001Good evening everyone. It is uh 6:01 p.m. and I do go call this meeting to order. First item on the agenda is to make sure that those board members that are here that they go ahead and instate that starting from my right. If you're here, go ahead and let me know. Good evening. Carlos Marggo present. >> Anita Chavez present. Alisa Pñena present. >> Rosal Fernandez present. >> Sens Jr. present. >> Great. We do have quorum. Um we are missing Miss Jessica Ooa. And if she comes in, we'll go ahead and let everyone know. Next item on the agenda is a pledge of allegiance. If you're able to do so, I ask that you stand and face the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for
002which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. You may be seated. >> Ladies and gentlemen, next item on the agenda is our um public comment portion of the meeting. Have we had anyone that signed up for public comment tonight, Miss Pñena? We do not have anybody signed up for public comments. >> Okay, great. Seeing that we have no one that has signed up for public comments, we'll go ahead and get to agenda item number five, Lonear Governance. Um, item 5.1, GPM 2.1 through 2.3, kindergarten readiness math, TXA, boy map, growth map for BOY, Grades 6 through 8, math map, math map, uh, and high school algebra 1 presented by Dr. Little. Dr. a little. >> Was that enough tongue twisters for you? >> Oh my god. Why
003couldn't you just say [laughter] talk about math, you know? >> Exactly. It's all about math, >> especially when I need to wear my glasses. Oh my. >> So sorry for that. Uh we are talking about our beginning of year math results tonight. A lot of what you hear in terms of our overall analysis and what we're doing in response is going to be very similar to what we shared in the last board meeting because this is still beginning of year data and we're seeing similar needs uh in many ways across our contents and grade levels. But we did want to show where we are um specifically in math uh as always working towards this vision and mission mission in what we're doing academically and instructionally in our classrooms. Tonight we're really looking um at goal
004two in particular. That's the official goal that we are reporting out on. As always, we have some other data sprinkled in there that's really important to give us a sense more holistically of where we are as a district. Uh so we are looking at goal two, third grade math. We are looking at kindergarten, first and second grade as well. And as I just mentioned, we had a slide that looked almost identical to this in our update a couple of weeks ago. And almost is really about the direction of that red arrow in the top left. When we shared with you our beginning of year reading data, we indicated that we were starting at a lower point generally across the board than we were last year. And we explained some of that in the context of
005some of the changes in how the assessment um was normed and and other factors. And I'll remind you of that in just a bit. As we look at math specifically related to goal two and the GPMS, our starting point is consistently higher. However, we have some middle school data in the appendex that shows a different story. So, holistically, this is mixed, but specifically for the the goal in the GPM, uh we do see us coming in this school year at a higher level than last year. The other three pieces on this slide are really the same story and this is the work that we continue to do day in and day out in the district and that's working to aggressively and quickly improve the quality of instruction in our classrooms. That's obviously providing direct support
006to teachers. We're very grateful that you approved all of the extra support requests at the last meeting. Those will start rolling into classrooms this month. uh so people will feel that additional support in the classroom uh and really working more with our campus leaders as well and that's really a huge focus of what the superintendent and I are doing in particular and what many of our team is doing is with principles and APS who in turn are responsible for really doing that with their teachers in in the campus. Um, so again, not a lot of difference here in overall perspective, uh, because it really matches whether we're talking about math or literacy or science or social studies for that matter. Here, just like last time, we're starting to include this. Again, uh, some of the
007columns to the far right, particularly improvement and declining a number of campuses will start to mean more to us as we move throughout the school year. But right now, this is a comparison to last year's results. So, we're looking at where we came in at the beginning of the year this year. how we compare to last year and you see in that third column the all student delta uh all of these are are more positive so to the starting point higher piece this is where it's showing up specifically related uh to these GPMs whether we're looking at kinder first or second grade the other thing I'll call out and we'll see this in the data just remember at kindergarten our GPM here is not actually from the MAP assessment it's from the Texas kindergarten entry
008assessment which is a specific Texas created uh assessment that districts across the state use for kindergarten readiness purposes. And then our statuses, we have some green again, just like last time. Uh we're seeing areas where we are showing progress and are actually on or above where we need to be uh for the end of year target. The exception here is in those kindergarten um areas. We certainly have more growth that we have to gain over the course of the year to get that on track. And we'll talk about that a bit more. But before we do this, we actually want to go back to preK uh to really set up the continuum of this progress and and see where we are at the prek standpoint. Uh here we're looking at all areas that we assess
009in pre-k. So that's rapid letter naming and vocabulary. Those are literacy measures. You can see those actually are starting at a better place than they were last year. Um but math tonight's focus is actually that negative seven where we're coming in lower at the prek space. Other reminder here is these are not the same children. This is this year's preK class compared to last year's preK class. So it's it's not um a cohort comparison. It is a grade level comparison. So here's what it looks like as we break down the math results in preK. Again, starting the year at 58% for uh all students and then we show special education students and emergent bilingual students. This is one of the rare points uh in our data right now where emergent bilingual students are at or
010above where the whole district is. We're consistently seeing a lag in that data. That's a big focus for us and improvement. Uh but this is one of the bright spots where our emergent bilingual students at prek are meeting that overall standard. You see special education though is 20 points below and that's a continued focus for us as we move through the audit recommendations as well as working to improve instructional quality uh in those classrooms. There are there um are no campuses yet at the overall target for this year, but you see the distribution. Uh again, we're calling out our uh ACE and superintendent constraint schools, PA and Garza here on the correct side of this towards the left. Sigin uh more to the right. Uh and again, this is beginning of year data, so we
011got to see that consistently move as we shared last time. Now going to GPM 2.1 to kindergarten. Just going to walk through the grades and progression here. Uh we are again coming in higher than we did last year. So we're at 40% right now. That compares to being in the teens at the the start of last school year. You see that we are lower than where we ended last school year and certainly lower than our target. And that's why this shows us off track because that's a comparison to where we need to be at the end of the year, not how we compare uh to last year. So we've got some gap to close here for sure to reach that 84 uh target for the end of the year. Campus distributions are here. Again, what's
012super stark and telling and again this is the reason why they are a schools and that they are a superintendent constraint schools because it's really an indicator of where students are coming in to start the year. You see all three of those schools at the the far right here, the lowest levels of achievement uh in in the whole district. And then as we move to MAP, I'm going to get caught in the tongue twister now. So we're first and second grade. Just a quick reminder to what we shared last time. Uh because this impacts math as well. It impacts the entire assessment suite, not just literacy. Uh but the organization NWA did go through that norming change to really reflect where the country is so that we're getting an accurate representation of where students actually
013are in their learning journey and therefore how we compare to other students across the country. So those norms did shift to the left. The superintendent um shared last time that that's really a reflection of how the whole country is is unfortunately at a worse place academically. We see that here. We see that in the national assessment as well. Uh and so that's now reflected in these norms. So first grade a pretty stable line chart here. Overall last year we were flat from beginning to end of year. We actually didn't see growth over time. We're starting at a higher place. So higher than our target for the end of the year. Again we got to maintain that. That's our challenge is to stay at or above that 38. and we do have campuses that are above
014and well above that at this point. Uh so that's positive indicator in this grade level for where we can go for the rest of the school year. I would call out here as you look at the table at the top uh our work certainly continues to be supporting our students who need it the most and that's those in special education and our emergent bilingual students because there are significant gaps here between them and the overall student population. And then second grade, uh we did have a little growth here throughout last year. We're coming in quite a bit stronger uh at the start. Again, you see most of the campuses here are at or above this year's target. So again, challenge here is is maintenance of that that strength and holding it and improving it uh
015across the board as we move towards the rest of the school year and really taking advantage of students coming in at this level uh so that we can through the HQIM through the coaching that we are providing through direct explicit instruction of how to do math at the first and second and etc uh grade levels that we are improving our students knowledge skills and and abilities in these spaces. And the other thing we wanted to share as as we think about the extra support that's coming into our campuses is a bit of what's been happening with the current support that's been provided thus far this school year. So as a reminder, Great Minds is the company that um actually produced Eureka like they are the publishers of Eureka. Now they are working with us to
016support uh the blue bonnet version of that which we are implementing this year. Carnegie as well in our middle and high school spaces, sixth grade up to to algebra 2. These numbers are going to balloon quite a bit with the extra support that's coming in. But you can see already thus far in the school year, you know, you you've had 180 plus classroom visits by great minds throughout our elementary schools, working with teachers, providing observation and feedback, engaging with campus leaders, supporting in PLC's, which again is the time and space where teachers are planning uh for what's coming up. And in the secondary space, it was 70 plus visits. That's fewer schools. That's part of why the number is lower because it's just a different population. But there's a lot being poured into our our
017classrooms, our teachers, and our leaders to help see improvement in these areas. And that's what's going to continue to expand as we have even more presence from these partners in our buildings on a regular basis providing that coaching, support, and training. And so that leaves us with what we're doing again in response to this very similar to to where we were uh in the literacy space. Uh we talked to you last time about these instructional planning calendars and what they were and how that's really us providing teachers uh even more scaffolds and supports on the front end so they know exactly what parts of the lesson to focus on, how they should be delivering that instruction, which strategies they should be using. that exists in all of our core content areas. So that's literacy, math,
018science, and social studies. Uh and so that's a big focus of of what we're going to continue to provide to our educators throughout the school year. The other thing I would say as we think about the expanded support with our partners, we are intentionally making sure that they are aware of these IPCs and what we're focused on and again anchoring in our lesson structure so that when a partner coach is on a campus that they're reinforcing the same things that we're discussing and reinforcing when we're working directly with them. So we have more synergy uh in both our language and our focus. The spot checks are actually underway. Uh we might all be dragging a little bit because we've been spending a lot of time walking buildings over the last week, but we have finished
019spot check cycle one. So quick reminder, this is where every school gets a visit five times a year. We go to six classrooms during that cycle. So over the course of the school year, every campus would have roughly 30 classrooms visited. Obviously, small schools mean we may go to the same classroom again. bigger schools, that's generally going to be 30 different classrooms. So, we've done the full cycle one. We're going to be talking with our principles about that more tomorrow. Uh, and today started cycle two. Those first two cycles intentionally were a bit backtoback to give more uh data and and awareness for us and the campuses on where they are, but these will continue throughout the spring. and they're really to helping they're helping to elevate the trends that we're seeing in instruction and
020in leadership uh across the district so that we can really laser focus our support uh and accountability to where people need to be to show rapid improvement really between now and Thanksgiving break and certainly now and winter break. uh because when we do spot check cycle three in January, we've got to see market improvement across the board, especially with all of the supports that are coming in uh to our classrooms and to our campuses. And so the the last three we talked uh again about last time. So we are providing more coaching, more training, more observation and feedback to teachers. We are this month getting more clear with our teachers and our leaders on how to understand day-to-day lesson by lesson whether students are mastering that content. So it's not just waiting for the three
021or four-week unit assessment. I know today whether they got what I needed them to to learn and therefore make that adjustment certainly by tomorrow. And as we've said, we're continuing to monitor our unit assessment data. We'll actually be sharing an update on that data with you uh in a December update so you get a sense of throughout the fall semester. Here's where we were with those local unit assessments and most of those are moving in the right direction, but we'll share that d that data with you uh in a few weeks. Again, just to mention so you know it's there and the public knows it's there. We do have middle school slides in the appendix if people want to see where sixth, seventh, eighth grade are uh on the map data. That's not officially part
022of our presentation, but we promise to continue to be transparent uh with this and so we're going to continue to include it. And so with that, happy to take questions. Mr. President, >> members of the board, do we have any questions for Dr. Little? >> Yes, Mr. Chel. >> Uh Dr. Little on page I think it's 19 regarding the map scores. I know this is for the state, but what about for the region? >> What slide number did you say? >> Yes, the one that's being presented. >> Okay. So this reflects the entire country. So this is roughly 20 million student data points that go into this norming process because when we get our results and like when you get it as a family and you see okay my child's at the 52nd percentile that's
023actually a comparison to where your student is for all other students in that grade level in the nation. So these norms are a national norm just a Texas specific norm. But we don't have a regional just for like South Texas. >> We don't get um we don't get access, no district does, but we also don't get access to uh like peer districts or regional districts. There are sometimes we like pick up the phone and call people and say, "How are you doing?" But there's no place we can go see that publicly. >> And not all districts in our region are actually >> doing it. That's right. >> All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Great question. Any other questions for Dr. Dr. Little, I have a question. And so, um, can you remind me again
024when Great Minds and we started partnering with them. How long ago was that? >> Uh, last school year when we implemented new high quality instructional materials in math last school year, we started working with them and with Carnegie and we're continuing to do that work together this year. >> Okay. And I got one more question. Are we focusing K through five? Is that what our focus is here? This goal is specifically third grade and under. Okay. We are focusing in the work preK12 and our partners are really focused kinder through what ends up being roughly 11th grade in math. >> Okay. Thank you. M you have a question. Go ahead. >> U Mr. Dr. Lto, you were mentioning that so we've had the HQIM for two years already and that your the first and second
025grade beginning of your data is coming in high. Are you potentially attributing that to their exposure to the HKIM in the the year before? >> I want to tell you absolutely yes. I don't think we know that definitively. And part of what we got to continue to see is students maintaining and growing on that level of performance as teachers are continuing to get settled in the new the new curriculum. Part of why this very first slide, excuse the scrolling, is similar to literacy. Even though it is year two, we are still seeing teachers struggle with actually doing the direct teach on the skill. So, I'm not going to pretend that it's all because we changed curriculum last year. I certainly think that's a contributing factor, but what teachers are doing with it every day still
026matters the most and we've got work to do there. >> Thank you, >> Miss Ho. >> Dr. a little. I know previously you mentioned that on certain campuses principles are allowing teachers to come in after hours or during the weekend. How many teachers have actually um participated in that? I don't have the like quantitative number for you as we are talking with principles. I'm thinking through these conversations. Nearly every school has had either after school or Saturday planning sessions in multiple content. So it's not just math, but they'll have their literacy team say staying on a Wednesday, math team staying on um a Thursday. We have pushed for that much more aggressively in the middle school space again because last year our data showed that our middle schools needed a ton of attention and support.
027But that's one of the things as you think back to the tiering of campuses like we've got cortile one to cortile 4 uh our executive directors of school leadership have been following up with cortile 3 and cortile 4 schools to make sure that they are doing it like at a minimum they're required to do it every six weeks uh for teachers. >> Okay. So are we identifying teachers that perhaps um are we encouraging them to participate in extra coaching? >> We are encouraging. we are requiring it and there is accountability conversations with principles. If there are consistent trends that we're seeing where instruction is just not improving in the classroom and a teacher is not taking advantage of those opportunities that changes the dialogue with that teacher. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Sorenson. >> Thank
028you. Um and so just piggybacking on an example of that is so I will actually want to congratulate a school that um we we visited a campus and I'll name it. We visited Clinton Elementary and um the visit um didn't demonstrate um implementation of the instructional framework, the lesson structure or high quality instructional materials in the way that we had expected. And so we had a very direct conversation with the principal um gave feedback and that feedback comes with support, right? It's never just like do this, do this, do this. It's here are the things that we need you to do. Here are the trends and patterns that we saw across the campus. Here are some next steps. What help do you need from us? How do we support? And so I'll I'll point out
029that M that's Mrs. Adair's campus. She's the executive director of school leadership for that particular campus as well as members of Brenda Garcia's team from math. Um actually spent quite a bit of time um a couple of days after school with principal with teachers per grade level really digging into what quality planning looks like in order to impact quality instruction because you can be a great planner but if it doesn't show up in instructional delivery, right? So, um, but that is a campus that actually on my spot checks, um, it's in my rounds. I was very excited to see, and so I want to give them a shout out, um, that there was significant improvement in just two weeks. >> That's great. >> And so, when we hear the feedback, take the feedback, and do
030something about it from a leadership perspective, that's why again, strategic priority number one is excellence and leadership. Because when that principal makes a decision, they are going to support their teachers with professional learning, require that they come support them with our wraparound services, but have an expectation that what we're asking teachers to do is actually good for kids. And so it's not it's not an option. We see the growth. And so I was, you know, I have two people here that are on my walkthrough team, um, Miss Garcia and Miss Ortiz. And we saw significant progress in instructional delivery in just two weeks with that level of intervention um, and that level of support. And so when our leaders make a decision to lead with conviction um, and couple that with our support, we see
031an impact. And so congratulations Clinton leadership and Clinton teachers um for taking all of the feedback and actually owning the feedback and really seeking to get better at their practice together as a campus. It was very obvious to us when we walked through um that there had been work done in just two weeks time. >> Thank you Dr. Sorenson. appreciate the fact that we there's the reinforcement attached to the constructive, you know, conversations you're having with those individuals. Dr. Little, so when we make those classroom visits, are we I mean, obviously this data is in front of you. So, do we focus more on those that are having the the struggles or are they evenly visited or are we spending more time on those campuses if we're seeing some declines? >> Yeah, that is a
032multi-layered sort of process. So, as we're doing these campus visits, that's then directing like the the planning that I do with the executive directors of school leadership to say, okay, we've got to increase frequency and presence at these campuses. We might can pull back a little. And when I say pull back a little, that's like from going, you know, once a week to once every other week. It's not like we're not there at all. And so, that's an iterative process based on the data. More importantly than that is what happens within the campus. So, as principles are getting this feedback from us and as they're doing their own classroom observations, that's creating a tiered list for them to say, "Okay, these five teachers really need significant attention and support." They work with their EDF school
033leadership to sort of plan that structure and flow to say, "Here's how many times we're going to plan with the teacher, observe the teacher, provide feedback, and go through that uh overall support cycle." So, it happens at the campus and leader level, and it happens at the classroom level. And to add to that, if you'll permit me, board president, I also really want to acknowledge that the um executive directors of school leadership then work hand in hand, side by side with the executive directors of instruction because sitting on to my left are um a lot of the executive directors of instruction who have coordinators who have support teams that then provide that direct support to the campus to work with teachers in in their PLC's. or in classrooms um and or actually writing a lot
034of the IPCs. And so, you know, while the executive director of school leadership kind of directs the leader and gives feedback to the leader, um the executive directors of instruction as well as their teams then provide that direct campus support, especially in spaces and places where there's more support needed. >> Yeah. And that really is prek to 12. So, our early learning team is out there grinding it out in prek classrooms. To your point, like that's tiered. We know these teachers across the district need more support to us. So, we have a heavier presence there. It also connects back to our partners though. That's part of the feedback loop we have with them so that they know where to spend more of their time and energy where it's needed most. But that truly is the
035whole gamut of the district. >> Good. This is good discussion. So, [clears throat] I'm I'm just going to I've never been to one of these visits with a classroom. So, at a very high level, Dr. Little, um explain to me, is there a warning? Is there are they informed that you're going to be visiting the class the day before, a week before, is there a schedule? And then following your visit, let's say it's a 40 minute visit or 30-minute visit, is that when you're you and your team go in there and discuss, you know, some things that you, you know, you witnessed or explain to me real quick at a high level. >> Yes. So, spot checks, for example, those are the most official formalized process that we have in place. That's what we're doing
036right now. Um, they know the window of time we will be there. So, it's a three-day window. They don't know exactly what day and they don't know what time slot. That's by design because we want to get a real authentic gauge of what's happening uh in the campus. We uh have a process where we go through six classrooms. So, we're spending 10 to 15 minutes in every classroom. That observation team is debriefing after each one to align on here's how we're rating what we saw in that lesson. At the end of those six classrooms, we align on what themes and trends we saw at the campus. And then we sit down with the principal andor the AP. Sometimes the whole team is in there, sometimes it's just campus leader and share here are the trends
037we saw across these six classrooms. Here's what's working really well. Here's the areas of focus that you've got to work on urgently. And to the superintendent's other point, like how do you need help in in really making progress in these areas? And so they get a summary of that as well. Uh and that sort of closes out that sp cycle of spot checks. more informally with the work that our partners do. They always know when they're showing up. They're scheduling those dates and times in in classrooms. And so, uh, teachers in many ways look forward to the folks coming in because they're ready and eager to receive that support. So, we have a range based on the purpose of what it is. >> Great. >> I have a question. Dr. >> Go ahead, Dr. >>
038So, you mentioned spot checks. They last about 10 to 15 minutes. Then [clears throat] you talk to the principles. Is there a time frame, a specific time when the principles report that to the specific teachers that you saw? And then do the teachers have a way to communicate um if you guys mention something that they did at another point when you guys weren't there or anything like uh feedback more than anything back and forth. >> Yeah. So I want to start with the last point first because this always comes up with teachers. I did this just before you walked in the room or I did it just after you left. Okay, here's what we saw in the time we were in the classroom and like that's what we're providing fe feedback and coaching support around.
039Uh, and the way that we've structured our instructional expectations in our lesson structure is it should still be clear what's happening in the classroom even in the moments we're not there because we can get a sense of what just happened before. like you can't really fake that and where you're going the moment we leave because we can see directionally what that instruction looks like. Um they don't love that answer but that is the answer and that is also how it works formally with test observations like the Texas evaluation system uh as well. Now to the first part of your question uh we are not sharing teacher level data through the spot checks. So, we're looking again at trends across the campus and we're talking through that uh with the principal. So, it's not like the
040teacher is going to get their specific score sheet after the spot check. That's not the purpose. It's overall campus growth and improvement. When a principal or AP or partner goes into that classroom, they get that very specific feedback because that's more coaching and and growth. Um, and certainly on the evaluation side, they get that feedback as well. What we're asking principles to do when we give them this overall feedback in our debrief is to make sure that is shared with the campus because again six classrooms may not sound like a lot but it gives you a really good sense of where the whole campus is. Uh because we're seeing multiple grade levels, we're seeing multiple content areas. Like it is a good true spot check. That's why we call it that actually uh of where
041things are. And so the principal needs to turn that around to their instructional leadership team and to their teachers. And that guides to the soup's example with at Clinton. Here's what we're working on in the next week because these are not here's what we're going to do over the next six weeks to get better. No, here's what we're going to do starting tomorrow and over the next week where we got to see progress and where I have to focus my energy as the campus leader in which classrooms I am following up with. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Mr. Josh. >> Dr. a little um when we're doing our spot checks, are we focusing on tier one time or or are we also scheduling during tier 2? >> It can be both. We've actually seen some
042great things happening in tier 2 time. I saw an example today that I was like that is exactly what we want to see happening uh which we normally aren't to be honest with you. Tier 2 has been pretty weak uh thus far this school year. So, we are going into whatever the student is experiencing during that time. And again, our lesson structure still works in those spaces. So we can know if the teacher is doing the small group work in the way that he or she needs to or not. >> And board member Oro, I would say that for each of the tier 2 times, whether that is in elementary um or middle school, we also have protocols in place. So what does it look like when you're in a math classroom and you're using
043Zern and you're and you have a small group on Zern? you have a small group doing you know small group with the teacher and then you have some kids just catching up right on their on their work from the day and so there are protocols that we have shared with principles and with teachers as to what the expectation of what that room should look like what should be happening in that room how long students should be doing each particular component um so that they're getting what they need in that tier 2 time and again I'll add I I saw one yesterday um that we were like yes this is exactly what we need to see in an elementary school in terms of a math classroom doing tier 2 time. >> Great. >> Any other questions?
044I do appreciate the fact that you are having those conversations with the leadership of the campuses and I'm just going to ask this would be the last question. When when you when you have feedback from the instructors, the teachers who said, "Hey, I did that before." Have there ever been moments when you have received some responses back saying, "Well, I didn't think of that." Or, "Man, I learned something from today's visit." you know, >> yeah, I think we're trying to stay in close dialogue with our teachers and our leaders all the time. And this the spot checks specifically aren't a dialogue directly with the teacher that is with the principal and that's that's the purpose and design of that. Uh but that gives a space really within a campus. Again, today we were at a
045visit and like you got an example right down the hall that you can take your other teachers to to go observe and learn. So trying to create those learning spaces within the building on where there are good practices to see and so that builds more of the learning community at the teacher level even within that building at the same time we're also saying hey we were yesterday at this other campus and they did this thing really great like you as principles need to talk about how that's happening and what we can do to help you bring that into your space as well. [laughter] >> Thank you Dr. Swornson. Um and I I would add is that and I always have an and and it is causing some discomfort. >> Yeah. >> And we want to
046acknowledge that because there has not been this level of focus on instruction and instructional improvement and support. I I always talk about the balance between support and accountability. support and accountability and like what is the right pressure point. And so um we have to make sure that student learning comes first and that means that we have to support our adults to get there and we also have to expect our adults to get there. And so it is a constant kind of temperature taking of like how much pressure versus how much support and sometimes it es and flows and it sometimes varies per campus per leader. Um because we know that our students are only in first grade one time >> and so we've got to make sure that they come out of first grade knowing
047all that they need to know coming out of first grade. And so um I'm as the superintendent I am always pressure testing um where we are in terms of culture, right? Because we know that culture eats strategy for breakfast. And so you've got to have that right balance and we've also got to be really clear that instructional improvement needs to happen for kids. And so there is a level of discomfort that some members of our our teaching, you know, path are are are struggling with. And then to your point, board president, there are also teachers across the district who are and I I have, you know, three examples um one from Pñena, one from Menola, one from SCS um who all made incredible growth um in visits that I made to their campus and were
048doing great jobs. And so I have a tendency to just write them an email and thank them. And so um those little nuggets of encouragement actually help. We call them our our gems, right? Today this was your gem. Um and they want the feedback. There is a huge percentage of our teachers that legitimately want the feedback, want to get better, want to do what's asked of them, want to grow, and want to make sure that they're pouring everything in to their children. Um, and there's discomfort. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Well said. Any other questions for Dr. Little? >> No. >> All right, seeing that we have none. Thank you, Dr. Little. Again, very informative like always. >> Thank you. Next agenda item is agenda item 5.2, [clears throat] Lonear Governance Time Use Tracker Report
049by Joseph Angela. Joseph, >> thank you, Mr. Board President, members of the board, Dr. Sorenson. I'm happy to bring you our Lonear Governance use tracker report um for our October 22nd meeting. Of course, um this stems from our work with Lonear Governance where we work um in a continuous improvement model together with the board u focused unapologetically on one objective and that is improving student outcomes. Um so for our October 22nd meeting um we had a highly efficient meeting coming in under two hours in total length. Um and if you follow on the the blue column um that is our student outcome minutes where we reported 47 student outcome minutes and of course those came from um our goal progress measure pres presentation um that Dr. Little facilitated. And then in the green column, excuse
050[clears throat] me, in the green column you could see that we we tally 45 minutes toward adult behavior um minutes and that came from this report. Um Dr. Beretta had a report, excuse me, uh le led you all in a board constraint um evaluation um and we had Chief Pearson's presentation around the transportation audit. So that's where those minutes come from. So for a of the 115 minutes um 80% were spent on both either student outcomes or adult behaviors and 40.87% 87% of the minutes towards student outcomes minutes. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions. >> Members of the board, do you have any questions for Joseph? >> None. I I want to say, so Joseph, prior to you getting to our LSG time use tracker, the actual chart, I always appreciate the
051fact that you you give us a page, a cover page that reminds us of what the role is of not only the board, but what why we're here. So, I appreciate and today you you put it on page 31. So, I appreciate that you you give us that part to the to the chart. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. >> I really do. >> Any members of the board have any questions for Joseph? >> Thank you, Joseph. Appreciate it. Next item on the agenda, ladies and gentlemen, is uh 5.3 La Hoya ISD school board operating procedures presented by Dr. Danna Veretta. Miss Bar, welcome to La Hoya. >> Good evening, board. Dr. Sorenson, President Alvarez. [clears throat] This evening, I want to share with the community that um we are bringing the official board operating procedures
052that we've worked on for a number of months to you for approval so that they can become the way we operate. Um we we developed these procedures so that we had a framework to improve student outcomes which is what we want to do and why we're here through a collaborative work between the board and the superintendent. That's part of the framework from LSG as well working together. So these procedures, they actually codify the work that you're doing, the roles and responsibilities of the board members, of the board officers, of the superintendent to make sure that we have a strong foundation for a collaborative relationship focused on improving student outcomes. So the process that we use is if you'll recall we had a board workshop on August the 2nd on a Saturday and we talked about
053different components. We looked at a number of different um components from a number of different districts across the state to see what are the different areas and components they had in their uh procedures. We made sure that we were going to include the lonear governance components, the framework and all the important parts because we know that that grounds us. That is that is how we um organize ourselves as a board and as our work moving forward. We got feedback from you guys on that day and beyond as we had different iterations um of the actual board operating procedures. We would share drafts with the board. We would get feedback and we would make changes. Um we asked the board, "What are other areas? Did we are we missing something? Is there something that you wanted
054to be reflected that is not reflected?" So, we took all of that feedback into consideration and came up with a document um that we're presenting tonight for approval. Um we had a meeting with the board officers to finalize the actual document to say, is this really, is this everything? Does this look good? This is what we were talking about. Um, then again, we sent that once they said yes, we sent it out yet again to make sure that we had feedback and we're asking for your approval this evening for our board operating procedures. And once that is done and we have it in its final format, professionally done, then we will post it to uh to the website so anybody can look and see how we govern ourselves. Um and this will move forward and
055live on once each of you are replaced with elected board members. The expectation from the agency is that these procedures continue and continue to be the framework that the board and the superintendent will use to work collaboratively to improve student outcomes for the district. Um we organized these this uh board operating procedures in four different sections. foundational beliefs, systems of governance and accountability, engagement, advocacy and unity. And the appendix, the longest one, the one that has the most content in it is the systems of governance and accountability. This is how you all decided that you wanted to govern yourselves. All the things like what do we do when we have a complaint? How do we handle grievances? What do we do when we're going onto a campus? all of these things because there's different interpretations
056of it and if if people would um I'm sure people are going to look at it and say this is quite different than the previous board operated and that's by design. So we want to make sure we are being governed by the Lonear governance framework and how effective boards operate. Um, we want you to know that this document is iterative, meaning we can add to it, we can change it, but we wanted to have a base document that is going to guide how we work together. Um, throughout this document, we reference board policy. So, wherever we could, we would reference where this is coming from, right? So, we looked at our local policy and added that there. and anything additionally that was not in policy. We want to make sure that the changes that we
057that we um that we make in the future that they must clarify the roles and responsibilities of the board members, the officers and the superintendent. We our goal is to continue to provide clarity uh and distinction among the roles in between the roles. We will review the document yearly to put it up for discussion for any possible changes and we will generally review this or our plans are to review this every year at our summer workshop. see is there anything else that that we have questions on and throughout the year I'll be making notes on anything that I hear you talk about that you want to add so that when we get to that date I can already have those uh suggestions right for you guys to discuss. Um then we will approve and implement
058the document once all the changes have been approved by by you guys informally and you officially approve it. um at a board meeting. >> Any questions? Anybody? >> Members of the board, do you have any questions for Dr. Ba? >> No, but I I do want to make a comment. Um Dr. Bara, thank you so much for working alongside with us. I think there was a lot of uh times when we leaned on you to help us research, right? Like what are best practices for board policies and how can we be doing things better and what >> um is going to allow us to kind of continue doing the work and allowing Dr. Shorenson to kind of do all the good work. Um, so thank you for being a good partner and a good support
059system. I know, um, you know, we we're talking about support systems here and I've seen how valuable us being able to lean on you has been. Um, so I I I just appreciate all the time. >> You're quite welcome. I I I'm all in in terms of um creating a system of effective governance with the board and the superintendent. Um, and I'm I'm very pleased with the progress that you have made up to this point and look forward to continued progress in the years to come. >> Any other members have? Dr. Morgan, I have a question. >> I think I remember it. Um, it had to do with the changes, revisions you said typically once a year. Uh, but changes can still be made throughout the year, right? At any time. >> Sure. >> It
060just would require a full uh board approval. >> Right. Right. >> Good question. So, I >> if it's something minor, we'll we'll hold off. Uh we'll make a note of it and hold off. But if it's something that's real important that we really it's going to impact the work that you guys do that next week or month, then then we can bring it um to to the board for approval. >> Thank you. Yeah, certainly this training has been very helpful not only uh to um to for the purposes of serving on this board, but I've actually taken it into uh the private sector where I serve on other capacities. So, I really appreciate everything I've learned and what the role of a board member is. So, thank you for that, Diana, and and for the
061remainder of what our roles are. Members of the board, do you have any other questions? >> All right, Dr. I appreciate it. Dr. Brilliant. Have a safe trip back when you head back. All right. Um before I uh get to our next agenda item, which will be six, um let the record and the minutes be show that we do have uh everyone here and that Miss Oo, board member Cho is here at her time was at 6:11. So, thank you for that. Um next agenda item, as I mentioned earlier, is our consent agenda item. Do I have a motion? I move to approve their 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
062agenda, ladies and gentlemen, is our agenda item number seven. We'll be in close session. The close session will be held for the purposes authorized by the state open meetings act Texas government code section 551.001 551.071 551.072 551.07 074 551.076 551.129 and 551.0821 concerning any and all purposes permitted by the act including but not limited to the sections and purposes listed below. It is now 6:49 p.m. We will be going into close session. Now back from close session and it is 8:24 p.m. Next item on the agenda is the calendar. November 2025 is anti- vaping awareness month, Native American Heritage Month, and Diabetes Awareness Month. November 8, 2025 is STEM steam day. November 11th, 2025 Veterans Day. November 11th through the 15th of 2025, school psychology week. November 19th through 2025. November 19th, 2025 regular board
063meeting is our next one scheduled. Um before we adjourn, do I have any comments? >> No. >> From the board or anything from you, Marcen? Um I just again want to publicly thank everyone for yesterday's event. Um first starting with you board and none of what we did yesterday and really you know dedicating the field over at La Hoya High School um to Coach Rod and all of the upgrades that the field's going to get and the Lady Coyotes um would not be possible without this board saying yes. So, first of all, thank you um for not only saying yes, but being really supportive about the vision for um our facilities upgrades and also honoring um a coach that deserves so much and uh left a lasting legacy on our district. So, um and then
064of course I want to thank the team and Chief Pearson, thank you so much. It was such a wonderful event. Um the family I know was just touched and moved and thank you for doing everything possible to make it great. Um and I also did publicly thank Miss Cresbow um for of course helping us to fund it and so thank you so much. Um it was incredible but none of it happens of course without a team and so Blanca of course thank you to the comm's team. Um you guys also are just always there to make every event special and so thank you so much. Thank you to the athletics department um and the operations department. Um everyone just made it a really special day for our district, for our community, but most of all
065for Coach Rod's family um and the entire athletics community. So I really just again wanted to thank everyone for making it special, making it special for our girls who are looking forward to a great season ahead. >> Yeah, I'm looking forward to to uh going to the first game. So, um, anyone else have any comments before we adjourn? Uh, just to make it clear, did we have anything Dr. Little that required Dr. Sorenson? Required board action. Okay, great. Um, I do have something that I need to read before we do adjourn. And this is coming from TEA and it was addressed to Dr. Sorenson and myself. The purpose of this letter is to notify you that on October 8, 2025, the Texas Education Agency, TEA, conducted a quarterly review of all the conservators and management
066teams appointed to oversee district operations throughout the state. On October 29, 2025, I reviewed and approved the AY's final recommendation. This review was conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Texas Education Code U.003B. In addition to the review of conservators management teams, TA conducted a review of all TA monitors and board of manager replacements or placements. At this time, it is my decision to continue the appointment of the conservator and the board of managers for the La Hoya Independent School District. Any questions that you have should be addressed to Garrett Black in the division of governance interventions at Garrett Black uh at garrett.blacka.t texas.gov. And this is coming from Steve Lechel who represents TA. So I was asked to read it. Any questions or any other further remarks before we adjourn? Okay. Seeing that
067we have none, do I have a motion to adjourn? >> I move to adjourn this meeting at 8:28 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 journ