001[Music] Good evening everyone. How's everyone doing? I hereby call this meeting to order. It is 6 pm. I will ask for roll call starting from my right. Jessica Troy, present. Carlos Marggo, present. Anita Chavez, present. Alisa Pñena, present. Rosalo Hernandez, present. Selzo Gomez Jr. present. Great. We have everyone here. We have quorum. Next item on the agenda. If you're able to do so, I ask that you please stand and face the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. All right, ladies and gentlemen, next item on the agenda is public comment. Um, Madam Secretary, do we have anybody signed up for public comment tonight? We do not have
002anybody signed up for public comments. Okay, great. Seeing that there's none, let's go ahead and move over to agenda item number five, superintendent updates and announcement. Dr. Sorenson. Excellent. So, tonight we would like to start out with a fantastic announcement. Um, Dr. little if you would like to kick us off with the announcement of our ACE campus leadership. We would like to introduce our two new principles for our ACE campuses. So, Dr. Little, please. Thank you, Dr. Sa say good evening board and community listening. We are so excited tonight to be able to share uh the principles who will serve at Garza and Sigin leading our accelerated campus excellence work uh in the district. I'll start by sharing the bio uh for our newly named principal for Avon Helina Garza Elementary and that is Miss
003Rosa Gonzalez Vela. With 25 years of dedicated service in the La Hoya Independent School District, Rosa Gonzalez Vela has built a strong foundation in education and leadership. She began her career as a par profofessional at Escondone Elementary, quickly advancing to a teaching role where she spent nine years fostering academic growth and positive relationships with students. Afterward, she took on the responsibility of supervisor at Escondome for 5 years where she contributed to shaping educational practices and supporting the staff. For nine years, Miss Gonzalez served as the principal of Ameliano Zapata Elementary where she successfully led the school community and implemented initiatives focused on student success. Currently, she is in her second year as the principal of Lloyd Benson Elementary, continuing to drive excellence in education. A passionate advocate for student success, uh, Miss Gonzalez Fellow believes
004that every student has the potential to learn and grow and is committed to creating an environment that fosters leadership, responsibility, and academic achievement. She makes decisions on what is best for students, aiming to shape the leaders of tomorrow. and we are just delighted um that she has agreed and and stepped up to go back to serve the community of Zapata and and Garza in particular. And we are so thankful to announce her as the new principal for Garza Elementary. Good evening to all of the board members, Dr. Sorenson and the La Hoya ISD community. I am Rosa Gonzalez Vela and I am honored to be the new principal at Evangelina Gara Elementary. I'm excited to be joining this amazing school community. I'm excited to be working with our parents, with our central office staff so
005that we can continue to make a difference day in and day out at Evangelina Garca Elementary. I'm excited to continue to support all of our students, our families, our staff. We know that it's going to be a great year of learning and growth and we're going to continue to make decisions based what's on the needs of our students, what's best for all of our students. So, thank you so much for this opportunity and once again, I look forward to an exciting year of learning and growing. Thank you. And next up, we are equally excited to share that Miss Elear Lopez will be moving to Sigin Elementary. She is a dedicated leader and educator. Ellie Lopez brings 24 years of experience in public education with a deep commitment to advancing student success, instructional excellence, and school
006transformation. Throughout her career in La Hoya ISD, she has served as a teacher, reading specialist, instructional supervisor, assistant principal, and principal, gaining a comprehensive understanding of student learning and leadership. Miss Lopez served as assistant principal and later at principal at Elodia Archapa Elementary where she has played a key role in earning the 2019 US Department of Education National Blue Ribbon designation. She holds degrees in interdisciplinary studies, bilingual education, educational administration, and communicative disorders in deaf education, equipping her to support diverse student needs, and cultivate inclusive learning environments. Passionate about equity and engagement, Miss Lopez has led initiatives that drive academic growth, teacher development, and a strong cool school culture. Committed to collaboration, she is eager to partner with students, educators, and families to build a thriving school community where every child can excel. And we
007have certainly felt that from her through this process and through her work at Chapa. It was a little hard to talk to her about leaving Chapa since she's been there a minute. uh but she is going to bring her heart and her passion and her capacity to serve all the students and families at Sigini. Good evening board members, Dr. Soren, cabinet and community. I am very thrilled for this opportunity to be leading Sigin Elementary. I am excited to be working as part of the community with our parents, with our students, with our teachers to move forward. Uh we want to make sure that they feel safe, they they feel comfortable, that they are there and that we know that they know that we care for them and I'm just excited for this new opportunity. Thank
008you. [Applause] Thank you both. Thank you for letting us introduce you. Sure. Uh before I let Dr. Sorenson say a few words, uh on behalf of the board, we're very excited to have both of you here. You have two very impressive resumes and we couldn't have picked two better people to lead those charges. So, thank you very much. Dr. Sorenson, do you have anything you'd like to add? I would. Um first of all, I want to thank both of you for stepping up, right? It's one thing to make a decision to move on, right, and leave your campuses where you love the communities that you currently serve. But to say, "I want to go serve a community with such a high need," and take on that challenge and say, "Yes," and raise your hands, it's
009incredible, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, knowing the work that's ahead of us. Um but I I want to let the community know that this was a rigorous process. Um they went through three rounds of interviews and the interview process was first with the community um of folks sitting here at central office. Um there was a really rigorous um committee of folks um in academics and school leadership that they had to go through where they had performance tasks and they had to demonstrate knowledge capacity um understanding of the work ahead. Then they had to interview with cabinet and go through that process and demonstrate leadership capacity and also depth of understanding. Then they had to go through me. Um, so it was a it was a rigorous process. It
010wasn't, you know, just a naming. And so we want the community to understand that in it was thoughtful. It was intentional. Um, and I said this when we announced it at the principal meeting that it it wasn't just about skill. It is truly about who these women are as people. Um, their stories. I said this at the principal meeting. They had me at hello because they told me their stories of who they were. See, now she's going to start crying. She make me cry. Um, but they told me their stories of who they were um from little girls and how they grew up and what that meant to them and how that will contribute to their relationship with the communities that they're going to serve. And not just because um you know Rosa served in
011that community before, but her history growing up as a child and what that means to her to be able to give back to a community like Garza and the same thing with um Elimar and what her history is like and how they both show up in that space. And so your leadership is fearless. It is fierce. It is intentional. And it is exactly what the children and families of those communities need. And so I am so excited to be able to support you, watch you bloom, and watch you do exactly what those communities need you to do for them and with them. So, thank you so much for your leadership. Well said, Dr. Sorenson. Well said. Thank you both and congratulations. A a quick announcement there. Uh we do have a follow-up parent engagement session
012next Tuesday the 15th at 8:30 at Wades Lincoln High School with families of Zapata Garza and Sigin. This is a follow-up to what we did a couple weeks ago and both principles will be there so the community can start to meet them. Uh we will also be soon announcing open house and meet the principal events for those communities as well. Great. Thank you Dr. Little. Uh, see we're completed with 5.1. If we could move on to 5.2. Aren't uh 5.2 is prek updates. Circle ML Y. Dr. Little. Yes. Thank you board and Mr. President. Very excited to be joined by Miss Myra Ramos tonight who leads our early learning work in the district. Uh this is a Lonear governance like uh update. It's not quite one of our uh GPMs and goals, but we we
013want to stay super transparent and clear on how we're doing in preK because it absolutely impacts every goal in GPM that we have set uh both in the short term and in the long term. So, Miss Ramos is going to start by just giving you an overview of what we're talking about when we think about this prek data and what the assessment is that we're using and how it's set up. And then I'll give you a brief look at how we're doing so far this school year. Mr. Mr. Ramos, nice to see you again. Good evening, Mr. Alvarez, members of the board, Dr. Sorenson. I'm very excited to share with you this afternoon what our early learning department has been working with this school year in regards to our circle assessment and our creative curriculum.
014So this evening we do want to share with you all what exactly is circle progress monitoring assessment that our prek3 and prek4 students are taking. This assessment helps us track the progress of our students in early l in early literacy, math and social emotional development. The data that our teachers utilize from this assessment helps us ensure that we're providing our students with appropriate customized instruction in the areas of literacy, math, and social emotional development. Teachers are also able to utilize this data to integrate it with our creative curriculum, which is our high quality instructional material that we are using in every single preK classroom. Our teachers are able to use this data to look at small groupoup instruction, their um learning centers which we call interest areas and all other uh instructional blocks throughout the
015day. So why early literacy uh at this age? Why do we assess our students as preK3 and prek4 students? It's very important that we look at the five domains that we test our students in, which are rapid vocabulary naming, rapid uh letter naming, early writing skills, mathematics, and social emotional because we're able to look at what their needs are early in the game. We have our prek3 and pre-k4 students in our buildings and we're able to utilize this data to ensure that we're providing those interventions early enough so that they have long-term academic success and we do these uh assessments at three points in the year. It's a continuous cycle. We look at assessment data at the beginning of the year, middle of the year and end of year. Once we we collect the data,
016we look at the data, we evaluate the data and identify what are our next steps, what do teachers need to be doing in the classroom to align the needs of their students with our creative curriculum and what kinds of activities are we planning? How are we intentionally identifying rapid letter naming in our curriculum so that it is very intentionally taught throughout the instructional day? And then we let our teachers teach. We go and we visit classrooms. We provide support. And then the cycle starts all over again at middle of the year and then at end of year. So I mentioned the five domain assessments that we assess our prek3 and prek4 students. So the first area will be rapid letter naming. And this is an assessment that is a 60-second assessment. Every 3 seconds, our
017little pre-K3 and PreK4 students are looking at a new letter and they have 3 seconds to identify the letter and it's either going to be an uppercase or a lowercase letter. So, they do this for 60 seconds and that's the assessment for rapid letter naming. Then we have rapid vocabulary. In rapid vocabulary, we are using this assessment to measure and get an insight of what our child's expressive language is. This is how we're developing language with our little preK3 and pre-K4 students. And it's the same process as rapid letter naming. They have 60 seconds and every 3 seconds they get a new object, a new picture, and they need to be able to identify that picture. And then we have mathematics. Mathematics is not timed. and several skills. There's several subtests that are evaluated uh
018during mathematics. They're looking at vote counting, shape naming, number discrimination, number naming, shape discrimination, counting sets, and operations. Those are the three that we will be sharing data with you today. The other two domains are checklists that our teachers also are observing throughout the year and they're checking for early writing um expression from students. Are they already forming letters? Are they writing uh using writing conventions and do they have does their writing convey a meaning? Are we seeing that evolve throughout the year? And then health and wellness checklist. Are kids learning how to get along? our students learning how to collaborate and work together and that's what we're building during our our preK3 and preK4 classrooms. Thank you, Miss Ramos. Before we dig into the data, I just want to make one connection. So, our
019next presentation is going to be about literacy curriculum and what we're adopting there. We've had a lot of conversations about the importance of foundational literacy and and the early work. Myra just did a beautiful job of laying out some of those key things that students at three and at four year olds are having to develop. Uh it's really hard if not impossible to read if you don't know what letters and letter sounds are. And so that really starts in this space. So the investment that you as the board and we as a district are making into this work is very much part of our continuum as we think about our overall uh goals and student outcomes whether that's reading, literacy or mathematics. Uh so just wanted to sort of connect those dots as we look
020at this data. This first slide is actually looking at comparative data with us, the region, and the state uh from last school year along with showing where we are thus far this school year. So where the bright blue bars up there, the ones that are shorter are our progress to date. So we haven't finished the school year. We are expecting more growth. um our our littlest learners are incredibly resilient and quick at picking up new knowledge and skills, so they grow pretty rapidly in most cases. So, we actually think we are on pace to actually meet where we were last year. And what's super exciting about this data as we compare ourselves to the the region in red or the state in the gray is La Hoya is actually at or leading where we were
021with prek students overall in these comparisons. Again, we've got to get to a place where 100% every student is actually excelling and achieving, but there's a strong foundation there. So, with the work that the team has been doing with curricular implementation, really supporting teachers uh to build improved practices, uh this can only get better. Uh the next set of slides are all structured like our Lonear governance slides. So, we're showing you sort of trend data throughout this year in the line graph on the top left. We're giving you a look at how campuses are fairing on the bottom left along with some notes about our work uh thus far. We've also structured these so each group we'll start with preK3 and then we'll go to prek4. So here with rapid letter naming uh again as
022Myra described I'm seeing a letter. I'm having to name that correctly. Is that a B or not? Uh that's part of what this is assessing. Uh you can see that there's pretty strong growth here. 20 points actually really strong growth. 20 points from beginning of year to middle of year in terms of the percent of students who can uh do that assessment and get enough of those letters correct and they're only three. Like that's the other super exciting thing here. We're building real capacity of learners at a young age while we're also being able to teach them and work with them in so many other ways. At the four-year-old level, again, we nearly doubled the rate at the beginning of year to middle of year. It is important to keep in mind some of our
023pre-K4 students went to pre-K as three and some this is the first time they've ever been in school just like with kindergarteners we'll have students show up in August who never went to prek and so teachers are having to support students at all of those various levels but really strong growth here as we look at our campuses on the bottom left again you see consistently the red is the newest data those bars are much higher than where we started in the blue I very much wish all of the charts that I have been showing you for Lonear Our governance updates look like this. We're not there yet, but this is certainly what we want and what we need in terms of student progression and growth. For rapid vocabulary, uh, preK3 looks really good here with
024a 16point growth from beginning to middle of year. If you look at those actual percentages, you still see that there's a lot of room to grow. We went from about a quarter to now we're at about half. So, we're still working with those other half of students throughout the rest of the school year uh to get there, but we're seeing pretty rapid progress. PreK4 is the the one that's different here in this data set where we're not seeing as much growth as we need to when it comes to rapid vocabulary. So, as Myra mentioned, as we think about what teachers are doing in those interest areas or working with small groups of students in centers, as we think about what they're doing with whole groups of students through a readaloud, so that's where the teacher
025is actually reading through a book or story with students. It's one of the most effective ways to teach uh foundational literacy to students at these age levels. Uh the team is doing work through professional development, coaching, and time with principles in classrooms to really make sure we're maximizing the impact of those opportunities. So a data point like this actually shows the growth that we saw for prek3 and we're not seeing as limited progress as we are right now uh for prek4. So that's an area of real focus for us as we move forward not only for the rest of this school year but into next school year as well. Math data goes back to pretty large changes here. Again more than 20 points for prek3. Uh again as as Myra laid out there's a range
026of things that they're doing in math. A lot of this is number recognition, pattern recognition, start of early shape recognition. And then we also see a pretty good jump here for preK4. Not as much as preK3, but still pretty good. Uh, but you see we started at a much higher place here as well. Uh, which is a really good indicator of of where our students were coming in with some of this knowledge. So, to quickly close us out here, uh, there's a lot of focus and energy around preK and early learning. Uh on the next two slides, I'll I'll show you what we're thinking in terms of classroom allocations. But part of this is continuing to make sure that the quality of our program and instruction is as good as it can be, as well
027as making sure that families know about the importance of this work and this opportunity. So, we're getting more families and more students into preK and benefiting from the great work that our team and our teachers and our leaders are doing. Uh so on the right we're talking a lot of here about our instructional support through coaching and professional learning. Uh you will have a presentation at the next meeting that goes deeper into dual language. But as a reminder this was the grade levels that we started our two-way dual language program in this year which we're really excited about and that's showing up in some of this data. Again you see really incredible growth here. We promised that. We told families that would come. Again they needed to see it and believe it. But now folks
028are starting to see and realize what that actually means uh for their students as they participate. And so we're continuing to recruit and advertise. Uh we shared with you earlier in the fall which campuses would hold what types of classrooms. Remember we will always have some Englishonly options in the district. Uh we want to encourage and really have families participate in the two-way dual language. So most of our campuses have that as the option, but we will always have that Englishonly option for families uh who choose that. So this is just our current um best estimate of where those classrooms will be placed. And it is time to register and enroll. April 1st really kicked off our recruitment and registration campaign where families can go through the full process of registering and and becoming eligible
029for prek. Uh so we need the community's help and attention to this and again based on this data we can show that there is real significant progress and impact in a positive way on students from participating in our prek program and so we want more to do so. So with that we're happy to take questions. Members of the board do we have any questions for Dr. Little or Mr. Ramos? I have a question for um the tracking prek3 progress rapid vocab. Um and then this slide right after that there's a significant decrease with the dual and monilingual um students. Um what what slide are you looking at? I'm not sure about the number. I guess before that. So that one and the one before. Yeah. These two. Yeah. So, just the difference between the monolingual
030and the dual um students, what what explains or what was there a difference on how we're testing them? The only difference in the assessment may be which language they're assessing in. So, some if they're in a monolingual classroom, again, that's an Englishonly instruction classroom. So, they're going to be assessing all in English. If it is a dual language classroom, they're spending most of their time actually right now with Spanish language instruction, less of the time in English. That's part of our dual language model as we build up to a 50/50 later in elementary school. Um, so these students are often testing in both languages. They're doing Spanish and English. So part of this is students just getting comfortable with that. What we start to see later on though is dual language students have much more
031rapid growth in acceleration in both languages over time. So right now they're testing in both languages in preK and four. I I couldn't hear you. Right now they're testing in both languages, PreK3 and PreK4. Yes, most students will be. The part of what the school does, not just for preK, but for all grade levels, is there's a group called the ELPAC that makes those language testing decisions. But the vast majority of students in the two-way classroom are testing in both languages, if only for the purpose of the teacher knowing how to support the student in both language is even if that isn't their official test. Thank you, members. Do we have any other questions for Dr. Little or Mos? All right, Dr. Little, you may proceed with the next agenda item and I think Miss
032Lozano will be joining you. Yes, she will. Great. All right, so we are back to uh hopefully close the loop on our high quality instructional material adoption for K8 reading uh for next year. So again, Miss Lozana is going to walk us through a lot of what's been happening since we gave you the initial presentation uh about six weeks ago. Just a couple things to remind us of before we start this conversation. Uh first, the current curriculum that we're using in our elementary and middle school spaces is not on the approved list from the state as being a highquality instructional material. Uh we taught you some new acronyms last time because there are way too many. Uh IMRA IMR was one of those. is that's the instructional materials review process that the state goes through
033to vet curriculum uh for meeting the standards and meeting really researchbased practices. What we're currently using is not on that approved list. So, we knew we needed to make a change to have the best resources available uh for our students and teachers. The other thing that we have been talking about consistently is a need to better focus on the science of reading and those foundational literacy skills. Again, that starts with the last conversation we just had in preK. It certainly continues through uh the K5 space with a real concentration in kinder to second grade. And so we needed to make sure that our instructional materials really were grounded in that science of reading approach. Uh so what we're here to share with you tonight are what we've been doing for the past roughly six weeks,
034engaging the community, including our principles, teachers, and parents in what those options are, share some of that feedback with you, and then make our final recommendation to you about what we are proposing to adopt for next school year. So Miss Lozano is going to walk us through that. Okay. Good afternoon, board. So for the last few months beginning in January, we've had some conversations about the need to strengthen our tier one instruction based on the science of reading focusing on our foundational skills. So we are La Hoya are is a recipient of a grant the strong foundations planning grant. What does this grant do is that we build a literacy framework committee where we are examining different areas of growth and how we can strengthen our literacy. So we began that work in January. We
035also began the work of shifting into structured literacy in our K2 space, focusing on foundational skills based on the science of reading. We also began training our K2 teachers and campus leaders on research-based instructional practices for literacy as well. So we began laying the foundational groundwork and also in February we started presenting the materials. So you heard back in fe February the considerations for adoption. So we started to talk to classroom teachers, campus leaders, our board, our community members and presenting materials of such sorts. Come March, we have all the data. We have feedback from our different stakeholders. And now we're ready to share and to determine which direction we want our district to lead and what is going to be the best curriculum support for our students in order to build long life literacy
036skills. So here in reviewing we have our two main adoptions that we're considering. We're considering the Texas Blue Bonnet Learning K through5 language arts for reading. Initially when we first presented in February we knew that we had a suite for K5 and English. Shortly thereafter we found out that we will be having also a K5 suite for Spanish both foundational skills and knowledge component. So now we get to consider Texas Blue Bonnet in both in English and in Spanish in the full suit. And we also look we're looking at Texas Amplify for K5 in English and Spanish. And also in consideration of coherence and in the direction that we want our literacy program to move forward. We're also looking at sixth through 8th grade Texas amplified. At a previous um meeting that we had, we
037spoke about religious texts being incorporated in this curriculum. We said one lesson, four lessons, three lessons, but we didn't give you a quantified look of what that actually looks like throughout the school year. So, here we go. We have a table. We have 107 lessons in kinder. And out of the 107 lessons, only four lessons make reference to religious texts. In first grade 102, one lesson within one unit. Second grade 115 lessons with three four lessons within three distinct units. Third grade 145 with one lesson within that one unit. Fourth grade 135 one unit and fifth grade 141 lessons and only two lessons board. One other thing I just want to remind us and the community of as we think about this. Uh we shared this in the last presentation that one families will get
038advanced notice before these units start on what's going to be covered in that. So for first grade, you know, one time out of the year they will be told and reminded, hey, in an upcoming unit, we're going to be including some religious text. That'll happen more often in second grade where there's four lessons. But part of that notification also includes a process where they can submit an opt- out letter back to the campus saying I do not want my student to participate in that lesson. Uh if families do that and that's certainly their choice and their right uh we will work with them. So the school and the teacher in particular will work with them to make sure that the student is not missing out on that learning standard that that text is working uh
039to cover and instead we're using a different material for them. students may be pulled out of class to do a smaller group lesson in those cases. Uh but it is really important. You'll you'll hear when you hear the feedback there wasn't really a lot of concern about this as we talk to folks, but there likely will be for some individual families, but there is a process where they will be informed and they will have another option for their student uh for that particular lesson. And continuing on with our presentations, our showcases of our curriculum, just like Dr. a little set parents, families, community, educators, campus leaderships will be informed of these particular lessons and we presented that information to our stakeholders. We were very transparent about it. We were able to answer the questions. So
040overall, we did have some showcases starting here at our district with our principles and district leadership. We were also able to meet with our sixth through eighth grade reading teachers twice, our K through fifth grade teachers on multiple occasions and our La Hoya ASD parents and community. We started with a parent district advisory committee first. Right. March 13th, we rolled it out. We answered our their questions. Then we had three additional showcases for K through five parents. And lastly, we had a smaller focus group when we were presenting our design planning meeting with Gardens parents as well. In continuation, we can see the feedback. The slide that you have before you, this is a feedback from our leaderships at our campus. 100% of them voted for blue bonnet curriculum. Overwhelming. We answered questions. They had
041curriculum examples before them. They were able to see both. So, they are excited about it. That's one of the quotes that we received back from them. And they're also they're understanding the level of complex text that our students are going to be exposed to and are excited about the variety of texts that our students will be able to be exposed to throughout the different uh units that our students will be having. Educator feedback. Here we have another pigraph where more than half more than three quarters of our educators are preferring blue bonnet curriculum for next year. Um some of the quotes include new curriculum is open to new challenges and go and is good for the students and teachers. Right? So they're recognizing that challenge is a positive thing. This change is a positive. We're
042moving in the right direction for our students both in our foundational skills area and our knowledge area. This is a parent and community feedback. Overwhelming response. 89% blue bonnet. Um they're excited about it. They're recognizing that the text is of high value, of high interest to our students. They're excited to have their kids come home and talk to them about the life cycle of a tadpole, of a frog, you know, the tadpole, because that's something they get to see. And the text level, it's complex, and it's on grade level. So, overall, there's an overwhelming positive uh choice for our blue bonnet curriculum. So at La Hoya ISD, we do feel that Blue Bonnet reading language arts is the choice for our students. Uh parents appreciate the structured research-based approach when we are looking at our
043foundational skills, district and campus leadership. They value the curriculum alignment from kinder all the way to fifth grade. And also they they were curious. So this is what we're doing in K5. What are middle schoolers going to see? So we showcase our curriculum option for amplifying the coherence from our elementary grades up into secondary spaces. Our teachers, they're praising the highquality materials that are before them, the content that is before our students that our students will be exposed to. So overall, we recognize the focus that of the science of reading is essential for our students. There's engaging content and we have different options and ability to support learners of different backgrounds. And so board, just to be super clear with our recommendation for kinder to fifth grade, we are recommending adopting Texas Blue Bonnet that
044will be in English and in Spanish. Uh in middle school, remember we didn't really have multiple options because TEA has not yet developed a Blue Bonnet version for grades 6 to 8. So, we would move forward with Texas Amplify for grades six to eight at least for the next couple years while we're anticipating a blue bonnet adoption to come uh at a later date. Tonight, you actually have on your agenda uh what's called a TEAC certification. The TEICSS are the Texas standards that we teach. That certification is our way as a district of telling the state that yes, we do teach and we cover all of those standards. that is part of the formal process that we have to submit uh for the Stronger Foundation's funding and grant along with the Blue Bonnet adoption. So,
045you're you're not really voting on Blue Bonnet per se tonight, but that is a step in the process of us getting there with TEA uh as you do that later in the agenda. Members of the board, do you have any questions? I have a question. So I see that there's an overwhelming support for blue bonnet learning but there's about 10% from the community and educators still for amplify. What is their reasoning behind that? So we actually showcase both curriculums at the same time. We have materials of both. One would think not but we did. uh what parents and educators and families were really sold on was the quality that it's aligned 100% to our TICS and that is an open resource. So what does that mean for our families? They have access to it 24/7.
046Our families will be able to jump on the website with guidance from the district, from the campus, from the teachers and actually see what their students are learning, not have to wonder. So, the fact that our parents have access to that readily without having to log in, without having to dig around, they're getting to be able to assist their kids and transparency of the curriculum. One other thing I would add, um, Miss Oaha, is there's also a little bit of sparkle effect to this. So, the Amplify materials that we were able to showcase are pretty and bound and shiny and glossy and like they look beautiful because they're currently printed and ready. The blue bonnet materials are not officially printed and ready in the same way yet. The state is going through that process right
047now. Like we'll be ready, assuming uh y'all y'all grant permission on the te certification later to start those orders. So, those were a little bit more homemade samples where we're like printing them on our copier and so the look and feel is a little bit different. And so that did catch some families off. Nice. Yeah. Members, any other questions? I don't have a question. I just do have a comment. Um because in reading just about the blue curriculum, um I had all the questions, right? When we think about just like religion and um thankfully um I was encouraged by Dr. Shorenson to get involved and ask all of the questions. So I was able to attend um an admin meeting when they were presenting on Blue Bonnet. And I think it's really important um to
048outline that um the context of how this religious um text is presented uh was really important for me to see, right? Um because uh it helped me understand, you know, the value of what this curriculum brings. Um and two, the fact that that our parents have an option to either opt in or out, I think is is a big deal. So um thank you Dr. Shortson for kind of encouraging me to to get involved and ask the questions. Um and and I'm going to extend this the same kind of invitation to our parents. Um knowing that that information is available um and and all the resources are there. Find out what your students are learning and so you you understand you know how the religious context is presented right because um the way the the
049media was portraying it was was in a different light in a different lens. So, um, just wanted to let the community know that I was asking a lot of questions. Yes. Thank you, ma'am. Any other members? So, what I'd like to say is anytime somebody approached me about this, I watched your presentation that you did some time back and it was a great presentation and then the staff briefings that you provided, Miss Ozano, were excellent. So, it made it really easy. I think the biggest question I had, Dr. Little, was what were we going to do for those individuals that decided that they wouldn't be coming in that day? and I'm glad to see that we did have a plan for that. So, greatly appreciate it. So, I I I was trying to stump you
050guys on something, but like I said, when I did have question, I've seen that video of that presentation multiple times, uh I was concerned uh with this, but everyone I've spoken to in other parts of the state that have served at the same capacity have all agreed this is great. So, thank you for that. you did a great job on the pres presentation and the fact that like uh Madam Secretary said going out there to the community and getting the people involved certainly has paid off and we're very grateful to that. Thank you members. All right, we can move on. Great job. Next presentation, Dr. Little, I think you're going to remain there and it is the um 5.4 2025 2026 calendar adoption. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. We are very excited to share
051the recommendation and have you vote on later this evening uh next year's school calendar. Some folks can't quite imagine that it's time to prepare for next school year already and we are certainly kneede in that preparation. Uh but for the community to know like we are ready to share next year's calendar as well and then Dr. Giri will give an overview of some engagement we did around start and end times for schools. So just some context on the the calendar work uh actually and the the start and end times work. We had a group come together which really led this. But as the end result, we wanted to really stamp that we're continuing to make some really big investments in our students and our educators through this calendar. Uh so for next year, we will
052continue to have 180 student instructional days. Uh that's really important in terms of of the work we have to do with our students and their growth and development. That's also an important threshold to meet for us to qualify for adsy as well and that funding. Uh we also are continuing that with those three days of contracted professional learning. In this calendar sample, it's those days in the orange in August. So that's when teachers come back before students have shown up. Uh we're doing work with them to make sure they're ready for the school year. This calendar also maintains the three days of professional learning that's beyond their contract. So those are days where teachers and other staff can come in, receive extra compensation, but really get invested uh in their craft and in their learning.
053those show up in the light shaded pink days. There's one in August, January, uh, and March. One of the things that you and others may notice in this calendar is that first pink day actually got moved up and that was from direct feedback we got from our principles and our educators is they wanted that first day to come early before school started so they felt better prepared uh, for when students began the first day of school. And then we do have four preparation days. Those are like no contact days for teachers and staff. Uh we have two principles in the room or we did have two principles in the room. And I will say that principles love to get creative and try to find things that they can do on those those preparation days, but
054they're really protected time for teachers uh to be in their classroom doing the work that they need to do. Those are represented in the blue days on the calendar. Uh we still have two bad weather days built in. Uh those are in green. There's still the one in February. Another change you will notice here is the second one actually moved to April. So there's a potential 4-day weekend uh in April next year as a result of where that uh second bad weather day is placed. But I will also note that there still remains a three-day long weekend in October. Uh so having that moment to take a break sort of midway through that first semester uh is still there. And then we will continue in our elementary space for prek to 5 with our ADI
055days. So those 20 days are still in June in that sort of dark fuchsia color. I mentioned that there was a group that came together to really create these models. Uh I want to thank them publicly because they put some time and energy and real good debate uh into this. So that was a group of principal representations. We also had ape represented along with different parts of our central staff and cabinet. uh that group essentially created models that we then put out to the community uh for input on. So we got over 3,300 responses to this input survey on our calendar and start and end time questions and you can see that that represents community members. Most of the responses came from parents and then we also had a significant number from staff and teachers.
056consistently uh they supported the calendar B was what it was called in the survey, but that's the one I just walked through with you. Uh and really the the way to distinguish them is where that bad weather day was. So this one was the one in April. And now Dr. Gary will talk to you about conversations we had uh related to start and end times as well. Although you won't be uh voting on this particular item, we did want to share with you the importance of the time we took to get input from the community and from our campus leaders uh in particular around start and end times uh as uh during doc Dr. Sor's visits last year. There was some concern expressed over the elementary students um starting earlier. And so we wanted to
057make sure to to really probe for this and find out how does our community truly feel about this. So, we offered two options, one that had middle school starting first and one that h continued with our current start and end times. And as you can see, we also sent out the survey uh at the same time. Many of you probably took this. Uh there were over 3,300 uh correspond um respondents. And uh the community said, you know what, we like our current uh start and end times. And so, uh we recommending that we keep our current start and end times. Again, you won't be voting on this, but we really wanted the community to know um that we value everyone's input. Thank you, Dr. Gary. The other thing I would just call out here is
058there were a lot of questions as we were going through the engagement related to ACE on what their day would look like and and where that extra hour would show up. So, this also has confirmed that Garza and Sigin's hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 400 pm uh for next school year. So that builds in those extra 60 minutes of opportunities. Again, that's part of what we're engaging families on right now is how that time gets used. So just in summary, we are asking you to approve later in the agenda our recommendation for the school calendar. Uh and based on that input survey, we are recommending calendar B. Uh and then there is no vote on the start and end times, but we would be maintaining current status quo and then clarifying the times for
059Garza and Sigin. So thank you. Thank you members of the board. Do we have any questions regarding the calendar or this particular agenda item? No. All right. Thank you, Dr. Gary, Dr. Little. Next agenda is agenda item number six, Lonear Governance Time Use Tracker Report. Joseph, nice to see you. Good evening, board president, members of the board, Dr. Sorenson, Hoya ISD, community members at home and in the audience. Good to be with you. Um so I am pleased um to bring the to the school board um an update on our Lonear governance work um specifically um about the our Lonear uh governance time tracker. Uh but first I'll I'll I'll share just a bit of background about Lonear Governance um and uh our year one work. So what is Lonear Governance? It's a continuous improvement
060model for governing teams, board, and super board and superintendent who choose to focus intensely and unapologetically on only one primary objective, improving student outcomes. Um, as a part of our board, our lonear governance work, we also learned the mantra, student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change. Um and it's in that frame that I'm going to I'll I'm going to walk through um the time use tracker tool. Uh so since January um included in the um in board in the board agendas was the time use tracker report. It tracks how we spend our time in board meetings um as it relates to um student outcomes and adult behaviors. Um so this evening I'm going to walk you through um the the March 12th time use tracker um time use tracker report. So um I'll start
061with um the the uh the far left column. Far left column represents um the Texas framework for schoolboard development pillars. Um and then the next column is is student outcome minutes and then adult behavior minutes. Right. Um and then the farlight right column that orange is the other topic minutes. So that's time we spend on other topics other than what's aligned uh to the framework pillars student outcomes and behavior outcomes. Um so aligned to vision and goals. You can see that we spent zero minutes on student outcomes at the March 12th meeting. Um and zero minutes on adult behaviors as it relates to vision and goals. Um we spent under progress and accountability 23 minutes um receiving, discussing and voting on student outcome goal monitor reports according to the board adopted monitoring calendar. So that
062is a part of our Lonear governance um goal progress measures presentations. That's what accounts for those 23 minutes um minutes evaluating the superintendent on student count uh outcome goals, GPMs and constraints. That was zero. Um and we also spent zero minutes on performing uh minutes performing board self-evaluations using the lonear integrity instrument. Um so the board has done um its self evaluations in previous meetings. Um and so subsequent to to those meetings um we would have minutes into that green that green box. But um then we have advocac sorry systems and processes. So minutes discussing, debating and voting on agenda items including the consent agenda. So on the March 12th meeting, we spent a total of five minutes. Um and so that accounts for other than other topic minutes. Um under advocacy and engagement, we
063spent we spent zero minutes in that space. Um and then aligned to the pillar of synergy and teamwork. Um, so this is minutes fulfilling statutoily required public hearings, forums, and in our co public comment period. Um, minutes fulfilling statutoily required Lonear governance workshops and minutes in close session as permitted by law. And so that little bitty number on there, 134 minutes, um, accounts for, um, synergy and teamwork aligned time. Um, and then you can see totals at the bottom, right? So total time focused on student outcomes was 23 minutes at our last board meeting. We spent zero minutes around adult behaviors and then go again I'm going to go to the far right other topic minutes. So addressing other topics, we spent a total of 76 minutes. And that that yellow orange box in the
064middle, 99 minutes, that's the total amount of time um that we spent in um in our the public part of our board. Um so below that, that turns those minutes into percentages, right? And as you can see, um, we spent a total of 23 and approximately 23 and a quarter percent of our time, um, addressing student outcomes. Below that, you'll see um, a few more tables um, that are also tracked meeting to meeting. Um, I'll start with the top left smaller table there. Um, and that is trust the number of school board members present. Um we had everybody was present in our last meeting all accounted for 100%. Um just below that the number of consent agenda items that we had 13. So um and then we had other agenda items. So those could be
065our action items um were there were seven total. Um and then to the far right these two relate to one another. This is about our goal progress our goal monitoring right and goal progress measures. So that 23% of the time um the number of goals that we discussed um was we discussed goals one and two um we looked at early grades literacy excuse me yes early grades literacy um as well as um Texas Tech Kia math um so goals one and two both GPMs one and three and so you so that's two two goals discussed um goals on target um zero goals on target because we had one goal that was slightly we we we determined as slightly off and then the other goal we would turn in was an update only. Um and so
066GPMs discussed to with with GPMs on target zero. Um so with that I I'll take any questions um from the board members about anything about the the time use tracker. Um the only other thing I will add is that uh uh as a part of each boot board booting meeting going forward I'll be doing a brief presentation over how we spent our time according to the time use tracker um the previous board meeting. Members of the board do we have any questions for Joseph? Joseph, if I remember correctly, I think in terms of um the amount of time that we're spending on student outcome um would be considered favorable if it's over 50%. Is that the That is one of the benchmarks that we are working towards. Yes, ma'am. That being said, we have a
067ways to go. So, thank you for doing putting this together for us and for holding us accountable because that's important. If we're going to hold other people accountable, we have to hold ourselves accountable to that, too. So, thank you. Thank you board president. Can I comment? Yes, please. I think one of the things as we grow as a board and I think that you know Diana and I have had conversation about this as our conservator is that one of the reasons I think in reflection um as we grow um we want to spend a lot of time also um and this is something we can think about as a board. How much time do we also spend um on other items because we want to be transparent to the public. that isn't just about board
068goals and just isn't about goal progress measures because some of the presentations that we do here are intentional for transparency because we want to share information not only with the board and share with you all the work that is going on whether it be about staffing or budget or you know other items but we also want to be transparent with the community and with our stakeholders and So, so you get dinged for lack of a better term for what it is that we are attempting to do around transparency um as we work on other work streams throughout our organization. And so I want us to think about as a board um as we grow, right? How much of that um do we do um in order to maintain transparency with our community um as that
069is something that our community really requires and and needs of us right now. Um and and and we should give to them. So I I want us to also be really thoughtful and careful about that as well. Um, and it's something that I have actually talked about with our conservator as we continue to grow in the Lonear governance process. But thank you for the accountability because as we then do our instrument, right, as we evaluate ourselves, we'll have to keep that into account as we then also score ourselves next time around our time use. So, thank you board president for allowing me the time. Well said, Joseph. I'm curious, how often will you be reporting this to us? I will be providing this report at each meeting. At what? Every meeting. Every meeting. Good. So,
070do you think we can do better than 20 flunking? No. Thank you. We do have some work and I appreciate the comment that Secretary Pena said about being transparent. You know, there is a lot of work still being done behind the scenes that many of us as board members do. So I do want the people to understand not only visits at the campus but the work that's laid out in front of us prior to preparing for meetings such as this. So thank you for that Joseph. Good presentation. Thank you and thank you for the reminder. Next item on the agenda Joseph um I think uh that concludes your presentation. Diana our conservator miss our tea conservative report. Good evening president Alvarez Dr. Sorenson members of the board. I will be brief tonight as I will
071be more extensive in my report next board meeting. We are still um at the point where we just have exit criteria right now. Um and I'm going to read those to you so that you know what these are. These have already been established and we will be establishing goals and goal progress measures under each of these. So the first one is by May 2029, La Hoy ISD board of managers and/or board members will score a meets focus on the LSG integrity instrument in the areas of vision and goals, progress and accountability, systems and processes consistent with high-erforming governance teams. So the reason that we're doing Lonear governance, it's not to check a box. We need to be and exude an LSG board. And by that, it's very different than what typical boards look like, sound
072like, and act like. And so I hear you're holding yourselves accountable. I love it. That's you're right. We need to do that. But this is this is a huge intervention. And so I want to say I'm okay with the time right now because again part of the reason that you are here is because of the lack of transparency and all the things that were happening. So we want to make sure you want to make sure and your superintendent wants to make sure that the community understands the work that you're doing. And so to do that Dr. Sorenson has and her team have to submit these reports and share with you like all the data that they have so that you can understand what's driving the decisions that you eventually have to make as a board.
073And so I'm not concerned with the time. We will get better with that. But right now the focus is doing the work right making sure that student outcomes do change. So, um, the goals and goal progress measures that we're going to be that I'll be writing for this plan are going to be about policy and also about the behavior of board members. And again, I mentioned to you last time, some of these things are going to be things that you are not doing or never did, but that the board previous to you uh did. And again, that's what got us all here. So we want to make sure because eventually board members are going to be uh coming back on and so these expectations are going to be for them as well. So that's why
074we we want to create this. Um so the second one is by 2029 La Hoya ISD will conduct a comprehensive financial audit of dis district financial controls addressing all findings and meet all federal and state regulations. Financial Accountability System Resource Guide and the Texas Education Code. So, you've been hearing about this audit. It is in the process of being finished and sent to the district. I believe that in May, in one of the board meetings, you will receive and the whole community will get a presentation on what those findings are. So based on that audit and those findings we will write the goals and goal progress measures for this uh for the exit criteria. So that's why we don't have any yet. So um we will we will have this and do this in May.
075uh for April we'll do the the first exit criteria for the board and then in June we will do the third exit criteria which is by May 2029 La Hoya ISD will ensure that all campuses in the district are rated an overall A to C in the Texas Accountability System. We I understand that we currently are rated a B. We want it to go up. So we're challenging ourselves. you hear it all the time with how the team speaks and how you guys speak, we want to be an A. So, um just because it has that doesn't mean that um that that's going to be good enough. I think for us, good enough is going to be an A because we know that our kids um are capable of doing it. We know we have
076amazing staff, leadership, and wonderful teachers that are going to be able to get this job done for us. So, we are waiting for the special ed audit that I know is almost done as well. We'll be using these uh all these scores that you've been seeing, these assessment scores, BOI, MOI, we're going to get endofear scores. And so, we're going to use those to craft uh specific goals and goal progress measures for ourselves. Also, we'll be able to utilize uh preliminary star scores and any other data that we have. So we will work with uh the superintendent and the team to make sure that these goals and goal progress measures um are going to challenge us right all of us to challenge all of us to be able to meet these exit criteria so that
077by the time everybody that's here leaves we are leaving La Hoya ISD a much better a much higher achieving district and a district that has exceptional governance. So, at the next board meeting and in the months following, I will only be presenting on the second board meeting and I'll be sharing with you the report from the month before. I I um send reports to the agency by the 5th of every month and so by the time they approve the report um it's a little bit later. So, you'll be getting them uh a month uh in the rears. Does anybody have any questions for me? Members of the board, do we have any questions for Dr. Bara? Awesome. Thank you. We have none. Thank you, B. And thank you for making the trip down here to
078visit with us. All right. Next item on the agenda is consent agenda item is number eight. Do I have a motion? I move to approve the consent agenda. Do I have a second? I second the motion. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Ladies and gentlemen, next item was on the agenda will be the close session. It is 704 close session under section Texas government code section 551.001 551.0 uh 0 uh 551.071 551.072 551.074 551.076 551.082 551.129 and 551.0821 0821 concerning and any all purposes permitted by the act including but not limited to the sections and purposes listed below. Um being that we have that we are now in close session. Ladies and gentlemen, we're back from closed session. It's 9:26 p.m. First item on the agenda under agenda item
079number 11 is action and discussion. Approval to resend previous board action for emergency responder communications enhancement system CSP-2025-32 and approval of new award. Do I have a motion? I move to approve item 11.1. Do I have a second? I second the motion. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Next item is 11.2. Approval of the 2025 2026 La Hoya ISD school calendar. Do I have a motion? I move to approve item 11.2. 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 11.3 approval of Texas teacher evaluation and support system. Do I have a motion? I move to approve item 11.3. Do I have a second? I second. All in favor signify by
080saying I. All oppose. Motion carries. Next item on the agenda is 11.4. Consider and take possible action to propose the non-renewal of chapter 21 term contracts for certified employees including administrators at Sapata Elementary School, Sigin Elementary School and Garza Elementary School in accordance with the program change affecting the campuses. Do I have a motion? I move to propose a non-renewal of chapter 21 term contracts for certified employees including administrators at Sapata Elementary, Sigin Elementary School and Gasa Elementary School as presented in close session in accordance with the program change affecting the campuses and to authorize a superintendent or her designate to provide notice to the effective employees of this action. I further move to authorize a superintendent or her designate to retain one or more licensed attorneys to serve as the board's designates on any
081hearings requested on the proposed non-renewal authorized under this motion. 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 11.5. Mr. President, um I would like to recuse myself for this item 11.5. Let the record state us. Let the record be noted that Celso Gomez is reclusing himself from this agenda item which is 11.5. 11.5 is take possible action to adopt findings of fact and considerations. Correction F to find adopt findings of facts and conclusions of law in the matter of La Hoya Independent School District versus Roxanna Pñena uh docket number 052-L12-2024 before the honorable Javier Gonzalez independent hearing examiner take possible action to terminate term contract of Rox Roxanna Pñena. Do I have a motion? I move
082to adopt the findings of fact and conclusions of law issued by the independent hearing examiner in the matter of La Hoya Independent School District versus Roxanna Pena TA docket number 052-LH-12-2024 as presented and to terminate the term contract over Roxanna Pñena effective immediately. Do I have a second? I second the motion. All in favor signify by saying I. All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Gomez, the following item is agenda item 11.6, I should say. Take possible action to adopt findings of facts and conclusions of law in the matter of La Hoya Independent School District versus Jose Vasquez, docket number 069-LH-12-2024 before the honorable Javier Gonzalez, independent hearing examiner, take possible action to terminate term contract of Jose Vasquez. Do I have a motion? I move to adopt the findings of fact and conclusion
083of law issued by the independent hearing examiner in the matter of La Hoya Independent School District versus Jose Vasquez TA docket number 069-L12-2024 as presented and to terminate the term contract of Jose Vasquez effective immediately. Do I have a second? I second the motion. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Ladies and gentlemen, next item is agenda item number 12, calendar. Let me go over those important dates. April 25th, 20, correction, April 2025 is autism month, autism month. April 2025 National Poetry Month. April 2025 school library month. April 2025 annual elementary school field day. April 7th through the 11th of 2025, National Assistant Principal Week. April 18, 2025 is a holiday. April 21st through the 25th of 2025, Public School volunteer week. April 22nd, 2025, School Bus Driver Appreciation Day.
084April 23rd, 2025, National Administrative Professional Day. April 23rd, 2025, Regular Call Board Meeting. April 30th, 2025. Dia delos nños. Those are the dates for the record. Um, agenda item 13. This gives us an opportunity as board members to make any comments or remarks before we conclude tonight's meeting. Does anyone have anything to say? I'd like to say thank you to to Dr. Soren, to the cabinet, to our teachers during the emergency um preparedness, the tornado warning, the flood, everything happened that day. So, thank you for reacting so quickly, keeping our children safe. Anyone else like to make any comments? Um, I will just say really quickly that last Friday, um, we celebrated our great librarians across the district. Um, they create incredible spaces for our students to learn. And so, I really want to shout
085out to our librarians. And then, of course, this week, we lift up our assistant principles across the district. And so, thank you, assistant principles. We know that you are just side by side, shouldertosh shoulder, doing great work with our principles, and couldn't do it without you. So, thank you so much for all that you do and all that you give every single day to our teachers, to our students, to our families, to our communities, but most of all to your principles. Great. Any other board members like to add anything before we conclude? I have a personal uh remark that I'd like to say. Um I was very fortunate in my prior u life. I was a uh Texas Highway Patrol and I'm glad to see that we have one of our our own Victor Morris
086who was a member of uh Texas Highway Patrol and my recruit class of A2000 show and go. So I'm glad to see that he's here working with the school district. Seeing that we have no one else that'd like to provide remarks. Do I have a motion to adjourn? I move to adjourn this meeting at 9:34 p.m. Do I have a second? I second the motion. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Meeting is adjourned. Everyone have a good evening. [Music]