The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, September 18th, 2017 and the time is 6.32 p.m.
Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, September 18, 2017
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The board met earlier in closed meeting. Any action arriving from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting.
Dr. Hint, will you verify we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act regarding the notice for this meeting?
Madam President, I verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act regarding the notice for this meeting tonight.
Item 3.1, consider Board approval of the lease agreement between Katy Independent School District and the Katy Area Economic Development Council.
Mr. Lacey.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the lease agreement between the
Katy Independent School District and the Katy Area Economic Development Council as presented.
Second.
Madam President.
Finish that.
I appreciate the opportunity to make a statement, and it will not be that
long.
The news media, board members, and administrators at the table have been provided a copy of
my full statement in full context.
The full statement explains why I will vote for this lease agreement, expresses my admiration
for Superintendent Dr. Hinn's uncompromising leadership in changing the district's 15-year
flawed history by his predecessors of granting the Katy Area Economic Development Council
special benefits that it did not deserve and should never have had, challenges the
local news media above and beyond Dennis Svelman in covering Katie's outstanding
journalistic coverage of the KDADC to join in serious reporting on this group
in the best tradition of community journalism. Tonight I pose three
questions of many that will guide my approach to the district's future
relationship with this organization. Will the professional leadership of the EDC
allow KDISD to have significant input in a comprehensive professional review of
the cost-benefit analysis processes formerly used by the EDC to evaluate the
financial impact of economic development projects the organization supports
whether located inside or outside the boundaries of KDISD? Will it provide our
superintendent and this school board copies or access to review copies of all
cost-benefit analysis reports conducted by on behalf of the EDC regarding the
Rooms to Go project in Water County. Such a review would describe the basic
competence or incompetence of the organization. Provide our superintendent
and this school board copies or access to review copies of all documents and
answer questions that would confirm or refute whether KEDC's leadership has sought or still
seeks to establish formal contractual relationships with any government institutions in Waller
County other than the City of Katy to formally represent or negotiate economic development
projects in the non-KDISD portion of Waller County.
County, do our taxpayers deserve anything less than the truth from the Katy area EDC?
I appreciate this opportunity.
Mr. Scott, you referenced your concern about the cost benefit analysis.
Why do you reference that so many times?
The cost benefit analysis is a primary function of any economic development organization.
organization. We're going to bring XYZ Company in. They're going to put tax base on the property.
From a school district standpoint, they're going to put tax base on the property, and they're going
to put students of families in school districts. The grave concern that I have about the professional
leadership of the EDC over many years, long before I got on the school board, is they seem to be
be having a move towards representing negotiating contracts in Watertownie, where the land is
great, outside the boundaries of KDISD.
The question I want to know is, is the president of that organization adhering to basic minimum
quality standards of cost-benefit analysis when they go out and negotiate and take the
lead in landing rooms to go in Waller County? Or is there economic analysis? Is there cost
benefit analysis, including the cost of KDISD when we end up educating the families? The
bottom line is this organization should be able to reach into a filing cabinet five years
ago, four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, one year ago, day after tomorrow,
and tell us they made projections when they advanced the Rooms to Go project.
How did those projections shape up with reality?
And going forward, is this an organization that believes it's land poor in KDISD
and land rich in Waller County?
I think we have a fiduciary interest to our taxpayers to look ahead.
And as I said in my prepared statement, this administration and this board has a lot on
its agenda over the next several months.
And it may be the end of the year or the start of the year before we do it.
I appreciate your question very much, but the EDC in this community for many years has
has appeared to gain momentum on ego and self-assertion.
And there is never, to my knowledge, been a qualitative analysis
of what is the real cost-benefit of this organization to this district
and to the taxpayers of KDISD.
Thank you.
Madam President.
Ms. Falk.
Mr. Scott, I appreciate your perspective,
and I appreciate you as a colleague on this board. I completely 100% disagree
with your with your analysis. The Katy Area Economic Development Council was
founded to help Katy ISD. We were a bedroom community when I first moved
here and you've been here a lot longer than I have and the Katy Area Economic
Development Council was founded to give relief off the taxpayers of homes. When I
moved here you had to go a long way to get to a great restaurant or a mall or the amount
of work that the Katy Area Economic Development Council has done to benefit Katy ISD, the
families, the community goes way back and to isolate a rooms to go or a Waller County
county focus, we've been moving west for a long time and they've been there with us arm
and arm, shoulder to shoulder, making our area better.
And I attend a yearly luncheon, not a luncheon, a yearly meeting with their state of the area,
state of the KDISD area and the amount of jobs they have brought, the amount of families
They have brought the amount of square feet that they lease and the companies that they have brought here have far improved our area.
I'm not prepared with the statistics that you have. I'm sure I could get them, but I fully support the leadership of the K.A.E.D.C.
Stan Stanley was the very first chairman of that organization. He was very instrumental
in bringing on Lance LaCour to lead and the people of that organization, their board,
represent professionalism, integrity, and vision in helping our area from everything
I've experienced and I couldn't let this opportunity go by without stating that what
what I know to be true and to focus specifically on Rooms to Go or Waller County is a little
narrow for the focus as I know them.
Madam President?
Mr. Scott.
If anybody else wants to comment, but go ahead, but I would like to respond to
that if I could.
Mr. Lacey, do you have anything?
Does anybody else have anything?
I'm just sitting back and listening.
Okay.
Madam President, I understand your perspective and you're right.
I have been here about as long as you have, so we're not going to compete whether it's one or two years.
The reality of economic development is that Katy was going to grow.
If we or any group stood out at the city limits or the geographical boundaries of Katy and said,
don't come, there's no way that Katy would not have grown.
loan. Whether or not the KDEDC can take credit for the normal growth of suburbia is questionable
at best. You mentioned Stan Stanley. He is an icon in this community. Unfortunately,
we cannot have access to his concurrent assessment of what he may have thought was developing
in the Katy EDC.
Notwithstanding that, the fact of the matter
is if what you are saying about the Katy EDC is true,
then they have in their filing cabinets the documents that
will prove their value.
Let's use this as an example, and I understand your point.
We have a mall in Katy, Texas.
It is similar to malls all across the fruited plain in the United States of America.
Whether or not the Katy Area Economic Development Council existed or not existed, Katy would
still have a mall because the economics of a mall are driven by the economics of a community.
So if an organization can hit the top of the crest and take credit for something that would
would have happened, then that goes to ego, not reality.
And what I'm trying to say is this.
You ask a very fair question.
Why rooms to go?
The heart and soul, the integrity of an organization,
is the quality of its cost-benefit analysis.
And if the KDEDC cannot go back into its filing cabinets
and tell us its cost projections on the rooms to go.
It's not an accident that George Scott, a public policy guy and a journalist,
picked rooms to go.
This is a years-long thing.
They can go into their filing cabinet and they can say,
rooms to go will put this much tax base.
It will cost Waller County this much for roads.
It will put this many families in KDISD.
It's going to cost Katy ISD this much money to educate those kids.
These kids are going to end up going to Royal ISD.
It's going to cost Royal ISD.
It's going to produce this much revenue and sales tax revenue for the city of Katy.
Any, let me just state this extremely clearly, any economic development organization that is worth its salt,
that has a nano-ounce of integrity, a nano-ounce of operational competence,
will be able to reach into its filing cabinet and say, this is what we said
that the Rooms to Go project will mean for every governmental entity in this
region. And then they should update that projection. They should capture reality
reality according to their projections and if the EDC cannot correlate reality
with their projections then we have an absolute right to question any
recommendations that that organization would ever bring to this board or to
this city moreover moreover if they if this organization is seeking to have
have negotiating rights with precinct four in Waller County,
Waller County government, or some other institution
in Waller County to put tax base in Waller County
outside of KDISD, no matter how much icing on the cake
they've given us in the past.
I want icing on the cake in the future.
And if they're out to put tax base in Waller County
and send us the kids to educate, that is an economic reality that should be competently included in any cost-benefit analysis.
So what's the bottom line to my tirade tonight?
I want to see their cost-benefit analysis.
I want to see their cost-benefit analysis.
That's the bottom line.
Madam President.
Mr. Fox.
Mr. Scott.
I've got the cost benefit analysis that the KAEDC has contributed to KDISD since its inception.
I'd be interested in those numbers too. I'm sure they are far more impressive than the one that you're trying to get on one single project.
But if I were Lance LaCour, I would tell us all to take a flying leap because he doesn't have to give that to us.
It's for heaven's sakes he's busy creating jobs, finding companies who want
to come to the Katy area, bringing families jobs and tax base to us that
gives relief to homeowners and for that I am grateful to the KAEDC and I'm I
will stop. Madam President I just want to close by saying success by assertion is
not a standard of accountability. And if they if they have accomplished all that
that you say they have accomplished, then open their filing cabinets.
When you say that Lance LaCour should tell this district to take a flying leap, who are we?
We are a board that represents the rank and file taxpayers of KDISD.
So if you tell this board to take a flying leap,
what you're telling the KDISD taxpayers is to enjoy the flying leap.
and that's not my position. I will go ahead and comment. I know we still have a vote on a lease agreement and I appreciate both of y'all's input on this. I do know that the KAEDC recently went through a strategic design process and as part of that process I am serving on a group, a governmental relations group in which there is some conversation about looking at the jurisdiction of KDISD and looking at the cost benefit. I think it's something that is to come.
in the future and it is something that I believe that the KDC is certainly
looking at providing at some time and the bottom line is dr. Hint you have
done what you need to do to tell this organization that the sugar daddy status
is over and I applaud you for that this is an organization that has has taken
advantage of the relationship with Katie is D to get benefits it didn't deserve
deserve it should have never had and I applaud your leadership.
Alright, a motion has been made by Mr. Lacey, the Board of Trustees and second by Charles
Griffin.
The Board of Trustees approves the lease agreement between the Katy Independent School District
and the Katy Area Economic Development Council as presented.
All in favor please raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes five to zero.
Mr. Mohoski and Mrs. Doyle are unable to be here this evening.
We move to agenda item number four, consent agenda.
If I can.
Oh, I'm sorry.
You have something.
Let me just interrupt real quick.
And let me tell you what.
That was good conversation on a 5-0 vote right there, I'll tell you what.
I haven't seen that before.
But I do want to take the opportunity.
You know, we had the storm that hit us, and we were going to make an introduction,
and Dr. Hill has waited patiently.
and I see her out there so I'm catching her by surprise.
But I would like to introduce one of our newest
administrators here in the district.
She's serving as the assistant superintendent
for human resources and I'm gonna read some
of this information on Dr. Nita Hill.
She's worked in the field of education for 22 years.
She began her educational career in 1995
and taught various subjects and grade levels
throughout her teaching career.
In 2002 she began her administrative endeavor
ever as a middle school assistant principal,
you earned your stripes there, all right?
Since that time, she has served as building principal
for both elementary and secondary campuses.
Her most recent principal position was in Cal Allen ISD
where she was later promoted to assistant superintendent
for personnel and administrative services.
Dr. Hill has a Bachelor of Science
in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Master of Education
in Administration from Tarleton State University.
She also holds a doctorate in leadership and policy from Lamar University. If
everybody would please help me in welcoming our newest leader.
Welcome Dr. Hill.
We're lucky to have you.
Now we'll move to consent agenda number 4.
4.1 Consider future board approval of missed school day waiver application of the State Commissioner of Education for 10 bad weather days.
on Monday night we will be asking the board to consider improve a missed
school day waiver for the ten days that we missed as a result of her
Dr. Hint already has spoken with the Commissioner I believe and we have been
told the Commissioner is going to waive the ten days but we are still required
to submit the waiver as a formality so we will be asking the board to approve
that we did send out information to our KD improvement council we did not have
our September meeting but we've been out of survey to them and by all means they
support our moving forward with this request. Any questions? Thank you very much.
Item 4.2 consider future board approval of the KD independent school district
2017-18 school health advisory council or SHAC representatives. Mr. Grimmett.
President Vann, members of the board, Superintendent Hint. I'm here tonight for
the consideration of the proposed slate of 2017-18 School Health Advisory
Council members. The first sheet you'll see the Executive Council of SHAC that
has the eight components of coordinated school health and then that's followed
by the community and parent representatives. Any questions? Thank you
very much thank you 4.3 consider future board approval of center point energy
electrical easement associated the construction of elementary 41 miss
Casman good evening madam president board of trustees dr. hint tonight
bringing forward for your consideration approval of a center point electrical
easement associated with the construction of elementary number 41
this item is one of our standard board items which upon approval allows
center point to commence the process to provide electricity to a new facility
Once this easement process commences, the timeframe can be anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks
for CenterPoint to provide for the termination pole and underground to the transformer pad.
Our current schedule has the building being energized for January 2018 to meet an August
2018 school opening.
Questions?
Mr. Lacey?
I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
Okay, thanks.
Where is the easement going to be?
and the schools streets here I'm sorry streets here schools here is it gonna be
along the back along the back on the north side and they'll put the
termination pole and run underground into the building to the transformer pad
okay and so it will be in areas that children will be playing I noticed how
deep it's gonna be which is wonderful but there there will be children playing
on top of this easement or will it be far enough over it should be far enough
over it usually ties into our central plan excellent thank you thank you very
much thank you item 4.4 consider future board approval of the contract to replace doors and
hardware at identified locations mr t good evening president van superintendent hint and board
members i'm bringing tonight a recommendation that the board of trustees awards the contract
for the replacement of doors and hardware at identified locations to bryan root in the amount
of $183,500, utilizing the National IPA contract number R160402.
The replacement of doors and hardware is being funded from the safety and security portion
of the 2014 bond authorization.
The replacement of the identified doors and hardware is necessary to complete the access
control installation at these locations.
The recommendation is to award the contract to Brennan Root utilizing the National IPA
contract number R160402 the replacement of the doors and hardware will be
performed after regular school hours and on holidays the work is scheduled to be
completed by January the 2nd 2018 the facilities identified are young
young AG facility Beck junior high global elementary Katie high school Katie
Junior High, Maid Creek Elementary, McDonald Junior High, McNean's Junior High,
Sundown Elementary, West Memorial Junior High, and Winborn Elementary. Total
replacement costs are $183,500. This contract has been reviewed by the
district council and approved to as for.
Questions?
Any questions?
Thank you very much.
Adam 4.5 consider future board approval of principal assistant principal and assistant principal substitute list
Good evening President Bann, trustees and superintendent Hitt. I am here to present the annual list of
Substitute assistant principals and principals. We will use those individuals throughout the school year in the absence of our current administrators
Any questions from the segment, okay
And I know that you use that pretty frequently.
Out of the list, how many times do you think you call upon those individuals to come in and serve?
For the 16-17 school year, I believe we used four for the entire school year, a total of four.
And the feedback I've got from it has been outstanding.
And those are the retirees who want to substitute in the district, so it's not hard to get them.
Oh, I know, and they're excited.
Even the namesakes, it's like, holy mackerel, we're going to have to name everything after you.
I would agree with Mr. Griffin.
This is stellar news.
Thank you.
Yeah, it is, definitely.
4.6, we have you one more time.
Okay, the next item is for board approval for the superintendent to prepare, sign, and
submit a waiver of application to the state commissioner of education for elementary schools
that exceed the allowable class size limit of 22 to 1.
In addition, it will allow us to file waivers throughout the school year for any of those
schools that have an extensive growth and to be very transparent with the
hurricane we are delayed in it however we will still meet the state deadline in
order to file I do not have the actual waiver numbers tonight but we will have
those prepared for dr. Kent by Friday and I will meet the state deadline by
October 1st because the the storm put us in a position where we're starting over
on our 30 days with some campuses I'll post those in the Friday information
that we send to you and then upon approval at Monday's meeting we'll also
have those numbers for you.
Thank you. This is something we do every year?
Yes.
Just for future reference, I'm not sure if you care, last year we had seven campuses with 15 sections that we filed a waiver for.
Anything?
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Item 4.7, this is me.
Consider future board approval of a proclamation for principals month.
And the proclamation reads, proclamation of the Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees Principals Month.
Whereas principals play an essential role in making a school great,
and whereas principals are an important part of the district leadership and vital to the overall success of teachers and students,
and whereas principals are valued and respected group of administrators that
sustain the district's most important assets its people and students whereas
principals are supportive dedicated and determined to encourage staff and
student success whereas contributions of principals impact student lives on a
daily basis and therefore the Katie Independent School District Board of
trustees does hereby resolve that the month of October will be observed as
principals month throughout the district the board also encourages students staff
and parents to express their appreciation to the KTISD principals for
their dedication and commitment to their campus communities staff and student
signed this day 25th day of September 2017 Ashley Vann
President, Katy ISD Board of Trustees.
I have one more proclamation to read.
Item 4.8. Consider future Board approval of the proclamation for Texas Education Human Resources Day.
Proclamation reads, Proclamation of the Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees, Texas Education Human Resources Day.
Whereas, the Human Resources Division is instrumental in recruiting, selecting, resourcing, and
retaining quality staff in support of providing an excellent education for all students.
And whereas, Human Resources plays a key role in fostering satisfaction and loyalty among
employees by allowing for professional growth and development and keeping employees informed
about policies, working conditions, compensation, and benefits.
and whereas human resources monitors and manages current and future workforce
trends organizational culture legal and legislative trends and ethical and
social responsibility and whereas human resources is an important part of
district leadership and vital to the overall productivity and efficiency of
the district's workforce and whereas human resources is a valued and
and respect the department that sustains the district's most important assets, its people.
Therefore, the Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees does hereby resolve that October 11, 2017,
will be observed as the Texas Education Human Resources Day throughout the district.
The board also encourages students, staff, and parents to express their appreciation to our human resources team members
for their dedication and commitment to Katy ISD employees and students.
sign this 25th day of September 2017 Ashley Van, KDISD Board of Trustees.
Then we have item 4.9 consider future board approval of the 2017 budget amendments.
Ms. Butterfield. I'm all where our asses out.
Good evening President Van, Trustees, Superintendent Hint. We have a large budget amendment for you tonight.
In the general operating fund expenditures increased $12,464,789.
These are expenditures and costs associated with Hurricane Harvey and the emergency repairs, remediation, relocation, shelter costs, and known expenditures to date.
We are also amending the budget for $5 million in revenue to represent anticipated insurance proceeds known at this point.
Approval of this amendment will result in a decrease in the general fund balance of $7,464,789.
There is one other amendment tonight.
This is to recognize the increase in expenditures in the TURS waterfall.
So closing costs related to the purchase
of the Brazos Valley Schools of Property.
And I'd like to add, in your documents there,
you see those expenses.
It's the Munis budget amendment report that you have there.
As I committed to the board,
when you agreed to the resolution
at our last board meeting,
allowing the district to move forward quickly
with remediation projects for the administration building,
Creach Elementary School and the Merrill Center. We're keeping track of these and
I send these numbers to you every Friday. In that Friday report we'll also report
them at each board meeting so that we can track these expenses. As you know
we've got our insurance money that's going to cover some. We just received a
five million dollar check. We expect to receive more in the future. We're working
our way through that of course. We will be looking at also receiving some FEMA
of funds but they may not be in this budget year but this administration is
committed to keeping board abreast as well as our community to those
additional costs that we're experiencing because of the storm and costs that a
lot of school districts are experiencing also. This may not be the last budget
amendment we bring to you related to this but we'll certainly keep you up to
date on a weekly basis.
Madam President.
Mr. Lacey.
Chair Greg Musil. Um, either Dr. Hanna or you may know the answer to this. Um, I noticed on here the University of Houston leases for $57,000. How long does that last?
The year.
Perfect. Thank you.
Yep.
The school year?
Yes, for the entire school year until the summer months. It gives us time to get Creech Elementary School, uh, the original campus, not Creech University, uh, up and running and taken care of.
Mayor President.
Mr. Griffin.
Dr. Henn, I'd just like to thank you for the forward leaning that you've done.
I know that you went out you did a lot of procurement of some materials that
you thought would be hard to find. Thank you for putting the kids in the
community first over over the money.
Well, you need to thank these guys.
Thank you guys.
And all these folks sitting out here. I've got the luxury of just being hard-headed and saying this is what I want to do.
And they make it happen. And they will tell you I'm a little bit hard-headed sometimes.
Thank you very much. At this time we are going to pull the action items 5.1 and 5.2 to a later meeting.
I will direct you to agenda item 6, information item. I will turn it over to item 6.1 to Dr. Hitt.
Yes, and thank you. This is kind of new to our agenda right now, but I did want to just give a quick update on the district, where we're at in relation to the hurricane tropical storm.
We still haven't decided what to call it.
You know, it was a hurricane, then became a tropical storm.
But, you know, some of the numbers that we've shared
with our community and with all of you,
as a result of the storm, 15,007 kids were impacted
in some way or another, whether they were evacuated
from homes, they lost homes, they lost cars or automobiles.
These are the numbers that we're working with as a district.
2600 employees and one board member to be quite honest was impacted by the storm.
75% of the city of Katy was impacted in some form or fashion.
Originally we had 16 campuses that were impacted and when I say impacted of course we know about Creech,
we know about what's going on with Bear Creek.
We were very concerned with Beck but we had 16 schools at some point or time
time we couldn't get to and they were surrounded by water and their
neighborhoods were being evacuated on a positive side we had you know 4,000
community members that took advantage of some shelters that we opened up as a
school district to provide just dry clothes a dry place a nice warm meal
until they could get themselves settled and find another location to go 450
folks were picked up by our bus drivers in flooded areas and brought to those
shelters along with the Texas National Guard along with DPS and different
groups we had four emergency management groups in the district as many of you
know the Texas National Guard were at Katy High School and had the entire
complex the rumor was the helicopters were there at coach Joseph's request to
dry his football fields but they were really doing runs around the state or
from Beaumont and back we had one campus that you guys know and that's the one
that you were referring to mr. Griffin and that's Creech Elementary School that
took on about three to four feet of water am I correctly two feet all right
but it's out of commission and I'll tell you it's it's probably out of commission
until the end of the year you know we're working hard we've got some remediation
groups in there but we've got a lot of work to do so the point is I wanted to
make sure that we're fully aware that we were able to get Creech students I think
there were 780 roughly kids and 707 of them showed up when we opened up that
school on September 11th at Creech University we worked a deal with the
University of Houston at Seco Ranch 37,000 square foot building took you
know we moved kids from a hundred thousand square foot building so it's
still a work in progress I know our operations crews working their tails off
We're getting, I believe, eight T buildings out there right now.
That's the equivalent of 16 additional classrooms.
Putting in a playground structure.
We're putting in some chain link fence.
We're putting in a covered walkway to those T buildings.
There is some work that we're doing, but we got those kids in there,
and I'll tell you, their families were very happy that we did.
I know you guys know the alternative,
and the alternative was to take them to Pato High School,
and by the grace of God, we needed Pato Heights School
for Bear Creek Elementary School.
But we also recognize that as an administration,
our furthest southeast quadrant school
transporting elementary kids
to the furthest northwest quadrant school,
we did not think would be in the best interest
of those kids or those families
that were experiencing the devastation that they did.
Bear Creek Elementary School,
until two days before opening up the school
or coming back on the 11th,
We got wind that the water and sewage pumps in that area were not working.
They were still on a water boil ban.
We had no choice.
We placed them over at Pato High School.
They're very happy there.
We've got our elementary kids that have advanced like seven grade levels in one year.
And they're high school students now, and they walk around very proud with that distinction.
And, you know, we're looking at Bear Creek probably, you know, by the end of the month,
the best case scenario by next week that we will have them back at their school, their
campus. Of course you know the administration building. We're all sitting here tonight because
we took on 18 inches in the administration building. The entire downstairs, matter of
fact, if you had a fishing pole, I guarantee there was probably a few fish in the Merrill
Center sunken area there because it became a pond overnight. But we're, I can't give
give enough credit to the operations crew Lee Cruz and his group and
technology and all that they did to basically take our entire downstairs and
put it in the upstairs it's 946 feet around that circle because I paste it
and I know all right and some ladies are getting their steps every day but we we
you know we moved overnight and we're making things happen but what I do want
to say is we lost a lot of files and there may be some slight discomforts at time with community
internally amongst ourselves with board because anything that was roughly and we teased about this
we tried to use the kneecap anything below the kneecap but then we realized you know if you
use justin graham's kneecap versus ken gregorski's knees cap there was a difference of about a foot
or two so we went with three feet anything below three feet was lost all right and we i learned a
valuable lesson you know i'm a hard fall guy kind of old-fashioned you want to make sure that you
do a pdf you copy and put it in an electronic file but we're working through that uh one of
the positive things you know we were shut down for 10 days we're doing the waiver for that
that. August 24th, our numbers and the biggest concern with superintendents across our region
was will our kids come back? You know, I mean, where are they going to go? What are they going
to do? On August 24th, and I can read this by campus, by high school, junior high or elementary,
but just to give you the total numbers we had on August 24th we had 77,000
four hundred and five hundred and forty six kids and as of today we had seventy
seven thousand five hundred and sixty nine kids so we didn't lose kids we've
actually gained kids and the first day we had 81 more kids walk in our door on
on the 11th than had been here previously.
So we've got kids coming around.
Now what I will tell you is some of our kids
are showing up in different places.
All right, they may have been zoned
or their attendance boundary was to Creech Elementary
and now they may be at Randolph
and we're tracking that right now.
Also we provided free breakfast and lunch
for the entire month of September.
For those kids displaced by the floods,
We're providing them with the McKinney-Vento opportunity and that's to
remain at their attendance zone school or the school in which they now reside.
If a student has moved outside of the district we're still allowing them to
come back into the district to their school. Transportation is provided and
we're tracking that and we're sharing that with the board. But I want to just
tell you some great things have happened but most impressive the first day of
school on the 11th we had 96.6% attendance rate that's basically what
our average daily attendance rate was for the entire year last year and if you
look at the first week we went from 96 all the way to 98 and then on Friday
which is customary to have your lowest attendance down Friday I don't know why
that is but it was right around 94 but averaged right at our normal average so
our kids are back they're coming to school I can tell you I think they're
happy to be back and i know some parents that have work to do because of the floods are happy that we
have them and we're taking care of them based upon those numbers as you know it seems like a long
time ago but this board called a bond also prior to hurricane harvey and really nothing has changed
we've actually added kids since then and you know that bond was a bond that we said you know was
was built for kids.
It was a bond because of the growth of the district,
2,800 to 3,000 kids a year.
We're back on track with that, we're estimating that.
I know that Harvey happened, unfortunately,
but as far as the numbers are concerned,
the district still has the needs.
So I wanted to just make the board aware
that we're trying to get back to normal
and going back to the same schedules,
the same calendars, the same routines that we did,
maybe in a different area, the Miller,
I mean the Merrill Center
versus our downstairs admin building.
But just for this coming week,
I wanted to let the board know that there are some dates
that there will be some bond presentations.
And I know that,
let me see, make sure I've got these correctly.
There we go.
We will be at McMean's Junior High soon.
We will be at Seven Lakes Junior High soon.
That's on the 20th, both of those dates.
Also on September 20th, I will be presenting to the Cross Creek Ranch community in their
community room.
Lee Cruz is on the 21st.
He will be at Wollman Elementary School.
And then we go into next week.
I will send you guys an updated list of our bond presentations moving forward
so that you guys are aware and our community is aware.
And, again, this was not the norm, a superintendent's report,
but I think because of all that we had been through,
I wanted you guys to see the numbers.
Of course, you've looked at them.
You've had all that data.
Bless your hearts.
You've been killed with data in the last couple of weeks.
but overall extremely impressed and blessed with the work of this community both administrative
principals teachers internally and externally and I think one of the best things that we probably
ever have done and it was just a strike of an idea was the Friday before we had the kids come back we
asked our teachers and staff to go out into the community and help somebody that was impacted
whether it was somebody in the system or outside of the system.
And I just know it went 100 miles with a lot of folks.
And I think even you, Rebecca, had some support on that day.
So any questions regarding that information?
I'd love to answer them.
If I can't, I know that Chris Smith can.
Madam President, I would like to just take the opportunity to thank you, Dr. Hint.
you reached out to our community and you saved a whole lot of people it was interesting from
day one patty and i were at the cinco ranch um shelter and it was just overwhelming rebecca i'm
sorry miss fox i i'm cannot imagine what you have gone through but seeing the people that were at
that shelter and knowing that there were people that were in multi-million dollar houses down to
to just rentals of, you know,
as much as they could afford or as little as they had.
The outreach of the community and your forethought
and leadership of allowing people to give back
to the community in ways that is just, it's overwhelming.
There's no way for me to describe it.
So I just wanted to say thank you
and thank you to everyone that's here,
that's sitting in here that work with us.
The principals were here.
Every person that's here is the ones that I saw.
And I think the best reaction, the most fun reaction
was for Dr. Cruz.
I'm sorry, not Dr. Cruz, Lee Cruz.
That first day he came in, he was just,
it was a little bit overwhelming.
And the amount of, or the little amount of sleep
that he had it was impressive and dr croons i get it all right right okay good i call them different
names oh my god just throw them off i'm still learning names but your reaction when you came in
you were you saw the brevity of what our community was and it just thank you again just thank you so
much and you know a group i didn't mention several people sitting right here and a young lady sitting
sitting right over here and giving up their time to come in.
And Mr. Lason, George, George was actually directing traffic at one point out there.
You know, so I know the two ladies were in there folding and doing different things.
And, you know, it takes a community to really recover.
And that's what's unique about KDISD.
I grew up here and I'd forgotten what it was like.
But in crisis, you find out who your true leaders are
and you find out what your true compassion for a community is.
And there's not even a distant second
to this community of Katy.
Amen.
Madam President, I look in this room,
and I don't think that I didn't see anyone involved
at one point or another.
It was extremely impressive.
And there's a lot of people not here tonight
that showed up at Senko, that showed up at Morton Ranch,
that were driving in to drop stuff off.
It was really heartwarming. You see the best and worst of people in these situations, and you're
right, Dr. Hinn, Katie showed the best of the best of the best, and it was very awe-inspiring. The
people that I look out and see who were there, it was quite notable and very touching.
Let me close with this, though, and then we'll move on. I'm sorry unless you want to say something.
We're not done because it's easy for us to get past the storm and I know for instance
Miss Fox and several people may be sitting in this room they still got a lot of work
all right and we've got as a district and as a community we still have a lot of work and it may
be a year or two before we completely recover from this but we're going to do some you know
strategic things both financially I think of course you know I mentioned the
bond is something that we have to move forward with probably more so today than
we did before the storm and we're gonna keep working hard but we still got a
long ways to go like the old smoking the bandit song you know I've said it before
you got to google it some of my staff don't they don't know it Chris knows it
got a long ways to go in a short time to get there all right and that's that's
what we're doing. I know you want to say something. I'll let you close it out. I just wanted to say,
and I'll be brief because getting towards the end of the meeting, but like Lance, I was raised here
and I've never been more proud to say that not only am I a Texan, but I'm from Katy. It was an
amazing, an amazing situation to live through. One I hope we never do again, but if we were to have
have to I would do it right here because the people that are in this room that
worked so hard that did so much was just there's just there's literally not even
words and then the community outside of that and the surrounding community and
it just solidified the love that I have for this place and the love that we all
have for this place and they thought we were kind of proud and cocky before I
I think we all have a really big reason to be so now
because we're pretty awesome.
And I would like to thank you so much.
There was never a time that we didn't feel led.
And this community didn't feel that we had your support.
And as a board, there was never a time
that we didn't have the information we needed.
And we didn't.
I mean, you were so informative.
and you were on it before it happened.
You were forward thinking and never did you not once
have this, the students, the staff, your staff,
you know, from custodians to bus drivers
to teachers to everybody, was first and foremost
in every decision you made.
And I think that was so evident
and just showed how big your heart is.
I know, I know, but you gave, you also gave them the chance to lead and show how awesome they are too.
And the tireless work and the lack of sleep was just, it was just, it was phenomenal.
I would just, as I said, hope we never ever have to do anything like that again.
but it was it was historic in the outpouring of commitment compassion
empathy and love for all things Katie ISD and Katie Texas. Thank you all so much.
Thank you Madam President. If you think I'm gonna get through this without
crying that's just not gonna happen I agree with mrs. van and everything she
said like I thought I loved this community more before
And there are so many employees and teachers who are living exactly what we are living.
Two feet of water stands in your house for over a week and you can't get to it.
it. And everything you've worked your whole life for goes to the curb for garbage pickup.
And yet you see people come beside you and come in and the smell and the mold and the
really disgusting stuff and they just roll their sleeves up and they get a hammer and they
demo day i'm just saying fixer-upper makes demo day look really fun and it's really not
but arm and arm shoulder to shoulder they you all came and i saw our district and i saw our
faith-based community come alongside and love on our community like surprised even me
and it's a beautiful thing.
A flood is a cleansing thing
and it's an eye-opening thing
and the sun came out
and it shone brightly over our community
and for me,
our children are grown
and my husband's retired
and we're able to go back to our place every day
and get a little bit more done and keep working.
And, of course, the happy place for me is to get to a campus.
So I went to my baby, my Creech.
My heart is Creech.
And I went to Creech University
and just saw two fifth-grade classrooms in one tiny space
and walked in, and there they all are,
and they're all happy and they're smiling
and they're happy to be there,
and the teachers are grateful for a place.
And so many of those teachers live in my neighborhood,
And their houses are not livable.
And they go to school and the students couldn't tell because they just do what they're gifted
at and that is pouring into children.
And those children aren't living in their homes.
Yet they were happy and the little grassy knoll right there on Mason Road, that's the
gym.
It had little orange cones and a little obstacle course that Coach Muller and Coach Dasher
had put out there.
That was the gym and the playground. It's a little grassy spot with some hula hoops and a kickball.
And the cafeteria is our food service. Dedicated workers coming and making a cafeteria in a small
little building and then they go back to their classrooms and they eat lunch.
And they're happy and they're being taught and their attendance is 96 percent or something and
And they're so happy to be there.
And you all are loving on them.
And all of the administration building,
they had extra people everywhere.
I was like, what are you doing here?
What are you doing here?
What are you doing here?
And they were all there to support.
They didn't have an office.
But they wanted to be there.
Yes.
It was like, well.
So and to hear Mindy Dickerson tell the story at Pato High
high school where she has her big burly high school kids and then her littles with the bubble
in their mouth going down the same hallway is that the cutest ever it's just story after story
after story of love and compassion and understanding and each day is a different day
and you're right dr hint we are not finished this is not over and so we'll have a long way to go
And I can't wait to go there with you guys.
Thank you for your kindness and outpouring and certainly the outreach that you've done for me and my family.
But how we loved each other is something I'm with Mrs. Vann.
I couldn't be prouder or happier to be a part of Katie.
Thank you.
All right.
Agenda number seven is open forum.
We've had no speakers sign up this evening, so we can change that up.
Item number 8, 8.1, future meetings.
Regular board meeting will be Monday, September 27, 2017.
Right here.
And with that, we are going to go into closed meeting.
Thank you all for being here tonight.
If you're not part of the closed meeting, we're all done with you.
The board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Today is Monday, September 18, 2017.
The time is 8.11 p.m.
The board considered action in the independent hearing examiner's recommendation in TEA Docket 114LH052017
regarding the proposed discharge and unpaid leave of Karen Rocker in accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code.
Any action regarding this matter must be taken in open meeting.
We will now consider action in the Independent Hearing Examiner's Recommendation and TEA Docket 114LH-05-2017
regarding proposed discharge and suspension of employee Karen Rocker without pay.
If a board member indicated they could not render fair, oh, nope, I did not need to say
that, sorry.
Do I have a motion on the independent hearing examiner's recommendation?
Madam President.
Mr. Griffin.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the independent hearing examiner's recommendation
in TEA Docket 114-L8-05-2017 regarding the proposed discharge and unpaid leave of Karen
Rockler.
Second.
I have a motion by Mr. Griffin and a second by Mr. Lacey.
The Board of Trustees approves the Independent Hearing Examiner's recommendation in TEA Docket
114LH052017 regarding the proposed discharge and unpaid leave of Karen Rocker.
Trustee, I will caution you.
I do think that you need to adopt, as opposed to approve, I think you need to adopt the
Okay.
So which way would we change?
Approve to adopt?
Amended to state.
I move that the Board of Trustees adopts versus approves.
If you'll reread the motion, please, Mr.
You need to make an amendment to it.
Madam President, I move to amend my motion to say I move that the Board of Trustees adopts
the independent hearing examiner's recommendation in TEA docket 114-L8-05-2017 regarding the
proposed discharge and unpaid leave of Karen Rockler.
And Madam President, I would like to second the amended motion.
Make sure we get this all right.
We have an amendment and a motion from Mr. Griffin, seconded by Mr. Lacey, that the Board of Trustees adopts the Independent Hearing Examiner's Recommendation in TEA Docket 114LH05-2017 regarding the proposed discharge and unpaid leave of Karen Rocker.
We may comment.
Okay, being none, we will take a vote.
All in favor raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 5-0.
Mr. Halsky and Mrs. Doyle were unable to be here tonight.
Madam President,
on the border,
so we have a motion on the floor.
We voted on the amendment.
Now we need to vote down the original motion.
Oh, sorry, thank you. You're exactly correct.
Okay, now we're going to make a motion.
No.
No, that's all right.
Take a vote on the original.
motion. Yeah, Madam President, I just is that is who's the parliamentarian here? I don't want
there to be any confusion. Is that right? That's all I want to know. I'm right. Did you take
Mrs. Fox's right? Okay, so parliamentarian, what am I doing? Y'all are all talking and
there's now a motion which has been properly made
okay all right so we have approved the amendment so now we will prove the amended motion right
mr parliamentarian we have approved the amended motion so the original motion doesn't mean we
We don't approve that one.
You approved the original motion as amended.
So it's fine.
Just take a vote.
OK.
OK.
So are we prepared to vote?
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The votes are 5 and 2.
We did whatever we just did.
2 are not here.
OK.
Okay.
Did I do that?
You confused me.
Okay, sorry for that.
All right, being there for the business,
before the board, this meeting is adjourned.
The time is 8.16 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.