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 this meeting has been duly called, and notice the meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Government Code Chapter 551. Uh the board will now convene into executive session pursuant to Texas government code section 551.074 through 551.084. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. Tonight's brief introductory remarks will be given by Mrs. Conway. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. God, I thank you for this district and for our community. I just
002pray that you would be with be with us tonight as we make decisions for this community and pray that you forgive us where we fail you. It's in your holy and precious name I pray. Amen. All right. Uh we did not have any recognitions tonight. It's hard to get keep people to come get recognized when they just got out for the summer. So uh u and uh no one signed up for open forums. That takes us to our information items. Uh and first off tonight we'll have uh Jody Bullard uh giving us a school health advisory council annual report. Welcome. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you for having me. Um, I am the chair of the shack this year and I'm just going to cover a couple of things that we have been doing.
003Um, the first is the health and wellness honor chord which has been coordinated by Dr. Lee Mitchell. Uh, the honor chord is a chord that students can wear at graduation. There's a list of requirements that the students have to fulfill in order to earn a cord like proof of a dental visit during the past year, proof of an annual physical, they have to write a brief on volunteer service, there's videos that they need to watch and um answer questions regarding those videos and if they check all the boxes and they earn themselves a little bit of extra bling at graduation. So, this program has been in effect for the last three years. The first year there were 11 honor chord recipients. Last year there were 18 and this year there were 39. So all 39
004of our recipients this year were entered into a drawing and two of them were selected to win a $500 cash prize that was donated by UT Health. The second item that Shaq has addressed in the past year is the Public Health Hero Award, which is a scholarship available to uh students in grades 9 through 12. up to four people can be in a group because it involves a project that has an impact on public health. Uh again, UT UT Health was our sponsor of this thousand scholarship. And for this past school year, two juniors won the award. Tony Starns and Rachel Emzarque and they will receive their money upon graduation and with proof of enrollment in an institution of higher learning. And finally, the shack has been uh has focused this year on lice best
005practice. The purpose is to align district policy with current best practice and per the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of School Nurses. Best practice guidelines for lice are that there should be no exclusion from school. So, just a basic on lice. Lies don't jump or fly. They crawl with extended head-to-head contact with somebody else typically. And quite honestly, a head lice infestation likely started four to six weeks prior to the itching developing. So, by the time they start itching and showing signs, those lice have been around for quite some time. So, does White House have a lice problem? No, they don't. Um, but for students who chronically have lice, a change in the policy would help improve their attendance. Attendance could have an impact on their academic success. And also,
006there's a stigma that comes with lice that could be prevented by um implementing this change because the literature does show that students with lice can experience embarrassment, isolation, and psychological distress. So our prop proposed plan as a shack is to implement a headlice education program for consistent messaging districtwide. This will be a set of standardized uh headlice videos, one for faculty, staff and parents and another for students. And the video will cover things like headlight transmission prevention measures and things of that nature. These videos are being designed right now free of charge by one of our UT Tyler medical students and the videos will be reviewed by the SHAK committee and ready for use for the upcoming school year. And that is all I've got. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks for all that.
007takes us to the ever entertaining Clint Ray for our finance update. [Laughter] Y'all asked for it. Okay. So, um thank you Dr. Robbie um for that introduction. Um we're uh it's it's that time of year. This is this is the normal uh June update that we we normally give a a pretty good summary uh at this time of year because uh there's not in a typical year there's not a lot that goes on between the beginning of June and the u end of July. And so, um, the items that I want to address tonight are the items listed here, just a list of variables, uh, that impact our revenue estimates, uh, that I can update you on, some of these that we've already, uh, talked about in the April and May meetings, but I'll I'll
008update where I need to, and then we'll talk a little bit about where we currently stand, and then some questions and discussion. and feel free to ask your questions and stop me uh to clarify or whatever. As far as average daily attendance, we've talked about this pretty extensively, but um I'm just going to say our historical data um going into COVID showed that we were on a a huge up upswing for enrollment and uh ADA and then of course it fell off and then uh but by the end of 2021-22 we had built back up uh close to our all-time high that that we had before COVID. But but two years after that uh well I should say 2223 into 2324 and then 2324 into the the current year 2425 or that we just finished
009um showed that drop off in enrollment and therefore ADA. And so what we're hoping for is that our new transfer policy is uh going to help us reverse that trend. And the relationship uh I I do want to point this out though that the relationship between our fall enrollment and that that's what we're comparing there whenever we show that enrollment trend and the ADA uh the enrollment is the fall enrollment on the pens as of date. The uh ADA is the average daily attendance for the whole year but because of the consistency we get that relationship where those curves move together. Uh what we're not sure is that with the um school choice uh legislation that has passed what that what that might do for mobility and and therefore that relationship between the two. But
010we anticipate that it uh it will not impact us uh hopefully too much and that we'll still be able to rely on those uh those relationships. Uh this is a a graph. I'm not going to talk really extensively about it. Um, you've seen variations of this. I've used it for other things. Um, the the blue line is enrollment. The red line is average daily attendance. The anomaly there in 201920 is COVID. Obviously, where that those curves don't move together. Um, but the the dashed line is our projections. Actually 2425 is uh our actual after the uh transfer policy and then 2526 is our projections with the transfer policy. The solid lines indicate the trend that our demographers uh said we were following if we um just kept on down the same path. And so uh
011as we discussed that's why we changed the the uh transfer policy to try and uh stem the tide there. if you would and and turn that uh turn that curve. And of course uh it goes without saying enrollment drives average daily attendance. Average daily attendance drives our revenues. So um this is a a slide that I showed at the last meeting. Um, I wanted to show it again because this is um uh the you see the $390 million increase in our appraisal role. That's equates to 11.5 uh% increase. Of course, as we've discussed in the past, this does not impact our revenue stream. It's uh uh because of some things we're going to talk about a little bit later. Uh local fund assignment. uh whenever you get this type of increase, you normally get um
012uh compression, tax rate compression, and so you end up swapping some dollars there. The the pot of money doesn't get bigger. It just uh it becomes either more because your property values went up and you get collect more taxes and less state revenue or compression pushes it down and and they fill that gap with additional state revenue. But um so I do want to say this about certified values. We use uh certified values to help us make estimates. Um we use this to calculate our funding uh formula revenue, but we also use this to help us estimate some of the other inputs. And so that's what we're going to talk a little bit about here is uh state certified property values. Uh the state values are necessary for this uh calculation of local fund assignment
013that is that mix between local and state revenues and the uh maximum compressed tax rate. So the state will release those numbers to us uh for our state certified property values uh our our preliminary numbers in uh January. Okay. And so what does that mean? Well, in we have to adopt this budget in August. And so that's going to be a major um estimate that that we're having to to make there. So it's it's necessary for us to make that estimate months in advance. And we use those local certified values, but we don't have certified values. We have preliminary values. That's what I I showed on the the previous slide. And then we use some historical ratios. the historical ratios have become uh less consistent because we have hold harmless and homestead exemptions that help
014serve to um uh push those tax bills down, right? And so, um it it impacts the relationship uh between what ultimately becomes your state certified values and your uh new newly calculated local values. So now this one's this one's kind of fun. I I know you don't believe that. Um the maximum compressed tax rate is another item um that ha that has to be estimated. This was created with House Bill 3 in 2019. And what this serves to do is uh again to compress those tax or the tax bills to to keep them down as property values were going up statewide instead of just letting them go through the roof. Um this was implemented to keep taxes from just getting out of out of hand. And so uh you compress the M tax rate as
015property values rise. the taxable value increase uh again does not uh that doesn't equate to a proportional rise in in overall revenues because of that local fund assignment we just talked about. The state um establishes that MCR based on a statewide uh growth rate, but based on our local growth, we can uh have an additional 10% band of compression. And we have typically over the past few years had the maximum compression. But I do want to point out here that the MCR is um it's one of those we don't really have a lot of choice about what our tax rate is going to be. That gets dictated to us because if we tax below the MCR, we not only lose the tax revenue, but the equalized state revenue that that pairs with it. And so
016we actually uh lose money on both ends if we tax below that MCR. We can't uh legally tax above that. And so that ends up being our tier one rate. Uh to estimate that MCR, this is where the fun part starts. Um we need those local certified values that we don't have. Um and then we and then we use those to project the state values, right? And then we use both of those numbers to project our MCR. And so it's estimates based on estimates. Um so you see what kind of what kind of ends up happening with the compounding there. Um the rate compression for this year is expected to be lower. A couple of years ago, much of the um uh historic uh budget surplus was used for uh tax rate compression. And so
017we got a a pretty big compression that year. Uh it's estimated that that will be lower this year and we'll share that with you as it comes available. Want to talk a little bit about the funding formula components. Um th this first bullet is really just about our we project that our numbers uh our uh full-time equivalents in those areas of special ed and CTE will increase and um number one the special ed that's across the board that's statewide uh that's uh an increase in identification uh that's been happening for years on the special education end the CTE that's some uh programmatic changes that we plan uh to make and and have started to implement and continue to implement and some offerings at our junior high and then uh the way we handle some things
018at the high school. So, we would expect those weighted FTEEs to increase and therefore drive some additional revenue. Um, as far as the uh funding formula components, that's uh what the legislature, we're talking about, House Bill Two here, and these are some components of of uh what was done in House Bill 2. Special education weights uh that has been changed. It's not set to come into effect until 20 uh 627 year. there is a path where we could potentially get some relief even through this in the 25 26 year and um there's but there's some uncertainty about that. The teacher retention a lotment is the big one. That's the the teacher pay raise and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a second. Um, as far as the uh that that third sub
019bullet allotment for other employee raises, that's the uh support staff retention aotment. That's the allotment that was set aside as at a lesser rate for uh non-teers, non-administrators. So, everyone except administrators um is is addressed in those two. And then uh there's um an aotment uh for uh it's a basic cost aotment and that's to help us offset some of our inflationary costs and and you can see there the items listed insurance, utilities, some transportation, employee benefits, that type of thing. And then there's a um special education assessment allocation um that is for identifying special ed students and the c to offset the cost associated with that identification. That's not an exhaustive list, but I wanted to show you this because uh things got a little bit dynamic and we we have quite a few
020more uh revenue drivers in this uh this formula than we've had in the past. So, where do we currently stand? Well, we're dealing uh with estimates and uncertainty. You you heard uh you heard the spiel, but the expenditure budget steps that we have in progress. Uh we continue to as we have been doing uh monitoring uh studenttoteer ratios for staffing u personnel and other expenditure requests are being submitted and reviewed. you see there. And we're talking here about um whether these are items that that need to happen now, whether they're they're wants or needs, whether they need to happen now or later. And all of that is being assessed. And then uh consideration of salary and benefit changes uh are being discussed pretty much week uh weekly if not daily. to dig a little deeper
021into this. This is House Bill Two. That's the teacher retention aotment. The $4 to $8,000 range is where we fall. Um most of our teachers, the $4,000 for uh teachers with three to four years of experience. Uh $8,000 for five plus years of experience. By my estimates, that will uh generate about $2.6 million. Um the problem is that uh it's not a problem for teachers. Uh we we spend that on teacher salaries based off of this year uh as an increase going into next year, but it's that second sub bullet there. There's a the potential there for additional uh above statutory minimum um TRS uh retirement payments from the district and that is not funded through this. So you can see that that the bill for that is $215,000. So that bill ends up costing
022us about 2.8 a little over 2.8 and we get a funding of a little under 2.6. So um same type of thing happens on the uh support staff retention aotment. Um that calculation comes out to about $175,000 and a 3% raise for all of those non-teer non-administrator. Um and again, we're not talking about the administrative professional scale, but that a 3% raise costed about $250,000 there. So that you come up a little short there. Also, if you if you're going to do equity adjustments to keep um if you'll recall in 2019, um there was another group besides teachers that was tied in with teachers for mandatory raises. If you try to keep that group together like the uh legislature did in 2019 uh and make some equity adjustments for what is not funded now, it's
023been decoupled. Uh that's another $176,000 that is not funded um there. So um this is uh I think this is the next to last. Yes, next to last slide. And we're really talking here about the impact of that um of the that teacher retention aotment. an increase in teacher salaries just causes that compression. Okay. Um historically there has been a path a career path u whether you like it or not where teachers move out of a classroom to advance in their career. All right. I I know the the state's plan is is to uh or their their thought is to to keep good teachers in the classroom. But what ends up happening is you have uh the potential for your teacher salaries to outpace some of your uh administrator salaries to the point where uh
024those who are supervising teachers are making less than teachers or less at least on a daily basis than than a teacher. And so um this is something that has been discussed I've discussed it with other CFOs. I know Dr. Whittle has discussed it with other uh superintendents uh our peers around here. It's been discussed statewide. Everyone is looking at this the same way and and just trying to wrap their head around it. And so, um, some of the things we've talked about obviously are do we extend raises to, um, to kind of keep some of this compression to h from happening or get creative maybe with calendars by giving a raise and also reducing days so you can combat that daily rate. uh you know uh compression at least. And then I just wanted to
025point out here on this last bullet that each 1% increase in the administrative salaries um costs about $65,000. And of course that is uh unfunded uh no no question uh that is unfunded in in this. And so uh it's the only one that is not addressed. So with that said, questions, discussion, is there anything you'd like to me to clarify? Based on all those suppositions, where do we stand? Well, right now I there is a lot of money in House Bill 2. The problem is it's it's locked up and we still have those other costs that have been increasing as as we've talked about in the in the past. So, this is a very good thing for a number of our employees in House Bill 2. But um my best estimates best based on my
026best guess and estimating and recreating and because all of the all of the budget runs that we get from our organizations. They make um assumptions. They use old historical data in some cases. we we really have some better numbers, but it takes us a minute to get those compiled and especially with the new revenue drivers that we can't just pull from a report. And so, um, my best guess we're we're sitting somewhere in the $2.5 million deficit range right now. Um, and that in, you know, there's a number of things that go into those uh, assumptions. And so, um, it's it's probably a discussion for, uh, another day when we can actually talk about what what those assumptions are. But, um, I feel fairly confident that we're, uh, at about $2.5 million. And that's a
027lot of that is because we have lost the uh, the five disaster pennies that we had last year that we were able to to tax. And so we would have actually cut that deficit down some uh from the 1.7 that we had this year. But um we we're losing we have to take a step back on those uh disaster pennies, those five disaster pennies. So that that loses us about 1.25. So about half of that was um is what we lose. noticed one of your line items in there was that there was some provision for you know inflationary costs. I mean we've talked a number of times that you know we're paying 20 $25 prices some of those biggest increase item estimation absolutely not enough. I mean, I I will say that that allocation u
028I believe my calculation on that was a little over $500,000. And when you consider that our insurance since 2019, which is what we're kind of fighting here, our insurance has increased $700,000, our insurance premiums um annually. Um and and of course it was stepped, but um that's not that's not a one-time hit. That was uh a little bit here, a little bit there, and we're up to $700,000 and and going through the process of an RFP right now to to try and and see what our uh what we can get as far as value on our insurance. But since 2019 when this was last adjusted, five uh $700,000 increase in our insurance premiums, and this is $500,000 finally now today. So it doesn't even make up just that one element and that's just that's just
029one item. So number I don't have a firm number. I have an estimate. Um we we had a little over 50 this this past year. Um after we implemented you know there was a little over 50. Of course we had some uh some coming and going. That's that's the typical, but we also estimate that we're uh a little bit over 50 that have uh committed to coming next year. So in total you would think a hundred, you know, and then or a little bit over a hundred. And we've got um let's see because of the imp the time frame of the implementation of that transfer policy, we didn't get a full year's worth of ADA from those kids. And so you would you would think you would get an additional bump because those kids are
030going to will have been here for a year a full year. And so you'll get a full year's worth of ADA off of um going back um from the from the previous year. Um that enrollment was before the implementation. uh that was the fall enrollment that would have been before we got a lot of our so and that's what I was saying earlier is that relationship between that that last bullet there that relationship between fall enrollment and our ADA um because of that mobility and that that that ability to choose um and if if people decide to get mobile during the year you might lose some of that relationship uh predictive relationship between you said you're not anticipating having the ability to take are they at their maximum or do they have an ability to
031take one one school could take 10 or 15 or 20 you know I don't know that it's a a question of capacity for us I think it was really more a question of what were our peers doing versus what we were doing. If if you'll recall, we we were kind of an island here, a hold out, not taking transfers, and everyone directly around us was taking transfers. And so, uh, it was kind of a one-way street coming from White House to other districts. Now, we've we've kind of a we're able to reverse that trend somewhat and maybe at least rec recapture some of our the students that we've I guess I was specifically referring to parents using the school voucher system for other school schools in this community. You said that wouldn't affect us. Is
032that because the other schools there are no new schools planning to be independent school voucher schools or the ones that will take that they don't have as much. You know, I I think um I guess what the way I would frame it is that we're we've uh around here people have had choices anyway for a long time. And uh now they have the choice to to come to us. They've always had the choice to leave us. Now they have the choice, you know, they and and well, with our transfer policy, they have the choice to come to us. But then as far as the uh the vouchers, um I I guess what I'm saying there is and as far as mobility is it's there's an easier path out or from one situation into another situation,
033you know, if I don't like where I'm at and and what's going on here, I can I can move on somewhere else. So, as always, thank you for all the work on it. Absolutely. Thank you. Appreciate you keeping us solvent. My pleasure. Thank you. And then uh Tara Matthews is gonna present our staffing update. Yes, sir. All right. Uh Dr. Robbie, Dr. Whittle, school board. Um in March, I had came and told you all that we would be doing a staffing review with TASBY. Uh now we have completed that process and wanted to give you an update of where we're at. Um the project goal just is to compare our district staffing to benchmark data pure districts. Uh this was a snapshot of time in March of 2025. So the data and the enrollment of
034that time uh data sources that they use are the tsds information PS uh the taper report uh the HR uh TASBY HR data sources which is a great uh resource to us and then also uh professional organizations such as the Texas Counseling Association. Uh they give out a lot of benchmark information that uh we can use to staff. We talked about our peer districts. Uh we had a great group of peer districts. There were 12 of them that were uh compared based on enrollment uh demographics, academic performance, uh funding levels. White House at the time had 709 staff of a little over 4,800 students. And then you can see that they compared us to our economically disadvantaged, our limited English proficient students, and then also our special ed students. So, uh at that time we
035were at 15.5% This is a little bit about our historical enrollment uh staffing trends from 2019 to 2024. So you can see on the left hand side our student enrollment declined slightly by 2.2% uh which is a very minimal amount. Uh but our special education enrollment had increased by 32% over that time. And excuse me, Miss Matthews, that also included there was a kind of a change where dyslexia was was then included in special education. So, uh those those students were also kind of shifting pulled in. Yes. Uh so, uh those increased from 768 or 568 kids to 750. On the right hand side, you can see um kind of how our staff compared. You can see some of those increases um increased over certain areas and then decreased in others. Uh so what does
036that mean? We have some work to do. We have some um opportunities to uh maybe decrease some of our staff to to match our enrollment and to make sure we watch enrollment over the next year or so. Hopefully with our uh out of district transfers uh it'll keep uh increasing. Uh but these are the areas that they said we might be able to uh take a look at. Uh but you have to remember factors to consider. Um it's not apples to apples. Uh you can look at spreadsheets, you can look at numbers and compare, but there are things about each district that are unique. So uh our demographics and needs, yes, we can look at that and compare. Uh but we also have to look at the programs and the initiatives we have in the
037district. Um our vision, our district size and complexity, uh our efficiency and technology, what technology resources we have to optimize our workload. Um, and then historical factors and our organizational culture, what White House wants for their students and their staff. So, that's something that's important for us to take into consideration. Um, and then of course external factors that we have no control over is our state and federal regulations and funding that comes to us. So, these are the TASBY recommendations. There's a few key areas that they said we might want to look at. Um, on the lefth hand side, you'll see the staff that we can look at. uh one of which is assistant principles. The benchmark for assistant principles not taking into consideration what each type of uh assistant principal does whether it's secondary
038or elementary but the benchmark is 450 students per one assistant principal. We are slightly lower than that. Uh so there are maybe some areas by attrition if we uh lose an assistant principal we could maybe look at that. uh library staff uh they uh presented a couple of different models, librarians versus uh media tech specialists versus support aids. Uh we have some opportunities to maybe look at that by attrition and see if we want to uh maybe revamp that um staffing model. Uh counseling staff, uh the benchmark is 350. We are slightly lower than that, but we um also have to take take into consideration we have counselors. We have a a career college and career counselor um that is also uh taken in consideration for that uh benchmark. Clinical staff. Uh I've seen TASBY
039come back with this many times. Uh if you want to go registered nurses versus LVN, obviously LVNs would be cheaper, but it just depends on what we want our clinics to be able to do for our staff and our students. So that's an area uh that we can review. special ed staff. Um we are currently lower in teachers versus aids. And so uh I've se I've seen many different models where we have more teachers than aids or you can look at it and say okay we want the appropriate amount of teachers but getting more aids gives you more hands in the classroom. So that's another option uh that we can look at. And then as far as the assessment staff, uh we just need to review case loads, make sure we optimize those to make
040sure that the case loads are are even among our staff, uh central office and auxiliary staff. Um you know, it just kind of depends when you talk about auxiliary, there's a lot of opportunity to outsource uh plumbing and HVAC and all different things like that. So just to look at what we do inhouse versus what we outsource and then just make sure we're staffed appropriately for what we do and how much square footage meals per labor hour we looked at. So those are the types of things that we can um come back and look at. So those are our areas. Okay. So recommendations uh there was kind of three key things which was consider internal analysis for specific departments and campuses. Monitor enrollment because enrollment is ever changing especially with out of district transfers. Create
041a staffing matrix uh for the district. That's something that taking into consideration all of those benchmarks that they've given us and make sure that we look at that, make sure we align with it um after this review has uh taken place and then provide allocation sheets for all the campuses and departments to make sure that they know this is my enrollment. These are the staff that we have and we can continually watch that to make sure that we are staffing appropriately. uh making sure that when either enrollment inc increases or declines that we make the appropriate changes at that time. Uh next steps is district leadership to review our options and determine um alignments with strategic goals and resources. Um just to make sure that we're all on the same page and that we can
042figure out maybe over um several years by attrition maybe making some of these changes that would uh give us some of our our dollars back. Any questions? It's a lot of work, but it sounds like we've got some opportunities. It is. It's exciting. Thank you again for work on it. Dr. Taylor is going to give us a dual credit update. All right. Good evening, Dr. Dr. Robbie, Dr. Whittle, and trustees. This evening we're going to talk about some of our dual credit uh both opportunities from this past course this past school year courses offered in the district and also venture into some opportunities and plans for the future as well. Um so first grounding this work is our board goal to provide relevant learning experiences to ensure that our students will be college and career
043ready. And here we see our most recent graduating class of 2025 from just a few weeks ago. So, we have two dual credit partners in White House ISD. We've had a long-standing relationship with Tyler Junior College and we continue to partner with them for all of our technical dual credit courses. Um, so think about a lot of the different tracks that are within our CTE program where students are earning a lot of credit that is um specific to a potential career pathway or certification that they will seek to earn outside of high school. So they start some of that in their high school years, get some experience and some hands-on learning and then go to TJC to complete that degree program or certification. And then we also work with East Texas&M um for our academic
044dual credit. Um so that is more of the things that you would think about um for a student who is going to go from high school to a 4-year college or university. These are primarily courses that would help them to bank those credit hours uh so that they're a little further along in their degree plan when they transfer into or are accepted into that institute of higher education. Uh you may remember last year we talked about TJC opting in to become a fast school. Um, and so that was a great thing for our students and our community because it meant our students that are qualify for free and reduced lunch are able to get tuitionfree dual credit. Uh, they have that same benefit at East Texas&M as well. Um, but as a result of that,
045that changed TJC's structure as it related to technical dual credit. Whereas in the past, our students were able to enroll in those technical dual credit courses that were part of their CTE pathway at no charge for any of our students. Um, however, we have seen a dip in enrollment this year and we expected that because as a result of this transition to fast, students now have to pay for those technical dual credit classes if they are not fast eligible. So, that is still a great option for our students that are in courses like some of our medical professions, um the automotive program because those credit hours actually help them to finish those programs at TJC um quicker and with less financial investment um than if they waited until after high school to do that. So
046when we think about technical dual credit that is primarily aligned to our CTE pathways and you'll see here in the deck um the specific areas where there are dual credit courses at TJC that align to those pathways. Uh when we look at our dual credit offerings on the academic side, this year we had 14 courses that we offered at White House High School with a professor in uh professor that's White House ISD employee in all of those courses except for art appreciation. That was the only course where we did not have an in-person professor that was a White House ISD employee. And of those 14 courses, that represents the opportunity for 43 credit hours in of college credit um through the offerings that we currently have with East Texas&M. So, in order to enroll in
047these dual credit classes, specifically speaking on the academic side of things, students have to be TSI complete or TSI ready. And there are a couple of different ways that students can achieve being TSI complete. And that stands for the Texas Success Initiative, TSIA. Sometimes we just call it TSI. Um there's different ways that they can achieve that status. The first is through actually taking the TSI test in reading and writing and in math. Those are those are two separate tests. Um so they can take that test, earn a certain score, and the state says, "Yes, we believe that you're college ready. you're cleared to enroll in college courses, be that in high school as a high school student or be that as a high school graduate. Uh the other way is through qualifying scores on
048their ACT, SAT, or PSAT. So, that's a pretty high threshold, but if students score really high on some of those college preparatory exams, it does count as meeting that TSI criteria. Um, so you have to be TSI ready for ELAR, so the reading and math to enroll in English, history, government, art, or psychology courses. So that's one branch of it. And the others for math. So you have to be TSI complete for math in order to enroll in college math courses. the one uh kind of ex not exception to that but the one additional layer of requirement comes into play when you're talking about which college math course you want to take. So just like in eighth grade or ninth grade algebra 1 is the gatekeeper to all future math classes. Um in a similar
049fashion college algebra is the gatekeeper to future higher level math courses at the college level. And so what we encounter a lot of times in our district is that we have students who want to go from algebra 2, the high school course into pre-cal. And they can do that, but in order to meet the college readiness standards to skip college algebra, they have to take this other test that's called the Alex test. And so that's where the Alex test comes into play. And it is a very rigorous test. Um and so but that's the reason that test is in place. If they were to go from algebra to the high school course to college algebra, they meet that requirement of taking college algebra. So then they can go straight into pre-cal after that. So that's
050the one pathway that's a little bit different and that's the rationale behind that. Uh that is a different process than what we were accustomed to with TJC. uh TJC being uh a local school was able to have their own standard for what they would accept. Um and so our students did have to take a placement test, but that was handled locally. Um now being part of the Texas&M system, there's just a different standard that's in place. Um and that's what um has been just a little bit of a shift for us and something that we haven't been accustomed to in the past. So the numbers that you see here on the screen, this is course completion for the 2425 school year. So on the technical side, we had 206 completed enrollments for technical dual credit
051resulting in 726 hours of credit earned by our students. And then on the academic side, we had 973 enrollments, which amazingly resulted in over 4,000 hours of college credit that our students earned just during the 2425 school year. And so as we look into the future, uh, one of the things that we would like to be able to look at providing for our students is the opportunity to complete the core curriculum before they graduate from high school. Uh and so in order to do that, there are some things that we would need to look at adding to our program offerings. Uh specifically, uh public speaking, Texas government, and some science courses. Um probably biology as a first option. We do sometimes have students that will go and take like a dual credit biology at TJC
052over the summer. Um but we currently don't have a White House ISD employee that's credentialed to teach that. So, that's another thing looking into the future as um what kinds of uh procedures and programs can we put in place uh to equip our teachers who want to get those additional college hours uh to be able to earn the credentiing that's necessary in order to take these courses. Oh, and what you see here, this is um some pictures um from elementary career days this year. So, uh, we start in White House ISD early talking about, uh, future planning and and college and career readiness. And here's just a few examples, um, from the spring of those. Um, and then we'll end here. Um, these pictures were selected because they represent uh, kind of what we're doing
053and what we're working towards. So, the first picture at the top, that is third grade students in Miss Lindsay's class at Higgins this past year. And this, you will remember that um, I believe it was in September. um that we highlighted the drones that Miss Lindsay was using in her classroom. Um and what that results in, here's our most recent grad walk at Stanton Smith. And so we had some of our kids in the gym uh doing those things that they love to do in elementary. Um so all of these programs and things that we're putting into place is to have that full circle experience for our students. And so I'll pause here to see if you guys have any questions. Mentioned that the CTO Is there a solution? So, it remains a good option
054for our students who are planning to I'll use automotive as an example. So, the students um can actually complete the automat automotive certification with just a I believe it's a two-hour course postgraduation. So they take automotive basics, they take automotive one, they take automotive two, take one class after their senior year and they're complete with their certification uh to go out and do that profession. So for a student that that's their plan, even if they don't qualify for free tuition under fast, it's still going to optimize and maximize their future to to make that investment in those dual credit courses. Now, for our students who are in CTE courses but plan to take a university route post high school, most of those technical courses do not transfer to a 4-year degree program. They're really specific
055to that certification area the students working towards. So, it's just a change in terms of our approach and and kind of how we counsel and advise students for their future plans. We've had a dual credit bio in the past. Not to my knowledge. Okay. We got AP bio. Yes. We don't have dual credit. And then secondly, the um the additional requirement for the math that yes, Alex exam, is that affecting our numbers for next year? It does pretty minimally. Uh less than 20 um more like 13, so closer to 10. uh students that will have to look at possibly a different placement um next year rather than pre-calc which would have been their preferred placement. Um but they do have the opportunity they can take the college algebra and statistics both dual credit. um that
056would fill their year and then that would open the door for them to go into pre-cal the following semester or following year um just based on having met that prerequisite requirement. You said you had to make a certain score on the ACT or the SAT. Does that exempt you from all of it or you still have to take the Alex test or is that It depends on what you're trying to do. So for ACT, for example, for math, uh it would not exempt you from the Alex requirement. No. So it would exempt you. It would show that you're college ready. So to translate that, it would say yes, you're good to go ahead and enroll in at least college algebra if you want to do something higher than college algebra. Um there's actually the option,
057kids can skip pre-calc if they score high enough on the Alex and go straight into calculus. So the option does exist. Um, but that ACT, SAT, that only shows that you're TSI complete or college ready and able to enroll in those courses. The Alex is basically something that everybody takes as a math placer. Um, so yes and no. Um, a lot of universities and even high schools around the nation do use Alex. There's both a curriculum and then there's an assessment. So there's kind of two separate pieces, but the curriculum helps to prepare you for the assessment. Um, but the the Alex is in some ways like a diagnostic in that you do have to meet that minimum score, but once the student has taken the test, it does give them modules that they need
058to complete to sort of study or prep before they take it again. Um, and our students have two opportunities through commerce to take the Alex test. uh they can take it again on their own, but they would have to find another um testing provider where they could go and take that test and then have those scores transferred to the university. Math classes offered this next year. The same number of courses. Yes. Just a different pathway to get it. Is there is there currently demand for any other CTE pathways that we don't offer or do we have have we heard about any other uh programs that are wanting to be implemented but we're not sure if we have the supply of students to to warrant it. Right. So this year gosh is it two? We implemented
059two new pathways um for the 2526 school year. So it is something that we look at annually. Um Mr. Holton with the CT advis CTE advisory committee does look at the labor market data in the East Texas area and that's really kind of what TEA looks at and in monitoring as well is are you offering programs that meet the workforce demands of your community. But in short, I mean the answer is yes. there's always um an interest that a student might have that we don't yet have a program for. So, it is something that we do look at on an annual basis and and uh we we've started a very preliminary conversations with some cosmetology folks. We've reached out to a a local teacher about starting a program here in the future. We we've reached
060out to the local uh cosmetology school here to try to build a partnership. Additionally, we went toured East Texas refrigeration. Abby and I did. And then I know we have at least one maybe two students that uh will be going over there or we're trying to set that up that they're interested in that in that pathway. So, um we're trying to open open doors and expand and invite people in and and push our students out so they get more uh industry based experience. Anything else? Thank you very much. Okay. You're very welcome. Right. And our last uh information item is the uh ESSA consolidated grant. And Dr. James, would you like to make a comment on that? You were dying to the annual presentation of this of the entitlement grant that incor that incorporates title
061one, two, three, and four. and then the special ed grant and the CTE Perkins grant. And those are all entitlement grants. Basically, if we apply for them and we meet check all the boxes that we're supposed to and meet compliance, then the amount of money that they fund us through the formula is what we get. Pretty easy. Next, we'll move on to actions on close session and we'll start by inviting Miss Matthews back to introduce Dr. El. Sorry. All right. Uh, good evening Dr. Robbie, Dr. Whittle, and members of the board. Uh, tonight we are very excited to present the loan finalist for the executive director of student services position, Dr. Marisella Helm. While this is not a new position, it is a new title um with some of the uh recent changes in the
062central office u regarding retirements, we were able to really look at the needs of the district and reallocate to this position to uh student services to be able to better support uh the staff, the campuses and the students of the district. So, we're very excited about that opportunity. Uh the selection process um was done by a committee. Uh the committee comprised of individuals from the curriculum department uh human resources and campus leadership to ensure that uh we worked collaboratively to uh make sure that we had the most qualified candidate. Uh Dr. Helm uh is a leader in education administration and student advocacy with over 25 years of experience. Uh her background includes significant roles uh within WY Rock Wall Plano Dallas ISD uh where she was notably served as a teacher, a campus administrator as
063well as an executive director of student services. So she has direct um experience with this position. Uh her expertise is crisis management, uh restorative practices, uh policy development, uh which will all be invaluable um in our ongoing efforts to enhance the student outcomes and uh strong uh school communities. Dr. Helm holds a doctoral uh degree in educational leadership u and is certified both as a principal and as a superintendent. Uh so at this time we ask that you uh approve her contract uh for the 2526 school year had this u ahead of time discussed this and you heard the introduction. I have a motion to approve Dr. Marcela Helm as executive director of student services. Second way second by Mr. Flanigan. Uh any questions or comments? All in favor? Well, all right. Well, at this
064we're thrilled to have you. We really are. Welcome to White House. At this time, I'd like her to uh come up and then uh Dr. Marisol Helm and then her husband uh Matthew Helm and then she also has some uh family, friends, and colleagues from the Walk Rockwell area that have came to support her. So, [Applause] Take a picture. Take a picture. Did not go. didn't go. Hey. Oh, y'all ready? Y'all are ready. Quick, man. What if we What if we take everybody and shift them? Whoa, that is hot. The center is right here. [Laughter] That's perfect. Golly, I'm screaming into this thing. Are y'all ready? Perfect. Thank you. Well, welcome to you both to White House. We're we're ecstatic to have you. I was teas and Casey that um we're gonna need to have
065extra security because Dr. Benson may show up. So, but uh we appreciate the help. So, all right. Yes. All right. Then the next item is our is our consent agenda. Um you've all had that obviously to look at. Uh any questions or comments relative to that? No. Okay. Have a motion to approve the consent agenda. Okay. Motion made by Dr. Completi. Second by Mr. Trimble uh to accept the financial reports and approve the remaining consent agenda as presented. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Motion carries. Uh the next is to consider approval of the school nutrition meal prices beginning with the 2025 2026 school year. Um seen those too. Any questions or comments about those? Prove the school nutrition meal prices as presented. Second byan. Next, we need to administer the oath of office
066and the statement from Mrs. Conway. We'll do that for Nick Moss later this week. Okay. The oath of office. Um, I state your name. Holly Conway. Do solemnly swear that I faithfully or will faithfully execute the duties of the office of the White House ISTC board of trustees place 7 of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the constitutional laws of the United States and of this state. So help me God. I do. I will. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. In the uh statement of officer, I state your name. Holly Conway do solemnly swear that I have not directly or indirectly paid, offered, promised to pay contributed or promised to contribute any money or thing of value or promised any public office or employment for the giving
067of withholding of a vote at the election at which I was elected or the reward to secure my appointment or confirmation, whichever the case may be. So, help me God. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. [Applause] Well, thank you very much. I am immensely grateful for your servant on the board. I really am. So, your input is invaluable. And this also takes us to our annual reorganization of the board. So, each year we vote for the elected president, vice president, and secretary. So, do we have a nomination for president of the board? Todd Robbie motion made Mr. Flan second by Mr. Trimble. Questions, comments, insults, sir. Okay. All in favor? Okay. Motion carries. Do we have a motion to um for uh vice president for the board? [Laughter] I was still writing. It's okay. We're really
068grateful for you being the secretary because obviously we would not be very good at it. Not yet. Second. Thank you. Okay. Motion made by Mrs. Conway, seconded by Mr. Treble, Dr. Kliti, or second by Dr. Kliti. Okay. Okay. All in favor? Motion carries. And then finally, do we have a motion or nomination for secretary of the board? Motion made by Dr. Confetti, second by Mr. Flanigan. uh approve the nomination of Holly Conway as secretary of the board. All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you to all of you for serving. Appreciate that. And then next we need to approve the dates for the board meetings for 2025 2026. Um any questions or comments about that? Okay. I'm still not sure who moved what. So Okay. Okay. Motion made Conway, second by Mr. Flanigan uh to approve
069the meeting dates as presented. Um all in favor? Motion carries. And that concludes our agenda for this evening. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Second. Motion made by Mr. Flanigan, second by Dr. Completi to adjourn. All in favor? We are journed.