001hours. >> Good evening everyone. I hereby call this meeting at order. It is 6:03 p.m. >> Let's proceed with roll call. We will start on my right. Jessica Troy present. >> Carlos Margo present. >> Alisa Pñena present. >> Sel Jr. present. >> Rosala Hernandez present. >> Valeria Vega present. >> All right. Um, next on our agenda is the pledge of allegiance. If you can please stand up. Please rise. Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> The next item on the agenda is public comics. Each uh speaker will have three minutes to speak. Um, do we have any individuals registered to speak tonight? >> We have none tonight. >> All right. >> Uh, let
002the record show that board president Mr. Alvarez is now join us. >> Thank you. We do have quorum. We are on. All right. Number five is item number five is staff recognnitions. If I could have vice president Alysa Pñena and Valeria Vega, if you could stand in front of the dis for this portion of our presentation. Good evening, board President Ford and Dr. Sorenson. Uh I am honored to stand before you tonight to share some truly exciting news about the academic achievements of our La Hoya ISD students and educators. Four of our high schools have been named to the prestigious 2025 AP school honor role by the college board. This recognition is awarded to schools who advanced placement programs are delivering meaningful results for students while broad broadening access to college level coursework. Let me
003share the specific achievements of each campus. Jimmy Carter Early College High School has earned gold distinction, an impressive progression from bronze in 2023 to silver in 2024 and now gold in 2025. At Jimmy Carter, 48% of seniors scored a three or higher on at least one AP exam and an outstanding 60% of seniors took five or more AP exams. La Hoya High School continues its strong performance with silver distinction where 33% of seniors scored a three or higher and 27% took five or more AP exams. And I'm especially proud to announce that Palm View High School has earned bronze distinction for the very first time. This marks a significant milestone with 27% of seniors scoring a three or higher and 18% taking five or more AP exams. In addition, Thelma Arc Selena STEM Early College
004High School earned gold distinctions with 45% of seniors scoring a three or higher in 44% of seniors taking five or more AP exams. These achievements matter because research shows that students who score a three or higher on an AP exam typically experience greater academic success in college and are more likely to earn a degree. None of this would be possible without our dedicated administrative team. Tonight, I ask that we recognize the more than 80 advanced placement teachers across our district, as well as the counselors who guide our students toward these rigorous courses. Their collective dedication has made this accomplishment possible. So, please join me in congratulating the AP team with us this evening and their principles, board members. This is what collegegoing culture looks like. This is what happens when we invest in our students
005and believe in the potential. Thank you. >> Congratulations. How are you? Fantastic. I just sat down. >> I just sat down. >> Where are you, sir? days today. Busy getting really bad. Okay, I think you have the next agenda item as well. And so that is the recognition of career and technical education, CTE month, February 20, 2026. It's all yours, Miss Gandela. >> Good evening again, board president, board members, superintendent, and distinguished guest. Tonight we are proud to recognize the career and technical education staff of La Hoya ISD as we celebrate career and technical education month as a proclaimed by governor of the state of Texas. This proclamation reminds us that CT prepares the next generation of Texas leaders for high demand highskilled careers that strengthen our economy and our communities. Here in La Hoya
006ISD, that work happens every single day in our classrooms, our labs, shops, kitchens, clinics, and industry partnered work sites. Our CTE teachers do more than teach courses. They build nurses, entrepreneurs, welders, electricians, culinary professionals, and future business leaders. They guide students towards industry-based certifications, dual credit opportunities, internships, and meaningful career pathways that lead to high wage, high growth careers in the Rio Grande Valley. Because of their dedication, our students graduate workforce ready, college ready, and life ready. So, I would like to read that proclamation to you. The Texas of tomorrow thrives on our innovation and the workforce that keeps our economy strong, depends upon the career and technical education, CTE, that prepares the next generation of Texas leaders to take on new challenges. These programs prepare young people for high-paying jobs in high demand fields
007in the light investments in CTE will pay dividends for generations to come. Recognizing the value of CTE programs, I made career training an emergency item for the 89th Texas legislation to help students unlock their full potential. I intend to work with lawmakers to expand the jobs and educations for Texans GET grant program, enhance dual credit opportunities, support career training in the rural areas, and strengthen career aligned curriculum. As we celebrate Career and Technical Education Month, let us recognize the students who pursue their calling in the trade. The educators who mold the next generation, the employers who create rewarding opportunities for them. First Lady Cecilia Abbott joins me in encouraging all Texans to observe career technical education month with appropriate programs and activities. In in testimony whereof, I have here then signed my name and cause
008for the seal of state of Texas to be affixed as the city of Austin this in the 20th day of January. Governor of Texas Greg Abbott. So tonight we proudly recognize and thank our La Hoya ISD CTE team for their commitment, expertise, unwavering belief in the potential of every student. Their work is truly transforming lives and shaping the future of our community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> CT in the house. >> How are you doing? Good. Good to see you. >> Congratulations. Thank you so much. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Hey there. How are you? Good to see you again. presentation. >> Oh, let me get one for. >> Thank you. >> Nice to see you. Congratulations. >> I'm not sure if they are Go, go, go.
009>> I'll ask right. How's it going? >> Good. >> What I should be thinking about doing? I don't know how to get here because there's like 107, right? That means Who's that? Congratulations. Thank you. THANK YOU. >> HELLO. Thank you so much. >> Good job. >> Thank you, sir. >> That's it. Yeah. Are the officers here? Okay, cool. >> I would do the tax report. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is our tax report presented by Mer Cresbow. Miss Cresp. Yes. >> Are you good? >> You did a great job. >> Okay. Good evening. >> Good evening, Mr. Chris. >> Good evening, >> Mr. Alvarez, Dr. Sorenson, members of the board. Um, today I'm having a guest, Mr. Jimmy Gonzalez for Limeberger will present uh the tax collection report for
010uh from the office of Limeburger and they are uh supporting us with all the tax collections and the delinquent taxes across the our region or area of enrollment and that um they really provide us a lot of support on being able to increase our revenue every year. So Good evening, President Alvarez. Dr. Sorenson for the record. Board for the record. Jimmy Gonzalez from Linebarter. Can you hear me? >> Yeah. Just so we can get it a little bit louder up there. Thank you. >> I can speak closer if you like. Jimmy Gonzalez uh for Linebarer. I have the privilege of repres of presenting our semianual report July 2025 December 2025. Before I begin just like to reiterate that at Lionbar our principal goal is number one to make contact with your taxpayers. We understand that
011uh when the tax man comes calling people don't want to answer don't want to pick up their phones, don't want to answer their doors. So the main thing we try to do is just make contact with your taxpayers, explain any questions they have. Um most times we understand we are the first point of contact a lot of your taxpayers from La Hoya ISD. So we try to talk to them um with facts, with knowledge, with compassion to let them know look it there are payment options a lot of options we can do to help you out to to uh resolve your tax delinquencies. So saying that, the first things we try to do is again just to make contact with your taxpayers. So for this six-month period, the past six-month period, we mailed out over
01214,000 statements, made over 2,000 phone calls, that um resulted in 126 payment agreements. When that doesn't work, they're not answering our calls, not responding to our mailouts, we actually do what's called knock and talk or we visit the locate their homes. We visit their homes, knock on the door, tell them contact our office. We put letters in their door to say contact our office. We want to enter in a payment plan. When that doesn't work, the next step uh is unfortunate, but it has to happen. We move to litigation. So during this past period we filed over 113 lawsuits. What that does is that now the lawsuit initiated your taxpayer has to get served by a constable or by a sheriff. And when that happens many times we get a call saying I don't want
013to go to court. This is serious now. What can I do? That's entering a payment plan. And when that happens, there's steps we can do to resolve their their or postpone their civil case um to non- studentent of course is what's preferable. But again, to move to resolution, we did dispose of 52 lawsuits in that exact manner uh totaling over $355,000 during this past six-month period. It's in this report. When that doesn't work, you move to the last uh um point in the process is is enter judgment. We took 21 cases we took judgment on during the past six months. So after we take judgment, the next and final step that we can do is sell the property. During the six-month period in this report, we sold um four properties. I want to stress to
014the board that all these properties were not homestead designated accounts. on their homestead designated accounts. We make every effort to work with the taxpayer. The properties that were sold here were abandoned, vacant, commercial properties, rental properties. The goal is not to displace any families, and that's been um something the board has told Line Barker very clearly uh for many years now. We always try to honor that. One property was struck off. Two properties were paid in full before the tax sale. Even before tax sale, even after judgment, we still take payment plans. So, it's the entire process of working with your taxpayers to resolve this matter before sale. One property was struck off. So, what does that mean as far as collections? You can see for July 2024 to December 2024, we collected uh numbers
015got cut off there, but we collected $2.186 million. Same period this year, July 2025 to December 22 and5, we collected $2.628 million. We're very happy that we collected um a a lot better than last year. again without displacing families, again with doing with working compassionately with your taxpayers. I think as they see that this board is working hard, it makes it a lot easier for us to collect the tax dollars when they know they're going to the right place. So, that's made it easier for us. I want to stress to anybody that's that's uh viewing tonight and to all your taxpayers, we have three payment locations uh in Hidalgo County. one in Macallen, one in Mission down the road, and one in Edinburgh. They can visit any of those locations to make payment arrangements, talk
016to a person, talk to someone in person, um or either or can even go to our website, www.lgbs.com to make a payment. Now, going back to what I said earlier, our main goal is to communicate with your taxpayers. We're also very proud to be the only firm in the valley to bring together every major player in the tax process. Meaning the appraisal county appraisal district along tax office and line barger. We hold workshops for a year, one in each precinct. They're free workshops to answer any question your taxpayers have in any level of the whole process. for the coming year. We've already had one um uh in precinct one happen in February. Our next one's going to be in April in precinct 4. Precinct 3 is happening on August 12th, 2026 and uh pre preceding
0172 in November. We pass out flyers. We we go to the news media. It's on our website uh when our when our locations are finally determined. But again, I encourage anybody to come to those and and ask any question they have. That concludes my presentation. Are there any questions? I went through it quickly, but I wanted to see if anybody any questions and I'll be happy to answer them. >> Thank you. Members of the board, do you have any questions or anyone? >> All right. Thank you very much. Great presentation. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Have a good evening. >> You too, my friend. >> Thank you. >> All right. All right. Next item on the agenda is 63 uh transportation update by Mr. SB Pearson. Mr. Pearson. >> Good afternoon,
018Mr. President, Madam Superintendent, fellow members of the board. I'd like to ask Mr. Alamise and Mr. Flores to join me at the podium for this presentation tonight. Uh we got a fairly lengthy presentation tonight and so with respect to uh this being about the business of adults, we're going to try to get through this as quickly as we can to respect our the decorum for the board meeting. As you guys are aware, we've undergone some serious uh overhaul efforts in the transportation department and we wanted to update you tonight on what the the update of the overhaul as well as the implementation of the audit. Just like in everything else we do, we'd like to tie our information back to the district strategic priority and the mission and vision of the district. Specifically, as we
019address the strategic priority, the the goal or the the direct priority that we identify ourselves with is priority number five, which is operational excellence and financial stability. Just a reminder of of some of the things that we've had and talked to you guys about before. Back in September, we started our internal audit, our internal investigation of the the things that were causing issues or pain points in our organization. Uh we in October, November, we brought in an external third party uh transfinder to come in and do an external audit within our department. In November, we came to you guys and share with you those findings of the audit. And in December, we talked to you guys about a plan moving forward. In February, first meeting of this month, we want to thank you guys. you
020guys approved the purchase of the new software and hardware for us to begin to eliminate some of our problems and try to help get our department going in the right direction. So, thank you guys for that. Uh, with that, it's our intention to take tonight as we do our presentation tonight and then frontload information or start a communication campaign and get uh information out to our community to kind of keep them informed on what our intentions are, what our plans are to improving our transportation services. that will take place from this month of February through the month of May. Uh trainings will start extensively in May uh for us with to launch with our full intent for the month of August 2026, the new school year. Some of the things that that were identified in
021the internal audit review uh just things that were were very evident in our system that our kids were getting to school late that there are persistent driver shortages which also aided in some of the issues we were having with our kids getting to school late. The age of our fleet uh needs to be addressed in a in a serious fashion. Lack of optimization or data truth, our source of truth, which is our data. We had a lack of that very present, which means that we're doing things the oldfashioned way with paper and pen and buy in enrollment patterns versus feeder patterns. As you guys are acutely aware of the over the last 10 years, we've lost students in our district. And as we've called out before, there's been no major changes to our routing and
022services within the transportation department to mirror what's happening with our student decline. And so we should have been making some adjustments to that as well. And that causes some of our hardships and inefficiencies with that. We have very outdated maps and outdated uh softwares. There's no current geocoding. There's no current technology that supports us with that which in turn left our team u I'll say stranded with having to do a lot of these things by hand routes you know we called out in the previous presentation that our routes have not been adjusted or modified from a systematic standpoint in over 20 years and that has caused some super inefficiencies in our divisions that is definitely needed to address. there are some unfunded obligations that we've we've addressed or we've taken on over the previous uh
023years and you're going to hear me talk more about those unfunded obligations. Uh we like to call some of those ride shares and uh and then obviously there's no formal capital replacement schedule. With that, the external auditors came in and they basically supported the information that we we pretty much already knew and they even identified some things that we did not know. Some of the things that they've identified, they put them in seven buckets for us. And those seven buckets are identified as these categories. An administration operation. In short, we had a lack of institutional controls. There's things that that our leadership need to do better to make sure that our drivers are understanding and following and adjusting human behaviors so that we're providing better services for our students. training. There's no there was no
024apparent EV or no evidence of uh trainings or retrainings happening within the division that keeps us in line with best practice uh state compliance and those type of things. There was no evidence of that in our organization. Routing and scheduling, we just talked about that our routing and scheduling are antiquated practices that we need to get better at and we need to make sure that we have a system in place to review these practices year-over-year. our fleet maintenance. There's been no consistent fleet investment or capital investment as relate to our fleet. And so these are things that the audit confirmed as well as the things that we already knew. Our fleet data, our source of truth, our fleet data is not existing. There's no preventative maintenance schedules. There's no software system that we've used to
025address preventative maintenance. Basically, our maintenance technicians have been doing things in a reactive approach. This is very inefficient and very cost-effective. Our facilities are outdated and adequate. We haven't made any major investments into our facilities. Bus washes are not working. The things that are our mechanics need in our mechanic shop are not working. And so we're doing those things are causing greater inefficiencies for our organization that we need to address. And then there's general safety, just our way of practice, making sure that our drivers are doing the best practice approach when it comes to picking up our kids uh both in schools as well as uh in our communities. Why we have to change our practices? Well, other than the obvious, we need to change our practice so that we can become current with the
026best states of what's happening in transportation across the state. Things that we're doing today, and I want to call this out and be very clear about what we're doing. A lot of the things that we've implement uh obviously our district has been plagued with over the years. And so some of these things that have caused inefficiencies and operational uh I should say inefficiencies again they've become a part of our system and we need to address those because they're driving the cost of our operation. These unfunded practices like our ride shares and you'll hear me talk more about those those riot I'm sorry let me back up the door uh some of those operational inefficiencies that were created doing the waste fraud corruption abuse is things like our doortodoor pickup services. I don't I can't and
027I have not been able to pinpoint exactly when this started, but from everything that I'm told from my team that this started around that same time where it was evident of the waste fra corruption and abuse. And so, uh, we'll we'll leave it at that. The extracurricular, the unfunded extracurricular and co-curricular ride shares. This is where we actually take our kids home after events, whether it be extracurricular events or late UIL events like band, those type of things. Our drivers uh are usually getting off the road at one and two o'clock in the morning. Obviously, this is our overtime cost. Uh it comes at overtime cost for us that is unfunded as well as a fuel cost and wear and tear on our buses. And so, not that we don't want to support our kids.
028I want to make sure that we're clear about this. It is definitely our intent for our kids to enjoy the full school experience, but we have to do things in a practice that is more current and up to date with uh what's happening, best practice across the state of Texas. Another one of those ride share pain points that we're also experiencing is our staff shuttles. Uh we actually have a system right now that we shuttle staff children across the district regardless of where those kids go to school. And so we've got to become more systematic about the approach of how we address that. Then it's our our flexible routing. This is another direct response to the waste fraud, corruption, and abuse. A lot of our routes that you'll see in a in a future slide,
029you'll see where a lot of our routes are not ran inefficiently and it's because number one, we don't have the we didn't didn't have the appropriate routing software to be able to make the modernizations and adjustments year-over-year as we should, but other parts of it is directly tied to I'll just call it out particular trustees or board members at that time uh having preferences on what buses their kids ride or things like that that we had to accommodate. And so those things were never adjusted or are corrected. And so we're dealing with some of those pain points today. And then there's last minute bus requests. These are basically institutional controls that we can fix within ourselves. As we discussed, this slide is designed to show you two things. Number one, it's designed to show you
030how inefficient our current system is. This is a snapshot of our Palm View High School uh community, a particular uh riding community in the Palm View High School community. This is a fivemile radius and inside of that five mile radius we currently have seven buses operating within that five mile radius. Those seven buses the maximum capacity is 539 students. Currently in that radius we have about 120 students riding the bus. We do offer doortodoor service. So you'll say well why is that important today? It's important in this snapshot to show you that our routes have never been adjusted to only account for those kids that we're picking up. and we're still showing that we need to pick up kids that are no longer uh existing or riding riding our buses. So, optimization needs to take
031place. The other thing that this slide is is is uh showing very acutely is that over the years as our student enrollment has declined, our routes and stops should also decline. It should mirror what's happening with our student population. And that has not been our practice in transportation, which has caused some inefficiencies for us. So, just calling out some of those things that we're well out of bounds with. And I apologize, my throat's getting weak. I've been sick most of the week. So, I'm I'm going to keep bearing through this, but if you need to me to repeat anything, please don't hesitate. I will. Some of those things that we we're clearly out of bounds with. Um, right now, the state of Texas does not fund any pickups that take place from the front door
032of the school to a two-m radius away from that school. current La Hoya is current practice is we pick up every student doortodoor every grade level every grade band that's our our practices. So that two-mile radius is locally funded. It is funded out of our 189 that is putting a hardship on our fund balance. Another practice that we're way out of bounds on the state average is about.3 miles per p uh walk to stop ratio for elementary kids. It's about 6 miles walk to stop ratio for secondary kids. Right now, our kids experience zero walk to stop ratio because we do door-to-door pickups. Uh an average of what we should be doing is about three.3 or 0.5 for our secondary kids. The ride shares, the next two that we're going to point out is our
033ride shares that we pointed out several times. Our extracurricular and co-curricular uh the co-curricular is actually funded the extracurricular but including the UIL activities as well. those are not funded post the activity. Uh for La Hoy ISD, as we stated before, we take all of those kids home after those events. Staff shuttles. These are also unfunded services that we are currently providing for our students and our staff. And then the crosszone routes, this is more of an internal control situation. CTE does fund our routing, but because of lack of routing software, the way we're doing it right now is inefficient and it's costing us money and we have to make corrections to that in order to be able to get more efficient with that operation. Here's a snapshot of some of the costs that we
034incur. The the the graph is to the left. What I want to call out is and this was taken from the Alvarez and Marcel uh audit report from Miss Merget and her team. Uh this calls out that in the region, La Hoya ISD at $458 per student per capita, we are the largest we have the largest expense per pupil riding our bus. That number is is taken from the total transportation budget divided by the ridership which gives us that number. So at $458 per student, we are the largest in the region. Another thing that I want to call out on that graph is if you'll see that our district's total square mileage is only 226 square miles. Edinburg who comes in right behind us at $453 per student. They have three times the square mileage
035ratio that that uh for their district than we have. And so that shows you some of the inefficiencies that uh we're operating in. Seems like our slide hadn't been adjusted. I want to apologize for that. So, as you look to the right, that number had been corrected and didn't obviously didn't make it to this deck. But year to date, we are at $61 uh spent in fuel cost and we're on pace to spend $1 million before the year is out. Our maintenance cost is at $73,000 year to date. Because of our lack of ASC certified mechanics in the uh maintenance part of our transportation shop, we're having to outsource all of our buses. That c that creates a hardship on the amount of time that our buses are spent down. That cost is creeping up
036to a million dollars really quick. Our overtime cost, this is a huge one. If you look at districtwide, the amount of overtime costs, transportation is sitting at about 80% or 90% of that cost and $573,000 year to date. I do want to call out that each one of our drivers uh currently is assigned to a route. We do not have additional drivers. We don't have pool drivers or subd drivers. So all extracurricular events are driven by our route drivers, which everything they do extracurricular, it's automatically overtime for those drivers if they've been at work every day for that pay period. So that does put a strain on that overtime cost. So what have we done so far? So far, we've made some immediate improvements to those recommendations that have come out in the audit. as
037we told you in our December presentation, those things that directly affect adult behaviors and and uh safety, we have addressed those things right away. And so, some of those things to call out just from uh operational standpoint is we've made sure that, you know, obviously any driver that we hire, they have to be CDL drivers, which means that not only can they drive our buses, they can also drive our class A buses and our mini uh mini class A's. some of our routing and scheduling. We've already, as we said, we've already started this process. Thank you guys on on the 11 for taking care of that for us. We are in the process now of getting that implemented and the integrity of our data being transferred so that we can get those routes built so
038that we're ready to launch that in a very timely fashion to be ready for August. And our facilities, one of these things in our facilities is definitely a human behavior or human capital management thing. One of the things that the rout the auditor has called out is that there's a separation between our administration and our staff and that our staff don't feel like they're connected as one with the administration. So we immediately implemented an open door policy where our directors and and and leaders in the transportation department have to be out and about amongst during the transition times for our drivers presenting themselves available and ready for service to those drivers. The other thing that we've done and as a part of that purchase on at the LA the previous board meeting is we've purchased
039seven tools that are going to help us. Five of those tools are inward tools or tools that help us with institutional control. Two of those tools are forward facing tools that are going to definitely help us with our community. These tools are designed to uh to present a stronger safety system to connect our our our buses to our silent panic alert technology which is the exact system that we're having in our campuses is to make sure that these systems communicate with each other in the event of a lockdown. Our buses can be notified to divert their routes to be able to take our kids to a safe place and not be put into harm's way. There's two-way communication also tied to that uh those devices, the hardware devices that are on those buses. This also
040improves our routing efficiency and reliability. It gives our drivers turnbyturn GPS real-time navigation. It those navigation tools are also uh real time with our our software that's being operated in our transportation leadership so that if we need to adjust a route, we can adjust that route real time and those changes can be made within a 24-h hour period. And then there's better visibility and tracking so our parents can see where their kids are. they can know where their kids are when when they load the bus, while the bus is in route, and what time they got off the bus when those buses park or take take the kids home. Excuse me. So, the two tools that I talked about that are forward facing that's for our community. Uh number one is the web-based tool that's
041infoinder. This one is very critical to our superintendent. She wanted to make sure that on our district web page that our parents have an opportunity to go to our web page, click a link on our web page, and that link will give parents real-time information when they type in their address and their student ID number. It'll tell them what school their kids go to, what bus they're supposed to be riding on, what time their bus is going to get to that bus stop, and where the bus stop is located. It's a very transparent device. This device does come in two languages or as many languages as we need. And so we're we're excited about introducing the roll net out to our parents. The other device that's a to uh the other tool that we've purchased
042that's a a forward facing tool that helps our parents is stopfinder. Stopfighter is a real time application that goes on their phone. It's a mobile app. This phone allows them to track their kids from the point that they get on the bus all the way until the point that they exit the bus. Now I do want to be transparent about this. the the the stopfinder piece of this is going to take a little bit more to roll out than the August dead uh the August implementation deadline that we have. The reason for that is because this is directly tied to student ID badges. Our point of sales are our scan on scan off devices uh for those I'm sorry scan on scan off cards for those uh entryway to the bus that has to be
043adjusted in our student code of conduct. It has to be addressed in our address code. So that's going to take a little bit more of a runway for us to get implemented. But as far as the hardware is concerned, come August, we will be ready to do that to roll that out, which will require some sort of a manual punch uh on day one. But we will be ready to have that tracking device in place. Where do we need to go to have a premier transportation system? Well, we we've kind of called some of those things out. The first thing we need to do is we need to improve our technology. our technology. For any any anybody that's spent any time in operations, you know that the number one way you improve operational efficiency is
044one of two ways. Either through manpower or through technology. Technology is a more sustainable system. And so that's the route that we chose to go. Um so with that, we've we've purchased those seven tools. Five of those are internal, two of those are forward facing. Those will help us with operational efficiency, institutional control, safety, uh training. training implementations are are underway. Uh some of those internal trainings have already taken place. If our drivers have an accident, they are being pulled from routes to be able to go through internal training process right now that's being led by our leadership team. But in the future, we'd like to have a dedicated trainer to be able to train our drivers on all compliance issues, safety issues, and best practices. Routing and scheduling. Again, this is underway. These are
045with the softwares that was just purchased. Uh right now we're building those softwares out to be ready to have a soft roll out here in the spring. We want to pilot it with our summer school to be ready for a hard roll out come August. Fleet maintenance. We have we have done both two uh two things. We've created our internal capital investment or capital replacement schedules that we've looked at uh internally. We also have a software that we've purchased to help us with this and uh making sure that we keep keep up and track that. That those softwares also help us with preventative maintenance scheduling. It helps us understand when it's time to change oils, rotate tires, check brakes, do things like that that help keeps our buses on the road and keep those buses
046safe. Facility implementation. This one is probably going to take a little bit longer time to implement because this one is going to require some capital investment that our local budget may not be able to support at this time. And then general safety. Obviously, our loading and unloading practices have to be looked at and reviewed regularly to make sure that we're following best practices and taking care of our kids. This next slide by no means requires any action or is putting you guys on the hook to make any decisions today. What we wanted to do with this slide is to give you an example of what a capital replacement schedule should look like. We've taken the liberty of putting together a mock capital replacement schedule that's on a bienial uh presentation portion of this where it
047shows you uh what it would look like to purchase 18 buses per year for I'm sorry every other year for a 10-year period and what that capital replacement would look like. We also did the same thing with our white fleet. I do want to call out that we do have a aggressive uh replace I mean I'm sorry there's a more aggressive uh capital replacement schedule for the police fleet than it is for our regular service vehicles and that's for the obvious. We want to make sure that our our police officers are able and they're confident in the vehicles that they're driving so that they can respond to emergencies in in a timely fashion without any hesitation. So that's the intent of this slide right here. So the next steps the next steps are we've been
048intentional about our our community touch points. We've been intentional about our uh communication campaign. Uh and so obviously in the month of Fe February has been uh inundated with purchasing and procurement of the softwares and making sure that we have all the tools and resources we need to to be ready for our roll out come August. The month of March is going to be saturated with touch points both internal and external touch points. That's community I mean internal touch points with our principles and our internal stakeholders and then we'll actually start our external touch points with community and different uh fashions of that. Those touch points run through April where we also have additional touch points of either CA communication campaign through mailouts or uh social media launch uh campaigns all the way to town
049hall meetings that are planned and scheduled within our department to host at our three comprehensive high schools where we intend to invite our vertical parents to come in and hear real time what's happening with our overhaul. Give them some perspective of what we intend to do. Hear their feedback and their concerns. give us some time to make some adjustments if needed before we come back to them later in the spring around May. Obviously, in May or a late April, early May, we intend to come back to the board to share with you guys what our intentions are as it relate to the final product of what we want to what we're proposing to roll out to our community. June and July will be spent with training our our internal teams, our drivers, making sure that
050our our mechanics and everybody have what they need, making sure the staffing is appropriate so that we'll be ready for a a August uh roll out with this from a more granular perspective. This gives you a little bit uh tighter view of what those touch points are about. With that said, I do want to bring this presentation to a close by stating this. Number one, I appreciate you as your chief operations officer for entrusting me to lead my team to do this heavy lift. I do want to share with you guys that this is indeed a heavy lift. So, I thank you for that entrusting me to do that. But I also want to apologize to you guys in advance because there are some pain points and growing pains that are going to come from
051this. And so, we want you to know and be assured that we're going to do our due diligence to make sure that we do everything that we can within our power to make this as seamless as as possible for our parents. And obviously we don't want to affect our students in any negative fashion, but we have to do what's best for the district to make sure that we're providing a sustain a sustainable reliable system as we move forward into the future. And so with that said, I'll pause and me and my team will answer whatever questions you guys may have. >> Members of the board, do you have any questions for me? >> I do. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Pearson, can you you mentioned that it had been 20 years since the last time
052that the routes have been optimized. What is typically the industry standard for reviewing and auditing those routes? >> Thank you for asking that question. Ideally, industry stand industry industry standards in the larger districts that can obviously afford it. They do it year-over-year because communities change every year. Uh I would recommend no more than every two years, every three years at the absolute worst. But uh our once our leadership team is is uh trained and coached up on how to use the system, we will be able to make some modifications ourselves. But about every three years we'll need to look at no more than every three years we need to look at this from a larger perspective bringing in some additional assistance to take a look at this. >> Got it. And then from a um
053doortodoor experience um that our students currently have um what other districts either in the region or in Texas are currently also um following by this practice? >> Thank you so much for asking that question as well. I am a member of Texas Association of School Business Officials. I've been a chief operations officer in four school districts ranging from rural school district to a large urban school district and I can assure you across the state I don't know of a single district that is doing this. I've checked the region our regional partners uh myself and Mr. Alanise have called our regional partners and the consistent response has been please don't kick that can for us. So I I haven't found a district that that does that. Can I say without a shadow of a doubt that
054it's not happening? No, I can't. I can just tell you in my network that is fairly large across the state and in the region, I have not seen that practice. >> Thank you. >> Any other members of the board? >> I have several questions. >> Yes, Dr. >> Um, so that was one of the questions I had. And then regarding after school right share pretty much is I want to say that's where you're also basing your information from. >> I'm sorry. like you you you asked or you the question she asked about the doortodoor pickup the right share for after school programs either band football things like that um you mentioned it was majority of the districts that didn't provide that um I'm guessing this is where you get your information from as well what
055you just mentioned >> absolutely I want to make sure I clarify one point on that anything that's co-curricular that's supported by co-curricular that is funded by the state of Texas so tutorials, uh, 21st century, all of our after school co-curricular programs, we can't take those kids home. It's those extracurricular activities that happen after hours, like after a ball game, after a UIL performance, taking those kids home in the late evenings, those are not funded activities. And yes, ma'am, we we haven't found anybody that does that to my knowledge. >> Thank you. And then if we go if we go back to the map you showed us you mentioned you had a number of 539 students and then did I hear you say correct that only aboutund and some of them write the bus? >> Yes
056ma'am. So uh the 539 reference is if we have seven buses that are 77 passenger buses the maximum capacity of those buses is 77 passenger. So if you do seven times the five uh I mean I'm sorry if you do seven times the 77 that's where the 539 students come from that's the maximum riding capacity. >> So that's the capacity and right now onlyund and some students are riding the bus >> roughly 130 140 students or so in that zone and that five mile radius. Wow. >> Thank you. And then what are the smaller dots? I see that like let's say the yellow dots they're numbered 1 through 12 but what are the smaller dots? So each dot represents a bus and so the the there's there shouldn't be any distingu or distinguishment between a
057bigger or smaller dot. The the colors is what distinguish the dot. And so the purpose of that is to show you how some of our routes are bleeding into other routes because they're not optimized or not efficient. >> Okay. So the smaller dots don't necessarily mean that they're another bus stop. >> No ma'am. >> Okay. >> Those are all bus stops. >> Yes. Just those are just bus stops within the cells. That's what but the dots itself it represent a bus stop. There's no distinguishment between that. >> Okay. Uh last um well you mentioned um when was it a few slides back from the end there was the mention of staff children. Can you explain what that is? >> Yes ma'am. So right now and I I'm assuming that this is uh I don't know
058when it started. I don't it would be irresponsible of me to say why it started but what I from my professional experience and what I know uh in the past because we we've offered it before in other my other experiences. What happens with this is when you're in a district with that that there's issues with uh compensation for staff where they're underpaid. Some of those tradeoffs are we offer you those shuttles to where you don't physically have to drive your kid to school. You can come to work, put your kid on the bus at work and we'll shuttle those kids to their uh respective schools. I assume that's why it started here. I don't have that hard information uh exact, but I can share with you that practice is mostly in smaller school districts. Larger
059school districts don't necessarily follow that practice. And if they do, they follow it with very strict parameters, making sure that the shuttle exercise take place only within the zone of that particular bus, not sending buses outside of their zones. >> Thank you. from uh your last slide. I'm thinking we're going to make a vote on this on early May. >> I'm sorry, I didn't understand. I hear your question. >> Are we going to vote on this early May? >> No, it's working. It's a working document. You'll be reporting back to us April and May, right? >> Yes, we we'll be reporting back either late April or early May when we get the final product of what those route information will look like. And I just wanted to clarify if I can board president that this
060doesn't require a vote and this is an operational item and the superintendent will be making a recommendation to the board um about the proposed changes for 2627 but this is an operational item. I do want to also point out though and I'm really grateful um the team is actually going to go out and engage with the community in the exact way that we always have um get feedback um on the presentation on proposed changes um and then bring back the final recommendations to you based upon feedback from our parents, from our families, from our principles um who actually do manage this boots on the ground. And so then we will bring back a final recommendation. So, if you go back to those slides, you see it says recommended. These aren't changes that are happening today.
061Um, we have not finalized what the recommendations are. Um, because we really do want to hear from the community, the parents, families. Um, and obviously our athletics community, our UIL community, so fine arts, so on and so forth. Um, and then in we will bring back a final recommendation. >> Thank you, Dr. Sornson. I was going to ask that question. Um, SB, I I have a question. Um, and it's probably not even related to anything we discussed. I mean, you mentioned the training and and and the staff that we currently have. How is our um do we have a staff shortage on bus drivers? And if not, what are I commend you for not having one. >> So, technically, we do not have a staff shortage. I believe we have what two two routes open.
062>> We we may have three routes open currently. So, by the letter of staff shortage, no, we do not have shortage. What we do have is a lack of extra drivers to be able to cover some cover some of these extracurriculars, but our routes are all covered minus three. >> That's awesome. Great. Thank you. >> Question. >> Uh yes, Mr. Cha. >> Can you describe how these satellite pickup areas would look like? >> Say that again. I'm sorry. >> The satellite pickup areas, since we're used to doortodoor, if we transition to a satellite pickup area, what does that look like? Thank you for asking that question. So the definition of the identification of satellite pickups, they will be they're being they're underway and being designed now. And so what happens is our transfinder partners, our
063transportation leaders, they're looking at each student pickup. They're designing a point to whatever the whatever the re I don't want to give a number out in a public forum just yet, but they're going to give us a recommendation on where these stops should be located so that every kid has equal or equitable uh walk to stop ratio determined or or identified by the administration on what we're recommending for elementary, what we're recommending for secondary. there will be a stop identified in their neighborhood or their community that's a safe, you know, safe walk or safe uh location, whether it be a a park stop or a corner that's not used or a a culde-sac or something like that. I I can't identify exactly what those stops are, but I can share with you that's what the
064common practice is. Once they create that model, what happens next is that our drivers and our team, they actually go out and look at these stops to make sure that they're feasible. We come back and do our work. We present it to our parents, kind of tell them what our ideas and thoughts are, what these stops look like. They give us feedback on if they think the stop is unsafe or if there's dogs there, if there's uh sexual predators that live in the area that we may not be aware of. We come back and make adjustments to that those stops and then we make our final recommendation. But right now, there is no identified or set target on the 0.25 or.3 or whatever that that number is. that will truly be determined by the routes
065once they're built and the recommended walk to stop ratio. We'll make adjustments for that. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. >> SB and I mean you did an excellent job on the presentation. It was very informative and then so I appreciate and there was a lot of detail explained during your that you you shared with us during your remarks. So I wanted to thank you for that. Every time I I thought about something you answered it. So I was thinking about the same thing about the stops and all it. So thank you and your team uh for all the work that you put in. We look forward to the report in April and May. >> Thank you so much. >> Dr. Sornson, do you have anything else you'd like to add? I mean, this I know
066he's putting in a lot of work. >> Absolutely. And um thank you um Chief Pearson and your team for doing this work. I want to um lift up the something though that board member OOA talked about, which is safety, right? Because ultimately, if you're talking about satellite sites, we want to make sure that safety is at the top of our priority list. And so, um, we will also be working in collaboration with the chief of police, our our, um, local law enforcement to make sure that not only our route, um, within parameters, whatever those parameters are based upon conversations and mapping meets out and what that looks like, but also, do we have the san like the okay from our legal um, our law department, excuse me, um, our law enforcers back there and to
067make sure that like yes, we actually agree. We think that this is a safe space for students. We actually have clearance on this area or no, the traffic patterns in this area are actually not safe. What we know is right that there's x amount of traffic patterns through here or there's been accidents in this area. And so we're going to partner with chief and the rest of the police department to make sure that safety is our number one priority for all of our students. Uh because our parents want that first. They want to make sure that their children are safe and that they are arriving to school on time. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Our next item on the agenda 6.4 2026 2027 enrollment and transfer process update. Dr. Sornson. >> Um, so
068I would ask the board um if we could table this item for this evening and we could bring this to a subsequent meeting. >> Is that okay board? >> Any members? Anything you'd like to discuss? I think we're all in agreement. we can go ahead and table it for further meeting or future meeting I should say. Next item on the agenda. Thank you Dr. Sorenson. Doc, next item on the agenda is superintendent update 6.1 budget and auditors report and I think um Reette, you have this one as well. >> Yes, I am. How are good evening uh President Alvarez and Dr. Senson and members of the war and public. Um I'm honored today and I will bring forward Miss Esmea Ines and Carla Gomez from K Ricks and Ingram. They will present the audit report
069for the 2425 school year and they um are have been an amazing partner. They are our external auditors as required by the state. We have to do every year. So they are presenting to you the report. >> Welcome. >> Thank you for the introduction, Miss Greso. Good evening, uh, members of the board, uh, superintendent and district staff and public. Uh, I'm Malda Inig. I'm a partner with Carri and Ingram. And with me is Carla Gomez. She's a senior manager with our firm as well. and we have concluded the audit for the district's June 30, 2025 year end. So, we're here to present the results of our audit and answer any questions you may have. So, I want to start off by explaining um the that with this um the conclusion of this audit, the district
070is complying with their requirement to have an annual audit of their financial statements. Um in addition to providing basic audited financials, the district does go uh beyond that and provides historical data and um statistical data that qualifies them for um the government finance officers association certificate of achievement uh for excellence in financial reporting. They did receive that certificate that recognition for their June 30, 2024. So that is included in the report and this year um they have also um put together the report in the same manner presented the information required so we're confident that they will qualify for the report as well for then their June 30 2025. So we concluded our audit uh February 20 uh 2025 and we are rendering an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. We did audit the governmentwide activities,
071the major fund which is the general fund and the aggregate remaining funds. uh what the uh um unmodified opinion represents, it's the best type of opinion available in our profession. And what that represents is that the financial statements are fairly stated and they're in compliance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. This year, the district did have to implement a new pronouncement, Gatsby 101, for compensated absences. So as a result of that they had to um do an adjustment to their beginning net position in the amount of 7 million. Um that this this is due to the the estimates that had previously been done for compensated absences. The rules changed. So now they have to consider other other factors that increase this um liability for the district. Uh however, it is
072a long-term liability. So it does not have an impact in the district's general fund and general operating resources. And uh we do have a pretty almost 200page report. So we will walk you over the highlights of the financial statements. And of course uh we can address any questions towards the end. >> So I'm going to start with the statement of net position on the governmental activities. Um here you can see it's the statement that includes the capital assets, the long-term debt including bonds, notes. It also includes the balances related to pension, DRS and OPEC and compensated absence. So this is again this is not this statement on your day-to-day operation. This is the governmentwide. So in this statement uh we have here this little table where you can compare to last year. Uh you can
073see that as of the end of the year 2025 total asset ended up to be 67 million. The fair outflow of resources were 67.8 million. Total liabilities in U was 417 million. Defer inflows were 115 million. and total net position at the end of the year were 141.9 million. If you if you look with comparison with the prior year, the biggest change in there was in the fair outflow resources and that that was mainly related to TRS pension and op pension. So those are the the main variances that you see in that in that statement. This next one now is the day-to-day operations what you call the general fund. Um this one um we put together the budgetary comparison. So you can see more or less what was the budget versus the actual. Uh the
074first column you can see in there revenues. So the total budget for the revenues in the year were 279.6 million compared to the actual that you actually got a little bit more 302.2 2 million. Uh in relation to expenses, transfer and extra extraordinary items, the total budget by the district was 294.3 million. At the end of the year, the the end result was a total expenditures of 287.3. So it was under what you were expecting. The last column is the net change. So at the beginning the budget when when you were doing the budget you were expecting to have a loss uh of for or a negative change in fund balance of 14.7 million but the reality at the end the actual ended up to having a a gain or a positive change in fund
075balance of 14.8 million. >> You like that one? >> I don't like it. >> This one >> we can end the report there. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Go ahead. >> You may proceed. I'm sorry. >> Um during the preparation of the audit, we also had to look at some compliance requirements that the district has to follow. Um and this is in relation to the budget compliance. Um there was a finding that we had to give in this audit just because well first of all we call it significant deficiency over the excess of expenditures over appropriations. So you can see um maybe it's a little bit small but on the on the numbers columns on the third one that's the actual if you compare that one to the one before which is the
076final budget the amended there were few functions by functions that you were a little bit over the appropriation but as I mentioned on the previous slide in total I mean you were budgeting way more and you ended up like completely down so uh some of the reasons we explaining here some of the reasons why there were some um excess expenditures over appropriations in some of the functions and um so that's basically what it says in here um this is presented on the audit report on page 182 and the district has we have been discussed with them in detail and they have provided us with the corrective action I mean what what they're going to plan to do for next year and they're going to uh take um the corrective action This uh next one is
077again general fund but now talking about the balance sheet um including assets, liabilities, total fund balance. So you can see here in uh as of the end of the fiscal year 2025 total assets were 183 million.4 Four total liabilities and deferred inflows of resources totaled 37 million and total fund balance at the end of the year ended up to be 146.3 million. Out of that total fund balance uh the district has some some money u restricted as required by your programs by your um different programs. uh but out of that you ended up with an unassigned fund balance of 121.5 million. Um normally these uh the districts like to hear that if if they will be fine to cover four u how many months of expenditures and the good thing is that you the district
078will be able to probably cover more than four months of expenditures with this uh phone balance that you have. So you see compared to last year it went up the unassigned phone balance it went up from 1.9 million to 121 million. So it was a huge positive. >> Thank you Carla. Um and then in addition to the financial statement audit we also conducted uh an audit over the federal award. So for uh June 30, 2025 the district received a total of 65.6 6 million in federal grants. Out of uh the the all the grants we are uh required to select major programs for testing. So this year we selected title one which represented 15.5 million and supporting effective instruction state grants which represented 1.7 million. Our opinions on that part of the report uh or
079that part of the audit are also unmodified. We do issue uh a report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters based on an audit of financial statements perform in accordance with government auditing standards. Um so as mentioned we're rendering a nonmodified opinion which is the best type of opinion available. There were no material weaknesses. Um there was only the one significant deficiency that we just discussed related to budget uh and no non-compliance material to the financial statements. The other report is on compliance for each major program and on internal control over compliance required by the uniform guidance. Um for this type of audit, we audit the requirements that could have a direct and material effect on each of the major federal programs and our opinions. uh on our opinion on
080this report is also on modified. So this is uh we took a page out of the book on page 179. That's where you find the summary of um the results the the opinions that we're rendering and as well as um the findings that are reportable uh as just discussed. So for the federal awards, we noted no material weaknesses, no significant deficiencies and no uh non-compliance that is required to be reported. So um in addition to the opinions that are included in the district's um report, uh we also are providing uh another packet called required communications. You should have all received a copy. This is uh for internal uh purp uses for uh the board of managers and ma and district staff district management. And in there I went too far. You will find uh the
081auditor's responsibilities outlined management's responsibilities. Uh you'll find a section that includes judgments and sensitive estimates. We do look at those estimates and uh compare with uh standards. Um we have no we we didn't find any any inconsistencies. Um in there you'll also find the summary of audit adjustments that were proposed throughout the audit. And then towards the back you'll find uh the management communication letter which includes additional um observations that are either control deficiencies or improvement points that were not um elevated to significant deficiency or material weakness to be included in the other report. And we did uh meet with uh the district staff with superintendent Miss Esco and her team on February 20. We went over those. Uh we typically go over every every adjustment as we find it throughout the audit, but we
082do a summary just to make sure that we got all the information that they understand what the what the observations were and what they can do going forward to improve that. And that concludes our report. uh I I can address any questions that you may have or if you have questions uh down the road as you look through the financials, our contact information is on the slide, feel free to reach out. >> Thank you very much. Members of the board, before I turn it over to Dr. Senson, do you have any questions for presenters? Dr. Sorenson, anything you'd like to add? >> Um first of all, I just want to thank you very much for your really detailed and comprehensive work. Um, it is no secret, right, that finances are important to the intervention here.
083Um, and so I say this publicly all the time. I think I am one of the only superintendents on the planet who welcomes always an audit. Um, because it is an opportunity for us to grow, get better, and again, I say this all the time, not just be great, but be perfect. And so, we strive for perfection. and with perfection you get excellence. And so thank you for your feedback. Um thank you for your detailed work and the time that you spent with the team um to just make us better, stronger, faster. And so in addition to that, I'd really like to thank Miss Crespbow um obviously my own budget buddy um Rolando um for his work and the team um in business finance and administrative services for writing the ship in this area. Um,
084we always have work to do to continue to improve to be the best and I think we've made significant headway in the year and a half under Miss Cresbow's leadership and the work of her team. So, thank you very much for this very comprehensive report and I am certain that my board president is pleased that there is um additional funding going into fund balance. >> Thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation and have a safe trip back. Thank you. And and thank you. I I uh I agree with uh Dr. Senson. It is a huge uh volume of information that is handled. Uh of course, finance is the filter, but it's district-wide uh departments all across the district participate. So, I really appreciate everyone's cooperation. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >>
085Thank you. Thank you, Miss Cresbow, for everything. Again, thank you for such a detailed report. We appreciate it. >> I have um response. >> Okay. >> Is a brief um clarity and response on what you hear for the community and for my colleagues and representing the department as Dr. Senson say we are striving for perfection. Uh which is no something that we can achieve in a year and a half, but we are working very hard to try to do as fast as we can. Um what you listen hear today here um was uh presented by our colleagues and I really appreciate the ladies they are amazing. Um we hear one significant efficiency uh compliance certain compliance findings and process improvement required for us to keep moving forward. The result of this however the most important
086part is that there is a unmodified opinion. There is no material weaknesses no material compliance. financial statements are accurate, the district three financial stable and the systems are strengthening. I don't want to miss the opportunity to say that these findings reflect increased accountability monitoring refining timing of budget amendments had to be tightened. A strengthening of compliance oversight is something we have been working very hard and it still have some work to do. Um but the audit also confirm positive GRN fund balance total expenditure on overall budget on modify audit opinion no material weaknesses identify and a a mention of a lowrisisk federal designation therefore the district financial stable and strengthening their internal controls and working to be better what are we doing and I think that's the most important part and that's why I wanted
087to take a couple of minutes going over this again um we have immediate actions of underway that are already established because remember this audit is as of June 2025. We have quarterly function level budget monitoring across all funds. We have internal meetings with me the my team for increasing more intense monitoring um including monthly reports to the superintendent. We have um starting conservative budget amendment practices. That's why you are seeing budget amendments every month uh to be sure that we are covering any potential risks. We are doing mandated program expenditure tracking with my colleagues and the staff um to ensure that any funding uh source any plan is being executed as planned on the time and a timely manner. And we are looking at procurement thresholds oversized to ensure that um or procurement processes are
088supporting the district financials and we are really working in a accurate way towards being better. What structural improvements we had done so far? Um we have increased accountability for all the staff members starting on my office. We are working very hard on on completing and consolidating our zerobased budget framework alignment. We have early compliance review and monitoring. Again, as I say before, we are doing these quarterly reviews and we are also on top of our activities. We have a strengthen grants reimbursement oversight to ensure that we ask for the funds on time and that we are spending the funds on time. and we are formalizing GR and acral review processes in order to prevent uh timing this discrepancy that that's where most of the issues came on this finding. So just the honor that the
089financial discipline is a continuous process we are growing as a district to be more accountable. Um this means that through the process we will build durable systems and that is what we want and that's the commitment from my office to the district is building things that will sustain and prevent fraud and corruption in the future um and leave the district stronger financially. So if you have any questions further questions for me or not um just let me know. Members of the board, do you have any questions? >> Miss Crespo, >> um before I turn it over to Dr. Sorenson if she'd like to add to this, um Miss Crespo, so you know, we could have ended the the presentation with the auditors, you know, paying a visit and giving us an update, but I have
090to commend you for for sharing with us that the deficiency that we had and how we're going to correct it. And I I appreciate that. And so I think it's important for everyone to know um um your commitment to making sure that everything's done right here. And uh like Dr. Sorenson said earlier, like I I've never met anybody who who invites or encourages um audits. So I appreciate that and I feel very comfortable with the report that was given and the work that you're doing. So thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Dr. Sornson. >> No. Um I think um thank you Miss Cresbow for following up not only on what we're doing currently but what we plan to continue to do to strengthen our systems and um it just goes handinhand with the work
091that we're doing with Alvarez and Marsal um around changing a culture of accountability and also um financial stability and transparency with not only the board but with the community. So thank you Miss Creswell for your followup. Again, thank you to the team and thank you board for your continued support as we strengthen this arm of the district. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Uh ladies and gentlemen, next item on the agenda is our Lone Star governance. Uh this is item number 7.1, our time use tracker report from February 11, 2026. And this will be done by Joseph, our chief of staff. Joseph. >> Yes. Good evening, Mr. Board President, members of the board. Dr. Sorenson, happy to bring you um the February 11th um Lonear governance time use tracker report. Um of course this
092work comes from our Lonear governance work where continuous which is a continuous improvement model for governing teams who choose to focus on one and unapologetically on one primary objective and that is improving student outcomes. Um, and so as a part of that work, we track our time and how much time is spent on discussing adult outcomes, student outcomes, and other operational items. Um, and so from our February 11th meeting, if you follow the blue column down on the on the left hand side, that's those are our student outcome minutes. And you can see um that 25 minutes of our last meeting went towards student outcomes. That came from our um board goals one through three. a a related GPM's presentation um about our our MAP growth data that Dr. Little presented. Um and then if
093you go down the green column, those are our adult behavior minutes. Um and that is a total of 65 minutes um went towards um adult behaviors. Um and then if you go down to the sort of the middle of the screen u of the page, you'll see that the total number of minutes for our meeting was 106. Um and so last meeting um we spent 89 point uh my eyes 89.5% or six where's my eyes um percent of our our meeting on both student outcomes and adult behavior minutes um and then 23.5% of our time on uh explicitly on student outcomes minutes. So with that I'm happy to take any questions. >> Thank you very much Joseph. Members of the board, any questions for Joseph? >> No. >> Do we have none? Thank you very
094much, George. Joseph, appreciate that. >> Board President, can I say one comment? >> Yes, Dr. >> I just want to say in advance um this meeting um as we report next time. Um we will have no student outcome minutes. I just want to say that out loud. I apologize. Um, and right for me it's an and and there are times where we feel compelled to come before the board and the community regardless of our desire to always talk about student outcomes um to in keep the board and the community informed about operational items um financial items um what Lonear Governance calls adult outcomes and adult behaviors they impact children um so you know the conservator and I always talk about Come on, these count. Um, but they don't. But I did want to say transparently
095that it is still our belief as an administrative team that these are items that should be talked about in public um with you and with the community. And so I apologize if we fall short occasionally, but um want to continue our level of transparency um with this entire board and our community as we go through this process. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Sorenson. I appreciate you saying that. Um and Joseph, I I always look forward to your report. So, thank you for continuing to provide us with this information. Certainly important. Uh Dr. Barela will have uh 7.2 board constraint uh number two. This will be done by again as I'm referenced Dr. Vela. >> Good evening, President Algodus, Dr. Superintendent, members of the board and community. This evening we have our board constraint progress
096check and the constraint that we are going to be discussing is board constraint number two and this constraint reads board members shall not communicate in a way that goes or appears to go against any of the board or board actions. So basically this is how you communicate with each other, how you communicate with the community. Um, and we always want to make sure that we're speaking with that one voice that you represent because you're only a board member when you are here and part of that board. Nobody can speak for the board on the board's behalf or even on the superintendent's behalf. Um, because when you're out in the community, you are out in the community as a person that serves on a board. So, just to make those distinctions. So, for that, we want
097you to reflect on these uh statements. Have I made any statements that could be perceived as contradicting board decisions? Have I posted or shared content that undermines board unity? Have I redirected concerns appropriately or unintentionally fueled dissent? Does what and how I communicate support our student outcome goals? So, I'd like you guys to think about that for a moment. um individually. >> You want us to collectively rate what we think between one and part? >> Well, just think I just want to give you a couple of seconds to think about those questions, right? And then we're going to do the self-ealuation. So on the next page, it is the rating one through five. And I do want you to do this individually first and then we're going to discuss each one so that we can
098see where we fall. The idea being that you are evaluating your own behavior um so that you can continue to learn and grow to become the most effective board uh possible. So under unity and communication, I consistently communicate in alignment with board decisions. So rate that one individually one through five. >> And the must mean um one is least agreed and five is most agreed. >> Yes. Thank you. One is least and five is the most on that liyker scale. >> Okay. >> So where do you think we ranked with that first one? Uh >> I wrote down five. Does anybody have anything different or think that as a board um it should be rated differently? So, think about yourself and think about your your board as well, your fellow board members. And of course,
099we have a new board member, uh Miss Vega. We don't expect you to to have a rating at this time since you just joined the board. Everybody good with a five? Yes, >> I think we're all good with a five. >> Okay. >> Respect for board actions. I avoid public or private criticism of board decisions. Now, again, this is just something we don't need true confessions. Nobody has to say anything. But it, you know, this is important because I take you back to our training when we talk about integrity and the the definition of integrity that we use in LSG is doing what others expect of me um whether or not they're there at the time that they expect it in the manner in which they expect it. So, we've had all this training. So,
100where are we with that rating? Members of the board, I I know I can I already have mine, so I'm I'm going to go ahead and say mine's a five, >> six, >> one through five. Dr. Marggo, >> integrity card. >> So, any anybody anything different than a five? >> Okay, we'll rate that one a five. The next one is clarity of role. I refrain from giving personnel directives or opinions that conflict with board actions. And again, this is going out into the community, whether it's >> in your house, uh your somebody at at HB, somebody asks you something. It's it happens often for board members to say, "Yes, we voted for it or I voted for it, but but I agree blah blah blah. this wasn't you know uh and that's how the discussion
101starts and some community members would love to see dissent among you guys because you've been working so well together. So you have to be very careful about that on how you speak about the district um and your role. So where are we with the rating for clarity of role? Hi. >> Think we're good at pi? >> Anyone have anything different than a fi? >> I think we're fine. >> Okay. Community trust. I help build trust in the board by reinforcing its collective decisions. Rating that one through five. >> I say five. Five also. Is there anybody that >> anyone different >> that has anything different? >> Five. >> And again, when we think about trust and clarity of role, you have to remember your role versus the superintendent's role. Um, and it's very simple. Superintendent
102is operations. Everything under operations belongs to the superintendent. You guys approve policy, approve the budget, you hire the superintendent, you evaluate the superintendent, but aside from those things, the superintendent has that authority to make those decisions. >> Um, and you guys have done an excellent job um with this thus far. So, I'm I'm thrilled about that. Any questions on your constraint discussion, >> members of the board? No, >> no. Thank you, Dr. B. You may proceed. >> Okay, next item is your quarterly uh self-evaluation. So, um let's look at the framework. the first one is vision and goals. One, the board has adopted student outcome goals. Last time we were a 12. So, Miss Vega, the way this works is we you start and the very first column does not meet focus and if you
103can check all of those items, you move to the next column and if you can check all those items, you move to the next. If one item is not checked, that's where you have to stay for that rating. And we do this every four months. Anyone want to throw anything out? Are you still at 12? Did we go back to a four or >> are we at 15? >> I think I think we're still at 12. >> Is it the broad ownership that kept us from being at 15? Um let's see student. >> Yes. Yes. And again I think with where you are as a board of managers with the work that you have before you right now the work is the the school system going out into the community. Right. The superintendent is doing
104that. Um our operations uh chief talked about that as well. Going out into the community hearing about what they have to say. Um, I think that this is work that is >> something that we can consider. I don't know if if the end of this year is good or we can aim for and plan for the fall. Dr. Senson, do you have any thoughts? >> Board member Gomez that like if we I such a thing existed as a 13. >> Um, >> I think we're getting to a 15, right? because I there is broader ownership, knowledge and understanding of like our wildly important goal like you all heard them on campuses. Our teachers are talking about it more. Our parents are talking about MAP scores more. Our parents are more aware of their student progress
105in relationship to our district goals. Um so I jokingly leaned over and said like can we be a 13? I know we can't, but I'm just saying. So, I wanted to point out that I recognize as the superintendent that there's much more momentum around the goals and knowledge of and the broad ownership. I don't know that we're there yet, but may we've made progress and I I want to note that out loud. >> I would agree with that. Um I see it and hear it uh with principles when they're talking about their campuses. Everyone is very clear. Student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change. And so whenever there's a there's an issue or something that gets in a way in the way of a goal or of a practice, we take it back to
106okay, is this going to improve student outcomes or is are we doing this uh for an adult, right? May I ask where we started uh at the very beginning? >> You may go ahead and proceed. >> Yeah, just where where we started and I know now we're um adopt a vision. >> There was nothing established. >> Probably at the end of of this um but if you look at Marty made the copies and they were separate. Yeah. I if I can recall I was just explaining that I think we actually started at zero. >> Oh, we actually did start at zero. >> Yeah, exactly. Because we didn't have a vision. We didn't have board goals. There weren't GPMS. And so we had to establish all of that work together. So for vision and goals one,
107one quarter ago we were a 12. Two quarters ago we were still a 12. Three quarters ago 12. And four quarters ago 12. So we've been consistently at 12. I think we had a couple of other quarters before that, but the first quarter was a zero. Definitely. >> Thank you. >> Great question. Are we good with the 12 for that one? >> Yes. I think we're all in agreement on that. >> Let's go on to vision goals two. The board has adopted goal progress measures GPMs aligned to each student outcome goal. >> Where were we at last time? >> A 12. So we've been we've been at 12 for the last three. >> I think we need more adult behavior change. >> What's that? I was going to say I think we're kind of in
108the same boat as we were with um with goal >> go one. >> Yes, I I agree. So, we're going to say 12. >> Yes. >> Okay. Vision and goals three. The board has adopted constraints. >> Last time we were 12 a nine. >> A nine. >> I mean nine, I'm sorry. Nine. 999 and four quarters ago we were a zero. We're >> still on nine. Yeah, I agree. >> So, we've been pretty steady. Are we still good with a nine? >> Yes. >> Okay. Vision goals. >> Before we go, I don't know if anybody's monitoring that. Just in case somebody's watching from the outside, if somebody could keep up with the slide because we got a different slide here. >> What's that? >> Oh, the slide. Yeah. >> The slide. just so that we
109can keep up if anybody's watching from >> the next slide. >> I'm sorry I didn't hear you. >> If if we can keep up with the slide, your presentation is not there. >> On four. >> So in case anyone's watching from outside there, they they see what we see. >> Yeah, we're on Go for >> Go for >> Go back. >> Go. We're >> Say that again, Mr. Alice. I'm sorry. that your presentation is not in sync with the slide that you're on. And so for those that are watching, >> I'm so sorry >> they don't get confused. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> We're on SL vision and goals for >> vision and goals. >> Okay, we're at vision and goals four. >> Yes, >> the board has adopted superintendent constraint and progress
110measures and we said that was still a four. This is a four. Yes. >> Last quarter we were a four. Two quarters ago we were a four. Before that we were at zero. It took us a while to get out of this one. >> We're at a four. >> Oh yeah. We're so good with a four. >> Yes, we're four. >> Okay, perfect. The next one is progress and accountability one. The board invests at least half of its time to improving student outcomes. Last time we were a 15. Um, this time I think we are going to have to go back to a 12. >> Yes. So you guys remember why why do you why are we going back to a 12? Can anybody explain that? >> I think uh Dr. Sha a little bit
111earlier were um addressing a lot of the operational and adult >> um impacts. So, as opposed to students. So, >> yes. Yes. We've we've had a lot of information that that uh that we've had to share or the district has had to share and um we didn't have a data presentation. All of this work is still very very important and we just have to take the hit this time and then we'll see if we can plan um next time to have more data sprinkled throughout uh throughout every month. >> Diana, but we landed at 23% and I don't know if before we've had something lower than that. So would we be at a 12 or a four? >> We are at 16.6%. So would that be a four? And >> then is that four versus
112that pushes back? >> So So it would be a 12. It's 25%. >> Oh, it would be a four. Yes, you're right. >> Yeah. >> Yes. So it would it would be a four. And I know you guys have heard me say progress is not linear. Sometimes you have to go backwards and that's okay. Next is progress and accountability two. The board evaluates but does not interfere with progress toward improving student outcomes. The last time we were we were a four and before that we were zeros. Are we still a four or can we go to masters? >> I think we're at a five now. This instrument um calls for, let me read the last one, consider superintendent performance as indistinguishable from system performance by evaluating the superintendent on only results in progress towards student
113outcome goals. This one is very hard to get, I will tell you, because most boards do want to evaluate their superintendent on other things like operations, uh, like the, um, community involvement and support and transparency. All those are very important, but this instrument is asking us to just evaluate the superintendent on student outcomes only. And so that's why we cannot be uh a five. Yeah. >> Does anybody have any questions about that or >> No, thank you for clarifying that for us. >> Okay. So that is a four. Let's go to systems and processes. The board operates in a way that allows the superintendent to accomplish the vision. Uh we've been a four for the last four quarters. Thank you so much. >> Because we don't have four meetings per month. >> Is there anything
114that would be keeping us from? >> No, it says did not exceed an average of four meetings a month. >> What's that? >> Had more meetings. >> I was just clarifying it. Um 121 does not mean that we average four meetings a month. >> Well, the one that I'm looking at is that the board has u reviewed its existing local policies. We've done a lot of that. There's been a lot of uh um policy updates that have come in and Dr. Dr. Senson and her team have uh suggested or asked for you guys to approve other policies that were needed in the district, but I know that you're on the list for a TASBY policy update. Is that is that >> Yes. >> So, it still hasn't happened, but again, this is not anything that
115um it's it's on the schedule to happen. >> No, it has happened. 126. >> Which one? TASBY update 126. >> No, no, that it's that that the board works with TASBY to look at all the policies and and see if there's any changes that that are needed. Jamie, I I thought you said that you all were having a a a session with TAS now. >> Did we not do that recently? >> Okay. >> I think we've updated >> I mean TASBY is doing a review of our policies. Yes, >> they are actively doing one right now. >> Okay. >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. Do we again this is one of those sticking points. Dr. Sorenson, what do you think? And and Mr. Alice, you guys make a recommendation and then we can we can talk
116about it. >> It's happening right now. Do we have the results of it? And are we implementing those? >> No, not yet. It's not finalized. Okay. So then I think we need to stay at a four. >> I agree. We we are at a four right now, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes, >> I'm okay with that. >> The next one is um advocacy and engagement. >> What were we at before then? >> Advocacy and engagement. >> But where were we at? >> Oh, where were we at? Um, we've been a one for the last three quarters and before that we were at a zero. So, let's see if we have um >> we're still at a zero. >> I think we're at a one, right? >> I think we've done >> I don't
117know. I think that we can move to um a three. What >> What are your thoughts board? >> I don't know. >> Three sounds. >> One >> because the distinguishing part is the board. >> Exactly. >> Hosted a community >> where the one community. >> Oh, that's what it is. The board has hosted. Yes, you're right. No, you're right. So let's we're >> they have system. >> You've you've you've been involved in these community meetings where the superintendent and her team have done that but we need to schedule a time for you guys to do that and you to be the leaders of this uh of this session and the superintendent and her team will be there to support you in case there's questions the community has that that you may not be able to
118answer. So, thank you do Dr. Sorenson. That does put us back at preparing to focus a one. >> I'm gonna I'm going to I will I will get it done. >> Synergy and teamwork. The last time we had we scored a three. Actually, the last four quarters have been threes. And there there's something that's holding us back from being a nine. I think that all the members have create um done the training. >> We're almost there. We are almost there. So >> I think for sure by the next time we do this, we'll be able to go to a nine. >> That means everybody has to have every single >> uh meet all of those statutoily required trainings. So we're back at a three, guys. >> Yes. >> Okay. I wasn't adding, >> but I'm
119assuming it's like 60 >> something. >> Did anybody add? Did you add 44? >> Okay, I'll add it all and I'll make sure that you have it when we go into close session before you sign it. >> Thank you. >> Any questions on any of this information? >> Members of the board, any questions for Dr. Ba? Thank you, Dr. >> I do want to say I've just been so proud of the work you guys have done individually and and collectively. Um, you really have taken on this uh this Texas framework, right, that we use as our integrity instrument. And I can hear it in your language with each other. I can hear it in your discussions with the superintendent and the team. So, I just want to commend you guys for doing that. and you've
120grown tremendously in the two years uh since we started in February 2024. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Para. Members of the board, no questions. Great. All right, let's proceed. Next item on the agenda. Let's see. We hand out is number eight. The Let me No, that's eight. That one's done. >> That's still me. >> Yes, >> that's still you. Okay. So, it's our conservator's report. >> Don't care about it. It's all yours. um for I think the report that we have is for December. Um we continue to make a lot of progress. However, in December it was a short month. Do we have is that the one that you guys have before you? December >> this one is uh >> 11:18 or 114. >> Yeah. 114 2026. Yes, but it's so I turn it
121in in January, but it's from the month prior. So, this is the December uh December report. >> Okay. >> The district continues to make um marked improvements to complete all of these activities um all these goals and goal progress measures. You've heard from the business office and all the things that they've done and it's it's a work in progress as um as Dr. Little and Miss Cresco will definitely tell you, they look under a rock and they thought they were done with that and they find more things. So, they've done an exceptional job on um completing a lot of these activities and we're definitely moving towards um meeting exit criteria. I have no doubt that that we're uh going to get there. The board in the very first um exit criteria is number one. Board
122of managers or board members will score meets focus on the LSG in integrity instrument in the areas of vision and goals, progress and accountability systems and processes consistent with high performing governance teams. You guys have completed one of the three GPMs that you have uh set, but you are definitely well on your way to uh making sure that you meet this exit criteria. The second goal is for business and finance. La Hoya ISD will conduct a comprehensive financial audit of district financial controls, address all findings, and meet all education department general administrative regulations and financial accountability system resource guide and Texas education code regulations. So all the things that you see within this section, these are all things that they continue to work on to build those sustainable systems so that um whenever the the
123conservator exits the district when this work is done, it'll be sustainable and so whoever comes in, they'll be able to take it over. Exit criteria goal three. By May 2029, La Hoyd will ensure all campuses in the district are rated in overall AO toC in the state accountability system. There is a lot of progress that you can see in these uh with with these GPMS that are listed. We've seen a lot of progress in the um student achievement data, student outcome data. We've seen a lot of improvements with even the adult data, right? data on walkthroughs that are being conducted with the spot checks with the superintendent and her team. Everything that we've seen up to now is pointing in the absolute right direction, really setting us up to definitely meet meet our wig for
124this year. Um, and I have no doubts that you'll meet all of these goals um by by the time we exit the district. Does anybody have any questions? Any of the members have any questions for Dr. Ba? >> Thank you, Dr. Ba. >> All right, see we have no more questions. Let's get to the next agenda item, um, which is our consent agenda item. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> 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 close session. Right now it is >> 7:55 p.m. We will go into close section close session under section Texas government code 551.001 551.071 551.072 551.074 551.076
125551.129 and 551.0821. 0821 concerning and concerning any and all purposes permitted by the act including including but not limited to the sections and purposes listed below that we have here. We are now in close session. Ladies and gentlemen, we're back from close session. It is 9:14 p.m. Agenda item 12.1, approval of additional members to the La Hoya ISD Health Advisory Council, SHAC 2025 2526. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve item 12.1. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. Item 12.2, approval of CTE technology purchase purchases leading to industry based certifications through computer technology districtwide quotation uh number 2025-828. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve item 12.2. >> Do I
126have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. 12.3 approval of the 2026 2027 La Hoy ISD school board calendar. Do I have a motion? Correction. It should be Lo ISD school calendar. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve 12.3. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. Item 12.4, approval of inind donation of jackets by Child Fund International. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve item 12.4. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. >> 12.5. Approval of the annual comprehensive financial report for
127the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. 12.6 6. Approval of delinquent tax collection collection report for the period of July 1st, 2025 through December 31st of 2025 presented by the law office for Limeburgger, Goen, Blar, and Samson LLP. Do I have a motion? >> Move to approve. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. 12.7 approval of the Lonear governance board self- assessment using the LSG integrity instrument. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve. >> Do I have a second?
128>> I second. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. 12.8 approval proposed termination probationary contracts. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve item 12.8. >> 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. So we have March 2026 is Texas History Month, Music in Our Schools Month, Women History Month, National Nutrition Month, and National Procurement Month. March 1st, 2026, National Athletic Trainers Day. March 1st through the 7th, 2026, National School Work Week. March 1st through the 7, 2026, Educational Diagnostician Week. March 2nd, 2026, Texas Independence Day. March 2nd through the 6, ReadAcross America Week. March 2nd through the 6th, Texas
129Public Schools Week, Open House. March 2nd through the 6, National School Board Breakfast Week. March 6, 2026, my birthday. No, I'm just kidding. March 6, 2026, Maintenance Work Appreciation Day. March 9th, 2026, sixth grade field day. March 10th, 2026, Texas girls in STEM day. March 11, 2026, elementary field day, coyotes and husky clusters. March 11, 2026, special called meeting student recognition at Alejandro Alex Science Performing Arts calendar. Um, do we have any questions or remarks before we adjourn? Um I I do just want to tell everybody that was part of the Coach Rod um uh field just thank you very much. It was a great event. Very heartfelt for somebody so uh deserving and just thank you guys so much for for that event. >> Anyone else who attended? >> It was a spectacular event.
130I was so proud and honored that we were all present and to remember someone whose legacy will carry on. Yes, I agree with you. I I know that after the event was over, some folks that weren't able to make the event that are from the Cameron County area sent me a text saying, "Thank you for honoring my cousin." So, I thought that was pretty cool. He was well known everywhere. So, we're very grateful. And thank you again to SB, your team, everyone that put it together, and of course, Dr. Sorenson and her staff. Before we adjourn, I do have a a letter that I do need to read to you all from TEA. Dear Dr. Sorenson and Mr. Alis, the purpose of this letter is to notify you that on February 11, 2026, the Texas
131Education Agency conducted a quarterly review of all the conservators and management teams appointed to oversee district operations throughout the state of Texas. On February 18, 2026, I reviewed and approved the AY's final recommendation. This review was conducted in accordance with the replacement or correction with the requirements of the Texas Education Code 39A-00003B. As you know, Dr. Pera has served the district with distinction as a conservator since 2024. Since she was since she will be transitioning out of the conservator role, I am formerly naming Dr. Sylvia Ivara to serve as her replacement. Dr. Yara will assume all roles and responsibilities of the conservatorship and shall have all authority allowed under the state statue and rule. The Texas Education Agency would like to thank Dr. Bara for her leadership and support of La Hoyd. Any questions can
132be directed towards Garrett Black at tea. Texas.gov. Miss Bara, we just wanted to thank you. I know we expressed our our thanks to you in the back, but um publicly I just wanted to let you know that we're very grateful to you for what you've been able to do the last two years for this with this board. Um it certainly has been an educational uh experience. I think I I mentioned earlier when when we started working together, we were we were using training wheels, but those training wheels are gone. And so it wouldn't have been possible without without your leadership and um and your support. So I just wanted to share that with you. And so we're going to miss you, but we wish you the best and you're just a phone call away. Any
133of other board members like to say anything before? >> Just want to say thank you so much for your guidance and wish you well on your next project. >> Thank you. We learned a lot. Appreciate it. >> I just want to say thank you I'm going to miss you. >> Thank you and wish you the best. >> We're so grateful for everything you've done for us and for your support and for your guidance uh for two years. So, um thank you. >> Yes. Thank you very much, Dr. Sornson. >> Um and I of course um want to just thank you for your partnership as uh a conservator. Um I was always very clear on your role, right, to make sure that the intervention is successful. And so I think as you look back on the
134two years, we're making progress, right? And so your mark in terms of helping us ensure that the intervention is successful and will be a part of this legacy. And so thank you so much for the partnership um your guidance, your friendship, and your consistent support of uh me and the superintendent seat and uh the board. We would not be where we are without your help. >> We truly mean that. Anyone else? Seeing there's nothing else. >> Enjoy retirement. >> Well, and we congratulate you on your new home in San Antonio. And so, and also any uh future plans certainly keep us posted. Uh seeing that we have nothing else to add. >> President, can I add? >> Oh, of course. >> Two very quick things. I always feel like it's super important to uh >>
135Yes. >> you know talk about the a few really great things. So, first of all, our La Hoya High School boys basketball won district champs last night. So, go get them boys. Um I think our our next game is Friday. Um and we'll just keep advancing. So, um way to go. And then also this past weekend, I'm so excited and so proud of our mariachi students across the district. Um both Palm View and La Hoya came home with a division one title. Um and our Wes Lincoln Huskies came home with a division two. So so proud of them. Um the level of discipline and commitment um from our students who do mariachi is just beyond um and the instructors that support them is just outstanding. I mean we are the best. I mean I I
136we are the best and so just wanted to publicly congratulate them on on you know demonstrating exactly who they are which is I say it all the time excellence. So again, want to congratulate them as well as acknowledge the staff that was here this evening. Our our CTE teachers are always showing up and really demonstrating to our young people um ways in which that you know they can live their best lives and really turn their passions into careers and careers into a financial stable like financial stability for them and their families for years to come. Um and so I'm just really grateful to them and obviously all of our advanced placement work um that we're doing across the district. Thank you Anamarie for leading a lot of that work side by side with our should
137with our shoulder partners with the counselors and the principles um because I think what we demonstrated tonight is that college and career is what we're about here. And so um and they don't have to be mutually exclusive. um you can do both uh but that we're doing a really great job across the district to support our students so that they have opportunities and choices when they walk across the stage. And so just wanted everyone to, you know, hear all the awesomeness that exists here. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. And I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that we're very grateful to you, your leadership team, the CTE instructors, and of course our very own Dr. Carlos Marco for implementing the apprenticeship program which everyone knows we're very dear to. So I appreciate all the work
138that you've done and also the um the the progress that has been made. I think that's going to set us apart. If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Margo, are we the only school that has someone similar to that? >> Yes, Lao is the first school in in Idalago and Star County to step up and join the uh registered department of labor apprentichip program while still in high school. And >> can you tell us a little bit about it? >> Yeah. a group of 12 students and and congratulations to your CT. They made it happen. Uh for over 10 years, South Texas College has had registered apprentichip programs at 17 different occupations, but never have we had high school students join the registered apprentichip programs and work part-time. In this case, they're going to be working as
139construction technicians, but specifically with Zitro Electric, who agreed to hire the 12 students on a part-time basis while they're still in high school, so they can get relevant work experience while South Texas College provides the classroom instruction. So, that again is the first of its kind, La Hoya ISD, the first to step it up and actually do it. So, I'm very proud of La Hoya in that regard and uh hopefully we'll continue to do more of that. But congratulations to your team, Dr. Swordson, and >> thank you for your continued support. so grateful and our kids are just the, you know, benefactors of that type of programming. So, thank you and thank you to South Texas College. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Margot. And we'll certainly convey that message to Desi Holmes. I'm sure
140she had a little part to do with it, so I'll make sure she knows that. Well, seeing that we have nothing else that we need to add and there's nothing else on the agenda, do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I move to adjourn this meeting at 9:26 p.m. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I all oppose. Motion carries. We are >> journal.