001e meeting of the Walk Chi Independent School District Board of Trustees to order please let the rec sh we have five trustees in attendance and this meeting has been duly called and notice that this meeting has been duly posted for time and manner required by law at this time the board will convening to close section session according to section 551 .001 at SEC of the Texas government code it is now 4 p.m. e is now 603 the board will reconvene back into Open session at this time I'll ask Mr McCutchen to lead us Center invocation followed by our pledge of allegiance to the American Texas flag by our Cherokee Charmers all right let's pray Lord we thank you for this day uh thank you for the opportun opportunity to serve this wonderful District uh please
002be with our staff and our students uh as we make decisions tonight that will uh hopefully impact their lives in a better way we ask all these things in your son's name amen am I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God individual with liberty and justice for all now for the Texas flag honor the Texas flag I pledge allegiance to thee Texas one State under God one and [Applause] indivisible our vision is to be a district where Innovation thrives and growth is Limitless we value choices because they make us unique and are critical to learning we value a collaborative culture that honors and supports all who positively impact the lives of our students we value an environment of belonging
003that respects individual differences and ensures equality for all value relationships that learning experiences and our next item on our gner be our recognitions Mrs Bridges good evening Bor and Dr Hollingsworth we have a couple of amazing student groups to recognize this evening I'd first like to invite Sean Kagel to come up and recognize our Cherokee Charmers good evening Dr Hollingsworth and board trustees I'm very thankful to be able to come before you tonight and recog recogniz our 61st line of Cherokee Charmers uh they had quite a busy and successful competition season um I'll just go over a few of the highlights oh [Music] yeah putting everyone to work on this big uh wonderful group just a few of the things that they they achieved this year at the Burleson Centennial showcase they got several first
004place Awards and Grand Champion classic large team division winner at the North Texas regionals they had multiple first place awards for teams and officers including first team overall for the entire contest at the metrox dance spectacular they got the Gussy n Davis award for team officer and Elite uh areas and then numerous other achievements and then at Nationals just recently the American dance and drill team School Nationals they got National Champion team prop National Champion officer hip hop super team Division and national champ Champion Elite kick palm and open categories and Mrs Wilcox was outstanding director [Applause] so so we are very very proud of Miss Willcox and Miss Claypool and all the work that they do with these young ladies continuing the long tradition of the Charmers here in [Music] Wat all right ready
005two [Applause] [Music] good job thank you so [Music] much [Music] you take pict yeah for sure okay ready perfect thank you [Music] oh yeah yeah yeah one last thing Bor if you weren't already aware but miss Wilcox was just recently installed as the parliamentarian for the Texas dance educator Association so she's going to be working at the state level with nine other board members to advance uh dance education across the [Applause] state all right that is a group that knows how to line up for a picture so um next I'd like to ask our athletic director Brian Rogers to come up and recognize our powerlifters good evening board Dr Hollingsworth we're here tonight to celebrate our student athletes who've qualified for the state power lifting meet these athletes have shown dedication hard work and grit
006our athletes demonstrated not just strength but also sportsmanship and integrity the athletes couldn't have achieved the success without the support of their coaches parents and Community supporters to our powerlifting team congratulations on a job well done at this time I would like to recognize our female state qualifiers Carson Adams Lindsey Giles and zakaya Piper and our male State qualifiers Matthew Grant Presley radarte William Roland and Joseph Roland who placed third at the state meet in his weight class and also broke the regional record with a 655b deadlift congratulations state power good great J thank you board and Dr Hollings work [Applause] e next item on our agenda is our open Forum this is the portion of the board meeting where the board receives input from patrons each person who addresses the board will have five
007minutes to speak on his or her issue because the postering requirements of the open meetings act board members will not ask questions of the patron nor answer any questions posed by the patron no action can be taken on any issue presented during the patron comment section of the board meeting patrons addressing the board will be notified when they're approaching the last 60 seconds of their allotted time when I call your name please step through the podium and state your name and complete address for the record please and just for those um that are speaking tonight Mr Rogers here will be your will be your timekeeper first speaker will be Meg Bas please step forward and state your name and full address for the record please my name is mag bage I live at 6715 golf
008city and state pleas city city state please Dallas Texas thank you I was here last month and um spoke to y'all about amplify warning you about it and it seems that waah hatchee has been co-opted by an Administration and School Board who are not responding to the needs of children but to the money carrot from a tyrannical tea local control the top of the Pyramid of local control is we the people who elect you the school board whose employee is the superintendent the superintendent works for the school board and you work for the people for all the teachers and parents that are watching this online I encourage you to tell your students parents about this bad curriculum I know you don't feel comfortable speaking out but tell the parents and encourage them to show up
009to fight for their own children the government is run by those who show up if they want their children to be smart they need to be here demanding a tried and proven pedagogy that values teachers as the sage on the stage not the guide on the side yall have allowed the your employee the superintendent to adopt a un aligned curriculum that has never been tried and proven successful in fact this year some of waah Hat's school children were guinea pigs in an amplified pilot program for 6 months there are no results yet as to its success or failure and prior to receiving these results I've learned that you all have decided to adopt this across the entire District so now every child in this district is a guinea pig for an experimental technology curriculum called
010amplify you know there were two teachers that spoke here last month and they mentioned a manual that they used but I want to make it clear since I'm assuming that none of you have read the bill to understand what amplify is it is a technology bill it is written 50 times in it it's not debatable and I'm going to read exactly from it it actually reallocates money switching this is their word switching to educational materials that are openly licensed enables schools to repurpose funding spent on textbooks for other pressing needs such as investing in the transition to digital learning do your parents and your teachers know that amplify mandates 4 hours of additional screen time per day and I'm going to read where it says that in the bill so that you all understand this
011is not my words this is what is stated in amplify pre kindergarten in subject areas related to English language arts and math and all foundational curriculum courses in kindergarten through grade 5 in a manner that permits the in instruction of the content to be provided in an integrated manner for approximately 240 minutes of instructional time per day including time needed each day for Accelerated instruction that is online and the other problem is when you had Judith Kaufman here speaking she said that amplify has been rebranded it was rebranded when parents like myself and others met with Mike morath and exposed how egregious amplify was so when they rebranded it they didn't change the content they just changed the name it's still online it's still Dynamic it can be changed in any time and it still
012has bad content um OE open education resources is mentioned 60 times in the bill that is directly from the United Nation they too have rebranded it as we have exposed what oar is and it's now called Open Access resources and here's the other problem in this in these high quality instructional materials online character traits seal CRT Dei whatever you want to call it is embedded in all the academics so if you go on to the amplify website which I'm assum assuming you all did to do your due diligence you saw that here's what amplify says they're committed to diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility deia in uh in the culture we build the people we hire and the products and services we provide for educators and students you can go read more about this but I
013just need to you know I just don't understand if you guys have read this commitment do you understand amplify shifts education from academics to de are you aware that teaching CRT which is deia in Texas is against the law for K through 12 have have waxahachi parents signed a document giving the district the power to teach their children diversity equity and inclusion have parents had the opportunity to learn about amplify do parents know that their tax dollars have been shifted away from books and paper and pencils the the money carrot that's being dangled from the tea in this grant which is nothing more than a bribe that is being used to to adopt this you know throughout your District thank you Miss thank you our next speaker will be Andrew White Mr White please step
014forward and state your name and address to the record please yes sir Andrew Wyatt 1109 Panorama walks cing good evening board members superintendent Community when I was a little boy my dad would often recite a poem to me and all these years later he's now 78 and I'm 45 and I still remember that poem over the years there's been a shift in education and those of us that have been in education a long time we we know this is true the focus has moved from developing teachers to training facilitators you see on your agenda tonight where your are going to be asked to vote to extend new teachers to giving them four years of probationary back in the day they had one year to get their certification we are desperately trying to find Qualified people
015they now have four years to get their certification we often hear people say it's about the kids if it's about the kids we need to put the best people in front of the children for the last 6 months in this District the focus really has been learning a product called amp lfy we now know that next year our elementary teachers are going to get burdened with another product called Eureka and our High School Math teachers are going to possibly get burdened with Carnegie there hasn't been much talk at least in public forums like this about how do we improve the art of lesson design and lesson delivery which is shameful to me as an educator all of us in this room tonight are here because of the teachers coaches and administrators that P into our
016lives we remember those teachers those coaches those administrators that probably put up with a lot of our nonsense at times but they we knew they cared about us we don't remember the products we remember the people it's important that we all be reminded that teaching is an art and it's one that take years to master not everyone can be a teacher but most people can be a facilitator and sadly our central office employees who make these decisions seem to prefer the latter teaching is a gift given to some and we need to respect that gift by allowing the teachers to use their talents their ideas and their creativity to deliver lessons especially those teachers in our district who have been proven to be effective year after year after year and this is why any budget
017put forth over the next few months that does not include at least a retention bonus for all staff members not just teachers all St staff members should be rejected because that's what I would do if I was in your seat every teacher coach and administrator in WID has a story of why they entered into education a few stories from our people here in our own Community one teacher worked in the daycare system and knew she wanted to become a teacher from an early age one wanted to use his Science Background to pair that with the passion to make a difference in the lives of young people another teacher inspired her was inspired by her high school teacher and knew she wanted to become a teacher when she was a teenager another teacher in our district
018knew that she wanted to allow children to discover their god-given purpose and she wanted to show love to her students these are the teachers that we should all be fighting for when we think about the work our staff does every day it is simply remarkable the WID staff elementary middle school and high school and all the people that work outside of the classroom they do more than teach or coach they pour into the lives of every student ensuring they have the skills needed to discover their talents and to pursue their interest Beyond High School to all the teachers and staff in this District listening tonight let me simply say it like this you are valued you are needed and you are heard one minute May every student that attends walks hatd schools be able to
019truly say one day like my dad taught me many years ago great it is to dream the dream and stand in Youth by The Starry stream but greater it is to fight life through and say at the end the dream is true thank you all than Lyn Davenport step forward and state your name and address for the record please Lyn Davenport 7120 copper Leaf Drive Dallas Texas I was here last month and the last time I was here I was speaking to you all as fiduciaries this time I know that you probably ignored what I said so this time I'm going to speak to the teachers and I know that there's a lot of you who are watching online and I know as teachers you barely have due process your profession has been demonized marginalized
020they have you know Libs on Libs of Tik Tock showing you as purple-haired crazies and we can't trust you so now we' got to bring in scripted lessons and curriculum that funds billionaires like amplify so I'm speaking to you because even though you don't have true collective bargaining in Texas because the way that they've hamstrung the unions you can use your voice behind the scenes so I'm encourag encouraging you to get rid of that wedge that's between the parents and the teachers most teachers are parents they want what's best for kids teachers go into the profession because it's a calling so my encouragement is to feed Intel to the parents tell them this junk that you're seeing in amplify because you know they're going to adopt it they're going to do whatever the superintendent says
021it's reverse of what it should be so use the parents as a tool get them the information and have them gather the parents together to fight this content because once they see how poor the content is then maybe they will stand up and represent you and be your voice since you can't say anything because your careers will be on the line you've got to put food on the table and feed your families also remind them that Judith Kaufman from region 10 lied and said that she she said that um amplify Texas was different than amplify it's not go on the website you can see it's the same thing the tea representative Kristen Hull who's now in in HISD but she when she was at the legislature she also lied they rebranded it because they got
022busted because it's not good content you can read it yourself if you've gone down that rabbit hole and read the lessons they're not quality instructional materials parents if you're watching online ask a bunch of questions prob you have the parental rights to opt out of this you do not have to make your kids take to um use these devices and use this technology you have the right to demand books paper pencils and teachers to teach your children be a wrench in the gears and um again opt out of this because it lines the pockets of those who do not care about what happens to our children and you're fiduciaries I will remind you again you're fiduciaries and even though this is free you know grant money it's state money taxpayer dollars used to bribe you
023to adopt this to to do exactly what the commissioner wants and the commissioner REM remember the commissioner wants to take over the districts does he does not want taxpayers to have a voice through their representative form of government and I know I I know I know you understand what I'm talking about based on your question that you asked last time so that's all I have to say I hope you'll do the right thing but I'm pretty sure you won't and so now we have to push back through the teachers and the parents push up from the ground thanks good night Michelle Wallace step forward and state your name and address for the record please Michelle Wallace 522 Wilson Road wachi Texas I'm going to hope that she is wrong that y'all are going to pay
024very close attention to what's in this curriculum I am not not an educator I am a grandmother I am a taxpayer and I'm a s serious voter and I want to say you Mr Dr hollingworth have been hired with our tax money to do what is the utmost best for this school district and all of y'all ask for votes from the people in this area to give you the accountability to get to the very best for our kids in school and I'm holding y'all responsible if you put in this amplify and it is all the things that we think it is y'all are going to be taken to task for what you've done that's all I had to say Silvia Coulson step forward and state your name and address for the record please good evening
025board my name is Sylvia Coulson I live at 1315 Dixie Lane walk aah hatchee my first exposure to amplify was just a few months ago when I was speaking against pornography in our school library books Karen Jenkins a well-respected really good teacher who taught my children came in to speak about this she said that she could engage and teach without being told exactly what to teach she said it created extra work for the teachers she gave a compelling argument against examplify I'm married to Mark Coulson who taught for 43 years he retired from WID he said he learned from experien teach experienced teachers and best practices the education experts come in with constant change they constantly redefine how we learn what an essay is for example the experts would teach the teachers about the next
026new thing the ever evolving wonders he would come home and tell me about the next new thing that the experts were telling him about the experts he's the expert not these experts good teachers learn from good teachers and best practices this is from Mark he said leave teachers alone let them teach let good teachers not outside experts guide the young in experienced teachers provide students students with good books teach them how to read teach them how to write teach them how to speak don't sexualize them Mark wrote recommendation letters for students that went to the best schools in the country Harvard not notra Dame among the many schools and these students were accepted to these schools he taught them and they were accepted and he wrote their letters I've also heard the teachers are concerned
027about things that are in the amplify curriculum they're concerned about 5 years to six-year-olds learning about anus and penis within the curriculum they're concerned about demonic and Pagan images within the curriculum I don't have permission to share the names but this is these are concerns from teachers they say it takes away from their ability to be creative and differentiate lesson plans based on the actual needs of the students so you've got this set curriculum scripted curriculum but you've got a student that needs something different and they they are not allowed to deviate to give that student what they need that to on that day I know Karen J spoke to this as well teachers were sent a link to pre uh preview amplify preview amplify but apparently no one can access it even the administrators
028so with six months as a pilot program the data is not available to support this curriculum so so usually if we have a pilot we do the Pilot We collect data and then we use that data to determine whether or not to go forward and apparently there's no data on this and you can correct me if I'm wrong on that I personally observed that amplify included sexually inappropriate material I've been told teachers can remove that but I say why Implement materials that have to be screened for inappropriate sexual materials why financially reward an organization that puts this in in the first place teachers are discouraged with all this microm management I encourage you to reject this program in all other fillers and let teachers get back to basic education say no to amplify thank [Applause]
029you Mark Coulson step forward and state your name and address for the record please markk Coulson 1315 Dixie Lane walks and Hatchy several times over the years I offered to different principes to come speak to the board uh they never took me up on it so here I am this evening as Sylvia noted she uh she didn't know I was coming this evening I decided to come late and so uh 43 years in public education 20 uh with WID here I taught English uh for five years I'm assistant basketball coach and for 15 years I taught uh AP economics economics US History AP US History and dual credit US History 50 years ago in college I I learned early on that uh good uh good teachers were developed from exposure to good books and students
030were developed by exposure to good books and to good teachers not the latest trends that were coming from the University or coming from the state education department or coming from the national Department of Education and so I saw all of those everchanging education strategies that constant demand for change I constantly study history and one of the things that I study is communism the other day I looked I'd never read Ma's Little Red Book and if you go to the Little Red Book You'll see that one of the things that happens every year according to the CRP or the PRC is a review and constant change there is no enduring recognizable truth that is followed and so that's a philosophy now I don't take that philosophy and in the introduction of my course I recognize that
031with all my students that I do recognize soon enduring truths about the subject that I teach in regards to the nature of man that are stated in the Declaration and recognized in our Constitution and so I started on that basis and I would say to you that you need to push back you need to recognize those enduring things that students need to learn to read and they need good books we got caught up a number of years ago in being devoted to uh technology and personal computers and all those things it's a distraction it can be used it can be helpful but good books are what our students need they don't need books printed in China they need books with solid information in good visuals and they need to be made accountable by being evaluated
032in their exams and in their writing to show that they are conversent that they have read and I held my students to that accountability it works every time that it's tried Reading Writing multiple opportunities during the year regular opportunities to write to show effective use of the language to write a coherent paragraph to write a coherent essay to make a coherent argument your students are not coming and with that knowledge and they cannot do it my homeschool grandchildren can they're doing it for me and they're doing it better sadly than some of the students who were qualified to take the Dual credit course just a few years ago make write a simple sentence write a coherent paragraph write a standard essay it's standard it's standard it can be done it's demanded by by the best
033schools I taught some of your kids you know this it's we need to get back to the solid 10 they need opportunities to speak they need opportunities multiple opportunities to speak to their classmates to speak to me to speak to their guest thank you sir every time I came princip Mr Coulson your time is up sir and last speaker will be Megan Wheeler will you step forward and state your name and address for the record please good evening board my name is Megan Wheeler I live at 4:14 fox tail Court walk hat Texas hello train um thank you all for giving me the opportunity to speak today um I have two students in the district one in elementary school one in Junior High We Love Walks ATD my kids were born and raised here I
034was not I grew up in San Antonio a very large school district um and so I wanted to talk tonight about the three- tier start proposed for next year um I grew up in San Antonio we had a three-tier start there it's fantastic I love it um what I am concerned about for um next year is the proposal of who starts first so while I support three different start times for our elementary junior high and high school campuses I don't believe that junior high should start first um one of the concerns raised at the last Schoolboard meeting was having young students standing at the bus stop early in the morning the proposed start time of 7:30 is only 10 minutes earlier than our elementary school school kids start now um we also have buses that
035arrive to Elementary campuses so early that they are waiting for the campus to open the doors with students still on board if campus opens 10 minutes earlier those children are no longer waiting on the school bus for campus to open with theoretically not a lot of disruption to the bus Cycles that's not my job that's your guys job so um also my husband and I both commute into Dallas where it's two working parent household and a new proposed start time of 8:00 a.m. with a campus opening at 7:30 for elementary is problematic for us for our young students um we can drop him at 7:30 on campus but there's no way we'd make it to downtown Dallas by 8 to be on time for work um another Point made for starting High School later was
036Teenage circadian rhythm 100% but I would also agree that pre-teen circadian rhythm is is just as important I have a seventh grader in my home and anyone who's ever had a Junior High student will likely agree with me that their bodies brains and attitudes change wildly on The Daily they're being flooded with hormones and growing into adult bodies they need sleep just as much as their High School counterparts my seventh grader is an athlete on the junior high tennis team which is a yearound sport that has the same coach for junior high and high school currently Junior High practice I is in the morning and high school starts in after school typically our Junior High practice starts at 7:00 a.m. and they arrive back to campus during first period if this starts if this stays
037the same and Junior High now starts at 7:30 our Junior High kids are arriving on the courts at 6:00 a and cross country runs at the same time um also with those kids being busted back to campus at 7:30 7:45 for first period they would inter interfere with the Elementary bus times um some would suggest moving the high school team to the morning and the junior high to after school but we've also mentioned that there was difficulty getting practice to start after school in the fall because of high heat and new safety regulations um the junior high if the Junior High kids are sent home after school and then brought back at 6 p.m for practice as coach did for the high school team this last fall they would finish practice at 8 need to
038get home dinner shower and in bed to be on campus before 7:30 the next morning um this also leaves no time for extracurricular activities some of our Junior High kids are still playing Club ball they go to church and those sorts of things it doesn't leave time for that um balance needs to be found and I would suggest switching proposed Elementary and Junior High start time start Elementary at 7:30 start Junior High at 8:05 and high school at 8:40 I believe that would work for the majority of walk statue families one minute ma'am thank you that's all I have so I just hope you take your time to make the decision thank [Applause] you next item on our agner would be our reports oh I'm sorry did you some oh yeah I did um I
039did want to clarify uh regarding the the notion that we're putting uh teachers on fourth a fourth year probationary contract there's one instance of that and that was specifically by a principal request a new principal and asked to to make that one exception it's not the general practice so appr indeed okay our next item be reports be our superintendent's report Dr word no sir we went out of order on that one we're doing a we're going to do um stem Education First I'm sorry about that okay I'm sorry about that it's on that updated version apolog okay informational report on current practices and opportunities at stem education and student space light experiment projects throughout WD yes sir sa good evening our Innovative support team not only serves our teachers in wi but also our students
040their families and all staff on all campuses we are happy to share this evening some Precious Moment ments captured by photos um as we give some updates on stem education and WD we are proud to say that in wi we have 125 teachers who have completed their National certificate for stem teaching through the nice system platform as a whole our district has contributed to 12,500 hours of professional learning that directly impacts instructional opportunities for for students in our classrooms across the board these teachers and staff members have conquered 4,750 stem indicators that also impact daily opportunities for students to layer in that stem piece into their learning 57 additional certificates are in progress throughout our district we are thrilled to have the opportunity as the Innovative support team to offer professional learning inhouse to our
041teachers and administrators across the district in our deep dive days on the January 3rd through 5th and February 7th PD time stem education is thriving in WID as all classrooms have open access to training coaching and materials for stem education tonight we have our friend normal Gilliam here from Turner prek as the principal to share with her experience in our learning good evening in January Ary prek teachers and staff had the opportunity to attend literacy with a stem twist during the district Deep dive days Miss Abid and her team developed a training specifically designed for early childhood and how with just a few small modifications to the current curriculum teachers can spark curiosity and students can explore the foundational concepts of science technology engineering and math through problemsolving inquiry Miss Abid and her team presented
042a variety of Hands-On activities and manipulatives that are readily available for them to check out and use in their classrooms with our prek teachers recently earning their n certification they jumped on the opportunity to check out items such as the speos jumbo straws and connectors and the dash robots due to this opportunity that opportunity that they were given we have seen a gr a growth in student risk-taking and problem solving skills you the the think tanks um at Northside and away or a new service that we are able to offer to students and Librarians here in District this year our team fully designs creates and implements 36 of these stations that layer stem education and literacy together for engaging learning opportunities that each student on these campus participates in once a week each six weeks
043we change out the stations to connect that stem piece with that literacy piece to make sure that our students are growing and layering in their learning and problem solving today we have Miss Tammy Hill from Dunaway um as she serves as one of our Librarians in a think tank hello everyone um I'm the librarian at Dunaway Elementary and I know I also speak for Stephanie Haynes who's the librarian at Northside and we have enjoyed and are grateful for the opportunity that Melissa and her team gave us to use the think tank activities um of of course you can see how they promote creativity but also I've seen a lot of persistence and determination and and skills like that too that they don't realize it's helping them in their classroom when they're using those skills to
044build something or create something and truly even you know kindergarten all the way through fifth grade they love building and Engineering a a different creation with all the different um tools and uh options that they have with the think tank activities and so we've really um enjoyed the opportunity also it gives students an opportunity maybe they they might not be the strongest in their academics yet but now they can be strong in some kind of engineering and creation or something and so that's really been enjoyable to watch so thank you for the opportunity thanks and librarian like Miss Hill herself are the ones who create that climate in those spaces that that allow those students to be those Risk Takers and problem solvers so big kudos to our Librarians this year Simpson Elementary um has
045started a stem lab as a class from one of their rotation specials Elizabeth Rubio is doing a fantastic job at Simpson integrating Sim challenges coding and Robotics into the rotation schedule that every student gets to visit once a week during their specials time the students are lined up at the door each time I've been there waiting eagerly to get in to this cool space wanting to know what is next for their challenge for the day the stem materials from this lab were purchased through uh Grant funds from the Education Foundation WID staff uh count on us to help them to be able to have the materials that they need for this type of learning to be layered into their classrooms so we have a stem checkout system that's available to all staff including non-core content
046staff we have lots of specials teachers and other Specialists on campuses who check out our materials um and take them back and and use that with their students and we encourage that the majority of the things that come from our uh checkout system are also purchased with Grant funds that are secured locally and actually far away as well we love to share our stem story with others um what we're doing here in wace ISD uh that helps us so we'll take a small crowd a large crowd a big room or a little room and we'll tell our story and in doing so we actually learn something from our audience every time with feedback and connections and that's how we're able to continue to grow and keep dreaming big in this area the L is a
047cool um system that is in place in dunway wedworth Shackleford and Marvin gyms this is an experience that offers students um to combine physical activity with an academic content purpose behind it that works on teamwork and social emotional learning all combined at the same time and the teacher is able to go go into um the platform and uh create their own content or there's a whole bunch of content there that's already ready to that covers our teques and so that connection with physical learning and core academics is um at its all-time high right now in these class uh PE classes all of our sixth grade students across all three Junior highs this year participated in our student space flight experiment program it was such an honor to host the top six teams their families their
048teachers and their administrators for a night of celebration last semester you could not wipe the smiles off these students faces from the moment they walk into the door until the moment they left we celebrated their commitment their teamwork and success in the student space flight experiment program these students are Trailblazers not only in WID but Beyonds in waahi ISD we are proud to live out our vision to be a district where Innovation thrives growth is Limitless SSP is about a commitment to student ownership to exploration to se science as a journey into the joys of learning we are among the 38 communities worldwide who are able to offer this learning experience to our students following the celebration we were honored to host a community space night for our entire Community to attend SSP team te
049projects were presented by students patches were on display and Global high school was full of Hands-On learning opportunities for all ages thousands of students and their families flooded the building were eager to learn and celebrate even on that rainy night this evening we have Corley Holloway from Howard Junior High and Missy Dominy from wache high school along with Debbie Davis and Charlie Jones from wman to talk to about their experiences with SSP hi my name is Missy Domin and I teach science at the high school I've been there for six years and I want to thank you Dr hollingworth and the board for the opportunity to provide this to students at the sixth grade level um I also teach sixth grade accelerated science IPC so these students are getting high school credit not only are
050they taking aign science class for which they will receive high school credit as sixth graders these students are doing high level research to not only just come up with an idea that they want to see go up into the space station but to actually design the experiment and write the proposal to present to a board who's or a panel who's going to make that decision it has been amazing they have been so impressive they have far exceeded anything I expected of them them and I brought one of my students Cory Holloway her team's project was actually one of the ones that was um selected and it will be going to the International Space Station uh when it launches so tell them a little bit about your project hi my name is corly Holloway and I'm
051a sixth grader at Howard Junior High I was asked to talk about SCP and also known as students SP by experiments program our project is on cucumbers and if they can thrive in microgravity we chose cucumbers because of their health benefits and the research we did on them some of the research that we did was if they could germinate without sunlight or air and both of those were positive they could both um survive with sunlight or air we also thought about if they were edible sorry if they were edible or if they could um if they were edible and if they could be um eaten in space um and cucumbers are very healthy and multip multiple people enjoy them and so we thought um we through this experiment we hope to figure out if cucumbers
052will be able to grow and thrive in [Applause] microgravity good evening everyone um I'm Debbie Davis and I would like to introduce this amazing young lady this is Charlie Jones and she was the her space patch was selected as the prek through second grade winner to go up to space and so from Wildman and so we're very very proud of her um first and foremost I want to say thank you all so much for this opportunity for all of our kids I know it was really focused on our sixth graders but um there is the art piece the a in Steam um that was that was presented to every student in the district and so at Wildman I actually had all of our stud excuse me all of our students create a space patch kindergarten
053through fifth grade obviously with the little ones we did a little more guided drawing on some of the stuff um but then and it was narrowed down it was I narrowed them down and then there was a group of teachers that selected we were able to take three prek through six or prek through second and three 3D through 5ifth and they were put into what I understand to be a very transparent voting system and um and when and Charlie here she was selected um but one of the greatest things about this is that not only did my kids get to learn I got to learn so um just I didn't really know anything about space I had no idea what space patches were so I just want to give just a very brief I know
054we've got time you know there's a time limit but I just wanted to let you know starting in 1965 um they started with these um space patches and it came about because there were um a couple of astronauts that were former military and the patches were a very big part of military and their you know their their units and they said we need to start coming up with some and so the very first space patch that was created was in 1965 with the space launch of Gemini 5 okay and so and and it's henceforth every single space mission whether it's to space or to the International Space Station they come up with their own patches and that's one of the first things they do when they're selected as a crew they sit down together they
055talk about you know color and shapes and what they want and um sometimes they do it on their own sometimes they bring in graphic designers but so anybody involved with that particular mission is is given a space patch um now for the inter International Space Station which this is focused on they actually have two patches because I'm not sure if you're aware but at any one time there's about six astronauts that go up for about six months at a time so their missions overlap so they will have two patches and so it's just one of those things but it's a it's a you know at the very beginning of as they're assigned as a crew they work together they come up with their patches um it's very I highly recommend everybody to go research it
056because it's really super cool um and so the fact that we have students that not only are sending experience experiments into space but then they get to be a part of this this process with the patches I feel very honored and and privileged to have been a part of it and thank you because I learned something which I love and and I hope that it's something that walks a hatchee continues in the future um I definitely talked about it with my fifth graders and said hey you know maybe I don't know maybe this is something you guys can do I do know that there were a few Wildman stuent there is Wildman one Wildman student that she's on the team so anyways it's a wonderful opportunity and I just I just appreciate it and I
057love the way you have put your resources in and um you know just you know the stem but more importantly the steam you know hey it's All About Steam so anyways thank you very much and have a great evening we will continue to dream big in this Arena as we work towards the 2425 school year and beyond that concludes our updates for stem education and W do you have any questions man okay good work well we're here with some more cute pictures for you to look at of behind the scene things that are happening throughout our district as we update you now on GT and advanced academics in District and we have some more friends joining us tonight we are lucky tonight we are excited to announce all four core areas of study for our
058AP courses have an increase in the number of students who are taking AP exams at whs leading this year to be our largest group of AP testers last year our students took 606 exams and this year we are set to take 970 exams with a 60% increase last year 352 students tested and this year 484 students are testing for a 37.5% increase we are also very excited to offer the new AP seminar 10 course to our sophomore students for the first time in the 24 25 school year we're preparing for that now this course will allow our 10th grade students to enter and enroll test and earn that college credit a year sooner than our choices have offered them in the past this semester 493 of our students move from Phase 1 to phase two
059of GT testing we are in the process of compiling the data from the profile sheets and this list will be released to campuses and name sent to families for those who demonstrate a need for these GT Services very soon we also have a wsd record-breaking number of kindergarten students this year who qualify for services this year we have 33 kindergarten students across the nine Elementary campuses who started working with Mrs Ballard our GT coordinator the first week of March as they show a need for these Services last year we had 11 students qualify in kindergarten in 2022 was six students qualified in kindergarten and before using the nwaa map uh test as our Universal screener each year in wi as far as I can go back we would have one or no kindergarten students qualifying
060so we are doing a much better job at finding these kiddos who need services and getting them into that path much sooner the wsd GT population has increased from 88.1% from last year to 88.7% this year and and that does not include the number of students who were moving into the program from testing this year our Texas State average is 8.2% acceleration pathway our sixth grade cohort of accelerated math and science students are moving and grooving in classrooms across our district it seems like only yesterday we were welcoming these students to this new pathway opportunity that started in August next year this sixth grade cohort of students will be move it into their seventh grade acceleration courses they will move into preap Algebra 1 for high school credit as seventh graders and an accelerated science
061course that compacts seventh grade and eighth grade teaks to prepare them for preap biology for high school credit as eighth graders we are super excited to say that we have our second cohort of students who we are who we are preparing now for that start in 2425 August these are 64 students who are uh with the breakdown of 24 of them taking both the accelerated Math and Science courses 14 are in The Accelerated math only and 26 in the accelerated science only these students will take accelerated math that covers sixth seventh and half of the 8th grade takes in one school year and for science these incoming sixth grade students will be enrolled in the IPC the integrated physics and chemistry course for high school credit as Miss Dominy was just talking about and she's
062going to come back to the Post tonight with her friend janak Terrero from Howard Junior High to share about their part of the acceleration pathway hi again I'm Missy Domin and um not only do I teach sixth grade accelerated um science IPC I also teach uh preap chemistry to sophomores and I teach AP Physics too uh to seniors so I love the opportunity that I have now to see these sixth graders and I'm kind of thinking when the what do I want want these kids to know when I see them when they come back up and I'm kind of making sure uh that I cover that this has been I've had the best time this year I mean I start my day every day with 27 sixth graders and they are full of energy they're
063there waiting on me they're there before I am waiting on me um attendance not an issue um work ethic these kids are driven they're fun they're silly but they are also very very um like I said driven they have high goals for themselves and it has been a dream to teach integrated physics and chemistry to these students my big thing is by getting them exposure to this class early like this where they're getting high school credit that just expands the potential for growth that they are going to have between sixth grade and 12th grade um there's so many opportunities are going to be available to them because they're already getting these science classes now and so I brought with me uh janat Terrero love this kid he is so great and I wanted you to
064get to meet one of our kids that we have in there go ahead janat um IPC has been a wonderful experience for me and my classmates and this this class has led us do do things that we might not be able to do until later in our education and I wouldn't imagine that I would be doing physics and chemistry in sixth grade and um this this class is a wonderful opportunity and I'm so glad to be uh a part of this and before um acceleration in uh Elementary level we have math telescoping and we are excited as we will soon meet with 157 families across the soon to be 10 Elementary campuses to share about the opportunity for their students to participate in a math telescoping program this telescoping program will be offered at all
06510 campuses for the 2425 school year and the students are invited to phase two of testing based on a combination of data from their map nwaa map and their star data those who qualify for to move to phase two will have the opportunity to take a credit by exam in May and those who score 80% or greater on that exam in May will then receive state credit for their current 2425 school year Math course and we will telescope them to the next grade level for math instruction on a daily basis at their individual campuses this is so exciting for us because we know that this opportunity for these students who need that is a way for us to match the rigor and pace of instruction to individual student needs our GT family nights continue to
066be a favorite uh night of the year for our team as well as our families this year we kicked off the first semester downtown wahat it was like a takeover down there our theme was we love wachi ISD and they participated in a goose chase as family and friends come together and we had our students um in our GT program who were entertainment um as well as community members who came out and were participating in the goose chase itself um with door prizes and just being there and being a smiling face and and helping us out and so we are super excited to kick off our year that way at semester we also had a GT family night where we supported our walk statue High School theater program as they presented the Best Christmas Pageant
067Ever at our Texas theater downtown and each night these students were so great to stay after and have a special VIP meet and greet with all of our GT students and their families that were attending each of those performances every night they were live down there at the Texas theater so we love that collaboration this year we were able to come up with a new way to serve students as they are at home not even with us during the school day so something to reach into their home homes and for them to do with their uh families we have 200 students and even a wait list in in the background of those who participate with a weekly I mean a monthly I wish it was weekly a monthly GT backpack program so they show up
068at the T building and we have a clear backpack and it's full of enrichment activities that are based around a theme that are all Hands-On and engaging opportunities that tied together and then when they come back uh the following time they bring us their empty backpack and we have one filled ready for for them to go uh for the next round of activities and tonight cam Den sier is here to talk to you about um some things he he likes about the backpack program I really like the GT backpack every couple months throughout the school year my sister and I were super excited to see what each one contained my favorite was the Bluetooth speaker I got to build when the backpack theme was sound I think my sister's favorite was the edible food we
069got to create and try with the taste theme backpack I enjoyed learning about all the different themes based on our five senses I Ed my solar eclipse glasses from my last backpack based on site just yesterday to view the eclipse thank you walk ISD for this fun experience we get to enjoy throughout the [Applause] year Destination Imagination is uh a big heart to a lot of those here in WID this year we have 18 teams across the district who will compete in tournament competitions and we've already had two um teams who are moving to the state level uh this year and so that's a big celebration and actually Camden SI are is on one of the teams who moving to the state level for the second time in a row our fabulous GT coordinators uh
070Joy Cook Sarah Pickard and Sabrina Ballard host Elementary GT brain stretch sessions during lunchtimes and after school for our GT stud students to come and participate together during this time if you walk in you would see crossgrade level students working together on activities that focus on collaboration creativity critical thinking and communication Luke wary from Cliff is here to talk to you about some of his brain stretch time uh I look forward to the brain stretches because they are uh fun and they challenge me uh more and uh I've proba my favorite one was the magic was the Sim challenge magic magnets where you would take magnets in an animal and you would tape them together and then you would race your friends and um it I liked it because it was like a trial and
071air and so if you didn't get it once you had to try again and uh on one of the um GT brain stretches we got uh we made a DIY toy which I brought whenever you turn it it goes up and then down and also on the same day um we did drill art which uh allowed me to be creative um and after I finish one brain stretch I can't wait till the next [Applause] awesome we have G GT tribe time troop um for the junior high students at all three Junior Highs at this time students work with Miss Smithy who's the guru of all cool cool learning experiences and they explore learn and create to focus on those four areas of collaboration creativity critical thinking and communication these groups are often often so engaging
072that if you're there you might see a teacher pop in and sink into a TBL spot we have custodians visit um each time we're on campus there too and even assistant principls can't help but join in on that learning that's having that's looking so fun for those students our team works with our GT Elementary cluster classroom teachers to ensure our students have individualized learning plans for all GT kids Kinder through fifth grade students set academic and social emotional learning goals on these plans and we track their progress as well as how they are showing their learning as being differentiated to meet their needs in the areas of content process product and learning environment these plans help ensure that we have a a a good um check in with our students that they know what their
073goals are and that we are able to communicate all of that to our parents each six weeks to make sure that we're keeping our students moving forward at an appropriate Pace just like our stem friends we love to tell our story in GT from wachi ISD as well this year our GT coordinators presented about our Advanced learning plans at the Texas Association of gifted and talented conference they did such an outstanding job that many other districts are inquiring how we can start they can start this process and be part of excelling on that part of the state plan as well each six weeks this year we visit every campus and award one teacher a wow award we're working on that work we're recognizing teachers for integrating the four C's intentionally into student learning opportunities for
074implementing depth and complexity strategies for GT students on a regular basis and for enriching students in a classroom where Innovation thrives daily this last round we were also able to recognize some some teachers who were going above and beyond even outside of the school day this year we are super excited for the opportunity to partner with our districtwide counseling team each month our GT team delivers Just in Time Professional learning to this group of ladies during their monthly meeting this has been a win-win for the counselors as well as a GT team together because of the network and relationships built together we're able to definitely better serve our students at deeper levels we are also proud of our work between our GT team and our dual language team as we are studying uh researching and
075working together to learn about identifying and serving our EB students the best way that we possibly can our district director Linda Solis is here to talk about that tonight thank you Melissa for inviting me a board good to see all of you guys tonight I'm excited to talk about this too um we informally started this discussions about 3 years ago but we we planned and intentionally wanted to have a group study about what are we going to do to meet the needs of our EBS and that language is not the deficit of being an EB and so we've been collaborating all this year we've been having this book study with Mr day as well and with Mrs alaman uh we've had great discussions we've learned a lot from each other we've bounced things off of
076each other as well um the I think the best thing is that I've kind of discovered from this is that we're doing a lot of things right and so there are some things that we need to tweak and we need to work on uh but when we can collaborate the way that we've been collaborating there's nothing but success that's going to come in the end so we still have't with this plan it's a three- year plan that we've uh come up with and so we're in the second phase of it and so we're excited about where it's going to take us to the new level um every time I go to a conference I went to a National Conference uh last week and I try to get into a GT uh session just to see
077okay what's the new and upcoming thing what are we missing Across the Nation and so uh we're right on spot with everything like I said the states evolving the nation's evolving on how to test and how to identify emergent bilingual students but we're working together and uh we're excited about how how this is going so um thank you Melissa for allowing this and your team the whole team's been collaborating and working together so thank you awesome awesome teamwork our GT program advisory committee is so helpful to ensure that our team is doing the best we can to meet our needs of our students and actually listening to those who we serve this committee is made up of teachers students parents counselors administrators and community members their input is invaluable to our team we are super
078excited to share with them the changes that we've made throughout our program for this year and next year at our next meeting Friday at noon here in wahat ISD our students work hard and we like to celebrate big um you're going to see three um events of pictures up here one is our AP scholar celebration another is our leadership student field trip and the other is our high five signs that were a new addition this past school year for the AP scholar celebration we love honoring staff and celebrating our students for their success the AP scholar celebration and breakfast allows us to kick off our year doing just so tonight we have Caroline Scott and Avery Abid here to share about how they feel about being celebrated during this time hi my name is Caroline
079Scott and I teach um English at the high school uh this is my 16th year with the district um I want to take a minute to thank the board and the admin team for their support of our AP programs it's much appreciated um AP teachers work hard to fill gaps and reach high expectations um that's set by colle College Board the past few years the district has provided incentives for both students and teachers which is a wonderful acknowledgement of the hard work that is done in our classroom during the fall semester the advanced academics team hosted an AP Scholars breakfast to celebrate these students who take these courses and also earn credit uh college credit um students also get reimbursed for this fee which is a huge um burden taken away from families especially for
080those who have uh students taking multiple classes and and passing these tests which is awesome uh last year the advanced academics team celebrated these kids uh with this uh field trip for the first time and they're going to continue this again this year our kids are really excited about this opportunity and it was an incredible event last year um teachers were able to make connections uh with students who are not yet in our classrooms and it was just a really great opportunity Unity to build those relationships with these kids who are coming up and into our program um students and advanced courses work hard and are often um they're in multiple things they're in theater they're in band they're doing community service through their local churches and and finding all kinds of ways to serve
081our community so we really appreciate um the hard work that they dedicate to the program and your support in recognizing them um thank you and um on behalf of our all of our AP teachers and our students and this is Avery abidi thank you hi my name is Avery Abid and I'm a senior at whhs I've been taking Advanced courses for the past four years and I'm absolutely positive that these classes have prepared me for success in college and for the next steps in my life being honored with my peers as an AP scholar is a memory that I will always remember from the personalized quot on my slide to the recognition on the stage to the memory um that I got to share the beautiful breakfast with my friends and family I truly felt
082very accomplished and special that day thank [Applause] you how great is it to provide opportunities to celebrate celebrate well-roundedness in our individual students who lead in the area of academics this year we're taking 390 students to group dynamics in Carolton for our ADV Advanced academics leadership student trip because these students are committed to enrolling in four core advanced classes for another school year this is a hefty workload all year long and we want to celebrate them so big with a J day jam-packed full of teamwork leadership skills mix in with a lot of fun Miss Jennifer Foley and Macy Russ want to share a little bit about their experience on this trip last year good evening boy this is a fun night right getting to see all of our kids talking and and talking about
083their experiences with everything um last year I had the pleasure of going on our field trip our leadership field trip to Lake View camp and it was a fantastic experience I think as much for me as it was for the kids I left there with kind of a Perma smile on my face and definitely ready to tackle the rest of the school year witnessing our students collaborating problem solving and learning alongside their peers was genuinely inspiring for me whhs advanced academic students sacrifice free time they dedicate themselves to meeting the intense academic rigor and workload to pursue these academic Advanced academic classes it's a lot of work and they have to make choices along the way they have to stop and say do I want to go out with my friends and and go do
084this activity or am I going to stay home and study to meet the needs of my course and they they make those hard choices es despite the hard work and personal sacrifices the benefits are undeniable students in advanced classes are better prepared for their future endeavors and are far more likely to continue in postsecondary education past their first year Watching students on the field trip engage in teamwork while tackling complex problems and enjoying moments of laughter was truly Priceless the leadership field trip provided a unique opportunity for growth while also giving our students Unforgettable memories and that's what WID is all about so I want to introduce Macy rust who is one of my former Advanced academic students I taught her in AP Human Geography when she was the a freshman and now I'm proud
085to introduce her as one of our current Advanced academic students who uh is a great example of what our kids do at whhs good evening my name is Macy Russ and I'm a junior at HS thank you so much for having me here tonight last year was our first year to do a leadership field trip like this and I didn't really know what to expect from it but it ended up being much deeper than just having fun it felt great to be rewarded for countless hours of hard work I had the opportunity to bond with my classmates while participating in fun leadership activities while growing closer to them thank [Applause] you last summer as we were eagerly awaiting for our to receive our AP scores results we were ready to set out and deliver our
086first round of high five yard signes to our students who scored a five on their AP exams teachers who have students who have resed that received that five on an exam also have high five signs around their door frame of their around the frame of their door in the hallway of the U whs for all to see there as well we had so much fun being that prize Patrol taking balloons and that high five and knocking on doors surprise these families and students um on a regular summer day and we're looking forward to that time in June this year last but not least GT summer camp which we're preparing in the background right now we offer GT summer camp every year for Kinder Garten through eighth grade students and this is a time that is
087a favorite for us all when you enter the Coleman building you're likely to hear Giggles of excitement as they're learning or hitting that Mark of where they need to be with the group of students that they're working with and I often say when you walk into the classroom you can actually hear their gears turning as they tell us sometimes but my brain hurts so tonight we have Penelope um here from Howard Junior High to share about her Camp experience hi my name is Penelope guaro and I'm a sixth grader at Howard Junior High the past two summers I've had the opportunity to attend GT summer camp we spent all week long solving challenges using problem solving skills to to get past obstacles the first year we did the first episode and the next year we
088did the second episode I can't wait to see what surprises episode 3 is going to have for us this year GT Camp is an amazing experience because it gives me something educational and challenging to do over the summer this last year I moved to a new school where I didn't know just a ton of people but because of G but because of GT Camp I was able to meet others going to my new school and many of those friends ended up in my GT C in my advanced classes and now they're some of my closest friends thank you WD for making GT Camp available for me and my friends I can't wait to see that [Applause] camp that concludes our updates on GT and advanced academics for this year and I'm just so thankful for
089you um to allow myself and my team to serve our students and teachers and families and Community um in these areas so thank you are there any questions no but I would like to say how thankful we are for you and your team I mean this is this was a wow presentation it was so special to hear our kids and all the great things that you're doing so thank you thank you very much next item on our agenda will be our informational update on on the mentors Care Program all right well good evening board good evening Dr Hollingsworth it's a privilege to be here with you tonight we this is our second year uh here partnering with you guys and we're just so appreciative to be here uh what I'll be doing with you is
090going over preliminary data that covers um August of of 2023 through May 2024 so it's a little bit less than 5 months of data and we'll provide the district and the campus uh whhs with a comprehensive report that will cover the entire school year I want to introduce our coordinator from wache High School Miss Stephanie Guerrero is here and she'll be introducing one of your awesome uh seniors from whhs to talk about our program this is a little bit about who we are we're a 501c3 nonprofit We started in 2009 with 25 students and 25 mentors at Midlothian High School and since then it's grown to 17 campuses this year we will serve around 750 students uh with about 700 mentors across five counties in Texas and what we do is we connect struggling high
091school students with a caring Mentor from your community and I gotta I got to brag a little bit on you guys okay that's okay um first of all the support we've received from Dr Hollingsworth and from the campus has been phenomenal uh I got to brag on your kids a little bit cuz I visit 7 1 high schools on a regular basis the students that walks at you high school of all the schools I've worked with they have amazing social skills uh they're friendly they're kind they are uh they will they will engage you in conversation at some schools it's like pulling teeth to get kids to talk I'm so impressed uh my wife was a career Elementary educator she spent 32 years uh last 10 as an elementary principal so she's used to the
092littles uh Miss Guerrero was able to convince her to Mentor at Walky high school and she has loved it she's been so impressed with the campus uh and with the students there so thank you guys for your support to show you some program wide stats when we enter kids into our program they come in because they're struggling with a ma with a number of of issues this is program-wide but of kids who say that they struggle socially uh you can see there that 57% after 2 years in the program say they no longer struggle with that the same with behavioral issues after two years in the program they don't struggle behaviorally anymore you can read those numbers uh it's a very small number of students who come in under abuse but that goes down significantly
093as well so we see real progress with our kids like I said we currently uh serve 17 schools we added three schools this year we added uh Hillsboro uh back last fall and we added gr View and Keen in January and those program programs are doing very very well so we are growing uh we're able to serve a large number of students and it's just been awesome for students to qualify for the program we want your most hurting we want your most struggling the kids who aren't coming to school the kids who struggle academically those are the kids we're looking for and so the state of Texas there are really three types of indicators they're the state of Texas at risk indicators and I'll show you those in a minute you have what we call
094our changeable indicators those are kind fluid then you have kind of some more permanent indicators things that kids struggle with if you take a look at the left column those are identified by the state of Texas as factors that can uh prohibit a student from graduating or being successful in school so we look at those we also look at our changeable indicators and the most common ones we see of course we see a large percentage of our kids who struggle with attendance issues with grades uh with anxiety and depression is is as off the charts Nationwide as you well know uh we have a high percentage of our kids who come in to the program not involved in any type of extracurricular activity then at the bottom you'll see more permanent factors things that uh
095are more chronic uh death of a parent divorce broken home um if there are there's poverty or financial struggles going on so when we first meet a student we interview them and we start checking boxes to see which indicators affect them the data now is walks Hatchy high school specific these are students who came into the program this year uh 56% of those struggled with semester grades below 70 another big one is uh a high percentage of the students at walk sat you high school who come into our program have been in da we intentionally Target those students and Miss Guerrero spends time at the DAP to try to get those kiddos involved in our program any questions about that slide now you take a look at our uh our indicators are are changing at
096risk indicators you can see that a lot of kids are not involved in extracurricular 65% uh 48% have confidence issues um and I went over that and then if you take a look at our unchanging indicators you can see that about half the kids who come into our program come from either u a a home where there's been divorced or there's a broken home single parent or blended family and a high percentage of our kids come from poverty as well so we deal with uh with that as well uh we also do help kids with physical needs and other needs um we help with food we help with clothing we can help with counseling outside of school we can help students get connected to a medical clinic if they need help medically and so there
097were four times that Miss guo helped students with food was able to give them assistance outside of school and then one time she was able to refer a student for medical care again this is whs specific these numbers are off the charts okay um 89% of the kids that came into the program and these are kids who struggled academically coming in almost 90% are expected they're on track to be promoted to the next grade level uh everyone of I've never seen this every single student in the program is meeting the 90% rule for attendance and the reason why we said it at 90 cuz that's the magic number you have to be in that class 90% of the time in order to earn Credit in that class we want them there 100% but we shoot
098for at least 90 so every student uh you guys have uh every senior expected to graduate and we did interviews with students followup we found that almost half the kids had their at risk indicators decrease as a result of being in the program overall program numbers we have almost 50 students referred to the program this year our case load at each school is typically 50 to 60 at larger schools like uh waah hatchee we do tend to go over that there's just a higher need uh you guys have had 66 students in the program this year uh at the time of the snapshot end of January we had 54 students matched with a mentor 64 total mentors again seven seniors and they're all going to graduate uh your community has has been unbelievable when we
099started here last year we had an influx of mentors like I've never seen I've only seen one School uh happen this fast and that's abene Wy out west furthermore what's kind of set you guys apart is we have more mentors than we have students it's usually flipped so the way that the community has got behind us this just been awesome uh want to thank we have a couple of our mentors here want to thank Dr AIT and Miss bridges for both mentoring and um Miss Bridges student will be up here in minute and uh your volunteers have averaged nine hours just during those 5 months of volunteering to the to the district so that's 71 adults I check the numbers today you have 71 mentors as of today and 60 students in the program that
10071 adults coming into your high school every single week to pour into those kids it's incredible there are times when students outcry we have outcries of abuse neglect um anxiety depression self thoughts of self harm and when things get really serious we will get that student to the school counselor and work with that school counselor it's a great relationship because we're able to get kids the mental health um assistance that they need through the counselor and then the counselors refer students to us so it's been a great relationship uh there were there were 12 times that students had outcries to Miss Guerrero this year nine times for anxiety and three for depression and it's also uh I think it's important to note that Miss Guerrero provided support to students 26 times students who aren't in
101our program so uh you we do track your graduates from the previous year so last year you guys had four seniors and they all graduated we had 100% of our seniors across 17 schools graduate last year when we're pushing for that this year we got a we got a guy at Palmer who's we're kind of get in school but we want that to be 100% but you had four seniors graduate last year and we tracked their progress all four of those went into the workforce and they're all employed I love the quotes um of the students and I love what your students say these are your students um it says mentors care has taught me to open up about things going on in my life and how to ask for help and I love what
102this second student says I love and look forward to every moment I have with my mentor and I love Miss Guerrero's quote so I'm going to have her come up at this time and introduce her awesome student and her student's going to say a few words good evening uh my name is stepanie Guerrero and I'm the mentor care coordinator here at wachi high school and I want to introduce Montana stoval she is is our senior or one of our seniors um and she has a few words to share about her experience here okay hello I am Montana Stovall um I would love to start off with saying thank you to mentors Care thank you to my mentors care leader Stephanie thank you to my mentor Jenny and then thank you to wah hatchee for allowing
103mentors care to be a part of the school um so my experience with Mentor mentors care is one I'll always remember loving my junior year was a rough year I was still pretty new to this District coming from a small District um and it was also my first year of AP classes and pre-ap classes I always wanted to do something with my future like going to college having a good career but I never had anyone to like help me find ways to get there so joining the AP and preap classes was the biggest step I've ever taken in school um so honestly I didn't think I would even be able to make it more than a six weeks period through those classes um that's whenever my mentor Jenny came into play um she was always
104there to encourage me and get me through it even whenever I was very discouraged in myself um She always reminded me that it was just my first year of joining those classes and she knew that I would eventually get the hang of it she was always so kind to me and made sure to look at the positive side of things so I pushed through that whole year trying my best to show her that she's right I can do it this year my senior year I have taken two more AP classes all thanks to Jenny for encouraging me every step of the way another main reason I love mentors care is because they found the perfect person for me to connect with and talk to about anything it is great knowing I can go to Jenny
105without worrying if I'm being judged or misunderstood she always knows the right things to say even if she's never dealt with the same situations she really makes me feel safe and loved and cared for even though we only meet once a week my last main reason for loving mentors care is because of my mentors care leader Stephanie she is one of the sweetest and most welcoming people I know anytime I needs something she is right there to help me whether it being basic needs a quick snack or a quick talk sesh she is always so helpful and comforting I've even seen her with other students and she's the exact same way I bet us students can all agree we love our mentors care leader Stephanie aside from my reasons for loving mentors care and all
106the people that come with it I think the program should be in every high school if it were possible I'd say every student should have a mentor I feel that mentors care can help students in great ways not just for students who are considered to have bad lives but for students with good lives too because everyone has their own struggles thank youall any questions for me I've just got a comment yes sir last year I ran into Dana Petty at an event and uh it was prior to y'all's fundraiser yes sir and of course she was had a handful of brochures and information she was passing out to whoever she could give it to I'm sure but uh we took that back to my organization and with those stats that you guys have with the
107impact you're making it made it a no-brainer for us to sponsor and go and it was a I played in a lot of golf tournaments and it was first class um from top to bottom so if anybody needs a good one to play in for a good cause this year uh definitely look into that thank you that golf tournament is June 24th Mar Vista Golf Club in foror Texas this beautiful course anything else for me great work check out our website mentors. care our new promotion video uh starring uh Dr hollingworth he was kind enough to uh speak and uh it's it's on our website so it it'll tell you more stories like you heard tonight thank you guys for your support okay our next report is our informational report on wd's Board of Trustees
108continuing education hours under State Board of Education rule completing required continuing education each year of service service is a basic obligation and expectations of any sitting board member as board president I am required to required to announce the name of each member who has completed the required continuing education training 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 of the trustees election or appointment or 2-year anniversary of his or her previous training as applicable there are seven training areas for board member continuing education one Local District orientation two orientation of 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
109setting goals number seven identifying and Reporting abuse traffic in and other maltreatment of children to the extent applicable to each board member I will announce the completion or deficiency as to required training for members who still have time remaining to complete required 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 excess 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 Local District orientation training for the time period covered by this announcement post legislative update to the Texas Education
110Code no new board members were required to complete Local District orientation training for the time period covered by this announcement team building the following board members have completed the annual team building training Dusty ay Kim Kel Jud McCutchen John Rogers clay schoolfield Melissa stator Debbie Timberman additional continuing education the following board members have completed the additional continuing education requirements Dusty Autry Kim kgle Jud McCutchen John Rogers clay Scholfield Melissa stator Debbie Timberman evaluating student student academic performance and setting goals note this training must be completed every two years the following board members have completed the biannual training in evaluating student academic performance and setting goals Dusty arry Kim Kel Jud McCutchen John Rogers clay Scholfield Alissa stator Debbie Timberman identifying and Reporting abuse trafficking and other Mal treatment of children the following board members have
111completed the banial training of identifying and Reporting abuse and traff trafficking Dusty ay Kim kgal Jud McCutchen John Rogers Kay Scholfield Melissa stator Debbie Timberman exceeding the required continuing education board member dffry exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by nine additional hours board member Kim creal exceeded the required amount of continued education training by 15.25 additional hours board member Jud McCutchen exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by eight additional hours board member John Rogers exceeded the required amount of continuing education by seven additional hours board member clay schoolfield exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by nine additional hours board member Melissa stator exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by three additional hours board member Debbie Timberman exceeded the required amount of continued education training by seven additional
112hours that concludes this report our next item will be our superintendent report thank you Mr President as we bring to you each month you'll see where we ended uh the month of March we had an enrollment of 11,18 students and you can see that our attendance did rebound from uh January and February to 94.9 2% one of the things uh I also wanted to point out I'm going to come back to the other slide is uh this is an overview that Mr avenin had had uh provided to our campuses and it gave us a little bit of of a view uh comparing comparing 2223 with 23 24 and you can see by month uh we have we have outpaced uh where we were in 2223 which is really really encouraging with the exception of January
113January is the only month that we were below where we were in the prior year and so you can see uh from February we're at 93.9 to but rebounded back to 4.92% so that's a lot of hard work uh by our our teachers our principles to get kids here and uh I appreciate very much Mr Aven Shin's uh leadership in that process as well uh I wanted to share with you if it'll go back there we go uh we held uh on April the 5th this Friday our superintendent's executive Council this is one of the ways that we get feedback from our young people our students we had Elementary in the morning and we had uh uh just after that at lunchtime we had our high school and junior high students and I just wanted
114to share with you we bring them in we feed them we had Chick-fil-A on Friday uh for everybody they uh introduce themselves they tell tell what they're involved in at school uh and then we we get feedback from them I gave them an overview the same overview that I give I give to our staff about growth and and uh our construction progress the things we're doing in our classes and then we ask them some questions what do you like about school uh what are your favorite extracurricular activities what classes do you dislike uh where where where can we get better what suggestions do you have for us and our kids are always so honest and so real and so appropriate and they just make us proud each and every time that I have this opportunity
115to to work with them uh one last thing I wanted to share with you that uh Mr calden and I are working with our district leadership team on is we have uh put together a budget reduction committee uh with the goal of uh trying to Target a reduction of about $1.6 million in discretionary expenditures we know that the majority of our expenditures in our budget uh 85% typically uh are toward people and personnel and so that leaves about $16.8 million estimated in next year's uh budget for discretionary spending we asked our our leaders our our campus leaders and our district leaders to help us see if we can identify and we're targeting about 10% uh discretionary uh savings uh of about $1.6 million and so we're going to meet we asked for volunteers for our
116budget reduction committee uh we we asked them to begin to kind of get uh the juices flowing in terms of ideas that we might be able to save some of those things and and we our our whole goal is that if we're able to find some savings uh in our discretionary budgets that we won't have to touch uh Personnel we won't have to touch uh people and that was really one of the main goals that we set out to do we want to bring to the board proposed Cuts so that we are able to contribute that we're not able to we're not just coming to y'all and saying hey board what are you going to do about it uh and so that was the goal behind that uh budget reduction committee and we'll share that
117at our board budget Workshop number two so with that that's uh the superintendent report questions for Dr I have a question yes ma'am um on that reduction committee what did you say about folks volunteering is that what you said yes ma'am so when we had our district leadership team meeting we asked principals and District leaders if they would like to volunteer to be a part of that budget uh reduction committee and we got several folks who did one of the things that Mr cden and I will work to do now is make sure that they're representative so we may have to go back and ask a few folks if they'll be willing to participate if we feel like we're short uh in terms of representation across the district anyone else okay thank you very much
118sir our next item will be our informational report on the bond 2023 construction Mr M good evening board Dr Hollingsworth here to give you your April 2024 uh Bond update May 23 Bond update we start with Jimmy Ray Jimmy Ray is still on time on budget little fun fact there right now we have about 110 people daily on that job site working it is actually that seems like a lot we're actually going to be increasing that to probably close to we'll probably get up to about 140 would be the max maybe 150 Max at one time you know working there um we plan on putting the permit Transformer and energizing it perent Transformer is in place we hope to have the plan is to energize it on the 22nd of this month and then we'll
119start um turning AC units on areas A and B on the 25th that is a key time because then we can start flooring and we can start putting Cabinetry in as we get into those as you can see here we'll go through the old the four areas of this building area a the outside is uh brick is 95% complete the inside brick is 90% complete the sheetrock in area a is totally complete the tiling is 95% complete and we'll start painting tomorrow in area a area B the outside brick is 95% complete sheetrock is complete and the N uh the tiling is 90% complete area C the outside brick is 25% complete sheetrock starting to go up in that area it's about 90% complete and the tiling just started but is moving very quickly through
120that area um area D where the outside brick is just starting in that area in the building and the sheet rocks going up right now it's at 20% complete and so when you kind of see those areas like and some of that is it's it can just be like the outside brick and area a is literally the little bitty columns in front of the cafeteria that's all that's left there and like a little area on the inside wall so it's little small areas but it's the higher um The Brick above the White Rock that we're seeing as where we're at so it's more the the scaffolding and stuff they have to put on so here's your overview of your March 6th and your April April 3rd as you can see there in March 6th did
121not have the roof totally complete and dried in we do have the roof totally dried in now there and you also see in the top right the last of the parking lots was poured in the by April 3rd where it was not in the 6th so now all flat work is poured except any sidewalks that'll be going in in around the building and those which will be the very last Things We Lay um we will start doing we're going to start doing some landscaping and so forth in the islands and along those areas here very soon so we can try to get all that hydr mtion stuff before the July and August heat we can get it in there ear maybe as early as May um late May so we can start doing it that
122way here's your straight overview of the roof you can see all the tpos all that in place the area you see there is that the silver is not it's not the final roof that is your what we call the high stories or clear stories it does have um waterproofing on there so it will not leak the metal is is in route um to it is a standing seam there so those will be all standing seam roof there but the building I just just out there this morning at 7:30 and as of the weekend we had not one drop of rain inside so it's all they're all happy about that there you can see a picture there of the of the left that is area B the offices it's the first area we have that has
123the um I'm going to call it the tombstone over the window um that's the first place that we put those in there so that's kind of a neat area right there that picture there on your right is your cafeteria you can see that we've started the framing in of the big large beams there and the and start framing in the walls and all that um we were holding back a little bit cuz we're waiting on some speaker boxes that go above the hard deck ceiling but they haven't get gotten here yet so we're going to go ahead and and just move forward without those and they'll just cut them in later you hear there you see there the area with the tile wall that is in some of your individual um staff bathrooms or uh
124just visitor bathrooms that'll be an accident wall and all those they'll have like that the glass you see there and the that is the front of the cafeteria you see there the two wood pieces you see are doorways that'll be there but that glass windows got put in Saturday that picture was taken just this morning there and that picture you see there on the far right um that's the main Corridor going from the front of the front of the building straight through that goes by the cafeteria goes by the library and goes out the back door by the gym that is standing at the gym looking forward so you can kind of see the brick house looking there on those walls we'll move on to area B that picture there on your left is standing
125in the C in the uh Library looking out and so those three that you see down there on the far end those three are all glass solid glass windows there be looking in that same quarter I was just talking about you can see the raised roof there which will have mechanical blinds that can be lowered to if there's a presentation or something going on to make it dark in there for whatever reason um but you can see how it has that brings that nice daylight into the library as you can see that right there and then that picture there on the right is just one of the corridors you can see that's a finished window um that will actually bring light into the classrooms that are in the hallway side not on the outside that
126have the natural light they'll be getting light from the hallway into that through those glass windows like that and you'll see those periodically throughout the building in some of these pictures I'm going to be showing you area C and D there's you some more of those pictures there in that far left that is in there that is in the end um and C headed towards D you can see those and that one there on the right it looks like the wind is but it's not that's going to be white marker board so kids can write notes teachers can write notes I kind of look at it as man it be nice to do a little scavenger hunt find this clue and you go through the school kids go through the school that's just something I
127just thought of it kind of be cool to do that on those marker boards something like that but they'll be able to write notes do whatever things like that for the kids and teachers here's you an area in C and D looking across a collab space into um which is there on the left as that'll be an open collab space for teaching area and then you can see the CL the windows there the big and the small windows and then there on the right is just some more of that with the windows and those white marker boards and there will be some of those that will be a u like a corkboard to to tack things on any question about Jimmy Ray move on to wman steam wman steam is is had a question oh
128I'm sorry sorry I was a little slow Mr M I just wanted to confirm that the library has all the glass but it will be uh well the library of the glass is is Second Story now the other glass in the front is in the building it's actually in the front hallway it's not to the exterior okay okay so that is into the main Corridor so it's not to the exterior yes ma'am okay thank you ma' you but all the building to answer that question is I know that's a question you've asked before so I'll just be on record is all the external windows that are anything that are 36 in or lower to the ground do have will have the um film on them yes ma'am thank you very much uhhuh while in Steam
129it is on time on budget right now we have about 78 workers there on site um it is a little slower but it will pick up here very quickly a lot of people are asking me about what all you what all is that all out there right now we have a lot of of big material sitting out front between the building and business 27 that is all the rooftop AC units that was four 18wheeler full of 18 of rooftop units came in at one morning um you had all roofing material 15 truckloads you had metal framing and that was about for that first load that's sitting there was about six truck loads so there's a lot of material there that's not like the Big Iron beams and so forth like that and we don't even
130have brick on site we have some of the CMU but we don't have the final brick yet on site so there's going to be a lot of material sitting there so area a is the exterior framing is 90% complete the interior framing is 90 90% complete we started sheetrocking last week it's about 10% and the roof deck is complete there the area B is not the steel is 95% erected in in that area um mainly missing a few beams that aren't on side one of them that will be that will be where we do the topping out is not on site yet but it will be right there in the front over the top front door will be that beam we do for topping out when we're ready to top out um the roof deck's
13190% complete storm shelter is 75% complete main thing left there is the roof um they just started hanging beams Friday um finished them today so we'll start to work on that and then your interior is about 60% complete there and that's just they can't work in there while they're hanging beam and so forth like that so they were kind of they couldn't put scaffolding or anything up until those beams were in so they didn't interfere with anything um area C the exterior framing is 90% complete the interior framing is 10% complete the roof deck is complete that area is also the first one that we poured the second floor slab so that as you know the actual classroom pods are two stories that was the first one that we did pour a slab for on
132there area D is 10% complete I mean steel is 100% % complete the roof deck is 80% complete and the second floor slabs getting ready we'll be pouring that probably late next week it's what it looks like right now um barring weather weather's a dictation you know dictation for what we're doing right now on that areas on concrete and so forth and then area e we have not started yet so just so you know area C D and E are your classroom pods they're exactly the same top end bottom it's just different grades so there's your pictures March 6 April 3rd as you can see see there there's there's quite a bit of difference there's a lot more in the April 6 it was a lot more skeleton looking now it's a lot more finished
133to it here's an overview of it you can see that area there in the middle it looks like a skeleton that is area D and so the area there to the right that is area C that we poured the slab but that is a second floor story um roof that you see there and as you can see the storm shelter there looks kind of weird with it's just an open box now there's 10 large beams there um sitting there in the e is that one area it's all concrete we haven't even started hanging steel there yet this is an area a this is the side down the cafeteria and the and area C this is some of your exterior framing there that uh CMU you see right there that is actually your dumpster um area
134for your dumpsters there here's the area B in the front of the building um so that area in the yellow is actually your uh kitchen and light and uh cafeteria area there here's some of your interior of area a there's your uh Your Child Nutrition uh serving areas and kitchen area there is all the interior studs you're seeing and then the other one is looking from the cafeteria looking out into the main hallway that goes across the building left and right then here here's area B there looking from the cafeteria looking across the courtyard into the area b as you see there and there's some of the Interior studs there they're going in as well in area um C that's actually in area C there is your gym uh or storm shelter either way you
135want to call it so there the far wall that you see there that is the CMU that that is the offices the gym storage the bathrooms that are required for in there because it is a storm shelter we are required to have bathrooms in that facility now because it is a storm shelter here's your area C there's your slab of your second floor there and that's again there's your interior walls there on the first floor they're going in an area C there's area d all the uh metal iron work and started you can see there on the left and the right and the right you see the metal decking that's going in that the concrete there'll be six inches of concrete poured on top of that decking there any questions about W and steam move
136on to Hancock Hancock is on time barely and on budget the weather's getting us a little early right now on that one um when I say on time it's to what we have scheduled there is makeup time in there so I'm not too worried about it but the weather is starting to dictate a little bit there um because we're still playing in the dirt we're in the middle of raining season when you say barely you mean barely on time or barely on budget barely on time okay budget no barely on time budget we're fine with there right now um the peer drilling is complete in the classroom edition of area a and the grade beams just started being dug Saturday area B which is area the stage Edition outside on the cafeteria all those peers
137have been completed we poured the grade beams there in that area uh Friday um area C which is a bandall Edition we've got all but one Pier drilled that one Pier that we were drilling we drilled it twice and we had cave-ins at about 11 ft of about a 6x6 to 8 by eight hole there that just caved in so we're going down doing some other things so we'll remobilize and do that later in the later down the way a little bit and then area d& which is a current inside the building areas those will all be during the summer and then area F which is the outside little small building in the back it'll be done during the summer as well and then into the fall some here's your Handcock building not a lot
138not a lot of difference there you're seeing um you will start to see some of the old roof changing to new roof um that is part of the prop c as well so all that white area you do see is new new roof that's they're putting on there now um you'll see more and more you'll see that completed it actually be completed probably by the end of next week so the next month's photos you'll see all that but you can see a lot of the dirt being moved you can see some of the starting to try to do some of the detension ponds Retention Ponds we have on that building there area there on the left is the grade beams being poured in a the picture on the right is one of the peers being
139poured there in uh right in front where the new band hall is going to be in front of the current band hall there is a casing there in the ground that they have to pour so much and they pull that casing up some they pull at about five or six foot length they'll pull that casing up five or six feet pour more concrete pull it up we were running in groundwater in that area so we had to put casings in a lot of the holes so it took a little longer any questions about the Hancock Building moving on to Finley Finley we're we are reviewing the pro the scope of this project to fit in the budget our original what we were wanting to do outside a little bit extra on the bond we were
140discovering it was a little bit more than what we had in the budget so we're going back into what more what we had said in the bond and we're going to do at least that and do whatever else we can but right now we're pulling back a little bit on that so we're reviewing to see what we can do seeing the same thing happen on Howard right now is Howard we have do have that out uh getting it priced right now just so we're um we're not complete there but we're want we're wanting to make sure that we're still on Target and not over before we get too far down the road of the drawings and so forth and have to start over or pull back and and change save some cost there in the
141drawing side any questions on on Howard or Finley Okay Go Walks hatche Creek so walks hatche Creek we've had a we have a meeting this Friday with the city in Tex a on April 12th um discussing mainly the roads around that area we'll have um we're trying to schedule a meeting right now with ntcog we still haven't designed the final last locations of Athletics and CTE so the area there that things you're seeing there on the right understand that that Dr Hollingsworth and all his things said that we are going to be comparative and we are are on everything we we are the it is a little bit bigger because we're adding some to Athletics because we won't have lumpkins to put all the practice facilities and things there at Lumpkin so we're pulling that
142in so I want you to understand is you're seeing a little bit difference in square footage there in the end but in the end it is what's what has to happen there any questions on any of that information I know I'm ready to walk some of those jobs or all of them to do what now I'm ready to walk all of those jobs I'd like to look at all of them okay call me you got my if you got my cell number I'll walk with you anytime Wednesday is the only day I can't do it I'm pretty full with meetings literally all day long on those but any other day I can pretty much do it and that's open to anybody anticipation timeline of a total footprint and um floor plan uh the final Iz
143floor plan I can't answer that question because we still have like I said Athletics and CTE um I know there's some meetings going on on the CTE side to finish up that side we have had a meeting with Athletics two weeks ago three weeks ago maybe now and I know that one's real close to coming back to meet with them again the CTE we're we're working with I know Dr Hollings work Dr aert and Miss bener are working to finalize that but until that's truly finalized we can't finish the floor plan on your answer thank you is that we did meet and we've got a really good you know final draft if you will that we will be able to bring forward so I would hope that within next month we should be able to
144land the plane with uh Mr Alis and VK yeah I would think would' be I mean that's that's all we're just what trying to find what pieces we have in those areas we've got the blocks we just got to make sure they fit in the end prop C facility upgrades that's going to be a busy summer for that area there we're going to be doing a lot of flooring possibly um fire sprinklers gym remodels those kind of things all over the district Doors door handles those kind of things all over the district um so it's going to be a b a busy summer there we're even still getting quotes on painting some areas um taking some wall coverings down and painting those areas so we're constantly adding on to what we're going to try to
145do this summer in that area any questions on Prop C Bob Myers for the agcm report thank you board do Dr Hollingsworth um Stephen is passing out our construction report for March uh one uh new item I want to bring up behind the each tab is uh are the three projects in construction uh the very first page behind each tab is what you're looking at now uh just very high level uh snapshot in time this is this is uh you know showing the complete the construction completion dates uh any change to that the the current contract amounts any change to that and then what we call the project Health indicator um you know as Stephen has said all projects right now are tracking uh on budget and and on schedule uh so in the case
146of of Jimmy Ray uh the projects are are good is is our assessment at this point in time uh the report also includes not every daily uh site report that we that we've created uh just please let us know if you you would want to see more uh of the reports in printed format uh we can certainly do so or any other information that you're not finding in that report please let us know about that so with that do you have any questions for for us on the construction any questions on the construction update thank thank you guys okay our last report tonight will be the informational report on wfd's balance scorecard priority three community and stakeholder relationship good evening again Board of Dr hollingworth I will go through this quickly um but just wanted
147to give yall an update on balance SC card priority 3 community and stakeholder relationships one of our key strategic actions is our creation and distribution of survey to students and families that survey was distributed March 6th um it closed uh March 22nd and we've had over a th parents and about 4,000 or so um students throughout the district complete those surveys we're currently working to analyze that data and we'll have it in um the hands of our principes and our directors by mid April um 3.1b is developing and implementing connection and collaboration rounding so listening and learning with our students to determine their level of Engagement as Dr H mentioned um we had our second meeting of the superintendent executive Council um last Friday April 5th um that is such a fun time our students
148are just fantastic they give us such great feedback and and really give us good stuff that we can act upon um also in 3.2 be um we have a goal of holding a town hall meeting once annually we actually held two Town Hall meetings in January to discuss rezoning and um also provide an update on campus moves Bond construction Etc and Dr Hollingsworth has also been doing uh regular Facebook live sessions he's conducted five so far in 2024 um and this just gives people an opportunity to hear directly from Dr H and to ask their questions 3.2b is um implementing that same connection and collaboration rounding with our community so um District leaders are regularly attending meetings and events held by organizations like the Chamber of Commerce the Rotary Club the Lions Club and um
149we are also uning our time with organizations like the Ellis County Children's Advocacy Center the waahi foundation United Way YMCA and walki Care among others um finally 3.2 C we will continue to participate in and support CommunityWide events um We are continuing to work to host those community events um Rebecca lockeridge who is our new um community outreach coordinator is currently planning the the pie lunch which is next week um we're also working on operation first day of school the back to school bash and more and um District leadership has also supported the chamber banquet they will be attending they will be attending the um Education Foundation Gayla on May 10th you're also all invited to attend that um as well as other events um and finally we have changed um as you as you
150heard in our balance scorecard Priority One update we have changed um one of those key strategic actions um or progress measures to be that every student organization will complete at least one community service activity per year and so we're working um to integrate that into this um progress measure and um kind of reinvent our great give back to be a full year effort um to give back to the community rather than just a one-time thing so um next month you are going to hear from Brian C about priority 4 but can I answer any questions for you about our community and stakeholder relationships when you receive U the results from the survey I know you said you were going to be sending it out could you please send it out to us also absolutely yes
151ma'am we'll make sure you get that thank you anyone else thank you thank you Miss Bridges okay moving on to item seven we have consent agenda we have consent agenda items a through [Music] in did anyone see a need to remove one for individual discussion um yes can you pull item n we just need to I just wanted to clar n as all right you want to pull it for an individual motion or just for a discussion no just to make a maybe correction for the minutes I think that's why there was some confusion earlier it says contracts okay got you anyone else is there another one okay we'll specifically talk about consent agenda item in consideration with possible action to approve fourth year extension of probationary contracts I discuss and close session I I
152think it would be appropriate just to remove that s to to provide clarification thank you for for that catch yes ma'am yes so will be contract anyone else okay I'll entertain a motion to approve consent agenda items a through n with the correction of contract being singular on item n so Move Motion by Mr McCutchen second second by Mr Rogers any discussion all in favor say I I all oppos say nay motion Carri 70 moving on to our action item action item a consideration with possible action to adopt an order authorizing the issuance of school building bonds establishing the parameters for the sale of the bonds and delegating authority to the administration to approve the sale and execute the final documents Mr Calon thanks sir good evening board and Dr Hollingsworth tonight I'm going to
153bring up Doug Wht and he's going to give you an overview of the next round of financing for the 2023 uh Bond projects all right thank you Ryan all right good evening it's good to be with you appreciate the opportunity I think I have a presentation on here is it going to pull up no it didn't get loaded in there did not make it okay all right no no worries no worries okay you may have uh the presentation in your board book if not uh it's really a guide for me to give the presentation feel free to stop me at any time with questions um the first section uh we talk about the bond market update where we are with interest rates in short we have if you had the graph we are at slightly
154below average uh levels uh with our interest rates we have very solid Mar markets very fun yes board just for your information that's on page 158 in your packet so sorry Doug thank you okay so within that presentation the first page is this graph and it talks about the you've seen the graph from me before it's called the bond buyers index the municipal bonds and it tracks interest rates dating back in the bottom left corner to January 2001 we reached a in 2008 at 6% we had a record low during the pandemic in 2020 at 2% our average runs across the middle in blue at 4% and we're currently with the index at 3.58% so interest rates generally speaking are slightly below historic averages and the bonds that we uh intend to issue will be
155issued into a very sound Market on the second page uh we put in the slide that we've talked about before with respect to the bond credit ratings here in this District this District enjoys very high credit quality ratings for the size of District that we have we of course sell and issue our bonds with the AAA rating which is the highest credit quality in the United States Market based upon the permanent School fund guarantee but we also have doublea category underlying ratings and the analysts at Moody's and fit rating service they talk about your strong enrollment growth your stab stable financial position your elevated but manageable uh leverage uh and of course they recognize that as a growing district and a district that is in the state of Texas we fund our facilities with voted
156bonds and as a growing District we have more facility needs than the average so they talk about the um need to address those growth needs uh but all in all it is an outstanding report and a high level of underlying credit quality ratings on the next page just to review the bond election parameters we had four propositions a b and c passed uh the estimated tax rate increase to the voters was three cents for the interest in syncing fund portion of your tax rate we've raised that 2.9 uh cents this is also a growth model it's a multi-year plan it's a multi-year implementation of the buildings it's a multi-year finance plan uh and part of that is growth in the tax base at roughly 125% to be able to absorb that style of bond and
157that size of bond uh and that growth was over a fiveyear period we're one year into it and just like the construction folks talk about on time on budget the big picture here is we're on time we're on budget with the finance plan and of course the last part of the the bullet was the bonds be issued and completed as the growth requires and allows next page is your tax will value history um so when you look through this back in 1011 112 we were pretty flat in our tax base then we started hitting substantial growth in 1718 so you had a couple of years a 9% growth in 1718 and 1819 then we've begun our double digit growth beginning in 1920 so 14% growth uh 133% growth 11% growth in 26.5% growth and we
158were looking at those numbers going into the election and again the Baseline Bond model was an assumption of 12 a half% growth over a 5-year period clearly in 22 23 you had two years of growth in one year and then in red in 2324 uh you had 9% growth including the additional homestead exemption which reduced the gross level of taxable value increase there it shows 653 million it would have been substantially higher than that had we not had the additional homestead exemption in place of that homestead exemption uh we're getting state aid uh called Ash so it's a hold harmless state aid for our bond model that now is a part of our structuring as we go forward so again we had 7.8 billion when we sold our last Bond in July as the placeholder
159and that's where we landed but it did not include the hold harmless so the hold harmless C comes in uh to our finance model and our ins account and we did not need to draw down as much ins fund balance as was on paper so the next page is your tax rate and fund balance uh history of course in column three the ins tax rate uh was at 38.3 n it went up to 41 uh 0 29 Cent so 2.9 Cent increase your M rate in column two continues to be compressed uh you went from 94 cents down to 75.7 cents so a substantial tax rate reduction unfortunately unfortunately through the summer we did not get the state aid that was anticipated and expected and hence every board meeting I go to has a slide
160kind of what y'all talked about earlier is that we do have uh some financial budget issues that we have to work through because the state aid did not follow the tax compression so with that uh column seven is your ins fund balance uh it was 14.6 Million audited uh fiscal year ending 2023 we had a planed draw down of about 6 million of that uh for early amortization of principle from the last uh set of bonds that we sold we're looking at about three and A5 million uh again because the hold harmless came in uh for the bond model and the tax base was still at 7.8 billion so with that 11.3 million in the ins account is ultra healthy it's more than we need it is a part of the plan to utilize that
161overtime which allows us to advertise principal upfront in this three to fiveyear growth model that we have for our bond program so on the next page it's page seven bottom right uh uh in the slide show the interest in syncing fund cash flow there's a lot of numbers here but under the line August 23 you had 14.6 million audited August 31st 2024 I'm estimating that to be 11.3 million again the the draw down there of three and a. half million is substantially less than the 6 million that was in the model this time last year okay 14 million is not necessary as we draw that down it allows early amortization and principal retirement in the early years so when you look below the line the last two lines if you put our Target ins fund
162balance at about 7 7 A5 million we have about 4 million of excess ins fund balance that is going to be a part of our plan of Finance on a go forward basis on the next page is a look at our outstanding debt Service as I mentioned before we put a ton of principle in the first year uh of our first installment of the bonds that were approved by the voters that's Illustrated in the uh green and the line that goes up from 2024 going into next year we have a substantial current drop off in our outstanding debt service it's very flat thereafter and then it drops off again out long that is capacity to issue additional bonds with the same tax rate that we're currently levying as we move to the next page it
163talks about your on your outstanding bonds you're approaching optional Redemption dates I debated whether or not to put this slide in here but we do have some bonds that are currently callable uh it's my recommendation that we leave them outstanding and amortize the new bonds because that's more efficient uh than trying to pay off the existing bond some people would take a housekeeping approach of first in first out I'm taking a mathematical efficiency approach of which bonds do we need to move in to that drop off in debt service that you just saw in the first graph uh when you look at the call date in the middle column 2015 you had a refunding bond uh 2015 a school building Bond and a 2016 school building Bond we have upcoming call dates for a substantial
164amount of principal 37 million 70 million 40 million that call date is February of 2025 6 months from now we may be talking to you about debt management of those we may leave them exactly as they are we may try to pay down we may try to refinance them at lower interest rates so that's an item that's coming up 6 months from now but it's not a part of the plan today the plan today is focused on the issuance of bonds approved by voters to continue the construction projects that you saw on the screen so on the next page of the summary of our plan of Finance the amount to be issued in your second installment is 200 milon 689 843 that's 20 million from prop proposition a 150 million from proposition B and the
165balance 30, 689 from Proposition C this will be a negotiated underwriting just like our first installment dis amortization length is one year shorter we're going to keep it as the same length of the bonds that we issued a year ago even though we have authority to go the 30th year if we needed to but again we're on time on budget with our bond program and putting that in place uh for 29 years rather than 30 is perfect fine we're expecting the credit enhancement of the permanent School fund again which gives us the AAA rating the numbers you're going to see tonight are run at 4 and a half% that's about 05% above the current market so we're selling in the 4 to 415 range we're using 450 for our current budget we used a higher
166number pre-election so again our interest cost is under budget from where we were you know a year ago two years ago three years ago during the planning stages of the facility Improvement plan the bond structure is to be increasing over the next four years we're now one year into our Five-Year Plan uh so we have basically on paper three installments so three years of bond issuance five years of growth from the start we're now into four years of issuance if we sell bonds uh this spring then we'll have potentially one more installment next year that would be the three installments with a 5-year growth model uh the taxable value growth probably should have highlighted it but I can say it out loud it's now working this Bond model and the absorption of the bonds that
167were approved by voters at 88.3% on a foreca forecasted growth level rather than the need for 12 a half% so again the more that comes down the better off we're going to be and the easier it is to implement the entire uh authorization from the voters uh again we do plan utilizing some of that excess ins fund balance not the target ins fund balance but that amount that is over and above what we want to retain we anticipate using that and that's Illustrated on page 11 with the title at the top preliminary Bond program analysis what it looks like on paper is the blue bars are your outstanding debt service and we use the term net that's net of the hold harmless the uh columns in yellow are the implementation of of the series 24
168bonds that we're here tonight asking for approval to issue uh you can see in the 25 uh column that if we add the yellow bars to the U blue bars we'll be right at what 41.294104 to use that over a three-year and continue to monitor it anytime I can use the ins fund balance the excess amount it means that I can amortise more principal so your blue bar in 24 was a massive amount of amortization in the first year and you can see your uh first yellow bar is pretty sizable as well and again we can do that because of your debt management that you've employed in this district and the ins fund balance that you built up over time the pink or orange there is the implementation of the potential third installment we will
169talk about that this time next year and again it's a 5-year growth model up to a flat level uh and so that's the way it looks on graphically on paper the next page uh if we do in fact issue the 200 million 689 843 that will leave a74 mil 35644 in authorized but unissued bonds that balances a little over 42 million from the proposition a and a little over 32 million from proposition B and with the 30.7 million portion of this 200 million coming out of Proposition C that will exhaust that voted authorization the next page uh is the preliminary schedule events uh we're here in April seeking your Authority uh to issue this 200 plus million of bonds as the second installment you will be delegating authority to the administration to work with me
170to sign off on the Final sell and implementation of that we're doing this blind into next year's tax base because again we are on time and on budget there's nothing about next year's certified value that you're going to get in July that causes me any worry that I think I need to wait for it we have the fund balance there we have growth parameters that are actually going to exceed where we are and we have an interest rate that's conservative as well so we do not need to wait for the certified value in July to sell and issue uh this 200 million you will set the same ins tax rate that you set last year which is slightly below what the voters saw and approved as part of this Bond program by doing this here
171in the spring we will miss the traffic that comes in the summer we'll have a round of May elections uh those May elections will then have a 30-day contest period through June they'll get a certified value in July and they'll be selling in July and August so there's a very heavy amount of Texas school bonds that flood the market in July and August because of the time frame that they give us uh with respect to the election cycles that we have so with that if we uh move forward tonight uh we'll issue bonds probably the first week of May we'll close the first week of June the money will go into your construction fund uh and be invested in the similar fashion as the original 200 million that we issued a year ago and with
172that the last deal is the suggested motion it may be also in your packet but uh with that I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have uh regarding the second installment of the bonds I had a question um so I know what I'm trying to ask in my mind so bear with me so in my line work in addition to me being on the school board I'm I'm exposed to several different taxing entities City school and also ESD Emergency Services district and couple of weeks ago a counterpart similar to what I'm I'm assuming your role is gave a similar presentation in our ESD about the level of debt that we have on our books and I know no one one likes debt but I mean it's it's obviously necessary with the how
173much schools cost and and and so forth but they they they explained that there's a there's actually a sweet spot for your amount of debt that almost creates a tax shelter to where if you have a certain level of debt you're taxed at a lower rate so with that said is there anything similar within within a school district is there a sweet spot for the amount of debt that we should not exceed or we should not kind of kind of stay in the range of that that that's a good question and it goes fundamentally into everything that we do um there's there's not going to be a quote Sweet Spot in a school system because the amount of debt that we have in schools depends upon So Many Factors including often times growth so the
174districts do H that have to issue the most amount of bonds that been approved by voters are the ones that are growing and need new structures new spaces Etc so the other thing that goes into it is the age of our facility so we have some I can take you to some districts North and they're essentially brand new districts every building they have has been built in the past five years they got one building that's and then I take you to other districts and every building they have is 50 years old so that will factor into voted bonds what I can tell you is that Within in the Texas school and National School parameters of credit ratings uh debt analysis uh ins tax rate debt to assessed value uh you're well within any reasonable parameters
175of debt management and debt issuance uh for a growing District I would say that you probably have less debt than an equal counterpart with the same growth potential and the growth history uh you you enjoy a size of tax base it's not necessarily like some that I have that's oil and gas it's commercial and housing driven um but it's it's plenty sizable for the uh amount of debt that we're issuing when you go to the credit rating reports almost every school district I go in it will say quote elevated leverage almost everyone in Texas and that's because when you go to other states they don't all Finance their facilities with voted bonds okay they finance them out of a Statewide program or a Statewide financing mechanism or something like that and so in the state
176of Texas we're going to have more bonds outstanding than our counter Parts in other states Arkansas or wherever you want to go Missouri okay but on the flip side of that we carry far more general fund operating balance and Reserve than any of our neighbors do and so what we see is always great financial condition elevated debt but what I'm telling you as this District you're well below the maximum of 50 cents okay we have taxing Authority there that we could utilize if necessary and if the voters wanted to approve it so you're by no stretch I've got other districts that are growing they're at 50 cents and they also need to sell 200 million and that's on the ins s that is on the yes sir and so the old rule the old rule
177uh was uh a maximum of 10% of principal outstanding for the size of the tax base so debt to assess value and you're well below that as well and if you take out the state aid substantially below that so your debt metrics are well within a double a category and so we go AA a double a single a Triple B okay so Triple B is small small tax based small economy okay AAA is rare very rare except by the permanent School fund and as a school system you're in the able a category which is a long I've given you a long-winded explanation of credit rating agencies that are independent of me I'm an advocate for this school district I'm a fiduciary of the school district uh Independent Credit an analyst view you as a doublea
178worthy credit quality which means that we're neither overleveraged nor are we operating uh excessively we stay within our budget and we have a debt management plan that is well within reason uh going forward so if you want to look at statistics we want to be below 10% of debt to assess value because that was the old school kind of Maximum we want to be below 50 cents and then we want to implement this Bond program what's going to happen here is we're going to implement this Bond program it's going to be ahead of schedule financially uh we're going to implement it we're going to sell the next installment of bonds we have five years of growth built into the model you're going to start completing these buildings and then you're going to go back to
179the planning stages because it's never ending uh for this style of district and everything that we do with this Bond program where we advertise principal early uh and we make that we don't have 10 years of Leverage growth uh those are the factors that are going to make the next round of and next generation of facility needs that much more accessible from a fe Financial feasibility standpoint so there is no sweet spot because I can have two districts with the same number of students and one grew to that over the past three years by adding 10% of students that are going to have more bonds outstanding than this one I can take you to some some areas where uh we have the pet chemical business down on the Gulf Coast and they will move everything
180they can from the operating side they will finance the computer there and they'll move all of that they want more debt because it's mathematically more efficient so there's not one siiz fits all in Texas schools but I can report to you that where you are with respect to your debt management program you're perfectly sound and you you're illustrating some of the the the growth uh parameters right if we were just purely stable we might not need as much of these facilities that were working on so we would have less bonds outstanding but that's not our world so you're starting to exhibit some of the growth pressures that are reflected in the ins rate and in the ins debt level but you're well within uh the parameters that anyone would expect for a Texas school district
181with this uh situation any other questions from Mr W I just have a comment thank you Doug you're such a good teacher you're welcome yeah explain it all I'm hoping I answered that last question sufficiently oh yeah yeah thank thank you okay so before you any other questions if if there's not then when it comes time to make a motion again you're adopting an order authorizing the issuance of that amount of bonds that I just mentioned uh you're delegating authority to the administration and we'll be entering uh the bond market roughly the first week of May okay at this time I'll entertain a motion to approve action item a I move to adopt an order authorizing the issuance of school building bonds establishing the parameters for the sale of the bonds and delegating authority to
182the administration to approve the sale and execute the final documents motion by Mr mccuin second second by Mr stet Timber I'm sorry M Timberman I'm sorry any other discussion all in favor say I I poos say n Mo Carri 70 thank you sir thank you very much next action IEM be consideration with possible action to adopt a three- tier Transportation arrival and dismissal schedule for wsd campuses Dr a there we go how it's going woke up that's tough following that guy he is brilliantly smart um so thank you board thank you Dr hollinsworth uh as you remember we came and visited um last month about the proposal to shift our district from a two-tiered uh transportation and arrival and dismissal uh schedule to a three- tiered transportation and arrival and dismissal schedule again currently we
183are on a two-tier that that means we have our elementary schools arrive at one time and dismiss it another time then 45 minutes later our secondary campuses um start classes and then they have to have a dismissal later than that um this schedule does present significant challenges uh to us um it does utilize every single one of our available uh buses our equipment and as as you know over the past year um we we have had challenges with that uh this creates this creates limits in our system limits with the ability to uh take field trips with our students to have buses available at the end of the day for extracurricular activities um because all of our buses are needed to run routes it's also been pretty uh challenging as uh some of our Fleet
184is aging and we have ordered buses and re actually received some but as you know it takes a long time to build a bus it takes a long time for us to get get buses in so I'm going to talk about some of the uh benefits of moving to a three tier system uh um number one we did we did gather up a representative group of folks principles from elementary and secondary campuses Fine Arts director Sean Kagel um at the time interim athletic director U Shane tolison along with Coach Villers and and other members of of our athletic department and uh we we met multiple occasions to talk about this process and to decide kind of where we wanted to go um so one of the benefits of to move into a three- tiered uh
185system is that as I said earlier one of the challenges is not having equipment available uh during the day and and immediately after school because it's all being used is that we would have buses available um for extracurricular activities uh for field trips during the day and mentioned last meeting um because of the constraints of our of our equipment it's very difficult for us to get very far outside of our district for any length of time that before we have to come back so those buses are available to run routes um as one of our elementary principles said and I'll say it again you know we've been to the Dallas suit that's about as far as we can get without having to be there and then come right back um so that's that's one obviously
186uh one big benefit a significant cost savings and I'm going to kind of turn the mic over to Christian gria and let him talk about how uh this utilizes number number one our our equipment it basically adds to our equipment and I wanted to talk about um our driver use CU that was a question that was asked whether our drivers have to three routes or two routes talk about that please uh good evening boor evening Dr H uh so um the question was asked last time because I think that it's very common to think we're going to a three tier so now everybody does 33% more work we everybody does a third tier um but the reality is uh we still do two tiers we just do it in a different shift uh all of
187our drivers must do elementary but half of them them will do a junior high run and then half of them will do a high school run but because of the timing difference it allows our equipment to be available when we need them for field trips when we need them for uh daytime stuff U stuff things like that it opens up the equipment that we have to be a campus of choice and get our kids to different places and do things uh both for um educational purposes but also outside UIL stuff as well um um with that being said the two shift system really only works in a certain way we have to have all of our staff Drive Elementary and then half does junior high and half does High School how that plays out determines
188what we have discussed for our schedule where half of our staff will do a junior high and then Elementary and then half of our staff will do an elementary and high school if it's not in that format that timing we have at least half of our staff waiting to do another route um and it's very difficult to say hey take an unpaid 35 minute break while you wait for your next thing to do um so for the transportation side that's kind of how that works that's why I will open up uh probably 20 buses early in the morning after we drop off Elementary they can start getting on field trips we can start transporting our kids to different campuses and it also opens them up late uh early in the afternoon for field trips to
189come back utilize buses still taking our kids to different campuses and then for field trips after school we will get our kids buses that they want to go to any UI activity probably a good hour before we've been able to get it to them before with drivers as opposed to trying to find coaches so Christian if I'm correct and I want to make sure that that the board is following with this cuz this this is something that that we didn't have in in our presentation in in March and I want to make sure that this is clear so the way you have it arranged uh I drive a route I'm going to come in I drive a junior high route in the first that first segment and then I'm going to run that Elementary route
190and then I'm finished for my morning and correct okay other drivers are going to come in and and we're all going to have an elementary route so I'm going to run the other driver comes in David comes in he drives his Elementary route and then he drives the high school route correct correct so that so if if we reversed it so if I put Elementary first which is we heard an advocate for that today sir if I put Elementary first I'm going to drive my route uh for elementary but I'm a high school driver too so that means I'm going to sit idle during that middle route correct yes sir minutes of I got to wait for my next run correct and so that's the that's the piece that I I I needed the board
191to be sure and understand that is uh that was another reason we put that Elementary route set of routes in the middle yes sir that that's correct that was what did make sense to me this this makes more sense okay yes so and and with it being broken down like that you can see how not everybody's doing three different things you know because I think that's the most commonly thought of is well how is it saving money we're all doing three things well not necessarily so I I want to go back and kind of just again kind of remind uh because we went through this to the next slide real quick but you know this this is a proposed um uh start and end times um for our three tiers our three campus uh arrival
192and dismissal times for students um Junior High um 7:30 to 3:05 Elementary 805 340 and high school um 84415 I know there's been some questions about you know uh I know one one of the comments earlier um and just looking at the schedule that that comment makes a lot of sense you know well 7 uh 7:30 or 7:20 is only a few minutes different why not just uh shift um excuse me I'm sorry I got caught up we start at 7:40 right now Elementary mov to 7:30 that's only 10 minutes different why don't we leave it the same I think Mr Gripper pretty effectively explained that also um another main concern that we have it's a concern now and it will be even more a concern to shift elementary students 10 minutes earlier in the
193day um this is a safety issue that our transportation department is very concerned about younger children smaller children um less visible uh people out waiting at a bus stop and in the early in the earlier morning it just is something that is U it's it's scary so that they're trying to avoid that and to be honest not to use a a bad word or I'm not trying to be um alarmist but it is it is scary to think about that so that's that is another reason um there's been some talk you know uh why not high school first um we know that Mansfield runs high school first uh when we sat down and talked in our our committee group we looked at several different factors obviously um extracurriculars are very important in our district Athletics
194is very important band is very important um the fact that we have um academics is very important we have multiple uh students involved in in Zero Hour academic courses that meet in the morning prior to uh school starting today I mean I have one that lives in my house that does the same thing does every morning 7:30 is when your hour of class think about how early that would be if we shift high school first to 7:30 start um and the thought was initially we'll just slip that to a ninth hour as we thought as we thought and talked through that as a student stays to a 9th hour well we know when extracurricular things a lot of times happen they happen after school and if the school's out the extric activi is going on
195practices rehearsals whatever having that 9th hour is just uh not exactly as logistically easy as having it in the morning it's going to be it's going to be a conflict uh so several factors involved there I know we did we did we we also heard um a reference to research and I can't quote the research study that I read um but we do know that adolescent circadian rhythms are different than adults some some adults stick with their adolescent circadian rhythms but we know that high school kids tend to function better a little bit later in the morning um I know that Junior High kids are teenagers but as at the same time we also have high school students who are involved in things later in the day and we also know that many of them
196do work and they work after school and so starting a little bit later does does does help that for them too uh so anyway um I'm I'm here to ask answer any questions I do have a few other uh you know frequently asked or as questions that we were asking how does this impact Junior High extracurricular activities I do have some backup with me I do have Coach Tyson coach Rogers and Mr Kagel if we have any questions with them they'll be happy to come up and talk but we have looked at you know will that mean our Junior High Athletics would have to start a little earlier the answer is yes um I I'm told by my our athletic staff that a 615 report start is not typically abnormal for junior high um what
197they're looking for in the morning and again correct me if I'm wrong if I say anything wrong football-wise these guys are the experts what they're really looking for is about a 40 to 45 minute period offense defense I'm talking football right now but that's in the morning and we know not to put added emphasis on just one sport but we also know that that that particular sport takes a little more time to get transitioned into and out of equipment okay it takes a little more time to get transitioned into and out of the Fieldhouse and the field of play and back and back and forth versus Court sport um how would this impact band sectionals that question was asked as well um with with a dismissal time of of of 305 um band sectionals could
198obviously occur immediately following after school in fact they they already do now and some sometimes sometimes they happen in the morning we can shift after the afternoon and we believe that would might be a problem after we've talked to our five hour folks um tennis is another question that was asked right now all of our Junior High tennis does meet at Coleman that's where the junior high courts are I talking to our tennis coach um his plan would be for actually tennis tennis Junior High tennis to report to whhs have have practice in the morning about a 6:30 start we have lighting courts there and then they would be transported to their home campuses after that because their athletic period will be first period so again um I've been doing a lot of talking uh
199but I'm here to answer any questions if there's a specific question from one of our other experts I'll be happy to have them come up um so and I appreciate your time and your consideration H how many additional buses would we need if we stayed on a two-tier system just out of curiosity in order for us to do to uh in order for us to do what we'll be able to do with a three tier system we would need a minimum of no no if we remained on a two-tier system how many additional buses would we need to effectively do what we would need to do at minimum I'd say eight we probably need 10 really to do it right I have a question it's for Dr a uh it's just U I'm hearing a
200lot from the public and I wonder if there's any way we could look into check out how we could do it work with the wild whatever but provide some kind of facility hub for those um teachers and the public that have a real problem like the woman said she cannot leave uh walk hatche at 7:30 and get to work so so maybe if we could look into um something to accommodate them that would make it a better sale uh to make it it better I I'm behind the three- tier system sure I just I have a real problem with uh I mean you have some elementary students that are dropped off now before the school opens right so so now they could be standing out there even longer that that that's my concern as well
201how do we address that I think that's a good question and and I have no problem of us U entertaining and talking to the why I know they've been great Partners particularly for after school care on some of our campuses um one of those things we could do is you know we have we have folks that are on duty we can shift an individual's Duty schedule during the day they make it be an early arrival and and an early departure Duty schedule to help kind of manage that if that if that's necessary um I think um I believe in our principles I believe they're they're they're creative and I believe they'll find ways to to make things work if if we have that kind of an issue um so yeah but I'm I'm definitely open
202to that I would feel more comfortable if that was an option the doors open earlier and if you need to shift schedule that way Mom can still drop kid off at school him not have to wait outside till the doors open till 7:30 and knowing that they're inside a building being watched by an adult I know that in some of our PD uh offerings that we've had for staff Etc we found the why to be really good partners with us and that's the kind of organization that we can partner with to to find some options that are really lowcost and and uh easily available to our our families we will absolutely explore those yeah I'd just like to see the options be available I mean you know as to explore it please thank you yes
203ma'am yes ma'am and to uh president A's point I mean I I I do think um we we can make shifts in in in in Daily schedules to make sure we're covered um sometimes that that means an admin team that's that's there early you know that's what happens now I I just think that needs to be a concentrated effort for us to figure out how to accommodate that age group I don't know is it 15 minutes 30 I don't know but that that's I I know everyone up here received the same email as I did and that seemed to be the the the one area of concern yes sir were parents ever asked their opinion can't take um I personally like the um suggestion of switching around the schedules because that would be no cost
204to the parents I hate to throw costs on the parents with the wife because that does cost money um but I like shifting schedules we can absolutely work with our principles Miss Timberman to find some options uh looking at how we have our current staff because we have control over that and we've I can tell you as a high school principal I always had staff who wanted to be there early and they're they early on on a daily basis and some of them we can flex and and get them out earlier I I will see you another thing that we have talked about is looking at one place we have some discretion is relative to our overall uh Duty day requirements that we have for our teachers we have one of the longer due today
205requirements as we compare ourselves to our peers there's several of our peers that that have flexed that and that's a a shorter Duty day that's one way that we can work with our staff as we change change these hours on them yes I just wanted to throw it out there that we need to be looking at something to accommodate these parents and I just threw out the why but of course campus on campus would be fantastic anything we can do thank you yes ma'am Mr grip I had a question for you um you have experience in a previous District running running a three- tier system two previous districts yes sir okay um one of them had uh was uh high school elementary middle school and the other one was elementary middle high school but they
206were both three tier yes sir yeah I I just wanted to say that I I don't think this is a hell Mary on the behalf of of of our Administration trying to trying to fix something I think that it's truly something that that as we grow we're going to have to have to transition to and just like in my line of work if if I go to my city manager and propose something then I have to I have to be accountable for that and and unless I'm mistaken none of us up here are bus route experts we have to rely on you sure to to know that that this is not just a hell Mary that you actually believe in it and trust it and confident that it's going to work but also if it
207doesn't you know there's accountability there so um I get the feel that that you know our Administration believes in this and and and I'm not an expert I I don't keep track of 64 bus routes I I can't account for what what the best way to do that is um so I just want to say that you we we have to trust you guys because y'all are the experts right well and I appreciate that and that has not been taken lately we we know that as well um and every district is a little bit different and every Community is a little bit different and the way that we find this works the best we kind of rely on best decisions we can make for the whole but that has not been taken lately well just
208like resoning it's not going to please everybody sure um sure but we have to look at what's best for the majority and entirety um so you know we do the best we can in that regard right well I appreciate that and I appreciate the trust but I mean I just I can't express enough that there's been so many hours put in by so many different parts of this to try to make sure we've done the best for our community and so yet we haven't taken that L and I'll elaborate a little bit that I'm going to trust that we're going to look at a system to where we will have the ability for our elementary kids to enter the building earlier well I would I would say to that that we absolutely are because we
209already have in the sense that we we already have partnered with the YMCA after school you know that that that that question is still two different size of the same coin for each parent that goes man I have a problem early there are the parent that's go man I have a problem late sure and so walk ISD has already hey look we're going to partner with YMCA we're going to do this that to take care of our community to do this on the other end is just going to be another feather in the cap of we will take care of our community and will be done any other questions okay at this time I'll entertain a motion to approve action item b as presented so Move Motion by Mr Timberman second by Mr Rogers all
210in favor say I I all opposed say nay motion carries 61 duly noted thank you Mr schoolfield thank you board okay action item C with consideration of possible action to approve the rule of classroom facilitator designation to help retain and support zerye staff seeking an alternative certification hello Bo we're bringing you the role of classroom facilitator for approval to help retain and support our zero your staff seeking an alternative certification the role would allow those who have enrolled in an alternative certification program but do not yet have an intern or probationary certificate to be full-time staff member members who receive benefits currently these folks are long-term Subs who receive no benefits their salary will be $440,000 and candidates must hold a bachelor's degree and be enrolled in an alternative certification program they'll receive support from
211both campus and District mentors and uh candidates will move to the status of teacher once they've completed the um completed requirements to receive a certification this slide will show you the timelines for the individuals who would be hired under this role and our expectation would not change in the sense that we would expect them to receive that statement of Eligibility prior to spring break each year um the role is meant to be temporary and to move them to teacher status as quickly as possible U I'm sorry M Balter is this planned for this year or is this something this would be with our 2425 hires in Future Okay so we're going to continue to try to recruit um absolutely um certified teachers and then and then this is just in case we can't yes ma'am
212any other questions okay I'll entertain a motion to approve action item c as presented so Move Motion by Mr McCutchen have a second second by Mr schoolfield any other discussion all in favor say I I poos say nay motion carries 70 all right action item D consideration with possible action to approve a proposed amendment to WID board policy FM local regarding the potential scheduling of school activities on Sundays Mr President uh I I want to make a very simple uh suggested Amendment uh proposed amendment to FM local currently FM local reads in so far as possible school activities shall not be scheduled on Wednesday nights and Sundays school activities scheduled for Sundays shall be restricted to those having to do with graduation exercises and those of an emergency nature uh which shall be approved by
213the superintendent or designate uh we we are proposing that we remove the verbiage that states shall be restricted to those having to do with graduation exercises and those of an emergency nature simply to give ourselves the ability uh when needed to draw exceptions to that it is not intended to be in any way liberal with the use of that we know that that does not match up with our community's values uh we simply want to have the ability to be able to do that that uh in certain cases that benefit our kids if we have uh uh activities uh tournaments Etc that we feel like will specifically benefit large groups of walks hatche kids then that's something that we have the ability to be able to draw an exception to questions for Dr hollingwood um
214I just have a statement Dr holsworth I'd really like to see it very limited I do not want and I do not want to see staff um our staff uh working on Sundays that idea as a former teacher that just S I don't know it just is unreal to me to think of our staff being having to work on a Sunday uh but we really I'd like to see it very limited uh because the thought of our mainly because of our staff and I know there's opportunities for kids and that's great and I know that some people don't have the same ideas I do about it but I do think that most of our staff like to be either go to church or be off on Sundays so yes ma'am and and I I want
215to agree with you and I'll tell you that it says in so far as possible school activities shall not be scheduled on Wednesday nights and Sundays uh and and that's still that verbage would still be in place and just it gives us a little bit of flexibility to be able to make such Chang changes but yes ma'am those decisions could be made on whether to approve or Den not based on staff availability absolutely correct yes sir absolutely any other questions okay I'll entertain a motion to approve action item d as presented motion by Mr starn the second second second by Mr Rogers any other discussion all in favor say I post say name motion carry 70 our last action item will be consideration of possible actual consideration and possible action regarding reports I move that
216the board authorize the board president with the assistance of our board's legal counsel to proceed as discussed in close session motion by Mr Rogers second second by Mr tman any other discussion all in favor say I I oppos say nay motion carries 70 at this time the board is going to reconvene back into Clos session according to section 5511 at SEC the Texas government code it is now 9:10 p.m. e 44 the board is going to reconvene back into Open session last thing on our agenda would be our comments from Individual board members is there any individual like to say anything this evening I have one really quick thing to say uh just that Ruthie Sutton was a wonderful educator and she's going to be missed in our community and that's severely cutting down what
217I had to say but anyone else okay at this time I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion by Mrs kgal second by second Mrs Timberman all in favor say I I post say Nate Mo carry 70 thank you very much