001Good evening and welcome to the meeting of the White House ISD board of trustees. I call this meeting to order. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present that the meeting has been duly called and notice the meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act Government Code Chapter 551. will now convene into executive session pursuant to Texas government code section 551.074 through 551.084 We pledge of our fifth grade student council members, one of our superstar students. I aliance to the flag. >> Help her with the microphone. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Tonight's brief introductory remarks by will be given by
002Mrs. Conway. >> Just bow with me. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. God, thank you for this district and this city. Pray that you would be with us and help us to make decisions that are in the best interest of all those that we serve. It's in your holy and precious name I pray. Amen. >> Have you introduce Mr. Dean again and and his staff for the Lone Star Award. >> Yes, absolutely. Well, tonight we are going to recognize Stanton Smith as the Lone Star Ribbon recipient for White House ISD. Tonight, Stanton Smith is going to be represented by Principal Greg Dean and Assistant Principal Brittney Garrett. So, if you two could join me up here, please. So last spring we learned that Stanton Smith was nominated to be a blue ribbon school
003um as a result of their exemplary academic performance. Um they submitted the application and were selected as a blue ribbian ribbon uh recipient only for that program to be transferred down to the state level leadership now known as the n as the um lonear ribbon schools. Uh tonight we celebrate this achievement for Stanton Smith as one of only 25 schools in the over 10,800 schools in the state of Texas to receive this honor. So we have a banner tonight to present to Stanton Smith recognizing your achievement um as well as a plaque um honoring you as an inaugural uh Lone Star ribbon campus. >> Same. Yes. certifications. Well, congratulations again. That really is uh in rare company. So, well done. Well done. We did not have anyone sign up for open forum this evening. Uh
004so, This is our information items. And first off, we'll have the Hutchkins and the White House ISD Education Foundation. >> Um, hi Kelly Flanigan. Nice to see you guys. The shares president. >> Look like Mr. Hutchkins. >> No, >> this is Chad. He's coming up here too. who's the VP of um grants. Good to see so many of y'all who have actually been on the education foundation and several past presidents. So, thank you all for serving and your commitment as school board members to the education foundation. Um since 12 years, we have given over a million dollars away, which is amazing to the teachers. Um so, let's just start by reading our mission. Our mission is to connect our community to support, promote, and inspire educators by funding imaginative and creative opportunities in White House
005ISD. And our vision is an engaged community where inspired educators are exceptional opportunities, where inspired educators and exceptional opportunities are available to all students. And then Chad's going to tell us a little bit about this year and what we're able to fund. >> All right. So, yes. So, um, this year, usually how it works is the previous year, uh, the money that we raised to the community members, business owners, teachers, parents, anyone in the community that's involved. Things we raised last year is is what we're able to give to the teachers this year to the grants. And so, this year we're able to give away over $127,000, which is the most by far we've ever given away. Uh, it's 23% increase over last year. And last year was a huge year for us. A lot
006of that's due to um our spring celebration of innovation event we have. Uh the fundraising there was significantly more than we've done in the past. So a lot to give away this year. So it's pretty exciting year. Another thing that may not be known is is that when the founders started the foundation um they they put aside 10% each year of the raised funds to towards an endowment. Um, right now we've just crossed the 100,000 mark on that and we've properly put into an endowment fund um to start making money on that that endowment. Um, we don't know what we're going to do with it yet. That's still kind of up for discussion and um, you know, maybe we just keep growing it till it it has significant returns that we can do something with.
007So, um, big numbers is great. Big numbers are good. So, we have three grant cycles throughout throughout the year. Um the one we just completed is our fall grant cycle. So that ended on Halloween, October 31st with our surprise patrol. And many of you in the community and maybe on the board have been to the surprise patrol and it's a blast. We have giant checks with uh several community members, board members. Uh we have the band with us, drum line, cheerleaders, first ladies. Uh we come to all the campuses and make a big ruckus and give away a lot of money. And so it's it's a fun day. It's an exciting day. It gets gets everyone excited and hyped up for uh just things that the teachers wouldn't normally be able to do. Uh now
008they're like, we got our money, we can do this awesome thing in the classroom now. Um so this year we gave away over $92,000 for the fall grants and that was across 36 grants and that's 38% increase over the previous year and 20% more grants were funded. Uh again, just more money to give away this year and we're able to spread it even further. Uh, one thing that we have pushed the last couple years is our community partners. So, we've asked the teachers like, hey, if you can get the community involved on certain ideas, um, you know, see if they'll put in financially if they can get behind an idea and that they get points for that, um, on the graded rubric. And so this year, uh, they, the teachers themselves raised over $14,000 for
009their grants. They went out into the community and said, "Hey, will you fund this thing?" And so that that's a really neat thing. So, just a few graphs here just to kind of show you the campus breakdown. Um, pretty even across the board. Brown went a little crazy this year and uh they wrote a lot of grants and received a lot of grants. Um, but this is pretty typical of what we've seen with Brown maybe overperforming there. >> And it is an anonymous process though. So, when the graders go through, they don't know which campus. >> And then this is Grant's granted by grade level. So, you can see the early years and this is pretty this is pretty much what it looks like every year. The elementary schools have a lot more grants than
010the the older grades uh just due to the ideas that that come up and um I don't know that's that's pretty typical of what we've seen. And like I said, we have other grant cycles that are going on throughout the year. I just want to speak to those real quick. We have the on the spot grants that was new last year. And this is something that's maybe a teacher has a need that comes up that's just it's not in the fall grants, not in the spring grants, but they need money now to help them. And so it's something that's very timesensitive. They can ask for up to $1,000 and we can approve it within just a few days. Um last year's great example of this was a a vision impaired student at one of the
011elementary schools. Just as school was starting, the teacher found out that she was going to have that student and had nothing to help her with. Uh, and so they wrote an on the spot grant, got all sorts of cool materials to help a visually impaired student and it was a great celebration. The student had all sorts of things that that she could have that will carry through with her through her entire elementary experience. Wildcat Den, that's this spring and so applications for that will open this month. Wildcat did is fun. It's it's not a written application competition like the fall is. This is like the show Shark Tank. It's a live judges. They put in applications, we pick some finalists, and then one Saturday in February, February 7th, actually, we'll get up on stage and
012they'll present to live judges, and they get they get grilled by the judges and ask questions, and then judges go off into the secret room and talk about who's going to fund what, and we come back out and see who's getting the money. So, it's a really fun event. Opportunities to get involved. Um, so coming up recently is Tuesday, December 2nd. So after all the turkey and Black Friday Madness, um, Giving Tuesday is a a day that a lot of a lot of organizations around East Texas will be saying, "Hey, you know, if you if you want to give now, um, you know, this is the day you can give." And so we do participate in that. And that's December 2nd. You'll see more information about that as it comes along. Um, our celebration of
013innovation this year, you can save the date. is February 27th and this year we're at the WT Brookers Conference Center there in Tyler. The event is Denim and Pearls, but it's it's always a fun event. Lots of people there, lots of good food, lots of good company, um fun um auction opportunities, live auctions. It's just a really fun fundraising event for for our group. But if if you want to go to this year, tickets will be on sale later this year. And if you're interested in sponsorships, underwriting, silent auction opportunities are all available. That's all I got, but happy to answer any questions with the board and just thank you so much for your support. It's so much fun to be involved with this group and I'm glad we're we're able to have the impact
014that we're able to have. You have any questions? >> Either one of you have a favorite grant that y'all gave out this year. >> The high school did a SWAT team, Officer Lemon. So that's really cool. They're starting that for his criminal justice program. I'm excited about that. >> My my son's back there. He said the silent disco grant. So, I don't know if anybody's been to a silent disco, but you you know, you go to everybody has headphones on, you can't hear anything, but there's a a DJ or two that's playing certain songs. And if you're in there looking at it, not without headsets, it's completely quiet, but you see all these kids just dancing around having fun. So, it's a really fun It'll be a really fun one. So, James is looking forward
015to that one. >> There's a lot of really good ones this year, so it's fun. Exciting. >> Y >> Kelly, thanks for your leadership and thanks for all your work on it and and all that the the board does for it because it's a it's a huge boon to the district and seems like it just gets better and bigger every single year. So that's that's awesome. So thank you very much. Okay. And uh we're back to Mr. Dean again. So Dr. Taylor is gonna introduce >> Yes. Exactly. So your >> your RI teachers. >> All right. Well, no stranger to tonight's meeting, uh Mr. Dean, he's gonna come back up here in a second. Uh, but before he does, um, I just want to say, you know, when you ask, uh, some of the Stanton
016Smith staff what contributes to their success, a lot of the team is going to say that the hard work of the RTI team is part of what sets their students up to be successful. Uh, so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Dean, who's going to introduce his team, and they're going to tell you a little bit about what they do. >> Well, I agree with Dr. These two here are major major factor to our success. How long you stand? >> This will be my 10th year. >> Yes sir. >> So this hand is our K2 teacher. They are a joy to work with a lot of amazing things. So we're gonna try to give you a picture of that. Why don't you start off by telling us? >> Okay. So, thank
017you for having us. Yeah, we are so happy to be here. One of the things I love about White House is how well they care for teachers and for students. I feel that personally, but also I feel like professionally intervention is one of the ways that we truly care for and love our students. I like to describe RTI or intervention to someone who has never heard of it or knows what it is as sort of like a healthare unit. Now, I realize that some of you are very real doctors. >> So, I hope this analogy goes well, but I feel like it's sort of like a healthare unit. Every single student who walks through our doors gets kind of a full work, a full line of assessments. We look at them academically. We look at
018their vision. We look at their hearing. We talk to their the experts. And one of the things that Sarah and I get to do is sort of gather all of that information and sort of make sure that our students are the healthiest version of themselves. Our day-to-day life really looks like um finding those students who are struggling a little bit, identifying their needs and where they are struggling, and then developing and implementing a plan to care for them to help them be the best version of themselves. Now, sometimes a was really struggling. It looks less like a healthare unit and more like an ER or a hospital. Um sort of like after co a lot of our kids were really really struggling and we had to give them some more intense interventions and that's what
019we do too. So we do sort of the healthare unit and the ER. I like to think that Stan Smith and White House our intervention program is more like a healthare unit and less like a hospital which is a really great place to be and we are so grateful because I think White House apart from other districts is really um you guys and the staff and the teachers really help our kids and we are able to help them be the best. I could go on and on but we only had a few minutes. Um so there's a quote that rings true kind of in our world that I've always thought about ever since I started RCI and it's by Maya Angelou and she says you know they're not going to remember what you said. They're
020not going to remember what you did, but they are going to remember how you made them feel. And so with the types of students that come through our class um daily, that is so true. Um they really have to feel that love and support and really they just need someone to believe in them. Um there's many times that, you know, we we get these children and they come in and really they just needed confidence. You know, maybe they didn't need a full work up like Michelle said, but they absolutely needed And sometimes when they get that, man, they just blossom. They grow. Um, and so really there's so many benefits, but I would say probably the biggest is just getting to show these students that we love them, that we care for them, and then
021the rest just normally comes after that. they can recite it. If you walk into my room, they say, "I'm surrounded by love and who you know, you know, and we go through all and then they say I can do hard things." We've all heard that before. But I think the biggest thing is that they say, "I'm proud of myself." And the reason they are proud of themselves is because they do the hard things. And we list the hard things that they've done. I mean, especially our students, the ones that are struggling, the ones that have a hard time in the classroom and that feel the way they do. When they come to us and they learn that when they do those hard things, that's what makes us proud and that they're loved. I mean, come
022on. We tell tell myself that sometimes I'm surrounded by love. I can do hard things. I'm proud of myself. And if they can believe that as a student, >> I mean, and they have that in their head. I mean, that's what >> Okay, so this is a question we wish all of our teachers were are standing here to get their take on it. Um, because they truly we truly are able to not only the students but the teachers as well. Um we all know that teachers have a million things on their plates. Um and so you know even if it's taking that child from the classroom to remove the distraction for that child or whether we're meeting with the child oneonone um we truly are able to to alleviate that pressure from our teachers and
023we are able to do things that our teachers just absolutely can't um do alone. I'm going to quote you Dr. >> Little leadership equals >> to create an environment where everyone can do their best work. And so we want to do that obviously for our students, but we also want to do that for our teachers as well. And I think that like I said, if you could ask them, they they truly truly truly believe in our intervention program and they're thankful that we are there um to do the things that they can't all do by themselves. How does also I shouldn't say but a track record I'm gonna s she doesn't do it very often but there are so we are sort of nerds I mean we don't I think that's kind of that but
024we are and um we have really tracked data over the last 10 years in intervention and we've been able to see that like through our math data students came into Stanton Smith kindergarteners came in below the district norm and year after year they would leave us above the district norm in fifth grade. Sarah does third through fifth grade um which start um if you are in our intervention program we truly believe you are going to be the best version of yourself and Sarah we've l we've looked back um almost every single one of our students over the years has passed the start we looked at 98% so between the two of us we see 80 to 90 students per year and so maybe that's one every other year that doesn't pass I mean that's catch
025them So yes, she's she's giving credit to me, but credit goes to her as well because we're catching them early and we're intervening early. >> Um, you know, and so there's it's a team effort. >> How does it work from a mechanical standpoint? How do you identify the kids that need it? And then when you do identify them, how much time do they spend with you? Is it do they come and go or is it once in or they in for a while or >> Yes, as long as they need to be is the answer. Um, ideally it's until they are back on grade level and confident releasing them. But we gather all that data. We have spreadsheets and we identify how many red flags do they have and the students with several red flags.
026We sit together in a group um with teachers. We gather parent information with administrators and we say, "Okay, this student looks all of a sudden like they're struggling. What's going on?" And we really do need us a day, four days a week. It can be 20 minutes. It can be in a small group. It can be oneonone. really depends on the student and what they need and what we decide as a group team. It's a team effort. I mean, it's incredible that I've never been in a district that we have these teams that form around students. So, if you send your child to any student in White House really, but Stanton Smith, if they are struggling, it's not just the classroom teacher that says, "What can I do?" It is literally a team of people
027that come around and say, "Okay, what is going on? We need to figure this out. How you know, fix it, not fix it, but help this child be the best they can be. And then we do it. And it's like we always say, we we constantly have multiple sets of eyes and they may not be in our intervention yet. We're watching others that are maybe on the border. So, we can say, hey, you know, oh my goodness, what's happening with this certain particular student? So, we're constantly just checking in and and making sure that every student does not go unnoticed. >> She said no stone unturned. >> No stone unturned. We look every single student. No student will fly under the radar. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you for having us. >>
028Appreciate all the work. >> All right, Dr. Taylor, while you're there, talk about grading guidelines. >> Absolutely. Let me pop back up here. Seems that no one was interested in grading guidelines. >> Oh man, y'all are gonna miss the good stuff. >> All right. Well, Dr. Robbie, Dr. Whittle, and trustees tonight, I'm going to give a brief update on the state of our grading guidelines in the district, both kind of to just kind of help us understand where they come from, um, and the future work that we're doing around grading in the district. Um, so when we think about grades and how that relates to our board goals, the grades that we assign students, that's really a way that we communicate to our students and to their families their progress um, and their academic achievement.
029Um, so in the process of creating guidelines that govern how we approach grading, that's really rooted in three things. Uh, first would be current best practice. So looking at um kind of that researchbased connection of how do grades impact student learning? What are they communicating to our students and to their families? Um it's also based on board policy both EIA legal and local. So there's policies that govern the rules um around giving grades to students. Um and also the Texas education code. Those are the three primary areas um which we have to make sure that our local grading guidelines adhere to. Um so the thing that's tricky about our grading guidelines is that they have to work for students like this. Um and you see our esteemed superintendent there in the lovely hat. That's a
030great photo. Um but our our grading guidelines have to work for our youngest students and they also have to work for our biggest students, our oldest students as well. Um here we see our CTE students in the culinary program uh that were providing lunch at our recent CTE stakeholder advisory committee meeting. So as you can see um we serve a wide variety of ages and interest in our district and our grading policy has to work for all of the students and all of the teachers um that are a part of the work that we do. So, in order to make that work, um, our grading guidelines are somewhat progressive in that in the early grades in preK, kinder, and first, we're not actually giving numerical grades. We practice what's called standardsbased grading. So, that is
031a very intricate process of the teacher and the curriculum team actually looking at what are the most critical standards um, in those early grades. and they are um not constantly but they are very frequently monitoring student progress. So students have multiple chances and multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of those standards and the goals to get everyone to mastery. Um but in those early grades that sometimes takes the timeline to get there sometimes looks a little bit different. When our students start in second grade, they start receiving those traditional, you know, ABC 9080 grades that we are accustomed to when we think about grading. Uh, but we have them equally weighted, meaning that we don't give more value to a daily grade than a test grade. Um, it's all equal. Um, and then when students go
032into third, fourth, and fifth grade, we start to see that differentiation in how we weight grades. Um, but at that point we're still looking at the daily grades weighing more heavily than the test grades. We're trying to not make testing a scary thing for kids. Um, we're recognizing that the work that they do on a daily basis uh gives us a very cumulative picture of what students are know and are able to do. Um, and then that transitions our students into the middle years into grades six through eight where we start to have a 50-50 split where 50% of their grade is weighted based on those daily work assignments and 50% is based on major grades and assessments. Now, by nature, what starts to happen is you've got more daily grades than you do test
033grades. So even though they're equally weighted, those test grades have a little bit more influence on the students final grade per grading cycle and for the semester. Um, and that carries into our high school courses as well. Uh, something I want to point out here is that high school courses start for some of our students in junior high. So when a student takes an onle high school course, we still have that 5050 grade split. However, for our advanced level courses, those would be honors, dual credit, and AP courses, we do have a 4060 split with 40% of the grade coming from the students daily work and 60% coming from assessment grades. Uh, you know, as our students come through the system and as they are getting ready to be collegebound, we know that the uh
034their ability to take tests, the importance of those tests, it begins to increase. And so we feel like this progressive system allows them to be ready for that by the time that they get there. Um so grading guidelines are something that just need to be revisited from time to time to make sure that we are staying current on best practices. Uh so some work that's already been done is a review by our curriculum team of grading procedures across 18 districts. Uh we looked at other districts in the state uh some bigger than us, some smaller than us. Um but just to see how are we aligned and what other ideas are out there that we might want to talk about bringing into our system here in White House. Uh currently we are forming a a
035committee of admin and teachers and counselors to do a thorough look at what we have in place and possibly bring in some some new ideas to refresh the grading policies. uh in January that committee is going to start in earnest on that work and the goal is to have guidelines revised and in place for implementation in the 2627 school year. So that's an overview kind of of what the guidelines are, our current work towards revision and um just our bu you know desire to kind of explore and make sure that we're still taking part in current best practices. So with that um I'm happy to have any discussion or questions that you guys might have about this process. >> You've already been looking at the 18 other >> Yeah, we did last spring. We took
036a look at 18 different districts just to kind of um make note of what there's a lot of areas where we're aligned of course, but there were some ideas and some ways that we thought we could maybe strengthen our current policy kind of keeping uh student success of course at the forefront of of what we're trying to achieve with our policies. >> What we have right now is what we've had for how long? >> We do revise it every year. So I would say uh two years ago we made some changes around uh kind of giving some more grace as it relates to late assignments. Um making sure that there's provisions in place for makeup work. Um so they've they've remained relatively unchanged. However, we do revisit them every year. Um, I would say, um,
037I don't know when the last time the board policy was adopted, but that was probably the last time that there was a major revision. >> And this doesn't affect the ranking system. This is just great question. Yeah, this is just um taking a look at the practices that contribute to grading. So, when we think about the students nine weeks grades, their semester grades, no, it does not impact the ranking process that we took a look at last year. And I think this is um something that came up last year as we talked to teachers and across the district um like how many grades do you put in the gradebook a week because as as Dr. Hiller mentioned, it is a communication tool that you are letting parents and guardians know how their student is performing.
038Well, if a teacher waits three weeks to put any grades in, we're not communicating anything. And you can imagine as a as a as a parent, all of a sudden your kid has a hundred, right? And then all of a sudden has five failing grades. uh we don't we want to make sure that what's written is what we're doing and that we're communicating well and that uh our our policies are matching our practices. So, just a good time to kind of sit back and ask our teachers uh what are we doing well and what do we need to improve on? >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great way to think about it as a framework. Uh, so really it's very general. Those policies are very general. Uh, stating that we as a district
039have to have policies and procedures in place and that we have to communicate those policies and procedures. Yeah. just that, you know, within a district, we have to have a a fair and consistent way that we're applying grades so that regardless of which elementary campus you're at, for example, we're following the same process for how we capture and record those grades. >> Sure. Yeah, that that's a that's a fair point. Um, I will say policy also does address kind of how when a student enters into the system and class ranking. I will also say that the good news too is that there's not anywhere where we're really out of misalignment with peer districts. Um, but to speak to what Dr. Dr. Widow was saying like I can give you a concrete example of um you
040know a grade being entered. You know we our students if they fail an assessment they're able to they're eligible for reteing and reassessment right the policy says that they have five days from the time of the grade to come in and do that reteing and take that reassessment. Um so sometimes you might have a teacher who interprets that very literally like well I gave the test on Monday. I didn't put the grade in the grade book until Wednesday. The student didn't see their grade till Friday, but oh, now it's too late. We don't want things like that to happen. So, one of the policies that we saw in another district was explicit to say that it's five days from the date that the grade was entered in the grade book that the clock starts. So,
041it's just kind of an opportunity to see like where do we have gaps? And that's where our teacher voice is so important to say like, hey, how are you interpreting this? How can we make this stronger and strengthen it so that again we're as consistent as possible? >> Yeah. And I'll tell you a couple other just another example is >> if you have an English three teacher uh on one side of the hallway and another English three teacher on the other side of the hallway. >> This teacher gives 20 points extra credit for a test because you brought Kleenexes, but this teacher doesn't. you can see kind of the when you start think about class rank and and GPA and how and so it's important that we come in and kind of establish some of
042these parameters so it doesn't matter the lottery doesn't matter. So when you get this English teacher you still have the same expectation of grades and so that there is a fair uh and level playing field if that makes sense. So it's important to kind of go back like some teachers give a free hundred if you bring crayons to school other teachers don't and then are you creating some some uh question. >> Absolutely have um Okay, so I understand these policies that you're talking about. What about for our teachers in posting these grades? That's something I hear periodically as a frustration from a parent >> or a student that you know that grades don't get posted for x amount of time. Is there a >> there is a guideline that's currently in our grading procedures manual.
043I believe that it is five days. I'm I would have to confirm that uh to be 100% certain. Um but just like to Dr. Whittle's point about how sometimes teachers will give, you know, bonus points or a free daily grade. Our policy actually specifically our I I'm going to use the word policy and I mean our not our board policy but our grading procedures manual specifically specifies that we shouldn't do that. uh or that we don't do that. So um you know it's an opportunity to kind of revisit like yeah it's five days but does everyone know that it's five days right? So just an opportunity to kind of reset build awareness uh get feedback on the the processes that are in place again so that we move forward with clarity um and hopefully a
044more even playing field across all of our teachers. when you mentioned too that the June some students might take high school classes in junior high algebra or something like that. >> Yes sir. >> If you do that and is that by definition an advanced class or can that be an online level class too if you're say algebra? >> That's a great question and something that we um have have somewhat taken a look at. So for algebra for example, that is our advanced math track. And so currently the algebra 1 that we offer at the junior high is the honors level course. So if you're taking algebra 1 as an eighth grader, you are taking the honors level course. Um and then we do allow our ninth graders to opt into either the honors or the
045onle course depending upon their eighth grade math performance. and then that would alter the percentage of those. >> So yes, they would follow that that 4060 rather than the 5050. Uh but some of our CTE classes that we do offer at the junior high, those are just considered on level classes. So they follow that 50/50. So uh that's that's kind of a long-standing practice and something that teachers are already accustomed to. Other questions? >> Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah, you don't have to go very far, do you? So, want an update on our some of our local policies. >> All right. Yeah, I got one more for you tonight. >> All right. So, you know, when we think about um our vision in White House ISD, above all, students first. Um that's
046what guides the work that we do on a ba daily basis. But the daytoday uh rules that we follow in the district, those are governed by our policy. and our policies are really what allow us to respond to the needs of our students and our community. Um so we are going we have on the agenda tonight first reading of policy update 126. This is from um a result of the 89th legislative session uh which you may remember was a very active session uh for schools in the state of Texas. There were over 200 bills that were passed that impact the education landscape in our state. uh which resulted in over 140 legal codes that had to be updated. Um so TASBY has been working on this update 126 since June. Since the day that the
047session ended um they got busy and got to work um updating these legal framework codes and as well as the corresponding local policies. Uh so as a result, update 126 is the largest update in TASBY's history. It's actually almost double the size of the legal of the update following the 88th session. Uh we shared that with our staff. It's well over a thousand pages. Um so it takes a little time for us to work through that. Something that's a little bit different about this update as compared to prior updates is that there are so many changes in the law. And so while all of our local policies are not impacted by those legal changes, they do impact our daily work. Um, and so it's more it's a little bit heavier of a burden on our
048staff in terms of reading and understanding both those legal frameworks and those corresponding legal policies. Um, so there are 28 policy changes that you'll see on the agenda. Uh again I want to stress those are just the local policy changes. Everything else is legal framework that will also become a part of policy online for White House ISD. Um as we work through those over the next uh November, December, we'll come to you in January with a final product um and ask you to accept those uh policies that are a part of update 126. Um let's see. those policies have already been customized based on the needs of our district. So, um, TASBY assigns policy consultants to every district in the state. Uh, they're very well-versed in our district's policies. Um, and that's part of the
049reason it take there's that time lag between when legislation is passed and when we receive these policies in district is because they comb through our policies individually to see how do we need to tweak these based on the policies that White House already has in place. So, what we're going to bring to what we bring what we are bringing to you and what we'll bring to you in January is a customized product, but over the coming weeks, our team's going to be working really hard to make sure that it fits our needs and working in close connection with our policy consultant if there's anything that we have questions about or feel like we might need to change. Uh these 28 are in addition to the four that you guys approved in August prior to the
050start of school. And there are a few loose ends that will come in an update 127 in early 2026. Thought I had one more, but I don't think I do. So with that, uh any questions about update 126? Okay. I'm >> sure we'll have some as it goes on, but >> absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Going to give us an update on school school bus seat belts. >> All right. Good evening. So, this uh Senate Bill 546 is part of that legislative update from the summer and um I I would probably step out to say it's probably one of the more expensive ones for us. So, um bear with me. This is the first time I've ever done this. So, All right. Um, >> appreciate you doing it. >> Yes,
051sir. All right. So, the law, uh, Senate Bill 546, it updates the transportation code and it requires that districts must have threepoint seat belts for all passengers on school buses. Uh, and that we have until September 1st, 2029 to come into compliance with that. There are some limited ex exceptions for uh, for this law. One is that the school district's budget is unable to purchase new buses to come into compliance with this law. Uh and if the bus's warranty becomes void with putting those frequency in place. Uh so the determination of affordability uh TA did give a little bit of uh of clarity on that. Uh the law requires the board to determine whether or not purchasing buses equ three point seat belts fits within the district's budget and plans to proceed with purchasing uh
052buses to come into alignment with that code. Um so that determination is actually going to be we're going to ask you guys to make that at a later date. We're still digging through some of the information and gathering things. Uh but the deadline to submit that determination to TA is at the end of the school year. So um by the end of the school year we submit the report uh to TEA and present information concerning our our fleet, our school bus fleet in a public meeting. Uh that requires us to give specific information like how many buses we have, how many have seat belts, how many don't, how many have three point, how many have lap belts, and then the estimated cost for full compliance. Um so, TA is going to collect all this data
053from districts across the state, calculate the costs, and then submit those to the to the lawmakers by January 1st of 20 27. So, uh, here's the timeline just to kind of put it up here for you. Um, we are we're we're in the process right now of gathering the data, reporting it to you guys and um and getting ready for TA to do their thing. So, uh, and then as you can see, full compliance is required by September 1st, 209. All right. So, just to give you guys a a summary of of what we have, we have a total of 5 buses here at 41 of those buses are not equipped with any kind of seat belts at all. Uh eight have lap belts and two buses have three point seat belts. Um our plan
054to come into compiance is kind of is a combination of purchasing new buses as we would normally through our school bus replacement cycle. just making sure that those do have seat belts and then there's the rest of those we would retrofit some of those buses and I'll get to the sum part here and the estimated cost is between 1.6 million and $3 million. All right. So I wanted to give you some cost and some details. I'm not going to read all this but um just some cost and details when it comes to retrofitting. So in White House uh we have two different types of We have the international school bus and Thomas buses. Um, and it's important to know, you know, based on the year model, make model what they're equipped with, what it requires
055to retrofit. So, the newer buses, those those require us to replace a seat back. Um, older buses, it's going to require us to replace the entire seats. And in some of those buses, many of the especially older ones will require replacing the entire floor. I don't know if you know this or not, a school bus floor is plywood piece of rubber structure. Um, so you see the $10,000 airport. So, if we were to just retrofit all the buses that we currently have right now, based on the quotes that we've received from some of our our vendors and manufacturers, we're looking at 1.6 million plus. And that's that's of those 30-day quotes. Those are certain to increase >> and the state's going to fund that, right? >> Um, so some uh factors that we uh definitely
056have to keep in mind when retrofitting uh you know, supply and demand. We're told that it takes anywhere from eight to 10 weeks just to get the the new seats. Um and lots of other districts are needing this this retrofitting too. So we we also have to carefully schedule this out to make sure that we can still maintain all of our operations and the work has to be done by certified shops so that um warranties are not voided but also the federal safety standards. Uh selective retrofitting um in White House the average lifespan of a bus is anywhere from 15 to 20 years. U many of our older buses uh are simply not worth investing 80,000 plus dollars. Okay. Um with uh with these older buses it's harder to find parts. The mileage is getting
057up there and to replace a new engine. We we replaced one this past summer. It was $35,000. That was for Lonear to do that. Um adding air conditioning that we we added air conditioning to buses this past summer and that was about 15 grand per bus which the drivers and students really like that very um I said earlier new floor you can see the cost and then seat belt just an average cost about 33,000 per um the cost of new buses back in 2008 is 77,000 and it's just gone up every year and uh two years from now they're estimating 200,000 plus dollars. Now, that does come with a new that is supposed to have a 10year 100,000 m warranty on it. So, some of that cost. Now, there are other options. There are gently
058used buses. I found a company Irving on Master Transportation. They have a that the federal government leased and was used at Fort Hood for a while and now it's for sale. All the pictures looks great online and it could save the district $30,000 and it comes with yes and I see. All right. So, the next steps >> but that's one >> just that's just one just one next step we're going to finalize our our counts um and we're going to find our cost information and then at a later meeting we'll have you guys we'll present that that to you and have you guys determine whether we can afford it or not and then we'll submit all this information to TA questions. >> So you get all these seat belt I mean all these buses with
059seat belts in them. So then do you have to mandate that the kids are wearing them? >> Yes. So the education code requires school districts that if the bus is equipped with the seat belts that the students must >> have on the bus making sure that every student is putting a bus on >> a belt on. >> So we we're fortunate to to have 25 monitors and that's not morning and But um but when I started this job, I think we had like seven or eight and now we're 25 and that's helped with lots of things like behavior. It help you know drivers don't feel like they're all alone out there. But those those monitors will have to make sure that they're wearing them and they'll find a seat for themselves. But this is even
060like when the band travels to something. >> Well, I think that the big push behind this one was H consolidated had an accident where cement trucked into bus head on and one student passed away. And so I think that was that was a big push there. I don't know about you, but my Facebook feed's full of buzz happening everywhere. >> Knows where I'm at. Well, I'm just thinking some kids I can imagine you can put three of some kids in a seat and then there's other >> children that it's probably two per seat. So, but >> work with seat belts. >> Yeah. So, so yeah, the the drivers and monitors, they're going to know kids know how their sizes. They'll know who they can fit through. >> Some seats will only have two seat belts
061and some So it'll be on the busacity on there. 77. >> Well, is there a formulaic on or is it a pure judgment call on whether we determine we can afford this or not? >> Well, the state is going to data from all the districts and in two years when they meet again hopeful that they'll give us some money to help support this but it's unknown. So um for us to afford it say Clint what's going on Clint. No, but I guess my I guess my question was it sounded like there are some exceptions to whether you have to have to comply to this or not, right? So, if we say, "Hey, we don't think we can afford this. We we need our dollars elsewhere." We can opt out or >> does that make sense
062or we don't know yet? Is that still up in the air? >> When I read that, I don't I don't read an option. >> I think they're trying to find out right now uh can districts afford this on their own or are they going to have to appropriate money to make this happen? >> This is a big factf finding mission. >> It is. Yes, sir. And they've actually slow played and changed the timeline and the expectations for us. Uh we wanted to get this in front of you guys just so you know kind of um not to not to not to go backwards here but this is just another example of partially funded or uh not funded mandates that that stretch our budget that makes makes the job a little bit more challenging. So we're
063hopeful and that they're taking a minute to to ask some questions instead of just blanket go uh go do this. Um, I'm with Matt. I'm hopeful that all the districts say they don't they don't have the money uh to do it and and the state comes in and says, "Well, here's some money for you." >> But Any other questions? >> Thank you very much. >> And that takes us to the annual review of board operating procedures. I guess you're >> uh Yes, sir. Dr. Abby, uh, trustees, um, as you know, every year we ask you guys to approve your board operating procedures. Uh, we've shared those with you multiple times and just ask for you tonight to, uh, to adopt those and consider, uh, no changes as they are. Takes us to our action items.
064And the first one is our consent agenda. You all had the consent agenda. Do you have any any questions or comments about the consent agenda? Okay. To accept the financial reports and approve the remaining consent items as presented. Motion made by Mr. Flanigan, second by Dr. to approve the consent agenda. All in favor? Motion carries. Do we need a motion on the board procedures? I think we do. Uh so that we'll take us to the report to the superintendent and just uh I know you want to give us a little report on the election, that sort of thing, too. But I just take a minute to say thank you because of the eight elections that I know of in East Texas to for voter approved tax ratification election, the only Yes, thank you. Um, and
065I mean I think that's due to the efforts of a lot of people. Uh, but nobody worked harder at it than than Casey did. Uh, I don't even know how many presentations he made to different organizations to um, you know, but it was two or three a week, you know, and so I mean that is that doesn't go unnoticed and we really appreciate it because it makes a huge difference for our kids. It makes a huge difference for our teachers. It makes a huge difference for our program. And so I just, you know, a lot of people put a lot of effort into it. You know, I know Jim and your group put a lot into it, but nobody put more effort into it than Casey. And every vote really did count because I think
066that passed by 51 votes. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Uh yeah, I just wanted to say um thank you to you guys for your support and uh vision and guidance and direction and thanks to to all the the folks in the audience that uh that when I when I uh took the job um one of the reasons I I wanted to take the job because I'd heard that White House uh takes care of each other and we take care of the school and when the school's in need, we we rally as a community and come together and uh even though it was close, I'm just thankful for um our community and our supporters of our school district for coming together and helping us um navigate some of the financial hardships that that we
067find ourselves in uh that the state has helped us get into a little bit. But um I'm just thankful that uh we we said yes for kids and uh we said yes to make sure that we can can keep interventionists that love kids that are kid by kid, skill by skill every single day and uh that makes a difference and what they said is exactly right. I couldn't have said it any better. We look at every kid and we find out exactly what they need and we we make them feel like they can uh climb any mountain and achieve uh any any goal and uh be successful. And so I'm thankful for our community that said yes and thank you for your support and thank you for uh your guidance and uh I'm I'm I'm
068just uh really proud of our community and and the people that live in it. So thank you. And then last I was going to say just as a reminder uh December we did not have a board meeting and so our next board meeting will be in January as well. So thank you. Thank you. >> All right. And last thing on the agenda is to Motion to second by Mr. Flanigan. All in favor? We are joured.