The board will now convene an open meeting today is Monday January 12 2015 and the time is 539 p.m
Katy ISD · Board Work Study Agenda
Katy ISD Board Work Study, January 12, 2015
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- 0:00 to 1:20 Item 3 The presiding officer will verify that the meeting has been duly called and notice of the meeting has been posted for the time and manner required by law. 3.1 Consider Board approval of accepting professional staff resignations and hiring of professional contractual personnel. (Texas Government Code 551.074: For the purpose of considering the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline or dismissal of a public officer or employee or to hear complaints or charges against a public officer or employee.)
- 1:20 to 3:06 Item 4 Consent Agenda 4.1 Consider future Board approval of the proposal for adaptive supplies and equipment.
- 3:06 to 8:45 Items 5.1 & 5.2 5.1 Discuss and consider future Board approval of a proposal for the construction of junior high school #14. 5.2 Discuss and consider future Board approval of materials testing services associated with junior high school #14.
- 8:45 to 10:20 Item 5.3 Discuss and consider future Board approval of the Gulf Coast State Planning Region Mutual Aid Agreement.
- 10:20 to 21:27 Item 5.4 Discuss and consider future Board approval of election sites for the May 2015 Board Election.
- 21:27 to 33:45 Items 5.5 & 5.6 Discuss and consider future Board approval of Board Policy CH (LOCAL). 5.6 Discuss and consider future Board approval of the 2015 - 2016 Instructional Calendar
- 33:45 to 35:37 Items 5.7 & 5.8 Discuss and consider future Board approval of grant ratifications. 5.8 Discuss and consider future Board approval of the January 2015 budget amendments.
- 35:37 to 51:14 Item 5.9 Discuss and consider future Board approval of the Annual Financial Audit Report.
- 51:14 to 1:01:53 Item 6.1 Discuss legislative priorities for the Texas 84th Legislative Session.
- 1:01:53 to 1:27:47 Items 6.2 - 8 6.2 Discuss possible revisions to Board Policy FDB (LOCAL). 7.1 Regular Board Meeting – Tuesday, January 20, 2015 8. Adjournment
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Item 3
The board met earlier this evening in closed meeting any action arising from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open
meeting
Mr. Fraley, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas open meetings law in regard to the notice for this
Meeting it's present. We're on compliance. The first item is the personnel report
Mr. President. Mr. Dubrow. Move that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the superintendent.
I have a motion by Mr. Dubrow, seconded by Mr. Adams, that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the
superintendent. Is there any discussion?
Hearing none, we will proceed to vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye.
Motion passes 5 to 0.
Please note that Mr. Griffin and Mrs. Fox are unable to be with us this evening.
Next I'd like to see if there are any scouts in attendance today.
No, they're just getting back into the swing of things with the new year, so hopefully we'll see some next week.
Next item we were now at the consent agenda portion of our agenda item 4.1 mrs.
Item 4
Stevenson I believe we're gonna come talk to us about some supplies and equipment
Welcome Mrs. Stevenson, Happy New Year to you.
Good evening. President Mohoski, Board Members, Superintendent Fraley, I have only one contract to present to you this evening and it's the proposal for adaptive supplies and equipment.
equipment. This particular contract will give us a list of specialized vendors from which to purchase this type of equipment. It is designed for our special needs students and although we do a lot of this purchasing through cooperatives, there are a number of vendors that our staff has found products that they prefer for the use of these students and so we need to have a separate contract as well in addition to the purchasing that we do through the cooperative. There's two sections of the contract. One's for the purchase of items and the other one's for the purchase of equipment.
And again, we're just approving the entire list of vendors that we're submitting.
They are qualified to be a KDISD vendors.
And for Section B, it's the repair of these specialized items.
And again, all the vendors are recommended for approval.
The total expenditure on this contract is about $228,000 a year.
It will be a three-year contract.
And any expenditures over $5,000, we will require that the staff get multiple quotes
so that we make sure that we are all getting fair market value.
But again, like I said, many of these items are just single items,
and they're very specialized, so they're usually smaller purchases.
Okay.
Thank you, Mrs. Stevenson.
Are there any questions or comments related to this item?
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Items 5.1 & 5.2
Now we'll move to the discussion action portion of our agenda.
I believe the first two items have to do with the construction of Junior High School No. 14,
and Mr. McElwain will be presenting to us.
Great.
Thank you good evening President Moholsky, Board Member, Superintendent Fraley.
I'm extremely pleased to be here this evening to present the proposal for the construction of Junior High number 14
which as you know is located within the Hawks Landing subdivision which is located just north
of Tompkins High School on Hawks Prairie Parkway between Gaston Road and Spring Green Boulevard.
And I had mentioned to you that that there's a number of projects because of their completion dates and
scheduled completion dates that we've had to move with haste on and
I have to give recognition to the team and some of the team is here tonight Nathan Fuchs from my office as well as Rick
Blan and Greg Prince from PBK those folks worked extremely hard to get this project
out on the street for proposals and back prior to Christmas.
As you know there was a number of bond elections approved in the area in November and we wanted
to get this one out on the street before there was a lot of other projects out there.
And we are extremely pleased with the results.
The results indicate that Dramala Construction is highest ranked.
Rusty Klaus and Russell Warshak are here this evening from Dramala Construction.
construction. The total project, the anticipated total project cost is under what the bond,
the total bond allocation for the project is. The construction, recommended construction
amount is $31,964,500 and the total estimated project cost being $39,240,257. And once again,
Dramala, the recommended contractor for this project, completed Seven Lakes High School,
which and as you know this Hawks Landing is a refined repeat of that particular project.
They completed Seven Lakes High School as well as recently they successfully, or sorry Seven Lakes
Junior High, as well as recently completing successfully Randolph Elementary and Davidson
Elementary and prior to that Wilson Elementary. So we've had very good success with Dramala on
on this particular project.
And we're obviously anxious to commence construction.
It's hard to believe we're in 2015,
and this particular campus is scheduled to open in 2016.
Thank you, Mr. Wackelwain.
Are there any questions related to this contract?
I have one.
I did notice in the contract that you're
estimating a substantial completion date of May 31,
2016.
I'm just curious is that how that has corresponded with other
Junior highs that we built especially would be approximately the same timing
I didn't know if it was if you know rest of our contract to we have a little bit of an earlier
Completion date on some of the athletic fields just so we have a win time there
Okay, so we we have confidence that we can meet all those timelines get it open in 2016
Okay
The other thing, I guess the other question I would have is where was this,
these bids I guess, compared to I guess expectations. Certainly see that
it is coming in a little bit below the the bond allocation for this which
we certainly like to see. We are pleased, we're cautiously
optimistic on our future projects because of the volatile market that's
out there in the construction field but we are pleased and the three
the three proposals that we did receive were fairly competitive insofar as they
were fairly close in dollar amount. Do you think that by having this
rating getting up pretty quickly after the bond referendum passed, you know,
made some of a difference? I think that was beneficial for us. You recall Mr.
McElwain-Stanley was having the plane on the tarmac fueled and ready to take off.
That's correct and that's correct and we're proud this is the very
This is the very first plane taking off of the runway so to speak all right
Well, we look forward to seeing the progress as it develops on that is there any objections to moving this item to consent
Okay, I believe you have the next one as well the next item is is directly related to the prior prior item
materials testing is is a
Aspect of every project which we have to undertake in it
and we have to do it with a third party, independent third party, not associated with the contractor.
We are recommending HTS for materials testing on this particular project for an amount of $98,500.
That's in line with what we had expected for this project,
and the funding for this work is actually included within the total project cost.
and HTS I should mention HTS also it's successfully completed the seven lakes
junior high project so they have a they already have a working relationship with
not only us but with Jermala okay any questions side of any objection I'm
moving this item to consent okay great thank you very much mr. McElwain thank
Thank you.
Our next item is to consider future board approval
Item 5.3
of the Gulf Coast State Planning Region Mutual Aid Agreement.
We have Chief Hopkins and Mr. Bremer that will be presenting.
Welcome, gentlemen.
President Mikulski, board members, Superintendent Fraley,
we're pleased to bring to your consideration tonight
a mutual aid agreement for disaster response and recovery.
recovery. This agreement is with the Houston area, Houston-Galveston area council of governments,
which includes all of the entities within that regional, the Gulf Coast region. And
this agreement will allow us to share resources during disasters, share resources for the
recovery, and it ensures our eligibility for FEMA refunds, funds for disaster recovery.
So it's very important that we have this in place before the next disaster
Any questions
For this to to your knowledge has Katie ISD ever applied for a FEMA reimbursement. Yes, sir during the hurricane Ike
we've had some
six years worth of
recovering some of those funds that we have not recovered totally yet and this
this type of agreement will help speed those things up in the future okay okay
is there any objections to moving this item to consent okay thank you very much
Jim our next item is to talk about board approval for election sites for the May
Item 5.4
May 2015 board election. Mr. Bill Haskett will be presenting. Welcome, Mr. Haskett.
Thank you, President Mahalski, board members, and Mr. Fraley. Appreciate the opportunity
to present these options to you for your consideration for our 2015 Board of Trustees election.
This past year during our May election, we had four early voting sites and ten election
Day sites. In addition we had branch early voting split between Seven Lakes
High School and Morton Ranch High School. Several considerations we'd like for you
to consider. The elimination of Wolf Elementary as an early voting site. We
currently don't allow the counties to use our elementaries at all for their
elections and this would be consistent with that requirement that we have for
them also we'd like to recommend moving the voting from the four corners area
here in the ESC to the Leonard Leonard Merrill Center rooms 142 144 it'd be
more parking and more privacy and so forth for the voters there and less
congestion than we would have here in the four corners area as you can see by
by the chart registered voters here in Katy ISD we have several precincts that
have an excess of 20,000 voters our total number of registered voters as of
our November bond election we had over 150,000 voters of that number of the
150,000 we have four sites Seven Lakes High School single Ranch High School
Taylor High School and Morton Ranch High School with over 20,000 voters. We did purchase additional
equipment in December of this past year to expand our voting sites and we have four options to
present to you tonight for your consideration. This is the voting map as it currently exists
with our 10 voting sites. Of those four options, first option would have five
early voting sites instead of our four that we've had in the past and it would
have 12 Election Day sites instead of 10. Option two would have five early voting
sites and 13 Election Day sites. Option three, six early voting sites and 12
election day sites and option four six early voting sites and 13 election day
sites
let's go back to option one option one we're considering as you look at the
bottom of that chart the 2015 recommended early voting sites would be
the Leonard Merrill Center instead of wolf and we would be adding May Creek
Creek High School instead of Wolf, Leonard Merrill instead of the Four Corners and May
Creek instead of Wolf Elementary.
In addition, we would be adding two Election Day sites at Pattison Elementary, which would
give some relief to one of our sites, Taylor High, that has over 20,000 voters, and to
to another site would be Schaefer Elementary,
which would give relief to Seven Lakes High School.
Option two would have the same five early voting sites,
Leonard Merrill Center instead of the Four Corners,
May Creek instead of Wolfe,
and then we would have three additional Election Day sites,
the same two that I mentioned earlier,
Patterson Elementary relieving Taylor's overload,
Schaefer relieving Seven Lakes overload,
and Beck relieving Seven Lakes.
Excuse me, Beck relieving Cinco Ranch.
Option three, we would have six early voting sites,
the five that we had in options one and two,
plus Morton Ranch High School. We would have two Election Day sites under this
option, both the same two that we had in option one, Pattison and Schaefer.
Option four would have six early voting sites, the same six that we've had in
option three, plus we would be adding Beck to give some relief there. So we
we have four options for your consideration.
Of these four, KDISD administration would like to recommend
that you consider option two as the one you select.
That would add one additional voting site at May Creek.
Go back to it.
And two, or excuse me, three voting sites at Patterson, Schaefer, and Beck Junior High.
We have enough equipment based on what we've purchased to support this option and have some backup equipment should any of the equipment fail.
So that's our recommendation.
We hope that you'll consider that.
Okay.
Thank you, Mr. Haskett.
Open it up for any discussion or questions.
I have a question.
Do we not have enough equipment to support option three or four, or do we have the equipment, just wouldn't have the backup?
we would not have we would have backup but not it would be very slim that's why
I'm recommending that going with option two we would still have some backup
equipment but to be safe I'd rather have more backup equipment and not risk
having a failure
okay thank you
This is the distribution of the equipment based on the four different options.
Thank you.
Mr. Adams?
Mr. Haskett, I must admit I'm a little bit surprised that we're pulling,
with consideration of pulling a wolf out of here.
We have a lot of folks that know the voting and the pass and all that.
We have a lot of folks that do work in that area.
I live out in the Katy area and that's very close to their offices there and I'm just
a little bit surprised that that would that's that's a recommendation of the administration.
As I've mentioned Mr. Adams we would maintain Wolfe as an Election Day site but eliminate
as early voting site so that we would not have the voters in the elementary
school during a school day that's your that's your primary consideration that's
primary consideration and we have not allowed the counties to use our
elementary's for voting sites during election days
but I can I can live with that as long as it's on election day that it remains
right it would remain as election day site I have one question on on the
election day sites that are proposed specifically with option two here so you
had Schaefer elementary as one is Schaefer elementary in within the city of
Fulcher or is the line at 1463 and only Randall I guess my question is this and
it's been kind of brought up in these conversations a little bit before is
that and I don't know to the effect that we can even accommodate this but there
I'm assuming there may be city elections going on for I know city of Katy will
have have some going on I'm not sure about the city of Fulcher but is there
any way to kind of coordinate those two and i know even those are separate elections even in katie so
you have to appear at two different places really to vote and both of those if you if you're a
resident of the city of katie i'm just curious if there's any consideration there of trying to
we have contacted fulcher in the past and if we did a joint election we would be using the
same site but we're using our own equipment our own election workers and so forth just like we
do with the city of Katy and that's one reason one consideration we gave the
reason we're recommending Schaefer is so that those residents in precinct 3006 I
believe it is Firethorn and right would be close to those voters no I know
because I know they have yeah Firethorn has had to drive to seven lakes on
Election Day and that's getting more and more difficult as congestion gets thicker
through there okay one fun question mr. Adams do we coordinate with mud
districts when they have their elections during the even numbered years we do
because the county does not have the equipment we've conducted the mud
elections for a couple of my districts this past election year but they'll they
should be able to agrees to rent their own equipment this year from the county
but will they have their sites where we have our sites they may it may not I don't know a lot of
times they'll have their elections at their mud buildings and this type of thing okay so is there
a consensus for which option we would prefer we will not be moving this item
to consent tonight because we'll actually have to formulate a motion
based on the option that we prefer I can like what the administration's
recommended
okay so what I'm hearing is we will move with the with the recommendation of
option two and we will we will take act make that as a discussion action item at
the regular meeting next great thank you mr. ask
hey our next item is to discuss future board approval of board policy CH mrs.
Items 5.5 & 5.6
Bonnie Holland welcome Holland happy new year to you what what do you have for us
this evening. Based on a recent event that occurred several months back, we would like
for the Board to please consider some changes to the local policy at CH. State law does
allow the Board the ability to delegate to the superintendent or designee the authority
to contract for the repair of equipment or replacement of equipment as needed in the
event of an emergency if it's necessary for the health and safety of students. As you
As you know, we recently had a situation at Martin Ranch High School where we really did
need to have the ability to move forward very quickly.
Had we not had a board meeting, we would have had a problem.
We would like to ask the board's consideration to include at this policy the ability for
the board to delegate to the superintendent or superintendent's designee the ability to
to move forward in making those repairs or equipment needs.
President, obviously if something bad happens, you'll know about it.
And my job is to let you know what we recommend doing.
And unless there is some opposition, we will be authorized to go ahead and take the action.
It will be with your full knowledge.
This would require formal action.
That's the timing of it.
Right.
If you remember correctly on the ductwork we were talking about earlier, that occurred
occurred and we actually amended I believe the agenda still had the 72-hour
window to be able to do that but you know but worked out in that case but but
catastrophic situations
okay there any questions or further discussion on this item hey is there any
any objections to moving this item to consent heard okay thank you mrs.
Holland and I believe you are going to stay with us and talk about the 2015-16
instructional calendar we apologize for being a month late bringing this forward
but we were waiting for the state to make some decisions they were looking at
revising the testing calendar and we wanted to make sure that we were
bringing you calendars that could actually be considered there's still a
a comment period for the revised testing schedule, but from the information we've been able to
obtain, we believe we are safe in moving forward and that we have allowed windows for testing
where they need to occur. We did prepare two calendar options for consideration. These
options were presented to our KD Improvement Council and the KD Improvement Council preferred
option B. And then we sent these out to the campuses and have been gathering feedback
from those campuses who wish to participate. Interestingly enough, there was some variation
in the campuses, but overall the preferred option was A. There were campuses that preferred
B and there were some campuses who had no preference because the calendars are very,
very close. One thing that we are disappointed in in our calendars is that
we are having to reduce one instructional day. There simply was no
way to provide for two bad weather makeup days that are holidays and keep
Memorial Day as a holiday and we've heard from our community that that's
something that's important to them and so we were committed to trying to meet
the needs of our community, but that did in reality cause us in order to have those two
days free to have to reduce an instructional day.
Both of the calendars are very similar as you note when you look at them.
We don't have a great deal of flexibility because of all of the different testing periods
and windows in the spring.
On calendar A, Martin Luther King is designated as a staff development day and bad weather
day. One of the concerns of KIC was that that is a little early in the year for a
bad weather day because typically our weather bad weather occurs later and that
the April 29th date would likely be used anyway for bad weather makeup. So that
was the rationale in part for the decision of the Katy Improvement Council.
On option B, Martin Luther King is designated as it has been for some time
as both a student and staff holiday.
And then on April the 29th, we have a professional learning day,
which would become the bad weather makeup day if that should become necessary.
And then May the 27th is designated as student and staff holiday and bad weather day.
So on both calendars, we have protected Memorial Day.
really there's so little difference between the two the board really could go with either one
and I think people would be satisfied any questions about the calendars so executive
summary what what are the what is the big differences there are very little differences
is really, Mr. Adams, the main one is Martin Luther King is on one is maintained as the
holiday for students and staff, and on the other calendar it is a professional learning
day for teachers and a holiday for students.
And it is also designated as a bad weather make-up day.
So the other day it maintains Martin Luther King as a holiday for all students and staff.
That's the main thing.
Very little difference between the two calendars.
Any other questions?
Mr. President.
Mr. DeBrow.
Ms. Holland, which one do you prefer?
Really and truly the staff could work with either one.
I am somewhat of the same opinion as our KD Improvement Council.
I think January is a little early for Bad Weather Makeup Day and probably the staff
is going to end up giving up our April 29th day no matter which calendar as a
makeup day how long have we had Memorial Day as the second I guess bad weather
makeup day I don't know the number of years we've had it first I will tell you
we've had it for a number of years that way we've been very fortunate yeah how
many times have we actually had to go to school on that day I guess probably two
I know one year, because of the way that bad weather fell, we actually had to use Good Friday as the bad weather make-up day.
That was not a real popular thing.
But again, we're just so closed in at both ends that we just don't have much fun.
No, I absolutely understand that.
And I know that that was an issue last year with several people who had made plans to travel and whatnot.
And having to go to school on Memorial Day was not something everyone liked.
however I guess my question is is it worth giving up an instructional day or
that that's a tough one some feedback we got was that students and staff were
really tired last year and I think they felt like they really needed some time
for with their staff and other things as well as they needed the day so it's
It's really hard to say.
We are still hopeful that the legislature will, in its grand wisdom this year,
determine if they would just give us three days, that would be so helpful
because then we have a little bit of flexibility to balance the semesters a little better
and then have a little bit of flexibility in the spring.
Well, regardless, I guess we're going to have to make a decision on 15-16 probably,
even if the legislature were to act this year.
I don't think there's much we can do.
It's not going to be early enough to help us this year.
Okay.
I have a question.
It looks like...
as though Martin Luther King Day is going to be a student holiday in either
one of these calendars yes why is it that an option a is a staff development
day on option B what day is the staff development day in place of that people
the 29th one calendar has April the 29th as a holiday for everyone
one I'm kind of reverse those two it's more likely that if we needed to better
weather days that would occur and we would have to use the April in May dates
do you know when Easter is on in 2016 I'm sorry when is Easter guys good
Friday I guess on in 2016 do you know good is that the 29th
Let me see if I have that right here.
I think it's that.
25th?
25th.
I don't have it on the calendar.
Let's see.
I think it falls early.
I believe it's the 25th of March.
25th of March.
I believe it falls early.
But you have a student holiday then.
Okay.
Our holiday students.
It's early.
very careful to make sure that we try to those that is April 29th then a specific
is there any significance to that date or is it just a on the option a April
the 29th is both a student and staff holiday right but it doesn't but it
doesn't correspond with a national holiday no correct
correct so if we have to use that day as a bad weather day it will not conflict with
any type of holiday and then we kind of added a holiday on the friday before before memorial
day and then that would that would be the weather day if they needed as opposed and
there were some individuals on our caddy improvement council that also liked the fact that you
had that extended holiday right before the very end of school but again if we
had bad weather day then the 27th would have to become a makeup day but you
would still have Memorial Day does that work with final schedules and everything
else at the secondary campuses with you guys I guess you have May 31st the first
and then school ends on the second? Yes sir.
For three days. Question B. Okay. Do we have a preference for any other questions?
B? I'm hearing B.
Ms. Sahligan, which one was preferred by KIC?
I'd rather prefer B, as did our KD Improvement Council, because I think Martin Luther King,
a lot of people do take advantage of that as a holiday, students and some staff members.
And I think it's a little early for a makeup day.
the K improvement council did Doris be I guess so to speak lightly okay okay I
think we have a I think we have a consensus there this this one also will
we will not be moving to consent because we will it'll be a discussion action
item next week with the proper language in the in the motion so hey Thank You
you mrs. Holland appreciate you walking us through that next item is about grant
Items 5.7 & 5.8
ratifications mrs. Butterfield we have the next couple of items for us welcome
happy new year to you thank you thank you happy new year to y'all I have three
very small grants for ratification tonight totaling eleven thousand five
hundred dollars
That's it for grants.
President, I'd like to know if the two of those grants are to help on the new
Taylor robotics team.
Looks like we have the Ecolab Foundation grant and the Schlumberger robotics
grant, both for $5,000 each.
Okay.
Very good.
Good.
Do we have any questions related to the grants?
Okay.
Is there any objection to moving this item to consent?
Okay.
Thank you.
Let's talk about budget amendments.
Budget amendments.
Okay.
We only have one budget amendment tonight that's changing anything.
It's to recognize revenues and increase the expenditure budget of $6,200,
hundred dollars and that's to self administer the highly qualified
paraprofessional testing those pairs will pay the fee and that will produce
its revenue and the expense will be for the procurement of the testing and
that's to have those positions tested as as needed on those on those elementary
school campuses okay any questions related to our budget amendments looks
like we're right in line with expectations then very little changes
okay any objections to moving this item of consent heard okay all right Thank
You mr. better cool and finally we are going to talk about our annual financial
Item 5.9
audit report mr. Smith good evening good evening mr. Mahulski mr. Fraley and
board Texas Education Code 44.008 requires us to have an annual audit and
one could argue and in our department anyway that audits ongoing but it
formally started in June and our audit team from Whitley Penn came in June and
spent several weeks in the summer to do the interim audit and they showed up
again in October and tonight's not the final portion of the audit it'll it'll
happen over the course of their end of this month with all the appropriate
filings but this is kind of the highlight and the culmination of it is
to be presented to you and our firm Whitley pin has been our audit firm for
for the last few years as Whitley pin and there's two representatives there
here this this evening Tom Peterson is our audit our audit partner Lupe Garcia
is our audit manager the manager on this audit and then Justin prop is a senior
auditor with Whitley Penn and they're going to come and speak to you guys
about the highlights of the audit it's one of your attachments you have a 178
page document and a smaller 10 page document that is a single audit and then
this is the financial statements of the district and I would welcome mr. Garcia
to come up and and speak to you about the the audit
Welcome gentlemen.
Good evening Board President, Superintendent, members of the Board.
It is our honor to be here tonight to present to you the results of the District's Financial
Statement and Compliance Audit for Fiscal Year 14.
This is going to cover the period that begins September 1st 2013 and goes
through August 31st 2014. As Mr. Smith already referred you to the
comprehensive annual financial report it is a fairly lengthy document before I
start hitting the highlights of the report I did want to mention that not
every school district can prepare this document on their own much less prepare
the comprehensive version of this document so I wanted to mention that and
commend the staff for being able to put this document together themselves
without the assistance of your auditors. That saves the districts some money.
The comprehensive annual financial report is broken down into three sections.
There's the introductory section, the financial section, and the statistical section.
The bulk of our work occurs in the financial section. That's the portion of the report
that we opine on. Page one of that section begins our three-page auditor's
report. In that report we state that we've given the district an unmodified
opinion that is the highest level of assurance that can be placed on a set of
financial statements and we state that the audit was conducted in accordance
with governmental auditing standards. Following behind the opinion is going to
to be management's discussion and analysis and then we begin into the
basic financial statements. The school district has two sets of financial
statements. I won't get too much into the accounting detail or a theory but you
have two sets of financial statements. One that's on the full accrual basis of
accounting and one that's on the modified accrual basis of accounting. The
first set of financial statements you'll find on page 17. This is the statement of
net position. This is going to include everything that the district owns, which
includes all the capital assets, land, buildings, vehicles, equipment,
infrastructure, less everything that the district owes, primarily the district's
bonds, and that drops down to your bottom line number of total net position, which
is $240.6 million. Exhibit B1 on pages 18 and 19 kind of tell you how
did we how did the district arrive to 240.6 million dollars if you drop down
to the bottom there you see that the district began the year with 214 point
four million so you actually added to your net position there the increase in
that position was twenty six point one million dollars beginning on page 20
exhibit c1 these are your fund-based financial statements this is what you're
used to seeing perhaps on a meeting basis you're talking about your general
fund your debt service fund your capital projects fund this is how the district
budgets the reason the modified accrual basis is a slightly different from the
full accrual basis is you're primarily interested in your near-term inflows and
outflows of resources the district can readily turn its capital assets into
cash to pay bills and employees so you're primarily focused with your
near-term inflows and outflows of resources your total governmental funds
ending fund balance was two hundred and eighty one point five million dollars
beginning on page 24 and 25 you can kind of see how the district arrived to that
figure from where it started at the beginning of the fiscal year three
hundred and sixteen million dollars was the beginning fund balance you ended at
281. That's a decrease of roughly 35 million dollars. That was planned, that
was budgeted, that was because of the ongoing construction activity. I think
there was a high school and a couple other campuses that were completed in
fiscal year 14. So that drew down the capital projects fund quite a bit. So
that's the reason for the decrease there in your total fund balance and
governmental funds. Behind your basic financial statements you'll have your
footnotes or your notes of the financial statements. That kind of just includes
further detail on the information that's presented on the face. You have various
other budgetary comparison schedules behind that. And then the last section of
the comprehensive annual financial report is your statistical section. This
has 10-year trend data. It's information that's very useful to bond rating
agencies and financial advisors. It has financial trends, economic and
and operational data, as well as revenue and debt capacity of the district.
I'd like to start discussing the much thinner document, which is the single audit report.
Because the district expends much more than $500,000 a year in federal awards,
it has to go through a compliance audit that's referred to as a single audit.
We actually have two reports to cover here in this smaller document.
The first report is over internal controls over financial reporting and compliance and other matters.
I'm happy to report that we did not identify any material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting,
as well as we did not identify any material noncompliance that we needed to report in the first report.
The second report has to do with your single audit or the audit of your major programs.
Each year we make a determination of which of your federal programs will
audit. For fiscal year 14 that major program was your child nutrition cluster.
That's a very large federal program of the districts that covers the the
breakfast and lunch program. In that report we opine on compliance. We did not
identify any non-compliance in regards to this major program nor did we note
any deficiencies or material weaknesses in internal control over compliance. So
So good news for the district.
There are some required communications that we need to make to you as the governing body
of the district.
One was that we did review the district's accounting policies.
We did not note that the district implemented any new accounting policies.
There were some accounting standards that were implemented in previous years, but this
year no such changes were noted.
It's important to note that the financial statements do include accounting estimates.
There isn't a bank statement or a piece of paper, an invoice, a PO for every amount that's
reported.
Some of those significant estimates include the useful lives of your capital assets.
How long do you believe a school's going to last?
How long do you believe a vehicle's going to last?
We reviewed the useful lives.
We believe there's a reasonable basis for that estimation.
In addition, the second most significant estimate is just the allowance of uncollectible accounts,
you know, the receivables that are out there that the district is wanting to collect.
I do want to report that we did not encounter any difficulties in performing or completing
our audit.
We had management and staff's 100% cooperation throughout the entire audit process.
We also did not have any disagreements with management when it came to the application
of any accounting principles or any estimates. One of the last pieces of
audit evidence we obtain is a management representational letter. We bring this to
your attention because we want to make you aware of all documents, formal
documents that go back and forth between us and the district. This letter will be
signed by the superintendent, by Mr. Smith, the accounting manager and
accounting supervisor, and in essence says that they've provided us with all
the information we've requested. To their knowledge the district is in compliance
with all applicable laws, requirements, contracts, and agreements. In addition, we
are not aware of the district being in consultation with any other accounting
firms regarding any accounting principles or estimates or opinion
shopping or anything like that. In addition, any discussions that we may
have had with management and the conclusions of those discussions, we
We don't believe they were the reason for us being retained as the independent auditors of the district.
And lastly, you know, I do confirm that we're independent with regards to KDISD.
There is one accounting change that's on the horizon for fiscal year 15,
and this has been talked about for some time.
It's related to the Texas teacher's retirement system, the pension liability,
that the district will have to report on the face of its financial statements for the first time.
That amount is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 to 62 million dollars.
You know, the total liability is 28 billion, somewhere in the neighborhood of 28 billion.
There's a small portion that the state of Texas will not report on its financial statements.
They have actuaries that have determined what all the school districts across the state will
need to report on their financial statements so something to keep in mind
for next fiscal year is the implementation of that new accounting
standard that's going to bring to the face of the financial statements this
pension liability or Katie's portion of their pension liability in regards to
TRS that concludes my prepared presentation I'd be happy to take your
questions at this time thank you any questions the audit after single audit
any of that so I have a quick question okay on this pension liability you were
just referring to what is the kind of theory behind I guess that requirement
now to for the end of it for the districts to actually have a liability
on the face of their financial this liability is going to represent the
current employees you know looking forward you know based on actuarial
tables how long people are living the cost of health care what is the district
and what is the state of Texas gonna have to put into a fund to pay for that
employees benefits 20 25 30 years down the road so it's some kind of actuarial
calculation that's made kind of looking into a crystal ball of what you should
be having what you should have in it some type of investment to pay for these
this promise benefit but is that an actual cash liability in the future to
the district or isn't it funded during the term of their employment correct is
that correct it's funded during the term of their employment and what's bringing
what has brought this to the forefront is there's been some public pension
plans that have failed and so that's made everyone much more aware the
pension liabilities that are out there okay question mr. Adams just to piggy
back on all skews a comment there so I mean we're very fortunate to kind of
to have a pretty good robust general fund.
But for districts that maybe are operating pretty close to the cuff on that
and they get hit with something like this,
what happens to them on their financials?
Well, I guess the first thing that you have to remember
that this is a reporting standard,
standard and every government in the nation is going to be facing this type of liability.
I have been told that those entities where the liability actually throws the net position
into a deficit, there may be some impact to their credit ratings.
what will be the offset to that entry is if we're booking say a 60 million dollar I guess
liability I mean is that going to be a period adjustment or is that going to actually hit your
it's gonna be a prior period adjustment in year one okay any other questions well at this at this
time I think Garcia is that correct yes okay mr. Garcia kind of already did this
talking about the staff here but I too want to just commend them obviously
putting together that that capper report is no small feat and to be able to do
that internally certainly saves from having to pay an outside firm to assist
assist in that and I know what they do day in day out and I just it's much
appreciated it gives this board a lot of comfort having the confidence that we do
and the finance staff here for the district and year in and year out get
glowing results and awards and a clean clean audit and everything else so again
I just very thankful for the work that you do
Are there any objections to moving this item to consent unheard thank you very much for your portion
Item 6.1
You're now to the discussion portion of our agenda and our first discussion item is
to discuss legislative priorities for the Texas 84th legislative session and
and have Dr. Andrea Grooms as Mr. Freddie.
She's going to point it to me.
Oh, okay, Mr. Freddie will take that forward.
She'll back me up though.
I want to again thank Dr. Grooms and her team
and Colin and all my cabinet members for their work
in developing, analyzing issues
that are out there before us.
This is not a comprehensive part.
It does not cover every possible topic
that will be discussed during the session,
but these are things we know are very important to us
here in KDISD and there may be other things that come up. We'll have five to eight thousand
bills filed this year and I can tell you your opinion as trustees will be sought out by
many elected officials. We have a lot of leaders around this DS. I know that your opinions
will be sought out.
But this is some homework the staff has done regarding some critical pieces. If you look
at the brochure maybe the best way easiest way you see it's broken down into
the areas of finance assessment accountability for governance and
transparency teacher retirement system and charter school homeschooling the
main thing with us is we are fast growth district and we're asking the state to
consider again supporting legislation that helps us with our construction in
in the new instruction facilities allotment.
And you have 80% of the growth in the Texas student enrollment
coming in 10% of the districts.
And we're getting no help.
We appreciate the state attracting families and companies here,
but when the families come, they bring children.
And we would like the state to help us because folks move the businesses here
because of the school system, especially here in Katy, Iowa State.
So you have that, and then you have the regular, you know,
basic financial stuff that's there.
Technology resources is important.
You know in the last time they collapsed it into one
Sultan I am a materials allotment and that really was a cut in
funding
We've had dr. Lowney. Dr. Cassie having arm wrestling wrestles over the money. He's been winning so far
He'll tell you that
Rest in the state you that if you're gonna have us talking about online testing and whatnot. We need some help with
Being able to do that
Accountability system, we're very much supporting the work and with House Bill 5, we do know
there are still some glitches in the accountability system that some students, even though they've
cut back the number of tests that they're being administered, the high stakes of the
ELC has really hurt some children who are doing well in their courses.
Some of these can't seem to get that pass mark on the test, so this is allowed graduation
review committee, which includes child students, parent as well.
I know of a student in particular that, I don't know if he ever graduated, this is about three or four years ago,
because of one test, one test.
We're recommending that we do not go on board in supporting tying a single test to a teacher's evaluation.
I think that we can do something different than what they're talking about.
We want to have control over our local calendar when we start school.
Ms. Thong would like that as well.
It does create a big challenge for us.
Um, we, um, of course TRS is important to our staff, given it has a defined benefit plan.
Another thing is the charter school, the homeschool, the private school.
We really do believe that we've worked hard in Texas to make quality school systems.
We know there are some challenges out there, but I don't think that the correct action is to abandon the public schools.
It's to work smartly to improve the public schools and to keep the funding there
there and help us create more choice within the public school system.
So we use public dollars.
So that's what's recommended there.
So we'll stop there.
You have another document that kind of expands even more on those topics.
That's the abridged version through the brochure.
I hope for any questions you guys may have.
Thank you, Mr. Braley.
Mr. Burrell?
I'm sure Mr. Mahalsky had already told you that there is a group of community
people that I've been working with towards some of some of these items some of our legislative agendas and
Personally, I think that it would behoove us as a leader our mission statement says we're the leader not a leader
In education to really narrow this down to two to three things that we can really advocate for that we could really go after
under finance
particularly being a fast growth district, and some conversations I've had with some of our legislators,
one thing that I think is, I'm hoping it's gaining momentum,
is the idea that the 10 percent of us that are receiving the 85 percent of the growth
receive a portion of the sales tax increase from the previous year.
Because obviously if those people are coming, they're spending more money in our communities,
why shouldn't some of that money come to our communities?
So I think something along those lines with finance would be good.
So when we get to the charter schools and homeschooling and private school, choice is coming.
I mean, our lieutenant governor said that choice is a constitutional right.
So I think if we're going to be one that leads, we need to help the legislature in forming a policy or a law that, or advocate for a law that makes sense when it comes to choice.
I'm opposed to public dollars going to any private institution.
I think that's a, and doors box we don't want to open.
open. And we definitely, if public dollars go, then they have to maintain the same standards
that we do, without a doubt. So I'll be meeting with this group this week. I'll be happy to
get with you on the things that they're thinking about as well.
Thank you. Mr. Brody, you make a really good point in that we're saying that if you're
going to do this, if you're going to use public funds to fund private schools, whatever it
is at least still keep the same standards a lot of us was that the whole
history of charge schools in Texas was the design that the concept that they
could do it better faster cheaper and then we will learn from them learn best
practices from charter schools you'd be hard-pressed to find that's really
happened and in fact charge school folks realizing this does cost money
restful facilities funding asking for more more dollars to come to them
They're asking for more flexibility how they can get children to their programs
but they don't want the accountability part and
My whole thing is if we find that there are some things that we don't want to impose on charter schools because it could be
harmful to them
Why are we putting on the other kids in a school system?
Any I see about 97 percent of school-age children and 7% are in our schools
And if there's something states requiring that hurts them they don't want to impose on charter and private schools
We have it on our kids.
That's our question.
I know one thing someone told me once that was very insightful,
that charter schools often have the ability of controlling their culture by exclusion,
where we accept every child.
So I think if state money is going to go to charter schools,
then they have to also not exclude at all.
And that should be tested as well, ensure that they also are accepting all children.
And what I would add to that, I went to a very small rural school myself.
I've worked in an urban environment.
And, yes, there are some problems out there.
Now, where I went to school was not a problem.
I don't want to be clear about that.
There are many that really are having some challenges with meeting the needs of their students
and expectations of parents in this state.
I don't think that the solution is to abandon.
I think the solution is to work creatively and realize that you cannot fix a school
not addressing the community as well. And the idea of firing all the staff and leaving
everything else as it is results in firing the next staff and the next staff. We're constantly
remaking schools by firing the staff but not really addressing the root causes of the problem.
And that's the reform movement. This board is on board with transformation. And transforming
means you're looking at it more holistically. Not just one program, but overall 360 degree
look at the school setting. I think that's what the state needs to look at.
We're not trying to lock children into low-performing
schools it is I know what schools low performing and that's what we've avoided
doing nothing but some hard conversations
any other comments questions related to I think we're off to a good start here I
mean certainly just tonight we talked about the instructional calendar and we
certainly always would like a little more control there although it hasn't
We haven't gotten too far with many legislators on that yet, but we will continue to those efforts at the very least.
And I think we can all agree on the fast growth districts and with all the growth coming to a smaller percentage of the overall districts
in that that some help for especially new instructional facilities would
certainly certainly warranted you know every time we have a bond referendum we
are asking our taxpayers to brought that burden of building you know new
facilities which we need which you know which I would say we're kind of a victim
of our own success there people are continuing to move here because of the
work that we that the district is doing to educate and prepare our children and
So I think we certainly have a good start here towards some things we can all agree on that should be legislative priorities and hopefully we can get the attention of some of our legislators and move some of these forward.
Again, I will say again, this is not everything that we'll be dealing with throughout the session.
These are just some priorities that are very important to KDISD.
There will be other things that come up.
And I know your opinion will be sought in the extension, but I'm ready to work with you.
Absolutely.
Okay, with that we will move to our next discussion item and our final discussion item of the night and this is
Items 6.2 - 8
Yes
With the will of the board we would like to bring this back to you Nick Monday of next week for action and approval
Okay, is there any?
objection to doing that we
What's used to rather Tuesday at the regular meeting because we're being asked about where's Katie on certain things
and again you have this now we don't see it changing any we now on the end so if
our questions let us know and if we have it a fraction and there's the
discomfort we can always not take action once you have the brochure and you have
the items that we mr. pearly discussed so I would just suggest if there are any
comments or questions that come up between now and next week to those
Please bring those to myself and Sharon and we send in comments and questions
Yes
Ending that we will plan to take action next
Thank you
Okay, item 6.2 is a to discuss possible revisions to board policy FDB, which is the
policy related to kind of a campus enrollment if you will and I'll just kind of
start this off by saying and well it's actually just related to inter just inter district
transfers and classroom assignments when we were discussing back during the bond election at one
of our meetings we discussed you know contingencies if the if the bond were to fail and we certainly
knew that we had some potential overcrowding issues or we're over capacity on certain campuses
is now and and with more growth coming so we were going to have to address you
know what to do in that case fortunately the bond did pass and as we discussed
even earlier tonight we're looking to start junior high 14 very quickly here
and and other projects that are that are pending as well but with that that we
also had a request from it from a trustee to kind of go ahead and have
this discussion about you know does it make sense in certain scenarios to
either the cap enrollment in at certain campuses due to due to potential
overcrowding and then at the same time perhaps look at what our policy is for
inter-district transfers and and just kind of take a review of that so with
that we kind of put this on the agenda just to have that that discussion amongst
amongst ourselves and then we see the administration from there can kind of
take the comments and and you know if there's anything to be done with that
and I kind of shape it from there so with that I'm going to kind of turn it
over to mr. mr. Cabrillo and let him give him the floor to kind of start the
discussion well I like to talk about both of them both the capping of campuses
for obvious reasons and but first I start with the idea of choice and our
inter-district transfer policy I think the idea that a parent and is the best
person determined and help guide their students success in education is
paramount our success here in Katy ISD we call it our secret sauce parental
involvement and with that I think allowing parents a greater choice in
which schools their students attend I think is very important I know that we
try and keep schools balanced because we're overcrowded in many of our campuses
we all know there are some campuses that does have some space if there's a reason
that a parent would like to pull their student out of any one of our campuses
and move them to a campus that is not overcrowded it is not near capacity for
whatever reason I believe that that parent should have that choice now
Now obviously we will not provide any transportation.
They have to abide by all UIL regulation.
You can't just move for sports.
But if you feel it's in the best interest of your child to move campuses, then why should
we say no?
First of all.
And when it comes to capping, I'm very concerned about safety.
I know that right now we stop transfers.
We close the campus within 100, I believe, units of capacity.
Is that right?
right, 100 of capacity.
Well, at some point in time, I believe the system breaks.
At some point in time, 120, 125, 140% of capacity, that facility can no longer handle that many
kids.
I've talked to board members in other districts that have similar policies.
But at a certain level, if you're moving into that area, you have to go to the next available
campus.
For that reason, we don't want the system to break.
We don't want I know and we'll create junior higher for instance
The kids have to go up one stairs and down another just to help with traffic flow the sixth graders on one bell schedule
Seven and eighth graders on another
Lunch starts at 945 and ends at one o'clock at some point in time
There's too many kids in a school and I think we need to determine that number and say for safety's sake
We're going to begin to cap some of these kids
If we get there
okay I'm just gonna open it up to any any comments or discussion related to
one of the things I think that we have to be careful about it so you do allow choice and
do allow transfers is that it should really be treated as a one-way because
I you don't want to get kids moving back and forth between campuses one time
transfer you know all that just to just to say I don't like it over there this
year so I want to move else need to be very careful that I certainly I don't
have a problem with with the fact of a child going to a different school if
they feel like they can be gained more in the end is the capacity is there for
them to attend that school I'd be interested in hearing from
superintendent regarding the administrative aspect of this and
gatekeeping of this aspect and what what impact it will have have on us because
Because one of the things that I'm concerned about too, Mr. DeBrell, is the fact that when you allow students to have a choice, you move them to a school and that school becomes full and a child moves into that district in that local zone, are you going to not allow that child to go to school there?
So I think that's something that we have to consider.
Well, again, I think that currently we stop transfers within 100 students of capacity.
If we need to move that down some 150 200 of capacity and we should do that
But there are some areas of our community where the growth kind of it's leveled off
We know that's where it is and that that's where it's going to pretty much
Are you I'm sorry
Are you suggesting if the
Parents can have a choice to transfer their students. Will there be some kind of guidelines in place?
you said you know we wouldn't allow this for athletics per se if you know a
parent says oh I really want my son to play at Katy high school would there be
something in place stipulations that could be reviewed that you know okay
this falls within the guidelines this is why this child is asking to be
transferred and in X Y & D are reasons that we approve for you know maybe a
situation of bullying it may be a situation of I don't know various things
would we have a set of guidelines in place to the child would have to fall in I'm not saying we don't
allow for athletics UIL has certain regulations in regards to athletic transfer or if you transfer
then you're at the varsity level I believe you have to wait a year before you can compete well
we're not going to override any UIL regulation but the parents need to be fully aware if they
make that choice that's the price of that choice I think the answer your
question is yes is if we were to modify the policy you know from this discussion
and then and then other input and whatnot and I think yes you're gonna
have to it's gonna have to be somewhat of a comprehensive policy that you know
as many parameters that you would have to look at before you know just to make
sure for compliance issues for safety issues for a lot of different in a lot
of different areas miss van speaking briefly a choice I do believe that the
parents should be given the opportunity to make that decision with parameters in
place there's lots of school districts I know in the state and in the country
that have choice in place and I think who better to advocate for your or the
student but the parent they are the secret sauce they are what who we need
sorry who we need in our corner to help make our district great and I do believe
there needs to be parameters there needs not just be because they like the
volleyball coach over here that can yes it will definitely be discussion I you
know that strict guidelines of when why and what but also speaking to the
capping of a campus I've literally lost sleep thinking about some of these
campuses that are the safety of these kids and the the tasks were asking of
the administration and the teachers to handle this many kids and Katie does I
mean I've I've had kids in overcrowded schools since 2002 and I can't say my
kids have gone without but it would be just so it would if we would put a cap
in place that said okay this is it this is all we're asking of you this is all
we're asking of these walls to hold and these seats to hold and these teachers
to do and these kids to put up with I think that would speak a lot to
preserving the quality of the atmosphere and education in this district but I am
speaking about mr. de Broglie about capping I think that's something that we
really need to highly consider going forward as a district in handling and
until we have these new buildings for these kiddos to go to but then what
happens when those buildings are crowded as well so so generally I think kind of
hearing here is you know on the surface and this is I guess my opinion on this
is I feel like if we could come up with a policy that there's a little less
restrictive than it is now for inter-district transfers I think that
would be a good thing at the same time I'm not don't begin to feel like I'm
qualified or I know what the ramifications of changing that policy
really are so I think we're going to very need some direction from the
administration on kind of what that means and what that could look like and
what what is feasible I guess we certainly don't want to just completely
open Pandora's box either but at the end of the day what we want is you know
you need to provide great opportunities for our students and at a point where
sometimes crowding of schools can have enough a negative effect or negative
impact on that then we want to look at what our options are so one final note
on both of these earlier tonight we had miss Holland come up and we changed the
policy because something happened and we recognized we needed to make a change
that's great and I commend the staff every time something like that occurs
and they bring it to our attention and we make the necessary changes but I
believe as a board it is our job to look into the future to make policies today
the type of district we want to be tomorrow the type of policies that will
take us to be the community we desire to be even if we're not there now and I
believe by giving parents more choice and more responsibility in those
education decisions that will enhance the education of every one of our Katie
ISD students and it will help us to become the district that we want to be
by ensuring and make ensure now that as more and more people come okay we say it
over and over again 80% 85% of all the people that move here every day end up
in 10% of the districts 3,000 kids move here every year and they move in certain
little small pockets and those schools begin to burst at the scene we need to
ensure a safety first for those young people because I've seen some of these
overcrowded campuses and I just know at some point in time the system breaks so
we need to plan now for the future I think that would behoove us I believe
mr. Adams one of the thing that out that I would be I hear what you're saying
mr dubrell but i mean we we operate a very good school system right now and i think that that we
do offer a safe environment for our children and even though we are crowded that we do a very very
good job with that and we are going to be building new schools and we are going to be relieving some
of the overcrowding that we're happening i my concern here has is number one is for the kids
but number two is that it takes manpower here to be able to do this and I keep looking at
Mr. Freddie there because I mean we're talking about the fact that that he is going to be the
Person that decides the transfers are his designee. I know who that is out in the audience probably but the fact is that that
We haven't even begin to talk about the appeal process
Which is going to be just tremendous in my opinion that people are not going to get their field
get their transfer and we're going to be sitting up here many many nights trying
to work through appeals for people to transfer and and I for one don't want
that to happen I mean I think that there ought to be ways that we can work
through this without without that process but we'll just have to wait and
see but I do think that we offer we offer a safe environment we do offer a
great education for our kids and yes we want to continue doing what we're doing
And we are on the right track and I think the secret sauce is here as the superintendent says from time to time
That we continue to
Put it on
But but I just think we had to move very carefully
Through the process here. Yes other districts may be doing this and it may be working
but I'd like to know what their drawbacks are are the
The problems that they are having and let's don't let's don't reinvent the wheel here. Let's try to figure all that out
Tagging on to what Mr. Adams is saying, I'm a little more concerned about the transfer
process than the capping process.
I don't disagree with you using Wood Creek Junior High as an example.
I've also experienced that personally at Stanley with my children and I think that we may need
to look into stopping it at some point that we cannot allow any more children
just for safety purposes alone and again how much can we ask of this
administration and of the teachers and of the students I mean yes are they
handling it well exceptionally well I mean Kerry
Finison has come and spoken and you talk to parents at Wood Creek Junior High
they're very pleased at the way it's being handled but at the same time you
you have a orchestra of, or a band of 300 students.
You know, to some degree, they are not getting the same experience as, you know,
campuses where they're not as overcrowded.
So I'm not in disagreement on capping it.
I know that some parents may feel upset that, you know,
I don't want my child to go to another school.
But I think when you cap a school, you're talking about,
you're going to probably only be at that school a year anyway.
because we're building a new school so there's no really longevity and you know
and I think it like with my children when we were going to Woodcreek junior
high we knew we were only gonna be a Woodcreek junior high a year and then we
were going to Seven Lakes junior high so it was kind of the kids were fine with
that they were going with their peers that were going with their neighbors and
so I'd like to explore that option I'm a little more hesitant on the transfers
transfers and keeping that very tidy. We have zones and districts in place for a reason
and coming from a community where that was very easily overridden in Louisiana, it began
to really muddy the waters between schools and I really would hate to see that happen
here.
Ms. President, one final note, again on choice.
In our mission statement, again, it talks about we're the educational leader.
Choice is coming to the State of Texas, and I believe we have an opportunity now to help
shape what that looks like and what it should look like.
We can choose to do nothing now, but in June we will be here doing something about choice
because
lieutenant governor has said that choice is a
Constitutional right whether you agree with that or disagree with it personally
I disagree with that when it comes to public education, but
He's driving the boat in the Senate and it is coming to the state of Texas
And I believe that we have an opportunity here to lead that discussion and help shape that
by saying this is how choice can work and this is how it should.
Yeah, I mean, I think there is some distinction there
because obviously from the legislature standpoint,
we're talking about funds following a student and things of that nature,
which is much different than would be with intra-district,
but I get where you're kind of coming from on just an overall policy.
You know, I'm not sure where to really go.
I don't I don't feel like there's a consensus really on the on the transfer piece of this right now
So I'm inclined to kind of let it sit for a while and let's you know, see if additional thoughts come up
You know and on the capping I you know, maybe it's worth kind of trying to understand
operational capacity and maybe at what point
You do see
you know detriment I guess to that I don't know that we've ever reached that
or or not but but really just wish I could a few things I certainly appreciate
the conversation without a doubt this is a very child centered board we have a
a very family-centered board, a very family-centered administration as well,
and I can appreciate all that I'm hearing.
I want to first do the capping piece.
The board already has a process to post campuses when they get within a certain number of capacity,
and we can revisit that, work the number up or down, so you already have that piece there.
The risk of capping is when you're fast-growing in one area
and you cap a school that's still selling houses and the children in that
house zone to the school that we have capped now go where and if you have
allowed enough choice to where because the way they're going you can say 100
seats or I think to me percentage-wise how we do it something and you get that
on transfers now you're sending kids out that are down transfer makes place for
the children who are where they're zoned to or you send the kids who are zoned there somewhere
else and now we are paying for that.
Operationally, I do see a major challenge there.
That is choice.
The choice that Mr. Bill is talking about is not what the legislature is talking about.
There's choices not within the school system which we already have.
It's choice outside school district.
It's choice outside of education even.
You have a policy that allows transfers within the district.
You have guidelines that you also need to have within it.
So if you're seeing there's an issue within the guidelines, that's a new policy.
That's not allowing us to be responsive to families, and I can tell you,
having worked with Ms. Pato, Tompkins, Mr. Forney in that office,
We handle quite a few transfer requests a year, I do believe.
And you've had how many come before the Board?
Not a whole lot.
And I will tell you, the spirit of this Board, from my conversations with you all,
has allowed us to be very, very responsive.
And I get very few that come to me because the office understands the values of the Board
and really have been looking within it.
So I don't know if mr. Forney would not not tonight someone put on the spot
But I like the chance to get from him and maybe miss pay to and maybe mr. Tompkins
What transfer requests have they received that they've had to deny that they wish they could have said yes to?
That's right. Now. We have a lot of children different places on transfer
So I'm not seeing the problem the degree that's going to require an overhaul of policy
Maybe it may be finding out what?
what requests we're getting that we would like to say yes to, but that we can't say yes to.
And recommend something like that.
But overall, wholesale overhaul, if that's what we're talking about, get ready.
It's going to be an all-night affair, without a doubt.
So I can appreciate the idea of choice.
I do respect that.
You have choice in your policy.
How much more do you want to open it up is the question.
and then does it need to be open and if so in what areas unless there's something specific we can talk about offline I'd
Rather me talk to the folks who do this on a daily basis
Give me feedback of what challenges they're coming across that we they wish they had more flexibility
We're not in the just say no business when it comes to this type of thing
We have worked very hard. I've spent time with each of the three names
I've given you by anyways within policy to interpret it based on the board's values to allow these transfers
first. And that's why you've not had many, many problems. But if you just say, go where
you want to go, just get ready. And again, I have one person at office, the clerk, and
that's almost a full-time job. We'll need more staff. So I want to be very careful about
this. I think we can do it very smartly and accomplish the goal. Let's be very, very careful
Let's let staff tell us what they're needing right now. I'm not hearing what we need to
Also make more transfers that we should be having unless just gonna be what we want to do
Okay, thank you, mr. Freyley I in in your materials trustees you do have the
FDB policy
Local policy along with a list of closed campuses for the current school year and kind of a current enrollment report
If in going through that policy you come up with any specific comments or questions, please
forward those to me and then we'll kind of go from there.
But I think it was a worthwhile discussion to have.
I think Mr. Farrelly is correct.
We are a very student-centered board and administration, so we're always looking for ways to best
serve our students and the families in our district.
We'll kind of go from there.
That is the final discussion item on our agenda tonight.
We will have a regular board meeting on Tuesday, since there's no school, I believe it's
Martin Luther King Day on Monday.
On Tuesday, January 20th at 2015, we will go back to our normal time for that meeting,
But I'm happy to announce to any college football fans that are out there that we are adjourned at
7 0 7 p.m.
Official documents
Agenda
The district's own agenda file, as published on its video page. 2 pages.
Board packet · 27 documents
The district's own backup material for this agenda, retrieved from BoardDocs. Each file was checked against the size BoardDocs states for it.
- Materials Testing Proposal - HTS, Inc. 1930 KB
- HGAC Regional MAA 39 KB
- Architect's Ltr - Jr Hi 14 41 KB
- Atty Ltr (JH #14- PBK - Drymalla) 122 KB
- AIA Document A101-General Contractor 13740 KB
- Proposal Sheet 309 KB
- 1 - 01202015 - RFCSP 1518 - Adaptive Supplies and Equipment TAB - Purchase 92 KB
- 2 - 01202015 - RFCSP 1518 - Adaptive Supplies and Equipment EVAL - Purchase 80 KB
- 3 - 01202015 - RFCSP 1518 - Adaptive Supplies and Equipment TAB - Repair 81 KB
- 4 - 01202015 - RFCSP 1518 - Adaptive Supplies and Equipment EVAL - Repair 80 KB
- Board Grant Summary-January 6 KB
- Grant Descriptions-Jan 5 KB
- CH(LOCAL) 10 KB
- 2015 VOTING SITE OPTIONS FOR KATY ISD POWERPOINT PRESENTATION 661 KB
- 2015 Election Calendar 14 KB
- 2015-16 Instructional Calendar - Option A 33 KB
- 2015-16 Instructional Calendar - OPTION B 33 KB
- FDB LOCAL 65 KB
- Closed Campuses 2014 - 2015 37 KB
- Current Enrollment Report 1.7.15 56 KB
- 1_Function and Object Code Description 12 KB
- 2_ REVENUES, EXPENDITURES AND FUND BALANCE 0115 87 KB
- 3_KISD_2014-15 Budget 0115 21 KB
- Budget Amendment Detail 0115 80 KB
- Financial Audit Report Drafts memo 34 KB
- 2014 - CAFR draft 4 for board work study (3) 1772 KB
- Katy ISD SA Report DRAFT 12 22 2014 545 KB
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 3.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent.
5 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| bryan-michalsky | Yes |
| courtney-doyle | Yes |
| henry-dibrell | Yes |
| joe-adams | Yes |