historical record you've had to I mean you're in this thing every day and you've lived it for what 10 plus

058years. Um, so I I would definitely, even though I want the teachers to get paid as good as they can, I think it'd be foolish to not take your advice. >> I appreciate that, >> Mr. Calvin. Um, >> yes, sir. >> The money that we got from the state this year or that's coming um that's only for two years. So the same year that we could be opening Greek high school, it could be a completely different funding formula and it could be a completely different situation. >> Yes, sir. >> So just because we're getting that money the next two years doesn't mean we'll be getting it in the future. >> And I would like to say that we'd get more, but as Mr. President said it, you know, we can't count on the legislature to

059do that for us. But in your estimation, this is just what impact. So let's walk high school, let's just say how much of our budget is that today. >> So walk high school is about a sixth of our total budget >> overall for that. Somewhere between a fifth and a sixth. Just on personnel side, it's over $20 million at Walkset High School alone. Um, that's not the operational, that's not the utilities, that's not the um insurance, that's not their campus allocation. Uh, just personnel alone is over $20 million at walks at GI. So 124 $127 million budget, it's roughly 16. You add in some of the other stuff uh that are going to go with that campus as well, you might be in the 1/5 range. So when we open Creek, I mean in the

060beginning it won't be that big of an impact, but it's going to be pretty significant hit that we need to be prepared for. >> Yeah, absolutely. With our expectation of having all four grades within 3 years of opening, uh you're going to have some inefficiencies and just all cards on the table, we're going to be inefficient at Creek and we're going to be inefficient at WHS. Uh some of those positions you just have to have 500,000 square foot building. You're going to have to have 20some custodians. Whether you've got 100 kids there or 3,000 kids there, that building is still going to have to be maintained, still going to have to be cleaned. So, will we be inefficient when we open? Absolutely. We do anticipate that some of those uh students will be uh will

061lead to efficiencies in staffing. Uh we know that we will have some staff at Wsuchi High that will be able to go to Wetche Creek that will save us from necessarily having to hire a completely uh redundant staff at at Wsetche Creek High School. Um we will have with reduced enrollment we will have some positions uh that can be transferred to Wetche Creek. But we also expect in a growing district that both campuses are going to see enrollment growth and so we are going to be filling those positions again uh before too not uh before too long. Um and so you know our our last expectation from a demographer was that in about 10 years uh we'd be getting to about 2037 or so and we might be looking at a third comprehensive high school

062at that point. So it's not going to be a long-term delta of inefficiencies. Uh but to your point sir there will be some growing into and there are going to be some positions and some of those are are not dependent on student enrollment. Some of those are going to be uh all upfront and then there will be some other positions uh counselors etc that that will be based off of student enrollment that we will grow into. >> Thank you. And I just I kind of want to echo Mr. McCutchen. I mean I our teachers are some of the hardest working and I you know I thank them every day for what they do because I can't imagine doing it. But I appreciate everything they do and I appreciate what everybody in our district does and

063I want to give everyone more money. Um, but we have to stay sustainable and I know other districts are doing it, but let's see where they are in a couple years and let's see where we are. So, I appreciate you for getting us to where we are. Thank you, >> Mr. Cen. I don't know that we've checked, but I'd like to know how the surrounding districts are able to maintain uh salaries that are superior to us because we I don't know what they've done. Uh but we need to not hit where the rubber meets the road and that's with this with the classroom teacher and with the kids and increasing class sizes and everything that the U budget reduction committee has tried. I mean that's not where we need to cut. We need to be

064looking at um I don't I mean I don't know I don't know how Inis and Milo and Reto have have better salaries than us but I know I know what happened because we haven't passed a budget increase salary increase for the last three years and they have and with positive budgets so or some of them with positive budgets so it's very confusing u but And I am not for a negative budget. I have watched I have been involved with this for a long time and I totally understand. But I also understand that uh things are pretty desperate out there and uh we need I mean I'm going to stand on that. We need to look at what's happening to our staff with inflation and everything. Now, I'm totally abided in the legislature as you well

065know, but um anyway, that's where I stand. >> Miss Creel, I can um answer your question um just pertaining to the districts, the superintendents that I have talked to and the ones that have been able to be in balance budgets are um have basically not they've reduced their number of staff. They've not hired back through attrition. um they've redistributed duties and um one specific superintendent told me, you know, feeling the crunch of that because uh increased class sizes and more duties for everyone that they do have on staff. So, that's just one district that I spoke to, surrounding district uh that did let me know how they they've given the raises and they gave minimal raises this year. >> Maybe a good idea. Some people are willing to do more if they make more. But

066I also want to appreciate you, Mr. Carter, and your staff. You You guys have done great. It's It's tough. And um Miss Debbie, I want to appreciate you for having us look at this again. Um it's kind of hard to prioritize which one of these are more important than others. I mean, we want to um be enticing and um unfortunately if it's going to take us in the negative, it doesn't seem to be the wise decision. But I do want to say that if we move forward what we've already put in place that we try our best to at least increase the onetime bonus. I get it. These salaries carry on year after year, but if we can find a way to um increase that onetime bonus, I mean, let's let's do everything that we

067can do in order to try to make it happen. But again, I appreciate you. >> Thanks, sir. >> And Mr. Cin, I do appreciate all the work you and your staff have done on this. I'm a little bit shocked because the last conversation we had was that we could do it with a positive budget and I don't understand that they ran numbers again, but unfortunately uh this is bare minimum and it still doesn't get us up to where the rest of the county is. >> Just because I disagree doesn't mean I'm don't appreciate everything you've done. I just want more from our staff. They work hard. They they've got so much to do. And you know, just looking at walks of Hatchee and we're the lowest paid one around us, that just doesn't sit with

068me very well. And the other things too I I'd really like to see. And I don't want a deficit budget. I don't run my own house that way. and I see what's going to happen, but I want to treat our staff fair, too. So, you know, you're caught between a rock and a hard place. Yes, >> I think we all are. >> We all want to see our staff get more >> u and none of us want to go into a deficit, >> but I have to stick with the staff. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Okay, I'll entertain a motion pertaining to action item C. Mr. President, I move that we affirm the staff compensation plan that was approved at the July 28th meeting and reject all proposals for additional staff

069compensation at this time. >> I have a motion by Mr. McCuten. I have a second. >> Second by Mr. Pittz. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Oppose say nay. >> Nay. >> Motion carries 42. Thank you very much, Mr. Call. Okay. Action item D is going to be removed for consideration tonight. We're going to move that to our September meeting. >> Can I ask a question about that? >> Sure. >> Um I know that we've had all the town halls. Will we be able to have sufficient time to review the comments and concerns from those town halls? >> Sure. >> Okay. Yeah, we can make sure that you have those. And um with your request to review, would you like a overview at the September meeting and then approve at some other

070point or do you want us to give you a chance to review those before we bring it back for even initial uh discussion with the board? >> I'd like to have it before the board meeting. >> Okay. Next in September. Yeah. >> We will get those pulled together for you and get that out to you so that you have time to look it over. >> Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you sir. Okay. Now will we go to our report section which would be report A which be the superintendent's report. Mr. McCutz. >> Okay. Thank you. This is my report for today Monday August 11th. Um we have been very busy the last couple of weeks preparing for the school year. Um we at our operation first day of school and the

071back to school bash. Our PR team did an amazing job of putting that together with numerous volunteers um and different organizations and there were over 10,000 pounds of food that was given away that day. We had 1,600 backpacks with supplies. There were over 500 hygiene and 750 packs of socks and slash underwear that were given out. um our uh we were able to give uh to provide 55 haircuts and then um there was a free book given to every student from our bookmobile. So it was a it was a great event. We also helped convocation and again big thank you to Oaks Church for uh allowing us to use their building. Coach Tollison gave an incredible speech. uh it was very inspiring and he spoke on the power of influence and in believing in our

072students. Um that was a a very uplifting um message. And then we also had back to school Sunday at the Oaks Church and I was joined by five other surrounding school district superintendent where we were able to honor one teacher from each school district. Um, and the church graciously gave each one of those teachers a $500 gift card um that they were very surprised with and that was for supplies for their classroom or reimbursements, however they chose to use that. And so it was a uh it was a great event. Now, in looking at enrollment just as of today, and we do fully understand that this number could fluctuate based on new enrollies that are still coming in. There's still some potential no-shows that are still in the system. either the parents have not um

073enrolled in a different district or that district has not requested records. So, as of today, it is 11,43. Again, that number could change. If you remember, Mr. Calden's um enrollment expectation for this year was 11,617. So, 200 students shy of where we were originally expected to be. So, we'll keep you updated on this. Um first day of school is Wednesday. We're really excited about that. A lot of preparation has gone into to uh the first day that is uh so much going on at the campuses even as you know uh meet the teacher tonight and we will have admin presence at each campus in the morning and also in the afternoon at pickup. So just to kind of help and see if there's anything that's needed at the campuses. So we're very excited about that.

074Um did want to also let everyone know that accountability reports this is for uh the 24 report that is for the 23 24 school year and the 25 report is for the 20 from the 2425 school year. Um those accountability reports will be released publicly by tea um on August 15th. So those will be available to parents via the regular um process uh that they um access theirs as well. Okay. Does anybody have any questions? >> So, it will be released to everyone on Friday >> public. Publicly. Yes. Families. Yes. >> So, >> anyone else? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Moving on to report B,formational bond 2023 construction update. Mr. Motting board. M. McCutchen here to give you your bond construction update for the month. Going to go over a little bit real quick

075over what we've done this last summer. Um, this summer was a very busy summer for WD in general. Everybody talks about the 2018 summer when we move schools everywhere and all that. If I had my choice after this summer or going back through that summer, I'll go back to that summer any day of the week. Moving campuses is a lot more than what we did this summer. This summer we spent, as you can see there, we spent about $10 million in Prop Z. Understand when I say a summer, we have 82 days from the end of school to the first day of the next school. As you can see that 61 work days, 21 weekends. So you're looking at 61 days to do all of this work. Some will work on some Saturdays. You're not

076going to get anybody very seldom work on Sundays. We have the last few weeks, but that's very rare. So you're looking at you've got a very condensed time to do everything we do in the summer. Like I said, this summer was a very busy summer for WSD. 13 campuses had something done on them of some kind. So every campus but Jimmy Ray, Wildmanstein, Simpson and WHS had something done on it this summer. Um so you had three campuses which were renovation, new construction. You had 10 campuses with renovations. Those all those 10 campuses would have been all through Prop C. We did do some Prop C on the other three campuses as well. I do want to say to make this all happen, we had a great team um throughout the whole district to help

077us all out. Those being George Wayne mechanical helped with plumbing, electrical and HVAC. Hearts flooring did some flooring, painting, ceiling tiles, bathroom remodel. Concord commercial services did some ceiling tiles, bathroom remodel. BTC, General Constructions and Renovations. WISD Support Services. We can't ever do anything this summer without them. They're one of the busiest people that you'll ever see all summer long. They stay busy all summer. So they helped all of them help us out with moving furniture, picking up things. And then some of it is some of those people have been in our district plumbers or like that and they know where a valve is and no one else knows. When you're going to renovation, you get into these old buildings, you don't know where a water valve is. All a sudden they know because they've

078worked on it, but you just don't know otherwise. Those are critical knowledges. So they are a big part of what we did this summer. And I'm going to say last release, you always see Mark Cliss listed down there on the end. He's sitting right back here on this. He doesn't know this is happening, so he wouldn't have been here if he did. He is a vital part of this job that I do and his and what he helps me with. Having two of us out in the district and doing what we can do, we can accomplish a lot more and look at a lot more things and get things done. And he is well um I thank him a lot for that. We're go to Finley. There's a picture of the front of Finley. Finley

079is about 98% complete. Finley and Howard both, you'll see this on both all both their slides. Their cafeteria projector and screen are not up. They they did hit the They weren't supposed to be here till the 15th. They did arrive on on Saturday. Um stage lights, stage sound system is not completed. VLK punched um both Finley and Howard this afternoon. And um the project as a whole did come in under budget for both of them. Here's you a picture of the inside. This was yesterday in the serving line. And then here's your library for yesterday. Um just looking there. And that's again that is at Finley. Here's Howard. Again, it's about 98% complete. You still have the punch list and same things I mentioned earlier. Again, like I said, it did come in under budget.

080The picture you see there, that is of the new cafeteria, the addition on the cafeteria and all that over there on that side. Here's a picture of the inside of the cafeteria. Here's a picture of the band hall that you can see there. It has all the winger cabinets for all the instruments, has all the sound protection, the flooring, and all that. That was um as we were moving uh instruments and so forth into the storage room and all that. We're going to Walcha Creek. Last week we poured the first slab was poured last uh Wednesday night or Thursday. Wednesday night I believe it was. Um last week we poured about 750 cubic yards of concrete. We had two pores. This week we're going to have four pores. We're pouring tonight at 1, tomorrow night

081at 1, next day at 5, Thursday night at 1. We'll start all those. We're going to pour about 18 cubic yards of concrete. To understand that is that is 180 concrete trucks that you see driving down the road. We're pouring in four nights this week. So, we'll be a lot of concrete going on out there. Um, we have moved up steel. It looks like it's going to be about a four to six weeks early. Right now, we're expecting to hit the hit the ground in about uh September 8th. First, the crane the first crane is arriving any time. They'll start putting it together. They'll go through all the safety and all that. Have it ready by September 8th when the steel arrives. It is a very large crane. It's 250 ft tall. So, it will

082be a large crane. everybody will know we're doing something out there then if they don't know by that that time. Um the long-term plan is to have two when we get down to it. Um but we got to get to that point where we're have enough room that we can be running two at one time. Right now you see the utility progress about 60% complete of the water throughout the 85% on the storm, 90% uh sewer and then 75% on the fire loop. The picture you see there on the right, that was taken last Friday afternoon when they flew the drone last Friday. Um, they did fly it this morning. I was not able to get another picture before I this afternoon was got it. I just had a chance to look at it. You'll

083have another overview here. You can see there, there's an overview from the north um west corner looking down. The area you see there on the white, that is the concrete slab that is poured. That's basically administration area. It the white you see is actually the blankets to help dry it out slower. the area there on the right. It is ready to pour. They're seeing if they can get a little bit more and then we'll have a lot of grade beams. We're starting to pour. You can see in the top right you can see a little bit of a white strip there. That's the first part of paving that's coming off one of the uh parkings coming off of or drives coming off of Spur 394. And that'll be part of the front parent loop that

084will go there. That'll be the first paving we pour. We'll pour two more sections of that this week. Um and get us about three4s away through that paving. We're going to have to have it and a little bit coming off of Old Italy Road so we can go vertical. So that's why we're seeing that loop going is because we'll start to go vertical in that. I believe we're probably going to go vertical first in that yellow area that'll be poured this week. Um that'll be the first one that we'll go vertical with in that area. Here's a picture on the top left them working that slab right there. That slab is actually was administration area if you want to know that is what we did pour is that administration area. And then that's the top

085two. And the bottom there a line just so you can kind of see quite a few electrical lines running through the ditch to get electrical lines all through that building from room to room from room to other areas and all that. So it's not just a little line. Everybody thinks, "Oh, we've got one line running through." You can see there's quite a bit going. Going to go to Prop C. We talked about this earlier in the year. This is what our plan was. It did pretty much come to uh how we planned. We're by the end of the summer we're about 75% of what the original bond for Prop C was passed for. Original bond was passed for 419 line items. It was prop priorities one and two from a facilities um walk that had

086been done I believe in 21 late 21 or early 22 is when that facilities walk was done. That's we did priorities one through four but the bond was only for priority one and two. So then we started to move into priorities three and four as we started to see savings. So now you see that 53% that is for all four priorities and some things that we've added on to it. So that is now from 419 line items we're looking at about a thousand now at at all times. Um we've spent this summer as I said earlier about $10 million spent this summer from the original what it was originally budgeted during the bond that 10 million was about 15. We saved about 5 million. Why? What do we do with that? That is how we're

087starting to look at pri priorities three, priorities four, add extra things that we're seeing at a campus that may not have been on the priority but needs to be and we can do it while we have things going on. So, um this summer we did about 300 line items total between all three priority all four priorities and add it on. We'll start looking at in September Ryan, myself, Mark, Andy Reeves, Jeff Browning, we'll all sit down and look at what's left in priority one and two. We'll look at priority three and four as well. and we'll start looking at what Jeff Browning has been doing, walking with all the campuses, looking at them and talking to principles as to what their needs are on their campuses. So, we'll start looking at all that to start

088to look to what we can do during the school year on breaks and what we'll start to plan for next summer. But some of these projects you want to get it where we can hit the that job, you know, that Monday or we out of school that next Monday we can hit it running. So, we want to do it. We'll also have couple weeks at Christmas, spring break, Thanksgiving. We have some breaks that we can do some things during the school year. So, we'll plan start planning those things out. Here's a list. There's going to be about three pages. You can see all the schools. This is a list of what was done at pretty at every school. You can kind of see the different things throughout there. It is kind of uh, you know,

089extensive. So, there's there's some of them. >> I'm going to ask >> there's a few more and there's the last of them. So, you can kind of see what we've done in all those different buildings throughout the summer. Got a few little pictures for you. picture on the left. The two pictures on the left are of Marvin. We redid those bathrooms there. You can see we did the black tile and the white tile all the way up and epoxied the floors. I've heard more comments from custodians of thank you for epoxying the floors over the tile that was there. I will tell you right now, it has changed the smell of those bathrooms greatly. I mean, it it's hard to believe, but you got to consider how long that tile is there and what all

090has been done. So, it does change it. It seals it up and it does change that. And then you can see the uh that's actually in the cafeteria. You can see we painted the walls white, painted the we used the gray color as as uh additions. The colors you see at the top, those are sound panels. Those were already there, so we just reused them. May not fit, but it's like sound panels aren't cheap, and so it's just easier to reuse what we had there. We were looking at possibly recovering those to match or something like that. Uh pictures there on the right is uh Wedgeworth. You can see that flooring there. If you haven't been in that building, that building looks totally totally different. Just the flooring in that building brought it up so

091much newer and looks so much better in that one. >> M. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Are all of the Prop C jobs are they all done completed for the summer? >> We have not finished all of them. Some of them we knew weren't. We've got playgrounds that we knew weren't going to be started till because they got asked for late by the time lead times and all that. We just started Dunaway's renovation of their uh playground two days ago and North Side isn't going to follow it. They were told, the principal were told that at the beginning this you're going to lose a playground in these time frames. They were aware of that. We've had some sound system that for the cafeterias that they could not get the parts in. They're going to do those

092on the weekends um so we don't affect school some of those things. But that is not figured in the 10 million seat, but those projects were not completed because they were out of our hands. >> One thing I've heard about is doors. Uh, you know, we we've done a great job of putting in um the safety things, but I know u the badge doors. I've heard a little bit about that. >> We've put badge readers. >> I feel like it's a I feel like it's a contracted something we contracted out to someone. >> Yes. all the badge reader door handles which would be at currently TC Wyman um North Side Shackleford Dunaway um and then now Coleman uh the Hancock building all has the badge reader door handles no more we don't issue a key

093anymore you get a bad your your ID gets you in >> um that is actually and I'm having more principles ask for that they see that they've seen a benefit of that um it is a timely thing some of it is it has to get in we have to we have an older um what I say it access control company that it's a little harder to integrate with. So we're looking to see what can we do to speed that up, possibly even change to a different access control that's more up todate, more technological savvy. Um and that is one of the things we're out growing our access control system. As we grow, we're starting to see those things that were fine when we were smaller. Now as we're getting bigger, we're not. And it has

094caused us some compl some problems. We fought through all those and everything seems to be going well. But at any moment we could have a computer go down and we could have that problem. Last year first day of school Microsoft decided to do the night before do an upgrade. Nobody knew Microsoft would do an upgrade and it shut down four computers. So we were running around that morning getting them booted. Those are things we can't predict or even see or know what it's doing. >> Okay. And the other thing I've heard about a lot about a lot about is air conditioning. >> Okay. So, air conditioning is going to be a topic you're probably going to hear about andor as a district I think we need to look at. We do have an energy management

095policy that says 72 is our nominal for air conditioning. 68 is our nominal for heating and you can adjust plus or minus two degrees for either one of those. We have not necessarily followed that as a district. I will be honest with you. We've had some campuses that can go as low as 66 degrees. You tell me if that's a good how we we need to get into that. You go around our district, Red Oak 73. You cannot adjust as a teacher. Your room stays 73. You go to Waco, you go to Colleen, you go to uh Parker Heights, they're 74 plus or minus one. I'm way I'm trying to get Meloians. So, we are on the low end of what it is. With that, you're running your air conditioners 24/7. We've seen one today

096in an office that ran from 9:00 to 1:00 shut off for 14 minutes in that time frame because they have it at 70° and that means it'll cool down to 69. In a 100 degree day, you're trying to cool it down to 69. That air conditioner is running and it doesn't stop. And you want to go look at that electric meter. It's running. You can probably get a really good pace on that one because it's running pretty fast. So, we're going to run into that as we see some of that. I think that's something we have to look at. We normally run them all and we're seeing our air stay at 70 to 71. We're seeing our rooms hold at that, but we're still being told it's hot. Some of it is we've changed from

097you were running on an old energy management system and you could go down to 67 degrees. But if we go back to policy, we're putting it back at policy on all those we've changed lately. >> So that will be saving us money on energy >> long run. Yes, we will. It'll be a lot of savings if we if we can get all that on and I even think we probably need to look at that as a whole. If you look at some of the districts around that that's some of the what they're doing as well. >> And I do okay for them to run fans to make it more comfortable in their classroom. >> What's that, ma'am? >> It is okay for teachers to run fans. >> Yes, ma'am. >> To make it more comfortable

098in their classrooms. >> And we've also with some of the upgrades we've doing, we can now read humidity in classrooms which we couldn't. And a lot of times, like you hear on the weatherman say, it feels like because we couldn't read the humidity, the humidity may have been high in there. Now that we can see it, we can change how the fan speeds run in all those those rooms, remove humidity, and you're getting a better cooler temperature than a hotter temperature. >> Thank you. >> So, this is a building a lot some people may know it as a classroom over across from TC Wyman. They may know as a credit union. They may know as a tax office. And Ryan calls it Brown Betty. So, it's got plenty of many names for it. Um, so

099the CLA the two pictures on the left, those will be a classroom. As of today, it is floored. Everything is working in there. Air conditioning is working, lights are working, all that. The area on the right is the shop. They're working to put the actual electrical in the shop right now. Um, and that'll be the shop for that same side of building. It will have a functioning one single bathroom in it as well. Um, the plumbing will start to go in first thing in the morning. They were waiting till the flooring went in. I'm sorry, I didn't understand what classrooms this is going to be. >> The side on the left, it's a classroom for Mr. Warren. It's a CTE style classroom some kind. >> It's a CT class at Global. >> At Global at

100Global. Yes, ma'am. >> So, it's a little building right across from the main building, Global by the parking lot that hadn't been used in I came I hadn't been in it. I've been here seven years and I had got I have not been in that building until December. Oh, I now I went to school there. I went to I had a my seventh grade and eighth grade class was in there, but until then I hadn't been in it and I'd been here six years and it hadn't that building had not been touched. So, it was in dire needs, but we have brought it back and it is a very nice looking building inside now. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. Any more questions? >> Thank you. Okay, our next report be report C, informationational report

101on policy EFB local library materials. Mr. Kaggel, >> good evening again board. Uh, as is our normal process when we come to you with proposed policy changes. We're bringing them forth uh one meeting as anformational report and then as you did earlier the subsequent meeting hopefully for approval. So this one has to do with EFB local which is yet more legislative changes that we are working through. This policy would establish a school library advisory committee and that committee would review all the library materials of the district as well as any new purchases and then they would be making a recommendation to the board to approve. There is um quite a bit of information about how this committee will work. It'll be very similar to our shack committee, our student health advisory committee. So they will

102be having a minimum of two meetings a year. We are hopeful that they will be meeting more frequently than that. They'll have to keep minutes. All of their meetings will be recorded and available to the public. We are still working on how this committee will be formed. We can do that through administrative guidelines, but we are looking at recommendations from legal counsel as well as our neighboring districts to see how other people are organizing what is being referred to as the slack. So again, this is onlyformational. Um I will be coming to the board at a subsequent meeting probably September meeting uh to request approval. No. September. >> Ah, that's right. Yes. So many so many policies. That is correct. This does need to be in place before September 1. Many districts are trying to

103get it in place before the school year starts just because of the timelines that it is to create the committees, have them come together, review these materials. The review process has to be 30 days prior to the board approval. So, it is going to lengthen our library material review process, but it does uh incorporate uh parent involvement, which is a big move of our recent legislative session. Any questions? Thank you for that, Macha. >> So, we'll have that at our called meeting at the end of the month. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Anyone else? Thank you very much, Mr. Kegel. >> Thank you. Okay. Report D, annual update on WISD extracurricular code of conduct for the 2025 2026 school year. Mr. Rogers. >> Good evening, board. Miss McCutchen. Uh, I will be presenting

104an information report regarding the WISD extracurricular code of conduct for the 25 and 26 school year. Being new in our role, uh, Mr. Gary Bernard, the fine arts director, uh, Mr. Blake Harrison, the CTE director, and I got together to review our extracurricular code of conduct. Bringing all department leaders together will help ensure shared ownership of this policy and strengthens our cross department communication and alignment. Uh we did update the extracurricular code of conduct to present a clearer message across all departments. The new revisions eliminated conflicting language between the programs. The revisions also establish a consistent expectation of all extracurricular participants and reinforces that all programs operate under the same standards. We updated and streamlined the language for consistency and readability. This helps ensure the extracurricular code of conduct is easily understood by students, parents,

105and staff. We also removed redundancy to make it read more concise. Also, we did reorganize the content for clarity and altering without altering any content. We group related sections together for easier navigation. This should help improve the flow so readers can uh quickly find the information a little bit better. There were no changes. We didn't make any major changes to any of the core behavioral expectations or the disciplinary consequences. no major changes for the behavior or discipline consequences. The standard students are held to still remains the same today. Uh with both the existing expectations of their behavior also with the existing consequences. We ensure that all our edits were made uh in alignment with our district policies which is our student code of conduct along with our random drug testing policies to ensure consistency with

106the district's policies. This will be something uh that the three directors will will do annually moving forward uh as needed. Uh if we feel changes are needed to the extracurricular code of conduct, we will bring that to you at the time uh in the spring. Any questions? >> Thank you. Thank you, Coach Rogers. Okay. Our last report will be ourformational report for the 2025 2026 WSD student handbook. Mr. Kegel board, this will be a very brief uh overview of the student handbook uh as you received uh late this weekend uh because we've been working diligently through uh the many changes that we are seeing uh due to legislative changes. Um there will be ample time and I will say that we have put in this is a quote from the disclaimer it's on page five

107there that as we gain greater information from tea uh the commissioner our legal counsel there may be some changes and we will consistently show what changes have been made and the date that that was done so that our families will be able to track those as needed. uh a few of the highlights here of some of the things that the handbook includes. Notice there's a requirement for us to inform our families about safe firearm storage. Uh we will have to do that three times a year. This is for for all parents of registered students. Also a big one that we are anticipating is class rank and GPA. At this time it has not changed for us. However, there is guidance coming from the state as they try to standardize this calculation across the state. There

108is some information about epinephrine uh epiens as we usually refer to them. It doesn't really change our practice although it does use some terminology that may be unfamiliar or make people think that something else is going on. It has historically been an injection system, but now there is a nasal form that nurse Buskeet is working to get and it doesn't again change how we administer this uh potentially life-saving medicine, but it it is in there and it may cause some concerns or questions. FNG local which is a very long policy about our grievance procedures uh is also expecting a large change that everyone in the state legal uh districts uh even tea that we are all working through. Again it is the state's attempt to standardize grievance procedures. It does lengthen some of the timelines.

109It does allow for people bringing a grievance uh against the district or someone different ways of entering information into that process that they were not able to before. So we again as of now our FNG policy is the same but it it most likely will be changing before the end of the school year and we will certainly update you on that. And lastly, this is a a very brief section or or multiple mentions of the extended parental rights that the legislature have extended to our families since the uh 89th session. Uh you can see this one talks about clubs and organizations where membership now requires parental consent. So we are working through that process and how to get those forms to our parents so that they can do that. Also, uh, health related services will

110now require certain parental consents or an opt out as it were. And again, our human sexuality instruction, it will require parental consent before it can be given. >> I just had one question about the whole handbook, which is good. Uh I noticed that students are just required to have an 80 average in each of in each of the areas in order to advance a grade. And that just seemed like a really low bar to me to have students with an 80, you know, be able to go up to advance. >> Are you talking about to >> the students say as soon as a third grader and they're they want to advance because they're but 80 is the bar. for >> is the minimum. You're saying it's the minimum? >> Yeah, it's the minimum. And that

111just seems very low to me, you know. I mean, I would want a student who's going to go to the fourth grade and advance to be, you know, like really excelling in the third grade, you know. That's just a statement. I mean, >> sure. I I would need to look at that, Miss Creel. I'm not sure if we're talking about every student or we're talking about acceleration. So if we have a third grade student and the parent wishes for them to accelerate to fifth grade and to skip fourth grade, they are administered a test for fourth grade. They have to be at an 80% for the fourth grade TESS in order to skip fourth grade. >> Okay. I just would ask that you read what the policy says, not tonight, but just read over it

112because the way it didn't sound it sounded like they had to have an 80. >> No. Huh. That's and they have to get an 80 on the advanced test. The C. Yeah. The the test that advances them to fifth grade and makes them skip over fourth. For that fourth grade test, they have to show 80% knowledge of the TEICSS of fourth grade in order to be advanced over fourth grade. >> Maybe I read it wrong, but >> we'll double check it. Absolutely. We'll double check it. Miss Ma, is that not a state requirement? >> I believe that is not a district requirement. State. That's correct. >> Okay. I just never had noticed it before. Any other questions? >> Thank you for Mr. Kaggel. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you all very much. >>

113Next item is ourformational items board. You have that included in your in your notebook on our monthly updates maintenance department work orders. So we will move to item eight which is our consent agenda. We have items A through G. I think it's probably the shortest one I've ever seen >> up for consideration. >> Mr. President, I make the motion that we approve items A through G. >> Motion by Mrs. Creel. >> Second by Mrs. Timberman. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion carries 6. And our last item would be a motion to adjurnn. So much >> Mr. Creel. >> Before we do, I would like to say um thank you to everyone who worked throughout the summer to make sure that we'd have a a great school year. And u

114to all of the students and staff, I wish you the best. I'm praying for you. And for those of you who had a choice, thank you for choosing WISD. Thank you. >> I second. Second. All in favor say I. I. >> Motion carry 6. Thank you.