The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, November 6, 2017 and the time is 6.30 p.m. The board met earlier this evening in closed meeting. Any action arising from discussion in a closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting. Dr. Hemp, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act regarding the notice for this meeting?
What happened
Watch the meeting →Nobody has written an account of this meeting yet. What follows is the recording, the district’s own division of the sitting, and every word the automated transcript captured.
Watch the meeting
Important moments
No moments have been curated for this meeting. Curating one means a person watching a passage and writing down what it contains, and that has not been done here yet.
Find something in this meeting
Search every word of the automated transcript. A result moves the recording to the moment the words were spoken.
In this meeting
- 0:00 to 54:23 Full recording
Full transcript
Automated transcript, not human verified. It is a way to find a passage, not a quotation.
Full recording
Madam President, we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act regarding the notice for this meeting tonight.
Madam President. Mr. Griffin. I move that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the superintendent and close the meeting.
Second. A motion has been made by Mr. Griffin, second by Mr. Moholsky, that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the superintendent and close meeting. Any discussion? All right. Ready to take a vote? All in favor please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Motion passes six to zero. Mrs. Fox was unable to attend this evening. Do we have any scouts in the audience tonight? No? Okay we'll move on to agenda item number four our recognition we have a peace officer oath.
President Band, board members, superintendent Hinn, newly commissioned peace officers are required to publicly swear or form a firm an oath of office tonight we have one newly commissioned officer called Palm officer Monica Swan to come forward to take the oath and be recognized as a member of the KTISD police department
raise your right hand and repeat after me I'm Monica Swan I'm Monica Swan do Do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of the Office of Peace Officer of Katy Independent School District of the State of Texas and will to the best of my ability to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.
Officer Monica Swan is a native of Mark, Texas, where she graduated high school. She graduated from the University of Houston Police Academy with a basic peace officer certification in 2014. Officer Swan began her law enforcement career in 2015 with the Humble ISD Police Department as a patrol officer. She also has three years of experience as a detention officer with the Harris County Sheriff's Office and five years experience as a correctional officer with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In August 2017, Officer Swan was hired as a patrol officer for the Katy Independent School District. Please help me welcome Officer Monica Swan.
Next we have agenda item number 5.1, Simon Youth Academy optional flexible school day program. Mr. Forney.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Good evening Madam President, Board of Trustees, and Superintendent Hint. Thank you for the opportunity to share information regarding the optional flexible school day program as a potential attendance accounting change for the Simon Youth Academy as well as the Katie Mills Mall. Let me just say before I get started the presentation that I'm here replacing Mrs. Heather Debris. She's out of the conference tonight but she is the coordinator for the Simon Youth Academy. Under Texas Education Code 29.082 a program utilizing this attendance accounting system must meet one of the following criteria. The one that we're looking at for the Simon Youth Academy includes the students who is at risk of dropping out of school as defined by the Texas Education Code 29.081 and also the student as a result of attendance requirements under Texas Education Code 25.092 will be denied credit for one more class in which the student has been enrolled. Based on the previous slide and as you all know the Simon Youth Academy at Keddie Mills serves all of our high school campuses and their efforts to recover those young people who have exited the schools and are at risk of dropout status. Therefore the goal is to align is aligned with the expectations of the optional flexible school day program. In year two of the program enrollment has increased and flexible scheduling for students is a top priority. Currently two scheduling options are available if a student does not attend their scheduled time KDISD does not receive ADA. However, by implementing the OFSDP, students will be afforded even more flexibility to meet their personal and academic needs and the district will go on appropriate funding. This flexibility will encourage students to come to school even if it is not within their scheduled time. The benefits of implementing the OFSDP at the Simon Youth Academy are both for the the student as well as the district. The students benefit by having more flexibility as they work to meet their graduation requirements while also balancing challenging life circumstances. The district benefits by maximizing attendance times for all students and by providing a unique and accommodating learning space to support all high school students in their efforts to graduate. Our next steps in moving forward with this program change are to conduct a public hearing which hopefully will be on next week at the approval of the board and the recommended approval for submitting an OFSDP application to the Texas Education Agency with the intent to begin this new attendance accounting with the Simon Youth Academy on January 3rd 2018 at the start of the second semester. Are there any questions?
Madam President. Mr. Griffin. Thank you for the presentation. So far the people that are going and using this program are we successfully getting them through high
school to graduation? Yes sir. We've just completed one full year and we've also we've already had a graduation from the Simon Youth Academy. Awesome. Do you want percentage? I don't have a specific percentage but I can't get that. That's okay. Thanks.
What I'd like to just note is this gives us one more option that's a little bit more flexibility in the day. In the previous year, last year was 8 to 12 o'clock and then 1230 to 430 and we found from our students that we needed in between time and we believe that we get more ADA more attendance out of the program that way by going with the OFS DP the optional school program here it gives us that flexibility of having that block at 10 o'clock till 2 o'clock and we believe we'll have more kids in the program and at the same time more kids
graduate from the program and you attended to is that because then people
they still have time to get to work? Absolutely. Yeah, we've got, we'll still have the morning block. It just gives us one more block to go along with the early morning one or the late afternoon one in between.
Okay, great. Anybody else?
Real quickly, with us having the, that additional block, are we going to need more space there in the ball?
No, no. We believe that the number of kids may not increase tremendously. It just gives them more flexibility of when they're with us. I'll be honest with you what we found was that our afternoon block we may have had two kids in the program and we felt like it may be a waste of time of the instructors that we had there for the entire program we're trying to maximize some of the time that we give the kids to be there so that we can best meet
their needs. Tremendous program. Anyone else? Thank you Mr. Forney. Thank you. All right now I move to our consent agenda. The first one is 6.1 consider future board adoption of resolution to cast the indicating independent school district vote for Harris County Appraisal District Board of Directors.
Mr. Smith. Good evening Ms. Pham and Superintendent Hint and trustees. Tonight item 6.1 is for the district to consider a vote for the Harris County Board of Appraisal Board of Directors. This is not for the Appraisal review board. This is for the actual board of directors for the For the Harris County Appraisal District as you might recall as I mentioned last month in in Harris County Houston ISD gets one representative and all the other districts in with inside of Harris County get a get one representative on the ballot this year for to vote is Pete poppy And attached to this a resolution and a copy of the official ballot It is recommended that the district cast its vote for Pete Poppe. The candidate will provide representation for Cady Independent School District on the Harris County Board of Directors. Again, this is not the Appraisal Review Board. It's the Board of Directors for the Appraisal District. And you have attached resolution on this item.
All right. I'll read the resolution. Whereas the Board of Trustees of the Katy Independent School District hereby orders, resolves, and direct that in accordance with the Senate Bill 621-66 legislature of the State of Texas, which provides for a State Property Tax Board and a local appraisal district board to be appointed by taxing authorities within that appraisal district to assess and appraise all taxable property for all taxing units within said appraisal district. whereas the Katy Independent School District has selected designated and appointed Harris County Texas as its appraisal district Katy Independent School District hereby casts its one vote for Pete poppy for Harris County Appraisal District Board of Directors as designated on the official ballot sign well it will be signed this 13th day of November 2017 any questions All right, 6.2.
Likewise, and of course we're in three appraisal districts in KDISD. Likewise, in Waller County Appraisal District Board of Directors, the entity may cast its vote for one candidate or distribute all our votes among a number of candidates. In Waller County, KDISD's vote entitlement in Waller County is 896 votes out of 5,000 votes. That's based on the size of levy that KDISD has. There are nine candidates for the five director positions to be elected for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2018. Attached as a resolution like Harris County's and an official ballot it's recommended that the district cast its 896 votes to Mr. Roosevelt Alexander and again you have an attached resolution on this item.
I will read the resolution as well. Whereas the Board of Trustees of the Katy Independent School District Orders, Resolves and Directs and in accordance with the Senate Bill 621-66 legislature of the state of Texas which provides for a state property tax board and a local appraisal district board to be appointed by taxing authorities within that appraisal district to assess and appraise all taxable properties for all taxing units within said appraisal district. whereas Acadia Independent School District has selected designated and appointed Waller County Texas as its appraisal district Acadia Independent School District hereby casts its 896 votes for Roosevelt Alexander for Waller County Appraisal District for directors as designated on the official ballot it will be signed the 13th day of November 2017 6.3 and finally our third County
Fort Bend County you have brave Fort Bend County for the Fort Bend County appraisal district. KDISD's entitlement is 626 votes for the central Fort Bend central appraisal district. There are eight nominations and five director positions to be elected for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2018. Attached is a resolution and the official ballot. It's recommended that the district cast its 626 votes for Al Abramzik. Again the candidate will provide representation for Katy ISD on the Fort Bend County Central Appraisal District Board of Directors, not the Appraisal Review Board, but the Board of Directors.
Alright, one more resolution. Whereas the Board of Trustees of the Katy Independent School District hereby orders, resolves and directs in accordance with Senate Bill 621, the 66th legislature of the state of Texas, which provides for a state property tax board and a local appraisal district board to be appointed by taxing authorities within the appraisal district to assess and appraise all taxable property for all taxing units within said appraisal district. Whereas Acadia Independent School District has selected, designated and appointed Fort Bend County, Texas as its appraisal district, Acadia Independent School District hereby casts at 626 votes for Al Abramchick for Fort Bend Central Appraisal District Board of Director as designated on the official ballot and it will also be signed on the 13th day of November 2017. Thank you Mr. Mr. Steadsmith, you are still up for item 6.4. I want to turn that over to Ms. Butterfield. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you.
Good evening, President Vann, Trustees, and Superintendent Hint. Tonight I'm speaking on behalf of all three investment officers, myself, Christopher Smith, and Ann Feitinger as the business manager. And we've come tonight to review policy CDA and investment strategies. We have four objectives to accomplish with this review. PFIA requires four things. First, that the board approves the investment strategies by fund type. Secondly, to approve a list of brokers. Third, authorized investment pools. And fourth, a list of training resources. Although CDA Legal describes all PFIA authorized investments, our CDA Local refines that list for KDISD to be a little more restrictive in U.S. Treasury bills, notes, bonds, agency bonds, GSEs, CDs, repurchase agreements, commercial paper, no-load money, market mutual funds, and investment pools. Our quarterly reports meet all current policy requirements. Policy and strategies by fund types will be the most lengthy of our four objectives to review. view. The general operating funds strategy is preservation and safety of principal and liquidity to provide 24 months of cash flow, not to exceed three years. Special revenue and agency funds, preservation of capital and principal with maturity sufficient to meet anticipated cash flows. Debt service sufficient investment liquidity to meet debt service payments obligations according according to bond documents and capital projects, sufficient investment liquidity to meet capital project obligations, but not to exceed three years, as is the case for all investment fund types. No changes are recommended with this report to investment strategies. Due to changes in the interest rate environment of PFIA-eligible securities, we believe it's appropriate to begin a laddered investment portfolio. To build a portfolio and manage the associated reporting, the district will be contracting with TCG advisors. The portfolio will be built in a collaborative manner between ourselves and TCG advisors targeting a laddered structure, which means maturities will be staggered, but less than three years per our stated policy. Most maturities are expected to average around 13 to 20 months in duration and all security purchases will be affirmed by a district investment officer prior to purchase and will be within the guidelines of CDA legal, local, and associated PFIA requirements.
requirements.
Our second objective in compliance with PFIA is to review the list of brokers. To become a broker for the school district, you submit signed paperwork that says you've reviewed our policies, you've read through our requirements, you've attested to your understanding of them, return documentation, are willing to provide stuff to the school district in terms of investment alternatives. And this is the list that you see presented tonight. Also we have investment pools and these are the training resources. So with regard to training, district investment officers are required to have eight hours within two years, and this list is comprehensive enough to provide ample opportunity for that, for meeting that requirement. This is a simple summary of previously presented quarterly reports. And that concludes the legal requirements for reviewing policy. and if I might I'd like to point out the representatives from TCG who are with us tonight Mr. Christopher Chris Jamil and Hillary Poole who are with us in the audience any questions about the policy review tonight Mr. Griffin question it's
more of a just I guess for my information this does our portfolio
include bonds currently we have no security purchases we have in the past owned not only agency bonds but Treasury bonds as well as Treasury bills we are allowed to invest in municipal bonds anything that is covered through PFI a
Okay, if we do end up buying bonds, is there any bond rating level that we don't go below? Do you know offhand what that would be?
It's going to be a double A plus.
Okay, thank you very much.
Mr. Halsky.
Could you go back to the slide with the kind of the weighted average yield annual investment summary about San Solo? I was seeing there, and it's kind of seen a year, month over month here. It looks like a year ago we were our monthly weighted average yield was ahead of the three and six month T Bills and now that's kind of changed I'm guessing that is because we're in a little bit longer term contracts and interest rates are currently rising On a current it being you just give us a little color on the kind of how you see that Playing out over the next 12 months you bet
the proposals that we have looked at so far with TCG advisors would would indicate that we could return 1.83 to 1.95 on a laddered portfolio. And again, that's not every single bond in the portfolio would have that kind of return. But the average is what we're going for. So we're looking to improve. We're going to step in with our toes first before we go in with a whole lot. TCG will be providing reporting services. and we'll just want to make sure that everything is to our liking about the entire relationship. Thank you. Continuing on with our budget amendments tonight, we have just general operating fund budget amendments and we have two revenue amendments tonight. One One for state additional, one to recognize increased state revenue of $4.7 million. This is related to the audit that was recently submitted on property values. And then we are recognizing $12 million is the next installment from insurance claim proceeds related to Harvey. Harvey. Our expenditure amendments recognize an increase in expenditures for cameras requested for special ed classrooms. There's a timing amendment, an amendment for $318,000 for property renovations over at the Brazos Valley Credit Union property. And then finally, our third third installment of amendments on expenditures related to Hurricane Harvey of $3,016,057. The remaining amendments are offsets between different functions and the approval of these amendments will result in a $12,921,772 increase to the general operating fund fund balance.
Thank you very much, Mrs. Butterfield. Next we have item 6.6. Ms. Edmond.
Good evening, President Vann, Trustees, Superintendent Hint. Thank you for allowing me to present the superintendent's recommendation for a one-time lump sum payment for all district employees who are employed with the district effective December 1, 2017. teachers will receive six hundred and fourteen dollars which is actually one percent of step 20 which is the midpoint of the bachelor teacher salary schedule and None teachers will receive one percent of the midpoint of the 2016-17 non teacher pay ranges If this item is approved payments will be distributed to all bi-weekly employees on December 8th and all semi-monthly employees on December the 15th
And if the board recalls, this is something we did last year at about this time. It was something we visited with a little bit about. If I'm correct, this is about a $4.7 million expenditure, one-time expenditure. Okay.
And if I'm correct, Mrs. Butterfield just reported that we had a fund revenue balance come in from the audit of 4.7 million dollars. Okay. Works out? So it's a wash. Revenue increase off that audit. And I think that our teachers and our non-teachers really appreciate this one time, especially this time of year and especially what a lot of them have gone through and and I know some of them have all personally supported some of their students that were impacted so So I find this to be a great thing for this district to do.
But still requires an approval on the 13th.
Anyone else? Okay, thank you. I have 6.7. Mr. T.
Good evening, President Vann, Superintendent Hint, board members. members. I'm here this evening to bring a recommendation that the Board of Trustees approves the job order contracting method of purchase and the award of not to exceed contract pricing for the connections of utilities, life safety systems, and walkways to the portable classroom buildings relocated to Bethke and Fielder elementary schools to Brighton route utilizing the national IPA contract number R160402. The job order contracting method will provide the best value to the district for these portable building relocation projects at Bethke and Fielder Elementary Schools. Brian Root has successfully completed dozens of portable building reconnections in the district, with the most recent being the Creech Elementary at the University of Houston Cinco Ranch site. These relocations were made necessary due to the student enrollment growth at the two campuses. Work will commence immediately with the award and is expected to be completed by January the 2nd, 2018. Reconnection service funding source is the 2017-18 general operating fund. Bethke not to exceed connection cost is $82,500. field or not to exceed reconnection cost is $255,838 for a not to exceed project cost of $338,338. The contracts have been reviewed by the District Legal Council and approved to as form, and the board approval of this recommendation for award is consistent with board policy CH Legal, CH Local, CV Legal, and CV Local.
Any questions?
Madam President. Mr. Hinton, or Dr. Hinton, do we own our tea shacks or are we leasing them?
No, we own them and we own the portable buildings. We use those for growth both up and down at our campuses. And I'll tell you, since you mentioned, in the future I'd like to bring this to the board early in the school year and present a not to exceed number on portable movements because as you guys know with fast growth school district anticipating from 2,500 to 3,000 students annually, we're constantly moving T buildings to control that growth and that way we don't have to bring them back individually to you at all times.
Anyone else? All right. 6.8.
We don't lease any portables. No, sir, we do not. I wanted to make sure I was correct.
All right.
6.8, Mr. T.
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approve some method of purchase for the replacement of the baseball field fencing at Katie High School and Taylor High School utilizing the job order contracting method. The job order contracting method will provide the best value to the district for the fence replacement project at Katie High School and Taylor High School. The baseball field fencing is being replaced due to storm damage from Hurricane Tropical Storm Harvey. The fence replacement funding source is the 2017-18 General Operating Fund. Board approval of this recommendation for method of purchase is consistent with board policies CH Legal, CH Local, CV Legal, and CV Local.
Any questions?
Senator President. Mr. Lacey. see the due date for that to be completed? Oh, we anticipate it being completed by the first day of ball season. And is that, I'm assuming, I didn't see anything in there, but it's the wooden fencing that goes on the outside, I mean, yes sir. How much damage was there done? Is it mostly at Taylor?
Actually more fencing was damaged at Katy High School due to the flood through there. Okay. Taylor was mainly wind damage. Okay. Thank you. And how old is the fence at Taylor? Taylor was 10 years. I was going to say the last one I remember was 96, 97. That was 20 years.
Yeah. Okay. So it's been there quite a while. Yeah, almost as long as you when you were there. Is that what you're saying? It was chain link.
Okay. No, my initials weren't on.
Just the bathroom wall. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Number 6.9. Ms. Kastman, consider a few... Board approval of water meter easement Fort Bend County Municipal District number 173.
Good evening President Vann, Board of Trustees, Dr. Hint. Tonight I present to you for your consideration the approval of a water meter easement to Fort Bend MUD 173 for Elementary 41. Elementary 41 is currently under construction at the corner of Creek Falls Drive and Cross Creek Bend Lane within the Cinco Ranch subdivision. The easement is located on the northeast boundary of of this site. The water easement will support the provision of water for this
property and the school open hopefully to August 2018. Any questions? Thank you very much. We'll do it for our consent agenda portion of this. We're going to move now to open forum. At this time the Board of Trustees will hear from patrons as established by Board Policy. The first 26 speakers who have signed up at 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. If speakers wish to share non-confidential written material with the board, 10 copies should be provided to the secretary for the board services, Ms. Sharon Nowak, or the chief communications officer, Andrea Grooms. 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 and the presiding officer shall determine whether a speaker has attempted to solve a matter through those proper channels as I announce your name please come forward and state your first and last name for the record and because we are a little misplaced we don't have a lot of the timing that we you know to show you so mr. Griffin will tell you when there is one minute left of your three minutes to speak he'll just speak into the microphone kind of and then he'll let you know when your time is also up but also your mic will cut off when three minutes is up as well our first speaker tonight is dr. Lisa Babin
Good evening. I am Dr. Babin. I want to give a compliment regarding the election. Last year it was better. This year it's fantastic because there's minimal litter on a stick is what I call guard signs. And I really appreciate that because it really does, during election season, make our community look a little trashy. We have a lot of shenanigans with the signs and stuff. So thank you, Dr. Hint, for encouraging people to not put out signs and for just putting out the basic information. I also want to give a compliment about getting out the vote. I don't particularly mind who you vote for. That's your personal thing, but it's really important. We have very high voter apathy in our district, and I think some of that is attributed to the fact that we don't promote civics. We don't walk the talk that we talk. So thank you for that. I think that's important. important. We would like to know where and how will the election results be announced. You know traditionally in the past we've always met at the board room. Obviously we're not doing that. So that's kind of something that needs to be mentioned. You know how when where what time will the results be announced. You mentioned fencing tonight. There's fencing at Schmaltz that's really nice. It's high. It's done but there's one section of fencing that is not not done and it needs to be done. It's low and the gate constantly stays open, especially during the day. I think that's a safety concern because that faces Greenland Way and any Tom, Dick or Harry is dropping off trash or recyclables could walk onto the campus. The other fencing issue that I don't like is I ride the Main Creek Trail. The back fence behind the natatorium. Inevitably, I am shutting that thing at least twice, three times a day. It It really needs to be looked at because, again, any Tom, Dick, or Harry from the park or from across the bridge where the baseball field is could park there and penetrate that campus. It just needs to be tightened up. There's a camera there, but there's also equipment in the natatorium there. One minute. So that needs to be looked at. We still want a comprehensive rezone. We still want single-member districts based on high school feeder patterns. We still want to add two board members to the board because we've grown the district. We have not grown the board. and we want to restore public comments to both of the meetings and the baseball field at May Creek High School is looking really sweet so thank you thank
you I'll go ahead and comment to the first thing although the board can't I will thank you for bringing it to our attention I'm going to assume that we will post the early voting results to our district website which will be be around 715 tomorrow and then the final vote tally which will come out around 8 or 815 as soon as we receive them from the three entities Fort Bend Harris and Waller will post those as well thank you our next speaker is
Brianne McLaughlin.
My name is Brianne McLaughlin. I'm a parent of a student. Maybe a little bit closer to the microphone. I'm sorry. I'm a parent of a student, a 12-year-old boy who recently has been the victim of some serious bullying. My son is bisexual and is also discussed possibly possibly gender identity issues. This is, he's not the only one in the district, but you know, there's not a lot of them that are as open and honest about it as he is. Recently my son experienced a few incidences where, and I'm going to use the terms only because they need to be said. He was called gay and fag and was told same things I won't say and repeat, primarily by one other student and the school was aware of it. The school was aware of it and the first time they heard it happen in gym class and made my son and this other student run laps to calm down. and told my son it was dealt with and to just move past it. Again it happened this time in like I think a theater class and he was told he's gonna get his gay ass kicked and the student and him were met by one of the principals at the student art with at the school and my son was told to shake hands with him to settle it and they would be done with. This happened repeatedly and by other students but by one other pursuit student in particular until it got to a point where they were at a pep rally at the school my son sat down next to a girl that the other student likes and he was told to move his fag ass away from this girl this student doesn't feel that my son should be you know sitting next to the girl that he likes because he's gay I don't understand 12 year olds but But the student shoved my son. My son shoved him back and told him to leave him alone and sat back down. When he got up to move his backpack, the student assaulted my son and punched him in the face. He was sent to the nurse's office for a bloody lip. Shortly after that, I was not called. My family wasn't called. No one else was notified, but the KDISD police department was, and they sent them to the school to interview my son. My son was then told he had to sign a statement in order to leave and that statement said that he was in a fight. The problem is that KDISD's policy on bullying is that my son has a right to defend himself when he is bullied. My son did not punch this other student back. My son has not retaliated against this student whatsoever. whatsoever. We I went and picked up my son once I found out what had happened. Only a week later to be told that you know there was video footage of the incident. They were still calling it a fight, but I wasn't allowed to see it. I understand some privacy, you know, issues with other students and whatever. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.
May I ask real quick, you talked about a school, but you never mentioned the school. Thank you.
Our next speaker, and I'm sorry if I say your last name wrong, Valerie Bousinger.
Sorry. You didn't say it correctly. I'll be a little quicker. That was my daughter. I'm the grandma of the child they were talking about. I filed a grievance procedure with this board a few weeks ago, and what I'm here for today is just to kind of clarify exactly, because there's so much emotion going on, exactly what it is that the issue is that we're concerned about. And the bottom of your page and the bottom of most of we've all heard it, the discrimination policies about you know, we don't discriminate with race, creed, color, sex. And in this particular case we're talking about sexual orientation of my grandson. My grandson's sexual orientation is complicated to say the least. Sadly he's been used to being teased and avoided and kind of made fun of at school and even to the point of sometimes kids bumping him or whatever Sadly he's had to kind of deal with that to a certain extent But the school's handling of this has been what the concern is that when these derogatory comments were made and we know that at least three or four of them were made in the presence of staff and as a result their idea of just shaking hands and saying sorry and putting them on the bus and going home and and not informing their parents that anything has happened is the problem. These are protective classes just like any other protective class. And I believe that if the school would have spent a little bit more time contacting the parents, just having that conversation that some words are not allowed or not acceptable at school, that most of this could have been avoided. The not not dealing with it is what would lead to my grandson's assault. I don't think that the school took it as seriously as that they probably should have. We're not saying that they should have tarred and feathered anybody that this was you know but it should have been something that somebody would said that this is not acceptable. We're going to call your parents and we're going to call the parents of the child that's being bullied. That was not done. One minute. Thank you. Although the school is working with this with some concessions, I'm trying to make sure that Jonathan stays safe, excuse me, that my grandson stays safe. The one major thing that we are concerned about that doesn't seem to be getting any better is that every time that the principal speaks to us we are told that he is a participant in this and he has never been labeled as a victim. He keeps He's being called a participant. And the only thing that my grandson did was be different. And as long as your school officials at this elementary school, as long as they actually only see Jonathan as a participant in this and not as a victim, this is not going to go away. It's gonna happen again. They need to be able to review their own bullying policies. They need to be able to ask some better questions, inform the parents of what's going on, because they didn't know half of the stuff was going on until we went down there and spoke to him we didn't know anything was happening until after the police were called and the lack of communication has got to be changed
thank you thank you
Our next speaker is Mr. Anthony Downs.
My name is Anthony Downs. I'm a resident of Katy County, three and a half years. I moved here from Florida. I have three children, two in junior high at Memorial Junior High and the other one at Taylor. I had a child that came to me in the junior high this weekend with a book and said that I didn't think I should be reading this book. It was checked out of the library of the school. I first kind of was a little taken back by it, but I did read some of the pages. I read 13 pages and was very appalled. I'd like to read some of the what's in that 13 pages if I could and apologize to the children that are here. A haze lingers over the room smelling like weed headache loud ass music and the nausea from the weed odor guys and their freshest kicks and sagging pants grinding so close to girls they just about need condoms plus if I pull it over my nose I can smell weed trust me my school has hoes too I'm good goddamn it's always some drama why kids love popping pills damn for real chance as shit bitch next time the f-word and I will not repeat that here but it is spelled out in the book I wish he wasn't that kind of busy I stopped at page 13 of 444 my question to this board is who reviews use the books that go into junior high schools because this is absolutely crazy. Just outside this wall here is a nice little saying I thought was very appropriate. This is watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become habits. Watch your habits before they become character. Watch your character before it becomes destiny we need to clean up our books one minute before this becomes our destiny drug use is rampant in junior high and high schools now we can bury hands heads in the sand and understand that but looks like this openly and it's highlighted all over. It's amazing. And this was found in one of our junior high schools. I hope better than that.
Mr. Downs, just so you know, we do have a textbook review committee that looks at library books and those books before they go on. We'll certainly take a look at that and we'll respond back to you in due time.
Our next speaker is Kimberly Alexander.
Good evening. My name is Kimberly Alexander, and I'm the parent of Alvis Alexander. And I'm coming before you today because on October the 10th, my son was assaulted in school. My son is, I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. My son is a special needs boy. He is 11 years old. He has a condition called eosinophilic esophagitis, which requires that he receives all of his nutrition through a feeding tube. Because he receives liquid nutrition through a feeding tube, he often goes to the bathroom. He has a 504 in school, which allows him permission to do so. And it was in Morton Ranch Junior High School where he was going to the bathroom, where there was a large crowd of unattended boys in the bathroom where he ultimately was assaulted. His glasses were broken, his face had bruising on it, and he was bleeding from his ear. This was labeled a fight. It was not labeled an assault. The assailant in the school was not prosecuted. there was very little done and many assumptions made about my son without a complete investigation. The incident happened on the 10th of October. On the 13th I emailed both the superintendent and the president of the school board to which I received a response from the president of the school board. On the 14th of October I was offered a safety transfer for my son. My son has overcome come a lot to thrive in school which he is doing at more and ranch junior high school and the only resolution offered to me was for him to be transferred to another school though he had not done anything wrong on the 18th I emailed again to the president of the school board because I had not gotten any I had not heard anything back from anyone on the 23rd 13 days after the incident was the first time I had communication with the building principal one minute regarding this matter. On the 25th was when she first, for the first time, had a conversation with my son about the continued aggression from the boy in the school, as well as what it was that he was feeling. Prior to that, there was nothing done. This young man was allowed to come back to school. My son continues to be afraid and to feel intimidated, and nothing is being done. Thank you.
Just real quick, and I did receive the forward email from the board president and did receive it. We sent that over to the Department of School Leadership and Support, who did look into it. Am I correct that the police did investigate this and there is a case number involved with this situation?
There is a case number, yes.
What was the finding of the police officers?
The finding of the police officer was not told to me. It was presented to the district attorney, and I was told that the district attorney chose not to prosecute. in this matter. It was never told to me what the disposition was until I believe on the 25th when Dr Bell at the building said that it was classified as a fight. Okay, thank you.
Madam president, I really what schools that that's Morton Ranch Junior High.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Alvis Alexander. Is that was gonna speak
Is it okay if I come with you now?
Yes, ma'am.
Hi, my name is Albus Alexander. Ever since that day, I felt unwanted because I knew as soon as I came back, people would just be bothering me and telling me there was a fight, there was a fight, and I just wouldn't answer to them. They were just really bothering me a lot. And at lunch, I just wanted to sit by myself around nobody because people just would keep asking me about what happened to me. And I felt scared if I would see him again. And when he came back, the first time I saw him, he was standing right in front of me, facing the opposite way. And I was terrified, so I just ran into the classroom that I was about to go in. And she closed the door. And I told her, and I texted my mom. And I told the teacher. And she told me to talk to Miss Young. And she called her boss.
Don't say anybody's names, okay? Just say what role they did. No one's actual names.
The assistant principal, she took me to talk to her and she called my mom too. And I still kind of felt nervous because when he was walking past the table, he would just look at me with a straight face and walk away. And I would feel really scared. And that's all I have to say.
Thank you. Our last speaker of the evening is Amber Williams.
Good evening. My name is Amber Williams, and I also want to speak on the concerns of the safety at Morton Ranch Junior High for my close friends that had that experience. I come speaking to you as an educator and a building principal. One of the first things that we're tasked with as campus leadership, in addition to being able to educate our students, is the safety of students. And clearly that safety was violated in this particular instance. Campus leadership has the responsibility of having appropriate policies and procedures in place to prevent incidences from happening. and being aware of the dynamics on their campus in order to respond to those and prevent incidences such as boys gathering in the restroom on a regular occasion and doing violent things. However, we know that no matter how much planning one may do that things may occur and so that's why there are policies and procedures in place for responding to those incidences appropriately. In this particular situation those policies and those procedures were not adhered to, evidenced by the clear lack of communication, the lag time between any action taken, and no information from the principal or participation from the principal. I as a building principal am very involved whenever there are violent things that happen, happening to any of the students, any kind of violation of that safety. I want to be able to allay the parents concerns, make sure all of the policies and procedures are followed, and make sure that my students feel comfortable with being on the campus. And this clearly was not done. In addition, when it comes to the student handbook that's in place, that additional layer of security and safety when campus policies fall through, those must be adhered to. And so by classifying this particular instance as a mutual combat or a fight rather than assault, a mandatory placement to a DAEP was not adhered to in addition to the inability to file charges. However, under that condition there is still the option of a discretionary placement for that child. However, the child who assaulted my dear friend and loved one was allowed to continue to parade around campus and just be a verbal affront to my particular student who is now uncomfortable with being in his place. And as you heard already, the only resolution was to remove the person who was assaulted. And so I just wanted to be able to convey those concerns to you as an idea to be able to set solve these safety issues Not just for who is important to me, but for all of the students that attend Morton Junior Morton Ranch Junior
Miss Williams real quick. May I ask you said you're an administrator or principal? What district are you with? Okay, can I ask you one more question as a building principal your due diligence if you believe that assault occurred You would turn that over to policing entity Is that correct?
Absolutely, but still be involved every step of the way.
And may I ask this question? Sure. Did that not happen in this case?
The principal was not involved in this. Most of the situation was handled by an assistant.
But I guess the question is, was the police not contacted and did an investigation occur from the police?
So, yes, an investigation occurred.
That's all I need. Thank you. Oh, sorry.
All right.
I'd like to call your attention to item 8.1. We're having a regular board meeting on Monday, November 13, 2017, right back here at Miller Career Center. And with there being no further business, this meeting is adjourned. The time is 7.24.
Official documents
About the underlying data (7 notes)
- The transcript on this page was produced automatically by speech recognition. No person has checked it against the recording. It is a way to find a passage, not a quotation.
- No speaker on this recording is identified. The transcript separates one voice from another but does not name them, and every turn therefore reads Unknown speaker.
- The speaker turn timeline is not continuous. There are intervals with no attributed turn, so a gap between two turns is not evidence that nothing was said.
- The district’s video index for this meeting carries no timestamps, so the recording is presented here as a single section rather than divided into agenda items.
- The district publishes this recording as 6 separate files rather than one. The player on this page plays the first file; the later parts are on the district’s own player, linked above. Transcript times run continuously across the whole recording, so a time past the end of the first file will not play here.
- The recording is played here from the district’s own stream. The archive does not hold or serve a copy of the video.
- No speaker on this page is named. The automated attribution available for this recording was derived from names spoken aloud in the transcript, and a surname inside a turn is not evidence of who is speaking. Every speaker is therefore left unresolved.
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 3.1
Unknown(not specified)
MOTION 002 · AGENDA 3.1
PassedI move that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the superintendent in Closed Meeting.
6 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| bill-lacy | Yes |
| bryan-michalsky | Yes |
| charles-griffin | Yes |
| courtney-doyle | Yes |
| george-scott | Yes |