001All right. Good evening everyone. I hereby call this meeting to order. Uh unfortunately I don't have a gavvel but I I have some hand uh cleanser here. So meeting is in order. Next item on the agenda is roll call. I'm going to ask you to identify yourself from starting from my right. If you're here, please state your name. >> Jessica Choa present. >> Carlos Margo present. Alisa Pñena present. >> Sen Jun present. >> Rosalandez present. >> Vega present. >> Great. Everyone's here. We have a quorum. Everyone is present. Next item on the agenda is our pledge of allegiance. If you're able to do so, I ask that you stand and please face the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One
002nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. You may be seated. >> All right, ladies and gentlemen, our next item on the agenda is our public comment portion. Do we have anyone that signed up for public comment? >> We do have one. Uh his name is Jose Pñena, executive director of athletics. If you can make your way to the podium, >> Mr. Pñena again, just uh you have the floor. Thank you. Good evening. Uh Mr. President, superintendent of schools, M Dr. Marcy Sorenson. Um, tonight athletics is here to proudly recognize and celebrate our two outstanding soccer programs that are representing our district with heart, pride, excellence on the biggest stages. The athletic department in La Hoya ISD is proud to congratulate the Lincoln Huskys and the Palm View High School
003LOBOS on advancing to the regional semifinals both teams in the UIL state soccer playoffs. These two programs, both representing the district of 35A, have shown tremendous determination, resilience, and the championship character throughout the postseason. The Huskies began their playoff run with an impressive by district championship victory over Corpus Christie Ray and they continued by claiming the area championship with a hard fought over much gratitude Sherland Pioneer. Sorry, that's me. This is a testament of their discipline, unity, and relentless spirit that is only found at Husky Nation. The district champions, the logos, open the playoffs in a strong by district championship win over Corpus Christie Veterans Memorial. And with that outstanding area championship last night, I hope everybody saw it. It was a great game over BROWER RIETTA. THEIR REMARKABLE season has been defined by toughness,
004belief, and the pride that represents mighty Palm View High School and La Hoya ISD at the highest level. on behalf of La Hoya ISD, our students, teachers, staff, and especially our community board members and board uh president and superintendent of school. We proudly wish both the Lobos and the Huskys the very best of luck tomorrow and Friday as they travel to Corpus Christi to continue their journey through the state's playoffs. This is what one district, one path truly means. Two schools, one community, one mission, and one proud district standing behind them that carries the hopes of La Hoya ISD into the regional semifinals. To the players, families, and all the supporters for both programs. Thank you for representing our district with class, passion, and pride. And once again, congratulations to our mighty Palm View Regos,
005our mighty risk and Huskys. LaorD is here behind you all the way to state. Thank you. >> Thank you for the comments. Uh you may uh see that the majority of us are wearing school spirit. So generally you'll see especially for our new conservator you'll see that we we always wear suits. Somebody didn't get the moment but I'm just kidding. But we're very proud of both our teams and it gives us bragging rights. So, everywhere we've been traveling today or visiting, you know, the schools or just people that we encounter in public, it's it's nice to be able to showcase uh not only the um the athletes that we have here, but just the student body and then of course the huge support of the of the folks here in La Hoya. We're very proud
006of our our students and we're proud of all our athletes. So, but particularly the two that are advancing. So, thank you for the comments. Anyone from the board have anything to say? >> Dr. Sorson. >> Yes, Dr. Sonson. So, first of all, I just want to say that mid meeting I'm going to go change my jersey. Um, right now I am happily and proudly representing my mighty mighty Loos. Thank you. But mid meeting, I'm going to go flip and put on my Huskys jersey cuz I I want to represent Husky Nation. All right. And I've got to represent all of us here in the pack. So, just stay tuned and I'm going to put that jersey in a little bit. But I just always want to just take a moment with pride, right? This is
007about hard work. This is about resilience. This is about showing up. This is about exactly who we are. We show up, we fight, and we win. And that happens with the work of our children. This happens with the work of our coaches. This happens with the work of our parents and families. And when we come together, there's absolutely nothing that we can't do. And so whether it is my mighty mighty Lobos or my Husky nation, go out there and show them exactly who we are in La Hoya ISD. We are TRYING we are proud of you already. Just continue to make us more proud. Congratulations and carry on. >> Thank you, Dr. Senson. Anyone else would like to say anything? Anyone making the trip? Any of us making the trip? We'll be there in spirit,
008I'm sure. All right. So, that was the only person who has signed up for public comment. Next portion of our agenda is five, agenda five, which is um we will have an open public hearing. The time is >> 6:10. 6:10 p.m. This item is on the 2024 2025 Texas Academic Performance Report, TARP, presented by Dr. Little. Dr. Little, stage is yours. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening, everyone. We will make this a quick interlude before we get back to celebrating everyone uh in the room. Uh but we do come tonight to honor our commitment and obligation for transparency around our Texas academic performance report. This is a required presentation that districts give to the board and the community uh each year, but we will uh keep this brief. Obviously, we're talking about our final
009results from last year. Uh timing is always a little weird just to set some context. So, while this is about our pursuit of our vision, mission, goals, uh and northstar, it really is a look backward. That's part of the brevity of tonight because we have exhaustively gone over all of that data with the board and with the community. Um, but we are honoring uh the requirement to share the final report uh with you all this evening. So, the state puts together, they're called tapers. It stands again Texas academic performance uh annual report and it's the official summary of the prior school year. They don't come out usually until very late fall or into early winter. Thus, we're we're talking about it now. Uh, but it is produced for every school district across the state. We
010do have our full taper report published on our La Hoya ISD website. That is the link that that's shown here. It is hyperlinkable um to our website. So, anybody can access the full report that's published. You can also always go to TEA's website and search any district that's available. This graphic at the bottom gives us a reminder of all the things that are included there. There is a lot of academic data but there's also some of our PE's financial data as well as information about other measures including like postsecondary or behavioral and discipline data included there as well. Uh we also get reports for each campus. Uh so those are also posted on our district website. Again, anyone in the public can uh go see what that looks like for their campus or any campus
011of interest in addition to what we produce for uh the district. Again, there's a lot of information on there, including information about uh staffing. The bullet points here just give you a summary. Again, this really captures the the final official data points for all of what we present to you when we do our Lonear governance update. So final graduation rate, final uh star performance which we've shared all along the way. And then finally just the summary data uh that comes out of taper which we wanted to share. Uh we do get a lagged accreditation status for the district. Note that this is 2324. It is always lagged for everybody not just for us. Uh but we did achieve that accredited status overall. Um, Miss Cresbow has already shared the first rating data with you in
012other contexts, but that shows up in the district taper report. Uh, we did achieve that uh, a rating. Our accountability rating, we know last year uh, was that 78. We are doing all of the work this year to to change that and get us back to a B. And I'll be sharing an update with you a little later in the agenda uh, on that. And then for special education, there's several layers that the state provides for districts. Uh our category right now is needs assistant. This really matches what we saw in the audit as well. We have an update coming to you in about a month on what that progress looks like uh related to the audit. So this wasn't a surprise. Again, just confirmation of what we learned last spring and then what we're
013doing over the next five years to really change those outcomes and improve services for students within special education. And in every one of our LSU reports, we always share the data for how special education students uh are doing against those data points as well. Uh one last data point here that we wanted to share, and this is sort of the end of the pipeline as we think about goal four with college, career, and military readiness. We are showing our district to the far right compared to region one in the state overall in three measures. So the bright red bar actually shows our overall CCMR uh rate for uh our graduates and we can see that we are higher than region one and we're higher than the state. We're pretty significantly higher than the state in
014that CCMR status sitting at 93.5 and the state at 81.8. The gray bar are those students specifically on the college ready measure. We know as we set our goals, as we work through the strategic plan, this is an area of focus and improvement for us. We are not exceeding the region and the state in that measure. Um, but that is a huge part of what we are working to improve. And then the light pink is those career or military readiness graduates. So this is all of the CTE space that we talk about in industry based credentials. And again, we are significantly above the region and the state in that area. and we have really aggressive GPMs and goals in part of goal four to push this even higher. Um so again, we'll continue to give
015our Lone Star governance updates against that. Uh but with that, Mr. President, we really just wanted to make sure that you uh as a board and the public knew how to access the full information, a quick reminder of where we've been and then happy to take questions. >> Members of the board, any questions for Dr. Little before we open it up to the public? >> Okay, seeing we have any questions? So, uh, do we have any individuals or with comments or questions about the public hearing that Dr. Little just went over? 2024 2025 Texas academic performance report. >> Has anyone signed up or would like to make their way to the podium? >> Okay. At this time, we will close the public hearing at >> 6:16. 6:16 p.m. and open up the regular board meeting
016at >> 6:16 p.m. Thank you. >> Next item on the agenda, I'm going to ask uh board members Gomez and Jessica Ooa if you could make your way in front of the dis for the recognitions. This item is seven, agenda item number seven. This one in particular is going to be the recognition of campus leadership program the Holsworth Center Cedo Gonzalez presented by Dr. Derek Little. Dr. Little, >> thank you so much uh President Alvarez. This is a really exciting moment because it is a unique opportunity uh that one of our campuses in La Hoya ISD has really worked to earn and is going to benefit them personally from participating but certainly the campus as a whole and students. So, we are very excited tonight to recognize uh Principal Gonzalez and Cesar Chavez Middle School
017as being uh awarded the right to participate in the Holtzsworth leadership cohort. This is a significant accomplish more than a 100 campuses across the state applied and nowhere near a hundred got accepted. So, this is a really premier and sort of exclusive opportunity uh that the school and the team will get. It is a two-year cohort-based program. So, over the next two school years, they're going to get a lot of uh focus on instructional leaderships, building strong teams, and developing systems that really drive and improve student achievement. Uh this will be intense for them. For anyone who has ever experienced anything Holtzsworth adjacent, like it is heavy heavy professional learning. So, they are going to uh be put through the ringer in the best way, but they're going to get access to some of the
018best professional learning available. not just in Texas but across the country uh have a really unique opportunity to build connection with other school leaders across the state and ultimately help uh get us closer to the vision as a district. We're at this middle school truly able to achieve educational excellence for every student. So we are honored to recognize Principal Sto Gonzalez uh and his team. He's joined by assistant principal Miss Diana Ramirez Regalado. Uh, YEP. Also with assistant principal Miss Diana Alvarez >> and teachers Miss Peril Ernnandez, Maria Suarez, and Ivan Benvdz. >> So, congratulations team. We're so excited about the benefit of this to you and the students that you serve. So, let's congratulate them one more time. Dr. Sorenson, before Dr. Little proceeds, is there anything you'd like to say specifically about this
019group? because I just want to make sure that those individuals that were just recognized are not are not drawn to go to another school district upon completion. We want to keep them. >> Absolutely. Um I first want to point out that principal um sto Gonzalez also went with us last year when we went to Harvard um and he was a member of our pelp team um and so one of the absolute brightest hardworking dedicated student centered leaders that we have in this district. Um, and not just that, reflective, wanting to improve, wanting to do the right thing, wanting to grow himself. And so when we got the notice from Holsworth Center that he was accepted along with then choosing a team, it didn't surprise me at all. Um, he is a leader amongst his peers.
020He is doing incredible work to improve his campus for his students every single day. And he does that in partnership with his team and with his teachers. Um and so thank you so much for being an incredible leadership team. We talk all the time about how the principal cannot do it themselves. They absolutely need really strong assistant principles. So, thank you for being, you know, part of that team and for supporting the growth of your teachers because again, you need really strong teacher leaders to actually impact culture right on campus. And so, I'm so excited for each of you to go and learn and bring back all that you're going to learn and continue to just pour that in to your school. Excellent. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Dr. Well said. Dr. Little,
021next item on the agenda is 7.2, recognition of staff members of the TEA 2025 2026 educator committee. >> We're going to keep it going with La Hoya ISDC team members that are doing really special, really incredible things. Uh so this next group is a group of folks who also through a competitive selection process were selected by TEA to help craft what students experience through assessments. Uh so all of these team members were able to really help uh develop, define, give feedback on uh part of what students will see starting in a couple of weeks with with STAR exams. So they served on educator committees uh with educators from across Texas who provide really important uh insight for the agency as they're developing these resources and materials like from the ground from the classroom perspective, but
022also ultimately help create them. So, we are very excited tonight uh to recognize a group of La Hoya ISD educators that have been part of these TEA educator committees. Uh I will announce them by school and then tell you who they are from each of these campuses. We will start with Mindola Elementary and we have two team members uh from Mindola. Miss uh Karina Pales who helped with star Spanish math third grade and Miss Liliana Munoz who helped with star reading third grade. Thank you both. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Of course. Next up, we have educators from Kamarena Elementary. And we have Miss Ozuna, who supported Star RLA in fifth grade. And Miss Fues, who supported uh fifth grade, Star RLA as well. >> Congratulations, >> Mr. Flores. Sorry. And principal Diaz. >> WOOHOO. All
023right. Next up, we have with principal Ramirez from Ford Ice Elementary, uh, Miss Garcia, who supported Star Spanish third grade. RLA. >> Congratulations. >> Always. >> Congratulations. >> You're my friends. >> At the secondary level, we'll start with JD Selenas with Principal Pena. And we have uh Miss Garza who supported social studies grade eight. Continuing with Deavala and Principal Trevvinho Sandival, we have Miss Garcia twice cuz she supported grade six reading and grades six to seven Telpas writing. Congratulations. >> Then back with Chavez and Principal Gonzalez, we have Miss Garcia who supported eighth grade reading and Miss Perez Rodriguez who supported eighth grade RLA as well. >> And then with our high schools from La Hoya with Principal Flores, we have Miss Sullivan who supported English too. And then lastly, but not able to join
024us this evening from Palm View High School, we also have Miss Ernandez who supported biology for Star Al 2. So big congratulations to all of you. This is truly a testament to La Hoya ISD educators, not only doing the work you do every day for the students you directly serve, but impacting how educators across the state serve and support and educate students. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you, Dr. Little. Dr. Sorenson, would you like to add anything? >> So, I would like to add um and I'll read this directly from an email from um TEA because I thank them for notifying me and um the email said, "Thank you so much for sharing the expertise of your district with TEA. It is wonderful to see how many educators you have sent from your
025district. We currently have 128 educators in the TEA database from La Hoya ISD. And so this just demonstrates our commitment to not only doing great work here locally, but contributing to our state landscape. We know how important it is educator voice shows up in the assessment process, right? We know how important it is because you're doing the work in classrooms every single day. And so you want to make sure that how our students are being assessed is accurate and reflective of the standards and reflective of proper instructional strategies, curriculum teques. And so the fact that you would dedicate your time and your energy and your expertise, 128 of you from our great district, just speaks to our commitment not only to excellence locally but excellence statewide. So thank you so much. >> Thank you, Dr.
026Sorenson. Well said. Next item on the agenda, Miss Marette Creswell will be doing the honors. It's 7.3, recognition of La Hoya ISD's purchasing department staff for National Procurement Month. Good evening and Mr. Doc Mr. Alvarez, Dr. Sorenson board. Tonight I'm taking a little bit of time to recognize our purchases team um for the significant progress they have been doing and in order to uh this was the best time for the national procurement month. Over the last year, this team has undergone a meaningful transformation and I'm very proud of them. Shifting from primary transactional work to building a stronger system, clearer processes and greater accountability across the organization. As part of our commitment to meeting our ex criteria and to represent the excellence that La Hoya ISD is. Their work has directly contributed to strengthening internal
027controls, improving compliance, and increasing transparency in how we manage public funds. Some of the areas they progress include because they know I always going to say what they are doing. Uh the development of and completion of a comprehensive p purchasing manual that now provides clear guidance across the organization. Strengthening processes uh and procurement processes including clear expectations and increasing collaboration with campuses and departments to ensure purchases are aligned, properly documented and strategically justified. This is not just about compliance. This is also about building a culture of accountability and service where every dollar is managed with purpose and aligned with the student outcomes. So on behalf of the district, thank you to our purchasing department for your commitment, your growth and your dedication to continuous improvement. Congratulations. >> Nice to meet you. Thank you for all
028your work. >> Thank you for your work. Hey, I like your shoes. Congratulations. Good job. >> There's one more. BEFORE we move on to the next agenda item, Dr. Sornson, is there anything you'd like to add? >> Yes. I would like Miss Crespbow to go back to the mic and introduce the in amazing procurement team by their proper names so we all know who they are. So, we can all just say hi and tell them we love them. Okay, I'll introduce them. >> Okay, I'll introduce them. We have Melissa Ruiz. She's our uh specialist. Um Selena Garcia is our buyer. Uh Rashad Ruiz is our senior buyer. And Miss Nota Gonzalez is our buyer. >> And this is Anna Pñena, my purchasing supervisor. Thank you for all the great work that you all do. Next
029item on the agenda. Yes. Yes. Next item on the agenda is 7.4 National Social Workers Month. This will be done by Anna Marie Candelaria, Deputy Chief Academic uh Advancement. And I see Dr. Little as well. >> Yes. This one is not by me. Uh Miss Kandelari is going to do this for president if I may. Miss Hernandez from Palm View for the educator committee is here. If we could do a quick like recognition in celebration of her for the great work of being part of helping this state. >> You get a picture by yourself. >> All by yourself. >> Right here. Right in the middle. >> Thank you so much. >> Miss Gandia, you're going to go ahead and go over the National Social Workers Month. Thank you. >> Good evening, board president Alvarez, esteemed
030board members, Dr. Sorenson, and community members. Tonight, we pause with intention and deep gratitude to recognize a group of professionals whose work often happens quietly behind office doors and hallways between classes, during difficult phone calls with families, and in moments when students simply need someone to believe in them. Early this month, from March 1st through March 7th, we observed National School Social Work Week 2026, a time set aside across the nation to recognize the vital role school social workers play in supporting student success and strengthening school communities. In La Hoya ISD, we often speak about educational excellence being the right of every student. But excellence not only built through curriculum, assessments, or instruction. Excellence is built through care, through connection, through courage to meet students where they are emotionally, socially, and sometimes in the most
031vulnerable moments in their lives. So that work is done by our social workers every day. Our social workers are bridgeuilders. They connect school and home. They connect crisis to hope. They connect challenges to possibility. They are often the first to notice when something feels different. They are the calm voice in moments of uncertainty. They are advocates ensuring students, especially those facing barriers, are seen, heard, and supported. Whether they're coordinating resources for families, supporting attendance and engagement, guiding students through trauma, helping campuses build positive support systems or simply sitting beside a student who needs to feel safe. Their impact reaches far beyond what can ever be measured in data. They help create the conditions where learning becomes possible. And in a district as large and diverse as La Hoya ISD, this work is not easy. It
032requires resilience. It requires empathy. It requires professionalism and heart and sometimes all at the same time. What makes us especially proud is that our social workers do not work in isolation. They are collaborators. They are leaders. They are problem solvers who help shape stronger systems to support our student and their successes. So tonight, on behalf of our superintendent, board of um managers and campus leaders, and most importantly, our students and families, we say thank you. Thank you for your compassion, your persistence, and belief in the potential of every child. Your work matters. Your presence matters. Happy National Social Work Week. La Hoy ISD is stronger because of you. So, I'd like to call um the social workers um Manurva Aosta from Memorial Middle School, Ana Flores from Domingo Chrovinho, Jacqueline Flores from Caesar Chavez, Roelio
033Salazar from Dr. signs, Erica Selenez from JD Selenus, Priscilla Weber from Irene Garcia, Laura Aguilar from College and Career Center, Leonardo Garcia from La Hoya High School, Sochi Garcia from Wallace Lincoln, Sonia Hernandez from Jimmy Carter, Beatatric Morina from Hope Academy, and Jose Oscar Ramos from Palm View High School. >> How are you? >> Thank you. How are you? >> Hey, principal. >> Right. >> Congratulations. Get in there. >> Right after this, I'm going to do it. >> She warned us. She warned us. >> I did. Keep my husband's. >> Okay. At this time, I'd like uh board members Gomez and of course, Miss Jessica Choy to take their seat. I'm going to ask Miss Alyssa Pñena and Dr. Carlos Marggo if they could go ahead and make their way to the front of the
034disk for this portion of our recognitions. >> Thank you. All right, Miss Candeladdio, you still have the next item, which is 7.5 recognition of educational diagnosticians week. It's all yours. >> Oh, look at those faces. Okay. Good evening, board president, esteemed board members, Dr. Sorenson, and community members. Tonight, we take time to recognize and celebrate a group of professionals whose work proudly impacts the lives of sometimes our most vulnerable and most resilient learners. During educational diagnosticians week, we proudly honor our dedicated diagnosticians across La Hoya ISD. Educational diagnosticians play an essential role in supporting our students with disabilities. Their work helps ensure that every student, regardless of ability, has access to meaningful learning experiences, appropriate supports, and the ability to reach their full potential. They are the professionals who carefully evaluate students strengths and needs.
035They interpret complex academic and developmental behavioral data. They guide teens and families through important decisions that shape individualized educational pathways. Because of their work, students receive services that are tailored, intentional, and grounded in evidence. Behind every evaluation and deep analysis, behind every AR meeting is thoughtful preparation and collaboration. Behind every recommendation recommendation is a commitment to equity, access, and student success. Diagnosticians help ensure that students with disabilities are not defined by barriers, but are supported through them. They advocate for inclusive practices. They help educators design appropriate instruction and accommodations. They partner with families during moments that can feel overwhelming, help to build understanding, trust, and hope. Again, in a district as large and dynamic as La Hoy ISD, this responsibility is significant. Our diagnosticians help ensure that our systems are responsible, responsive, compliant, and most
036importantly, student centered because of their dedication. Students with disabilities are better supported, families feel empowered, campuses grow stronger in their ability to serve all learners. So tonight on on behalf of the superintendent, board and campus leaders and our entire community, we say thank you. Thank you for your expertise, your compassion, your unwavering um advocacy for our students. Your work matters. Your leadership matters. Happy educational diagnosticians week. La Hoyd is stronger because of you. So, Alvara Kvasos, San Juanita, Alamera, Ambita, Leel, Sheila Loausano, Jennifer Garcia, Jessica Ortiz, Sandraz, Rolando Balah, Felicia Rodriguez, Rosa Gonzalez, Angelica Lumis, Andila Waldo, Melana Padraza, and Jasmine Mendoza de Garcia. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you so much for your work. >> Congratulations. >> You guys have a lot of stuff. >> Thank you so much for your work. HEY. Thank you,
037Miss Gondelio. That was perfect. Thank you. >> Uh before we proceed to the next agenda item, I I know uh some of you may have seen a switch in our superintendent's attire, uh we have our own uh superwoman here, so she changed into her other outfit. So, I'm grateful for that. Nation. >> That's right. Representing my Huskies now. Dr. Sorenson, I know that last agenda item, um, you have a special spot in your heart for folks that are diagnosticians. Do you have anything you'd like to add? >> Uh, yes, absolutely. As as our community knows and as the board knows, um, super content superintendent constraint number two is all about students with special needs. And so the diagnosticians are an incredible important part of that work. Um they are the first gatekeeper and by gatekeeper
038I mean they are the ones who actually create the plan with the teachers in partnership with the families because they are the first ones who say yes or no that yes there is a learning disability here that needs attention accommodations ions and modifications and a learning environment in which a child can thrive or no this child needs tier one instruction and that instruction needs to be of quality where we believe that children can thrive in a general education setting. So the diagnosticians to me are a guard rail to make sure that FAPE free and public education in the least restrictive environment and in an environment that is most appropriate for children is afforded to every student in La Hoya ISD. So thank you so much for your work. It is tireless. It is often unseen,
039but we know the hard work that you're doing and we thank you for it. >> Thank you, Dr. SANSSON. Thank you again, Mr. And for the recognition. Thank you. Uh before we move on to the next agenda item, uh I know this one is going to be done again by our athletic director, Mr. Pena. Mr. Pena is going to recognize National or acknowledge National Athletic Trainers Day. Uh this the floor is all yours. I before you go, I did want to say this is another important component of the success of our athletes. So thank you for recognizing them today. Coach, all yours. Thank you, board president. Good evening. Uh if it's okay, I'd like to call up our athletic coordinators so they could be with our our trainers if you don't mind. La Hoya coordinators,
040Palm View coordinators, and white coordinators, if you could please come up again. So before we get started, um I would I would like to just say that these young ladies and young men Thompson spent a lot of time with our kids and um I wanted to do something different. I've been around trainers all my life and it it's never been given the proper attention that I would like. So today I wanted to do things a little bit different and I asked them three questions. Who are you? Why did you choose to do this? And why do you love La Hoya ISD students? So, um, let me go ahead and get started. March is recognized nationally as La Hoya, sorry, as National Athletic Trainers Month. A time to honor the dedicated licensed health care professionals who
041try uh tirelessly prevent, diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate injuries and medical conditions. Athletic trainers play a vital role in the success, safety, and well-being of our student athletes. And tonight we proudly recognize our outstanding trainers at La Hoya ISD. They spend countless hours Saturday, sometimes Sundays. We always run out of ice. There's never enough water. And as you know, the heat here in South Texas is pretty tough. So, I'd like to start off from La Hoya High School, Miss Olga Thompson. Miss Thompson is originally from FAR, is a graduate of PSJA. She has dedicated an incredible 40 years to be an athletic trainer. Her decision to enter this profession came from a deeply personal commitment to ensure that female student athletes will always have and receive and care the care, attention, and respect they deserve. She
042shares that she will love she most loves about La Hoya students is they are courteous, kind and appreciative of the care and prevention she provides. Her legacy of service, compassion and advoc advocacy continues to impact generations of student athletes. So Dr. Thompson, thank you for everything. Next from Laora is Miss Ayanita. She is from Penitas, Texas. She's a proud graduate of Palm View High School from 2020 20 I'm sorry 2019. She is currently in her first year of this profession, right? Learning from Miss Thompson. Ana Anaas chose athletic training because while she was in high school, she wanted to be like Edwin Gomez. The work he put into the athletic training program inspired her to continue school, work hard, and one day give back to high school athletes. In the same way, she shares that
043she loves working with La Hoya students because she puts her uh they push her to become better version of herself every day. She dedicates a Hoya students um at some of the most respectful students and she that she's ever worked with and she says she is proud to work with them each and every day. Uh she is excited to continue building her future in La Hoya ISD. So thank you from uh Lincoln High School. We have Zeneda Mendulsa. Zeneda is from Macallen, Texas. She is a proud graduate of Palm View High School from the class of 2014. She has served an athletic trainer since 2022 and chose this profession to help student athletes recover from sports injuries and return stronger. As a former La Hoya ISD student herself, she takes great pride in helping our
044current athletes reach their full potential after injury. Her work reflects hard pride and a deep connection to her students that she serves. So, thank you, Miss Vendosa. Next, we got Doc Carlos Presa. Doc Presas is originally from Houston. He has served 25 years as an athletic trainer. His journey began in high school when he transitioned from an athlete to a student trainer, beginning a career built on service and dedication. He shares that he enjoys most about our athletes is their humility and that humble spirit that makes them work even more meaningful. His years of experience and commitment continue to strengthen Whites Lincoln athletic program. So thank you God bless us. >> At Palm View High School we have Jada Scott. Jada is from Mallen, Texas and this is her first year as a trainer. She
045entered this profession because of her passion for helping athletes and making a difference in their lives while combining their passion with love of sports. She shares that she loves working with La Hoya ISD students because their their resilience, energy, and dedication and she finds great joy in watching them grow uh both athletically and as individuals. And uh last but not least from Palm, we have Edwin Gomez. Edwin is a proud Palm View High School alumni and a true product of La Hoya ISD. He has served as an athletic trainer for nine years and entered the profession because of his passion for sports and helping others. As someone who once walked the same halls as the students he now serves, he takes great pride in giving back to his community. He values the opportunity to support
046hardworking and resilient student athletes to become someone they can relate to as they grow uh grow, recover, and succeed. So tonight, as we thank all of our athletic trainers for the care, commitment, and compassion they show every single day, their work goes beyond the sidelines. their product are they they protect our students, support our programs, and play an essential role in helping our athletes compete safely and successfully. Please join me in recognizing these great individuals celebrated today, La Hoya ISD, our trainers for National Athletic Training Months. And guys, thank you for everything you do. Coordinators, if you don't mind taking a picture, coordinators How are you? >> Hey Chris, how are you? Congratulations. >> You like it? You like it? >> Congratulations to all of you. I just want to know did you dress up
047this year? Thank you again, coach. >> Next item on the agenda, 7.7. This will be done by SB Pearson. This is National School Breakfast Week, March 2nd through the 6th of 2026. SB, it's all yours. >> Mr. President, Madam Superintendent, uh SB Pearson, your chief operations officer. I am honored tonight to introduce to some and and uh offer greetings to others two important groups of my team. Uh first of these two groups I am honored to recognize the child nutrition department. Uh they are intricral to the work that happens in educating our kids. And so we're here to this afternoon to celebrate the child nutrition school breakfast week. This is a calorie event, a celebration that happens the first week of March and recognize the school breakfast program to benefit numbers of students uh to
048help them begin each day on a positive note. National School Breakfast Week celebrates the important role that nutritious breakfast play and helping students start their day ready to learn, grow, and succeed. Observe each year during the first full week of March, National School Breakfast Week shines the spotlight on the school breakfast program of La Hoya Independent School District. It is my honor today to introduce uh Mr. Rolando Hernandez, the director, Carla Zarta, menu planner, Melma Flores, cafeteria manager, Grizz, cafeteria helper, and Maria Gomez. Garza. Maria Garza. Sorry. Please give him a round of applause. >> Congratulations. Dr. Sorenson, is there anything you'd like to say to this group? I The only thing I'd like to say is, you know, I really appreciate that every time we have an activity uh in the evenings, the weekends,
049I mean, they're always there with a smile and the food is great. I was just telling uh Mr. Ednandez that um he's makes the best hot dogs. I was just so hungry that day. >> Or chicken sandwich. >> Oh, we had good hot dogs. Um, so Mr. Hernandez, I just need to know before I say thank you for all the wonderful work that you do. Did you dress up this year? Because I mean the video last year, I'm not certain that you could top that. >> Okay. Because again, I mean, Blanco, we didn't get the video this time of you fully dressed up. >> Okay. I mean, because again, that was just priceless. Um, but I say this all the time is that, you know, learning doesn't happen if our kids are hungry. And so
050it is imperative that we take a moment to recognize all the child nutrition services does to make sure that our children are fed and cared for with a smile. I'll share a very quick story. Um, I happen to be walking through I believe it was PA Elementary. Is it PA? And um, I had seen a child. Yes, it was PA, right? And uh I had seen a student that I had seen a few times and so I was walking through and he happened to drop his chicken parmesan on the ground and so he was like, "Miss, miss miss." And you know, I was doing spot checks and so my team was like, "Come on, let's go." And no, no, hold on. A child needs chicken. So I stopped very quickly to get and help the
051child. I was like, "Ma'am, can you please help me? I dropped my chicken. I need more chicken." So I was like, "Okay." So, I go to the line and I get chicken for the child. Well, it was hilarious because I just went and I asked for chicken and this wonderful cafeteria woman just served me chicken with garlic bread and vegetables and a whole new plate. But within five minutes, literally, um, he had contacted me. He knew where I was. He knew that I had been fed. He asked me if I liked the chicken parmesan. And I was it good? No, it wasn't for me. It was for a child. But that's how of a welloiled machine you have that within five minutes, right? Your staff had communicated with you to ensure that you knew like
052how many meals were served? How do we count this? Is it for the superintendent? And to just make sure that it really got to a child. And so that shows the relationship that you have with your students, I mean with your staff to make sure that they're giving and loving and caring to every single student. And that again, they're just there to serve and give. And so, thank you so much. Thank you so much to each of you and to every single cafeteria support staff and to your staff at that incredible warehouse that you have. It's like a little um Costco in the sky. Um, thank you so much for all that you do. >> I don't think I can remember the last time I had the last time I had chicken parmesan. So, need
053to come over here. >> Delicious. >> Uh, thank you again, Mr. Hernandez. Next item on the agenda, SB Pearson, you'll be doing the honors of recognizing the maintenance worker appreciation day, 2026. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. President. Again, uh, madam superintendent, thank you for those comments to our team. Another intricate part of our team that is very vital in the education of our students every day that also play an important part in the thankless job and what we do. We want to recognize our maintenance team. On March the 6th, 2025 is maintenance workers appreciation day. We recognize and celebrate this and dedication and hard work these essential contributions our maintenance staff make every single day. Their commitment to keeping our facilities safe, clean, and running smooth does not go unnoticed. We truly appreciate their efforts.
054And today we have with us Mr. Ray Sadinho. He's our executive director. Mr. Mario Flores, Mario Flores, Aruro Gonzalez, Mike Garcia. Congratulations >> Brendan Diaz, >> George Martinez, >> Teresa, Roger Fernandez, and the two ladies from our office, Martha and Iana, that helped make us go. Join me. Give him a round of applause, please. Congratulations. >> I thought he was going to hit me. >> Congratulations. Champions tomorrow. Now I'm going to go. >> Thank you SP. I think you have the next agenda item as well. This is 8.1. >> Of course. Um I was reminded that Dr. Sorenson did have something that she wanted to add, especially with this group that was just recognized. Dr. Senson. >> Thank you, board president. I really appreciate it. Um, so Mr. Sado, when you handed me this board,
055and I think that your entire staff will understand. I wasn't sure if this was gratitude or if you were going to smack me with it. So, but I am very grateful that um you you gave me this little gift here. Thank you so much. It really speaks honestly to who you are, right? You are full you are full of giving constantly. So, thank you. you you give repeatedly to this district with love. But I do want to say um to the entire maintenance worker team, maintenance and operations, you made something happened this year that has never happened before. You made it snow for me here in La Hoya ISD. Right. Vona and I set out with a vision for our um Christmas festival last year and we said we're going to make it snow this
056year and so we made it snow and I am so happy and proud of the work that you do. Um you made little kids dreams come true. You have no idea. I'm like going to get emotional about it because there were little like little little ones being like it's snowing and you made that happen. Like you really made that happen. You made our baseball field happen. You let me into construction sites when SV says not to. Shh, don't tell him. Um, but I am so grateful the endless hours that you put in that people don't see. Your families know though that you put in those hours because you're not there with them because you're giving it to our district. And so, thank you so much for all that you do to make sure that years
057and years, right, of of investment stays working. Um, in places and spaces where we're we're trying to just keep it working, you keep it working. So, thank you for all that you do. Every single one of you, I'm grateful. And we have hot water at Palm Beach High School now. That's right. in the locker rooms. I water. Thank you, >> Dr. Sorenson. I think they're scared of what you're going to be asking of them next year. >> That's up to >> SP, you have the honors of doing the superintendent updates, transportation updates regarding Senate Bill 54689, legislative session. It's all yours. >> Absolutely, Mr. President. It is a busy night for us in operations. Uh couple presentations in a row. SB Pearson, your chief operations officer. I have the distinct honor again of doing another
058presentation for you guys. That's a compliance exercise as a part of legislation that has changed. Uh as you guys know in our transportation department, we're required to have a comp comprehensive look at our fleet. And so I have invited Mr. Joe Alanise and Mr. Flores to the podium with me to do a brief presentation, a compliance exercise that's required by uh legislation for us to present to you guys an exhibit item. Mr. uh Alanise Nice to see you again, Mr. Alanise. >> Thank you, board president Alvarez. Good evening. Uh board, superintendent school, Dr. Sorenson. Uh it's a pleasure to be or and thankful for the opportunity to present here today and uh to provide an an overview of Senate Bill 546 and its impact on AOSD transportation. As we begin, I want to ground this
059work in our district's vision and mission. And the purpose of this report is to meet state requirements and provide a clear understanding of where we stand as a district. We evaluated our current bus fleet to determine a compliance with this threepoint seat belt standards, gathered estimated retrofit cost, and also analyze the financial and operational impact. And here's a brief overview of we'll be covering today in this presentation. So, Senate Bill 546 establishes updated uh safety requirements for student transportation across the state of Texas. Now, under this law, all school buses must be equipped with three-point seat belts for every passenger in our school buses. and all newly purchased school buses must already meet uh the standard of the three-point seat belts. Now, some key uh deadlines are September the 1st, 2025, where we must assess
060and document compliance, which we did, but also by May 29th, 2026, we must submit a report to TEA. And by September 1st of 2029, we must be in full compliance with this uh Senate bill of having uh the three-point seat belts in our school buses. This slide uh we have uh our fleet inventory. We have a total of 174 buses. Out of those 174 buses, 67 of them are currently in compliance that are currently have threepoint seat belts. Yet 100 of 107 school buses are not yet in compliance or do not meet standards with the with the seat uh threepoint seat belts. Uh most specifically we have uh 89 buses that are currently uh not uh not compliant or that don't have the the passenger seat belts and we have uh 18 buses that only
061have the twopoint seat belts or the lap belts. That means that 60% of our fleet will require to be upgraded or in order to meet the state requirements with the Senate Bill 546. And here's a a retrofit cost of our or estimated cost of our of the fleet to be in compliance. Uh for regular buses, an estimated cost to retrofit will be around 33,000 to 35,000 for a regular bus. Approximately for a special education bus, we're talking about 25,000 to 27,000. And there's also an an additional add-on where it's required for 2015 or older school buses to also be retrofitted with a floor replacement, which comes an additional cost of $7,500 to do that. So in total for a to retrofit retrofit a 2016 or older school bus, it will be a total of $30,000
062and uh for a 2015 or older, a total of approximately 45,000 to retrofit. Now in in this slide uh we also have a cost snapshot per unit for school buses and it'll provide a more detailed breakdown of these cost. For regular we have uh 89 school buses and for special education we have 18 bring uh this to a total of 107 school buses they need a retrofitting uh bringing us to a total estimated cost of around 3.7 million. And also this one uh shows a breakdown or a summary of the fleet of per unit. We have 53 school buses or newer. And then we also have the 36 2015 or older buses that are identified that will be requiring the retrofit. And then we have 18 uh special education buses bringing the total to 107
063school buses and approximate to cost of 3.7 million. Now at this time uh administration is is recommending that no immediate action be taken and this recommendation is based on the current Hover Fleet, the high cost of retrofitting and the alignment with the district's long-term capital replacement plan. So this concludes our our presentation. Uh now we're open to any question that you might have. Members of the board, any questions for SB or Mr. Lings? Um, President, I have a question. >> Yes, Miss Pñena. >> Um, so I'm seeing that the um cost right for retrofitting is anywhere between 30 around 30 to um 45,000. What does uh a new bus cost now? Just trying to see right what the cost is versus what we would have to >> That's a very good question. Currently, the cost
064to acquire a new school bus with a threepoint seat belt is around $170,000. >> Thank you. >> So, along those lines, Mr. Alanise, with this with the passage of Senate Bill um 546, was there any funding attached to that from the state >> or matching funding? >> At the moment, uh there is not, but uh there is talks of of some uh grants being possible. So later on uh that'll be something that we can share with you guys regarding uh grant funds available to do this retrofitting. >> Dr. Sason, you want to add anything to that? >> Board President. And so this is one of the things that we as superintendent like to call an unfunded mandate. Um and so as a district, we have until 2029 to comply. Um and so I want to
065say that to the public, right? Again, this isn't that we're out of compliance now. we have until 2029 to be in compliance and at this time there is no funding available from the state to do that. Um and so again, Vice President Pñena, I really appreciate your question because for us it is now for us to take a step back and do the analysis to say if we were to put $40,000 into a bus that is from 2015, right? um times the number of buses that we would have to do that for at with an aging fleet. Um what is the best use of public funds? Um a new bus versus investing, you know, almost $4 million in a you know almost 11year-old, you know, bus. Thank you. >> Any other members? >> You want
066to add anything? I'm sorry. I just wanted to echo exactly what you're saying, uh, superintendent, and we're confident that by the time that this mandate or this legislation actually becomes a hard implementation that the state recognizes that they're going to have to produce some funding for this. That's the whole purpose for the us going through the drill of having to report how many buses we have, the cost for this implementation. They know that locally we can't uh most of us can't handle the cost of this. And so we're going to do our due diligence and making sure that every bus that we purchase moving forward is in compliance and that hopefully by the time this comes down the state will release some funds that allow us to get in compliance from a holistic approach. >>
067Thank you SB and Dr. Sornson. Anything else? >> I was just going to add exactly your point is that this isn't going to be just a La Hoya ISD problem um in terms of the amount of funding that will be required for districts across the state to be in compliance. Um, imagine districts smaller than ours with smaller budgets that still have a sizable fleet. Um, because they have, say, you know, square miles still in rural areas to pick up from. Um, and so I think the state at some point will have to recognize that and put funding behind this, but at this time there is none. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, any other anything else you'd like to add to this particular agenda item? >> President, can I ask? >> Yes, Mr.
068Gomez. I had a quick question. So, based on the on the units that are older, 2015, it's 36 of them. How many of them are ready to be replaced based on the fact that they've been a lot of, you know, a lot of work on them? Maybe they're having problems. Is there a number that you might know? >> Um, are you asking about our capital replacement schedule? >> Well, I'm asking if out of the 36, is there a number that you think are units that are should be replaced? I don't have that number heart for you today and I don't want to go on record with the wrong number. So, if you don't mind, I'll get that information to you as soon as possible tomorrow. >> Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you, SP. Any other
069questions from the board? >> I do. U Dr. >> Marco, >> uh for sake of timing because I mean that hard date is not too far away. How long does one bus take to get retrofitted? How long approximately would it take >> to retrofit? We're thinking about three months from the time that we can come up with funding. >> Three months. Yes, sir. which is the purchase of a new bus is about uh the lag time on that is about six to eight months. So it's three months to retrofit, six to eight months to purchase a new bus, about another two months to get it up in the district. So somewhere between nine months of delivery of a new bus, three months to retrofit an old bus. >> Thank you. >> So SP I mean
070that's interesting. So is that retrofitting done here locally or are there vendors that do that? we'd have to procure that out as a part of the RFP process and uh so where we get the best deal from is how where that would happen. There are some local uh dealerships and vendors that take care of that. We obviously we can't do that in house and then the uh idea of where would it take place whether in our own district or if we have to ship our buses off. All of that will be determined by the vendor selected. >> Well, that's amazing. all the planning that goes on with all of this, you know, knowing that you're going to have, you know, a fleet of buses down as a result of the retrofitting. That's I know it's
071going to take a lot of planning. So, thank you for that. >> Yes, sir. Absolutely. >> All right, members of the board, anything else you'd like to add? >> All right. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, SP, it's still yours. It is the item two, overview of facilities condition assessment, FCA, and facilities master plan services, MFMP. >> Uh, yes, Mr. President. It is another honor to oh I skipped the slide. It is another honor to introduce to our community and our schoolboard administration our partners that we've selected. I want to tell you a little bit about the process before I introduce Mr. Tanner who's the VP of MGT uh consultants that are going to come journey with us on this. As you guys know as a part of our strategic uh blueprint uh our
072strategic priority number five is for operational excellence financial stability. As a part of that, we are tasked with having a a comprehensive look at all of our facilities. And so, we've solicited the MGT group through an extensive process of RFP QRFP. Thank you to Miss Merett and her team for partnering with us and uh making sure that we vetted out and we had to go through an extensive process to do to find the group that we found. And we're excited that MGT was selected to come and join us in this process. MGT will be with us for a pretty good while. They're going to talk to you a little bit about how long they're going to be in the district with us. And we're excited about this partnership and the capacity that they're going to
073bring to deliver quality work for us and delivering the the a comprehensive assessment of our facilities from all the bells and whistles from the front gate to the back gate. So we by the time these guys are done, we're going to know exactly what all the DNA of our facilities are. They're also going to guide us through the long range facility master plan process. Uh and I don't want to steal their thunder. I want to give them an opportunity to talk about that a little bit as well and then they'll help ultimately culminate with understanding some capital investment strategies for us. And so without further ado, I'd like to introduce Mr. Rob Tanner who's the vice president of MGT. Mr. Tanner, >> thank you. Chief um Pearson is Did I just kind of Yep. All
074right. Sweet. Uh it's an honor and a pleasure to be here with you tonight. Uh we all right there we go. As he said, my name is Rob Tanner. I'm a vice president of facility solutions group um for MGT. Uh just a little bit about my background. We have a a deep bench of folks and uh you'll see uh lots of names and you'll meet a lots of faces as we go through this process. Uh but a lot of our uh staff including myself are um I like to say recovering um school district administrators. Uh we have sat in the seat um and and done the work from uh from your perspective as a district administrators is also a long uh breadth of of knowledge through the consulting. I'm joined tonight um with u Eduardo
075uh um Lopez from Parsons uh who is a partner with NGT and Cameron Arsido who is going to be the lead for the demographic study and I'll let them speak to their individual parts. Typically this is where I would hand off to our u better public speaking person but he had the audacity to schedule vacation so I'm a little mad at him but Dr. Lance Richards um recovering superintendent is uh is typically who our um community engagement person is and our public speaker um and you will get to see and know him um through this process. Uh but I you see on there I don't want to read every piece of the slide to you. I hate when people do that to me but u I just wanted to say that we do have a
076very deep bench. Um, MGT was formed about 50 years ago from a group of educators that got together that wanted to help other educators um through the master planning process um and other things. We're now over 20 uh 1,200 professionals. Um we work in mostly uh K12 districts, but we do also do u state and local government um and some critical infrastructure technology pieces. Um we like I said we're partner with Parsons who has even a longer um uh uh years of experience over 80 years of experience helping school districts uh through the facility master facility master planning process. Um and we aren't um Parsons and us have been uh partnering through these processes for more than 25 years. uh and some of our facility managers. This is just some of our recent experience, but
077also some of our long um uh long-term clients, long-term partners. Uh I know when we went through the RFB process, we said this and we'll say it tonight, and that is we don't want to deliver a master plan to you or for you. This is a partnership with you. Um and and it really needs to be that way to to to have that quality uh outcome that you're looking for. Uh one of our pride points is is that with the exception of a couple different on this list, many of these uh school districts have been working with us for 20 25 years. Nashville, Falton, Atlanta. Uh we have went through about four or five different uh master planning services with them. Uh so this is not something that um is a new process for us.
078Uh we have a a pretty uh structured process. uh and our methodology, you know, one thing is is is early communication, ongoing communication. I joke that I only have one feeling and it's a little bent, so you can't hurt my feelings. I I like to be blunt and I like folks to be blunt with me. Uh we will deliver u a structured, predictable, coordinated plan u that's transparent. We feel like transparency is a huge um piece to this because we as we as I talked about the process a little bit, you can't make decisions without first going through to your community and and having them have that input and then make decisions based upon their input as well. Um at the end of this, we want to have a clear vision, data driven. Uh I
079I'll emphasize the data driven piece because there'll be an immense amount of data as we go through this. uh but we want to have a comprehensive plan um that is uh that is both transparent but when you make a data uh driven decision you are able to defend that decision because it's based on something it's not an educated guess it's not a hunch it's based on the data that um was developed. Uh we also want to come up with some options that are actionable. You know the the the the help or the the sol the solving problem of everything is money. We know there'll be more need than there is capital. That's always the case. So we have to prioritize what is most important. Using that um through this process being transparent with your community
080finding out what is uh their priorities um helps us to create that actionable plan. It's not a three- ring binder that we throw in the desk. Is an actual plan um for for you to to work with. Uh pieces and parts to this. Try to line this out somewhat linear from top from yeah top to bottom and left to right. Left to right and top to bottom. Um but there are some overlaps in it. Um the first eight points there, we'll go through these um in more depth here as we as we go through, but the first eight points are what I like to call ingredients to the cake. Um and the last two are or the actual cake and you have you can't make a cake without all the ingredients. You need all of
081these pieces. Our approach is holistic. It's not just about facility condition. Um it's student centered. It's education centered. Um and we feel like that what is what differentiates us in our methodology. So the first part that I would talk about is educational programming uh review and analysis. It's important for us to understand not only what your programs are in your school districts but what you aspire to have in your in your school district and at your schools. There'll be a GIS component. Cameron is our GIS expert where we can plot students in programs on maps, see where they where they are located uh in coordination with their uh with what program. Does it make sense that that program is where it is based on where the need is for that program? Are is there right
082demand for that program? Maybe a program needs to be duplicated. Those type of things. um data collection again there will be a lot of data uh collection uh I can't I can't even count the number of points um even just from a facility condition assessment side um but there will be um of a lot of QAQC both with the district and internally so that we can validate what that data is both complete um and accurate. uh we want it to align with your educational miss your mission and with that then we can make uh an actual plan um after this process and I'll turn it over to Eduardo so I don't have to talk anymore at our locus with Parsons I'm field project manager of the assessment team um with over 13 years experience working
083K- through2 uh schools and um side by side with MGT as well around that time um as part of the assessment we'll be collecting the condition and sorry as part of the assessment we'll be collecting the condition and the needs of the buildings as you can see in the screen something happened okay we look into the major systems and subcomponents uh such as the exterior of the building the exterior windows the doors the roof uh we also look in the interior the interior uh finishes of the restrooms the library uh classrooms, basically every room. We go room by room. We collect as much information. Again, we look at the condition, the current condition. We document that information. We take plenty of photos um to support what we find and any necessities they might need, even
084the recommendations. We do estimates. Um we also look into the code compliance. Uh not only the building code, we look at the handicap ADA compliance. We look at the safety standards. Uh we look at different elements throughout the the assessment. Also we look at the sites um sidewalks, parking lots um any issues that we don't necessarily will see when we find we go there and sometimes the principal or someone with a history will let us know about that condition. We document all that and we use our our software. It's a actually a platform a web-based platform is e-commerce and we document all the information in within this is um platform um this is a web base is accessible through chrome or any safari any other program even a handheld device or can be on a
085computer. Um all the information will be collected using this uh platform uh where we um detail our findings and we can create recommendations again estimate all this and we can create uh final reports. Um all this information will be accessible through the district and um we can generate uh customized uh reports as well and um for your development we can change for your capital improvement programs. Thank you. >> Thank thank you Edward. Um there's many points like you said is data but one of the tools or be all all sorts of tools and uh that will give you and help you and train you with but one of them is that ecom and it is a very useful um I think intuitive tool uh educational adequacy approach as uh Eduardo talked about all the different
086components of facility condition and you know what parts of a building and what condition they're in. We also want to look at that ed educational educational adequacy. Um and that is more of a um do you have the right spaces for those programs that we talked about? Um is it the right size? Are they in the right environment? Is the reading room right next to the music room? Um that's a little a little more granular. when we look at those eight uh categories. So, general learning environments, your classrooms, um uh we'll look at acoustics, daylighting, um lighting in the in the building, uh also looking at uh curriculum program, uh comp or uh college and career areas. Do they meet what your the need is? We will do a little bit of a demographic analysis
087to see what industries um are out there, where the job postings are, what might be some um pathways that you aren't thinking about or maybe your space doesn't reach. Um student support, wellbeing, safety and security obviously is a large piece of that. Technology readiness. Um, and that's less less about like maybe necessarily backbone, but does teachers have the technology that they need um to teach in a you know a 21st thinking about a 22nd um uh century educational environment. uh utilization and adaptability um to changing. You know, I always joke that uh computer labs were a big thing, you know, 15 years ago and now they're almost gone. You don't see them uh very often because it's all onetoone. Uh but then shared learning resources as well. Um and then the demographic study, Cameron's going
088to talk about that. >> All right. Hello. Uh like I said, I'm uh Cameron Arseno. a demographer with MGT. Um, just to give you a very quick uh overview of what the demographic study is going to look like, we're going to work with a lot of different uh pieces of data for this process. Um, the main one, as you can see at the top of that chart, is your current and uh several years of historical student data from La Hoya ISD. We're not pulling it from the census any or anywhere else. We're going to be pulling it from your district. Um, we'll do a lot of different uh demographic analysis using that data. We'll uh plot it using our mapping software, be able to kind of analyze where students live uh versus where they're enrolled,
089see what the transfer patterns look like. Uh we'll also be able to compare that to an estimate of how many uh children there are total within your district boundaries. Um see how uh that might have uh changed over time. Um other we'll also look at um birth data, how many students that are uh born within the zip codes that make up a Hoya ISD. Um we'll look at uh planned residential developments in the area. Um we've already reached out to several the cities that make up their district uh La Hoya, Pinas, and Palm View. Um we've also already visited uh the Benson Palm development kind of in the southeast corner. Um so we're going to take all of that together, create uh birth factors, mobility factors, and student yield factors to estimate how many students
090will come from these developments. Um and we'll generate uh forecasts All right. So, this is what the uh an example of a forecast deliverable. The ideas that'll show you what the uh you could see the different factors will uh as you kind of explain you kind of see how they show up. So, you could see for this district for example um their birth rates were slightly declining. So, you can see those future kindergarten classes um are a little bit smaller than they have been in previous years in this example. Um, but also they might have like higher mobility, more students kind of come in as the uh grades progress or more students are moving into new housing. Um, so that'll show up as those like future grades get a little bit uh little bit larger.
091Um, so again, we'll uh as part of the larger uh facilities master plan once we have the uh full capacity numbers uh for all the facilities in your district, um we'll be able to put that in a utilization context of how does that compare to how many students are enrolled? of how many students we think will be enrolled five years from now, 10 years from now, at each at each grade level and uh at each facility. That I'll pass back to Rob. Thank you. Um great segue to capacity utilization. Uh we will do a a capacity utilization study. Uh we'll build it room by room. We do believe that capacity is a decision. So whatever your program is for that um for example if it's a second grade school you might have 24 student capacity
092or 22 student capacity but if you make a decision to make that a special ed education classroom maybe it's only eight. So decisions do impact uh capacity and so we want to look at every room room by room count them up what by what they're being used for um to come up with adequate adequate um uh capacities um and give you a tool that as you make decisions in the future you can see what those what those decisions do how they impact your capacity and your utilization going forward. um stakeholder engagement. I'll just say quickly, I know we're try we're running out of time, but um we'll we have multimold uh uh approach to that. Largecale town halls, focus groups, u individual interviews, stakeholder interviews, communitywide surveys. Um we like to uh leave no stone
093unturned when it comes to the community engagement approach. Uh we absolutely feel like that the community engagement piece is critical to uh facil master planning. Um and then just so to kind of sum up, we broke this down into four different pieces. Again, it's kind of that baking the cake, the ingredients, initiate and prepare, collect and analyze, engage the community to see what their priorities and their desires are, and then make that organizational plan um for it. Um in addition to that, we'll also be, you know, some adoption support. We don't want to give you these tools. We want to help train you through them. We want to help you use them and we want to help support you even after you've adopted whatever plan that that comes out of this. So, we don't want
094just to run out the door. So, we will have even post communication um uh support and those types of things with your implementation plan um after the the you've adopted whatever plan um that eventually comes to be. Thank you. So, Mr. President, Madam Superintendent, there's two major takeaways that I want to share with you from this presentation. Number one is that it is our intent to move away from a reactive approach to our decision-making and how we invest and take care of our capital to more of a a strategic data-driven approach. And then number two, I know that the information that was just presented and the size of this team that presented is overwhelming, but I want to assure you that you have a captain sit at the head of that table. myself as a
095direct report to the superintendent that we are leading this group and we are partnering with this group to make sure that the deliverable to La Hoya ISD is of high quality and high standard and that we can use this information moving forward for many years to years to come and to guide us as we make decisions through capital investments uh in our day-to-day local budgets and expenditures. With that said, I'll yield the floor to questions to answer whatever question you may have for myself or the group. >> Members of the board, any questions for SB or Mr. Tanner in this group? SP. So, um I have a few. How often will we get will we get periodic? I mean, how periodic will we receive reports? Is it every quarter, every two months, every three months?
096I I I forgot. >> We can provide those reports as often as you like. The once we get the guidance from the superintendent on whatever information she wants to share, whether it be every board meeting, every other board meeting or whatever, we'll take care of that as you guys uh at the desires of the board and the superintendent. >> Yeah, I'll leave that up to Dr. Sson. Any other questions? Well, welcome to South Texas. I see that you've done some work down here, so we look forward to it and so um certainly you're going to be working with a great staff. You've seen what was presented earlier today. Not only a great staff, but we got great leadership and so we're looking forward to working with you and we're looking forward to a very detailed
097and informative report. So, thank you for that SB. Thank you, >> gentlemen. Great job. >> All right. Yes, Dr. Senson. Thank you, board president. Um, before we conclude, first of all, thank you very much, Chief Pearson. I really appreciate it. And MGTA team, thank you for being here in person to present to myself and the board. I again appreciate it. Um, but I do feel like it's incredibly important for the community and um, our families and uh, our educators, staff to hear this directly from me. Um it is incredibly um valuable for us to understand the scope and scale of this work. Um, this is the first time and I think we had this conversation in probably over 25 years that the district has undertaken this type of work to really take a comprehensive look
098at the facilities and really come back to the community in a really transparent way to say here is where we are in terms of the state of affairs of our facilities and then have a comprehensive strategic IC approach to address whatever those findings are and have those findings be public, accessible, open for discussion, open for input, collaborative based upon community feedback and collaboration. Um, you know, uh, Chief Pearson and I were having just a conversation today about his budget proposal for 2627 and we were talking about investments and we talked about about 20 years of deferred maintenance and how the district in and of itself for 20 years has put band-aids on big ticket items that really needed repair or overhaul. And so what we're seeing now as a district is the conversion all at
099one time of many items that after 20 plus years of band-aids or quick fixes need overhaul and need a lot of attention. And so again, I've said it a lot and I will repeat it in this situation as well. I am probably a a superintendent who appreciates an audit always because it tells us exactly where we are and it gives us a roadmap of how to fix it. Um and so I ask for the community's patience and grace and partnership in this work. um as we did strategic planning um and the work around our strategic plan um the community was very clear with us that facilities were an issue. Um and so here we are not even one year later really addressing it from a strategic standpoint starting with an assessment of where we are.
100It'll be a datadriven factbased assessment of where we are done by a third party coming in and saying factually here's where you are community here's our recommendations here's our suggestions and now it really is up to board community superintendent and us together as La Hoya ISD to really make decisions on what we want to do to be a forwardthinking a forward planning innovative district that supports our students for the future. And so this is what the community asked of me to to take on in strategic planning. And so thank you for being our partners in this work. Thank you SB and Mirat for really leading us to this point. But SB, this is your baby now. Um, but I am excited about what we're going to learn because this actually represents a strategic and intentional
101plan um, after 20 plus years of deferred maintenance and patchwork that is going to benefit our students and our families in a way that shows up and is actually visible. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Anyone else before I turn it over to Dr. Little? Uh, Mr. Tanner, I do appreciate the community engagement piece that you went over. So, always keep that in mind. So, thank you again for the presentation. Have a safe trip back. Uh, next agenda item. I'm going to welcome Dr. Little back to the podium. Dr. Little, you'll be covering agenda item nine, Lonear Governance Goals 1 through three and supporting GPM's benchmark data. It's all yours. >> Thank you, Mr. President. So, we are giving our regular Lonear governance update. Uh, tonight we are looking at our benchmark data.
102So just as a reminder that is essentially the practice star test that we take uh in February. So it's a prior uh STAR exam from a previous year. So students are getting a real experience of what that's going to look like for this grade level. So it gives our teachers, our campuses, and us really good indications of again how do we target support to help round out the remaining weeks and at this point days that we have until students sit for this year's STAR exams. So as always, this is certainly um in support of our our pursuit of our vision. We are going to see goals one, two, and three this evening as well as the GPMS for goal three. So, just like we did with our middleofyear map uh report, we wanted to organize
103this around these three questions because middle of map also gives us a good indication of how well we're prepared or how well we're progressing rather this school year. It also now that we are in year two of MAP tells us how well we're doing compared to the prior year. And benchmark data does the same thing. It's really that sort of just past the middle of year point where we can see where we are. So first question again was um if we're making progress really towards this year's goal and we're seeing that progress from uh where we were before in a little over half of the places that is a yes but we wanted as always to be transparent with the data. So that's why you see this as a mix. It really depends on the
104goal. Goal three is going to look really strong, goal one a little less so. And so that's sort of what shows up here in that analysis. Uh just like with our MAP data though as we compare to last year uh we're seeing gains across the board. Again not every grade not every place but we are seeing growth uh compared to last year which leads us to the third question which we very much want to answer too which is is that going to get us where we need to be uh for this year. So from a directional standpoint are we making improvements? Are we seeing growth? Absolutely. we still got to take the test at 10 days in reading and then thereafter in all the other contents to actually have the final data for this year.
105Uh so I've sort of covered this. I'll just uh acknowledge one more thing uh which is the second bullet here. Our map presentation um about a month ago had a ton of improvement on there. You remember like we celebrated rightfully so slides that showed in 23 out of 26 tested areas we were seeing improvement. map lets us look at more grade levels than does the benchmark. So we are just restricted with this data to star tested areas. So we don't get a glimpse of kinder first or second grade. So that does eliminate some comparisons for us uh because we simply don't have that data. Uh we also did a lot of focus around setting up the middle ofear map assessment this year like really emphasizing the importance of that for our families for our students
106for our teachers. We did a lot of messaging around it. Uh and so that showed up a little bit in the results as well. But happy to dig in and tell you where we are. Starting with our three goals. Uh so just to orient us to the slide, a reminder, the words all the way on the left are always the goal statements that the board approved. And those are our five-year LSG goal statements. So it shows where we want to go by the summer of 2029. That next column is where we're trying to get this school year. So, it's the progress towards that ultimate five-year goal. And then we now have three recent statuses that we've shown you. December, we looked at our unit assessments. Remember, that's just asking if students learned what they've done
107in the past four to five to six weeks, depending upon the the grade and the content. We had our middle ofear map update, which is next. And then all the way to the right, we're now showing where we are with benchmark. Goal one and goal two are both third grade. The first one is reading, the second one is math. Um those are still off track. You'll see just like I told you last time though, it's really about the gap between where we are and where we need to be. It's not a sign of we're not improving. So that'll show up in the data that we have seen year-over-year growth in those places. Goal three is our middle school one, specifically 8th grade. That one continues to be at or above um this year's target. And
108then none of this impacts directly uh goal four. So we're not providing a status there because that's not what this data is. >> Okay. For our GPMS, I told you we would be able to look at goal three. All of our middle school grades. So this is sixth, seventh, and eighth. This continues to be green from top to bottom where we are at or above our current year targets uh in reading in those grade levels. And again, I can't show you goal one or two GPMs because we don't have data for kinder, first or second grade with this data set. So, we'll look first at reading and then we'll look at math. Uh, we organized these slides a little bit differently and I will tell you board and community who normally see these presentations. We
109have our normal versions of the slides in the appendix. So, they're still there. Everybody can look at them. But, we thought it was important to call something else out with this update. And it's really the longitudinal journey that the district has been on which you see in this uh set of line graphs at the top. This goes all the way back to last school year when we did middle of year MAP scores. So that's the first data point on here. Uh if we look at that gray line, it was at 21 roughly last January for third grade reading. We then show the rest of the data points progressively. Last year's benchmark data was at 26. If we go all the way to the right, we see that we're at 31 right now. So, we had
110a fivepoint gain year-over-year in third grade reading with benchmark data, but we're also showing you the actual star results last year and the other reports we've given thus far, which is the unit assessment in the middle of your map. The other thing this helps call out, which is that bright red box. Last year from benchmark to actual star we had a 15 point improvement. That's a lot of change in a relatively short amount of time. And there's like a few reasons for that. One, when we take the benchmark, it's testing the whole grade level. Everything you should have learned in third grade is reflected on that assessment. We haven't finished teaching everything that you have to learn in third grade by the time that we take that. and that's true for all districts across the
111state. So, that's part of it. And then obviously the space we're in right now, uh we are 10 days away from the the Reading Star exam that will happen in our district on uh April 8th. 10 more school days. It goes by super fast, but we're obviously in this like real refinement focused time of making sure we're targeting specific skills, specific areas that students need to uh close the loop on to be ready for that assessment. So there's a lot of traction that happens in those those final weeks and those final days. But big takeaway here back to our status of being red and off track. We can do less than 15 points and still meet or exceed this year's target. So even with less growth than we saw last year, we can still get
112to where we need to be this year. And so that was another reason why we sort of reorganized the slide because that's an important point to take away, especially as we look at goal one and goal two. We're always though showing how our campuses are doing. That's at the bottom. This is comparing in gray last year's benchmark data for third grade to this year's benchmark data. Uh in the pink again, we've got our boxes highlighting our our superintendent constraint schools, our A schools, Garza and Sigin. Both showed improvement year-over-year here with third grade. uh and PA which also had some growth year-over-year. Now we'll look at the middle school space in reading. Um so this is sixth grade. Again, same sort of line graph at the top. Uh here again, we saw less movement from
113either middle of your map or benchmark to star as I've reminded us a number of times in the higher grades. that is expected because you don't have as much rapid change and the way for MAP in particular sort of the scoring works you're expecting smaller jumps in the data it's it's really about like the one two or three point improvement. So that's why you don't see the dramatic uh shifts here. Sixth grade though across all three of our middle school uh grades out of sixth, seventh, and eighth for this benchmark data is the one of the most like concern and focus for us right now because you see on the bottom at the campuses. Uh we only have one Chavez that actually had improvement uh year-over-year. The others did not in this space. So again,
114that's really targeting our work, our partners' work since we got this data, even since the MAP data because it was similar on being in those classrooms, providing coaching, providing modeling, providing on the spot uh feedback to those teachers to help uh drive improvement. Nonetheless, this is still above our current year target for where we need to be this year. Seventh grade, uh sorry for the formatting. Something happened here um in the transition. uh this is much stronger than we saw in sixth grade. Again, as you look down at the bottom of the campuses, we have uh all campuses maintaining or improving across the board. District has pretty good um size growth here from last year. Uh about six points. So, we're at 42 right now. We were at 36 last year. And again, in seventh
115grade, we actually had a seven point increase from benchmark to star. We're already above our current year target. that if we got any of those seven points, it would push us even higher for this year's uh achievement. And then eighth grade, this is the actual goal. Uh this one looks a little different. We are above where the target was u but we did lose some ground for middle of your map. So that's again an important thing that's driving our focus and support with these campuses. Uh that we did see that that slight dip there. Uh again, even at the 37, we're above where we need to be for the year. But none of that is ever caused for us to say, "Okay, we got this. We're slowing down." Like, we are pushing hard every day.
116We are working with campuses and teachers uh to ensure that we're getting everything that we can out of these final days before students take the assessment. And then to look at math, uh we'll have grade three here. This is uh again improved over the prior year. we have a four-point increase. Just like in third grade reading, we saw a very large jump from actual benchmark to star. In this case, in math, it was 16 points. Again, if we get less than that, we can still meet our current year target uh for our our goal and our GPM. Across the board at the bottom, you see uh most campuses here actually showing improvement uh including two of the three superintendent constraint schools. Sigin is the only one here that lost some ground in third grade math.
117And then finally, uh this story is really the same for where we've been. It's just getting more focused each day on where we have to provide support and attention. We are in the midst of the star countdown for reading. We started this at the beginning of March. That really starts incorporating star-like questions into daily instruction. So students are getting that exposure and experience. teachers are getting that data to provide even more targeted feedback and support to the students in their classroom. Uh as I mentioned, we are 10 days away from our our reading exams. Then we essentially roll every week the other content. So we follow that with math, science, and social studies. Those star countdowns are beginning um either this week or next week depending upon the content. And then there's a 10day sort
118of process to really prepare and support our students uh for that. The other thing that really matters here um and this week we've actually we've we've seen it but students have to show up every day like every day of the school year matters. Every day during these moments of final preparation absolutely matter. We use sports analogies. Superintendent sort of leads us through this every time we talk with principles. Like we're in the fourth quarter and from a March Madness perspective, we're in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. Like the basketball game is like wrapping up and we have to be super strategic about what we're doing and how we're using that time. So that's absolutely where we are uh in the work. I said this last time, I'll say it again. I'm going
119to remind principles of it tomorrow. and you get about a second after star ends to take a breath because the school year isn't over. We still have another four weeks of instruction and learning after that. We've got end of year map to like close us out. Uh so this is is a super important milestone. It is not the end of our journey for this year. And so all of that uh is important as we sort of stay focused, motivated and providing the the support and instruction that students need. So with that board, happy to take questions on this update. Members of the board, any questions before I turn it over to Dr. Sornson? >> Dr. Little. >> Dr. Sornson, would you like to add anything to this because I know how important this is. I'll
120I'll just add one thing and and that is um you know, I've never experienced something like this. Obviously, they didn't have these tests when when I was in school, right? And so, it's I I understand what you're doing. I mean, I I I should say I I can't fathom what you all are doing to prepare, but I'm staying motivated, I'm assuming. I mean, I I I just I'm just good luck to our students and I appreciate the fact that you you see the importance of getting to that to the goal line. So, um keeping our students and our staff motivated is super crucial. Dr. Sor. >> Yeah. Um I would add and again, you know, I talk about my my favorite quarterback Caleb Williams all the time from the Chicago Bears. Like, you know, how
121many times did they pull it out at the last second in the fourth quarter until they didn't. But that won't be us. Um, and so I say this um very um seriously. It is incredibly important what happens every single minute of instruction every single day. Um and that doesn't just happen in the last 10 days. It is a culmination of what happens every single day for the entire year. Um I think we've done things very differently this year. We've done things very differently this year and we're going to continue to refine our practices next year, but we are doubling down on the work that we did this year. Um, and not not changing the course. We will reflect and we will refine. Um, but through the growth that we're seeing, we see that we're making
122good instructional decisions and we're going to keep supporting our educators so that they can get better at the instruction that they're doing. We see it on our spot checks and the spot checks are continuing to improve. I can't I we actually um will show you a presentation shortly on how the spot checks have improved um over the year. Um and we want to share that with you and the public how our educators have really grown in terms of instructional delivery throughout the year. Um and it is a test where the students will perform how they perform on that day. And so when we write on the slides to you, we don't know. We never want to stand in front of you and say yes, we're going to meet our wig, our wildly important goal. For
123people who are like, what is the wig? Um, I don't want to say that because we can show you growth charts and we can show you where, again, to Dr. Little's point, even if we get less than what we're growing at, right? We're confident that we will get there on any given day, children can take an assessment, and it didn't go their way that day. And so as a superintendent, it is not um wise for me to say, "Yep, we got it and we're going to do it." But we are going to do everything that we know how to do as educators to make sure that we meet our goal. And we're going to do everything to support our principles so that they are creating environments in which our teachers can do the things that
124they need to do to meet their goals. And so again, not just these next 10 days, but for this past month, we've actually been really intentional about making sure that the transfer, right? We talk about the instructional transfer from all the TEICSS that they're learning isn't applicable to STAR, right? So, our teachers have been doing these things called demonstrations of learning, dos um where they've been taking STAR formatted questions and actual STAR released questions at the end of every single day. And so, our students have been doing practice star questions for the past month, not just the 10 days leading up to it. um because we want to make sure that all that they're learning from the high quality instructional materials actually transfers to the type of formatted questions that they're going to see on
125STAR. And so we are optimistic but always cautiously optimistic um because we want to be honest with everybody that we're also working with humans and children and um who we pour into every single day. and our educators are working so hard and they believe in the work that they're doing and so we're really proud of the growth that they've made this year and all that we've asked of them and so thank you Dr. Little for this report and the team that team over there works so hard every day on on campuses and with our leaders to just make sure the work is happening and so thank you guys for all the support that you provide our educators and our leaders I really really am grateful >> thank you Dr. Sorenson. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you,
126Dr. Little. Great presentation and this sounded like really good report. Okay. So, this is going to be a first. So, this is exciting. I was thinking maybe there was a typo, but I'm looking forward to this, Marty. So, our next agenda item is our Lonear governance time use tracker report February 25th through March 11th, 2026. Mari Helzando. >> Good evening. Uh, President Alvarez, Dr. Sorenson, members of the board, community present, and um and those that are tuned in as well. Um at this time, I'm happy to present the February 25th time tracker report. This work is part of a lonear governance uh framework which is a continuous improvement model for governing teams born and superintendent who choose to focus intensely and unapologetically on on one primary objective improving student outcomes. As part of this process,
127we intentionally track how our meeting is allocated. specifically how much time is spent discussing student outcomes, adult behaviors, and other operational items. So for the February 25th meeting, I ask that you please refer to the blue column on the left hand side, which represents uh the time dedicated to student outcome minutes as shown in the report. We spent 12 minutes of the meeting in this area and part of this meeting was part of this was the progress and accountability. So now please refer to the green column which reflects the time spent in adult behavioral minutes. You will you will see a total of 94 minutes in this category. Now in the center of the report the total meeting time is recorded as 119 minutes. Overall 89.08% 08% of our meeting time was dedicated to student
128outcomes and adult behavior minutes combined with 10.08% precisely spent on student outcomes. So with this we conclude the February 25th time use tracker report. Are there any questions before we move on to the March 11th report? >> Members of the board, any questions for Muddy? >> No. >> You may proceed, Marty. >> Thank you. Um uh now we will review the March 11th lone uh governor's time tracker report. Please direct your attention to the blue column on the left hand side of the report uh which represents student outcome minutes. As indicated a total of 80 80 minutes was dedicated to student outcomes. Looking at the ne at the next uh column, the green column which reflects adult behavioral minutes, you will see that no time zero minutes was allocated in this category. Additionally, the total
129meeting time recorded in the center of the report is 95 minutes. This designates 84.21% of the meeting minutes devoted to student outcomes and adult behavior minutes combined. And the entire 84.2 21% attributed specifically to student outcome minutes. So with this we conclude the March 11th uh time uh use tracker report. Do we have any questions? >> Members of the board, any questions for Marty at this time? This was a good report. Thank you, Marty. Thank you very much. I'm glad to see that we're keeping and we're focusing on student outcomes. So thank you for that. >> Yes. Good job, MARTY. >> GOOD JOB. ALL RIGHT, NEXT AGENDA ITEM. SO, I want to welcome our new conservator. And so, this is Dr. Sylvia Ivara. I think members of the board have had a chance to introduce
130themselves and meet with her privately. So, we appreciate that. Dr. Before you proceed, um I'd like for you to for those that are viewing us and for those that don't know you, if you could maybe just um a brief um bio of yourself and again congratulations on uh now serving as a conservator for this great school district. >> Yes, absolutely. Uh good evening. First of all, good evening uh board president uh members of the board of managers and superintendent as well as um district leaders and community members. Uh yes, I am very excited to be here this evening. As you mentioned, uh Mr. Alvarez, I am your newly appointed TA conservator. Uh my name, as I mentioned, is Dr. Civo, and I would like to share this evening an overview of what I'm going to
131do to support the district moving forward. And that includes, of course, a short bio. So, I'll go ahead and start my presentation. Uh well, first of all, I want to say that this it's an honor to serve in this capacity. This is a responsibility that I take very seriously. It is very very important work and uh moving forward serving in this role I will work diligently along your side to support the district. A little bit about my educational background. I bring 35 years in public education all in the Rio Grandandy Valley. Uh I worked in five school districts throughout my career including uh Mission CISD, Macauan ISD and Valley View ISD. Those were the last three districts uh where I served as a district leader. Uh throughout my career, I served in various roles like
132many educators. I began my career as a teacher uh and a coach and then I moved on to other positions including counselor, principal and superintendent. Um and of course m much much of my leadership focus uh once I uh got into leadership was on school improvement uh supporting campuses and leaders aligning systems for coherence and implementing best practices in school finance. And so I use my experience and my background in this role to support the work that I'm about to that I'm going to do here at La Hoya ISD. Now, in this role, uh my my work is to continue the work of the previous conservator, the work that's already underway. And specifically, I will support the superintendent and board of managers in advancing district priorities. And today, of course, we just heard about those
133districts priorities from Dr. Little. I will act as a thought partner and force multiply for the superintendent in the identified areas of need that she will identify. and I will be a lis leasant to the board of managers specifically to support us board members in implementing board governance best practices. Now this uh work um will focus I will focus on several governance areas to support the board and so what I'd like to do at this time is to briefly describe each and provide examples of what that support would look like in practice. So under board role clarity, ensuring that the board focuses on governance and not management. And so some of those examples include clarifying roles and expectations and providing coaching to board members on spec on their specific roles, board superintendent alignment, ensuring a
134unified vision and clear expectations between the board and superintendent. And some examples include facilitating goal setting workshops tied to student outcomes and supporting the development of a clear superintendent evaluation to align to student outcomes. Meeting effectiveness includes maximizing the impact and efficiency of board meetings and this includes structuring agendas to prior to prioritize student outcomes data first and establishing clear protocols for discussion. informed decision making, ensuring decisions are grounded in data and aligned to goals. And some examples include reviewing board agenda items for alignment to district goals and using student data tied to student outcomes to inform decisions. Under board preparation, ensuring trustees are well prepared to engage in meaningful governance. And this includes pre-briefing on key agenda items and uh re reflecting on key questions that you as trustees should consider prior to meetings.
135And then governance best practices means aligning go to work to TA expectations and lonear governance. And some examples include supporting implementation of the lonear governance practices and monitoring progress on board goals and constraints. And lastly, public trust and transparency, building confidence in the district through strong governance practices, and some examples include ensuring clear communication of board decisions to the community, and promoting transparent reporting of student outcomes in progress. Now, I do want to say that this work is already happening and it is happening very well. I will simply continue to support it and strengthen because all of these areas are interconnected and ultimately focus on one goal and that is improving outcomes for students through strong governance. Now to support this work I will engage in several out uh ongoing responsibilities each month. I will
136attend all board meetings and participate in executive sessions. I will review board agendas for alignment. meet the with the superintendent bi-weekly or as needed to support her as as she deems necessary. I will meet with the board president as needed to discuss areas of need or concern. But I'm also available to meet with any board members at your request or at my request. I will coordinate governance activities and trainings. And of course, I will submit monthly reports to the Texas Education Agency. and all these activities ensure the continuous monitoring, feedback and support on my end is taking place as directed by the Texas Education Agency. Now, because I am not a an Lonear governance coach to the Texas Education Agency will also assign a Lonear governance coach and this individual will support the board in
137implementing specifically the LSG practices, work alongside me to provide coaching and development and help ensure that governance work remains focused on student outcomes. So this uh uh governance coach once placed will will collaborate and support myself and continue to build the board's along to continue to build the board's capacity along with my support. Now the agency's role um as you know is oversight and support not day-to-day management. And so TA monitors progress made in the district through my conservator reports, monthly conservator check-ins uh with me uh that I will have with uh Mr. Black Garrett who is a senior governance officer. And of course data dives into into the reports that are submitted. They will also provide guidance as appropriate to myself to the coach and our district staff as necessary as they deem uh
138necessary based on the data that they're reviewing. And they will partner with the district on f future actions based on need. And of course the overarching goal for all of us from tea to superintendent you as the board of managers and of course myself is to see measurable progress that ultimately leads to improved uh outcomes for students. So we're all working towards the same goal. And so in conclusion, I just want to first of all thank you for your time. Um and uh I look forward to working with you all to collaborating with you uh and again to re developing this relationship because at the end we're all working towards the same goal. So I'll be happy to answer any questions at this time. >> Members of the board, do you have any questions for
139Dr. >> Just want to say thank you and welcome. >> Thank you. >> No question. Just thank you and welcome. >> Anyone else? Okay, Dr. Sorenson. >> No, thank you. I just echo the sentiments that board members thank you so much for being here with us and welcome aboard. >> Thank you. >> Yes, we look forward to working with you. So, thank you. Thank you for everything and I appreciate the remarks you made regarding the superintendent supporting her her uh strategic plan and of course her priorities for the district. So, thank you for that. All right. Next agenda item will be agenda item number 11. Um, do I have a motion for the consent agenda item? >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion.
140>> All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. >> All right, ladies and gentlemen, next item will be agenda item number 12. At this time, it is um >> 81. >> 8:11 p.m. We will be going into close session under section Texas Government Code section 551.001. 001 551.071 551.072 551.074 551.076 551.129 and 551.0821 concerning and all purposes permitted by the act including but not limited to the sections and purposes listed below. We are now going into close session. gentlemen. >> All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are back from uh close session. It is 9:30 p.m. Next item on the agenda is 14.1 approval of the inind donation of jackets by Child Fund and Child Fund International. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve 14.1. >> Do I
141have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. All oppose. Motion carries. 14.2. consider and take possible action to nonrenewal chapter 21 contracts for employees subject to program change to remove campus specialty designations. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve the non-renewal of the chapter 21 contracts for employees subject to the program change to remove campus specialty designations as presented by the administration and to authorize the superintendent to not notify the affected employees of this action. >> Do I have a second? >> I second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. Last item on the agenda is 14.3. Consider and take possible action to void proposed suspension without pay and or re nonrenewal and or propose termination
142of term and probate probationary contract teachers. Do I have a motion? I move to approve the recommendation to propose a suspension without pay, propose the good cause termination and propose the non-renewal of the term contract of an elementary teacher as presented and to void the probationary contract of a middle school teacher and the term contract of an elementary school teacher as presented. I further move to authorize the superintendent or her designate to provide notice to the employees of these actions and to design designate an attorney to serve as a board's design if a hearing is requested on the proposed non-renewal. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. Next item on the agenda is our calendar. April 2026
143is autism autism month, school library month, national poetry month, and annual elementary field day month. April 1st, preK and K discovery night. And at elementary campuses and all campuses, April 3rd, 2026, International Day of Women and Girls in Science. April 3rd, 2026, Parrofessional Appreciation Day. April 3rd, 2026, Holiday Central Administration will be closed. and there will be no classes for students. April 4th, school library appreciation day. April 4th, National Parent Parent Teine Education Day. April 6th, bad weather day. Central administration will be closed and there will be no classes for students. April 6th through the 10th, National Assistant Principles Week. April 6th through the 10th, 2026, Gifted and Talented Awareness Week. April 8, 2026, regular board meeting. Members of the board, before we adjourn, are there any comments that you would like to share? >>
144Um, just wishing our soccer boys uh good luck. Both are representing us um out in um in what are we the finals, semi-finals, >> third round, >> regionals, finals. >> So, good luck to the boys. >> Thank you for that. Anyone else have any comments? >> So, before we adjourn, Dr. Sorenson, would you like to add anything before we close? >> Yes. Thank you, board president. Um, first of all, again, I echo Vice President Pñena's wishes. Go Lobos. Go Huskies. Continue to make us proud. We're we're so excited for what's ahead for you. Um, also really do want to I know that we will see each other on April 8th, but before we see each other on April 8th, that will be the very first day of STAR assessment. And so really do want to
145wish every child in our district who takes the star on that April 8th day the very best. Um we know that you have worked very hard up until this moment. Teachers, we thank you for what you are about to pour into our young people for the next two weeks. Um we believe in you. We are behind you. We are with you. And we know that our wildly important goal is your wildly important goal and that is to see our children be super successful. So thank you so much for what you've done and will do because April 8th is the very first day of the star. >> Thank you Dr. Sornson. Uh I want to take this opportunity to thank all of those that did presentations today. Thank you for that and thank you for everything
146you do to prepare us for the meetings we have. As I shared with Dr. Ivara, it seemed like it was a smooth transition. I I always encourage my board uh to watch other board meetings um that take place not only in the real Grandandy Valley but throughout the state because there's always room for improvement, right? But I'm pretty proud of the group that I serve with. And as I've mentioned in the past, I put us up against anyone and especially my superintendent. So, uh, I wanted to also take this opportunity to to congratulate you for being assigned to work with this group and, uh, we look forward to working with you and, uh, your continued support of our superintendent and, uh, Marty, thank you. Great presentation today. I was telling, uh, Dr. Sorenson and to
147the staff, thank you for always keeping us um, you know, aligned and making sure that everything that needs to be done to prepare us for these meetings is done. Again, just in my observation of watching the school school boards, you always have us prepared. Everything's done. I mean, you'd have to be really nitpicky to find something and you guys do a great job. So, Blanca, again, thank you and everyone that was involved in today's meeting. Dr. Sornson, I don't have anything else I'd like to add. >> No, that's it. >> Okay. Let's congratulate our young men who are playing this week. We wish them well. Safe travels. If I have nothing else to be brought to the board, um, do I have a motion to adjourn? Um, I move to adjourn this meeting at 9:36
148p.m. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. We are