I hereby call this special board meeting of the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.
Katy ISD · Special Meeting
Katy ISD Special Meeting, September 27, 2016
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Today is Tuesday, September 27, 2016, and the time is 5.35 p.m.
Dr. Hint, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to the notice for this meeting?
Board President Fox, we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regards to the notice for this meeting.
Good evening board it's good to see everybody here and we are very pleased
to have Dr. Mike Moses with us this evening to facilitate our session and
I'm just gonna go straight to Dr. Moses he has and get us started off. Thank you
Madam President. Thank you Madam President good evening I'm not gonna
stand the whole time in front of you I'll probably sit down here in a little
bit but I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to come. It's good to see
all of you again. Congratulations to Mr. Scott and joining I think a very
outstanding board and proud of all of you. It looks like the new superintendent
has found his office and found a few of the schools and so real pleased
for you're having him here and the work that he's doing and looks like
everybody's speaking to one another so it's a good sign and I'm very fond of
this school district make no secrets about that I had a lot of friends work
here had a lot of friends that have worked here from all kinds of different
places and you know I was thinking about today why why is your district so
so successful, why is the reputation so good?
And obviously it takes outstanding work
and care from the community, but it
takes the community caring enough
to elect good school trustees and get good people in place.
I think there's also kind of the idea
that there are a lot of people that want to beat Katie,
because they want stability.
There are a lot of boards that I have worked with,
and I see where there's a lot of turmoil and upheaval and sometimes instability
and I think people choose to be here because that's not what they're
interested in they're interested in good governance they're interested in
stability and you you have worked to give them that does that doesn't mean
you always agree all the time but that you find a place to land that allows you
you to move your schools forward. A little bit about this evening. I've got
some slides, I've got two or three little videos. This is not going to be just sit
and get. We'll have a little discussion here. We'll probably run about an hour and
15 minutes. We'll take about a 10 minute break and then we'll run another hour and
15 minutes and I'll probably give you a homework assignment to complete your
three hours. I do have a board training number so you are going to meet the
requirements. You know they used to have school boards that used to just go get
training and they just say go get 12 hours of training and some boards would
get training in personnel and some would get training in asbestos removal and
some would get training in all kinds of different subjects and they had some
goofy Commissioner of Education a few years ago that said you know maybe when
we train we ought to have at least three hours where we kind of train everybody
together on the same subject so we're not just all out here doing what I like
to call random acts of improvement that those are fine but I have found that
boards work better when there are aligned acts of improvement rather than
random acts of improvement so anyway but we'll try to make this fast-paced I hope
lively interesting maybe let you see a few couple of things to think about
maybe talk and ask some questions and see if we move the ball forward I know
I know there may be some things on your mind that you want to maybe bring out.
It's okay, we'll do that.
I want to show you a quick video here, if I can figure out.
Imagine the awesomest thing you can, like an automatic grilled cheese maker, or a time
machine, or a time machine with an automatic grilled cheese maker.
Now imagine who's going to invent it.
Him?
Glasses here?
Whoever they are?
Or maybe her?
But how do kids like these become the types of people that do things like this?
Maybe we should ask this guy.
Knowledge is heavy. Sometimes it's a limit to have new ideas.
That's the problem with old schooling, because they were teaching answers.
I believe questions are probably more important today than the answers.
Erno's cube is a question waiting to be answered.
And when the right person finds the right question, something amazing happens.
They start seeing the world as it truly is.
Not a place to be memorized, but a place to be figured out, flipped, turned, twisted, and ultimately made better forever.
forever. Today, she may be an octopus, but help kids like her fall in love with problem
solving, and they will embark on journeys to become scientists, artists, engineers,
designers, inventors, or something no one's ever been before, but you can bet we're
gonna need. That's why moments like this, and this, and this, and especially this, are
are so important.
Because there are companies to found, planets to walk on, time machines to invent, a future
to be made amazing.
We may not know what it's going to look like, but we know who's going to do it.
I just think that's a pretty cool video, to just kind of focus this on, you know, why
this organization exists we kind of exist for those kids and i don't know but i bet there's
kids in kt schools today that are going to do some pretty fantastic things i would bet right now i
could you could name some graduates of kt high schools that have done some pretty fantastic
things and you're you're sitting at the table in the place where the preparation starts for them to
do some pretty pretty fantastic things little training here's some things we're
going to talk about tonight we may not get everything done but we'll kind of I
may give you a little homework assignment for the goal setting and
we'll talk about roles responsibilities relationships and we'll talk a little
bit about superintendent board communication I think y'all may have
even gotten past an instrument last evening to take a look at an instrument
last evening to take a look at the superintendent's evaluation I'm just not
used to holding one but I'm sorry but I'll try to do better you may better
wave at me some people do that right there when they don't hear anymore
here's some ground rules why are we here and we know we're here to get some
training and you care about this district what do you have in common you
know I always get kind of amazed at boards sometimes you know that so why
are you here what are you doing and what do you have in common most people i i find they say well
you know i like i like living here and i say yeah if you didn't like living in in katie well you'd
leave i mean you you'd go somewhere else you've got that in common i think i'd like for you to
be honest uh even if it hurts just a little listen carefully we'll be constructive keep our sense of
humor and we've got we know who's who while we're here we've just been a got a reminder about about
why we're here i'd kind of like to hear you talk now just tell me a little bit about how you're
feeling about your board service anybody want to talk you want to start i can do co-calling
or you can just tell me a little bit i just kind of like to hear you uh tell me a little bit about
how you're feeling about things or what you're thinking if you want to skip down there number
number three third question and tell me about what about the direction of the
board that's really excites you right now really pleasing you but I'd like to
just hear some comments on your work right now and how you're viewing it I'm
the less senior here person I should before I Brian I'm just cold calling on
you that's good that's good I don't feel I actually feel pretty good about where
where we are right now, where the direction that we're headed.
You know, I kind of feel like, obviously with Dr. Hint on board now,
it's kind of like we've got a clean slate as far as moving forward in a direction.
And I think we've got a lot of great things in place, but I look forward.
He's spoken a little bit about some strategic planning that he'd like to do with this board,
and I get really excited about that.
So, yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
What about the direction of the board is really pleasing you right now?
Anything you're especially fond of or you say, you know,
I think we're going to tackle this and we need to?
I'm not grading papers here tonight.
I'm just interested in, you know, you can't say anything that's going to hurt my feelings.
And I just kind of like to hear what's got you all excited.
I'm really excited with the way we've started off this new school year.
We've had a big transition over the summer.
And we have a new superintendent.
And just before that, we set our vision, Be the Legacy.
And that kind of started the ball rolling.
And we got excited about that.
and the community and the schools are catching on to that and you're seeing
legacy included in football run-through signs and hashtags and there's an
excitement in our community that I haven't felt in a while and it's really
exciting and I'm very pleased with you know how the school year started off and
the feedback that we're getting from our community.
Very good. Ashley?
Brian and Rebecca both touched on what came to my mind when you first asked the question.
So I'll just, instead of the lack of being redundant, just to hear myself speak,
I will add to what they've already said.
And something that I am excited about in my third term is the ability for us to be,
with Dr. Hentz's blessing, more involved on campuses,
directly with principals, directly with teachers.
It really gives us an insight as to what's going on on campuses.
I like that we've set up feeder patterns.
My feeder pattern is May Creek.
Super excited to get to know some of those campuses better
and have the opportunity to not have to have a formal invitation,
but the basic desire for them to want me on their campuses
and the ability to be there.
I think that's going to serve us as a body corporate, a team of eight, very well.
And I hope that all of us get the chance to take advantage of that because in just being my third year,
I feel like that's something that was missing in this district was the direct relation with this board
as to what was going on with the campuses and the community directly.
I think it's really going to set us above anything we've been able to do in the recent history.
Very good.
Anybody else?
Talk about what you like about where we're going.
George?
Do you mind if I call you George?
Absolutely.
I've called you Mr. Scott and I've called you George.
If George is all right, I'll.
It wouldn't sound natural after all these years.
You know that we've known each other for a long time.
A little while.
It was actually on Dr. Moses' accountability advisory committee.
Yes.
back in 1998.
It's a transformation for me coming from public policy and columns and journalism to trying
to merge a personality with a board.
It's a challenge.
You know my background is that I have very significant problems with the accountability
system in the state of Texas.
I've had it for a long time.
My concern is that Katy is a very transformational district.
In many ways, when I went to work for the Tax Research Association back in the 80s,
Houston ISD had a demographic population that was not unlike Katy ISD right now.
Flip the Hispanics and the African Americans and it's very similar.
I think over a period of time, and you said say what you think and be constructive, I
think over a period of time the district has focused on all the abundance of excellence
without really focusing on the transformational aspects of this district.
And then you superimpose over that what I think is an irrational accountability system that has morphed into being punitive towards classroom teachers and superintendents and communities.
communities. I think we have big challenges that if we just focus on the fact that there
is not an accountability system in the state of Texas that will ever be designed for the
state of Texas that Katy will not be at or near the top. If we focus on that, we are
not going to do what we need to do for the full range of students. This is not implying
in any way that I think I care more and others care less. That's nonsense. But I think we
have to get more aggressive in understanding what student academic performance is and is
not and how the accountability system in the state of Texas is punishing districts like
like Katie, and what can we do within our power structure, within our authority.
And I think we have more authority than many school boards think they have,
even within existing state laws.
So the challenge I have is to try not to be a total jerk
and to express the areas that I would like to see us move.
And that's a challenge.
Those are good thoughts.
And I'd like to say something to that.
I don't know if anybody else wants to talk about that.
If you can't say anything else, you may want to comment on it.
Henry.
I'll echo what many other board members have said,
but I think for the first time in a while,
I think that for the most part we're rowing in the same direction.
We may not all be rowing at the same pace,
but I think that yeah we're not we're not fighting each other and we're not
wrong in different directions and I think that that is that's what we have
to that's what we have to get I think that that's a that's what I'm excited
about what direction we're going
on it. Well here's a question for you sir. This board leans forward as you've heard talk and they
like to be really active in the schools and we have parents that have kids in the schools. My
greatest fear is when we have board members who are extremely active in their schools
at what point do the board members start creating issues for the superintendent because i'm under
the impression that school board hires a superintendent and superintendent hired or
runs a school district we'd say this is what we would like and then we want to hold you accountable
for the direction that we as a seven present but where i see an issue that probably can come up and
that has come up in the past is we have board members who are now so involved in the entire
school district, it A, complicates the picture of who actually runs a district, and we also
can run into problems where the principals work for the superintendent, but yet if a principal
is seeing a lot of board members, they know who cuts the checks, they know who approves the
contracts now we have an identity crisis to who did those principles really
working for are they working for the best friend the board member are they
working for the boss who actually makes them do something pro or con so yes sir
You want to say anything for me about my direction right now?
Sure.
You're saying like, sorry.
Yeah, I mean, I think we're definitely, I agree with what the other board members have said.
It's exciting that we have Dr. Hint, and so I think it's kind of breathed new life into the board,
into the direction that the district's going.
He's got some great ideas, and the ability for us to be more available on the campuses
and things like that is nice.
I think that all of that can happen as long as we maintain a mutual respect for each other
and carry that into everything that we do.
We don't have to agree, but we do have to respect each other.
So I think as long as we can keep that on the forefront
and the reason why we are all in these positions,
which is those children on the forefront of our minds, we'll be successful.
Okay, very good.
Good observations.
I think I heard kind of concerns and what you're liking and maybe some concerns on both three and four,
I'm going to speak to Charles' thought and question.
I want to speak to George's this minute.
I think he makes an interesting comment.
He's been in the midst of some accountability.
You've all had real school accountability.
I've had to deal with it.
I've had to administer a state accountability certificate.
I wasn't in full agreement with it.
I just call your attention to this.
I'm not trying to put more work on this board.
There are outstanding systems in the United States that are members of some groups called the Western Benchmarking Consortium.
I don't know if you're familiar with that, but that's probably eight or ten school districts like Cherry Creek Schools out of Denver,
Denver, Blue Valley Schools out of Kansas City, Plano, Plano is the only school district
in Texas I think that's currently a member, Payway School District out of San Diego, Beaverton,
Oregon schools.
And these school districts are top tier school districts in their states and they benchmark
themselves not on state assessments but on other measures that they believe to be important.
My point being this, you as a board can and superintendent can work together to
establish benchmarks or what I would call quality measures, quality assurances
besides what's in the state accountability system that you as a
board and you as a community are going to look at. Whether it's closing the
achievement gap, how much we've closed the achievement gap, whether it's ACT
scores, SAT scores, AP scores, you can say the accountability system is fine for a
lot of people but we are going to we're going to take a look at ourselves and
benchmark ourselves against some other outstanding school districts not just in
Texas but in the country. So that may give you a different lens to look at
accountability and I'm not saying you should do it I'm not saying but I have
always thought local boards don't have to just say you know we got state
accountability system they sent it to us here it is we'll write right we can
decide hey there are some quality assurances for the Katy citizens and for
Katy taxpayers and Katy parents that we want to we want to look at and mr.
superintendent we want you know these measures are things that we might want
want to be benchmarking ourselves against some other school districts not
just in this state but and I'll tell you the one example the Cherry Creek
schools in Denver had the highest SAT scores most kids in AP highest
performing kids and they had evidence that they were closing the achievement
gap they had all kinds of things going on and the federal government came out
with their accountability system and they didn't meet ayp guess how much attention their community
paid to ayp just about zero because they had already put their own measures in place that
their community was paying attention to and that the board was paying attention to the superintendent
staff were paying attention to now again i'm not trying to lay that all on you to figure that out
tonight but i'm just saying might be something to think about that we're we we want to give the
value added here and and more than just taking a yeah the state accountability
system okay we see how we are here but let's let's see where we where we make
compare on some other measures I don't know if that helps you're not the
accountability system and this is this has been the case from toss through tax
to start we know I go back to tabs and teams well that didn't because it wasn't
the constitutional standard. We didn't get constitutional until TAS and until 1993. The
state has always set a benchmark of passing that is academically fraudulent. The TAS was
no more a grade level test than a man in the moon. Performance on TAS no more predicted
college readiness than a man in the moon. It was marginally better in tax. And I look at
eighth grade reading and I'm not going to bore with statistics. I am going to pass something out,
but it encapsulates why I am concerned. In the eighth grade reading, we have a 54% content
mastery on reading. And that means you have to see- Are we being Katie or are we being the state?
I'm sorry? Are we being Katie or are we being the state?
Okay.
State.
54% content mastery on eighth grade reading, which is a gateway year.
And school districts with the blessing of the state have tended to focus on the passing
standard in all the publicity, in all of the ratings, and I think that's destructive.
And if you look at Katy, 2014-15, which is the last year we have complete statistics for,
with Hispanics, there's a 35% drop-off between passing and recommended grade level
that we probably will never get to.
And we have a 45% drop-off between African Americans between passing,
passing, 91% of the African Americans in KTISD passed the reading test, and 46% passed the
future standard.
When you have that situation and you mix those students in, you are creating a disaster of
an organization at the campus-based level.
And until school districts and the state of Texas insist on some minimum level of integrity
about what children do and do not know. I think there's only one group that is
really positioned to do that. State Board of Education is not going to do it. You
and I know that. It's not going to happen. The Texas legislature has political
interests that are disparate to the extreme. The only institution still today
that can demand integrity is the local school board and that's what I'm going
going to be coming from. I want us to tell the truth about what students do and do not know,
because here's the deal. If you have a campus that has a Title I campus, and you're putting
kids that have 40 and 50 and 55 percent content mastery in those classrooms, and you're going to
hold those teachers accountable to the same standard that you're holding students and
teachers at Seven Lakes or Cinco Ranch, you're creating a very disparate
evaluation system that is discriminatory against students, it's discriminatory
against teachers, and it does not tell the truth about what children do and do
not know. I think there are solutions. I think there are things that the school
board can do, but as a generic thing, that's where I'm coming from. Okay. I just
wanted to add my that i i don't i think there's a lot to chew on there obviously and we're not going
to get it through the night but i i do think that the local school board as you said can do some
things and you can decide do we want to establish some markers of our own that may not coincide with
what the state's measuring but i think that's gives me an idea i wanted to get you started
talking about your about the direction of the board the direction of the district you've given
some some good thoughts to that I don't know that these are big issues but just
some things for you to to think about when you're voting and when you're
debating and I don't know that but I think we want to keep it off
personalities we keep it on the subject keep it on policies you're a good board
you've worked together well I don't know that again all of this is relevant to
you but there are questions that i pose to the boards just to think about you know that all you
know i always look around the table say well don't forget that every single one of you was elected
that's right every single one of you was elected nobody got up then on this board that i know
nobody got appointed so the the people in this community spoke and said we want they wanted you
to be here and i always think that's important to remember especially if somebody says well i don't
think that I agree with them. Well that's okay. Well I don't think that they've got
the same value system that I have. No that's not okay. The people in this
community voted to put them here and the people in this community have a value
system and they in their judgment said the seven of you need to be here, deserve
to be here and they elected you and they also in doing so didn't say you have to
all agree with each other but they did say we kind of want this deal to work and work well
for the benefit of the kids um yes sir i would just like to pass a kudos since we're at this
point yeah uh mr scott's new on the board and he's done something that i haven't seen a board member
do ever uh he when we're coming up on an agenda item he uses that time to talk about it and he
tells you right up front he's going to vote for it or not vote for it on several items and i know as
a board member i appreciate that and he's voted no several times but he's explaining it at least to
me this is the agenda item and this is what i i don't like or i do like and i know i appreciate
that because it a gives me an opportunity to debate if we need to but on your number one are
you voting or debating the issues of personality there's no personality he he's explaining to you
in the community what he doesn't like about that and why he's voting and there's i just know that
sitting next to him there's no animosity or anything but i do appreciate that's something
that we haven't done in the past and and i kind of i really like yeah it's respectful to tell
people i i have concerns about this and here's one so good job and you know obviously if i'm
the superintendent i'm going to try to you know i should tell my boards i won't tell you how to vote
you won't tell me what you recommend. I'm going to recommend what I think is best for the district.
I'm not going to be mad at you when the vote's over. I'm not going to be, however it goes,
I'm your agent, Lance is your agent, he's here to follow your policy and
and to do as the board instructs.
He's also paid to give you counsel and advice.
And you may agree with it, and you may not.
But the respectful thing to do is to advise your colleagues
and to advise him when you have a problem with an area
and explain it.
And then it also helps for the future,
that if we're going to deal with this same subject again,
I may need to bring more information, better rationale,
I may have asked some different questions.
So it's a healthy, that's kind of a healthy way to approach it.
So thanks for your comments and George, thanks for your approach to that.
You know, I don't think anybody's here to waste time or energy.
I think you're here to make a difference.
The question I always ask, do you think you can make a difference by yourself?
Does anybody think they can make a difference by themselves?
I've seen some people get on boards and think, you know, I can whip that other group into shape.
I usually see that it occurs and I sit on some boards I've sat on three
corporate boards and I found that I've got to figure out a way to work with
those other board members to get anything done that I don't I generally
can't do it alone that all of us have been put in trust all of you have been
put in trust as trustees you've been put in trust of this system by the voters
this community and I suspect your opinions are all valued your input is
all needed but at the end of the day that your ability to come together work
together is really what the community looks for the citizens look for I can go
live in some communities where there's constant board turmoil and I don't mean
disagreement, I mean turmoil, that and people don't choose that normally. For
their kids, for the kind of education they want, for the kind of stability they
want, they've chosen you, they've chosen Katie. And I would challenge all of
you to keep that in mind as you think about how we how we work together and
how we sometimes might even disagree with one another and then how we circle
the wagons when it comes time to circle the wagons. I think you know tonight I've
got some goals you have on your agenda to talk about some goal setting. I'm
going to pass you out some goals before we leave and that's going to kind of be
your homework assignment because I found that seven people can't wordsmith goals
but I'm going to give you about 38 goals to look at that in a future workshop
that maybe Lance or staff can put in some format that you can look at and say
these kind of fit where I think we ought to be going are these you may like what
you have and if you do that's fine with me I'm not I'm not judging I'm not
judging at all I'm just giving you some options to look at and think about in
terms of what do we what do we want to do and and what do we want to accomplish
I always and then I look at boards and think I saw a real pretty picture of all
of you earlier in the day Lance was in it and I saw George's join the group and
there's a new picture and I don't know where they put pictures of the board
they put them out there somewhere don't think yeah yeah there but I mean
eventually you move that picture don't you graduate out to the hall yeah I'm
talking about the board they go in the closet well I go to a lot of boardrooms
where I see I see the 1985 board or the 1995 board or the 2005 board and I'm
thinking to myself wonder what those people did wonder what they left behind
wonder what they put in place that's still here did they do anything that's
lasting did they leave a legacy of any kind or did they just come and serve
which is admirable the board service is admirable but I always think gosh you
put in all this time you tell you the trouble to run ask people to vote for
you raise money you get on the board you put up with some of the complaints and
then at the end of the day you say what would we leave behind what did we do we
have a legacy and I kind of get you to think that what do you want your legacy
to be when you get through when you get through serving on the board two terms
three terms four terms however many you know I had one board member one time had
ten terms but he had a 30 years of board service but what do you have you given
that any thought saying when I'm through or the seven of you are through working
with the superintendent at the end of the day what's see I'd say I'd put your
picture out there and say this this board's got some things done this board
got some things done they they improved this district if you don't have that
answer tonight that's okay but I'd be thinking about that I'd be thinking
about what what's our what's our marker going to be what's the that people are
going to say that those seven people that started working together with the
new superintendent in 2016 this was this was the benchmark the marker that they
they put down that lasted a long time I'll tell you it's hard to do things in
these school systems I left the Lubbock Independent School District and I
thought we've done some good work there and I looked behind me and three or four
years later they were still having school I left Dallas ISD thought we'd
done some pretty good work there and 10th largest district in the nation I
looked behind me and they're still having school and I even worked at TEA
once upon a time for five years and thought we did a few things and I looked
behind me and TEA is still open and they're still having school and you kind of ask yourself
did I get anything done did I do anything that still lasts there did I put anything in place
that people said that has value and we're going to keep doing it and I think the question for all of
you is with this superintendent do you work together to put down something that people
would say five years ten years from now 15 years from now if you came back and said gosh they're
still doing that. That would, that must have been pretty good. And I don't know
if it's the way you finance the schools, the way you redraw attendance boundaries,
if it's the way you address accountability, if it's the way you address student
achievement, or if it's the way you address special needs kids, but there's
something as you discuss what is it we need to do and be. That legacy that
Rebecca mentioned, I kind of think it's kind of important or else you can just
say i came i ran i served i enjoyed it i went home after my two terms or three terms and that was
it was we had good meetings and but did anybody get anything done that
five years 10 years 15 years is still is still working in that school district that to me is
a big challenge of that takes some really good thinking to get that done uh
Roles and responsibilities and relationships.
I'm going to work, Charles, I'm working my way toward your question.
Your role as trustees is the oversight of management.
You govern the district.
Trustees put in trust to the system.
It's the way we run our institution so that there's a check and balance
that the people, the people, the citizens, taxpayers, i.e., whether it's boards, councils,
other governing boards, had the final say over anybody that's put in an administrative role.
I always say you are the elected folks and I'm the appointed guy. Lance is the appointed guy.
elected folks are basically they have a role oversight of management oversight
of the work that that I've done and that's healthy so I always like say what
are boards need to know what do you need to know to make sure that your role is a
trustee and the first thing I always put up there's are the children and
employees and others that we oversee are they safe here is this a safe place I
I used to tell our principals, tell people,
parents will forgive you if you don't teach their kids enough reading and writing arithmetic,
but if you let something happen to their child, see if they'll forgive you.
Safety for everybody.
And that means physical safety.
It also means psychological safety.
And that's a big responsibility, as Lance knows,
because we've had too many instances where we've seen too many situations
situations with adults and kids that haven't been where the relationship hasn't been appropriate
So the physical safety the psychological safety is that a rightful concern of the boards you bet you bet it's it's
Reason you you are elected you sit here are the districts assets secure
That is a need to know by the board because you're a taxing
Jurisdiction you can levy a tax rates
You can ask people to hand over their resources, their money, to this organization and use it correctly.
And you need to know, they need to know, and you as their trustee, put in trust to the system,
need to be assured that, hey, assets are secure.
That's why we have an external auditor once a year that comes in and looks and oversees everything and says,
yeah, okay, the books are clean.
This is a fair representation of the district's financial position.
That's our safety net.
and I said oh again the boards I sit on I want that I want an external audit I
want somebody independent outside to come in and tell me that the guy I like
the guys on the inside but I want to be sure that somebody tells me that our
guys on the inside are doing it right and if and and we hold the external guys
accountable so that gives us some comfort our laws and policies follow are
Are we following the, we may not agree with all the laws, regulations, the accountability system,
but are we following those as required by law?
That's a board need to know.
Does fairness prevail?
Is this a fair system?
Do we treat people with dignity?
Do we treat people fairly, honestly?
You want that kind of system, I would assume.
You don't want a system where people have to worry about are they going to be mistreated.
so I think the boards need to know that and then our major business systems
effective and efficient and by the way one of our business what part of our
business is not money business it's the business of learning his learning being
done here efficiently and effectively our resources are we good stewards of
the dollars are all of those things efficient and effective anybody disagree
with that list don't you want to know it would you say you may say I don't need
to know these things Lance you disagree with any of that you think that's fair
that your trustees need to buy policy or by whatever and most of this is in
policy but trustees need to know these things that's all I have but you can add
one to it what would you what do you want to talk about which one are you
thinking? I think one of the things that I observe boards are hesitant to do,
maybe don't even like to do, and that is to express themselves in curriculum and
accountability management. There's an extraordinary amount of data and there's
two ways to look at data. There's a data dump where you have all the data, there's
data that means something. And one of my goals, one of my goals is that I want the
board to become more aggressive in holding the superintendent accountable
for the programs and initiatives that deal with curriculum management. Put it
this way, it's not my job or the board's job to teach students to read and write
and add i do believe that it is the board's job to hold the superintendent accountable for how his
team teaches students to read write and add and to do that boards have to have to not be afraid
of getting beyond bullet points you and i've been doing this for a very long time you're an expert
Yeah, you are. You're an expert at data. You understand the data. And it's one of the disadvantages
that school board members have. You don't have to be a doctor. You don't have to have
a doctoral dissertation to understand the framework of accountability and the framework
of how you can work with a superintendent. And the example I'll give is we give 90 administrations
of district learning assessments every year from grades two through high school chemistry,
physics, biology. And a board needs to understand what that data means, how it's used, and how it
should be used. And it's up to the superintendent to help us understand that. And it's up for us
us to figure out a way to support him or her, in this case him, in holding his team accountable.
And I believe that there is historically and more so in the last 10 years a failure to
embrace data, not be afraid of data, and to figure out how to hold the administration
of accountable for academic curriculum accountability so I would say that would
be the bullet point I'm looking at your list up there and and I agree with it is
not by no means yeah but there's one common denominator in all of those list
and that's the information that the board is getting.
I'm going to give Dr. Hintz some kudos here.
I love his Friday updates.
I love the communication flow on every element of it.
But the thing about a board is, you know, someone like Mr. Scott,
you can do a data dump on him and he's good to go.
He'll spend all weekend reading that.
You dump that on me and, you know, it's a little bit different reaction.
some people we all intake that data differently some people may need to go
to the campus to get the field they need to make sure that all of those things
are working in line some people may take a data dump and be just fine with that
somebody may have a conversation with an administrator or the superintendent and
feel everything's flowing well but that is to me not a weakness but a strength
of having seven people. You know, when Mr.
Mahalski sits down or from the table or anywhere and has a conversation
with some of our financial administrators about the things that's going on
with our money, I feel real good about that because I trust what he's done
with his life and his background that he's doing a good job.
You know, so I think that's a place that I would like to see
us get where we respect each other's
individual out individuality in getting that information because it's the
collective that I believe gives us all a bill a safe us an amount of comfort that
those things are happening yeah each one of you bring special talents and skills
to the table some of you've handled money you've handled people some of you
worked in different occupations that you bring a different skill set to the table
and yeah you will rely on one another on one another's input and judgment reserving always
reserving your right for your vote to do what you think is is correct but it's the old adage that
all of us know more than any one of us that we're all together collectively our brain the things we
have and we know make us stronger than just you know if you're just sitting around listening to
one person but I think this is you know I think I hear where you're coming from
George Henry good observations I just say I'm trying to think in terms of you
know why governance and why does management have to have oversight and
you know what y'all in terms of your relationship you have a new board
member you have new superintendent you're about three months into this new
relationship and I suspect you're going to have more discussions in terms of
what are we really measuring here how do we want to communicate it what do we
want to what do we want to know what's important for us as a board and how do
we want to communicate it to the community so those are some some
thoughts I'm gonna keep us moving because we're all take a we're about 20
minutes from a break Charles asked the question about board authority and I
don't you know y'all got a policy on that too I brought it I've made copies
of it I don't know that I need to get that but it does track the law not that
But I'm, let's see if I got it right here.
If you just take that clip, I'll pass one of those around there.
That's your policy and what it says about, and it's taken, it's a TASB policy pretty much.
But it's, I don't think this inhibits anybody from functioning.
Can you hold it for me?
Yeah, I know it's the print.
I think Peggy might have printed that for me.
Has everybody got a copy?
Thanks, Van Gilles.
You all know this.
You read it.
It's there.
You are, when you meet as a corporate body,
when you're meeting as a corporate body,
you have all the authority that can be provided
within the laws of the state of Texas.
You are, this board makes decisions on behalf of the district on any subject.
From the employment of the superintendent to the setting of the budget, the tax rate, just anything you put on your agenda.
The individual authority, it's pretty clear.
When I'm the superintendent, I know who my board members are.
If a board member asks to talk to me, I want to talk to my board members.
We're going to talk.
We need to have a conversation.
we're going to have a conversation, not just at the meetings.
And I think one of the reasons you've selected this gentleman
is because you believe that one of the things you measure
when you're talking to a candidate is,
does this feel like somebody we can communicate with?
Does it feel like somebody we can talk to?
And you've obviously, you know,
you seem to be having conversations with one another,
and I note that some things have even been opened up to you,
but that may be not not what you had before but maybe make you more
comfortable but I just say this the authority is is it's pretty obvious that
when you leave the building you leave the room you know just like again I'm
when I leave their corporate board meetings I don't I don't have any
authority now I can ask for a meeting I'm gonna ask to go see somebody I'm
gonna ask to get some information and I'm always treated well and I'm gonna be
treated courteously just like you are and I'm going to be that information is
going to be provided and it's going to be if it's if it's you know information
they have readily available information that's not readily available there's a
little bit different you know I mean I used to have board members I had a board
members great board member love it one of my favorite board members he was a
graduate of the Naval Academy but he would come up to me and say I need this
this this this and this I say Roy that's gonna take a lot of work and I said
tell you what let's do let's put it in front of board and let the board take a
look at it see if we now never mind Mike we really don't need to do that well
Roy just he was a great guy he understood what the deal was I think any
of you that want information you asked for information you're gonna get it if
somebody if the superintendent says hey this is gonna take 10 12 hours do you
want that kind of time investment well that's probably something I'll talk
about if this is readily available hit a program running on the computer look at
it it's and that's not an abuse of authority that's just asking for some
information I think the the question becomes you know okay well what about
when you're out in the schools you're out in the community well you think you
have a problem let me tell you when I was superintendent and my kids were in
elementary school we kind of had a rule that I didn't go to school to see the
kids teachers my wife if anybody had to go my wife went everybody whether you
and I know there are people in here I would consider all of you to be servants
and to be humble people but everybody in this community knows if you're a school
board member or not maybe not everybody but most people and so whenever you show up at a school or
an activity or something like that there's there's there's kind of i won't say you intimidate them
but i would say you let them they know you're around and that's okay that's okay i think the
important thing is though to remember you know you're you may want to lay your eyes on something
fine it may be helpful but in terms of any thing that's that might be
interpreted as any kind of directive any kind of instruction any kind of you need
to do or you should do that that's that's you kind of you kind of stepped
across that line and I'm gonna talk about that governance management line
the problem becomes there who's the person we want to hold accountable for
what's going on around here if we go over there and start stepping across
that line and start talking about stuff that needs to happen or directives we've
just made we just compromised that I don't want to I don't want to belabor
this point that you've got a policy on it the Texas Education Code speaks to
the fact that you got lots of authority as a board when we leave the room we're
all individuals and we have entrusted the the oversight of this system to this
gentleman right here that doesn't mean we can't ask questions ask for
information have discussions put items on the agenda ask for workshops reports
that's part of that the board needs to know piece within our policies within
our scope or operating procedures whatever we want to do when we do that I
I promise you, you look organized and you look like a great governing board.
The boards that have instability, turmoil, and are constantly churning on issues that really don't have much to do with student learning.
I don't think property values stay up.
I don't think home prices stay up.
I don't think people want to stay in those districts.
I think people have come to this system because of the stability of the community, the stability of the schools, the stability of the school board, and that makes living here attractive.
It doesn't mean everything's perfect, but it means home values are up.
It means people find it desirable.
I will promise you if this was a school board that was sitting down here arguing every night and I can show you some videos
Of some board meetings and places that you would say
Really I
Don't think you've got the time for me to show them to you
But if you want me to show them to you I can show you a couple of things that you just you won't believe it
And I would say those are communities that are struggling
I also used to say this
superintendent I'll put it this way the board needs to when the meetings over the board needs
to forget who's the boss and the superintendent needs to always remember who's the boss you are
the boss while you're here when you leave here you kind of need to forget you're the boss and
And he has to always remember who's the boss.
She's at home.
She's at home.
That's right.
That's right.
At that location, she's at home.
At this location, you know what I mean.
And really and truly, you have a very competent school executive here that understands that
and understands what his role is.
But, Charles, I don't know if I'm getting to your answer here,
but that to me I think y'all kind of got a new a new day going in terms of your
ability to to visit schools which I think is fine I would say do it but be
thoughtful about it communicate correctly communicate correctly as long
as you communicate correctly with the superintendent and the what you're what
you're about you're not gonna have any problems with that but but it was kind
of like i used to say when my wife said why don't you go to school for i mean do you think anybody's
gonna if i go to and look around just as a superintendent but if i go to school on behalf
of my kids i gotta i gotta be careful you are you're if you're parents you represent your kids
any way you need to but i would just i think just good judgment be thoughtful you got a policy i'd
I respect the spirit of that policy. I think you'd be fine. But I think it's
always, you want to say something Lance? I'm gonna give you permission to say
something. Okay. It's really, I think that this board understands they're not
there to direct or request. They're there to support and most importantly I think
be visible. And I think that's important for a healthy organization because we're
We're all in this together, superintendent, school board, school administration, teachers,
community.
We welcome our PTA reps in schools.
We should be able to welcome our board into school.
Our PTA reps don't go into schools and tell the principal how to run the school, nor does
a board member.
If there's a concern, then I would certainly expect that board member to bring that back
to me.
We need the land.
but what what we have in some schools and I know I've heard this like board
just say well they're hiding stuff from us they don't want to go to school
and I think what's happening here is y'all have kind of moved toward a little
little more openness there it's it's healthy nobody's got anything to hide
but they're also we want to be respectful of the processes that we want
want to follow and we ultimately at the end of the day we're gonna we can't hold a lot of other people responsible we hold
so if we see or know something that's not right we need to go here I've had another I guess I'll
quit here in a second I had some great forces some I didn't always agree with but they they
they had good intentions and I think they they knew that I did but they would
come to me sometimes and say listen I got a call last night and I just went
ahead and called principal what I thought you know might be helpful but
what they were really doing they thought my Mike's busy and I don't want to call
him and I won't bother him I know he's got a lot going on someone's they try to
help me they thought by brokering the system well what they were really doing
was making my job harder and they were also making it harder for themselves to
hold me accountable because if they called and prescribed a solution and
that solution didn't work then it was kind of on them that we've prescribed an
idea or a solution in good faith but it just didn't work out and so who's blank
who must
to blame now. So I know that sometime the intent is so good that you you have
constituents, you have friends, you have people that may ask you to engage and
sometimes you know what if I might say this I think the role of the board
member is to make sure that fairness prevails that I put up there what boards
need to know that fairness prevails we have policies and we have procedures and
And I'm going to help you make sure that I get you to the right place or to the right individual to help you handle.
And my job is to make sure the system works the way it's supposed to.
My job is not to handle every problem.
In fact, the fastest way that I've seen board members become miserable in their service is when they start trying to move into problem solving instead of making sure that the system works the way it's designed to work to help people get problems solved.
and no bad intentions is just like I say the example I use was I had board
members thought they were helping me by going ahead and handling something that
it just didn't work out the way we all wanted it to so anyway I think that's
enough on that subject we're gonna take a break here just saying I want to move
on to a couple of things when we take a dr. Moses yes I think mr. mom oh I'm
sorry Brian go go go go do you already did it so no I
I'm all for it.
I'd really hear it.
I'd really...
Well, on that issue...
Okay.
I'll go ahead.
Now that I'm called out, I'll go ahead.
Now, I was just going to say, you know,
Charles kind of shared that concern a little bit,
and I'd say that I, in some ways, share that concern,
albeit not necessarily in the same manner
as the way he was relaying it.
And I think what we've seen
is the pendulum has swung a little bit,
and my concern is I don't want it to swing too far.
But going back to something Henry had said earlier about we are all seven different people, different temperaments, talents, convictions.
And some people, I think their service is more geared toward being visible and being almost a cheerleader of sorts for the community,
where others may be digging into data and doing, you know, we all bring a little bit different talent to what we're doing here.
but I think we can effectively do that in a way that complements each other and that's where,
yeah, boundaries, there has to be a boundary, right, and I think the first step of that is
just being mindful that we're not distracting, right, and so that's it.
Good observations. Did you want to say something, ma'am?
I would like to just weigh in on this as well. I also appreciate Dr. Hint and his
his vision toward having all of us be visible.
We're 181 square miles, 60 current campuses with three more to come very soon.
And I've had principals say to me,
you're the only board member who's been in my campus since I've been principal here for nine years.
And it just, when a board member comes to a campus and says, you know,
what do you love?
Show me around.
Show off what you've got.
it gives a credibility and an honor and they're like you took time to come and
see my building to come and see what we're doing here it's I'm not out
nowhere land and no one knows if I'm doing a good job that's our intent so I
think if we measure intent then you know there's a lot of that and it it's it's a
none of us are there to tell anybody what to do none of us are experts in
education that's not our role our role is to just say you know we're all in this together
yeah i think if you keep it on the praise level that you're there if you go that you're there to
offer support encouragement and praise and if there's something that concerns you that warrants
criticism i think it belongs in his office and that it belongs to him and and as far as you know
passing on the good words and praise then you know that our teachers and
principals certainly need that they don't need false praise though and that
the only thing I would be sure of that and I you know I've had people comment
say I was gonna go out and see such-and-such school and visit them and
I said well let me just be sure you know before you go out there that there's
been a problem out there and we're monitoring this and so before you go out
there and tell everybody what a great job they're doing you might want to and
And that's sometimes a reason to check in and kind of let the superintendent know what you're thinking
because, you know, you don't want to become party to something where you're out there saying,
oh, you're doing a great job, and then go back and find out, whoa, man, we've got $30,000 missing out there.
There's some things you just want to be careful about.
But I think generally, you know, if you're on the track of trying to look for reasons to give encouragement,
give support, give praise, you're gonna be fine. I'm gonna talk about
relationship spheres and we're gonna take a break and for about 10 minutes.
You know these spheres, you got you as individual trustees have relationships
with each other and let me tell you something, those are pretty important.
Whether you agree or disagree, you all love Katie or you wouldn't be here.
Y'all love kids, you wouldn't be here. And you got to keep in mind what do we got in
common with one another because you know I just had these guys say, boy I just
can't stand working with these people. And I said, do you know what is it? And he said,
I just don't like it here. I said, well move. If you don't like living here, why would
you live here if you don't like, you know there's 1100 other communities in Texas.
Your freedoms are transferable, but if you'd like living here and the
people that are you're sitting around the table with like living here and they
like it then you know those relationships with each other are
important that board superintendent relationship really really important I'm
gonna talk about that after break and talk about a word called trust business
and civic leaders you certainly have your share of those here in this
community and other elected officials teacher leaders I don't call those that's
a union shouldn't that board should be your teacher leaders your journalists
your vendors your constituents your parents your employees you've got a lot
of audiences that you and a lot of relationships fears that you need to be
attentive to now I say be attentive to in terms of if someone asked you a
question or they want to talk about the system knowing first how do I make sure
that this relationship is maintained correctly? And then how do I make sure that the system
works to the benefit of these constituents? And sometimes that means me maybe answering
questions, but sometimes it may mean me getting them to the right person. Again, I'm not the
broker of all problems in the system. I didn't get elected to broker the system. I got elected
to make sure the system works to the benefit of the constituents and patrons
ie taxpayers of this district so those relationships fears are pretty pretty
key I'm gonna come back we're gonna talk about do's and don'ts then we're gonna
talk about the relationships then we're gonna see a video and we're gonna
roleplay some of that maybe some scenarios I'm gonna give you two or
three scenarios and let y'all debate those scenarios and see how those and
we'll we'll get out with our homework assignment around 8 o'clock when we take
10 minutes and reconvene at 655 is that okay all right
let's keep talking for just a minute I I was asked a year to go to write down
some do's and don'ts for healthy board relationships so we'll try these out you
can probably think of others and you can probably say you know this is list is
not not a conclusive list or complete list but it's just a list that do as a
trustee ask questions ask questions for better understanding it's you know I
I appreciate the board that wants to ask questions.
Now, I'm going to be, this may kind of, you say, well, Mike, you're kind of stepping on toes a little bit here, what you're going to say.
I like it if a board member tells me, what Charles said, I can't support this in this forum because here's what, what, what, what, what, what.
want. What I like even better is if I'm the superintendent and I put something
on the agenda and I told you I'm not ever going to tell you how to vote, don't
please don't tell me what to recommend and at the end of the day I'm not
fussing at you about how you vote and I hope you won't fuss at me about what I
recommend because I I'm trying to recommend what I think is the best
interest of kids but if you ask questions of me or my staff and we play
20 questions for 30 minutes at a board meeting that could have been asked
before the meeting that are routine questions I've had board members call me
up and say Mike I've got some questions but I want to pose them at the board
table because I'd like to hear what the other board members have to say and I
I think we need to have a discussion on this matter.
Fair enough.
Thank you.
Appreciate you letting me know.
We're going to have that dialogue as needed.
But if somebody's just got some routine questions,
what day did we send this bid out?
What day did it come in?
How much was it for?
You know, just stuff that's routine, readily available,
that we can answer before the meeting.
Let's do that.
let's let's don't play that let's don't play the surprise game hey I want to
surprise you I got some questions I just if those are if we need to have a board
discussion at the table and those questions need to be asked at the table
by all means that's your prerogative as trustees but if it's just I just kind of
thought about this today and thought I might want to just do this tonight you're
really kind of making the work of the board a little bit harder and a little
more time-consuming if it's just that kind of thing but asking questions great
listening I'm a great listener at home I get to practice a lot but it is it's the
way we learn and you've said it already a couple of you've already said it
tonight that hey we've all got some individual talents and skills and we
learn from each other the way we learn from each other is we listen to each other and you know
part of that is listening is also not monopolizing so we kind of respectful of everybody respecting
the group as a corporate board you are the corporate board i told you when you were meeting
like this you have the authority to to make decisions about this district uh pretty much in
in any shape, form, or fashion you choose.
Upholding your oath, that's a do, obviously.
You all took that oath.
You know what it is, and that's pretty serious business
to any of us that hold up our hand
and pledge an oath and take it.
Honesty.
You know, I, and even when it hurts, even when it hurts a little bit, and sometimes it does, but, you know, you're calling attention to something that, hey, we've got to honestly think about this and talk about this.
And might that be?
Yes, yes, yes.
Yes.
Yeah, feedback on all of them.
Test test test.
You going to go around here?
Test test.
All over there?
The microphone is done.
Okay I'm going to try to speak to him.
But
But this, let's have him turn it off.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone who has ever looked up at the sky
And that play, I nearly passed out.
It went Ginobili, Mills, Duncan, DL in that order.
Ginobili threw a no-look pass to Mills that is still fooling me.
That play is everything that's right about the NBA.
It is beautiful to watch.
And that play should be an NBA commercial like this is NBA basketball.
We practice that. We have a drill.
We take two dribbles, pass, two dribble, pass, and we do it like 10, 15 times.
We had a timeout. Coach Pop was like, let's do the 10 pass.
I want somebody to overpass.
that's the beauty of our game
they constantly sacrifice for the guy next to them their office is such
poetry emotion
the kids at home and their youth coaches just take that possession and show it on
an endless loop
the beautiful
He's gained a beautiful view.
They're not doing this to a bad defensive team.
We're talking about Miami being one of the Herald half-court defensive teams in the league,
and San Antonio is running a clinic.
They can't do anything about it.
They cannot stop it.
Parker, Ginobili, for three.
Bang!
How good has this Spurs offense been?
29 assists scored.
Boris Diaw has put on an absolute clinic on how to pass the basketball.
San Antonio's bigs pass the ball so well.
Splitter, Duncan, and in particular Diaw.
Look how everybody touched the ball there without it going to the floor.
Bills, not that time.
Leonard on the follow! Kawhi Leonard!
Coach, was it anything that you said to Kawhi or anyone else said to Kawhi going into this game that led to this performance?
We talked to Kawhi.
And what did you tell him?
That's family business.
They're a high oil machine and they move the ball extremely well.
I don't think the ball hit the deck on that exchange.
That drive, beautiful movement.
They put you in so many difficult positions.
If you're not right on time, right on target, then they're going to make you pay for it.
Duncan hands to Ginobili.
Inside Duncan.
Out to Parker for three.
BAM!
Because every time you see your superstar, your franchise, being so unselfish, it makes you want to be like that too.
You know, Timmy is a great example for me. He was a model for me to follow.
He's been so good for so long, and I think a big key of our success is we never let our ego, you know, me or Timmy or Manu, be ahead of the team.
The Spurs might be the best passing team we've seen since the Celtics of the 80s because of the way they just find a better shot every single time.
The Miami Heat, as much as I respect what they've accomplished, they can't beat the Spurs.
Patty Mills, puts it in. Patty Mills, huge off the bench.
The longevity, the sustained excellence to me of Tim Duncan, just mind-boggling.
Oh, Duncan down the follow.
And only out of the finish, flushes it with the left hand.
I love Manu Ginobili. I've enjoyed watching him play in the NBA as much as any player.
Listen, he would be in my Hall of Fame anywhere, anytime.
Another beautiful pass from Ginobili for his 10th assist of the game.
The ball movement, once again unbelievable.
We got four more to win, we'll do it this time.
And to the San Antonio Spurs, you showed the world how beautiful this game is.
Chris Bosh described the Spurs as the best basketball team he's ever played against.
How would you characterize what you ran into in the finals?
I would agree. That's what team basketball, and that's how team basketball should be played.
You know, it's selfless. Guys move, cut, pass.
You got a shot, you take it, but it's all for the team.
That's how team basketball should be played.
Kawhi Leonard, you are the 2014 Bill Russell MVP.
7 years man!
You're back!
You've been a while too!
You're back!
You're back with a show of hands!
I've never been more proud of the team, nor have I ever gotten as much satisfaction from a season in all the years that I've been coaching. To see the fortitude you guys displayed coming back from that horrific loss last year and getting yourselves back to the position and doing what you did in the finals. You're really to be honored for that and I just can't tell you how much it means.
Okay.
He said, why did he show us that?
You know why?
Why would I show you that?
Why would I show you a basketball movie?
Let's see.
That's not what we need right there.
What did you see?
Did you see anything you liked there?
I got a shot, you got a better shot.
Here's the ball.
Now, some people think, well, you know, team work and I can't do individual.
No, they got some individual players.
They got some people doing some fabulous individual play.
at the end of those plays.
But to get to those individual plays,
they had to have somebody help them.
You've got some things that you as a trustee
can do individually.
Make a contribution at the board table.
You raise a good question, you ask it.
You put an idea out.
But it takes everybody to make that come to fruition.
It doesn't just say, well, I put it out there, so it happened.
I think that, you know, is a pretty interesting video.
What else did you see?
Anything else there that you liked, you heard, you saw?
Brian?
What I'd say is that is probably the most efficiently run sports franchise
in the last 20 years.
Maybe the New England Patriots match it, and that's about it.
And you know that has to start from the top.
Yeah.
And they have changed over.
I mean they kept the nucleus of three guys through most of that run, but everything else
has changed and it's repeated itself.
They don't win every championship, but it has been a model of consistency and at the
top for a long, long period of time in a very small market that speaks to leadership and
it speaks to putting the organization ahead of individuality.
And it spoke to leadership when they asked, what did you say?
And he said, family business.
I said, there are some things.
We want to be transparent.
We want to be open.
We want to tell the truth and be honest.
There are some things that you weren't going to talk about that.
You're not going to talk about an individual teacher and their problems.
You weren't going to talk about an individual player and his problems.
It wasn't, you know, it wasn't going to compromise.
So what do you say?
Family business.
Some things we just know.
And it's not that, again, we don't have a lot of secrets.
You don't want to have a lot of secrets.
You won't have a lot of secrets from each other.
But there will be some times when you'll be in closed session
and you'll be in meetings where you know this is family business.
This is not.
This is.
We've had this discussion over.
The superintendent knows what needs to be done.
And we need to just let him do it.
What else? Anything else?
Oh, great.
And the coach should teach them those passing maneuvers,
and then trust that it would actually work in the game,
and trust that when they did pass the ball, they would be there.
I like that.
They had to be trusted.
This doesn't work.
It doesn't work.
I mean, LeBron James is a great player.
He said, did he have the same kind of team that I'm doing?
More individual talent on the Heat in those games they were showing, obviously.
But as a team, the Spurs were much better.
There may be individual speakable, but I would like to think that this board is capable of doing anything
and demonstrated excellence in any school that you go to.
I think that's a, just like a teacher,
I think it's really important to meet the people.
Obviously it's a different, I don't know,
You know, Dr. Moses, what came across for me was that in a profession where it's about
most points, fastest, tallest, MVP, and the media buzz, and the social media, and the
the notoriety that come in the egos that come with something like that that they
were more focused on the team because the championship becomes about the team
it's bigger you're bigger together than you are separately and so when when any
one person on any team is focused on notoriety or credit or it was my idea
And I'm telling you, many of the people here, and Mr. Scott, I'm just getting to know, but the selflessness of these people, and we laugh and joke all the time because some of these people have the best ideas, and I'm like, that's a really good idea.
From now on, it will be the Rebecca Fox idea, you know, like the, right?
They're so selfless, and we tease each other.
But it's not about who came up with the idea or why it's going forward, but that it benefits the whole.
and the selflessness of these people and right we nobody's getting paid to do
this and we all give up our time and and it's the collectiveness and the
superintendent being receptive to two ideas that are like that's a good idea
let's do it I love that and the in the gel that comes together when it's like
we did that and and soon it's forgotten whose idea it was doesn't matter
I would say, did they, y'all ever have any thoughts you're going to have some disappointments?
Sure.
Did they have some disappointments?
Sure.
The year before, they had been beaten in the last seconds of the final season of Game 7.
And it was a horrific loss, but they really, as you said,
come back from last year, come back.
But you're going to have some, probably going to have some moments in between.
I see some, gosh, this is not for you.
But they, your resolve, it's a test of your resolve.
Can you, can we come back to that?
I think it's, again, it takes individual talent, but it takes team effort.
And you say, well, I want to do my own thing.
And it's that lone ranger approach, I think,
that's hard to win the day.
Talk about board superintendent communication
here for a few minutes.
And I always put that up first, because I'm not sure you
didn't, we talked as you went through the interview process.
But I'm pretty sure most boards tell me
when they hire a superintendent is because we think this person is somebody we can talk to, somebody we can communicate with, somebody we can trust.
Now we might not like every recommendation he makes, but at the end of the day we believe that he wants great things for kids and for Katie.
And that trust factor is really, really important.
And it's, you know, everything you need to talk to him about that, you need to talk to him about it, and he needs to sometimes say, hey, how am I doing?
How am I doing? And let's make sure we've got that honest feedback and trust.
I always said this, trust is something you're putting in trust of this system as trustee, you're elected.
you have you have put him in it's hard to lose it get it back that's the one
thing we protect with each other is we may not agree but we trust that right
we are all trying to do the right thing we trust each trustee is trying to do
the right thing and we're trusting that he's trying to do the right thing and that is
is really, and the way you keep that trust is just, what I said earlier,
is he's got to be allowed to give you all bad news sometimes
and know that, you know, we're not going to beat him up.
In fact, as a matter of fact, I want bad news.
I don't want to be surprised.
I don't want to get the big surprise.
I'd rather him be honest with me and tell me, you know, when I say,
what's keeping you up at night?
Tell me the truth.
Don't let me find out about it on the street, or go to the store at the ball game, or Friday night. I need to know.
So we've got that honest communication. I think we've already kind of hit this one.
But it's kind of the Board's primary concern with presence and effectiveness of management systems.
As long as you're doing that, you're engaged in legitimate oversight,
and your own board's primary concern is the actions and performance of individuals.
The handling of isolated incidents may be on the verge of . . .
And that's the microphone I'm supposed to be using.
Boy, that's hard to remember.
It's back.
Yeah, it's back.
As I said, the test may not work in all circumstances, but it's a pretty good one to say, you know,
am I within the bounds here of where I need to be?
We're going to role play some.
We're going to look at some stuff here.
Who wants to read scenario number one?
Ashley.
Ashley.
You were nominated, Ashley.
You want to read that one?
I brought my glasses.
Board Member Smith makes an appointment with the superintendent.
Oh, that's right.
Board Member Smith makes an appointment with the superintendent,
goes to his office, sits down and says,
Mr. Superintendent, I've been hearing a lot of complaints from principals
and parents about the performance of the area superintendent in my part of town.
I really think you need to move her to another part of the district
or in a central office because there is so much discontent about how this person
is performing her job.
Is this a management issue or is this a governance issue?
The way that's written, it's a total management issue.
by the way we had a group of trustees that
okay to go and talk about complaints and I'm getting some complaints and I appreciate your
you're looking into it, you go and describe the solution.
How are you going to hold him accountable?
Oh, you move that person, they're not doing a great job?
Oh, wasn't your idea?
No.
Why?
I've been making him aware.
Aware is okay.
You have then said, you know, then when you evaluate him,
you look down there and say, how does he do on handling personnel?
And I can take that into account.
I think that matter with the level of you did a great job handling that or you
didn't do a great job but if I prescribe the solution and I've kind of ain't
deck ain't holding the camel and I'm kind of stepping over there into that
who wants to read number two
board member Jones calls the superintendent one day and says mr.
superintendent i want an update on the contract negotiations that are going on right now for the
sale of the main street property what's the status of offers and how are negotiations going
your bed
management
all that happens all that happens in due course
I think they're just looking for some information. I don't think they're saying sell it.
I just want to know is it bogging down, how things are going. He's given no directions.
He's just asking for some information. If the superintendent's not ready to talk to it,
I would expect, hey, we're not in a position where we can discuss that right now. Let's put
it on an agenda item. This really happened. Okay. But on the other hand. If the superintendent
If the superintendent answers the question, you can't just go to Ms. Member Jones.
The answer has to go to all board members.
I think we have an example going on right now.
I mean, we're not going to talk to you or to any of the board members on the RFP process.
Right.
Okay?
And so the way I read that is it would be dangerous for the superintendent to even answer that question.
Potentially civil.
civil you all pretty y'all pretty pretty short this this question gets missed a lot a lot of
people say okay real estate executive session the board we're in charge of buying real estate it's
a governance matter no here's the deal this really happened in a school district in Texas
here's what was going on regrettably the board member had a friend who was also involved in
wanting to buy this property and was trying to find out what kind of offer to
make and wanted to know how the negotiations were going and Henry George
hit it right and Henry hit it right I'm going to give the information that I got
to give it out to everybody and my answer would have to be what Charles
concluded with we're in a negotiating position right now and this is we're not
ready to release that and I'll be glad to talk with you and the whole board
about in an executive session but if you start you start giving that information
out you better give it to everybody or you give it to nobody because and in
this case there was a person trying to get a an advantage for another person
and it really happened so this is actually a this is a case that have the
real files this is really happened in a real files of CRSS so it's it's it did
happen but that's y'all hit it good I appreciate I appreciate the way y'all
respond to that because I think you'd grasp real quickly that hey there'd be a
conflict here if we start just saying hey tell me what's because he says I
want an update on the negotiations not we want an update or the board needs an
update it was I want an update and I always listen for the board if the board
member says I think the board needs an update on well then okay that may be
that may be but if you say I need to know I'm always kind of like well if you
need to know then maybe everybody needs to know so and would it be more
appropriate to go to the president to put that up you could you could yeah you
could but I think the way this was really necessary now we're this is just
used as an example to show that what seemed to be because it's a purchase of
real estate and board has to prove purchase of real estate what seemed to
to be kind of innocuous is really sometimes is not so innocuous and you
have to be thoughtful about the way you the danger in it though is if you do
answer to all board members you're going to answer in the form of an email then
subject to PIR which could then blow the entire the entire process which is why
you probably need to say what Charles said I just we're in negotiations right
now and it's not this is not time to talk about it but I'll be glad to brief
you and the board at the appropriate time scenario three who wants to who
wants to read three Henry you've been nominated you see it yeah I can see it
for now board member Enders goes to the board president says mr. chair I would
like to put an item on the agenda on the upcoming board agenda to reconsider our
district policy of not naming schools after people who are still alive would
Would you please do that?
But ended a sentence in a preposition.
That's not true.
Yeah, probably not good.
Anybody, you want a governance or management?
Governance.
Governance.
Well, we have a policy on how you get stuff on the agenda,
and I think the superintendent can put something on the agenda.
Do you have a –
I'd have to go read the policy.
You have a policy on naming buildings.
Yeah, if you have a policy, name and build it.
It's a policy matter. Therefore, the answer is correct.
Y'all got it. It's a governance matter. It's a policy matter.
And if I go and ask the Board Chair or the Superintendent, could we discuss board policy on what are y'all?
You're a policy-making body.
And truthfully, I like it when you do that.
because that means you're trying to govern by policy instead of just by see
the pants we're actually trying to stay with some discipline here in our
organization yes our I'm larger is that the board member would go to this to the
board president to ask to add something to the agenda because then if it's not
something that's been a perfect for the whole district and it would be get two
more people and we have some board operating procedures to do that so
you've got a policy on that and that's that follow that and I thought that I
think the idea here is you're when a board member says I want to discuss I'd
like to discuss policy hey that's the sit in fact if superintendent would much
probably rather hear you say that than say I kind of like to just talk about
how you're making decisions about how we take up tickets at the football game you
you know, is that in policy anywhere?
Dr. Momins, let me add, y'all may not have noticed,
but one of the things that I've worked with the cabinet here recently
and on this last agenda,
any policy that drives an action item or a consent item,
we're now adding those to those items
so that you can go directly to it
and see that it drives us in what we're bringing to the board.
Therefore, if you see something that you're not comfortable with,
it gives you an opportunity to request a policy revision.
But until that policy is revised, we're obligated to follow the policy.
Who's next?
I nominate Courtney.
Make a point.
Okay, I have Charles's.
Don't drop the mic.
I got two. Wow.
We're having a press conference over there.
I know. It's because I'm so special.
Board Member Beasley, during a regular board meeting says,
says, Madam Superintendent, or Mr. Superintendent, I have a suspicion that we are spending too
much to build our new schools. What is our cost per square foot, and how does this compare
with the cost for neighboring districts?
Governor. Governor. If it's an agenda item, it's government.
Leave out the first little statement.
We're talking about anything.
Yeah, there's suspicion.
Anybody see it differently?
We're explaining too much.
If it's an agenda item, I don't know.
I mean if it's just out of the blue but if you're talking about I'm gonna say
that the survey says that it's a governance matter because you have
track now there's also something that tears down the trust factor it's called
the surprise factor mm-hmm I just go the meeting and say hey I kind of like know
what we're spending on dot dot dot dot it on the agenda we're discussing building costs
we're discussing school costs but yeah and if you don't have that information he's going to say
i'm sorry i don't have that
it's a fair question that you probably wanted comparative data
The data is not neighboring districts.
It's probably going to be in the notice.
We're going to want that data, not just that board meeting.
How we're doing it.
It's very good in districts.
It's, again, very fair.
Very fair governance issue.
But you don't want to get it on the supplies.
The way that reads is one of those gotchas.
That's correct.
Correct.
I would say to him, I don't want to surprise you.
I don't want to surprise you.
Well, and this could be one of those simple requests for information that I would send out to the board so that you would then have it.
You all want to take six?
Sure.
Five or something.
I have just kind of one other thing about scenario.
Because there are times where we're being presented something at a board meeting where a question like that may come to mind, right?
And you don't expect an answer necessarily, but you do want to get it out there so that it can give them a...
I mean, what are our thoughts on that?
My thoughts would be you wouldn't pose it as a question on the spot.
You would request the information then.
Yes.
Yeah.
Very clear question.
It's just how am I planning to got you with it or am I really...
If that's really information that I would need.
And on that, typically the way we operate on certain, especially this is a discussion action item or whatever,
we're going to discuss that in our work seven meeting.
Right.
Actually probably get moved to the consent agenda.
There are, and there are times where there's a question like that where,
oh yeah, a little piece of information would be nice to have, we don't have it readily available then,
but we've got the next week to get it.
And then, you know.
Perfect example.
George asked for the negotiated versus competitive costs that Clarence was
referring to all throughout his workshop presentation and we were able to send
that information. There it was Friday. Excuse me? There it was Friday. Yes sir. I have a
pretty good memory.
There's, Thursday's a little light and Brian Maholski's driving down the street
one day and sees and sees a Katie Elementary so he decides to arrive
unannounced one day at that school steps into the principal's office and request
a tour of the building and she says no I've got Charles on the tour right now
I'd want to be sure that I wasn't going into something.
The reason I call is, hey, Lance, I'm going to stop my assistant at school.
He needs to tell me something I need to know before I do anything.
I don't need to be involved in.
But I think we've discussed the protocols of those visits.
I think Lance has said, I want you to feel comfortable going to visit schools.
But I appreciate the way you let me know.
that we we keep it you know where it's encouragement and praise and that kind
of thing scenario six who wants to take a look at do you want to try scenario
six sir this was a conspiracy that I got number six no no I just fell and go dr.
Moses yes hold it Charles what I'm gonna say oh yes sir I just think like on
number five there's a lot more danger to number five than we give credit to and
And I'll give an example.
At Welch Outdoor Learning Center,
they do Frontier Days, or it's not what it's called.
But they have the Frontier Days that are out there.
Anyway, every year they do it.
The guy that's in charge of it, I was talking to him.
He goes, yeah, next month from now,
we're going to do the big thing, the KD Folk Festival.
And I was like, man, that's awesome.
We should hear a presentation from the board.
I didn't mean for him to contact the superintendent to say let's put this on
the agenda to give a presentation at the board but once again they know you're a
board member any comment you make even if it's a simple one to a teacher man I
love your class I'd really like to come watch you teach class one day that
That number five, I think we continually make comments not to say things,
but it's taken a different direction because it's from a board member.
And I don't think we give that as a board enough emphasis that anything you say is probably going to be taken to an extreme.
And then the superintendent is going to hear about it.
Or that teacher now has been given direction from a board member.
So
it's almost like if you show up you really can't say a whole lot other than
you have a really nice school appreciate what you're doing thank you I used to
show up and say hey thanks for your work I appreciate what you do here I think
thanks for your efforts but Charles I think you're you're right but I also
think we're on the right track tonight to be talking about it and know that it
could be an issue and that we all need to take care the way we approach it and
I think Lance's said look we don't play hide the ball at our schools you do
We're not trying to keep people out, but at the same time, please don't disrespect
What we're doing here and what what your role is what our role is and I think everybody just the fact that we put it
On the table when we're talking about it says hey, we're gonna take care with that
And if we ever need to visit again, I'll come back and visit it with you, but I think that you're
You know
All of you know and I think we've pretty well hit the where the markers are and what we're trying to do
I still think if you keep it, you know where it's
thanks for what you do that's interesting I appreciate what you're doing I also think you
do have to be careful about this there are some people that would love to say oh I invited so and
so to come out to my school and they're going to come out yeah they they might want to use your
presence to you know I did have board members go to school sometime and they say you know if we
just had a new science lab over here in this bond issue we'd really be in good shape now come on
You gotta be just be careful and don't let yourself be drawn into that stuff.
So anyway, but good points. Charles, I'm sorry, George you want to talk, get six up there for us. Yes.
My favorite comment, my favorite question for principals when I'm visiting is what are your biggest joys?
What are your biggest things that you love to celebrate? What are you proudest of?
Fair enough.
Does it tell them that?
Let them brag.
Yeah.
Let them brag.
Let them brag.
We'll keep you awake at night.
No, that's you.
Last night it was telling you you were coming.
Let's go.
I want to get through a couple more before, because I'm going to get you out of here in
about 15 minutes.
I want to get through what he's done.
A board member calls up the superintendent and says, I just had breakfast with a group
of civic leaders.
There's a lot of anxiety about your upcoming recommendations to the board regarding the
timing of the bond proposal.
I just wanted to share this information with you and give you a heads up in case you haven't heard this already in your circles.
I think the chances of him not having heard that are slim and none, but I think that's okay.
Management, governance.
Consider it our advocacy role because we're giving him his heads up that hey, this is going on.
Who's your best eyes and ears?
That's right. It's governance. He didn't tell them what to do. He didn't prescribe a solution.
He just said, hey, the best eyes and ears I had in the community were my board members.
They've given me advocacy information that I needed to know. And I'd say to you, he needs to know.
if you know something that's you don't do that you're not doing your job if you're you know
something he needs to know then please by all means get it to him rebecca you want to get this
one you don't you don't make it my microphone doesn't work the ed city the ed city school board
operating in its judicial capacity is meaning to hear grievance from a teacher with a medical
problem that requires her to use the bathroom often the teachers filed a grievance because
the principal has assigned her to a classroom far away from the bathroom despite a request to be
near one at the grievance hearing board member schilling makes a motion to sustain the grievance
and require the principal to reassign the teacher to a classroom near the bathroom
shilling's motion is approved by the board notes state all gives principals right to make teacher
assignments also the district has no policy requiring principals to take teachers medical
conditions into consideration when making placements governance or management
Might want to look at our policy, though.
Or look at the campus leadership.
I would probably ask really tough questions
in executive session and then vote to uphold the district's
grievance.
Well.
You notice a couple of them are laughing.
When you're sitting in your judicial capacity.
You can't make a motion.
When you're sitting in your judicial capacity
and you're a property owner, you don't go in and make
prescribed solution.
You hear the recommendation of the administration,
you hear the grievance complaint,
and then you listen,
and you hear the rationale or reason
the administration did what they did, and then you vote.
If you start trying to solve the problem,
which he did,
he brokered it at the table,
then actually you open up a whole different
in terms of adjudicating problems that come before you.
Does that make sense?
Want to say something on that one?
But it is the expectation of the board
when we do go back into close from hearing the grievance,
or go into executive, the boardroom,
that our superintendent can discuss what he thinks.
And if a suggestion is made, like an action is said, I will make sure that this child
gets X, Y, and Z, and then we're happy with it, we uphold the grievance, we know action
is going to be taken.
I mean, that's not us suggesting a fix, but is it our expectation as superintendent that
I'm going to trust that that's not even going to come to us.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Right.
I wouldn't say what George said.
I'd hold the grievance in place with that.
I wouldn't start trying to do it.
figure it out, I'd go to him and say, you figured this out.
That's what I mean.
Why did it get there?
There's an expectation.
That's what happened.
He would not.
This is just me saying it.
You know what I'm getting at.
But my point to you, if you do in your judicial capacity an
agreement, careful that you either uphold or not agree to it.
Be careful that you start trying to write the solution.
Well, there's another option is to not take action on it and let it...
Sometimes that does give the administration time to remedy it.
But Brian, I think you said your first words out of your mouth were, this is a policy that
you could deal with after the smoke is cleared.
You know.
Yeah, right, and that's what I was facing.
Hey, Dearest Regular Meeting Board Member Smithers,
I want to know what your perception is, what your plan is for me.
Surprise.
Surprise.
I could have called you about this and talked to you about it,
i just thought that it calmed down well i would hope that if there were reckless driving and
buses not being made i mean i would hope that you wouldn't wait till the next board meeting
to say oh hey by the way three weeks ago i heard you're gonna call him and say hey
lance the bus drivers drunk all the time we got it we got it last week i saw a constable tell
a bus driver to slow down the school zone i keep kicking you yes a bus driver was in a school zone
And the constable was in it and he said, slow down.
Dear Board Workshop, Board Member Smith says,
what do you think about our policy, district policy on nepotism?
That's a strange question.
Workshop.
Oh, workshop.
Workshop.
What do you think about our district's policy?
That's good.
Yeah.
Now, he said, I don't agree with it or I think we need to review it.
I think we need to study it.
whatever it's part of a board that names school after a person still living is this at a board
meeting it's on the agenda yeah yeah is it on the agenda though i mean you keep the flex
well it says workshop
like this i think you're going to know the assumption it was it fit under the agenda
item survey said it's governance yeah it is remember hazard maintenance one day says i
think we should consider launching a major district initiative around their favorite teachers i wish
you would start paying them more about this in preparation for this like a little presumptive
yeah you should have that conversation
President say, hey, you know, we want to, you know,
we have any interest on this stuff?
It's okay.
It's just a little presumptive, I thought.
But it's not, again, they came to the superintendents.
You're not in a meeting.
You're not in a meeting.
Right.
And you're not playing surprise, surprise.
You're just saying, hey, I think.
That doesn't mean I agree with you.
it means that if the board wants to talk about this then you got you got enough people to put
it on the agenda three people or whatever thanks then hey we'll do it scenario 11 the board member
grouse and no appearing staff in your board meeting asking tough questions about various
that crisis is going to cause.
Let's get down a little bit.
Okay to ask questions.
Lance says these are the four people
that would be having a deal.
And those people are fair game to ask those questions.
They're not, it's not, as I said,
I have had this.
I just want to say I think tone matters a lot when you're addressing
staff and asking questions. So I think that's just something you got to be mindful of.
Be respectful in the way that you ask. And if they don't have the answer, don't give them a hard time about why they didn't have the answer. They may not have expected the question.
You listen and you might say, well that's interesting and I appreciate you having some
I think there's a
there's a way to
not have that
should to minimize that and that is if you're gonna make a report the sooner
the board has it the better off you have a chance to do it if if we get a book
handed to us from the financial advisor at that meeting maybe kind of fair game
but that's what I think dr. Hinn has done is he's he's making a real effort
to get the information out much quicker, and I think that helps.
It is.
George makes a great point.
It is obviously very beneficial to be able to read ahead,
especially on reports.
I know I can't avoid it.
Sometimes they're working on it until the very end,
or new information is fluid.
But the more time you have, yeah.
And you can give advanced questions as well.
And sometimes you just pass asking questions.
Anyone who has ever looked up at the sky during the fall
has probably seen birds flying south for the winter.
The most distinctive aspect of their migration is the V formation of flight.
Science has uncovered some facts about this seemingly arbitrary V formation
and found it not to be so meaningless after all.
It may even encourage us to interact with our team
in much the same way a goose interacts with its flock.
The Canada goose has a migration route from Canada to Mississippi
that is almost a thousand miles long and takes approximately 16 hours non-stop to complete.
In order for the geese to finish such an arduous journey,
they must rely on each other for help. As each goose flaps its wings, it creates
uplift for the goose following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds
71% greater flying range than if one bird flew alone. With each goose's
participation, the flock shares the burden of its flight and is able to
reach their goal of warm southern shores. We can participate as a team in a
similar fashion. We have common goals and are all heading in the same direction. When we share
difficulties with each other, we will have the strength to surmount even the most challenging
of obstacles. What would happen to a goose if it attempted a solo flight? It probably wouldn't get
very far before exhaustion overtook it, but as a member of a flock, it has the advantage of teamwork.
Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone.
It quickly returns to formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the goose immediately in front.
When a goose leaves formation, it soon learns how difficult it is to fly on its own.
Like the goose attempting to go it alone, a member who tries to make his or her way without the help of the team
will most often find the task needlessly draining. It is important for us to offer
help to our team members, but it is just as important for us to accept help when
we need it. When geese set out for their migration, they do not appoint a lead
goose for the entire flight. Instead, each goose takes a turn flying in front. When
the goose at point position tires, it rotates back into the formation and
and another goose flies in the lead.
Because the point position is the most difficult in the formation,
the members of the flock help each other with the task.
Just as geese take turns leading,
we can also take the initiative to help our leaders when they weary.
Sharing and challenging responsibilities
will prevent one person from having to manage alone
and will allow each of us to experience the satisfaction
of utilizing our skills to lead the team.
Everyone needs encouragement.
even geese. Because so many miles are covered during such a short amount of time, the geese
in the front of the formation sometimes tire and begin to lose speed. When this occurs,
the geese in the formation honk from behind, encouraging those up front to maintain their
speed. The geese behind are not complaining that the geese in front have lost speed, but
but rather acting as cheerleaders to help revive sagging string.
The entire team benefits when we treat our team members in the same way.
A little encouragement from a teammate can help us keep our momentum, even when we are struggling.
Although their migration is important,
the geese also recognize the importance of each individual member of the flock
and support each other, no matter the challenge.
Each member of our team is just as important.
There will always be challenges, so it is vital that we support our teammates during
difficult times, as well as easier ones.
As science has shown us, geese are amazingly committed to the completion of their migratory
journey.
But just as amazing is their recognition of the importance of each member of the flock.
This can be a powerful example for us to follow.
As evidenced by the migration of geese, the only way we can accomplish our goals is for us to work together by offering support, encouragement, and strength.
Working as a team will enable us to accomplish more than we ever thought possible.
What is it? We get the deformation
quite fast with the clock.
Okay, we're about to wrap up homework assignments for the
complete meeting. Get your three hours of training finished.
Jerry has my training number so you're going to get your four training
credits. Here are some goals. If you do decide you want to do a
goal setting session, which is a little bit better than that, these are
I didn't think of myself, but I looked at some goals.
I thought that there were good goals.
You find those of value, fine.
If you don't, fine.
If you talk about your goals, or you talk about a strategic plan,
and you talk about encompassing some of the issues that come to that,
then perhaps that might be a good idea.
question thought closing
everybody's had enough had enough mike things i wanted to share it only take about 30 minutes
well listen we'll miss you glad you're doing well yeah I just say this I'm very
fond of y'all very fond of this district and y'all are really just a lighthouse
district now don't take that stay humble lighthouse districts have to keep
striving to but lighthouse districts are districts that that that's right yeah
keep the lighthouse districts show the way for others and y'all are a district doing that but it
it requires you to stay committed uh and i always use the word stay humble stay modest keep striving
keep working uh but i like your chemistry i like your spirit uh i hope tonight a lot of the things
we talked about tonight are probably not even relevant i know we did talk about some things
that you wanted to talk about that I hope we made some sense out of but a lot
of the things I know that you you practice good governance but you need to
stop sometime we all need to stop sometime think about hey what makes this
what makes this work the way we all want it to and what makes this work in a
positive way and you know I think you've given that some thought tonight and I
would encourage you to be mindful of the kind of district you want to have the
kind of work you want to do with Lance and but I think you're really you're
headed for some really good good experiences your kids are headed for
really good times and again I like your chemistry and like your spirit
appreciate y'all let me come tonight enjoyed it a lot we're done
dr. Moses thank you thank you so much for being here we appreciate you and
board members thank you for giving up your time to be here we'll do some more
of these through the year we'll do some more team buildings and and work
work together and because we want to be better and we want to be better and be stronger because
everything they talked about was about the team together is stronger than individuals.
And so Dr. Hint has strength finders, so the entire district is doing the strength finders
things you'll see you'll see pictures and and conversations about the district
focusing on what's your strength and how do the strengths come together and work
better together and so dr. hint has a half day opportunity for us to do that
so are you all interested in doing that and and finding that and using that as
part of our team building and then we need a date so it's called strength
finder and it's a doctrine are you better at describing it than I am a
training session that talks about individual strengths in it and it's very
focused and the entire district well the leadership is certainly doing it and so
So there's a lot of commonality there and talks about the strengths of each person and
how each one's strengths comes together for the entire team.
It also helps us with communication styles and understanding.
It's really so beneficial in understanding, oh, that person is deliberative.
That's why the communication style is that way.
That one is a maximizer and that's why the communication style and the...
You're deliberative.
You're deliberative.
I'm a maximizer.
Those kinds of things.
Really for a team, for the board, it would be best if we were all involved in it rather than just a few of us.
Now, I mean, it's not anything that needs to be done this month.
It can be, you know, late October.
It can even go into November.
What I'll do is just ask Sharon to throw some dates out for you guys, kind of share some dates.
on it may be even something we do at the first of the second semester it's just a
something for you guys to consider I do think that it provides a little insight
to our personalities you know it really does and I've been part of it and it's
worked well we could do it whatever works best for you
any objection how about any objection I think it sounds great I was that was
thought that I had before you spoke was that going into my third term I really
appreciate and I'm getting to know your strengths Mr. Scott but I really
appreciate how diverse we all are and the different strengths and different
things we bring to the table and I think it would only help us all understand it
better because we all have different gifts and different abilities that makes
us a pretty unique group and different impediments like me reading tax numbers
I'm having purple hair.
Right.
And you become less defensive because you're like, oh, that's the style because of the
strengths that they have.
That's just how they are.
It's not aimed at me or it's not that or whatever.
whatever. It's really, I think we'll find it very beneficial. Okay, Ms. Nowak will send
us some dates or if you all will send dates that you're not available, we'll let her start
the process.
I'll have to work around the organization, but I'll get some dates and send it out.
Great. Okay.
Are you saying we should all do it as a group or should we all do it at the same time? Or
is it individual?
The way it is is you will do the strength finders and then you'll bring the info with
with you and then it'll be.
Yeah, then we'll do it.
Then we'll share it.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
But the initial assessment's an individual thing.
Yes.
But I think there's a facilitator that comes and help.
There's a facilitator that comes to do that with us.
Okay.
Okay.
Everybody good?
Okay, no, no, there being no further business
before the board?
This meeting is adjourned.
The time is 8.13 p.m.
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