Good evening. The board will now reconvene an open meeting. Today is
Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, February 21, 2017
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Tuesday, February 21, 2017 and the time is 6 33 p.m. The board met earlier this
evening in closed meeting. Any action arising from discussions in a closed
meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting. Dr. Hint, will you verify
that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings
Act regarding the notice for this meeting? Yes, ma'am, Board President. We
We are in compliance with the provisions regarding this meeting tonight.
The Chair will entertain a motion for Item 3.1.
So moved, President.
Mr. Moholsky?
I move the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting.
Second.
I have a motion by Mr. Moholsky, a second by Mrs. Vann.
The Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting.
Any questions?
Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote.
All in favor raise your right hand and say aye. Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Maybe scouts in the audience this evening, please stand and tell us your name. Come to this microphone right here. It'd be great.
It's right behind the
podium. Tell us your name, your troop number, and which badge you're working on.
My name is Joey C from Troop 230 and I'm working on the Citizenship in the Community merit badge.
My name is Ralph Miller and I'm from Troop 925 and I'm working on the citizenship and community.
Thank you very much for being here.
Ralph also told me he's working on his Eagle Scout.
Okay, our first report this evening, Board Members, is 4.1, the Second Stadium Naming Advisory Committee recommendations.
Dr. Hint?
Yes, ma'am. As the board is aware, last night we met with the superintendent appointed committee for the second stadium naming, and we called that the advisory committee.
I just want to read a few bullet points to you and give you some direction from that meeting last night.
Per board direction or policy under CW Local, a facility naming committee was gathered to review
nominations and determine a name to recommend for the naming of the student activity facility,
also known as the Second Stadium, also known as the Second Stadium at the Academy Sports and Outdoors Complex.
The committee was tasked with reviewing board policy, submitted names, supporting documentation,
and to determine whether the names meet the requirements of the policy.
All school and facility nomination processes begin with a solicitation of names.
The nomination process for the second stadium name was open on February 7th.
It closed on February 17th.
Per policy, it was recommended that nominations be submitted via form, but a form was not
necessarily required.
It could have been through an email, et cetera.
Thus, the committee reviewed names that were received via nomination form, email, and we
had some personal letters as well as some hand deliveries here to the administration
building.
The policy guidelines state that a facility or portion of a facility may be named for a person in honor of a historic event or place, a subdivision or geographic area, or for a major donor.
If one of these designations is chosen, then there are specific criteria that shall be considered within that category.
Policy also states that a portion of a facility which includes a building, gymnasium, athletic
field or other portion of a school or support complex may be named for a person.
I can say last night there was a brief discussion about the possibility of board consideration
as an option for additional names.
The recommendation by the committee as authorized by the Board of Trustees is to name the second
Stadium, Legacy Stadium. For board policy, we will hold a public forum this
Thursday, February 23rd, right here in this boardroom to solicit community
input on the recommended name from 6 to 7. After that meeting, that committee
will reconvene to consider the input from that community forum and then it is
anticipated that I will bring a final recommendation based on the committee
review to the board at the February 27th regular meeting. Any questions? Okay.
Item 4.2 has been pulled from the agenda. Also the corresponding action
items 7.1, 7.2, 7.3. Madam President, point of order. You're not
recognize and 7.4 have been removed from the agenda we will be moving on to item
4.3 this 2017-18 budget update mr. madam president point of order and I am in
order what is your point of order what is your point the point of order is you
do not have the authority I do not believe and I want a formal legal or
parliamentary ruling to withdraw a posted item from the agenda off on your
own volition. This is a legally lawfully posted item. We are a Board of Trustees.
I believe that that is a district function. Mr. Scott, I will get the
ruling and I will rule on your point. Mr. Gilbert. As Board President, I believe you
do have the authority to withdraw that. Madam President, point of order. We have
an attorney sitting next to that gentleman your question the question is what is this man's
authority we have an attorney sitting next to him mr superintendent chris gilbert's also an attorney
But I will ask mr. Justin welcome to Katy ISD
You can't can ever hear me
Mr. Scott I am here as counsel for the administration. Mr. Gilbert is here today specifically
tonight as
counsel for the Board of Trustees
Thank you, we'll be moving to item 4.3. Mr. Adam president point of order
Mrs. Doyle? I move that item 7.1. Excuse me, Mr. Scott, you do not have the floor. The chair has not recognized you.
Point of order, Madam President. Mr. Scott, you are not recognized. I am making another point of order.
Please turn off this microphone. The chair does not recognize Mr. Scott. What is the authority not to recognize a board member? Point of order.
Mrs. Doyle has the recognition of the chair. You have the floor, Mrs. Doyle.
May I ask why 4.2 and 7.1 and through 7.3 have been removed?
Does that require an explanation or can the Board President remove it? Mr. Gilbert.
No, it doesn't.
Mr. Scott, your question?
Point of order is I believe you are have a because of your conduct and the conduct of Mr.
DeBrell your point you have a conflict of interest and I'm asking you to recuse yourself from making rulings on item
4.1 7.1 through 7.4. I believe you have a conflict of interest
No, come on. I want I'm making a ruling on your point of order. No conflict exists
Your point is not well taken end of discussion. We're moving on to 4.3
Mr. Smith, please bring us the budget update.
Good evening, Mrs. Fox and Superintendent Hinton, Board of Trustees.
It's my pleasure to give you a little budget update tonight.
I'm not going to get into bottom line numbers.
It's still early in that process.
But do know we're working diligently towards August and a budget.
our campuses, 60 campuses have their budgets and they're putting those
budgets together. That's 60 moving parts and a lot of moving parts and they will
have that done here in the next couple of weeks and at that point we move on to
the department budgets and of course the staffing plan which I believe will be
presented to you next month. Tonight I wanted to talk a little bit about what
the focus or the landscape is in a lot of the landscape that you're
hearing from Austin that's going to frame this budget. So I was going to start with
tax rates and we're going to really talk about the bottom tax rate of the
maintenance and operations tax rate and we're going to go back to House Bill 1
in 2005-2006 and in 2005-2006 we had a $1.63 maintenance tax
maintenance and operations tax rate. We were a 2784 G district and we had above
above $1.50. Most districts had $1.50 at that time. House Bill 1 compressed that to $1.44.5.
We added four golden pennies, and that's why you see in year two there on the far left,
$1.485. The next year, we compressed it again to $1.866, and again kept that four pennies
because they are very rich to the district, and we've had those ever since. When I say rich,
we're getting state funds matched on those four pennies. So we've had that tax
rate going back now I guess this will be the tenth year as we plan. The landscape
is from from that we currently operate on is before you and I know it's kind of
busy and I'll ask you to bear with me as I go through this busyness. You can see
my mouse. I'm going to start at the bottom on the x-axis. That represents the
the tax rate. So a zero over on the far left and over to the far right, there's that $1.866
that I just mentioned, or the four cents additional $1.1266. I put it on this as $1.13.
But that black line that you see going up that yellow bar all the way to the top of the screen
is our current tax rate of $1.1266. To the right of that number, we can't have a tax rate out there
without having a tax rollback election and you can see that there's an
additional 17 cents out there that is available two of those are golden the
other 15 are copper pennies that have a $31.95 yield moving back over to the
compressed tax rate just wanted to show you this this 5140 up here where it says
target revenue or are hold harmless this is the the 5140 is the yield to become a
recapture district so if you take your property values and you divide it by
your number of students and you're higher than 5140 or five hundred and
fourteen thousand dollars you may be subject to recapture and that's what
that tries to do but to give you some perspective of where Katie is D is if
you take our property values when it comes to state funding and you divide it
by our students, it's more like $360,000 or about $36,000 compared to the $51,000.
So you can see that we are a ways from recapture.
Our property values would have to increase $13.8 billion or 43% for us to be subject
to recapture.
And so we're quite a ways away from recapture.
We are considered a Chapter 41 district.
The reason we're considered Chapter 41 is going out to the right here.
If we did have a tax rate that exceeded what we have now, we would have a very slight amount of money here that would be subject to recapture at this time.
So the wealthier you get, the more this would be recaptured.
But we would be exposed to a little bit of recapture.
But, again, that's not going to happen in Katy.
Have you seen this before?
Again, it's being talked about every day.
I read about it, so I thought I'd show you one more time.
This shows the two columns for two school years and the difference, and we're going to focus on the difference column.
Again, Tier 1 in funding for public education is represented here on the space bar going down, the little color.
And not all students are made alike or are equal, and so they represent different funding weights or different funding amounts.
and based on our projections we expect our tier cost of tier one for the amount
of students that we have in the school year we're operating in to increase by
three point two percent or about fifteen million dollars more students more money
unfortunately more students more expense because we have to have those supervised
suit students supervise we have to transport them we have to clean up after
them we have to instruct them most of all so our expenses do increase with our
our increased students but then but our revenue does too and you can see that
there on the far right our local fund assignment also increases it's because
of our property value increase again those apples we had a property value
increase a year ago of 15.5 percent or two years ago now a 15.5 percent that
equals about 49 million dollars that our portion Katie is DS portion of funding
that tier one education increases. Moving on down, so the state's amount
decreases. It goes from $205 million on the left column to $171 million on the
right column, or it decreases $35 million there in the right. Our taxes this year,
our tax revenues based on our tax base, we do expect to go up at this point last
summer. It was 8.6 percent. That's going to be a little closer to 10 percent. We're
We're going to amend the budget next month to reflect that.
But as it was when we adopted the budget, it was looking at 8.6%.
So about a $30 million increase in revenue from local taxes this year.
The change overall can be represented there on the right.
Or Tier 1 funding going down from the 15-16 year to the 16-17 year.
And so I'm going to show you again.
Tier 1, because of student growth, increases $15 million.
Our percentage, because of property value growth a year ago, increases $50 million.
The state share decreases by the difference between those two, or $35 million.
We are going to get some of that decrease is made up by our property value growth.
If it weren't, if we had a zero growth in our back tax base, we would have hit the funding cliff.
We kind of did hit the funding cliff in the fact that our revenues, our values did not grow as much as it did from 8%,
as much as it did the year before at 15%.
And our overall state and local Tier 1 funding goes down as it was last August.
As I mentioned, we kind of planned for this.
We call that the funding cliff.
We didn't hit the funding cliff big, but we did hit it, a small one,
and we cast that chip in, meaning we pulled out expenditures from the budget,
planned expenditures that were one-time use that we pulled out in order to
absorb that and that's why we have a balanced budget are we adopted a
balanced budget moving forward to this school year in summary on that page a
local property taxes bus collected by school districts reduce for property
value growth they increase for property value decline but they they do are
reduced for property value growth in our case and they're adjusted up and down
for state wealthy for wealth equalization or equity across the state
excess money again the big important part is excess money because of that is
used in other areas of the state's budget outside of education and I'm
going to show on that a little bit about how that affects may affect Katie again
excess area from what you just saw that goes to other areas of the state budget
We go back to these apples and three years ago or the 13-14 school year, KDISD was paying, or our taxpayers, myself, other taxpayers were paying 51% of the education cost of Tier 1 when it came to state funding in KDISD.
And the state was paying 49%.
49%. Because of the slide I showed you two ago, that has moved off of that. Now the state's
funding 35%, and the local district is picking up 65%, or we are picking up as taxpayers
65% or 14% more than the state was. Again, part of that is equalization, meaning our
equity, because some districts aren't growing. It's kind of a bungee cord that brings us
back to that basic allotment of $5,140 per student and it brings us back for
equity reasons but but the fact is as our taxpayers are now paying 65%
compared to 51% just three years ago we talked about that being rotten apples
and we said that last month that equates to a cumulative number over the last
last three years over $102 million to KDISD that we're paying locally more than we had
just three years ago and in Tier 1 only. Remember that our current budget that we're operating
in, one cent in our M&O tax rate, generates about $3.6 million. So how do we look at that
from a penny perspective if we could go back in a vacuum and say okay if we
could go back to the same percentage that we were funding just three years
ago 49 51 and and assuming we're in a vacuum and could do that how much would
we be able to lower our tax rate what does that equal into a tax rate and
there's one penny and I'll just kind of let them drop and you can don't worry
about adding them up because if you're ADHD like me you can't do it especially
when I'm talking but this is the penny the effect of a tax rate if we could go
back to that what we would be able to lower our tax rate for if we could go
back to that same percentage that's nineteen point one cents nineteen point
point one cents and I thought that was important again that's doesn't take into
account wealth you know equity and other things that are that are working in
there but that is a significant amount of tax that we are paying more than we
were three years ago thought it would be interesting for y'all to see especially
with everything that I'm reading in Austin I just want to give a little
clarity on there are you saying that if the state wasn't keeping portion every
year which over the last three years has equaled 102 almost 103 million dollars
and we would have been able to lower our taxes 19 cents yes sir all things being
equal now we could you know dollar for dollar if you look back to that same
same percentage, it would be 19 cents, 19.1 cents.
We could be somewhere in the middle of 19 cents and where we are now because we could
pay our staff more for the deserving staff or do more things for our students.
Or we could, to be status quo where we are now from a funding perspective, it would be
19 cents.
So those dollars aren't necessarily going to the districts, they're going to the state
coffers.
They are going to the district, but the state is lessening their check back to us by that percentage I showed you, the 51% down to 35%.
Madam President.
Mr. Scott.
Three comments.
One, maybe our outside, outhouse attorneys can take their grand expertise in parliamentary procedure
and figure out how to sue the state of Texas on a de facto state property tax.
Nothing says state property tax more than what Mr. Smith just put on.
to nineteen point one cent is a vastly more effective legislative policy than
all the verbiage of six schools and one voice combined and three we should be
able to have a discussion on that but that's a different topic great job mr.
Smith and great job doctor so next month is we're going to be trying to bring you
the staffing plan in March I hope to show you a little bit clearer numbers
when it comes to the bottom line budget still will be very early in the game but
there is when you approve the campus staffing plan it does have a fiscal note
to it and we'll discuss that next month or I'll discuss that next month in April
We're going to focus on the other part of that tax rate, the $0.39 tax rate for our bonds.
We're going to focus on that budget and address that probably for the first time,
and we probably won't address that again until July.
And then in May, I hope to bring a budget update where we'll have our property values.
You know, right now we're planning.
We've had a 10.4% increase over the last many years that we've averaged,
and we're using right now for planning purposes 10%,
and we hope to have those values secured by the end of April,
and hopefully a legislative update that we can incorporate in that
when I present the budget update in April.
We can hopefully have some new law that we're working on.
Everything we're doing now is based on old law.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Thank you, Chris.
Great job.
we will move to our consent agenda. Our first one is Mrs. Butterfield to talk
about the approval of our grant ratifications. Hi, Mrs. Butterfield.
Good to see you. Thank you.
Thank you.
President Fox, trustees, Dr. Hint, we have one grant for your ratification tonight.
This is a field trip grant from Target to Franz Elementary in the amount of $700.
Thank you. Any questions? Thank you very much.
Our next item is Mr. Forney, future board approval of closed campuses for inter-juristic transfers for 17-18 school year.
Good evening, Mr. Forney. How are you?
I'm doing well. Good evening, Madam President Fox, trustees, and Superintendent Dr. Hint.
Board Policy FDB Legal and FDB Local addresses voluntary intra-district student transfers and closed campuses.
I am bringing for your consideration a list of campuses that are recommended to be closed to new voluntary intra-district student transfers for the 2017-2018 school year.
Students in KDISD typically attend schools to which they are zoned based on the address of their homes within the district.
district. But at times, parents request voluntary transfers for their children to
attend other KDISD schools. Such transfers must meet the criteria established in
board policy. A closed campus is defined as a campus exceeding or nearly exceeding
its design capacity compared to the enrollment projection for the upcoming
school year. Therefore, closed campuses are ineligible to receive new voluntary
intra-district transfers. So I'm going to ask if there are any questions at this
time about that list. No questions, thank you very much. Thank you all. 5.3 consider
future board approval of the proposed summer work schedule. Dr. Hint. That's
going to go ahead and give us just a quick update on this. Good evening
President Fox, Trustees and Superintendent Hint. I am here to present the summer
work schedule that will start June the 5th 2017 which is a Monday I'm sorry and
end on Thursday, August the 3rd, with work hours of 7 to 5 p.m. We will work a
normal shift the week of July the 3rd through the 7th, with observing 4th of
July on the 4th. We will maintain communication to all patrons so they
will be aware that we're closed on Fridays during the summer. So with your
permission we would like to move forward with the summer schedule. Sedmon, this is
traditional what we do every year and it works very effectively yes ma'am 20 plus
years thank you very much any questions thank you very much thank you
okay our next item is considered future board approval of the disposal of out of
adoption instructional materials mr. Ralph 8 I mr. Reid we're glad you're
here good evening good evening president Fox trustees and supertiny hint
For the adoption cycle of the Texas Education Agency, the career, technology, and languages other than English instructional materials currently used will go out of adoption at the end of this 2016-2017 school year.
The TEA requires that prior to the sale or disposal of these instructional materials, that the Board of Trustees approves the disposal and that this approval is forwarded to the TEA to obtain their approval.
It is estimated that the district will have approximately 75,000 books in the subjects that I've mentioned.
The district reserves the right to exercise other disposal options, including partnership with local charitable foundations.
It is estimated that if done expeditiously, the district should net approximately $3,000 to the IMA fund from the recycler after freight costs are deducted.
Any questions?
Madam President.
Mr. Scott? Are any of these books being taken out of service because of the
renovations at Katie Junior High, McDonnell Junior High, and the other two
junior highs that are having losing library space for large group
instruction rooms or is this totally separate? It's totally separate, sir. This
has nothing to do with library books. All right, thank you very much. Yes, sir. Thank
next presentation the next two presentations are by Regina Stevenson
we'll talk about HVAC equipment and wiring and cabling retrofits anything
Stevenson good evening president Fox trustee superintendent hint I do have
two items to bring forward for your consideration tonight the first one is
the contract for miscellaneous HVAC equipment parts supplies and refrigerant
gases the recommendation is to award after consideration of all the proposals
received to award as listed on the tabulation where you see multiple awards
the department will obtain competitive quotes and purchase on the basis of best
value the contract period will be for one year with an additional four year
renewals available and the total expenditures are estimated to be seven
hundred and two thousand dollars per year based on previous expenditures and
will be funded from the general operating fund and or special revenue
funds any questions go right into your next okay the next contract I have is really a double
contract it's for the retrofitting of Seven Lakes junior high school and Katy high school and the
recommendation is to award the contract through the job order contracting method and we're going
to award to facilities sources who is available to us to the choice partners cooperative after
After consideration of the proposals received, the recommendation is to award for Katy High
School at a total cost of $195,062 and to Seven Lakes Junior High School at a cost of
$62,145.
The costs include all of the cables, the data cables and trip lights at each location as
well as all the bonding costs any I'm sorry and the funding will be funded
from the 2014 bond funds I am sorry very much okay thank you okay next item is 5.7
consider future board approval of the renewal of the contract for property
insurance by Mr. Nelman. Good evening.
Board of Trustees, President Fox, Dr. Hemp.
Good evening. During the February 22nd, 2016 board meeting, the Katy Independent
School District Board of Trustees approved the proposal for property
insurance from Lexington Insurance Company and Wells Fargo Insurance
Services for coverage limits of 250 million dollars for a 12-month term. The
policy covers the following buildings, structures, and contents, physical damage
to both buses and automobiles, electronic data processing equipment, mobile
equipment, musical instruments, and boiler and machinery. Major perils
covered include fire, flood, earthquake, windstorm, and named windstorm. Currently
the total insured value for the district is 1.5 billion. During the recent policy
term the district completed several bond projects which added to the increased
insurable property values. Insurable values also increase for both bus and
auto fleet. The current renewal proposal represents year two of a three-year
quote previously entered into with Lexington. The proposal does does include
terrorism coverage for both certified and non-certified acts. The renewal rate
of nine cents per $100 in valuation is the same as the expiring term. The
The strategic savings achieved during this renewal is based on the following.
One, there is no material change or losses reported to the carrier.
Two, the program design and risk retention methods continue to keep the premium rates in a constant range.
Three, mitigation of risk in district upkeep of facilities.
And four, our ongoing site inspection program.
The Lexington Insurance Company Wells Fargo Insurance Services proposal was reviewed by risk management
in regards to adequacy of coverage, assessment of risk, availability of service, and cost.
We are of the opinion the Lexington Insurance Company Wells Fargo Insurance Services proposal
represents the best value and offers, one, coverage limits that exceed the maximum expected losses,
two, continuity of coverage for those locations currently under our bond project,
3. a renewal date outside of the hurricane season, 4. limits provided and
capacity through one carrier, and 5. physical damage coverage for buses and
autos at each transportation center that would provide replacement cost coverage
versus actual cash value. The proposal is for a 12-month property insurance policy
from March 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018 with one year rate of guarantee.
The Board of Trustees approval of the renewal of the contract for property
insurance from Lexington Insurance Company Wells Fargo as presented as
consistent with policy CE Legal and CE Local. Thank you. Any questions? Mr. Mahalsky?
Mr. Nauman, you stated we're in year two of a three-year, so this is a rate pass this year.
We're going to have a rate pass in year three as well.
Is that correct?
That is correct.
I just generally, how do you evaluate that basis versus going to market each year on that?
I do realize a couple years prior to that we actually had some rate drops, so I just kind of want to understand that.
Very good question.
At the time that we entered this deal, we reduced in the exhibit I provided you, we went from a 10 cent rate to a 9 cent rate.
Going out each year is not advisable because you don't get the look that you need and you generally get passed.
You don't give good underwriting to your account.
And this is typical in the private sector and the public sector.
Thank you very much for your presentation.
Thank you.
Next we'll move to 6.1.
Mr. T will bring our presentation.
Discuss and consider future board approval of a dedication of an easement of a pedestrian
bridge adjacent to Patterson Elementary.
Good evening, Mr. T.
Good evening, Madam President, Trustees, Superintendent Hint.
I'm bringing here tonight to you an easement on behalf of Harris County for the public.
This was an easement that I had brought to you all back in November of last year on the same pedestrian bridge.
The county came to us in December and requested this public easement for the same section of encroachment that was originally approved in November on the Center Point and Mudd 346 easement.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Will we move this to...
Any objection to moving this to consent?
So moved.
Thank you very much.
Good evening, Mrs. Holland.
You're going to talk to us about a long-awaited board approval of the 2017-18 instructional calendar.
How are you?
Good evening, Madam President, members of the board, and Dr. Hinn.
tonight I want to share with you we took two calendars forward for consideration by our
community and all stakeholders based upon board policy EB ensuring that we had 75,600 minutes
but we also obtained priorities from Arcadia Improvement Council which is the official
district advisory group for the district and took those same ideas through the
teacher leadership group as well. Our KD Improvement Council challenged us to
some interesting priorities. They wanted to start school earlier and end in May.
They asked that we please balance the semesters much better to meet the needs
of our high school students, many of whom do take one semester courses. They wanted
They wanted us to create a bank of minutes so that if we did have increment weather,
the two bad weather days that we're required to identify on them would not have to be made
up.
They asked that we incorporate some professional learning days within the calendar, provide
two early release days for elementary teachers who are required to hold parent conferences
in the fall, schedule a week off at Thanksgiving, and consider parent and staff feedback.
back. We did that by putting two calendars out on the website for survey. We had 23,252 English
speakers respond and 268 Spanish speakers. Together, 71% of those responding liked calendar A. In our
calendars that we presented I'm pleased to tell you that all of the priorities
that were identified for us by our advisory group have been incorporated
into both calendars so we know that we have input from parents from community
from business leaders in developing the calendars that we have presented the
only difference really between calendar a and B are very simple one begins on a
Monday. Calendar A begins on a Wednesday, which was the preference of the majority
of our advisory group because it felt they felt that gave teachers a work day
and some time to get work done they needed to do and it was a better
transition for students. It also with calendar B the start date is traditional
on Monday. There are 176 days in the calendar A option, 178 days in the
calendar B option. But the consensus of the advisory group was that we have lots
of extra minutes built into our calendars and that the difference in the
days, and as you know by law we're no longer so concerned about the days as we
are minutes, although traditionally Katie has not wanted to lose a lot of days, but
we don't believe that the two days is going to make a tremendous difference because we
do have a lot of extra minutes.
Based upon the feedback that we've received, our recommendation as an administration is
for calendar A, which was the overwhelming favorite of all of our survey responders.
And if I may, and I'm sorry you punched that button, if you recall we were a bit delayed
on the calendar because we were working our way through the District of Innovation that
gave us the flexibility of starting school a little bit earlier than this year's start
date for those districts that don't have a District of Innovation designation and that
is August 28th, I believe.
That is correct.
The latest start date since the legislature enacted that you could not start until the fourth Monday of August.
Also, if you recall, there was a conversation with this group about the Thanksgiving holiday
and the absenteeism that we saw on the Monday and Tuesday when we were in school,
but 75% of us were in school.
all right so this calendar does provide for the full week in November for the
Thanksgiving holiday I will say this and it's something that we need to work on
maybe next year there was one additional item and we just could not find a way to
do it in either calendar a or B and there was quite a few folks that
advocated for some form of a holiday in October that's a long stretch after the
the first six weeks moving into that time.
And some of the feedback we received through the survey was taking a look at this in the
future and we'll certainly do this.
As Ms. Holland indicated, it's one of the most balanced calendars we had and that was
one of the biggest requests by our secondary folks.
I know there is a concern of going from 178 days to 176 days.
what my statement would be it's not necessarily the quantity it is the
quality and we can go with the 178 day calendar but I can tell you because I'm
married to a teacher when we start the school year instruction on a Monday
nothing instructionally really is going to occur Monday till Friday because we
have all of the forms and all the things that now we're working on to simplify
for our teachers going into next year whether we start on a Monday or a
Wednesday my promise from the kick and the teacher leadership form is that come
Monday after that Wednesday start they're gonna hit the ground running
with teaching and learning in the classrooms and they promised me and I'm
going to put them on the spot that there would not be a high absenteeism on the
Friday before Thanksgiving. So we've got a little work to do. I do want to point
out the difference between the two semesters this year is 12 days. That is
the lowest I can remember. I don't remember when it's ever been that low.
And given the fact that we have a lot of testing in the spring, I would say we
have balanced semesters. We're really proud of that. Madam President. Mrs. Bann.
was it mrs. fan did you I thought I saw you heard you are you do she would like
to go first okay sorry were you not I was but I was I was gonna thank Ms. Holland
for your presentation and for all the hard work and the organizations that I
know that we reached out to I can speak for the many teachers and administrators
that reached out to me when the survey went out and said please please please
please start on a Wednesday.
As a parent, Monday starts hard.
They're difficult.
And the community was excited to see the week off at Thanksgiving.
And you're right, our ADA for that week, people take off.
They're like, two days, out of here.
And we as a school district are the one that pay for those empty seats on those two days.
So as a community, it's a recharge week.
It's a recharge for the teachers, recharge for the families.
and starting on a Wednesday it's it it says a lot and 28 that's it's just too
late to start too late in the summer it's too late in the school year I think
176 days is perfectly fine and I thank you for all the hard work and the
presentation that you gave us here tonight I'm excited for this calendar
I'm excited what the district of innovation is allowing us to do their
our local control so thank you for this tonight thank you mr. Gabriel miss
Holland I think just looking at this calendar I'm reminded of a few years
back during a legislative session we said you were sitting pretty much right
there and ask you there's one small thing our legislature could do for us
what would it be and you said give us two to three extra days at the beginning
of the school year i recall in the halls of the the capital miss fox was right there we're talking
to a state senator who i shall not name but serves as lieutenant governor now and um he's i asked him
i said just can you just give us three days three days to work with and he said i can't do that
because of the tourism lobby and i realized that fiesta texas had more control over our calendar
than then we did and we continued to push for that and I'm glad that the
state found this district of innovation way of allowing us to do that so I think
this is a testimony to advocacy and people continuing to push on things year
in and year out so uh you got your three days miss I sure did thank you
I'm president mr. Scott our superintendent promised us a very
targeted district of innovation is delivered and the walls are still
standing so I think that was a great job thank you and I don't know if we
mentioned we talked so much about the start but we can tell us when we're
ending on this calendar yes sir we are ending before Memorial Day so we have
literally every priority that our advisory groups wanted is let me explain
the importance of that. What we found through some of our senior students in
the leadership form and various groups, some of our kids are starting summer
school or starting college credit courses immediately after graduation and
what we found was the first week in June having our school it overlapped on some
of those courses. I think this provides a little more flexibility to our seniors
going directly into college. Absolutely. Mr. Michalski. Yeah I just want to say this is I guess what the fifth calendar I've had a privilege of having a part of approving since I put my service here on the board and by far the best. I just want to say thank you to everyone that was involved in making this and thank you for the District of Innovation. Mrs. Holland we've talked about the calendars many times and before the state even implemented the fourth
Monday and so I think this is such a strong improvement the community is very
excited about it teachers are very excited about it and yet there are still
some questions in the community that I think bear some conversation here so
that we could point them to the discussion and that is that some
districts continue to have more days off than we do and you know why do they get
this off and why do they get off that and it's because some districts went to
longer minutes per day, they added 15 or 20 minutes to the school day, and now the state
measures our student calendar on minutes and our teacher calendar on days of contract.
So KDISD has chosen, because our teachers still work 187 days on a contract, is that
correct?
That is correct.
That is correct.
So when our teachers are here, the best place we can have them is face-to-face with our
students because that's where the greatest impact is.
So I love that we are still looking at as much time together, 176 and other districts
are doing less than that and I totally understand that but our choice in Katy was to keep the
time.
So, but I love that we are starting early and balancing semesters better and the early
end is fantastic, right, to get out by Memorial Day and so I understand that because of those
to the beginning and the end I'm certainly one who is a big advocate for
a mental health day in October from Labor Day until Thanksgiving those five
day weeks add up nine or ten of them in a row without a day off so I hope that
we can find a way to put that in next year a day off would be nice but
certainly when band students are doing band tober or whatever October you know
by marching in October and football and all of those things that happen in the
the fall keeps those boys and girls so busy you know just one day off is a huge
advantage looking forward to that next year the other thing maybe that I would
ask is next year when we bring choices to our community to have a bit more of a
choice on right then two extra two days and maybe a I don't know what the
Christmas one looked like I know some districts are doing stay a little longer
in december and come back a little later in january might look at something like that and
see what our community thinks of that because that was the only other thing i thought that might have
some appeal but overwhelmingly our community our teachers our parents love this and i am grateful
for it i am grateful for the district of innovation dr hentz thank you for leading us through that
because local control is what we need and this is better for our community and i'm very excited
about it thank you madam president mrs. Doyle there there's something unique
that I'm noticing on this calendar that I have not noticed on previous calendars
and I'm noticing family night no homework assigned yeah you know homework
and so these are days I'm assuming that dr. hint you have asked to be included
into this calendar yes he did let me let me explain I had the unique pleasure of
meeting with a student group once every six weeks is that right this dr grooms and my first meeting
with them they informed me of a survey that was floating around that had over 9 000 signatures on
it and i was advocating for the district to look at something that had been implemented at one of
our high school yes and it put a little pressure on us and visiting with the
student leadership forum visiting with our teacher leadership forum visiting
with our KD improvement council and getting some principles together what my
concern was is that we would have mixed messages and that we may have a high
school that would implement something like this but not a junior high or an
elementary school and in order to keep everything consistent from kindergarten
to senior year the committee came up with one day during every six weeks that
they proclaimed as a family night that our staffs would not assign homework and
that we would put an emphasis on that time being spent with family now let me
just put it this way that means that a parent doesn't make a child do a little
homework on that night read a book do something in the home because I firmly
believe you know that's where it starts is in the house but yes we also look at
this as a way to maybe close the district down and look at some
cost-saving measures through electricity consumption and things like that on
those nights well I just have to say I I love that we've implemented that as well
because our kids are pushed at a very high level not only by us as a district
but personally these kids are driven and they want to achieve greatness and so I
just think it speaks to them that we're saying hey you know what thank you for
your hard work but take five seconds to just be a kid and if you are at home
reading a book or playing on your iPad or whatever that's okay as well but we
We are saying take a moment, be with your family, we want to do that as well and for
us to specifically say these days that's what we're going to do as a district is spend time
with our family just speaks volumes of the character and the environment that we're trying
to set here in Katy and I just, I so appreciate that you specified that.
Everything about this is wonderful.
So thank you for your hard work and thank you for designating and listening to those students because they're just gonna so appreciate
Right, they're being heard and that's that's wonderful. Oh
Awesome. Thank you
Thank You mrs. Holland appreciate you very much looking forward to this and so this will any objection to moving this to consent agenda
Bill moved. Oh, we'll take action on that next
next week. Thank you. You also have our next item, the Board approval of the local policy
updates for the District of Innovation. As a result of our District of Innovation, as
we indicated in the plan, there were certain policies in your manual that would need to
be revised in order to be consistent with our District Innovation Plan. I think all
of the policies in this local update are very self-explanatory. The legal policies that
that are included simply reference the fact that we have become a district of innovation.
And the revisions to the local policies are very minor, basically reflecting the same
language that we have in our district of innovation. So we wanted to get these policies to you
in a timely manner so that they would be consistent with the board's approval of the district
innovation plan. Thank you very much.
Our next item is 6.4.
I am checking.
Any objection to moving that one to consent?
So moved.
6.4, discuss and consider future board approval of the request for qualifications for financial advisory services.
Good evening, Mr. Smith.
Hello again.
In early January, the district released a request for qualifications for a financial advisor.
Responses came back on February the 8th and KDISD received eight responses to that request for qualifications.
A review of said responses was made by a purchasing, me, and two members of my staff.
Five firms were ultimately asked for an interview.
Representing KDISD in the interview were Regina Stevenson, Director of Purchasing, Lee Cruz, the Chief Operations Officer in Waiting,
Justin Graham, counsel, Anne Feitinger, business manager, Sherry Butterfield, director of budget and treasury, and of course myself.
Dr. Hinton and I then interviewed the finalists. A loan finalist was selected and references were verified and overwhelmingly supported our recommendation.
I will say that the bankers being recommended have worked with both myself and Dr. Hinton in previous districts.
So there is some history there as well.
With this information said, it's the administration's recommendation to hire First Southwest as our financial advisor.
Our team will be led by some of the premier bankers in the state.
Terrell Palmer and Jeff Robert will be the lead bankers assigned to our account.
and pending approval next week we'll be putting them to work very quickly on
what may be the last bond sale of our 2014 authorization any question thank
you very much can this be moved to any objection to moving this to consent so
moved okay next one mr. Smith you have that one as well
Well, reimburse project expenditures.
Madam President.
Yes, Mr. Griffin.
6.4 says do not move this item to consent.
Thank you.
Oh, thank you very much.
Thank you.
I don't have my glasses on.
Thank you, Mr.
I thought that probably couldn't.
Okay, we will not move that item to consent.
Thank you for catching that, Mr. Griffin.
6.5.
All right, this is related to the one a little bit, to the one I just went over.
I mentioned that we would be putting the financial advisors to work very quickly on what may be the last sale of the 2014 authorization.
We sell bonds based on cash flow.
That means that when we need the cash to fund our construction projects, we have a bond sale.
And we do that every year based on cash flow needs.
We anticipate the need for bond proceeds based on our current cash flows,
our current expenditures on our projects by early April.
This resolution will allow the district to utilize general funds temporarily
temporarily and then reimburse the general fund when the bond proceeds are available. It may not be necessary,
but it's going to be close and I would bet that it would be necessary for a very short period of time.
Also, with the Elementary 41 moving forward and its current intent to utilize general operating funds,
this resolution would be able to be used for that as well and should
bond proceeds become available in the future, we could also utilize this tool to reimburse
the general fund for elementary 41.
You have a resolution attached that allows us to do this, and also attached to the resolution
is a list of expenditures that we're making from the 2014 authorization in elementary
41, which are all inclusive.
Any questions?
This item will not move to consent agenda, so I will read the resolution into the record
next week when we vote.
Thank you very much.
We will move on to 6.6, the budget amendments.
Mrs. Butterfield.
MS.
Good evening, President Fox, Trustees, Superintendent
Superintendent Hint, we have 13 general operating fund amendments tonight, three of them of note.
$61,502 related to HCC dual credit courses, recognizing both the revenue and creating the expenditure budget.
$25,400 increased to budget related to special ed settlement expenditures and $233,867 to replace stage curtains at 21 campuses in order to meet fire marshal requirements.
requirements. Together, the other budget amendments are direct offsets between different budgetary functions. Together, this represents a $259,267 decrease to general operating fund balance. The food service fund has one amendment tonight in the amount of $730,000, and this is for kitchen equipment related to Maid Creek High School renovation.
renovation the approval of this amendment will result in a decrease of
Seven hundred thirty thousand dollars to the food service fund fund balance
Any questions
Madam president mr. Scott could I I was kind of going between hearing and not hearing
What was the statement on the curtains was 21 schools 21 schools? Yes, all of that is out of him
And oh, we don't debt finance curtains
Okay.
That's a good answer.
It caught us off guard, to be quite honest with you.
Fire marshal indicated that they don't meet the code, therefore we have to be in compliance
with the code or they put chains on our front doors.
But we're not debt financing them.
No.
Good.
We're not extending debt for curtains.
Okay.
Any objection to moving this item to consent?
So moved.
Thank you, Mr. Butterfield.
This takes us into our time open forum.
At this time the Board of Trustees will hear from patrons as established by Board policy.
The first 20 speakers who signed up at least 15 minutes before this meeting began and have
provided their first and last name will be allowed to speak.
A maximum of 30 minutes has been allocated with the time divided equally among those
who have signed up.
However, the maximum amount of time for any one speaker is three minutes.
The time clock is visible on the podium, so each speaker may see the time remaining, and
our Sergeant of Arms, Mr. DeBrell, will alert you when one minute remains.
If speakers wish to share non-confidential written material with the Board, provide copies
to the Secretary for Board Services.
Due to posting requirements of the Open Meetings Act, the Board is able to respond only to
a statement related to a posted agenda item.
Specific student issues, discipline and personnel matters.
shall be addressed through appropriate channels established by policy as I
announce your name please come to the podium state your first and last name
for the record our first speaker this evening is Sam Lilly good evening mr.
Lilly welcome good evening my name is Sam Lilly I currently reside in Katy ISD
and just wanted to am I continue to hope which each passing month that we move
farther away from the previous regime and more towards an administration serving the greater
good of our district i just wanted to mention a couple of items regarding maybe controllable
accountability mr scott has talked about accountability previously and though i
appreciate his request it appears some things are still too much under state and federal control
guarded by the threat of funding loss mr smith seems to work very hard on this issue
even even with the way mr mcelwain has been spending lately somehow our tax rate hasn't
increased but the apple slice is getting worse right i'm thankful the district is taking measures
trying to gain more independence hopefully the bond committee for 2017 will help with spending
accountability to as the district nearest build out and maybe the district will work hard to stay
close to the limitations that the bond committee requests or at least the appearance as such so
what else can be controlled locally attendance boundaries two years ago passa said they would
be monitoring campuses landlocked and nearing 125 capacity so is there an update or is there
a definition of monitoring to tell us in october there's an issue needing resolution in november
i made sure a major issue this past year was the appearance that there was no time for parents to
review the information and present alternatives also mr gunnell explained that decisions must be
made in december to ensure timing for the changes to take place so perhaps the board could hold the
district accountable to adjust the ABM process. I know the demographic update is slated for
October, but why can't the district begin with the preliminary ABM maybe at the June
board meeting? The attendance numbers for the previous year will be in, and that would
give parents time to process the information and perhaps provide legitimate alternatives.
This may even help hold PASA more accountable on their updates as well. After all, PASA's
numbers are just hypothesis compare the demographic update since 2011 and i'm strictly speaking about
the trends for all three levels junior high elementary and high school they're all over
the place even from year to year a good example is memorial parkway elementary the 2013 update
showed an increase and the 2014 bond got them a comprehensive renovation what happened since
dropping students the last two years even with the immersion program so if it is an educated
If we had educated guests in October, why not an educated guest in June?
That would truly be monitoring the situation, even if it is just a preliminary projection.
Plus, it would allow both parents and the board a fully relaxing Thanksgiving,
not the intense strife that led to a very emotional meeting two months ago.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lilly.
And if you don't mind, I think, Superintendent, Mr. Lilly, I just want to let you know,
thank you for that information, and the district is looking at a way by utilizing our in-house,
demographer with some of the passing information that we're looking at a
process of starting this a little bit earlier next next year as well so you've
got that on record thank you mr. Lillie our next speaker is Sharon de Russick
good evening mr. russick we're glad you're here my name is Sharon de Russick
and I originally was here to report on the legislative committee that was
formed by you as a board of trustees in our support for one voice or our support
for rather the legislative the legislative agenda that we're going to
the state with I am now I'm not doing that since that has been pulled from the
agenda obviously but I still want to report on in moving forward with
support for this and I wear several hats I wear my mom hat I wear of two students
that are in the district. I wear my PTA hat of countless hours that I have put
into this district. I also wear an educator hat and this is what saddens me
in that I train teachers on a daily basis, on a weekly basis and not
supporting one voice whether it's that outline, that piece of document, we have
have to come together as a grassroots effort, as one voice.
And by PTA splitting, by whatever's just happened today,
which I obviously don't have time to go into,
we have divided back to where we were in fighting
for one voice for our children.
That one voice is our children.
That's my two boys that I have a voice for, for their voice.
I have been told personally, Mr. Scott,
I've been told personally by a and a national leader in early childhood education
I can give you her name here later that when I asked her what is going to be
the point that that stops this craziness with the testing all of this district of innovation that we are fighting for as a district as
Katie and that we all agree is so important. I asked her what is it going to take?
To make this stop and she and here she is this leader in early childhood education and early literacy
And she said it has to be from the grassroots effort
It's got to be from all of our voices coming together
one minute so
In not being able to be here to report on what I originally from our committee and what we've worked hard for weeks and weeks
I am here just to be proactive because I truly believe in that we can't be here to fight
The system that we we are supporting our children are in
I will continue as a member of the Legislative Committee to go to Austin and propose our
Agenda as far as what is important to our children in KDISD. I will not be there wearing my PTA hat
I have taken that off, but I will be there as a mom as an educator and as a teacher trainer
And a support for KDISD. So thank you for listening. Madam President, clarifying question. Mr. Griffin, Mrs.
Mrs. DeRosa.
Well, this is a little bit for Mr. Gilbert first.
Mr. Gilbert, was item 4.2 a legally posted agenda item?
Excuse me, I missed that.
On our agenda item, was agenda item 4.2 a legally posted agenda item?
I believe that it was.
Can I talk about this legally posted agenda item, even though it was pulled by the President,
because she didn't want us to discuss it in public?
No, because it's been pulled from the agenda.
Thank you, sir. Madam President point of order. Mr. Scott in your parliamentary ruling. I want to know
Can the board at this point in time since they were lawfully posted
Move as a board majority to reinstate them back to the agenda because we have a very unusual situation
Let me rule on your on your have an unusual situation
is that it was pulled but we get half the truth some of the truth some of the
time and we put them back on the agenda if the board votes to do that and that
I mean that's an interesting question I've never had that asked I don't
believe so but I'll look into that for future meetings I hope you're right can
Can I finish my couple of seconds because I just realized?
Mr. Scott, I am actually here because this came to the board.
No, you've asked her a clarifying question.
I didn't ask her a clarifying question.
She still had seconds left.
I'm just, the reason, and I'm sorry, you just totally stopped my thinking.
This was brought to the board several weeks ago,
And it is a time-sensitive issue and unfortunately we weren't in on that time-sensitive early enough
And that's the disappointment as coming from a legislative committee standpoint
That is your time is Thank You mrs. Terrell sick
Our final speaker is Jeannie Griffith
Let him reset the timer.
Good evening, Mrs. Griffith.
We're ready.
Thank you for being here.
I wrote an email to all of you, and I sent it last night.
And it was hard to write it because of people like Sharon.
And I did it because there are responsibilities that I have as a council president that I felt needed to be fulfilled.
And I'm bound by bylaws and affiliations.
and then that email was shared with covering Katie which I assume Mr. Scott did from his
comments tonight his willingness to talk about it and just inappropriate and those were my words
and they weren't meant to be put on display like that and I had something to accomplish and that
You might think that those words aligned me with you, but they didn't. Actually it
was the exact opposite and Sharon and I, I disagree and I might have put her
cause back a little bit because of my responsibilities, but at the end of the
day we have decency for each other and there has to be a standard. In this
boardroom there has got to be a standard for behavior and how we address things.
Even if we're passionate, there have got to be rules and that's part of the
the reason I love PTA so much is because it binds me to rules and it gives me a
standard of conduct and you're killing us out there you are killing us it's
like going through a bad divorce and we're all the collateral damage you
don't understand how it's spilling out into everything those two boys those
scouts were right there while we behaved like this there's I mean this sets the
the tone for everything.
And you're killing me.
And I just need to know, because I know that Laura and I,
if we have PTA presidents and boards that
are behaving like this, we have something
we can do to address it, because they are bound.
That conflict of interest that you brought up earlier,
that wasn't for Mr. DeBrell or Ms. Fox.
That was for my people, my presidents,
what they're bound to.
And there has to be something.
I know, I know there have been exchanges and and egos have been bruised and and things and you might have legitimately been wronged
But at the end of the day we have to be able to say we're gonna clean the slate and we're gonna move forward
And that's it's got to be that way. I felt like I was wrong in the situation
But my addressing it in that manner I felt was respectful and I felt like what I said didn't
didn't imply that anyone was malicious or that they wanted sometimes other agendas get in the
way and I get that and we can revisit that and but oh we've got to stop the infighting we've
got to this whole thing our board has become deteriorated into like tantrums and pissing
contest and I mean who are we what is that sending to the rest of the world if we're not united
united together. I didn't say any of that.
I really...
That's her time, yeah.
Thank you, Ms. Griffith.
State law be damned.
Thank you for being here
tonight.
Sharing your thoughts
with us. Our future meetings, we have a public forum to receive input on the
recommended name for the second stadium Thursday February 23rd 2017 and our
regular board meeting is here in this room Monday February 27th 2017. There
being no further business before the board the meeting is adjourned at 7 45
p.m.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
The motions and votes for this meeting have not been recorded here yet. Whether any were taken is not stated either way. The agenda and the recording above are the primary sources.