The meeting today is July 23 2012 and the time is 6 54 p.m. The board met earlier
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, July 23, 2012
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this evening in closed meeting any action arising from discussions in a
closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting. This is a
meeting open to the public not a meeting of the public. There are students and
other guests present. To maintain decorum respectful behavior is expected.
Disruptive behavior and or comments will not be allowed. The KDSD Board of
trustees meets monthly in a regular meeting generally to receive reports
from the staff and to take action on recommendations from the superintendent
whereas there may not be lengthy discussions or a litany of questions
tonight please know we've had the agenda for over a week as a board we've
reviewed each agenda item in a public work-study session with the
administrative team where we were able to ask and receive answers to our
questions. Thus as a board we should have appropriate knowledge and should be
prepared for our responses regarding the content of this meeting tonight. Mr.
Fraley will you please verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of
the Texas open meetings law in notice for to notice of this meeting. Madam
president we are in compliance the first item is the hiring seven
and resignation of professional contractual personnel.
Mr. Huckabee?
I move that we recommend the board approve the personnel report as recommended by the superintendent.
Second.
I have a motion by Mr. Huckabee, a second by Dr. Proctor.
The board approves the personnel report as recommended by the superintendent.
Any discussion?
Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote.
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye. Motion carries 7-0.
This item is level 3, FDB-2012-13-6015 and FDB-2012-13-6016.
Madam President.
Mr. DeBrell.
I move that the board deny level 3 student transfer appeals in case number FDB-2012-13-6015
and FDB 2012-13-6016, thereby withholding, upholding the decision of the level 1 and level 2 hearing officers.
I second.
I have a motion by Mr. DeBrell, a second by Mr. Mohalski,
that the board deny the level 3 student transfer appeals and case numbers FDB 2012-13-6015
and FDB 2012-13-6016, thereby upholding the decision of the Level 1 and Level 2 hearing officers.
Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote.
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion carries 7-0.
At this time, please rise.
Dr. Proctor will lead us in the pledge to the American and Texas flags.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
On the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.
Do we have any scouts in the audience? I don't see any this evening. Thankfully, they get the summer off from this activity.
And at this time, we have a recognition. Mr. Adams, join Mr. Stanford.
Superintendent Fraley. For recognition this evening, I'd like to ask Mr. Lenny Shad, KIC's Chief Information Officer, to come forward.
On June 22, Mr. Shad was presented with the Next Level Leadership Award for Corporate
Culture Enhancement by the Houston CIO Leadership Forum.
The Houston CIO Leadership Forum is a group of the most engaged and well-respected IT
executives in the CIO community and consists of the top technology people from various
industries in the region and this year they have awarded one of our own with the Top Leadership
Award.
Mr. Shad received this award for his work within KDISD building a culture that facilitates
the current mobile learning education plan through the mobile learning device projects
and bring your own device program.
So now not only has KISD's technology initiative has been recognized within the education community,
they're now being noted by others in the technology field.
Congratulations to Mr. Schad for his recognition and leading the technology-driven environment
this community has come to know.
Congratulations, Mr. Shadd.
At this time, we will have our open forum.
We have five speakers who have signed up.
Each speaker will have five minutes to make your presentation.
Laurie, you're first.
Legally defined as man?
Pardon?
Your microphone wasn't on.
Would you please begin again?
I am flesh and blood, legally defined as man, in order to put it in the right jurisdiction as by law.
One of the things is on the foundation.
One, no one's ever proved to us that that's been voted on and approved by this board.
I have also said I don't consent to it. I know a lot of other people in this community don't consent to it.
One of the questions I have, is it a public entity or is it a private entity?
Because you can only work with public entities.
On this memorandum of understanding, the foundation itself, there's several things on here that are quite disturbing.
There's no limits on the amount of things in this understanding at all on use of our school facilities, our copy machines, our paper, our books, our computers.
There's no limit on it whatsoever, no dollar amount.
It's an unlimited contract.
I know when I sign a contract, it's always got a term limit.
This has none.
I know it has an ending, but it should have a definite ending on it.
This also has on the restricted funding.
It says here that funds from the foundation will be accepted by district in accordance with applicable law and district board policy as a district board or its designee.
We were told last week or the week before that the board would vote to accept anything, not a designee.
Key problem in this memorandum of understanding.
standing.
There's a lot more in here, guys.
There's employee donations in here.
There's where they can't pay for employees.
So do these teachers who put enough time and effort in
have to volunteer their time because Mr. Fraley says so?
Or the board says so?
Because it specifically states in here they can't pay them.
And do our teachers really want to deal with this?
You guys aren't thinking this through.
This is exactly what Putin kicked out of his country last week. It's called a non-governmental organization.
Look it up and learn something. It might help you understand why we so despise this coming in.
The foundation has not provided any form of financial compensation for any district officer, employee.
It's not supposed to give any money back. But does it give any gifts back? It doesn't say so in here.
We need that also.
On the tray of say-so, someone totally different, such as Walmart, can go out and say,
KDISD does this.
I say no.
And that's the authority you're given to this foundation.
No, I do not consent to this or the foundation.
It has not been approved, and the people do not want this.
A lot of the things said at the last meeting are in this memorandum of understanding.
Liars. Liars.
The next thing you need to know about, you need to watch the California state parks.
I asked Mr. Fraley where $350 million in investments came from and why we let teachers go.
This is associated with the Attorney General of California
You know exactly what I'm talking about
They're in the CAFR accounts
They're catching you guys
You need to come clean with our community
Because I don't even have to research these
Our community will research these
There are two people in the California state now
With the state parks director
Her name is Ruth Coleman
Who resigned
And her second in command was fired
over 54 million dollars discovered when they were telling everybody they did not
have any money one minute now the fraud the deceit the crap that's going on in
this district needs to stop people like me do research and we try to come to you
and ask you questions and you tell us to sit down and shut up it's time for that
stop it's time for there to be a way for us to talk to you and to get some
answers and mr. Fraley speaking answers thank you for giving us an answer that
took two seconds after I had to embarrass the heck out of you last week
on a pedophile stalking our children thank you for letting us know that he
finally is out of the district because there was a mom the month before asking
and you ignored her now during the the last race people were saying that you
you had communication.
If I have to come up and talk to you guys the way I did last time to get an answer,
it's uncalled for.
Clean it up, guys.
Our next speaker is Lisa Babin.
For the record, Ms. Fox?
I am Dr. Lisa Babin, and it is on there.
and you will recognize that I don't like you and I don't respect you and you've
earned that and if you'd like to know why and when that started I will gladly
speak with you in private about that I'm positive you could care less I am dr.
Lisa Babin I earned it and I expect it to be recognized I do have two children
in this district I'm very proud of my children and I'm proud that they're in
Katy ISD schools with what I've had to endure with this district I would not
keep my children in here if I didn't think that they were getting a good
education and if I didn't care enough to volunteer here would I work for Katie
ISD absolutely not do I enjoy volunteering with Katie ISD most
definitely and I right now would like to volunteer for the foundation I
understand they are looking for volunteers to sit on the thing and I
think I've happily qualified as I run my own business and I run a foundation of
our own. I'm not real happy at all with this foundation. I have many, many, many
questions. I'd like to know what the mission statement is. I'd like to know
what the website is, the email address. I'd like a copy of the bylaws. I would
like for y'all to turn this down tonight. I'd like there to be a lot more research
and public dialogue and discourse and discussion. This was rammed and crammed
into our community and it should be taught and caught. I'd like names and
and numbers of those 48,000 that Ms. Crockett quoted,
I'd like to call them and see how that that impacted
their community and whether or not it's beneficial,
whether or not they're still in operation.
There's many, many, many questions that I have about this
and I just don't necessarily think we need it.
I think we're competing against tons of 501 out here
and it takes away from other things
that are in the Katy community.
And there's a big energy vibe going on out here.
As many of you know, the Economic Development Council has rebranded Katy, and it's wonderful.
I love the little symbol.
I think it's, you know, very positive and just exciting.
It's just really kind of cool.
I mean, you've got to admit, it's a neat logo.
It really, really is.
And I think if they tie that in with the trains, because that's why I moved here.
I love trains, and I think I'd like to see more of the trains.
I mean, honestly, we did a really good job with those little train statues around town.
I'd like to see more of those.
are really what I know they're expensive but I would love to do one I think
they're cool but you know we don't need to take away from that and we don't need
to take away from the Economic Development Council raising money the
Chamber of Commerce the Little Leagues church donations will go down I kind of
think we might have enough in corporations and that makes me question
why are is why mr. Fraley are you so desperate desperate to ram this down I
I don't recall there being discussions of the board mandating that this was the first
directive that they gave to you.
I don't recall that at all.
And I understand there's grant opportunities out there.
I personally had brought a grant opportunity to the district under Dr. Merrill's tenure
and it was with character accounts and we could have easily gotten 225,000 to fund the
character accounts program because nobody applied.
Nobody won that grant.
I wrote a grant presentation for it and the gentleman here in KDISD under Dr. Jaton, who
is no longer with us, neither is the other gentleman, they could have cared less.
So it isn't that you don't have people to do grant writing opportunities here, it's
we've never utilized that.
We've had them on staff.
You have people in the community that could do that.
And I love the idea of a fishing tournament.
I love to fish.
But the problem is if you do a golf tournament, you're taking away from an already existing
KDISD golf tournament. I mean I would like this to be delayed. I would like
there to be more discussion. I would like there to be more open and openness and
transparency. I just don't think we're totally there yet and ready for it and
I'm just not really happy. So if you would please just you know
let's answer some questions. Let's open the dialogue and let's be honest and
real. Lori's right. It's time to let's stop and knock off all the garbage. I
There's just too much malarkey going on, and I'm tired of it.
My kids see it, and they understand it, and they get it.
And that's pretty sad because I've got an autistic, and he understands it.
So please, let's just stop and let's think about this before we continue to ram it and cram it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Cormac Craven.
Superintendent, members of the board, let me start by thanking you for the donated time
that you give to the district and for what I believe to be a well-run school district.
I thank you for all your efforts.
However, I'm here tonight at the risk of sounding like a broken record.
I'm here to once again state that the Linebarger Law Firm is not qualified to collect taxes
on behalf of this district.
In support of my position, I've distributed a flyer demonstrating a timeline that I believe
to be relevant.
In the interest of time, I will move to the first point.
In 2003, Law Embargo was sued for racketeering and corruption that touched nearly every major
city in the state of Texas.
Rather than fight that case, they settled it for an undisclosed sum of money and made
that settlement confidential.
One would wonder why a law firm whose reputation has been challenged would pay money to settle
a lawsuit rather than fight tooth and nail.
They have a hundred lawyers at their disposal to do such a fight.
The answer is probably a year later when a founding partner in the law firm, Juan
Pena, got thrown in jail for corrupting government officials. Mr. Pena was thrown
in jail for bribery and he was attempting to collect or to get a
contract similar to the one that we have under discussion here in Katy
Independent School District. Now these are verified facts, these are not Google,
this is accurate information I have to move forward to 2010 in the interest of
time in 2010 I bought Mario Perez the attention of the board at that time I
explained to the board that there was some scandal going on in school board
elections in Fort Worth subsequent to notifying the board of that information
mr. Perez has been indicted by Tarrant County for corrupting school board
elections. Now this should be dear and near to all of us. This is an attack on democracy itself.
Free and fair elections are being turned, are being used by a partner in the linebarger law firm
to gain a buck. Now we will point out that this is an indictment. He has not yet been convicted.
That was the same argument used against Mr. Pena, used in support of Mr. Pena when he had been
indicted and yet convicted there is sufficient probable cause here to say
that a line burger partner has been indicted for corrupting school board
elections just off the road now I also have here a copy of a search warrant for
another corruption scandal going on in Dallas with a County Commissioner
persons of interest named here the line burger law firm and a senior partner
within the firm we cannot brush this stuff under the carpet and say these are
one bad Apple incidence. It's ridiculous. Look at what I've given you. That's only part of a history
of a pattern of what I believe to be unsavory conduct, and this district should not be doing
business with such a firm. I could go on and mention the $800,000 missing under FBI investigation.
I could talk about the indictment of the Harris County employee who was stealing taxpayer money
here in Houston. We could move forward with numerous instances of bad conduct,
but no one's asking the question why. Why are we still engaging with this firm? Why
have we not shown them the door? The school board elections should have been
the nail in the coffin. It's a corruption of school board elections. We have people
in the Middle East, young men and women, fighting to uphold our beliefs and yet
we have people here gaming the system. It's simply not right. I have a lot of
respect for the board. I have a lot of respect for what you do, but these
questions remain unanswered. I hope some of these will be held to account. I hope
they're showing the door. I hope the opportunity is given to a competitor, a
competitive law firm who has agreed to charge less for their services than
linebarger I'm sure the hard paid paying taxpayers of Katy Independent School
District would enjoy that break the argument that the school district
doesn't pay those funds is frankly ridiculous somebody is still paying and
it's the hard-pressed taxpayer who may or may not lose their home as a result I
thank you for your time I thank you for the work you do but you are really
missing the boat on this if you move forward and continue engaging linebarger
for the tax collection contract.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Craven, for your comments.
Our next speaker is Leslie Phillips.
Hi, and thank you for the opportunity to address the board.
My name is Leslie Phillips, and I'm co-president of Katie Autism Support.
I also serve on the board of the National Autism Association and am the parent of two affected children.
Last September I came before the board to discuss aversive strategies that in our view constituted child abuse of students with autism at Exley Elementary.
In that case, children with autism in a self-contained classroom who were largely nonverbal had vinegar soaked cotton balls forced into their mouths
and they were made to walk on a treadmill as methods to gain compliance.
compliance. The case was referred to the DA then to a grand jury. At that meeting, we
proposed on behalf of our families suggestions which included installation of cameras in
self-contained classrooms. Mr. Fraley asked that we send him these requests in writing
which we did. To this date, there's been no response. Throughout the school year, KD Autism
Support Board members participated in meetings with special ed personnel and the use of cameras
were discussed we were told repeatedly that the topic was under review and the
district's attorneys would advise on the legal issues especially student privacy
months went by and we had continued to ask for updates my email of May 9th to
Sandy Becker asking for a status on the issue was not answered or acknowledged
finally I contacted mr. Fraley's office within hours of my phone call Letty
Cardona of the parent and patron assistance center called to discuss my
concerns. Ms. Cardona assured me that cameras in classrooms violated federal
law according to FERPA which assures student privacy. She said among other
things we would love to put cameras in classrooms it would be a dream come true.
She explained that campus principals now have to monitor these classrooms and it
was a big administrative inconvenience to do so. She stated she would hate
having a camera in her own office. I noted there are cameras everywhere and
that surveillance is not uncommon.
I asked her if she would send me the relevant links
to FERPA laws, state laws, or district policy.
She said she was unable to do so,
but suggested that I Google FERPA
and that that would keep me busy reading for a long time.
These are quotes.
Finally, she noted that it might be detrimental
to our children if cameras were in classrooms
because it might show how much time and effort it took
to educate a child with autism,
a statement that demonstrates lack of understanding
of federal special education law.
I explained this whole thing was confusing since I was aware there are school districts
who place cameras in classrooms and doubted they were knowingly violating federal law
to do so.
She suggested I check on Texas law that it might be different from state to state but
had no references to provide.
I then contacted the Texas Education Agency and eventually was referred to the Legal Services
Department when I was contacted by Montgomery Myler of TEA.
we discussed the issue at some length and he told me that cameras in
classrooms are allowed both under FERPA and under state education code he
forwarded the relevant code section to me section 26.009 the information miss
Cardona gave me was inaccurate if we had not had the wherewithal to follow up we
would be operating under the false assumption we had no further recourse
this is unacceptable our efforts to negotiate with the school district in
good faith have been thwarted at every turn for an entire school year. This is a legitimate
safety concern and our families deserve better. It's critical to understand that students
in schools do not have the same legal protection as citizens elsewhere. When I contacted Region
4 after the Exley incident, I was told that aversive techniques, while not usually considered
best practice, are in fact legal. Criminal code and educational code differ. Students
Students in general education could legally be subjected to these same aversive practices,
but because they're able to communicate with adults, there would be witnesses and there would be public outrage.
In short, gen ed parents would not put up with this.
If you douse dry hay with kerosene and lit a match to it, you should expect it to burn.
If you put poorly trained teachers and aides in self-contained classrooms with children with challenging behaviors
and no surveillance, you should not be surprised when abuse occurs.
It's what we've set ourselves up for.
These cameras could give our children a voice in these difficult cases.
Unfortunately, many of our children are nonverbal and have poor skills to tell people what's
happening.
We're going to be sending school board trustees a letter from Katie Autism Support requesting
that this topic be added to the agenda of a future meeting.
We've worked with the district for nearly a full year and have received nothing but,
but well basically no response whatsoever.
So I will respectfully be contacting you and asking that you work with us so that we can
look forward to working with the district on keeping our students with autism and other
disabilities safe.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Phillips.
Our fifth and final speaker is Catherine Masha.
My name is Catherine Mascha and I'm speaking on behalf of KD Autism Support Group.
I am a parent advocate for families with autism and I have three affected children.
I'm also a registered nurse with over 20 years of experience.
I'm here today to voice my concerns regarding KDISD's continued failure to notify parents
of their legal right to vaccine exemptions.
We first contacted KDISD's Health Service Department in 2009 about this issue.
We met with Carol Moore, KDISD's Instructional Officer for Health Services, in 2010.
This meeting did result in a change on the immunizations due form sent out by KDISD.
The form was slightly modified with a reference to a website.
This revised form, still inadequate in our view, is not being used at the campus level.
Despite repeated requests that communication to parents contain complete information regarding their ability to remain compliant with Texas immunization laws by choosing exemptions,
we continue to hear from parents who say they have been told by their school nurse that they must vaccinate their children and bring in copies of the records to remain in compliance.
clients. I myself received an email from Mcmeans junior high saving that these immunizations
were state law and that proof of immunizations is due in order for my child to receive their
schedule at student orientation and to attend class. Two days later, I received an automated
phone message repeating the email that I received. Neither of the communications mentioned the
parents legal right to vaccine exemptions. I believe Katie ISD school nurses are either
ignorant of the law in Texas giving parents the right to choose or refuse
vaccinations or they are deliberately misleading parents because they have a
bias towards vaccination exemptions may be used to delay spread out or refuse
vaccinations Texas state law holds the rights of parents to determine if the
recommended immunization schedule is right for their child the CDC this may
release this statement encouraging physicians to consider individual
differences when determining whether the recommended schedule is right for the
the patient. Furthermore, the Institute of Medicine is holding ongoing meetings regarding
the long-term effects of adhering to the recommended schedules, acknowledging there's a gaping
hole in vaccine safety science. Over $2 billion has been awarded by federal vaccine court
for individuals suffering vaccine injury, including death and lifelong disability. The
Board of KD Autism Support respectfully insists that KDISD communicate with health services
personnel throughout the district that they provide complete unbiased
information for parents and guardians regarding Texas immunization laws. The
science regarding vaccine injury is still unfolding. It is your
responsibility to objectively inform parents of the law which
thankfully in this state allows them the basic human right to choose whether the
risk-benefit ratio and a student suffers a vaccine injury. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Moshe, for your comments.
That concludes the open forum,
and we will begin with our report from Mr. Haskett about community education.
Good evening, Mrs. Fox, Mr. Fraley, and members of the Board of Trustees.
I want to thank you for this opportunity to discuss the KDISD community education program with you tonight.
As you can see from the history of the program, KDISD has offered community education classes for over 30 years.
Just today I found a copy of the fall 1981 community education brochure where we offered seven classes on Katy High School campus.
The program was started under the direction of Mr. Richard Bruce.
It grew to over 125 classes and over 400 online classes.
What types of classes do we offer?
The symbol for community education is the
umbrella because under the umbrella of community education there are all kinds
of classes offered to all kinds of age groups from elementary junior high high
school as well as adult education classes we offer classes for adults
anywhere from 18 80 years of age a couple of years ago we had an adult take
our AutoCAD class who was in his 80s. He had been a draftsman his entire career
and he just wanted to keep up to date with the skills needed as well as
to keep his mind sharp. So we do offer a lot of variety of classes to our adults
as well as our students. Each semester KDISD offers ESL and GED classes. These
These are sponsored and paid for by Houston Community College and housed on one of our campuses.
We have usually between 200 and 300 adults taking ESL classes and from 75 to 100 taking GED classes.
Not everyone in our ESL classes are low-performing individuals.
We've had some that have come into our program that have master's and doctor's degrees from other countries
but don't have a good command of the English language.
So they're taking ESL so that they can enhance their job possibilities.
We offer a lot of safety classes like first aid and CPR,
hunter safety education for students and adults.
We offer academic classes such as the Duke Talent Program for our 7th grade students.
We offer PSAT and SAT classes for our sophomore and junior students.
We offer classes in information technology and finance.
We have a lot of our individuals that take our classes or are doing so for job possibilities.
They take classes such as paralegal training, medical billing and coding, information technology or information classes, computer type classes.
The enrollment in our program has been kind of on a roller coaster the last five years.
In the fall of 2007, we, in an effort to save money, did not mail our brochures out like we normally do.
We mailed out postcards to the patrons in the district, and you can see our enrollment went down to 750 students in the fall, taking a total of 892 classes.
And it bounced back up and went over 1,800 in the spring of 2008.
Last year, we did not get our brochures mailed until October.
and as you can see our our enrollment took a big hit went down to 661 students
taking 738 classes normally we average about 1100 in the fall 1150 in the fall
and about 1500 in the spring so not having our brochures mailed out last
year really impacted our enrollment well there are some benefits to offering
community education classes there are a lot of programs in the state not many in
our area but there are other programs in the area one of the benefits is lifelong
learning for our patrons in the district whether it's taking technology classes
just finance classes arts crafts safety classes whatever it might be lifelong
learning is a big benefit we offer after-school Spanish on many many of our
elementary campuses in this last semester we had 233 of our elementary
students taking after-school Spanish the National Merit Review program and our
other PSAT and SAT programs increase the number of students that receive
scholarships in the district and it also helps with the standards and the
recognition that Katie ISD receives for high scores we have an average increase
of usually 15 to 20 points per student not every student but an average of
about 15 to 20 points between the sophomore year in the junior year for
those taking our National Merit Review program we had a student a couple of
years ago or last year actually at at Seven Lakes High School raised his score
from 162 to 212 we got a thank-you letter for offering that program to to
to the students in the district.
As I said, we offer classes to enhance employment, technology
classes, foreign languages, and so forth.
And the KDISD patrons get to use the campuses
that their tax dollars help fund.
But it does cost the district.
Our revenues for the last few years
have been up and down.
And this past fall, they went way down past school year,
I should say they went way down. We didn't have the income because our
Brochure was not mailed out until October
But the overall cost of the district including the salary for the community at election specialist
Half of that salary being moved to elections the cost went from 38 5 to about
52-8
Through the end of June this year
So that's kind of an overview of the KDISD community education program and I'd like to
open it up if you have any questions for me.
Anyone have any questions?
Dr. Proctor.
When you run a course, you charge a fee for the course.
Yes.
And did the fees charged per course cover the instructor salary for the course?
I'm looking at direct instructional costs.
Direct instructional costs, yes.
The fees cover the cost for the instructor.
We don't offer the class unless there's enough to pay the instructor their hourly rate.
And other costs are we try to cover those also, postage and preying and so forth.
but we definitely cover the cost of every course we offer and what a follow
make sure that microphones really help a follow-up what what is contracted
services mean I don't have any idea what that means I'm not sure I understand all
the terminology myself some of those are people that are not employed by Katie
ISD I think is what that refers okay so that could be an instructor that could
be an instructor that may be teaching a hobby they may be teaching cooking for
example and may not be a certified teacher. Great. Thank you. Yes. Any other
questions for Mr. Haskett? Mr. Maholsky. So is it or has it ever been a goal of
this program to operate on at least a break-even basis? That is the long-range
goal. It's gotten better but hopefully it's going to come closer to a
break-even point in the next few years.
All of them. So with that do we kind of
understand what level of enrollment with
the various classes that are offered
would be needed to to get there? We're
trying to budget so that all these
expenses besides the salary for the
teacher all the expenses for printing
the brochure and mailing it and
everything is covered including the
salaries for people that are there to
supervise the programs in the evening.
Yes. Mr. Adams. Mr. Haskett, to participate in these classes, the eligibility is what I'm looking at.
Do you have to be a patron or live in the KDIC school district? No, sir, you do not.
We've had some from neighboring districts say that classes offered that we, that other districts may not offer,
so that we have people from other districts coming in and taking our classes.
Thank you.
Dr. Proctor.
You know, I think it's a worthwhile point when you show that courses are available to
people who pay taxes in KDISD but don't necessarily have children in KDISD.
and personal anecdote I was looking around the end of my cul-de-sac and for
the tax rate that the people on my block which is like half of a block that
totally covers the shortfall in this program and none of those people have
students in Katie I see I mean I was surprised the number of people don't
live in my neighborhood but I guess summer old like me and did they take
community education classes some did mr. Haskett yes we considered raising the
cost to completely cover the cover to cover we have raised the cost quite a
bit in the last couple of years and again we're we have a neighboring
district offering some of the same classes and I do a cost per hour
comparison between our district and a neighboring district to the east and
ours are a little more expensive than the ones to the east actually okay
mr. Dubrow what's the average cost to someone taking the one of these courses
What are we looking at?
What's the average cost per student?
Per student?
You need to look at this.
It's all over the waterfront.
The cost varies depending on how long the course is offered.
Some classes just meet maybe twice.
Some maybe meet 24 times in a semester.
So it varies.
So the cost is, I would say, anywhere from $5 to $15 per hour for the student.
but it's somewhere in the middle of that I would imagine.
Mr. Haskett, this is a wonderful service that we offer to our community,
and I know our community appreciates it.
In light of tight, tight, tight budget times, if this became a concern,
are many of these classes available throughout the Katy community,
just not through Katy ISD?
There are a few courses that are offered.
offered, like I say, we offer over 400 online classes and we were the first in the Houston
area to offer many of those courses.
Since we started doing that, a neighboring school district is offering some of the same
classes, so is Houston Community College.
But as far as a lot of our classes are pretty unique to Katy ISD only.
Okay. Any other questions? We appreciate very much your report and your service to our district
and to our community. Thank you. I'd like to invite you to come out and see our classes
some night. I've participated in a few over the years too. Thank you very much.
This time we will move to the consent agenda.
Can I?
I have one question about one thing on the agenda.
So should we pull that one thing?
Or just ask the question?
Or can I just ask the question?
I mean I don't know what's appropriate.
Pleasure of the board.
Go ahead and ask your question, Dr. Proctor.
the on the salary schedules and all that I've heard that we may or may not have a
reorganization is this tied to a reorganization or not okay I'm fine
okay the chair will entertain a motion move board trustee to prove the
consent agenda is recommended items 1 through 17 second of a motion by mr.
Mr. Adams, in a second by Dr. Proctor, that the Board of Trustees approves the consent agenda as recommended in items 1 through 17.
Is there any discussion?
Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote.
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion carries 7 to 0.
Our next item, the memorandum of understanding for the Education Foundation.
Chair, we'll entertain a motion.
Madam President.
Mr. Adams.
mood more trustees approves memorandum understanding with the ktisd education
foundations president
second
i have a motion by mister adamson a second by mister to braille
that the board approved the memorandum of understanding with the ktisd
education foundation has presented any discussion
uh... question
doctor proctor
in here did it specifically say
did we retain the right
to our, I guess, copyright KDISD,
and if at some future time there becomes a reason
that we did not want to be affiliated with this foundation,
can we say they can no longer use this?
Raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
Opposed?
Motion carries 6-1.
We have a 2012-13 stipend schedule.
Madam President.
Mr. DeBrell.
I move that the Board approve the 2012-2013 stipend schedule as presented.
Second.
Motion by Mr. DeBrell.
Second by Mr. Mohalski that the Board approves the 2012-2013 stipend schedule as presented.
Any discussion?
I have a question and if it can't be answered tonight, that's okay because I had asked this.
What's the total cost of stipends that relate to non-classroom, in-classroom, in normal school day activities?
I don't know if I phrased that right or not.
I'm on that?
Okay, thank you.
I went through the stipends today.
It's very hard to tell me what's non-instructional or what is instructional,
so let me give you a little bit of a breakdown.
I can define athletics and I can define fine arts,
but then when you get into department chairs, bilingual teachers, special ed, FFA,
and then OAC teachers, you know, there's a gambit of things.
Do you want them all clustered together or do you want me
to separate them very specifically?
Because if you look at your stipend list, it's very broad.
I have a media webmaster that's included for the campus,
yearbook, National Honor Society.
So it's real hard for me to divide the line.
I can break out athletics and fine arts pretty clean
but then it gets very murky.
Okay, like I give you a question
and you can then probably decide how to break it out.
Okay.
FFA.
FFA, we spend about $186,000 a year.
Is that a stipend to hire an ag teacher or to run the FFA program?
And or is FFA part of a classroom activity?
A combination of both.
They have things that they supervise afterwards like the ag barn, those type things.
Stipend is for beyond the day.
It's not for their instructional day.
That does not include their salary that we pay them as a teacher.
I guess what I'm looking at is anything beyond the day.
I'm not looking for department directors and bilingual and all of that.
Okay.
Beyond the day, well, I can tell you team leaders is about 758,000.
Bilingual teachers is 700,000.
Special ed is 214,000.
FFA is 168.
so if I cluster all those together and take out fine arts and athletics,
I still have a few little things in there left.
That's about $376,000 that are left.
Okay, and that's district-wide?
That's district-wide.
Okay, thank you.
Does that help?
Yes, ma'am.
I have a motion by Mr. Dubrell, a second by Mr. Mahalski.
the board approves the 2012-2013 stipend schedule as presented. All in favor say aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 7 to 0.
Okay we have a notice of public meeting to discuss the budget and proposed tax
rate. Mr. Moore. Yes we touched on this at the last meeting when we were doing the
budget presentation and this is the official notice of the public hearing
that will appear in the newspaper I believe you read it into the records
last week it appeared in the August 9th newspapers and the actual public hearing
is on August the 20th what the board is doing tonight is approving the tax rates
that will appear in those publications and the tax rates that are the budget
has been built on and been proposed is the same as it is for this year, which is $1.1266
for the maintenance and operation tax and a debt service tax rate of $0.40, which is
unchanged.
So you're actually approving the posting to include those two tax rates.
Mr. Moore, this has been unchanged for longer than one year.
Yes, either five or six years.
Either 2005 or 2006.
I can't remember which.
Thank you.
Mr. DeBrell.
Madam President, I move that the Board approve the publishing of the Notice of Public Meeting to discuss budget and proposed tax rate, a maintenance tax rate of $1.1266 per 100 valuation, and a debt service tax rate of 40 cents per $100 valuation.
Second.
Motion by Mr. DeBrell, a second by Mr. Huckabee.
Just a comment.
I apologize. Go right ahead.
The 40 cents, that's actually less than what was projected when the bond was initially passed. Isn't that correct?
Yes, when we were doing the bond planning back in 2010, I think we said that it would reach a maximum of 44 cents.
Okay, thank you. I just wanted people to know that.
That's a good question. Dr. Proctor, I apologize for stepping on that.
Any other discussion before we vote? I have a motion by Mr. DeBrell, second by Mr. Huckabee.
The board approves the publishing of the notice of public meeting to discuss budget and proposed tax rate,
a maintenance tax rate of $1.1266 per $100 valuation, and a debt service tax rate of $0.40 per $100 valuation.
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion carries 7-0.
Item 4, the contract for delinquent tax collections.
Madam President.
Mr. Griffin.
I recommend that the board award the contract for delinquent tax collections to Lineberger, Gordon, Blair, and Sampson, LLP.
A second.
I have a motion by Mr. Griffin, a second by Mr. Michalski,
that the board award the contract for delinquent tax collections
to Leinberger, Gogan, Blair, and Sampson LLP.
Any discussion?
Dr. Proctor.
You know, I have serious reservations about awarding it to this firm.
When you look at their proposal, and I've gone over it three times,
the 13 cases that they have settled give me a lot of concern.
And I know what settle means.
Settle means pay to make it go away.
And in addition to that, the information like we got tonight and like we've had before,
this is a group that's going to represent us to the public and directly interface with the public.
And I'd ask a question.
If this was a superintendent that we were going to hire, and we had two superintendents,
and one had a resume like Purdue Brandon and one had a resume like linebarger and
we knew the background like we do in both of these that the times that they
have had issues problems criminal activities and alleged criminal
activities would we hire superintendent linebarger over superintendent for do we
live in a time where there's a lot of distrust of government officials and I
don't care what you say we're elected government officials and a lot of
skepticism in how they make their decisions and why they make their
their decisions i have and i know y'all have showed me our code of ethics on occasion uh
i do not believe their behavior either as a firm or individual meets our standard of ethical contact
and conduct and I would urge the board not to award this contract for that very
reason and also the second reason since it was an RFP they said that they were
going to charge a 20% collection rate and Purdue Brandon said a rate
negotiated by the board now if we go back and ask them to change their rate
basically what we're doing is saying when you bid something to Katie will
award it to somebody we like but then we'll negotiate the other teams proposal
with you and I don't think that stands public scrutiny one iota
Okay, this time we'll proceed to vote. All in favor raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
All opposed? Motion carries five to two.
You have your reports, sir.
Contestant tax collection rate for 2012-13 and the Coral Investment Report.
Next meeting will be August 20th, Monday, a work study and Tuesday, regular meeting, 28th of August, because we have school beginning on August 27th at Monday.
Already.
There's no further business.
This meeting is adjourned at 7.49.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
The motions and votes for this meeting have not been recorded here yet. Whether any were taken is not stated either way. The agenda and the recording above are the primary sources.