LJISD - Board Meeting - 09.24.25

001All right. Good evening everyone. It is 5:34 p.m. Uh, let's go ahead and call this meeting to order. >> Next item on the agenda is I'm going to ask to call roll from my right if you could state if you're here please. Jessica present. >> Alisa Pña present. >> Rosal Vernandez present. >> Sento Gomez Jr. present. >> Great. Uh we do have five board members so we do have quorum. Uh for the record, Dr. Carlos Marggo is not here and our vice president, Anita Chavez, is not present as well, but we do have quorum. Next item on the agenda, if you're able to do so, is a pledge of allegiance. I ask that you please stand and face the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

002stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. You may be seated. >> Ladies and gentlemen, the next agenda item is public comments. each speaker. Again, be reminded that you do have three minutes to speak. We ask that you clearly state your name. Uh at the end of three minutes, um our secretary, Miss Pñena, will inform you that your time is up. Miss PA, do we have anyone who has signed up and uh just for the record, the time for this portion of the public comment is 5:35 p.m. We are now in open session. Do we have anybody who has signed up? >> We do not have anybody signed up for uh public comments tonight. >> Okay. If I'm not mistaken, we also have someone who's going to be

003doing a presentation at this time, Miss Crystal. >> Good evening. Good evening, President Alvarez, board, Dr. Sorenson. So, I am going to introduce you today to the 2526 tax rate proposal. This is a presentation required by law to approve the tax rate that we budgeted for last June. So this is highlights on our definition so we know uh where we are. Last year's total tax rate is the to actual tax rate used last year that was 1.0533 for $100 valuation. The non new revenue tax rate is the tax rate needed to receive the same tax revenue last year. So that means how much we will have to do on taxes to receive the same amount of dollars that we receive and that's 0.9035. And this year's voter approval tax rate that's the highest tax rate

004that we are allowed to charge and this is what that's was the vote the voters approved last time and is 1.0025 per 100. That is also the district tax rate proposed tax rate for 2526 school year. Before we go on the actual data um I want to emphasize that we are going to go in elections in November for two legislative decisions. one SB4 that they increase the statemandated homeay exemption from $100,000 per h per house to $140,000. And SB23 raises the homeay exemption for the elderly or disabled from $10,000 to $60,000 for their residents. So if both increases pass in November, it means that we will receive taxes only for houses above the $200,000 threshold. if that person is also disabled because those two exemptions go in addition to each other. I want also to

005um emphasize that we are on track for the 2526 tax rate adoption. We have by law specific dates that we had to accomplish things. So on July 25th we received a certified property value role from Idalgo County with don't decide those come from the county appraisal district. we have to uh wait until Texas Education Agency determines what is our compressed tax rate. That's the maximum we can receive funding from and then on September 13 we publish it on the newspaper our tax rate to give opportunity of our taxpayers to have comments for today and today we are on date um presenting this for adopting the tax rate which is due before October 1st. What is our history of ma of uh tax rates on the Hoya? I wanted you to see this before we go

006on the details for this year. And as you see, we have been reducing the tax rate. The only year that we went higher was last year because we had the disaster pennies that we were allowed to use and this year is going to be even lower than 24 tax rate. So here is a comparison from 23 24 25 and 2526 that is our proposed tax rate and you see how the disaster pennies were in increase or tax rate on 2425 and you see the comparison between 23 24 1.0344 to now 1.025 025. In the next table, I'm going to show you how that impact our taxpayers and how that is important because at this point, if you see the uh current average market value of the housing in our area is $173,000. So with a

007homeay exemption that we are expected to pass in November as I say or 140,000 or taxable value is only 33,38 which means that the person that owns this house will only pay a tax levy 333. So, at the end of the day, um I know this is a lot of numbers, but really for a net taxable value house of $100,000, the owner will pay $50 less per in her in their tax bill for next year. >> Mer, I'm sorry to interrupt. So, I think we're having a little difficulty on this end because we do have speakers >> and I think we're having a little difficulty with the hearing. So, I'm not sure if it's the volume in the back or it might be uh >> Is that speaker? Is that speaker working? So, we can't

008hear out of that speaker right there. >> Did you hear that one? >> We're hearing. >> You want me to test it better? So, what we may ask you to do is maybe we'll turn up the volume in the back if that's uh if we can do that and then maybe just speak a little closer to the mic. Are you okay with that board member? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Because it's just a little bit. We can we've heard you. We've heard you. Just just >> Okay. >> We kind of lose you so far. >> I can do louder. >> Okay. Great. And apologize for the inconvenience, but thank you. Thank you for that. >> No problem. Um, so what I was explaining and I'm not going to go in detail on this slide again, but

009I want to emphasize the bottom line that is that any taxpayer that will see a reduction from last year to this year of approximately $50 in property taxes. So we are reducing the taxes for our taxpayers in our area. So, I'm sorry I jumped too fast and of course I can't find it. So, sorry I went too fast. So, by law we are required to um propose and do the motion in a specific vocabulary. So we have appro gave you a copy for that and we the last the conclusion of all this and the adoption that is what we want the taxpayers to concentrate on is that this year's tax rate is a decrease from the prior year adopted rate um by 50 cents. So that is where our bottom line is and is our

010the best option for the best thing that we can show to our taxpayers right now. So any questions on this? Any concerns? Let me know. >> Members of the board, do we have any questions? >> No. >> So just so that we're clear. Oh, I do hear myself laughing. Sorry. So just so that we're clear and the community understands, we are not increasing uh the tax rate. Um and it will be less than last year. Correct. >> Yes, ma'am. It actually will even lower than the year before. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any other questions? >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Next portion of our open meeting will be our regular meeting will be um to board to consider taking action to certify the district's compliance with the requirements of the

011Texas education code section 11.005 related to diversity um uh equity and quality and inclusion 22.0.0022 related to discussions controversial topics and 39.08 related to certifications of compliance with certain laws. The board will now hear public testimony on this item when the item is called. And again, we are still in open session. Do we have anybody who has signed up for this particular agenda item? Just so that you know the time is 5:44 p.m. If anyone has signed up, we ask that you again state your name and you do have three minutes to speak. >> We don't have anybody. >> Secretary Pena says that no one has signed up to speak. So we may proceed. Joseph 5.2. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Board President. Um members of the board, Dr. Sorenson. Um so for this

012public hearing um we will address the district compliance with Texas code section 39.008. Um and later on in this this evening's regular board agenda. Um you'll be asked to take consideration and actions on related items. So Senate Bill 12 Texas at Texas 89th regular legislature is a comprehensive parental rights bill that took effect on September 1st 2025. The bill added or amended multiple statutes in a way that requires or necessitates modifications to various board policies. The district subscribes to the te Texas Association of School Board Policy Service, which provides policy updates after the legislative sessions to reflect legislative changes. TASBY has not yet finalized the policy update that will include changes required by SB12. However, because the bill took effect on September 1, 2025, the district must implement SB12's changes immediately. The resolution recommended by

013the administration is intended to ensure that the requirements of SB12 are implemented pending the board's adoption of new and amended policies. >> Members of the board, do you have any questions for Joseph? >> All right. Thank you, Joseph. Seeing none, we may proceed. Again, we didn't have anyone who has signed up for either one of the items that we had listed, 5.1 and 5.2. I just wanted to make it clear, we don't have anyone. Okay, we may proceed. Uh this is to inform you that uh the open hearing has been closed. It is now um >> 5:46 p.m. and we may resume with our regular board meeting uh at 5:46 p.m. >> Okay, first item on the agenda will be um staff recognition. I'm going to ask uh Secretary Pena and Dr. Rosala Enandez if

014they could make their way in front of the DAS for those that are going to be recognized. I know Dr. Little will cover this, but let me share with you what this is. 7.1 is National Blue Ribbon School Recognition. Again, this particular agenda item will be covered by Dr. Little. Dr. Little, the platform is yours. >> Thank you so much. Um, board president, we are incredibly excited tonight to recognize what is an incredibly special honor. uh that one of our elementary schools has been awarded. Uh so this is recognition of national blue ribbon status for Diaz Val Elementary School. You see the principal and some of the the teachers and staff here with us this evening. A little bit of context on what this is and and why this is so exciting. Uh first to

015start with like how long it takes to to go through this process. Schools have to be deemed eligible to apply for national blue ribbon status. That started more than a year ago at this point. And then they have to decide if they're going to go through the gauntlet of the application because it is super intense and time inensive. uh requires uh principal and school leaders to really put together a compelling narrative of what they're doing at their campus. Why that matters for students, staff, and the community, and why they deserve to be recognized as one of the best schools, not just in the valley, not just in Texas, but in the entire country. This is a national recognition and award. And so, uh principal Hina Hosa said, "We're eligible and we're going to do this."

016and she spent um an incredible amount of time and energy really last spring putting this application together uh on behalf of the faculty and staff at the school. We were able to celebrate in a a really fun and rockous way with some dancing and and cheering uh the other day. the entire school community because it really rests on what students bring with them every day and to their like work that work ethic and commitment to learning, what faculty and staff bring into the building every day and their commitment and dedication to students and constantly improving in partnership with their community. Um, so it really was a whole school celebration. Um, and we are super excited uh to share with the board and the community tonight that DV is uh according to the state of Texas

017uh officially being recognized as a national blue ribbon school and this is the only school in La Hoya ISD uh last year to have earned this recognition. So really want to thank you for everything that you have done and continue to do for your students and just take a moment to give you that gratitude, but also to celebrate you for this incredible accomplishment. Congratulations [Applause] to all of you. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> You all deserve >> Congratulations to you all. >> Congratulations. [Applause] Y'all are going to have to snuggle up. two. >> Awesome. [Applause] No dancing. >> I know. I was just telling absolutely not. You got people like [Applause] >> So before I turn the mic over to Dr. Sorenson, uh Dr. Sorenson, would you like uh make a request? >> Absolutely. >> So,

018Principal Henosa, Principal Henosa, We would love for you to say a few words >> as the esteemed leader of this campus. [Applause] I just um I guess words cannot express how proud I feel of this uh recognition. And it this is not like my work. It's my staff that every single day they go to our campus and give it their all. Our students that work really, really hard and of course the community. So, I'm just beyond proud and blessed to be able to be part of this amazing family. Thank you, National. >> I think I misheard her. Did she say everybody was off tomorrow from here? Again, the speaker's not working. So, Uh, Dr. Sasonson, would you like to add to that? >> Absolutely. So, first and foremost, I'm not going to dance this time.

019I already danced at campus and I think somebody got it on video and I don't know whether that's going to go. >> I'm I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is. But every moment that we spent celebrating with all of you is just my greatest joy. I mean, that's the part of the job that you wake up every day and you go, can I have more of that? So, thank you so much for all that you do, all that you give. Because what the National Blue Ribbon Award is about is exactly what this district is grounded in, which is excellence, right? In order to be recognized at a national level in that way, it's about the national blue ribbon of excellence. And so I am so proud of you. I am so just honored to

020be leading a district with such amazing educators who just give and give and give and then it shows up in student outcomes because that's also what it's grounded in, student outcomes. So I'm so proud of you. I'm so grateful. Keep doing it, please. Um and we're just we're just full of gratitude. and BB, you just know that I just think that you are absolutely fantastic. Thank you for keeping it quiet for as long as you did. Um cuz we cuz we knew that we were applying for it and you know I brought her flowers at the campus when we knew and I was like just bring in your flowers because we couldn't really say why. But thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your dedication. Thank you for your belief in your children. Um

021and all the hard work that it takes to get here. Um it it doesn't get done alone. You've recognized your staff every step of the way. And you can do it again if you want. That'd be great. Um but again, you are seriously the pride of the valley. You are our jewel right now. So thank you so much. >> Well said, Dr. Sa. And does anyone else have anything to add? Dr. Little, closing remarks on that agenda item. >> Yeah, just echo all of that. Again, like really soak this in. It is something to be super proud of. You have that for the rest of your career and rest of your experience. And thanks for that investment that you continue to make in your students. >> Thank you, Dr. Little. Thank you very much. And

022thank you. Congratulations to all of you. >> Next agenda item is agenda item 8.1. Uh this is the superintendent's updates announcement. Again we are going to ask Margette uh chief of business finance and administrative services to make our way to the podium. Met podium is yours. >> Good evening again. So um we will revisit tonight a little bit of uh school finances and how we close the year for 2425. Just um a reminder on a little bit we as all school districts we have we are revenue dependent on three big things. A student ADA, the size of the local tax base and we just review that and the funding formula set by the state. Funding formulas are designed for equity but with minimal flexibility. That's what the law established. We have to provide certain requirements

023and certain services and the funding decisions are regulated with accountability and publicinity. That's why we are doing here and that's why our emphasis on transparency. How we finish the year on 2425. I'm going to revisit here with you last year budget adopted based on certain amendments that you approved and the actuals estimated because we are still going through the regular audit closing of the year. So we can revisit a little bit how the year went. So when 2425 was you remember we approved the budget with almost $10 million deficit. That was our estimation based on the investments we needed to do of the district and some is situations that we needed to address through different um areas and I'm going to go over those revenues right now. For example, taxes, interest, auctions of some items

024that we were able to sell. We were able to increase our estimated revenue on local sources by $1.9 million at the level of estate program that is the state aid the what we call settle up that I'm going to explain it later and the TRS on behalf that is the retirement um funding that we receive for our employees we got an increase of $9 million on revenue then on federal programs that is usually what we define as a food services is the in influx of funding that we get in order to support our students. We got um million.7 and I'm missing a one in there um on revenue. So that give us a difference of almost $22 million. However, we have some to address some of expenses that we have as you know like health

025insurance because we are self-insured. It's called uh the sport complex and the golf course. And the end of the year because all these difference thanks to different ways of improvement or processes that we did we are ending with a revenue um of $13 million $13.1 million. That is excellent news. This is going to give us resources to support our classroom to support our students to support our teachers to keep in concentrating on what is the core business of the district. Just for us to revisit this through the four years. Um this shows on 2122 we went on deficit the district have to tap on fund balance and exceeded what the revenue was 2223 you see it in there it was a difference actually we put funding in fund balance however remember that's the year we

026got funds so most districts in Texas were able to reduce some level of expenses because of that influx of resources 23 24 and 242 25 you see that our expenses started to go lower and our revenue increased to a point. So how I am explaining this increase and these are the four areas that we want I want you to be clear that that's what we are working on. We have improved our financial management. Remember why we are here and why we are doing what we are doing is to improve the capacity that the district have to be a good steward of the funds and representing the finances and with transparency and equity for all and that is what we have achieved on this year. we are doing better on encoding our students to be sure

027that our students are receiving not only because the funding but also ensuring that they are receiving the services they deserve on and I'm talking about bilingual education CTE um and other categories so we can provide those services due to the funding we also increase our staffing alignment you know what we had done the last two years to ensure that our staffing is correct and accurate for the needs of our schools And at the end we have been able to protect fund balance and actually increase it on the point that we are going to be able to start thinking. Thank you board for approving that minimum. We are starting thinking on how we can invest the excess to be sure that we are providing our community and our students what the needs are. How we get

028here just to review the revenue cycle. First we are going to talk about property taxes. Property taxes are calculated between January and through July and September as today we adopt the tax rate and then we receive those funds based on the tax collection and they are adjusting monthly as the taxes get paid. We have also received what we saw before in revenue the state aid that is legislation estimate legislative estimation of revenue that we should be receiving based on our numbers and this is paid monthly and reconciled against PI's data. pins data is what tells me what categories of students I have how many staff ratio we have and we submit that to the state at the end of the year and that's where we are going right now and that's why it's not a

029surprise but it's a number we cannot predict exactly it comes what is called the settle up that's the calculation based on final ADA and the property values the state does that and give us the adjustments necessary based on that student data and attendance and it's paid by the end of September mber beginning of October. So just to wrap it up, we have two tiers of funding in the district in this in the state four districts. First of all, and that's why is the biggest one in this turndown pyramid. The average daily attendance is the that basic allotment we discussed in June the 6,215 per student. I we receive that based on how many students come daily to our schools. Second is the state alonement based on the student classification where we were talking about categories

030and then those students attendance also have a weighted average daily attendance that gets then down to tax revenue on the property values and that local share of funding that we were talking about before. And then at the end based on all those funds if we still are underfunded the state will do supplementary guarantee yield based that that's we call the state aid. All this gets settled up at the end based on all our numbers and that's the funding that we are presenting to you today. Anyway, we always are going to be concerned that our biggest budgetary pressure is the loss of enrollment and resulting ADA when we don't have our students is not only that we suffer and funding and is also the students suffer on cap on the capacity to be there for learning

031and to be able to for us to serve them the way they need to be served. at any at this point as of September 8th we have 21,649 students in the district. I want to show you um a final thing that I'm very proud of and it's part of the financial management improvements that we have been doing. uh La Hoya business finance and administrative services division have earned a A that is a superior achievement rating on the financial integrity rating system of Texas that represent how well we are doing business and finances in the district and being able to comply with all the requirements that the state has in order for us to get there and we actually reduce the number of the increase the number of points on why we got that A. So

032we are there there to to get to or 100 points. So I'm very proud of that and we with this we are showing that we are really looking to be transparent and equitable across the district. Thank you. >> And if you have any questions for me. >> Well, I think that deserves a round of applause. So [Applause] >> members of the board, do we have any questions for Miss Crystal? >> I have a question. So you showed us a graph where we're losing uh students. I want to clarify we are getting money from, you know, you mentioned taxes, you mentioned ADA. Uh the money that we are getting the 6,000 and some is from the 19,315. >> Yes. Okay. and we are to submit to the state every six weeks all the numbers so we

033can receive our funding based on that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So I know that you've been working closely with Dr. Little and then the team that's been assembled to make sure that we have seats right or folks in the seats >> quality seat analysis. Yes sir. >> And I really appreciate that and I appreciate the fact that we always report on that at our at our monthly meetings or and so thank you for that. And so um how's that been? I mean as are are we seeing less and less students not coming to school or do we see an increase of students that are not? I think that will have a little bit more information on that on the on the daily attendance. But we are getting in some areas we're getting better. In

034some areas we are still struggling. But I know we have a lot of interventions starting. We are investing on it to be sure our teachers or parents or principles have the support in order to get our students in the classrooms is a concern and is being monitored daily. Um, so in that sense, we are doing much better, but it takes a little bit to get our students every day in the classroom. >> No, and we appreciate that. I mean, it's really good innovative approach to making sure that we have students there and the team that's been assembled to make sure that they have those conversations with parents. >> Dr. Sen, >> um, board president, thank you very much. I would also just, um, you know, draw our community's attention to national, um, data trends around

035student enrollment. um nationally enrollment is down in districts across the country and in districts across Texas. And so um one of the things that we're going to examine through our quality seats analysis this year is how many students are we really losing versus how many students are just no longer available to come to the district, right? Because that's a different issue, right? like looking at birth rates and demographics and how many students are in the area, right? That's one piece. Like are there as many students to attend as there was five years ago, 10 years ago? Postcoid nationally enrollment is down across the nation. Um but number two, we are the second part of what we're going to look at is how many students within our attendance area or our attendance zone are choosing to

036go elsewhere. That's a different situation. And so, um, as a part of our quality seats analysis this year, we will be looking at that and, um, are studying ourselves in some respect, um, to learn, um, how many students there are in reality, why they're choosing to go elsewhere. And so we'll and where they're going, um, so that we can start to really work on that um, as the district rebuilds um, itself over the next couple of years. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Page 23 references our expenditures and our fund balance. And I like looking at the numbers. So, thank you for what you've done to identify and just to cut the cost. And I I think um I could honestly say on behalf of the board that um I haven't been approached with anyone who

037has complained about any of the finances that have been taking place. And I appreciate the fact that um that you, your office, and the rest of our leadership have been very transparent when it comes to not just the finances, but everything that's taking place in this fine district. board president, if if I may, I just on that very same slide that you were just looking at >> 23, >> I think one of the most important things to note >> is that we entered into 2425 >> with a deficit budget, >> right? We passed a budget that year um that was 10.4 at that point and then once we settled up it really came to about 9.9. Um, but we ended the year with a surplus. And so I really want to point that out in

038really simple terms. We started with a deficit budget and in one year we're able to accomplish a surplus. And so that's teamwork. And I thank you very much board for supporting our work in this area. Um, that's a lot of hard work um to do that especially in one year. And so I really want to just say that really plainly and thank you board for your support. But also really thank Mirette and her department for doing that really intentional work to get us in a a much more stable place financially because then you what you will see also on slide 23 is that again it grows our fund balance and makes us a more stable district which then allows us to make strategic investments in areas across the district that where we have needs and

039where our community has been very clear with us that they expect to see the beginning of investments. And so you will actually see one of those agenda items on on on tonight's agenda. But um I just really wanted to point that out very plainly and and celebrate that because that's a lot of really hard work. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. And let's not forget the superior achievement. So the a congratulations to you, Miss Creso, and your team. All right. Thank you. See, do we have no more questions? I appreciate. All right. Next agenda item is item number nine. 9.1 it is the unit assessment reporting reading alignment to GPMS 1.1 1.3 3.1 3.3 presented by Dr. Little. Dr. Little. >> Thank you so much. Good evening again everyone. We're here tonight to give you our

040first look into our academic data this school year. Our past few meetings we've shared data but that's really been looking back into last school year. But now we get to see what this year looks like in terms of how we're starting um specifically as we continue to make progress towards this Northstar goal. We know that we are pursuing educational excellence for every student. Um that means we have to have more students in A and B rated campuses where president just mentioned our quality seats analysis. That's part of what helps us understand like where we have to make improvements as we are pursuing at least 90% of students uh in in those top two ratings over the next five years. Um, so tonight we're obviously continuing to focus on our pursuit of our vision and mission,

041really thinking about goal one, specifically looking at how we're progressing in those early grades related to literacy. So tonight's update connects to GPM 1.1 uh for first grade data as well as 1.2. The thing I will call out um just as we get started is we're talking about like local unit assessments um in the classroom where where students are really being asked to show what they've learned in that prior uh curricular unit. At this point when we put this presentation together for tonight, we only had those kinder to to third grade data available. In future updates, we will be able to include additional grade levels which will also help us get updates into goal three on the reading side. So, some quick summaries. We're going to go through this as we we touch on the

042presentation, but just want to call out a few highle things um as we dig into this one is we actually realized there were some process problems in how we were administering and how we were monitoring these unit assessments. So, we're going to start the presentation really looking at that. that does caveat some of the results you see because we're not actually showing full district-wide results because not every student participated in this first round of assessments and that's not on the students that's on us and campuses who are administering uh the assessments. When we look at the data itself, we're going to see some actually pretty strong results in the the lower grade levels. A little less so as we get um a bit higher in that part of that is like hey that's that's good

043sign of a good start. It's also really capturing more what students learned last year than what they're learning new this year. As we progress through the year, you start to learn more new skills and concepts. And so that'll be important for us to keep track of. Uh the other thing that you'll see across the data is when we look at students who are assessing in Spanish, that is consistently lower in this data set than our English results. So our team is is doing a lot of work on the dual language side to make sure that we're shoring that up and that students are getting really good access to quality instruction in both languages particularly um in our in our two-way dual language classrooms in prek and K. So we'll begin with the process part of

044that and that's really looking at assessment participation. Um a couple of things to just frame before we dig in. One is just making sure we all know what a unit assessment is. You've heard me say, "Hey, we made some intentional changes in our assessment practices this year." And this is that real intentional shift. So after, you know, two, three, four weeks, they're all slightly different amount of time. Students and teachers complete that unit. There's then an assessment at the end. That assessment is common across that same grade level. So every second grader, for example, took the same unit one reading assessment and that's the data we're going to look at. The real power and purpose behind that is to inform instructional adjustments. This isn't just, hey, we want students to take an assessment. It really

045is us understanding did they learn what they needed to learn in this particular part of the curriculum. What do I then as the teacher need to do differently to support that student? and what do we as a district need to do differently to support our teachers across campuses and our principles across campuses. So, this is giving us much quicker, much faster response rates uh to what we're seeing in the district so that we can get improvements happening on a more ongoing basis. As I mentioned, we're really looking in the the kinder to third grade space tonight. Um this slide for anyone who wants to come back to it is just giving a bit more description on what each of those particular unit assessments included. So participation, this is not normally something that we report out

046on, but we had a significant enough challenge here that we wanted to be transparent with you and the community on what that challenge is, how that impacts what we did here centrally versus what schools did at each campus, and what we're doing to correct it. uh because you've got to feel assured that every time we're presenting you data that actually does represent all of La Hoya ISD when we're sharing district level results and that we did the work that we have to do to ensure that students are getting access to that opportunity because again their teacher needs to know that so they can better support them along the way. Um, so these next three slides are a bit bleak in terms of what we are saying, but again, we're being super transparent here, which is

047to simply say this. We did not have enough students participate in the assessments because campuses didn't do everything they needed to do to administer the assessment and we didn't do everything we needed to do to catch that early and make those corrections while the assessment was still going on. Um, so this is both a central staff and a and a campus level issue. You see that here when we look at first grade, uh we have seven schools that are all in the green. They're above 95% of students participating in that assessment. That's our minimum threshold, which aligns with state and federal standards as well when it comes to assessment participation. But that means we have twothirds of our elementary campuses that didn't meet that 95% mark. Some going as low as into the 60% range.

048Um, so that's a significant number of students that that teacher missed out on that information uh for that that child and therefore is a bit behind and better knowing how to support them moving forward. So two things to to call out here. One is like my team and I immediately put in some practices we were using in other assessments. So for example, every time last year we did a map assessment, know that was beginning, middle, and end of year. We had daily insight into here's how many students have participated. We reported that out to principles and APs. We provided support where needed and they were able to ensure that that the right number of students participated. We did not do that for this first unit assessment. That has since been corrected. So we're doing that

049same level of daily monitoring and reporting when these windows are open. uh ensuring that we're directly in communication with principles and vice versa. So if they need help, we're able to provide that help quickly uh and ensure students are participating. The other thing that we've done is very clearly share this data with principles and have that conversation to say, hey, we've made system improvements based on what we learned um that we did not get right in the first the first round, but you as the campus leader have to ensure this is corrected moving forward. Like at the end of the day, this is one of the most basic things that schools do. Um and we can't continue to to miss on this as we go along. >> Board President, can I interject? >> Yes, please.

050>> Um and I just want to say this in support of what Dr. Little is saying. Two things. One is that um >> the turnaround um to have conversations with central office staff and our role around monitoring and supporting um happened quite quickly and quite directly from me. Um but number two, um any principal then moving forward that doesn't meet the 95% um is actually going to have to come meet with me personally and explain why. Um because again when we talk about excellence and leadership in terms of the strategic plan and that being strategic priority one, um we have to be really clear that we have to get data on our students in terms of how they're progressing. if we are actually going to do um better academically this year. And that starts with

051knowing where our students are struggling and where they're growing. And so any campus leader who does not meet that 95% will actually have to sit in front of myself and Dr. Little and explain why and what their action plan is moving forward. Um because as Dr. Little clearly stated, we've put systems in place around monitoring it. We're we're nudging them daily to say here's where you are today. Here's where you are today. Here's where you are today. There is an extensive assessment calendar that they already have. And so if we are not doing that, it's not excellence in leadership. And so again, I just wanted to be very transparent with the community. Principles already know this, but also with the board um that that is a direct action that I'm taking as a superintendent, not

052only because it's right for children, but it's what's expected when we really believe in excellence and leadership. >> Thank you, Dr. Senson. >> Dr. Sorenson saying that, how often are these assessment assessments done? Yeah, for the students perspective, like if I'm a a first grade student in this example, um they're roughly every three to four weeks. So, we go through a whole curricular unit or module sometimes it's called. And that's usually um a three or four week period. It differs a little bit, but so once a month basically I'm taking it in reading, another once a month I'm doing it in math, etc. across the contents. And so instructionally that should feel no different for children because we should be assessing that often. Um anyway, it's just best practice. What we're doing differently this year

053though is that we're capturing the data as a district and we're looking at it as a district and we're using common assessments across the district. And so the message that I want everyone to hear is is not that we are assessing more, right? Because sometimes you can get caught up in the whirlwind of we're assessing too much. What we're doing differently this year is standardizing our assessment practices and saying at the end of every unit there is an assessment with the high quality instructional materials. We are going to implement it and we are going to collect the data. And so that again I just want the public to be assured and the board that it is not about overassessing. It is genuinely authentically about assessing students so that we can do what we need to

054do to intervene instructionally and it is the type of assessments that we should be giving anyway. >> Thank you Dr. Sasonson. Dr. Little may proceed. >> Thank you. So just two other ones to show here. Second grade more positive than what we just saw. Uh but again expectation here is 100% of campuses are meeting that minimum threshold of participation. And then third grade unfortunately goes back to looking like what first grade did where we've got roughly twothirds of our campuses uh on the red side here. So again, you can expect that we're really paying close attention to this day in and day out when these are happening and that we've clarified and set high expectations for campuses around this. So let's start to look at the data itself. what we see coming out of this

055beginning here with first grade uh orientation to the chart itself. So every elementary campus is listed. Our highest uh scoring campus all the way on the left in this case that's Benson. Our lowest uh scoring here all the way on the right which is Benvidz. Overall uh measure here at first grade is not like star language. So we're not talking about approaches meets and masters. We're really looking at students who essentially just pass the test. So traditional measure of passing, did you get a 70% or higher on that assessment? And this graph shows you the percentage of students at each school that got to that 70% or higher mark. Uh overall average here is about 55% of students generally passed across the district. Um on the whole, that's not terrible. It's also not great. And

056so when I say it's not terrible, you might remember two presentations ago I'm showing you we had three B-rated schools and none of them had 50% of students at the MEETs level. So this 54% by comparison is certainly moving in the right direction. We obviously want and need more than roughly half of our students to be passing the exam though. So that's the like counterbalance of what the data uh really means in context. We had five of our our 21 elementary schools that were above 70% of students passing. That's certainly what we want to move towards uh overall. The other thing I will say here is we have committed transparently to you and the community to talk about how our a schools are doing when we're showing data and how our superintendent constraint schools are

057doing as well. So the two red boxes here show where Sigin and Garza begin. This is to the far right of the slide. So there's certainly work to do there in improvement. However, um we know that this is the first assessment the students are taking, which again is as much a reflection of what they learned last year as it is uh thus far what they're they're learning this year. Uh that said, Garza and Sigin have to start moving to the left in these data reports because we are expecting rapid improvement and transformation at those schools. So, they cannot stay here with such low levels of students uh meeting a passing standard. The other thing that we said we would continue to report out on are PA and signs. In this case, we're not looking at

058middle school data. So, signs is not included. Uh, but you can see PA in that light purple box, actually fourth from the left. That's a really strong start for them. Their challenge is maintaining that as we go throughout the year to be able to change the trajectory of outcomes at that campus and get out of that D-rated status. Now, the other thing that we've uh begun to look at, and this is again new for one of our presentations and certainly a bigger focus for us this year, is to say not just how many students did well on this assessment, but how well are they doing on the specific things that they're being asked to learn and master. Uh so this slide is about the TEICSS. The TEICSS is an acronym that really just says here's

059what Texas expects students to know in this grade level in that content. So in this case, what first graders have to be able to know uh in reading the table at the bottom lays that out a bit for you to see. So uh T 1.6 is really looking at students developing comprehension. That's super important as we think about the progression of literacy skills over time. Uh 1.7 is looking how how students are dealing with a variety of sources. Um so that's different types of text. And then 1.8 Eight is where we start to get into analyzing literary elements. So that's going a bit more more deeply into the text and what the author is choosing to do. Uh which certainly is is getting closer to higher level um skills overall. So the bar chart at

060the top just shows you the percent of students that mastered each one of those standards. We see that on overall comprehension with 1.6 pretty good, you know, 82% in English and and roughly three quarters in Spanish. but it's lower in 1.7 where we're talking about uh a variety of sources. So that's what the heat map is really in that table. It's indicating to us, okay, which of these standards are we going to have to pay really close attention to uh because students did not do as well as they should have and we needed them to uh on this one. So 1.7 for example in Spanish, you see that as high risk. This is where the power and importance of this comes at the teacher level and at our support level centrally. We know when that

061standard is going to come back up in the curriculum and be taught again to students. Therefore, that's something that like our team with the teacher and principles has to really pay attention to and call out because we know students weren't where they needed to be. So the next time this comes around, we've got to provide really great instruction around that and ensure students are mastering it so we're seeing that progress over time. It is always helpful to know like these aren't just taught once and then they're never taught again. They show up over and over and over in different context. So that's really the power of the information here for the teacher is to know how to respond differently next time so students have higher success rates. And then second grade, similar um structure here.

062We're looking at two standards, 2.7 and 2.9. These are very similar to what we looked at in first grade in terms of a variety of sources starting to get to genre specific characteristics of text. That's like more advanced version of the literary elements ultimately. Um and we're showing that in 2.7 variety of sources actually both English and Spanish need more attention here. we didn't get to that minimum uh 70% level to say uh you know we feel okay about where we are. So so that's something again in the scope and sequence when that comes back up uh that we'll be uh really focused on and ensuring that this improves over time. And then the other thing we wanted to share as part of these unit assessments uh is something I should have told you at

063the beginning which is where they come from. These are unit assessments that we get directly from the highquality instructional material. So in the the HQIM, they provide these sample assessments. That's what our team has like pulled and curated to to push back out. So it's not something that we're building on our own. It's completely aligned and connected to what we've asked teachers and students to do within that unit of study. A part of that is a fluency measure in the K2 space. Just like we similarly show you how K2 reading fluency is doing in math and we'll share that with you next month. Uh we can also look at it in the context of the curriculum. Gray here is still English level results. That pink is is Spanish level results. Uh again we've ordered these

064from best on the left to to lowest on the right in terms of English. This is one of the places where you can more clearly see what I said at the beginning. Our Spanish level results are lagging for sure uh where English is. So, we've got to do more work with teachers and schools to ensure that that instruction is as strong in both languages. We've set up the curriculum specifically this year on how it's going to alternate between the two. Uh, but we got to ensure that both are meeting the mark and there's quality in both languages because that's really critical uh for our students development both now in these grade levels and certainly uh later. Um the other thing uh we'll again just call out you'll continue to see Sigin and Garza here in

065the red boxes. They've shifted a little bit to the left here but still more work to do. And you see PA actually is now in the the middle. So this is an area where like as a school they've really got to ensure that that science of reading foundational work is happening in those grade levels and we're not missing out over the next couple of units on students really gaining these skills as we move through the school year. And then third grade is a bit of an anomaly here in terms of the the data that we see. This is really high. Like there's no other way to say it. Like average here is 83% um of students, you know, meeting the mastery level on this first unit. That's amazing. I want to show you this type

066of slide every time we're up here. And realistically, we're not going to have 83% of students sort of at that mast's or meats level consistently. So again, this is as much about review as it is new con concepts. So I don't want folks to be like, "Oh my gosh, next time Dr. Little comes up here, third grade went down." Uh because remember, our goal uh for this year is in the 40% range of students meeting uh grade level expectations. So we will see this adjust. This also however is a good reminder of what our students are capable of. And that's something that we've got to keep in mind every day. Yeah, it may not be 83% but our students will consistently rise to the level of expectation that we're setting for them. What we have

067to do is rise to their potential. And that's really the the core of our work with our teachers, our leaders, and our teams is improving that practice overall. And then similar here on the standards again none of these are are challenging in terms of the the heat map at the bottom because the results were really strong 80% or higher uh across these areas. You can also see how this just builds over time. We're talking about comprehension at first grade. We're still talking about comprehension at third grade. It's now just comprehending more complex uh information and materials. And then finally, uh we are going to do a better job this year of being consistent in showing how different student groups are doing uh across our data. So back to first grade, we see that 55% in

068the light gray. That was our average across the district for all students. And then as we continue to focus on our special education students, that'll be an emphasis. You see there's almost a 20 point gap between all students and special ed here going to to 36%. What we will consistently see or at least what we expect to consistently see is our ecodes percentage which is that dark gray bar that's the like income risk measure that districts use in Texas and the red one our emergent bilingual students will almost always be very similar to the all student population data because they really represent the majority of our population in La Hoya ISD. So where we'll really focus in this data moving forward is how special education students are doing compared to that overall population because there's

069not much differentiation uh in the other two data sets. We see um second grade and third grade here. Again look at third grade for example that's almost half like almost a 40 point difference between all students and students in special education. Our next presentation is all about what we're doing in special education. We know we stand here today um acknowledging that all of the transformation work we have to do in this area is not done yet. That is a multi-year endeavor. Um but we're not going to wait three or four years down the road to then start talking about how our students in special education are doing. We're committed to being transparent about that now as a push for us to really accelerate uh the impact that we have to make as we work through

070the audit recommendations. And so finally to close us out here uh we are we're doing a lot around instruction right now and spending a lot of time uh working on this and and talking about it. Uh I've shared with you before that we started instructional sprints where our team is really on campuses multiple days a week in classrooms with principles and assistant principles side by side talking about what we're seeing and how we give feedback to help teachers grow and improve and how we give principles feedback to help them grow and improve. Those are continuing to happen. I will share briefly that in our first set of sprints uh we did it for a two-eek period. principles thought things were quite rosy and we thought that they needed some work. So, we had to have

071a very direct conversation in our last principal meeting to start to calibrate and align on that. And the superintendent and I have really had the good pleasure over the last two days with groups of principles at a time being in classrooms starting to better align on here's what quality really means and here's what we need to be seeing in classrooms and we're going to continue to do that. Um, the other thing that we're really focusing on is better helping teachers before they ever deliver the lesson. So, you've heard us talk about professional learning communities or PLC's. Like, we've got to better ensure that teachers know what that lesson really is about and that they're prepared to go in and teach it. So, then what we see in the classroom is a much higher level of

072quality. So our team and really leveraging our partners are going to be spending much more time on that front end working with our teachers and leaders to ensure that planning and internalizing is as deep as it needs to be. And then I mentioned uh work that's happening in dual language again as we're thinking about that feedback and support for teachers that's both in monolingual English classrooms as well as dual language classrooms and making sure that that Spanish and that English is getting both the attention it needs and the depth and quality it needs as well as making sure that our our lowest uh grade teachers know how to use supplemental resources as well that's provided to help uh with Spanish acquisition. Uh so with that context, happy to take questions and know that we'll have

073future updates on unit assessments throughout the year. >> Members of the board, do we have any questions for Dr. Little? >> I have a question. Um Dr. Little, the data, just to clarify, this is the collected before this ending of the first six weeks. >> Yes, this was really um it was sort of three to four weeks into the school year. Uh so roughly the progress report time is when students were taking this assessment. And so in some grading periods like on the report card you may have two unit assessments that happen within that six week period. Others may only have one. It just depends on how the calendar falls. >> Okay. And then I know you gave us data on our our sped students. Um are we assessing them differently? for example, if they're

074dyslexic, is it an oral or a written exam? Is it >> Thank you so much for asking that question. There's there's two parts to that answer. Um, most students in special education take the same exams as every other student in the district. What they receive though are what we call accommodations, which are extra supports. So, somebody may be reading that that question, that test to them. They may get extra time in a math context. they may get to use a calculator when other students don't. That's all outlined in their IEP. Um, so that's that's just like what's true for for um generally most students in special education. There are some students who are um more severe in their needs and their resources and they actually don't participate in the same exams. That's true for these

075unit assessments as it is for STAR. they take alternate measures to see if they're making progress against their goals and those students are not included um in this data set. >> And in one slide you mentioned star alt is that the >> that's exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah, >> appreciate it. Thank you. >> Good questions. >> Any other questions? >> All right. >> I have I'm sorry. I have a question. >> Go ahead. uh for slide 45 in Clinton which uh looks like they did better in the Spanish section. Do we have have we identified what what's the difference in this one school compared to the others? >> Not in a way that I can sufficiently answer your question. There's a few administrative things going on behind the scenes as well. not like administrative

076with the principal AP like administrative in terms of process of of the assessments. I do want to make that clear. It's not a people thing. It's like a process thing. Um because some of these were paperbased assessments, those are changing as we move throughout the year where they will be digital like in the same way um as as other grades. So because that is the only outlier that could be part of that example, but part of what the Clinton principal was actually on the on the walk with us today and again actually reflected that part of what we saw at other schools she's also seeing in her own campus. So I think this is an anomaly and not necessarily a predictor. Um so that's that's why I would hesitate to give you a lot of

077reasons behind it at this point. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other Yes. Um in terms of attendance is 100% of the population for each school reflected here >> when we look at these participation slides. Is that what you're asking? >> Yes. And the data as well. So for on any slide indicating where it's like 86 um% is it 100% of the student population. >> So that is the percentage out of the whole population. on the participation slides on these and again you did a great job of of calling out the sort of special ed nuances here. Um we're not expecting 95% of the whole population to assess. We're expecting 95% of the students who are eligible to take the assessment to assess. So any of the star alt students won't factor into this percentage.

078>> Okay. And I think on the first slide the percentage was at 101%. Ah, you caught that. Yes, that's not a typo. Um, that's for students who are assessing in both languages. So, it's not always required of every student to do that. Sometimes it is based on the the specific dual language program, but there are students in in dual language classrooms who can be assessed in both English and Spanish. So, that's why that jumps up above 100 because that student's counting more than once in that data set. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other further questions? Yeah, I have a question on the same information that we're looking at. Um, have we identified the reason why these campuses did not have the 95% or higher um participation? >> Yeah. And it's not a a good

079answer because it is like people just weren't paying attention and getting it done in the time frame established. Like there's no external impact here. There's no I couldn't do it because this other thing was going on. I just didn't prioritize it. >> Thank you. >> So I have a question following that Dr. >> uh our superintendent mentioned that we have um presented a calendar with dates for testing and the leadership is going to be focusing on that. So was that not happening last year? Maybe that was one of the reasons and or where were the specific dates? >> Yes. two parts of that. We have had an assessment calendar for a while. So that's not new this year. We had an assessment calendar last year and we have an assessment calendar this year. Um to

080what the superintendent said is is really part of the difference here. So teachers last year were also giving um chapter tests, unit tests, module tests, whatever it was, they were making those on their own. We weren't mandating that they be aligned across the grades and the content. So they may or may not have come directly from the curriculum. and we were not paying attention to that data at a district level. So part of what's substantively different this year is we're actually consistent in that assessment. So again, like every student in that grade and contact took the same test. We're capturing that data centrally and now we're reporting it back out um to you and to campuses. And so we don't actually know what that percentage was last year because we weren't capturing that data. Now

081we know this is a clear signal to campuses as well like you got to have the participation and you got to get and use the data. Um so that definitely feels different uh at the like campus leader level from last year to this year. But to the superintendent's point, I want to emphasize this and I really appreciate that she called this out like the student isn't really feeling anything different. It's how we're using the information in the district to drive improvement. >> Thank you. Board President, can I add something? >> Yes, Dr. Sorenson. Thank you sir. Um so one of the things though that I also want to build on that um Dr. Hernandez is that our principles also asked for this kind of assessment system and the clear reporting out of data when we

082did reflection together in June. Um we we talked about how we weren't looking at data often enough, publicly enough, frequently enough um so that we could be more actionable. So, one of the things that our principles asked for in June is, okay, let's put this assessment system in place, we we wanted to do it. We had the conversation with them in June that this is where we were headed and this is what we were going to do and that we were going to report out on this publicly at meetings both board and at principal meetings because we want to look at data every single time we're with them now to say how are we doing? We never want to get to a point where we look up and we didn't know, right? It's our job

083as the district to support campuses to do their work. And part of that support is to put systems and structures in place so that we know when we need to intervene. We know when we need to support. We know when they're doing well. All of those kind of pressure points throughout the year. And so I really appreciate your question, Dr. Dr. Hernandez because this again was something that we had talked about very clearly in June that we were going to do. We gave them the assessment calendar. Um and we are giving them all the reminders. And so to your question also um the answer was we just didn't pay attention in the way that we should have which is why then again my response to that is that well then if it happens again I

084want to know why we weren't paying attention. I think as that's my role as the superintendent to learn is there some barrier beyond just not paying attention that we need to fix and how do we need to fix it? How do we need to support you better to meet the goal so that we can actually have robust student data? But then two, is it just negligence? because that is a separate conversation that as a superintendent, as a chief of academics and school leadership, we need to have then if that continues to be the case. >> Thank you for that, Dr. Sorenson. Dr. Little, I know you will remain there. You have another question. Yes, Dr. I mean, Mr. >> I have another question. Um, thank you for saying that, Dr. Sorenson, because continued monitoring is

085vital. you know it mitigates our risk and grants us the opportunities to support and align as a team and at the individual schools. I do have a question specifically around the digital assessment. So have we standardized this? I obviously we have a calendar that we need to adhere to but uh you mentioned individual teachers were given written their own assessments. Have we standardized this now? we have um and that's now consistent across grade levels and across content areas. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And I would add um board member OOA, one of the things that I don't want to go unsaid though is that the central office is also excessively accountable for the movement and of the data. So um I'm looking at three folks right across the way who when we got our first

086data set, Mr. Genea, Miss Ramos, Miss Castillo, special education, early learning, and emergent bilingual. I immediately turned around and I asked for, "So, how are our departments supporting now that we know the data, especially of our priority populations, knowing that third grade reading is really the focus of early learning because we've got to get them to meets by the time they're third graders, right? What is the response of our central office teams to make sure that the campuses that have dual language programs are getting the support that they need instructionally? what is happening in special education classrooms across the district to ensure that students accommodations and modifications are being met, IEPs are being implemented with fidelity, and that all special education educators are doing what they're supposed to be doing to support students in the

087classroom. And so, um, I I did look at my email. Thank you all three for submitting your report to me. Um, but it is something that we turned around immediately and asked our three departments for because we take seriously our accountability in it as well. It isn't just on the campus. It's how are we providing the supports. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Any further questions on this particular agenda item for Dr. Little? >> All right, Dr. Little, I know you're going to cover 9.2 two and that is C uh CPM's two students with disability conditions 2.1 quality IEPs 2.2 two MTTS intervention plans. Again, you may proceed. >> Thank you so much. And I'm going to be joined by Miss Candeladio, our deputy chief, who oversees and supports special education for this presentation as well.

088Uh again, and we'll go through these slides quickly uh because you just saw them. But as we think about our students in special education, we've got to improve services and outcomes with that population of students if we're going to get to this Northstar goal and our goals in GPMs. uh because all of these goals and GPMs are not just about part of our population. They are about all of our population and students in La Hoya ISD. Uh what I do want to pause on though is to just remind us how this relates to the superintendent constraints. Constraint number two is all about uh how we're supporting our students with disabilities. And we have two constraint progress measures here. Uh 2.1 is really looking at the quality of those IEPs. Are we increasing that over time

089to where at least 85% u meet quality standards by 2829? Again, we're going to constantly remind you because this gives us a moment to remind ourselves that this is a multi-year effort with special education transformation. So, we are not anywhere close to 85% now, but that is what we are working towards uh over that time period. And the other one is really uh looking at the work that happens before special education. So getting to a place where at least 85% of our students who are referred have a documented MTSS intervention plan in place because again we want ideally to avoid the need for special education services for as many students as possible and be able to meet those needs of the students in the general education setting. Where we can't and where that's not warranted.

090we will obviously provide the special education services. Um, but we have seen and we've talked about this in the audit um where there are a lot more referrals happening in this district than should be because students haven't been getting what they needed u before that referral was made. And so let's just spend a few minutes reminding ourselves about the audit and what we really saw there. Um, as you all know, we were fortunate to have Bellweather with us last spring, really going deep and understanding what we're doing in special education and where and how that needs to adjust and improve. They really um articulated findings which are summarized on this slide and we're going to take these sort of two by two. Uh, so the first two are all about instruction and what's happening in

091the classroom. Even though we adopted new HQIM last year in pre-K math and science, for example, what we saw in the audit is that it was not consistently being used or applied with our special education students, certainly not in our self-contained special education classrooms in a way that it could have been. And so even as we're thinking about our new reading adoption this year, really wanting to make sure that teachers are are doing that training and professional learning together, but then as we respond to these recommend recommendations, uh really focusing on how that's being implemented again with integrity at a deep level uh for our students uh receiving special education services. The middle two are really looking at how we're using information and providing response to that information. So we've got a lot of data

092work to do in this context. That's like hard data work that Chief Masi is helping us with on like data systems, data integrity and accuracy and how we pull information out. But also how diagnosticians for example are conducting uh evaluations and using that data to really inform what the ultimate IEP would look like. And even before that happens, how teachers are looking at data like we just presented from the unit assessments to know what interventions and support a student may need um so that we can prevent ideally a referral from happening because the student got what they needed and they're then able to meet those grade level expectations. And that's really what MTSS is focused on. And then the bottom two are about the core work within special education itself. Ensuring that every student has

093a quality IEP that it is written to meet the needs of that individual student. Remember the I here is individualized um not cookie cutter, not copypaste. It is about that student and that it really outlines the the services uh that the student will receive to meet the goals set in that IEP. And part of those services relate to the last one here, uh, which are the the places and spaces that we provide, special education services, really looking to get more and more students into inclusive settings with their general education peers. So, that's a one-page version of 80 pages uh, of the audit with with all of the like finding details that they provided for us last spring. The other thing that they looked at and this is um you know data from last year and

094and more historically is how students in special education were doing compared to the whole district. And what we saw is exactly what I just presented to you with the unit assessment data. Our students in special education were significantly lagging behind the outcomes um that other students in the district were receiving. You see that in all the gray bars here being less to significantly less where the district overall was. This is STAR data in reading and math, but we see the same thing uh in science and social studies. So everything that we talk about tonight and and what Miss Scandalio will really lay out in our response to the audit is meant to change these data points. Like we we want to get to a place where students in special education have the same level of

095outcomes and opportunities that our general education students do in the district. Uh we see that at the end of the spectrum as well. So it doesn't matter if we're looking at a kindergartenner on a unit assessment or looking at a graduate of La Hoya ISD, we have more work to do in those outcomes. And what the audit really left us with was something that we wanted to circle back to, which is this impact statement. Uh because it's really ambitious, it's really comprehensive, and it's rooted at the core of what individual students in this district really require of us to move forward. and that's ensuring that each of our students in special education feel the support that they need to be empowered to reach their potential. Uh that is certainly what drives us and what has

096to drive our team moving forward. There is some mindset work to do uh around this and the belief in what students can and will achieve. Um but this is what has to stay center uh for for us in this work. That does require us to to really have that shared unified vision and get really clear on what we have to do day in and day out to get closer to that. Uh from the roles and responsibilities of each staff member on the team to the systems through which we're working and how we're collaborating beyond special education because we are not going to meet the recommendations in this audit as special educators try to do it by themselves. they cannot do it and be successful because that's not the design either. It really is going to

097take the entire district focused on uh better ways to support and serve our special education students. And so here are the six recommendations that the audit left us with. Uh when we shared that presentation with you in the spring, we went in detail on all of those and we're going to revisit them tonight. So obviously getting to a place where we got a stronger MTSS system and are doing that work before referrals are even made. once a referral is made that we have quality evaluations and that we're getting higher quality IEPs that we're doing a better job of serving our students in inclusive settings and not just relegating them to different self-contained classrooms or spaces. Uh that involves continuing to look at our staffing and make sure uh from central staff like DIAG school psych

098speech therapists to teachers and assistants in the classroom that not only do we have enough but that we're really supporting them in a way to grow and get better uh in in their work. So as we talk about professional learning uh in all of our other data presentations know that that's also happening here within special education as well. and then much more work to do to really strengthen our partnership, our communication and our collaboration uh with families. What I am excited to actually show you tonight and the superintendent's been on pins and needles uh to see these these two slides because they came at the last minute today. Uh but it is actually good progress. So, when we talked about the audit last year, we talked a lot about the need for inclusion. And just

099as a reminder, that means, you know, if I'm a third grade student receiving special education services, I'm in the same third grade class as every other student in the district. I'm not down the hall in a separate room just with uh students with special needs. That does matter. And we will always have those spaces for the students who need it. But what we really saw and what the audit called out is we had too many students in those spaces that really needed to be in a more traditional education setting because that's where their potential lies and that's where they really have to thrive. That is also what research clearly shows. The more you can do inclus inclusivity well, the better students will do. So let's unpack these two uh charts really quickly. When we think

100about the continuum of services and the types of of placements we have for students, inclusion again is the ideal. Next thing to that is what we call resource. And there's different levels of resource which is really measuring the percentage of time you spend out of the traditional classroom. So chart on the left here is looking at students who have resource less than 20% of the time basically. So, you know, 80% of the time they're in an inclusive classroom. Up to 20% of the time they may get pulled out for an additional service. Uh, one of the things that we deeply appreciate Chief Mosasi and his team for is actually helping us get to a place where we can present this data. When we talk about data systems being a gap in the findings, it took

101us weeks to actually generate what is a simple slide here. um because that's not clean in our data systems in a way that we can just tell you here's how many students are served in this type of setting. Uh but let's unpack what's here on the left. The gray super important because Texas changed this I don't know six years or so ago uh where students in dyslexia are now considered students fully in special education. So students who are just identified with dyslexia but no other need are always in the data set now. But we need to disentangle that because dyslexia services are almost always pull out services. So that's what the gray parts of the charts are. The red is every other special education student who receives again less than 20% of of resource time.

102What we see here in 2526 is that 29% of of our students in special education resource are still doing less than 20% uh of that pullout time. That is a reduction of nearly uh 20 percentage points from last year. So you see that went from 49% last school year down to 29% this school year. That is progress. It is not the destination, but it is progress. We spent a lot of time in the spring talking to principles and talking to our DAS and and um staff really about you got to review where these students are placed because many of them are not in the right placement. And that's how this data moved. The chart on the right looks at more resource. So these are students who are getting it 21 to 50% of the time.

103You see that's a smaller population overall. Again, that is ideal and that's what we want to see. But we see progress there as well. So we've gone from 16 to 15 to 12% of students uh who are not just dyslexia identified and that are getting pulled out up to half of the time. Ideally, this gets as close to zero as we can get it over time. Uh, and it's something we'll continue to really focus on in our work and transparently share with you. Uh, but did want to give you a sense of what that looks like at this point in our process. And so, next, uh, Miss Candelario is going to come up and actually talk about what we're doing in response to the recommendations that we received. >> Thank you, Dr. Little. Uh good

104evening board and Dr. Sorenson. I'm excited to share phasing updates to the audit and recommendations and implementation phases. So we know that strong implementation directly impacts our student outcomes. Um specifically what we're focused on today is students with disabilities. Through the stages that I'm going to share with you today, we are going to be focusing on specific areas of planning. um the initial launch of either processes or um also systems uh full launch that is attached to accountability and progress monitoring and then continuous sustainability as well to ensure that we are constantly improving our systems. So the first priority is the multi-tered system of supports or MTSS. Uh this year I've had the um exciting uh endeavor of really focusing on the MTSS rollout and right now currently we are working with our partner at

105UOLV and we are working through the different layers of MTSS and are planning um and also piloting a launch of MTSS cohort schools um with full professional learning. Um what I'd like to call out is the gray areas. The gray areas are actually what was recommended by the audit. And so here you could see in each year where we are focusing where we are putting our full planning um where we are piloting full launch andor continuous sustainability within the datadriven IEP progress. Uh we also um looking at the great >> Coland I'm sorry before you proceed I think Dr. Sasonson would like to add something. >> Can you go back? >> Absolutely. >> I'm sorry. I always feel a need to say this every time we talk about MTSS. >> MTSS is not the road

106to special education. I have to say it publicly every single time we talk about MTSS as a system of support. And so it is not the road to special education. I know that we are talking about it tonight within the context of special education. But one of the ways in which we're talking about a pilot launch is one of one a group within our district that is actually going to be immersed in this work intensely this year is our counselors. Um across the district counselors are a part of systems of support as with grades, attendance, behavior, mental health, behavioral health, all of the wraparound services that we know that students need in order to be successful. And so again, um I every time we talk about MTSS, I just want to be clear that it

107is about creating systems of support so that the groups of employees that are actually going to go through this in intense professional development are the support staff, right? Because our teachers are learning a lot. And so again, as we get more specific into each initiative, which we won't tonight, I just want to be clear that in this space, our support staff, and by that I mean counselors, I mean diags, I mean speech language pathologists, I mean behavior specialists, I mean our attendance specialists. All of those groups are going to be part of the pilot launch this year because they are the folks who are going to be leading that work across the district. >> Thank you for bringing that up, Dr. Sason. How often would this group meet? >> You want to get into a

108little bit of specifics of it? >> Yes, >> sure. Um, so currently right now, uh, we are looking at the priority groups like Dr. Sorenson mentioned. Uh, we will be doing full whole day trainings with them. We meet with those groups on a monthly basis particularly I do and then their executive directors meet with them weekly and so our focus area particularly in MTSS we're going to have full day trainings and then uh focus on the areas that are needed and with different elementary and secondary counselors as well. I love this. And so I'm assuming that all campuses are different then. Everyone is going to be different, right? >> Different recommendations, different >> different needs. Different needs. And MTSS um will be very much individualized to the student, to the campus. Overall, the process, the

109framework will be the same, but the supports are going to look different. >> Awesome. >> Thank you, Miss Gandel. You may proceed. >> Thank you. So in regards to our next um priority, our datadriven IEP development process, uh we are definitely in the full launch phase of utilizing the TEA IEP rubric. We have already begun norming with different uh staffing individuals and have begun the process um of IEP sampling with that rubric. In regards to continuum of services, this great work was started last year prior to my arrival. Uh what we are really focusing on this year is ensuring that the roles and responsibilities of the individuals um that are guiding this work of continuum of services um that their responsibilities align to that and also as well as when we're looking at reviews of

110IEPs ensuring that our students are receiving supports in the least restrictive environment with strategic staffing also a a large priority. As you can see, we're in the initial launch for strategic staffing. We're really looking at guidance and auditing processes of what our roles and effective processes our staff are doing and if we can make those even stronger and better in the sense of serving our students. We are also working with individual groups. Our special education team are meeting with those individual members um to get targeted support to each of those groups. Miss Gondelio, do we have any challenges with sta with staffing? When you say strategic staffing? >> Yes. >> Do we have any challenges with that? I'm just curious because this is I love what you're talking about. I'm just curious if there's anything

111>> that you need from us. >> You threw that curveball in at the end. What we need from you? >> Um I think we mostly need awareness and understanding from you. We were actually having a similar conversation with board member um Pena uh on this uh a few days ago. >> We definitely have struggles when it comes to staffing and special education. That is not unique to La Hoya ISD. That is a challenge again that the country faces in terms of having having enough special educators uh in the work. So that's teachers, that's assistants as well as like diagnosticians, school psychologists, etc. Uh we're actually doing some work right now collaboratively with Chief Miller with the superintendent to think about specific strategies we pursue this year as a counterbalance to that because we're we're not

112just going to go find I'm making this number up, but we're not going to go find like 20 folks who are can start next week as a special education teacher. Um, so there are other things that we're going to work with both within our current team as well as potential more contracted services support to ensure our students are are getting the resources they need. But this is the place where we really got to think differently uh as we move through these recommendations. And so to give a specific example, board president um and so as we are um aware of say where our vacancies are or where case loads may be larger than we want them to be. Um, so when you ask what you can do, um, we may be coming back to the to

113the board with amendments to the compensation manual because we recognize that we have speech language pathologists, we have diags who are carrying larger case loads um, than is really recommended. And so we want to honor the fact that those people are taking on more, right? And again, there's never enough time, but we want to honor that by potentially offering stipens and adjusting compensation then for our diags who are doing that work or our special education teachers who then step up and take that work. And so what you will probably see from us in the coming weeks is an adjustment to the compensation manual for more stipens um andor some um contracts that we may bring forward um in the future around contracted services because we want to make sure that we're providing the services to

114our students and their families. But we also want to recognize the extra load that some of our folks are really taking on to make sure that the students are getting service right now. Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Any other further questions before we proceed? I do have another question and it was and maybe this isn't the right time to to uh ask, but Dr. Little explained earlier that we had individuals with disabilities in classrooms with individuals that don't have a disability. That's very unique. I I wasn't aware of that. I I can I can imagine that. How is that taught? Are there two teachers in there or is the instructor given additional training? I understand now you're making it clear about possibly stipens that would cover um you know the additional training or the additional responsibilities

115of these individuals or these teachers. Share with me really quick uh for those who may be listening to educate me how is that handled? >> Yeah. Um President Alvarez has a great question. So forecasting uh ideally we want to have a full-fledged co-eing model where our teachers work side by side. uh that takes professional learning, that takes some strategic scheduling. Right now, based on the students individual education plan, let's say it's reading a comprehension goal, that particular special education teacher will then push in to a reading language arts class and focus on that particular area with that student. So, it's very targeted. The team worked really hard on creating a very streamlined master schedule. And because of that, now teachers, our resource inclusion teachers can push in and support those teachers. Another thing that I've

116learned very quickly about the the curriculum is that it provides supports um within the curriculum on how the special education teacher could um really look and engage in that curriculum. Another thing we are working on with our principles as well is that they have time set aside for teachers to work on internalization of lessons and our inclusion teachers are absolutely invited to that so that they can work side by side with the general education teacher to plan together to ensure that um they're meeting the needs of our students. >> Thank you. That was that was really good. >> That was really good. So, thank you for that. >> All right. You may proceed. >> Thank you. So a next priority here from the audit is our professional learning. Uh here we are initial launching differentiated

117professional learnings. Um on one side we are working closely with the content executive directors on ensuring professional learning in regards to instruction is offered to all teachers. And then on the other side we're really focusing on differentiation of training within our support staff. So again we are in an initial launch but we are looking at differentiating training for all parts and staff of special education. Lastly is our family engagement where you could see we are in full launch and initial launch. This is I think my most exciting part is that we are looking at providing workshops for parents around individualized education programming, education, how to support their child with their within their IEP um as well as looking to start a special education parent um committee. So where parents could come in, give us our

118feedback and really build off of that. So we have a trusting strong um system of supports not only for the students but the parents feel supported as well within the district and in the school. So really providing that two-way feedback. So uh we already started planning the sessions and workshops for for the uh for the parents um and we are ready to hit that um off the ground soon. >> Miss Gondeladia, when earlier I referenced who made up the team, this is kind of what I was thinking. Were parents going to be involved from the beginning? Not just here, but when you have those regular meetings with the principal and the counselors, are they going to be a part of that? Okay, great. >> Yes. So, the individualized education plan, the parent is a required

119participant. That is their their legal right. So, they are there. But what in the bigger context is that we really want to invite parents in and receive their feedback so that we can create stronger system of support. So also that engagement piece of how to make our practices better as well. >> Thank you. >> You have any questions? >> It um you mentioned, you know, that they're going to there's going to be engagement between the special educator and the parents. I believe the minimum is one year. Is there a plan to increase that for more frequent communication? >> Yes, absolutely. So it is a minimal minimum of one year. Um, but what we would need to really work look at is having like initial contact at the beginning of the year, greeting the the parent

120with, "Hello, I'm your child's teacher. How are you?" Midyear doing check-ins as well around how they're doing with their courses. And then of course um for us as a team or in special education is providing them surveys. How did how did the our pro uh process go? Um how can we really better our services for parents? So that's also an additional point of contact as well. Would you like to add? >> I just want to add one thing and and this is me speaking as a parent. My son receives special education services and there's been parts in his journey where he has a speech therapist, a counselor working with him on behavioral things and like multiple teachers supporting him. And again, across places where I've lived and work, it is a consistent challenge for the

121parent to know what all of those people are doing with my child on a regular basis and like what that progress looks like. And that's part of what is is embedded in both that family engagement recommendation as well as the quality IEP recommendation is we've got to improve like the frequency and the quality of communication with our families so they really understand what's happening um on a more regular basis and how their their child is making progress. And so to add to that, board member, one of the ways that we envision that is just, you know, as parents in the district, you get progress reports. And so as we think about um the kind of information that our parents of students with special needs, what information do they need in addition to a progress report?

122Um, and so we should be giving regular updates on whether students are making growth on their goals that are in their IEP, not just grades, right? So, if we've got specific IEP goals, how are we providing information to parents on how the students are doing on those growth goals in their IEP? And again, to Dr. Little's um point, who's providing the service and how are we getting the feedback from those individual service providers on a regular and consistent basis. Just like general education parents get those progress reports regularly. We want to create a cadence where so do special education parents, but in a much more targeted and specific way around what's in the IEP. >> Yeah, definitely. Because then if we're focusing on continuous monitoring but we're not getting the feedback, how are we going

123to align to improve the student outcomes? >> Absolutely. >> So thank you. >> Thank you board member AO. You may proceed. >> Just a few more pieces here as we wrap up. Um one is we want to make a connection to actually what our conservator is going to share an update on in just a little bit. As part of our exit criteria, we have very specific uh things that we have to do uh for special education which in the simplest form is saying we got to implement 100% of the recommendations that we got from the audit. Um that then breaks down in our exit criteria to um roughly 25 activities as it's currently outlined just for special education. So we wanted to provide you a status of like where that is at this point in

124the school year. Uh we have 14 that we have laid out for this school year. As we sit here tonight, 100% of those are on track. 7% have actually been completed. Um but as you heard from Miss Condellio, there's actually a lot of work still to come. Uh and so you'll continue to get statuses in those monthly reports on this as well as when we do uh updates on the audit for you. The other thing we just wanted to show and and not going into detail here because it's been um presented but what it looks like by recommendation area across those phases. So for MTSS for example, you know, we've got five things that we're working to improve on this year, but some are in planning and some are all the way in full launch.

125That's part of what the team is really having to balance as we go through this work is really keeping tabs on all of the work underway but at very different developmental stages in the process for us to get to that four-year mark uh with the superintendent's constraint and those constraint progress measures. Um so with that hopefully that is um really helpful and clear information about what we're doing in special education and sets us up to continue to update you throughout the rest of the school year. >> Thank you Dr. Little. Do we have any questions for Dr. Little? So, let me take this opportunity to share with you. It was certainly an educational and very informative uh um uh item that you guys covered. So, I appreciate that the agenda item that you all did.

126I was looking forward to it and I know Dr. Sorenson has a strong passion for individuals with people with disabilities and I think many of us that are on the board do. So, thank you for that. And that's why I reference, let us know what the board can do uh to make sure um that we address uh the needs of not only our instructors, the counselors, but especially the students. >> Thank you. We appreciate that. >> All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Great, great presentation by both of you. Next item on the agenda is uh something I always look forward to. Agenda item 9.3, Lonear Governance Time Use Tracker Report. Joseph? >> Yes, sir. And another round of good news this evening. happy to bring you um our lonear governance time use tracker

127report. Um I always like to start the presentation for folks watching at home like where does this report comes from? It comes from our work with uh Lonear Governments which is a continuous improvement model for governing teams the board and superintendent who choose to focus and unapologetically on one primary goal and that's improving student outcomes. Um so we measure how our time is spent in our board meetings. um on how much time is spent on student outcomes and adult outcomes. Um and so looking at the report u the far left blue column um you can see that we spent uh 79 minutes of our total 97 minutes of the board meeting on student outcomes which is a percentage of 81.44% of our time was spent on improve on uh on on student outcomes. Um as

128a reminder of our threshold as part of our board constraints is that 50% of our time is spent on um on student outcome. So we've met and exceeded that expectation for the September to 10th board meeting. >> You know that's awesome news. I'm just curious can we add some of those minutes to ones that we don't I was think can we do the carryover? >> I don't think our conservator will allow that. >> Wow. Joseph, thank you very much. This is great news. >> Thank you. very good news and I appreciate the fact that we put this as an agenda item at every one of our meetings. I think it's important not only for staff but those that are viewing uh and of course I should say those that are present and those that are

129viewing know how important this is uh to the district and and again that was that's why we're here. Um we wanted to focus on those student outcomes and we wanted to spend as much time on these particular items um that would um would make sure that every one of our students becomes successful. All right. Thank you Joseph. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. No questions for Joseph before I let him go. >> No. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Our next agenda item is from our conservator, Dr. Barera. Welcome to South Texas. >> Thank you. >> And again, I'm glad you were able to make it. I know that you've been busy the last couple of days. So, thank you for making the trip. >> Busy in a really good way. >> Good. um

130so board in front of you. I added an extra uh report basically to um compress the long spreadsheets that I was giving you before. Those are still attached, but I just wanted to pull out the most salient pieces. So, um however, it did not print correctly to show everything that was intended. So I'll make sure that happens um for next month. So under the first criteria which is uh regarding the board of managers and board members, you guys have to meet focused on the integrity instrument in the areas of vision and goals, progress and accountability, systems and processes because those are consistent with high performing governance teams. So the thing that I wanted to pull out here and and let the community know is that on August the 2nd we had a workshop with the

131board superintendent and the executive cabinet and we talked about the goals. We we revisited goals, goal progress measures, the theory of action um looked at the monitoring calendar and and made significant changes to that. And we also started our board operating procedures. Um, and we are continuing the work on board operating procedures and we hope to finalize them in the October meeting. So, we're still in the editing phases with that. Um, and at the bottom I have that the board has completed three of those activities. Five of them are on track and that's all we have for you at this point, which is um, eight of them. Again, some of them are there for uh previous issues with previous boards and we can always add in the future, but I'm very comfortable and confident with

132the progress that the board of managers has made in in really becoming a high perform high performing board because you're focusing on the right things. And so I'm I'm very grateful for that. with exit criteria too. This deals with um business and finance. And so the thing that I want to call out to the community is just to note all this talk about um the budget and the tax rate and how we're spending money. La Hoya ISD is investing in the staff, in the students, and all of that is in our future, right? We're fostering a stronger district that values and rewards its employees. Um and in August we reported that there was a 4% across the board salary increase. Um so this was a great great um thing that the board could offer the

133district and all the employees were very very appreciative of that. I mean, this this really reflects the district belief, the board's belief that every employees dedication contributes significantly to the district's success and student achievement. And so with this exit criteria, there are um none of them that are complete quite yet. We have 22 of those activities that are on track and only six that have not yet started. So a lot of work has been done with this area. I recently attended a meeting that um Merjid and her team had with the auditors that gave us this report comprehensive report of all these things that are um listed as activities under this criteria. And so there's significant progress being made. But all of these in order to have many of these activities completed there's a lot

134of phases and a lot of steps to the work. So on a monthly basis we're meeting we're tracking the progress and we'll keep you updated as those come along. But those that those six that are not yet started probably those are the ones that we're not even going to think about until next year. And that's on purpose. We had to look at a schedule that made sense so that it was doable. we don't want to stand up here and tell you we're going to do all this this year and then come back and say well actually we didn't get it done. So we're planning strategically and appropriately for that. The final exit criteria deals with um all the campuses in the district. We want them to all be uh rated an overall A to C

135in the state accountability system. And so that is probably the focus of my work as a conservator. This summer we had a summit um and the commissioner came and spoke to us and he said there might be a dozen reasons that a conservator is placed at a district. The focus the area that that we want you to focus on is on academics because this is where the meat is, right? This is why we do what we do. We're here to educate students. And so in that um we we talked about um all the work that had been done in the retreat over the summer. I think I mentioned I attended a principal retreat uh the executive leadership team uh meeting and so much work is being done to clarify roles and responsibilities across the board.

136Yesterday I attended a meeting with the um academic team from the the um uh from the chief all the way down to probably coordinators. Was that the lowest executive directors? But all the way down I mean you were there as well is is what I meant. So um and all this is clarifying roles and this is on purpose. um we are creating a system so that this system is going to work so long as everybody knows what their role in this system is. And so in order for a s to create this system we have to have really clear roles and responsibilities. Um so clear as to there's a certain level of an employee that is responsible for uh for spending money, right? It's not everyone can spend money. There's folks that can make recommendations

137to spend money, but all this is a system that's already been planned out strategically. And so, it's it's a lot for folks to learn because it's different. But the reason it's different, it's not because Marcy Sorenson says that this is what we should do or Dr. Little says I like this better. No, we're building a system. So regardless of the superintendent or or the chief or executive directors, this system is going to stay in place. And so this is a lot of front work that needs to be done, but once we get this done, we're going to see the work really, really move. Um, we've started to see that already. We've completed six of the activities already. 19 of those activities are on track and there's 55 that have not yet started. But again, we've

138planned these out over the next few years so that we can do the work that makes sense now, right? We talk about the lowhanging fruit. What are the things that we can do now that are going to have a big impact? And so that's where the work lives. Um in the past couple of days, I've also been on um campus visits, campus visits and even classroom visits. Um that's I love that. That reminds me of the work that I used to do. Um, and so we're really looking at what's happening at the student level. You have the superintendent there, you had Dr. Little there, there was executive directors there, and then we also had principles with us on this walk. So, it's it's a large number and and campuses and teachers will eventually get used

139to it. Um, but we're we're going there to see what are the students learning, are they learning, right? Is it what they should be learning? Are they focused on the right thing? And so we go in there, we're just observing. The real power is afterwards we meet in the hallway or in an adjacent room and we have a conversation about what we saw. We're calibrating, right? We're we're want to make sure that we're seeing the same thing and that we're focused on the right thing, right? Um and the power is in the coaching. So the superintendent is coaching the executive director on coaching principles so that principles can coach teachers like we are I saw that I just got chills right now. I saw that multiple times. I mean, your superintendent is walking on these

140walks and not just standing there. Much of the time she's leading and guiding the conversation, but asking questions. Again, this is not Dr. Little or or Dr. Sorenson telling anyone what they need to be doing and what they should be doing or what they want to see. They're asking questions. The executive director today was uh Jod Adair. the right let me see if I got the right Jodie right Jody um she did a phenomenal job as well coaching around asking the principles okay so how are you going to coach your teacher we just saw this this was the feedback that we all gave what is that going to look like and that's critical because there's there's a lot that was said the point is we don't want to go and and stress the teacher out

141and say all these we noticed all these things, right? We want to make sure that we're giving the teacher actionable steps so that the very next day or the next period, they can implement those and make a big change that's going to have a big impact. And so that's the work that's happening right now in La Hoya that people don't see and there's probably not any posts about. That's exciting. That's where we're going to see the biggest impact and that's where we do need to see it. not in meetings talking about other stuff. We're talking about kids and we're talking to kids and so um really really exciting work and I'm I'm privileged that I that I'm able to uh join on some of these visits. Um but I feel very I mean these are

142a lot 55 that have not yet started 19 on track. I have no doubt that that this work is going to happen. um the practices that that the district is implementing now, right? The instructional framework, we saw all of that at the last meeting. What does that mean? What does that look like? These are part of a system, right? This is not an individual preference of somebody. This is we're not doing things because we've always done it and we don't understand. Everybody in the system is going to understand what they do and why they do it. Um, and so all the things that that I've seen over the past two days, this is evidence that this work is happening at really really high levels. And so, um, I have I have no doubts that we're

143going to get there and we'll probably get there before we said we would get there. Um, but again, this is a lot of work and it's going to take time, but I can tell you and the community, the work is happening. The deep work is happening. Does anybody have any questions? >> Does anyone have any questions board members for Dr. B comments, remarks? >> No. >> Well, I'm going to take an opportunity to say something. So, one is these exit these exit criteria are are they posted on our website? I'm just curious. Or is this a report that you just submit to TEA? >> I submit to TEA, but I mean it's, you know, anybody can see it. >> Okay. I was just curious. Yeah. >> No, this this is good. This is good that

144you shared that with her. The only thing is I'm I I don't think I saw it on exit criteria too and I think Miss Crespull might be a little concerned with this but you didn't put the A superior achievement you know on the report right M that's going in September this is old I was looking for it I was looking for it. So >> yes it's already in the September one >> and you know I appreciate the coaching that you provide to the board. I know that you've been very helpful to us and at the beginning we were probably worked our training wheels and we were asking you questions and I do see the progress. Uh it's hard to you know as I sit here listening to your report and to the reports that were

145uh done earlier how we've been here for almost two years and it just a lot has happened. I mean a lot has happened you know from the the initiatives that you all have rolled out um to the idea of focusing on people with disabilities. I mean I mean like there's been just so much and data that's now being collected to assist us in the future. I think Dr. Little has brought that up in the past that we didn't have you know accurate data or data itself. And so being able to establish that or or start that it's very impressive. You know >> look at the questions that I look at the questions that you guys are asking. You're all asking questions about you know programs about data right about the budget about the tax rate

146the important stuff. You're not sitting there arguing or talking about contracts and which contracts we're bringing and why. >> The the the discussions are are are very different than they used to be. And this is how board meetings should be run very professionally. Um very focused on student outcomes. And without a doubt, as you've seen in the last report, the tracker, um the work that you guys are doing is definitely focused on student outcomes. And so that you it starts with you and it trickles down into the entire organization. And so thank you board for being so willing uh and coachable and um a able to do your part. >> Thank you Dr. You'd like to add anything? >> Um thank you board president. I would just say thank you very much for joining us

147um on the walks. Um it's really important um to me personally that um you're seeing the work actually happening that it's not just us up here sharing it for the board or for the public but that the actual deep adaptive work of really um adult learning across the district um that you're able to not only be a part of it but witness it provide feedback to all of us um and really attest publicly to that um we are doing the right work. Um and you know Selso um board member Gomez, it really does um stick with me that um what you said when we went over our accountability scores is that we're not walking away from the right work because it's deep work. it it's it's practice changing work that we're engaged in. And so

148I am really supportive um supported by the board um to continue to do that um because I think we're demonstrating here that not only are we willing to share where we have areas to grow, where we have areas that we struggle, um but that our relationship and transparency both with the community and with you about the kind of system work that we have to do um and that it trickles down to the classroom um is really important work. It's hard work. It's really hard work. And so, um, I thank you for your support, Diana. I thank you, board, for your continued support. Um, because it isn't quick turnaround work, right? It's it's it's practice changing work. Um, and our and again, one of the wonderful things about La Hoya, I say this all the time,

149is that everybody wants to do the right work. >> Everybody wants to do the right work. And so it's really about just continuing to grow um the capacity across the district so that it really does show up in student outcomes. So thank everyone for your continued support and and belief in us. We appreciate that. >> Thank you, Dr. Sason. Anyone else? Mr. Joa, >> I'd like to ch share a testimonial. I had the opportunity this past week to um participate in my own personal education. I attended the society for compliance and ethics. You know, that sounds odd, but that's where I spent all last week um training. And I'm very proud to see what we're doing here is at the core foundationally and in the support the framework that we are doing is for the

150students. It makes me emotional, but what we're doing is the right thing. We are pursuing educational excellence and we're we're within compliance. Every topic that I attended, I was like I could mirror it and say we're doing that. In my mind, in my head, I was mentally checking boxes like we're doing that, we're doing that. So, thank you to our team. Thank you to the administration, our teachers, and our students. We're doing the work and we'll get it done. And thank you for sharing that because the system that I've already seen in place is this system of of learners of adult learners. It's not just the students who need to learn. It's everybody in the organization. And you guys are demonstrating that when you attend your professional development sessions. It's also a coaching organization. Every

151single uh person in this organization gets coached at some point including the superintendent. She has a coach. board has a coach, right? Everybody in the organization, superintendent meets with her cabinet members one-on-one weekly to give them coaching. They coach their teams. Their teams coach principles. And so that's a system already. That's exciting. So it's not getting feedback is a bad thing like it used to be before. It was like if you're getting called to the superintendent's office or someone's office, you must have done something wrong. No, it's hey, let's talk. Let's have a conversation. >> Things are things are going right. And then there's things that we can do better. >> So, >> and I've seen more engagement from the community, from our teachers. We're receiving the feedback, which is what we want, and we

152want to have that continue. >> So, thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, Dr. Beda, and thank you for that comment and your remarks, board member Joa. Seeing that we have no other um other questions for Dr. But I'm going to go ahead and move on to agenda item 11. Agenda item 11 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. >> All oppose. Motion carries. Next agenda is agenda item number 12. This is our um at this time it is 7:41 p.m. We will be going into a close session under section Texas government code 551.001 551.071 551.072 551.074 551.076 551.129 and 551.0821 0821 concerning any and

153all purposes permitted by the act including but not limited to the sections listed below. We are now going into close session. Are they >> a lot of stuff? >> Yeah. Okay, we are back from close session and it is 8:48 p.m. Next item on the agenda is 14.1. Approval of Macallen ISD Regional School for the Death. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve item 14.1. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. >> Next item is 14.2. Approval of La Hoya ISD sports complex softball field synthetic turf surfacing number 2026-806 through the purchasing cooperatives. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve 14.2. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the

154motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All oppose. >> Motion carries. Congratulations. >> Woohoo. >> Congratulations. Yes. >> Item 14.3 approval of non A correction approval of no new renewal tax rate and voter approval tax rate for tax year 2025 for the La Hoya Independent School District. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve that property tax rate be increased by adoption of a tax rate of 1.0025, which is effectively a 10.96% increase in the tax rate. >> 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 14.4. for approval of resolution number 2025-10 adopting the 2025 2026 tax rates for the La Hoy Independent School District. Do I

155have a motion? >> I move to approve item 14.4. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. Next item on the agenda is 14.5 approval of unemployment compensation program renewal for 2025 2026. Do I have a motion? I move to approve item 14.5. >> 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 14.6. There is no required board action on this particular item. Next item is 14.7. consider and take possible action to approve recommend recommended revisions to policy DH local, policy DIA local, and policy FFH local to ensure compliance with the Texas Education Code section 11.005 prohibiting DEI

156activities and 28.0022 regulating discussions of controversial topics. Do I have a motion? I move to approve uh the revisions to policy DH local, DIA local, and FFH local as recommended by the administration. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. Item 14.8, 8. Consider and take possible action to approve resolution 2025-11 regarding Senate Bill 12 and parental rights, including approval of superintendent certification of compliance with the Texas Education Code section 39.008. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve the resolution regarding Senate Bill 12 as provided. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Last item is 14.9 considering

157take possible action to propose the termination of chapter 21 term contract employees and authorize the superintendent to send notice of proposed termination to employees. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve item 14.9. >> Do I have a second? >> A second. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All opposed. Motion carries. All right. Next item on the agenda is our board calendar. September 15 through October 15th, National Hispanic Heritage Month. September 21st through the 27th, Security Officer Appreciation Week. September 22nd through the 26th, National Gear Up Week. September 23rd, 2025, Education Technology Day. September 30th, 2025, Tackro College Fair at Lincoln High School. October 2025, Bullying Prevention Month. October 2025, breast cancer awareness month, wear pink on Tuesdays, is encouraged. October 2025, Dyslexia Awareness Month. October 2025, National

158Principles Month. October 2nd, 2025 custodian appreciation day. October 5th, 2025 World Teachers Day. October 7th, 2025, World Day of Bullying Prevention. Wear orange. October 8th, 2025, regular boards. Regular board meeting. This one will be cancelled. October 10, 2025, World Mental Health Day. October 14 through the 18, 2025, National School Lunch Week. October 16th, 2025 Unity Day. October 16th through the 20th, American Safe Schools Week. October 18th, 2025, Breast uh Cancer Awareness Community Walk, La Hoy ISD PAC Stadium at from 8 to 10:00 a.m. We'll make sure to remind the board so that we can encourage everyone to attend. October 22nd, 2025 regular board meeting. That uh concludes all of the dates that I was required to read out or asked to read out. Do I have any remarks from the superintendent or any board members

159before we adjourn for tonight? Dr. Sornson. >> Um I do. Blanca, if you could put up the slide. Um I have two remarks actually, but I'll start with this one. Um so September 29th, September 30th, October 1st, October 2nd, we are having curriculum nights um for our parents and families um so that our parents can engage more deeply with our curriculum with our programs, learn about their student success, and learn how their beginning of the year MAP scores turned out, what first um six weeks grades look like, um and ways to continue to engage in their in their students um growth, academic achievement. ment and learn more about programming that is available across our district as well as supports and everything that the school has to offer. And so again, you can see middle school

160is on a separate night, early college high school is on a separate night, and then we have high schools and elementary schools. And so we're very excited to be able to do this with our families, with our community um in partnership specifically um as we really continue to work on community unity, trust and partnership and lifted up from our strategic plan. So um that is the first announcement. The second announcement is that um I would be remiss if we didn't just take a moment. Um we had a really um tough week last week um where we lost a student. >> Um and so I just really would ask all of us you know to hug our kids a little bit tighter um and really take a moment board president if we could uh for a

161moment of silence and recognition of the student that we lost from an Richard's middle school. Um that community is still mourning obviously. um the family is obviously devastated. And so as a a school district community, I just really wanted to take a moment and um honor the our student um and and everyone in her family to send incredible condolences um to them to to lose a child. I I just can't even imagine what that's like as a mother. And so board president, if you would afford us that opportunity. >> Yes, please. So, if we could take this opportunity for a moment of silence for the young man that we lost. Thank you. Thank you for that, Dr. Sorenson. That means a lot, not only to the family, but to the whole community for those remarks

162you just said, and I appreciate you informing us and keeping us a breast of everything that's happening in the district. We all felt the loss. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, do you have anything or board members, do you have any other thing you'd like to add before we close? So I I would um again I referenced earlier that it's almost been two years that we've been here and I will tell you that one of the things that always stands out in my mind that Dr. Sorenson stated and then I even use it in my professional my professional life now is that that you know she doesn't expect us to be good. We have to be perfect or great. And so I appreciate that. But it all starts off with many of you that are in this

163room. you know, as I look out, I don't look out because I'm bored of the discussion that's taking place, but I'm looking at you because I could see how passionate you are about the district that you work in. And um I'm really excited. I'm really excited of the team that has been assembled in front of us. Like you guys are like the best of the best. And so when Marcy or Dr. Sorenson mentioned earlier that that she would be coming back but possibly, you know, stipens. It might be added to a a budget that we had approved. I'm all for it because we do want the best and we do have the best people working here in this district. And believe me, I watched, you may not know this. I mean, look, I don't have

164anything to do, right? Right. And so on, I always call Marcy and say, "Did you see the board meeting?" never to put anybody down because what I per what I want is perfection not only from our superintendent and staff but from the board as well. But I will tell you that as I watch other meetings, not to put anybody down, there are things that we could do to improve, but we do a really good job and we have really good people that work here. And every night I look to see what Blanca puts out. I don't know what you call it. I don't have Instagram. I don't have social media, but I love seeing the things that she puts out when they talk about being at a football game. And I'm still trying to learn

165all the signs that we have for the mascots. And, you know, Blanc, I take this opportunity to share with you with with you how grateful I am to see, you know, what you've done, you know, to ex, you know, to expose the the community with all the great things that are happening, whether it's a Friday night game or talking about the cheerleaders and now that you guys were talking about the volleyball team recently, like it's encouraging. And then also to have the teachers and the bus drivers included in those short clips. I appreciate that. And so I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that even though it's been almost two years, the two years have gone by really fast, but it's because of people like you that make it possible to make our

166journey so much easier. And to see board member AOA, you know, so passionate and so emotional from the DAS, from here talking about her experience and, you know, what she's seen from all of you. That was priceless to me tonight. That was priceless. And so I just wanted to take this opportunity. Again, we know there are great things happening in this school district. And we do also know that there are some challenges we face. But I just want to thank each and every one of you personally since I don't get to see you personally for all the great work that you're doing. Believe me, it doesn't go unnoticed. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. Thank you, sir. >> So, there's nothing else to say or add. I will say, is there a motion

167to adjourn? >> I move to adjourn this meeting at 9:00. >> Do I have a second? >> Second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. Ladies and gentlemen, we are adjourned and it is 9:00 p.m.