Good evening. I hereby call the special board meeting of the Board of Trustees of
Katy ISD · Special Meeting
Katy ISD Special Meeting, October 18, 2016
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Katy Independent School District to order. Today is Tuesday, October 18, 2016,
and the time is 6.01 p.m.
Dr. Hint, will you verify we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act
with regard to the notice for this meeting?
Compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to the notice for this meeting.
For the public hearing this evening.
Yes, ma'am. Thank you. On September 26, 2016, the Board of Trustees adopted a resolution
to explore whether the Katy Independent School District should become a district of innovation.
Chapter 12A of the Texas Education Code allows a school district to adopt a comprehensive
educational plan that may exempt a school district from certain specific laws in the
Texas Education Code that inhibit the goals of that plan. By adopting the resolution on
September 26, 2016, the Board determined to explore the possibility of KDISD
becoming a District of Innovation. The first step in the process of exploration
is to hold a public hearing at which the members of the public may hear the facts
about the proposed plan and designation and have the opportunity to give their
opinions and comments on the district becoming a District of Innovation or you
You may hear it referred to as a DOI.
We are gathered here this evening for that public hearing.
At this time, I'd like to review the step-by-step process to becoming a district of innovation.
I do have a PowerPoint.
And let me just state real quick the notice for this meeting.
We did have a notice that appeared in the Katy Times October 13th.
also was posted on our website front page on October 10th.
It was posted, as we said earlier, based on the Open Meetings Act, Thursday, 10-13,
and of course it was announced at last night's board meeting that the meeting would be held tonight.
I'm going to quickly review the step-by-step process.
First step of District of Innovation step-by-step,
consider our designation as a District of Innovation may be initiated by a resolution adopted by the Board of Trustees.
Of course, I already mentioned that occurred September 26.
After adopting a resolution and not later than 30 days, the Board of Trustees holds
a public hearing.
We are within the 30 days.
That's what we are doing tonight, the public hearing.
At the conclusion of the public hearing, as soon as possible after conclusion of the public
hearing or within 30 days, the Board of Trustees may decline to pursue the designation as a
District of Innovation, or the Board of Trustees may appoint a committee to
develop a local innovation plan including a comprehensive educational
program and a list of education code provisions to be exempt. After the
posting of 30 days, the Board of Trustees may not vote on the adoption of a
proposed local innovation plan unless the final version of the proposed plan
has been available on the district's website for at least 30 days and the
The Board of Trustees has notified the Commissioner of the Board's intention to vote on adoption of the proposed plan,
and the District-level Advisory Committee, KIC, as we refer to it,
has held a public meeting to consider the final version of the proposed plan
and has approved that plan by majority vote.
A Board of Trustees may adopt a proposed local innovation plan by a vote of two-thirds of the membership of the Board
after the plan has been posted online for 30 days and voted on by KIC.
So, here's what we're looking at, and this is what I want to make very clear,
because I think this is where there is some confusion out in the community.
On the Board's adoption of a Local Innovation Plan, the district is designated as a
District of Innovation and shall begin operation in accordance with the plan.
The term of the district's designation as a district of innovation may not exceed five years.
And what I really want everybody to pay attention to is this third bullet.
A local innovation plan may be amended, rescinded, or renewed in the same manner as required for initial adoption of a local innovation plan under section 12A.005.
In other words, when the administration makes a recommendation, kick votes on it, it's posted for 30 days, and then the board votes on it, and it's provided to the Commissioner of Education, only those specific items listed in the plan, even within an exemption, only specific items that are voted on can we work towards.
There is no open checkbook as regard to what a board can do.
So what I'd like to do is just quickly walk through what those proposed exemptions are that I have communicated to several of you.
And I'd like to share just a little information on these items.
First day of instruction.
You know, it is unfortunate that we have 81 days in the first semester and we have 98
days in the second semester.
It's an unbalanced calendar, especially at the high school level.
I believe it's 77,330 minutes because we go by minutes day on a 179-day calendar.
there's roughly 30,000 minutes in the first semester and 40,000 minutes in the
second semester. Because of this condensed calendar and the law states
that we cannot start school until the last Monday of August, all right, the
fourth Monday in August, we're put in a position where in order to balance the
semesters or to try to get as close as we can, we have to, for instance, go to
school Monday and Tuesday of a Thanksgiving break although some
districts have chosen to just have a greater disparity between their
semesters Katie chose to to just have a three-day break I can tell you this just
on that one fact I've visited with teachers they need what some of them
have called a mental break you know state of mind break at that time also
something that we need to pay attention to is we lose a DA on those two days
about $200,000 because our regular attendance rate is 96.8 but during those
two days it's about 90% not to mention the amount of subs that we're paying for
because we do have kids we do have families we do have staff that go ahead
and take that full break off so something for the board to consider under
the calendar provision. I'm not looking to lengthen the year. I'm looking to just have some flexibility on the calendar. It may be that our calendar remains the same, but we need to at least have the option.
The next item on the page, and I'm not going to give a lot of time to the designation of
a campus behavior coordinator.
What I can tell you is that's a waste of space in our Texas Education Code.
Alright?
It is a lot of paperwork when we already have principals, we already have APs that are doing
this type of work, and there is a notification change that is extraneous.
It's very difficult for our campuses to meet.
But the other provision, certification required, and I think this one has probably garnished the most concern.
I've talked to several teacher groups, and I want to make it very clear what we're asking for here.
Texas Education Code 21.003, and if you don't mind, I'm just going to read exactly what it says in this provision.
It says a person may not be employed as a teacher teacher intern or teacher trainee librarian educational aid
administrator
educational
Diagnostician or school counselor by a school district unless the person holds an appropriate certificate or permit issued as provided by
subchapter B
Let me give you an example of some of the exemptions
I'm looking for under this provision and this is where I said the board can get very
very clear crystal clear as to what they're asking for by no means am i
saying that we need to do with certifications 100% math science English
social studies I would recommend that we maintain the certification program that
we have in several other areas but some examples of what I would consider
needing some flexibility some local control we've got our middle career and
Technology Center. We have six new programs that are going to hit that campus next year.
We have a vet assistance program. We have a manufacturing program. We have a dental
assistance program. We have a clinical rotation program, a cyber security program. I will tell
you these are hard to fill positions based upon the certification requirements that the state of
Texas requires us to have. They have to have workforce history, which naturally as a board
You would want that but they also have to have the state content certification
And then they have to have what's called the PPR test which is the test that's difficult for some of these folks
Coming from the corporate or the business world that is PPR the pedagogy and professional responsibilities
It's basically the theory and practice of education that they get in coursework
Let me give you an example of how this had an adverse effect on Katie ISD just in this last year
Last year we went six months with a sub in a culinary program over at the Miller Career Center.
And we saw some dwindling population of students.
We had a great candidate, my understanding, that we could have hired for that position,
but because they did not have the state content certification or the PPR test,
we went six months, I mean almost a semester, looking for a candidate to fill that position.
That would have been a perfect example of where the Board of Trustees could set a criteria to say,
hey, we believe this is a hard to fill position and that we can set our own local standards based upon what we believe is in the best interest of the kids.
It certainly was not in the best interest of that culinary program or those kids to go six months without a teacher in the classroom.
We had a sub, but the sub rate, a lot of folks, it's not enough to make it.
So those are just some of the examples that I wanted to make sure that the board was clear on that we're looking for.
First day of instruction, we need some flexibility.
Designation of a campus behavior coordinator, enough said.
Certification requirements, specific areas is what I'm looking for.
I'm looking for some local control that is controlled by the Board of Trustees.
All of you were elected by this community to fill these seats, therefore
I think that you've got the knowledge and the skill set to help us determine
what it is that we need as a school district. And I will close with this. When
we talk about local control, as you know, every two years we have a legislative
session out of that legislative session comes this I've been in the business now
26 years and this book has almost doubled in size all right there are 1560
by 1556 pages in this Texas Education Code the Bible has only 1281 pages all
right so I'm asking the board and I'm asking the community to give us some
flexibility some local control over some things that I believe will help the
district and help this community and ultimately help the kids
this at this point at this time the board will now hear from those members
of the public who would like to address the board concerning the issue of
whether the district should become a district of innovation a number of
individuals have signed up to speak nine have signed up to speak as I call your
name please come to the podium for your remarks please state your name and your
relationship to the district each of you will have three minutes for your remarks
our sergeant at arms mr. Henry de braille seated at the end will interrupt
you and say one minute that you kind of know to wrap up your remarks okay our
Our first speaker this evening is Kim Belcher-Gutierrez.
Good evening, Ms. Gutierrez.
It's nice to have you here.
Thank you for having me.
It's a little difficult to contend with all of your points because you guys get the platform to sell the DOI while we get three minutes to counter.
So I'm going to stick with my original testimony and then we'll maybe try to address some of the other things you said, Dr. Hint.
Good evening. I am Kim Belcher-Guterres, taxpayer, mom, and public school advocate.
I am opposed to the District of Innovation based on the following grounds.
According to Texas Education Code Section 11.051, an independent school district is governed by a board of trustees
who as a body corporate shall oversee the management of the district
and ensure that the superintendent implements and monitors plans, procedures, programs, and systems
to achieve appropriate, clearly defined, and desired results in the major areas of district operations.
Our Board of Trustees and Superintendent already have existing local control over governance of our district,
with the exception of state and federal mandates.
State and federal mandates are the root of our problems in our classrooms today,
as they provide bad standards, assessments, and accountability systems that are only positioned to become worse,
not better, under the coming Next Generation Assessment and Accountability Program.
All of the exemptions that the district is asking for, and this was written before I realized you guys changed the class size.
All of the exemptions that the district is asking for in its proposed plan can currently be addressed through the use of existing waiver processes.
However, the plans are not really the problem.
The roots of District of Innovation are buried in the innovation plans under the CCSSO
and lead to computer-based education of our kids with oversight by facilitators
with personalized learning endorsements instead of specialized teacher certification.
Once the DOI plans have been accepted by the commissioner, which is not local control, by the way,
the districts have an open checkbook to implement policies using exemptions that may not have been well-defined in the plans.
TASB spearheaded the new law on DOIs as the pass-through for the CCSSA.
One minute, ma'am.
TASB also directed all of its member districts to update their policies in November 2015
with the new DOI implementation policy.
When the district passes its plan, it is TASB that provides the legal guidance
and the template language for their new policies.
While the plan may seem designed by a district,
there are a limited number of specific possible changes under TEA rules that can result.
This means district policies from one to the next are very similar with little local input.
I have examples of plans versus policies for districts like El Paso that show how teacher certification is impacted under policy
DK throughout the state
I will email them to all of you after the meeting but would like the opportunity to review them with you
By 1k ISD administrators own account our average kids are already becoming the at-risk kids
Removing the ladder for the kids that were at the bottom and crowding their space with others that will further oppress them from the opportunity
to succeed academically in
In good conscience, I expect that each of you will do your homework before voting so that as a teacher,
you are diminishing the role of the teacher or you are voting to save our public schools
and protect our kids by preserving the best part of our institution, our great teachers.
Thank you, Ms. Gutierrez, for being here.
Please feel free to email us information that you weren't able to provide you.
Thank you so much.
Our next speaker, please come to the podium and state your name and your relationship
to the district, Mr. Patrick Huff.
Madam President, could you tell me his name again?
This thing is not working, so I didn't hear.
He's about to tell us again, but his name is Patrick Huff, H-U-F-F.
Good evening, Mr. Huff.
We're glad you're here.
Thank you.
I appreciate that and it's a pleasure to come before you. I am NOT a taxpayer of
Katy let me say that right off the bat okay I come here at the invitation of
Miss Gutierrez all right and so all I am is just a voice of opinion and a voice
of caution for you and I'd like to welcome Dr. Hint in his new role of
superintendent welcome I am a former middle school and high school principal
in a rival district, Klein, so I appreciate all the efforts that y'all put forward in
public education, believe me.
I have done a lot of research in the school reform agenda, and I have a healthy skepticism
for government intrusion into public education and local control.
I received my PhD from Prairie View A&M University after I retired.
And so my intent here is simply to give you some things to think about.
When No Child Left Behind came in, every district took the waiver in 2013.
I mean, every state took the waiver in 2013 to relieve us of the 2014 mandate to be 100%
proficient on the test.
That was a no-brainer.
But with it came big strings attached, and that's how we got Common Core into our state.
All the states of the union have Common Core now, and it linked the teacher to the outcomes
for her evaluation, his evaluation, the outcomes of the test.
So those were big strings that came with that carrot of getting the waiver. My
caution here is that we may be seeing that again in terms of another carrot
that has been extended to the districts to take in order to make life within the
district a little more comfortable and a little easier with some of the
provisions that you're outlining Dr. Hint. I certainly understand them. So I
I have it on excellent authority, and I can't divulge the information, and I give it only
on advisory, that the leadership in Austin is moving towards a public-private partnership.
They would love to have a public-private partnership in the traditional public school systems.
The DOI just could be that avenue to accomplish that.
When we move down this road, we open up Pandora's box, and I would simply caution you, as a
friend of education and a friend of public traditional education to be very careful as
you move forward and make sure that what you're wanting to implement is what you're going
to implement in the future as well and it doesn't get expanded upon.
So that's all I have to say.
And I appreciate your time very much.
Thank you, Dr. Huff.
Our next speaker is Ashlyn Winchester.
Good evening, Ms. Winchester.
It's nice to have you here.
Please, sorry, state your name and your relationship to the district.
Ashlyn Winchester Hi, I'm Ashlyn Winchester and I'm a resident.
I'm actually graduated from a KDISD school in 2013.
I apologize.
Will you get as close as you can?
We're all having trouble hearing.
Get as close as you can to that microphone and speak right up so we can hear you.
My name is Ashlyn Winchester, and I'm a resident, and I actually graduated from KDISD in 2013.
And I actually support the idea of an earlier start date.
The benefits I see from this are the first semester would have more days to complete a one-semester course,
for example, like health that I took in high school that I actually had some difficulty keeping up in the fall semester
because there just wasn't enough time to get all the classwork and studying done
to prepare me for the final and possibly with the earlier start date we could
actually see the year end a little sooner maybe even in May which would
give students and parents a full two months of summer vacation to have with
their families and it could also help high school students get better summer
jobs or even get college hours in I loved having long weekends throughout
the year to re-energize myself it was very nice to have that extra day to sleep in and catch up
on the extra school work that i procrastinated on i hope that you will keep these in the calendar
with the changes also as a young mother i especially like the idea of the school year ending
that way i can have more time to transport my kids to see their other families in oklahoma
and in louisiana thank you all for your time thank you miss winchester madam president could i
I apologize because I is she a classroom teacher? No, she's a she's a KDSD graduate with with two
With children in our district and I apologize for that. That's no problem. Thank you
Our next speaker is Jeannie Griffith
Griffith good evening, please
Hi, my name is Jeannie Griffith and tonight I'm here representing myself
I have a child in KDISD and yes we pay taxes. So before this was brought up not
too long ago I didn't really know what it was and I wanted to share with you
that I went to the TEA website and on the home page under Texas schools and
then under general you can see districts of innovation and they have a list of
of all of the districts that are currently doing it
and they outline the process
and I think it's just good information
for everybody to have as we move forward
because lots of times the apprehension
comes from just the unknown.
A couple of people who didn't support it and already spoke,
I actually think made really good points,
but I do support it for the same reason.
And the main part of that has to do with the fact
that I think Texas does a great job but I think that KDISD does a better job and
I would like to see more of the input about what goes on here come from that
local level especially from our parents I reached out to some of the other PTA
presidents for the state and they're very excited about this process
happening in their districts again I'm not speaking for PTA just people I've
spoken to um there's been parent feedback and they've had some some say in the direction for
the committees they spoke about it being a very measured process that it takes a lot of time and
a lot of input and that there's a lot of checks and balances and it makes them feel very secure
about what the end product looks like so i'm not really sure what it looks like in the end stages
at this point but I think the exploration part of it is very exciting and that's why I support it
Thank You mrs. Griffith for attending and we were given the handout that you provided thank you very
much our next speaker is Amalia oh okay she had to leave I'll shed that darling little girl with
with it. That's right. Our next speaker is Chris Crockett. Good evening, Mrs. Crockett.
Nice to see you. Good evening. Dr. Hint, welcome to the district and Board of Trustees. I am
Chris Crockett. I'm a taxpayer and recovering community volunteer. I've had children who
who graduated from the district and certainly appreciate things that this kind of flexibility
would allow such as the calendar issues. Many times as a former board member we struggled
with the calendar issues trying to build more time in for those band students and football
students because their fall was so packed. The amount of flexibility I think
that the district is asking for right now is really very reasonable with the
three things you have asked for. I want to say how pleased I am that you are not
asking for a change in the 90% attendance rule which was a new House
Bill 5 requirement. It's tough perhaps but it's the appropriate thing. If we
don't have all children in classes 90% of the time how can we teach them?
used to be an old high school rule but now after House Bill 5 it's appropriate
for all grades also the class size ratio teachers appraisal requirements are not
changing you're not asking for a change for the use of planning and preparation
periods you're not asking for changes in site based decision-making processes
you're not asking for changes in the minutes of instruction you're not asking
for changes in teacher contracts or teacher benefits and I think that the
community would not like to see those. So I'm gratified to see you
explain the difficulty in having a do-over, that what your plan is for a
reasonable amount of flexibility that would be appropriate for our community
and that you, I appreciate seeing that you'd have to go through this whole
process all over again if you did want to add something else. So I'm glad on
behalf of our teachers that the protections that are in place now will
stay in place. And let's see, oh the other thing I wanted to point out is I think a
change in the certification requirements would be awesome just because the
certification costs about a very rough estimate $3,500 to $5,000. That's an
awful lot to ask an unemployed engineer or cook or some other person who might
be looking to explore a different Avenue either in retirement or because they've
been laid off that's a big bite for them to have to take off to take on and being
able to fill those positions with people who don't have to jump through those
hoops would be a great thing for those people thank you thank you miss Crockett
for being here our next speaker is Laura Freeman
good evening mrs. Freeman it's good to see you like to see you in purple thank
you hi I'm Laura Freeman I am a taxpayer of KTAC I have been for a while and I
wanted to talk to you specifically about the certification for teachers my
My husband is an information security officer for a hospital, and so I have information
about that kind of what he does.
What he does every single day changes.
There are so many advances in what's going on in cybersecurity in general, and it changes
from month to month to month very quickly as people learn new ways to hack into stuff
and everything so those people who do those jobs have to always be constantly
learning if KTISD is going to have a cyber security type class here offered
to students I feel it would be beneficial for the teacher of that class
to be an expert in their field first of all and to have knowledge from their
background not necessarily having a pedagogy degree or certification so I am
for the relaxing of the certification for specific classes mainly Miller
classes in my opinion to get those kids the information that they need that's
more accurate and up-to-date so that when they enter into the job field they
already have very valid information to move forward with thank you thank you
Thank you, Mrs. Freeman.
Our next speaker is Allison Ormond.
Allison Ormond.
Good evening, Ms. Ormond.
It's nice to see you.
It's just Ormond.
It's not fancy.
I am a KDISD taxpayer as well as a parent of two children in KDISD.
My son is autistic.
So, Dr. Hint, while you do not recognize my face or voice, your predecessor certainly
would as well as my lawyer.
So I've heard several things.
I had other things I was going to talk about, but I've heard several things.
I've heard how great it would be to become a district of innovation and have more control
locally.
And we keep talking about this school calendar.
That's great, but there's other things that this district of innovation is going to lead
to that are not calendar related or teacher certification related and I sort
of have an issue handing more control locally if on an issue this important
I'm only given three minutes to speak I
I've struggled really struggled with Katie ISD I've had to remind my son's
school which by the way his teachers and administrators at the school are great
I shouldn't have to remind them that the law requires certain things
So while we're protected by these laws and by these regulations and that are set forth by the state
I worry because there's things we could change locally that will affect my child more than they will affect another child
such as the district of innovation leading to
more computer-based learning
This is not a way a child like my son will ever learn you will not educate him this way
He needs someone who specializes in the subject that he's being taught, can pique his interest,
and engage him.
He can memorize facts, and he can test and retest, and I mean, he could eventually pass
the test.
That's not an education.
That kind of training is appropriate for the corporate world.
It is not appropriate for my child to receive an education.
It was appropriate for me to learn how to develop photos at Walgreens.
It is not appropriate for my child to be a minute. Yeah
We have a lot of questions I realize you're probably not going to answer them
Why do we need these exemptions why can't you file for an exemption I understand there's red tape there's red tape everywhere
I deal with red tape every day
but
But the red tape is there for a reason.
If you are filing for an exemption and it is not approved, maybe there's a problem there.
And it's like a checks and balances.
I'm concerned about losing the check and balance system.
What is the current hardship being created by having to use the waiver process?
What should parents condone the district exempting from the law instead of following the thoughtful
waiver process?
Can the policy language be written into the plan with a written commitment so that the district will not deviate it?
What funding mechanism?
Thank you, Ms. Ormond, for being here.
And please submit your comments to us via email or we are all available to you to talk outside this meeting.
And the final speaker is Melissa Nixon.
Good evening, Mrs. Nixon. It's nice to see you.
Good evening. Thank you for having me.
Thank you, Dr. Hinn, for welcome to our district.
And thank you for the board for taking a few minutes to listen to me.
I've been very interested by the comments that people are making.
And one thing that is really clear to me is this community cares about its kids.
Their education is just their number one.
It's what they fight for every day. It's why they go to work.
And in my opinion, there is no better advocate for this community and these kids than this
community and the parents in this community.
People made it really clear that they expect and really would like to see more local control.
What is local control?
It really means that we have more of a say in what we can do as a community.
It doesn't mean we're imbued with any sort of superpowers.
The state isn't imbued with any sort of superpowers.
It means that we have an opportunity to work through things together as a community,
a community of people who care about each other and our kids.
We don't always agree, but we know what's best for ourselves and our community.
We don't need somebody outside telling us what to do and what to think.
This is not a perfect separation of regaining local control.
I would like to see a lot more local control.
I have a lot of faith in this community.
I don't think, you know, a lot of people are saying they're concerned about protections from the state.
And the state offers protections.
And that's true.
A lot of things are put in place for protection.
But they're also designed to, as a broad paintbrush, over a thousand school districts, I don't
know how many there are, 1200 school districts in Texas, every single one of them has their
own challenges, its own values, its own needs, own desires.
It is not humanly possible to address every single one of those needs.
I really am proud of KDISD for taking this step and moving towards taking on
whatever local control they have. You know the state does the best job that it
can to protect our kids but as always the best advocate is the community and
the parents of these kids that have to look at them in the eye every day and
see what they need. The teachers and I just want to say that really quickly I
I think it's really important that students have the opportunity to work with people in a profession that they're interested in.
I mean, not every kid has an opportunity to meet an engineer or an auto mechanic or a surveyor or a healthcare worker.
If those are the fields they're interested in working in, we have a wonderful Miller Career Center.
Teaching is a rigorous profession.
It takes a lot of learning to do it.
those people are specialized in that particular area well thank you mrs.
Nixon please feel free to submit the rest of your comments to us okay at this
time all speakers signed up to speak I've concluded their speaking and this
meeting is so we will vote on whether to pursue a designation as a district of
of Innovation on Monday, October 24, 2016.
And at this time, the meeting is adjourned at 6.38 p.m.
Thank you for being here.
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