The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, January 15, 2018 and the time is 6.37pm. The board met earlier this evening in a closed meeting. Any action arising from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting. Dr. Hint, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act regarding to the notice for this meeting?
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Madam President, we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act regarding the notice for this meeting tonight. Madam President.
Mr. Griffin.
I move that the Board of Trustees approve the personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting. Second. Second.
I have a motion by Mr. Griffin, a second by Mrs. Doyle, that the Board of Trustees approve personnel report as recommended by the superintendent in closed meeting. All in favor please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Motion passes 7-0.
And Madam President before we move further I don't see him but I think coach Chad Simmons there he is right here front row looking in the back. Chad stand up he's our new athletic coordinator head football coach at Tyler Hodge.
Madam President. Mrs. Fox. Thank you, Dr. Hint, for introducing Coach Simmons. I couldn't possibly let a moment go by that doesn't say what an incredible leader he is. He's a really good coach. He's a really good football coach, and he coached our son. and I talk a lot about the impact that educators make on our families through our children and he absolutely made a lasting impression on our son and helped him become the man that he is and we still talk about you all the time we talk about great the favorite great teachers and you are one who made a great contribution in his his life and all the guys all the boys talk about you so I'm really excited for the opportunity you're gonna have to lead and you're going to an excellent school and a fine program and we can't I'll beat all the football games.
Welcome to Taylor High School. Can you say go Stangs? Or go Mustangs?
Can you do this? What do the Cougars say? No.
No.
Goku?
Nothing anymore. Alright.
Do we have any scouts in the audience? No. Okay. Next we'll move on to our recognition portion of the evening. We have a peace officer oath of office for the Katy Independent School District police officers.
Oh, we got a family here. We have a big family. I love the matching dresses.
Hey, y'all can bring them up here. Come on up here. Get a good view.
anywhere this is not our first time that we've seen this y'all have better
pictures if y'all come on up here.
I love it. Chief.
We're good.
President Vann, board members, Superintendent Hint, as you know, officers must publicly swear or affirm to the oath of office. office. I call upon Ryan Simpson to come forward and take the oath and be recognized as a member of the KDISD Police Department.
Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Ryan Simpson, I, Ryan Simpson,
do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will faithfully that I will faithfully
execute the duties execute the duties of the office of peace officer of the office of peace officer of Katy Independent School District of Katy
Independent School District of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will
and will to the best of my ability to the best of my ability preserve protect protect and defend,
preserve, protect and defend,
the Constitution,
the Constitution,
and laws,
and laws,
of the United States,
of the United States,
and of this state,
and of this state,
so help me God,
so help me God.
Congratulations.
Brian Simpson was born and raised in Richmond, Texas, Texas, where he graduated from Lamar Consolidated High School. After graduating high school, Ryan attended East Texas Baptist University on a football scholarship. Ryan is an ordained deacon with the Lively Hope Missionary Baptist Church and is married to his high school sweetheart, Latrisky, with whom he has four beautiful children. Officer Simpson attended the University of Houston Law Enforcement Academy prior to his beginning his law enforcement career with the Katy Independent School District Police Department. department. Please help me welcome Officer Ryan.
.
For a picture? Come on up for a picture.
Ryan, I have to tell you, I am so happy and congratulations. I actually thought everybody was here to speak tonight.
.
I was about to tell you how happy, thank you all for coming.
.
Did your wife and children want to come up for a picture as well?
Madam President, could I say, I want to know if it's because you're a Lamar Mustang that the superintendent is doing this. Oh, you went to follow the senator?
Oh, look at you, you're so color coordinated too. That's adorable.
That's beautiful.
One, two, and one. That's fantastic.
I stare outside to get a big picture. Thank you. I'm going to stand up and get a big picture.
I'm going to stand up and get a big picture. Yes, ma'am. So, Friday, you think she should?
Dr. Hanson, you have to give her a hand. She's up here just looking through all the cameras.
Make sure she's all right. She can come back any time. She's got a whole gut full.
How are you?
I'm a little disappointed. I didn't see any Skittles on my spot. Did you be able to throw your what? I know. I'm just.
Oh, she's got it.
That was awesome. That is a happy group of people. That's great that he had all those people come support him. I love that. Okay.
Look at all the pain. A bit of pain.
I can't get it out.
That was cool.
Oh, God, she's still talking.
I see Mr. Smith is all ready to go with the first item on our consent agenda, item 5.1.
All right, well, I guess the only better way to follow something like that, up is to present an audit.
.
But, no, President Vann, Board of Trustees, and Superintendent Hinn, it's my pleasure tonight to present Lupe Garcia from Senior Manager on our account and partner with Whitley Penn. As you know, Texas Education Code 44.008 requires we have an annual audit. One could argue that our audit is ongoing, but it is formally started in June in our interim audit and it concludes tonight with the presentation from Whitley Penn and I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Garcia. I believe Laura Lynch is also here from Whitley Penn and Lupe Garcia to present the audit findings to you.
President Vann, members of the board, Superintendent Hint, good evening. We're happy to be here this evening to present to you the results of the school district's fiscal year 2017 financial statement audit. Everyone should have a bound presentation that looks like this. We've prepared something very brief to cover the audit process, our opinion on the financial statements, some key financial highlights, and of course if you have any questions at any point please ask your question. I hate for you to hold the question and forget what you were going to say. On slide number two is the members of the engagement team. Laura Lynch was the senior manager on the engagement. She's here behind me. Concurring partner was Tom Peterson. Senior and staff in the field include Eddie Juarez, Jordan Henneman, Chris Meek, and Cynthia get through a hold. On slide three, have a high-level overview of what the audit process entails. As Mr. Smith mentioned, our audit process started in the summer. During the interim fieldwork phase of the audit, we focus on internal controls, risk assessment, and testing of those controls. We want to understand how the district operates. That's when we meet with a lot of individuals and a lot of different departments within the school district. We want to make sure what the policies and procedures are and how information and data gets recorded in the school district's general ledger we return back in the fall and at that point the school fiscal year is over we are at that point verifying account balances cooperating and verifying information with third parties and preparing various analytics on the various revenue streams and expenditure and expenses of the school district on slide four we have a slide that lists the different types of audit opinions that we can give on a set of financial statements. At the top is an unmodified opinion. That's the highest level of assurance we can give on a set of financial statements and from green to red they get worse so you do not want to receive a modified or a disclaimer. But just so you know there are different opinions we can give. On slide five this is where we detail what our opinion on the financial statements is. We are issuing an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. That's a positive thing. That's a great thing for the school district. It's a clean opinion that indicates that the users of the financial statements can rely on the information contained in the comprehensive annual financial report to note disclosures as being materially correct. In addition to performing an audit of the financial statements, we also perform a single audit and you have to issue two reports in relation to that single audit. Our first report is on internal control and compliance and I'm happy to report that we were not reporting any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies with internal control over financial reporting nor any non-compliance that's material to the financial statements. Because the district does receive and expend federal awards it does go through a federal single audit. In fiscal year 2017 the three major programs that were tested in that federal single audit include two types of Title II, Part A and the the child nutrition cluster. With the compliance requirements that are applicable to these two programs, we didn't note any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in those internal controls or any non-compliance or question costs. So again, great needs, positive needs for the school district there in regards to the federal single audit. Beginning on slide eight, our required communications we have to make to you. Our audit was designed to issue an opinion on the financial statements. We're not issuing an opinion on the district's policies and procedures or internal controls, but we do gain an understanding and use that understanding to design the timing and nature of our audit procedures. We did review the school districts accounting policies and did deem that they're in line with industry standards. There were a couple of new accounting pronouncements that were implemented in fiscal year 2017. Nothing too exciting. GASB number 77 is in relation to tax abatement disclosure. So there's a disclosure that's now included in the report in regards to a Weatherford agreement and then GASB statement number 82 is an amendment of a GASB that was implemented a few years ago related to the district's participation in TRS. There are estimates in the financial statements. We do review management's estimates. There's four estimates you should be aware of. There's the allowance for uncollectible taxes receivable, the useful lives of the district's capital assets, state aid, and the net pension liability and related pension expense. We reviewed management spaces for these estimates and deemed that they are reasonable and sound. We didn't have any difficulties performing and completing the audit so I'd like to thank the administration, the staff, for their complete cooperation through each phase of the audit. We do ask for a tremendous amount of information and we We did receive everything that we asked for and all our questions were answered satisfactory. We did not detect or identify any material misstatements in your financial statement. So staff and management, there's tens of thousands of transactions that occurred during a school year. So they recorded everything appropriately the first time around. If not, they caught it themselves. We didn't have any disagreements with management in regards to any accounting principles or policies or estimates. We do obtain a signed management representation letter that's signed by the superintendent, Mr. Smith, and others in the department. Basically, that states that they've provided us with everything that we've asked for, and they haven't withheld any information that would materially mistake the financial statements. As far as we know, the district's not consulting with any other accountants or auditors, and although we might provide guidance and information throughout the year, that's not a reason or a condition of us being retained as the district's external auditors. Beginning on slide 12, we just have some financial statement highlights. The statement of net position is the district's balance sheet on a full accrual basis of accounting. This is very similar to what you find in the private sector. Total assets are just under $2.3 billion. The large majority of the assets are going to be tied up in capital assets, land, building, vehicles, equipment, $1.7 billion. You have total liabilities of 2.1 billion. A large part of that is going to be the district's long-term debt, the outstanding bonds at year end of 1.8 billion. Overall net position for the fiscal year 2017 ended at 271 million. That's essentially the difference between your assets and your liabilities. So you have a positive net position that increased 2% from the previous year. On slide 13 we have the statement of revenues and expenditures for the the district's major funds. This is the basis of reporting that you're probably used to seeing here, the general fund, debt service fund, and capital projects. We had a positive change in fund balance in all of these funds. So fund balance at the end of the year was greater than it was at the beginning. So revenues exceeded expenditures in each of these funds. I think that's the important thing to note here with fund balance. On slide 14, we just have some significant transactions that have occurred during the year. A lot of debt activity. We had a couple of refundings in December 2016. We had a new issue bond issuance in May 2017. August 2017 Hurricane Harvey. The district did have to impair some capital assets and that impairment is recorded in these financial statements. There's a lot of significant capital outlay capital capital project activity that's reflected in these financial statements. The Texas Education Agency requires that the district present a budget tax tool for the Child Nutrition Fund and the Debt Service Fund. So slides 15 and 16 kind of highlight what's going on there. Total revenues increased by $1.8 million in the Child Nutrition Fund. Expenditures in the Child Nutrition Fund were under budget. Fund balance did increase from the previous year, ending fund balance is $5.2 million. The debt service fund had revenues of $141 million. That's an increase from the previous year of $12 million. Although the tax rate did not change, the total assessed values did increase by 10%, so that drove the property tax increase in the debt service fund. Total expenditures were under budget. Fund balance did increase by $2.3 million in this fund. Ending fund balance was $54.3 million. million. The general fund is the district's main operating accounts on slide 17. We have some financial highlights. Total revenues total 653 million. That is an increase of $9 million over the previous fiscal year. If we drill down and look at local, federal and state revenues, local revenues increased by 36 million or almost 10 percent. State revenues, however, decreased by 28 million. So this shows shows pretty clearly that inverse relationship between property tax and state aid. So local revenues increased 9 million, state revenues decreased 10%. 9%, 10% there. Federal revenues increased by a million to $12 million. Total expenditures were under budget. Fund balance did increase during the year, so ending fund balance was 202.8 million. And the general fund question no I'm sure okay a lot of times the general fund they look what gets zeroed in on is the unassigned fund balance well what's available to spend in your general fund at August 31st 2017 the district had 150 million dollars in general fund unassigned fund balance what's probably more useful is to know how many days of operating does that represent. So on slide 19 that 150 million dollars represents about 86 days of operating expenditures. The Texas Education Agency has a first rating that looks at this and so you get maximum points for having 90 days of operating expenditures and your unassigned fund balance and you get a minimum amount of points for 30 days. So you can see that that KDISD is right in that range towards the high end. So as of August 31, 2017, there was a healthy fund balance to operate the district for almost three months. That concludes my prepared remarks. If there are any questions about the report or the audit process or opinion, I'd be happy to take those at this time. Madam President.
Mr. Greger. We're extremely proud of the job that Mr. Smith and his team does. How common is it to have a report that's this clean?
Well, what is unique about KDISD is that they have the staff in-house that actually prepares the report, so that's a very great thing to have. That's not an easy task to prepare that report. To not have any findings whatsoever is not common at all. There are a litany of compliance requirements procurement requirements that are applicable to a school district So there's there's always one or two things that usually get reported In the report or in the single audit port, especially with federal requirements. There's there's several federal requirements. So This is definitely a positive report that the district should be proud of
Thank you I don't know if this is for you if this is for mr. Smith, but I have just a few questions So you brought up the Harvey and we had to account for that. That's where a significant amount of our funds that we may not have had or reserves may have had to go. Have we received any of those funds being reimbursed or are we anticipating them in 2015? Is that you, Chris, or is that to do with the audit?
We have had expenditures at roughly about $30 million as a result of Harvey. You'll see tonight in the budget amendments where we're going to, we've increased the insurance claim to $21.5 million. That's firm. We do think we're going to cap out our coverage limits at $25 million on that claim. So the rest, the difference between the total expenses and that, we have an active FEMA claim that we're pursuing as well.
And I have to commend Chris, his department sends that report to you all every Friday and that's the Harvey report that keeps the numbers going per se so that you guys are fully aware.
Absolutely. So most of that activity will be reflected in the fiscal year 2018 financial statements. Since Harvey happened right at that last week of August, the only thing that really is reflected in the 17 financial statements is just the impairment or the markdown of the district's capital assets. assets. While we were here in the field, not only was staff working with us on the audit, trying to prepare the comprehensive annual financial report, they were also getting familiar with FEMA and all the requirements to apply for FEMA public disaster grants. So that should be noted as well. They've had a lot on their plate.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Just so you know, I do want to acknowledge specifically the team that he mentioned several times and gave them some kudos for, but Liz Haven is our accounting supervisor, and of course Ann Feitinger is our business manager. We have five CPAs on our staff that do a fantastic job, and this time of year that really shines bright. But not only do we have a fantastic accounting staff, but the budget managers, principals, grant managers, program managers, and their financial clerks do a fantastic job of working with us as well, as does the board and Dr. Hindt and his administration. But we're not done tonight. We have to spit-sign this document that we will be putting on our website. This 186-page document, we keep six years of those out there. That will be put on our website once we spit-sign in the next few weeks. This single audit will be sent to the Federal Clearinghouse. We have to file this information with Texas Education Agency, with the Municipal Advisory Council of Texas, and of course the Texas Education Agency. So we have to report all this information through PEMS as well. So we're not done but this is the the final the beginning of the final chapter for this audit.
Mr. Scott. Can the nerds on the board get a copy, a hard copy of the audit? Yes sir.
That excludes me.
You have to call us out, George.
Call us out.
Let him know if you don't want. Alright, I'm good. Are you ready for 5.2, Mr. Smith?
Yes. Alright, item 5.2 is a reimbursement resolution. and the district approved its first reimbursement resolution in many years about January or February of last year when it came to elementary 41 but essentially this resolution is related to expenditures associated with the 2017 authorization as you know we we're beginning to start approving projects to commence construction on those on those projects we'll start getting invoices The plan between First Southwest, our financial advisors, is to have a bond sale, our first bond sale sometime this summer. So between now and then, those few invoices that we get in are just going to be used cash from the general fund. It's tax season. We have cash. And we will wait and sell the bonds in June. That keeps our expenses down for our borrowing costs as well as it uses the cash that we have on hand more efficiently than the expense of the bond. We do plan on selling bonds in June. In April, it's my intent to bring our parameters and to go over a full report from First Southwest at that time and then commence with a bond sale in June, which at that point we will use the cash from that to reimburse our general funds cash and this resolution that you have in front of you allows us to do that all tight tightened up and of course Rick Whitty and Tanya Fisher are here from from Andrews-Kirth and if you have any questions there be glad to help me answer.
Mr.
Thanks, Mr. Smith. I think that's an appropriate way to do things. However, I do want to just just ask the question. What do you risk? I guess associated with doing this. I mean, what ever unlikely event that you had trouble closing a bond sell? What? What would that do? What are kind of what do you perceive? I guess is the rest.
us. The only the only risk that I could really foresee and I'll let Mr. Whitty chime in if it is necessary, if necessary, is interest rate or market risk. Um, the the markets could get better between now and June or they may get worse. We've seen over the last year or the last 14 months we've seen interest rates go from an all time low to not as low but still significantly better than they were three or four years ago but but the risk is for interest rates to move up and borrowing costs to get more expensive.
That being said I think there's a lot of there is expected to have rate increases this year at the federal level. I've heard up to three or four potentially rate hikes in this year. year, which would be up to 100 basis points. So how um so what is the that given given that anticipation? Why wouldn't we want to do a quicker
process? And Mr Palmer at First Southwest is better equipped to talk to to you about that specifically. But but I think the long and short of it is is the bond investors have been anticipating those hikes and because of that it's been reflected in the rates. That's why we saw a rate increase 14 14 months ago from where they were. And the best ways I can summarize it up is those Fed increases that you mentioned have already been baked in the cake. They're there already, even though we're anticipating it. We think. But if that changes, Mr. Moraleski, absolutely be bringing in authorization information to y'all if we see if mr. Palmer and and first Southwest guys think that that may be times we will bring the parameters to y'all sooner and get going on it
All right.
Do we have any more questions or comments? Okay. That being said, I will read the following resolution. Whereas the Katy Independent School District, the district, is an independent school district of the state of Texas authorized to finance activities by issuing obligations pursuant to the chapter 45 Texas Education Code which may include obligations acquired for an income tax credit or obligations the interest on which is excludable from gross income for federal income tax purposes tax advantage obligations pursuant to section 103 of the Internal Revenue of 1986 as amended the code for both and whereas the district has made within the last 60 days and will continue to make payments with respect to the construction acquisition renovation expansion and improvement of school buildings as described on Exhibit A attached here to the finance facilities improvements and whereas the district reasonably expects the issue of tax advantage obligations to reimburse itself for the costs associated with the finance facilities and improvements listed on Exhibit A attached here to and whereas the district desires to reimburse itself for the costs associated with the finance facilities and improvements listed on Exhibit A attached here to from the proceeds of tax advantage obligations to be issued issued subsequent to the date hereof and now therefore be it resolved that section 1 the district hereby declares taxpayers its intent to reimburse itself for all costs that will be paid subsequent to the date hereof in connection with the acquisition of the finance facilities and improvements listed on Exhibit A attached hereto from the proceeds of tax-advantaged obligations to be issued subsequent to the date hereof. Section 2. The district reasonably expects the maximum principal amount of tax-advantaged obligations issued by the district to finance costs associated with the finance facilities and improvements listed on exhibit a attached here to will not exceed 150 million section 3 this resolution will be kept in the books and records maintained by the district with respect to the tax advantage obligations and then we will be passing this on the consent agenda next week at our regular meeting on January 22nd but that is the resolution that we will be voting on next week all right I don't know 5.3 miss Butterfield consider future board approval of January 2018 budget
amendment superintendent Hindt trustees tonight we have six general operating fund amendments of note sixty five thousand seven hundred eighty three dollars to replace three vehicles that were lost in accidents eighty one $1,746 in expenditures and increased revenues to recognize dual credit instruction. We also are amending the budget for Hurricane Harvey 5 at $1,998,931 and $38,276 for renovation of the HVAC system at the ESC Annex. $650,000 is for additional transportation costs related to displaced students. and $5,959,000 for renovations at Creech. General operating fund revenues are amended to increase $4.5 million to recognize additional insurance claim proceeds related to the Harvey claim. The remainder of the general fund expenditure amendments or direct offsets between different functions and approval of these amendments will result in a $4,231,990 decrease in the general operating fund balance. Two construction amendments are presented from project savings, $303,876 for replacement of the district water softeners, and $13,437,145 for the agricultural science center. These will result in no change to construction fund balance.
Madam President. Mr. Lacy. On the attachment that we had, I think there's a typo. You said the displaced student transportation was 65?
650,000. Okay, I misheard you.
Excuse me. Thank you.
Madam President. Mr. Malmstrom. On the Hurricane Harvey reimburses, whether it be insurance proceeds, you mentioned the FEMA claim, could even be potentially some state grants, I'm guessing, at the end of this. Are you recognizing those as they are received on a cash basis?
Yes, sir. We've received $10 million in cash from the insurance company. We've received information on 21 1⁄2, official information. As I understand it, there is another $5 million draw on the way. but right now officially we've heard 21 and a half million but we and that's what you've amended up to with these tonight and but we're not presenting that hedging that we're going to get all 25 million except that's a period yes
I actually have the cash correct it's approved okay so as you know that you're
going to receive it basically yes sir and again we expect more and we expect FEMA that's just unknown at this time
Trustee's, I will tell you, Mr. Lacy, you asked specifically about the cost for transportation. Under Texas law, under federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Act, when we provide transportation to children living outside of our boundaries, we are required to split that cost with the entity, with the school district which they live in. And so, for example, let's say we have a displaced student, KD High School, that now lives in Sy Fair, and we're sending a car service to go pick that child up every day and bring them in. It will be our intention to enter into agreements with our surrounding school districts to help offset 50% of that cost. And that's something that is required by federal law.
That's the one. Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
So, the conversion would also be true that if there's a student living in KD ISD that it's being transported to Saferra and other districts, we would have to bear some of that cost as well.
Yes, sir. Correct.
Anyone else? Okay. Thank you.
5.4, consider future board approval proposal of adaptive supplies and equipment. Mr. Young.
Good evening, President Vann, Board of Trustees, and Superintendent Hint. I'm here to recommend approval of the proposed contract for adaptive supplies and equipment. This contract will provide a list of awarded vendors from which the district's special education department can purchase specialized products needed in support of instruction for students with special needs. Included in the scope of this contract are items such as specialty teaching aids, hearing equipment, manipulatives, testing materials, etc., as well as repair services for related equipment. The resulting contract will provide the district with multiple vendors willing to offer KDISD a proposed discount from either a printed catalog, online catalog, or shelf pricing. The purchasing and special education departments collaborated to develop a list of potential suppliers and the purchasing department issued a request for competitive seal proposals proposals, resulting in 19 vendor responses. All vendors submitted a complete response and are qualified to provide the goods and or services in this category of products and are therefore all recommended for award. A copy of the tabulated responses and the vendor evaluation summary are included in the attached documents provided. Whenever possible, to ensure best value for KDISD, obtaining multiple quotes from the the awarded vendors is encouraged prior to making a purchasing decision. The proposed contract term is for a period of one year with three annual renewal options. Based on the previous 12 months of expenditures, the total estimated cost for the next 12 months is approximately $300,000 and the purchases will be funded from either general operating funds or special revenue funds as applicable. The Board of Trustees approval to award the contract for the purchase of adaptive supplies and equipment as presented is consistent with Board policies, CH legal and CH local.
Mr. President, just out of curiosity, do any of these go through cooperatives like Harris County Department of Education or other out there or is this just working to get your own bidders?
This is to provide our own contract, sir, but we do use purchasing co-optive. That is an option. If any of the awarded vendors cannot supply the needs that we need, that are required, then we can't utilize purchasing co-optive. But in this case, these are the best bids? Well, we can't say that these are the best bids just because what we're receiving is discounts.
Got you.
That's why we do encourage to receive quotes. but it's hard to to enforce everybody to get a quote because until we have that need we don't know if the vendors that are awarded under this contract can actually supply that need all right but we are we can utilize co-op vendors as well we always encourage vendors we always encourage to use first of our our contracted vendors because these are the vendors that have gone through the RFP process otherwise we can use the co-op vendors as a second choice.
Any other questions? Okay thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next up Mr. Graham out of 5.5.
Dr. Hinn, Board President, Trustees, thanks for having me this evening. We find ourselves in a familiar situation here considering an item which you've already approved. So let me give you a little background as to why we're here again. In September, late September of 2017, this board authorized Harris, Waller, and four Bend counties to do a reappraisal of flood-damaged properties with the consent of the property owner. This resolution was passed 5-0 by this board at that time at a special meeting Specifically to grant that relief to our taxpayers. It was done. This resolution was drafted in discussions with Fort Bend County and Waller County and really without discussion with Harris County because we couldn't get somebody to pick up the phone and have a Conversation with us about how the reappraisal process was going to work at the time You guys got to understand as everybody in this room knows we experienced the largest natural disaster in terms of cost at least in this country's history. And KDISD has the most affected children in the state of Texas, most affected employees in the state of Texas from that damage. And as the action that you took on September, you took that action in order to give support to your community and give support to your taxpayers and relief to them so that if they so choose that they could seek that tax relief. Since that time period, and I do want to reiterate that Katy ISD was the first school district. So we say Katy first. Katy was the first school district to authorize that. Since that point in time, we've had numerous county entities and school districts across the state of Texas that have followed our lead. Since that point in time, we've actually heard back from Harris County and from Fort Bend County who've said, wait, they had a problem with the way that we drafted our resolution. even though we spoke with Fort Bend County up front and Harris County was unwilling to speak with us about the process up front specifically there was a section 9 in that original that in that original signed resolution which specifically said that the KTIC Board of Trustees is only authorizing the appraisal districts in each county to conduct a reappraisal under the tax code if the reappraisal is done on a per partial basis with the consent of the property owner with the consent of the owner of the property which was damaged by Hurricane Harvey. Again that was intended to at least provide the property owner, the homeowner, some say in the process to say hey because those reappraisals normally begin with a mailing, a large mail out to say did you did your property sustain some sort of damage. This is a consistent practice that happened in Hayes County in 2016 when they had some flooding there. But again, we're at Harvey and we're dealing with something that no one's ever dealt with before. And with Harris and Fort Bend and Waller counties and all of the damage that's happened, again the largest natural disaster in U.S. history, we really didn't know how that process was going to work. And to be honest with you, the counties didn't know how that process was going to work. And so I think we were all trying to get our minds wrapped around it. And again, we wanted to be first as a district to step out there to give our property owners some assurance. So where are we at today? Well, both Fort Bend and Harris County have asked that this Board of Trustees reconsider the resolution that's in front of you without that Section 9, without requiring the express consent of the homeowner. We've actually, it is my opinion, and we've got an outside council opinion, that the resolution as previously drafted would be lawfully accepted. However, it is within the discretion of the tax collector assessor of each county to determine how the reappraisal is going to work. So if Fort Bend and Harris County are telling us that we need to redo it, then in order to take advantage of it and give our folks the relief that we promised them that they would get, then we need to go ahead and pass this resolution as amended and drafted here today. I will tell you that we've been working with the counties. I know Fort Bend I think has almost completed their reappraisal process and they're about to send their tax notices out. I think Harris County is further behind and I think Waller County has already moved forward. We did not get a notice back from them that they wouldn't accept their resolution as drafted. Having said all that I know that's a lot of information for you, but I think it still puts us in the same situation to offer the same benefit to our homeowners who are going to participate by simply filling out the mailing to begin the process. I'm happy to take any questions that you may have as board on this matter.
Mr. Graham, if you'll just reiterate, when we first passed this resolution, if you'll recall, we were the first and only school district to take that step. Since then, there's been multiple school districts that occupy Fort Bend County, Harris County, and Waller County that have all taken that step. Therefore, there are the shared costs that are associated with that.
Well, the shared cost is not going to be specifically with the school districts because property that we have in Katy ISD is not going to be shared with Spring Branch ISD. They have their own property. They're taxed on their own property. But, for example, in Fort Bend County, the entirety of Fort Bend County has asked for a reappraisal. So we would share the cost of the reappraisal with the Fort Bend County and any MUD district that's asked for it and any other taxing entity that also taxes the same property that we have. For example, the city of Katy, which is in all three counties, has requested the reappraisal. They passed a resolution similar to what we did. on the heels again of what we did taking our lead so with there will be some shared costs there and I think that the initial estimates that came out were a little high and that was intended to say hey you know here may be your your the risk that's out there we've since done a better job of narrowing down what we had I think PASA came and told us that there were 73 or 7,400 what they felt like structures that were damaged in their presentation to this board last month or in November. So I do think we have a better understanding of how many properties are affected and what that cost is going to be to us. Madam President. Mr. Scott. Correct me if I'm wrong,
but my understanding is that this is not a slowdown relative to Harris County because they're just gearing up to put people out into the field. Is that correct? That's correct. We
haven't slowed down Harris County and Fort Bend County has already done it. They were going to do it anyway because they were required to because the county requested it. And they said, and we We told them, hey, look, are you okay if we bring it to this board for your consideration at our regular January meeting on January 22nd? And all the counties said yes, that they would be fine with that. And they would not affect the board.
So Waller County is on pace, Fort Bend County is on pace, and Harris County is just catching up.
Yeah, that's correct.
Madam President. Mr. Lacy. The 7,400, I don't know if you know right off the top of your head, is it including, is that just residences or is that commercial properties as well? Parsons. Parsons. Okay, perfect.
Yeah, so that would include your, the Omni Hotel that took on water, for example.
Then one other point I think, because we did discuss this at the original time, if there is a loss here, there's going to be a corresponding increase in state aid. So it's not just a net, net loss as I understand it.
That is correct, and we took advantage of 26.03, if you recall.
call. So we're still doing the right thing and helping people if they want that help. Absolutely.
Whereas the entire southeast region of Texas including the entire entirety of KDISD has been subjected to catastrophic loss and damage associated with Hurricane Harvey and flooding caused by the storm whereas the entire region including the entirety of KDISD was declared with a state and federal disaster area whereas section 23.02 Texas tax code provides that the governing body of a tax entity that is located partly or entirely inside an area declared to be a disaster area by the governor may be authorized re-appraisal of all property damaged in the disaster as its market value immediately after the disaster. Whereas section 23.02 the Texas tax code further provides a taxing unit that authorizes such reappraisal must reimburse the appraisal district for all costs of making the reappraisal and that such costs may be shared by each taxing unit providing for reappraisal in the same territory whereas the cost associated with the reappraisals for damaged properties shall be responsibility of the requesting tax units and shall be prorated to all such entities and whereas properties in Fort Bend Harris and Waller counties may have sustained damage by from Hurricane Harvey and flooding caused by the storm therefore be it resolved by the Board of Trustees at section 1 the findings and recitations in the preamble to this resolution are found to be true and correct and the order stated in the preamble to this resolution are hereby ordered section 2 the KDISD board attest board does hereby authorize Fort Bend Central Appraisal District to reappraise property located within Fort Bend County that was damaged by Hurricane Harvey and flooding caused by the storm section 3 the KDISD board does hereby authorize the Waller County Appraisal District to reappraise property property located within Waller County that was damaged by Hurricane Harvey and flooding caused by the storm. Section 4, the KDISD Board does hereby authorize Harris County Appraisal District to reappraise property located within Harris County that was damaged by Hurricane Harvey and flooding caused by the storm. Section 5, the KDISD Board does hereby authorize payment to the Fort Bend, Waller, and Harris County appraisal districts of the costs making the reappraisal and that the district will share the costs with each other taxing entity that authorizes reappraisal of property in the same territory as provided by Section 23.02 Texas Tax Code. Section 23.02C Texas Tax Code. Section 6, this resolution is intended to allow home and property owners who incurred damage as a result of Hurricane Harvey and the flooding caused by the storm to take advantage of the reappraisal. Section 7, this resolution is intended to allow home and property owners to take advantage of the reappraisal. However, it's not intended to cap or prohibit the fair market value of all improvement to a property to be considered in the next appraisal year under Section 23.23 of the Texas Tax Code. Section 8, the KDIC Board expects the Texas Education Agency to adjust the taxable property value in determining state funding as a result of this reappraisal. The KDIC Board does hereby authorize its administration to take any action necessary to seek and secure funding under sections 42.2523, 42.2524, and 41.0931 of the Texas Education Code. Be it further the resolved resolved the board trustees hereby ratify any actions taken by the administration toward the objectives set forth in this resolution we will be at this will be presented and voted on next week as well at our regular board meeting on January 22nd as part of our consent agenda
madam president dr. hint Board of Trustees you have before you consideration of the future adoption of an order calling for our regular May trustee election. You don't, you will notice that in your board docs you don't actually have an order attached there to. We are currently still working with the counties to see if we can get their assistance to help us run the May elections which is something that my office has taken over since joining with us last February. If you will recall the counties Harris, Fort Bend, and Waller our counties helped us with our November elections as is required by law for May elections such as the one upcoming they're not necessarily required to help us so I'm still in the process of working with especially Fort Bend County on this matter and we anticipate having an order drafted with polling locations for your consideration next Monday. Because we're going to bring additional
info on this consent item this will be an independent action item next week.
Madam President, will we have that information before Monday? As soon as we get it we'll
provide it to the board. My hope is as soon as we receive it we'll provide it to the board.
It's coming from an outside entity. Yes sir. It's coming from the county. What's the deadline for
calling the election? The deadline for calling the election I think it's February 22nd but we're ahead of that so if we wanted to take action at our meeting at our first meeting in February we could you know we're trying to get this lined up for us so that we know which direction that we're headed in and the first day for candidates to file is January 17th so that's Wednesday is the first day for candidates to file we have two seats open
You can start that without calling the election, I guess.
Yes, sir. That's correct.
Any more questions for Mr. Graham? Thank you very much. Item 5.7, consider future board approval of proposed changes to the board policy EF local. Mrs. Holland.
Madam President, members of the board. Dr. Hint, we are presenting for your consideration revisions to the board policy at EF local dealing with instructional resources. The revisions that we've made are to better inform our public of the process for formal reconsideration of challenge materials materials and also to make a reference back to the legal policy to make them aware of the board of the District's authority to remove items under certain conditions We think that the revised language will better inform our public since this is the resource that they go to In local policy and be glad to answer any questions that you might have in this regard Sorry.
Any questions? If you recall, this was to better align our local policy with legal policy. We found some discrepancies in local versus legal. Therefore, we've aligned them to the best of our ability. And we believe that we'll have a stronger local policy as a result of it. Yes, sir.
I just want to make a statement that I think that the local policy was contradictory. I think this is a good decision and it puts the responsibility the parents and the community can look to this board and the superintendent for leadership on this matter and I think that's appropriate.
Thank you. And let me add, so that anybody that is wondering what the inconsistency was, was we had a process in place that allowed for a campus to make a determination on an instructional resource that would be challenged that would affect only that campus. And then another campus could make a decision that was opposite of that, which would provide inconsistencies district-wide. That was one of the main concerns I had when I first saw the policy, that we needed to do something that was consistent and did not provide for a system of schools, but a school system. We're a district of 67 schools and we need to be consistent.
And so this aligns our local to more in line with our legal. Legal supersedes local.
Even though legal always supersedes local. That is correct. And that was our reason for referencing the legal here. We want to make sure that there's a clear link between those two. Thank you Bonnie.
All right 5.8 consider future board approval the method of purchasing Contracted Services for Routine Maintenance Needs Utilizing a Job Order
Contract Method. Mr. T. Good evening President Vann, Superintendent Hint, Board members. I'm bringing tonight a recommendation that the Board of Trustees approves a method of purchase for minor construction projects, reconnection of portable classrooms, HVAC repair, plumbing and electrical repair, and roofing repair utilizing the Job Order Contract Method. The Job Order contract method will provide the best value for the district for the various types of contracted service needs of the maintenance and operations department. The district routinely has the need for these services in excess of $50,000. Utilizing the job order contractor contract method of purchase will provide the method the maintenance and operations department the flexibility to contract for such needed services in a timely manner and in accordance with the board policy. This method to procure these services and the listing of the not to exceed pricing of these services are also included for your in the as outlined for your review and approval. The project funding source is a 2017-2018 general fund. Board approval of this recommendation for method of purchase is consistent with board policies CH legal, CH local, CV legal, CV local.
I just want to point out that the purchasing method here in the documents that we get to look at is from the Harris County Department of Education Choice Partners. It's one of those cooperatives and they're required to go through the full due diligence discovery when they do bids. In effect, this is a pre-qualification, and because they do it statewide, region-wide, every-wide, then we can be assured when we look at this that this has gone through a very rigorous due diligence bid process. And we kind of take it for granted, but I think it's kind of important. Yes, sir.
Anyone else?
Okay.
Thank you. You're up to 5.9.
Next is a recommendation that the Board of Trustees approves the contract for the re-roofing of Sioux Creech Elementary with Atlas Universal Inc. utilizing the Harris County Department of Ed Choice Partners Contract Number 14-012DA. The re-roof project is part of the 2017 bond component replacements. District staff worked with PBK Architects to develop the project scope. A total of four proposals were submitted by roofing contractors. Atlas Universal Inc. has successfully completed previous re-roofing projects in the district. Work will commence immediately with the award of the contract and is scheduled to be completed by May 1, 2018. A copy of the recommendation letter from PBK Architects and the proposal tabulation sheet is attached for your review. The re-roof project funding source is the 2017 bond component replacements. total not to exceed project cost is $1,326,783. This contract has been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form. Board approval of this contract is consistent with board policy CH Legal, CH Local, CV Legal, CV Local.
Madam President. Mr. Lacy. And this was not part of the hurricane?
came no sir this was all the way we tried this is 2017 bond oh yeah but we're
actually timing it in relation to the renovation of the interior the timing is
based on Harvey but it was it was listed on a 2017 package for a project for
Creech already. Is that going to is it normal for the roofing and all of that finalization to come on the heels of everything on the inside to be completed
or is it all going to be. We're actually doing the roofing ahead of the interior
work. Okay. If you recall we pushed up the comprehensive renovation because we're doing the work anyway. So I said let's get it done. Super. Any questions? 5.10 you're still up. Okay bringing forward a
recommendation to approve the contract for the minor renovation project at Katy High School to facility sources utilizing the Harris County Department of Ed Choice Partners Contract Number 16 Backslash 054JN-04. The renovation of interior areas of Katy High School includes the following. Removal of student lockers in the A wing, painting of hallways, student restrooms, the competition gym, gym three, and the commons area. Replacement of door laminates in the A wing, replacement of casework in the concession stand by the competition gym, replacement of partitions in the student restrooms. A total of four proposals were received from contractors for the project. Work will be scheduled during spring break and the summer of 2018. Work is scheduled for completion by August 1, 2018. A copy of the proposal tabulation sheet and the job order proposal from facility sources are attached for review. Renovation project funding source is the 2014 bond savings. Total project cost is $506,600.25. The contract has been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form. Board approval of this recommendation for award is consistent with board policies CH legal, CH local, CV legal, and CV local.
Any questions?
I would like to point out, because I know several of you have received emails, but you do recognize bathrooms at Katie High School. If you recall, we did bring the partitions and the plumbing. This is the painting. Just want to make sure that we...
We're done.
Mr. Griffin. I think they're finally getting rid of the lockers that I used 33 years ago. I had one of those too. The hallway.
Do you still know the combination like Dr. Hindt?
I don't know my Katie High School combo. I know the Taylor High School 28-9-16. I won't tell you what locker it is, though, in my mind.
Madam President. Mr. Lacy. In the competition, Jim, this is just painting the walls, because I know that the flooring was just recently, I think, in the last couple of months or so. No, this is the walls and the ceiling will be painted.
Very cool. Should be lower than that, in case.
Any other questions? Okay. 5.11, Mr. Teed.
Recommendation that the Board of Trustees approves the contract for the replacement of HVAC chillers and associated equipment at the Katy Independent School District Annex, also known as University of Creech. to Hunting Services utilizing the Choice Facilities Contract 14-021-JN-05. The HVAC chillers and associated pumps and drives at the Katy Independent School District Annex are 18 years old and have met their life cycle for replacement. They also utilize the R-22 refrigerant that is no longer being produced. The replacement units are like for like. However, the new units will have a higher efficiency rating. A copy of the proposal from Hunting Services is attached for review. The replacement of the HVAC chillers and associated equipment is scheduled to be completed by July 13, 2018. Chillers and the associated equipment replacement funding source is a 2017-2018 general fund. Total project cost $411,109. The contract has been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form. Board approval of this recommendation as award is consistent with board policies CH legal, CH local, CV legal, and CV local.
Questions? All right, thank you very much. And the last one.
Are you? Oh, sorry, I have one too.
Turn around. I put my two.
Okay. Recommendation for the Board of Trustees approves the contract for the replacement of HVAC chillers, condensers, pumps, and associated equipment at Katy High School to Hunt and Services utilizing the Choice Facilities Contract No. 14-021JN-05. The HVAC chillers and associated equipment at Katy High School were approved for replacement as part of the 2017 bond component replacements. This chiller plant has been enlarged over the years with campus expansions and this replacement includes a plant optimization to reduce operation cost and improve campus air quality. A copy of the proposal from Hunt and Services is attached for review. All replacements are scheduled to be completed by August 1st, 2018, with equipment change outs performed during spring break and summer of 2018. A temporary chiller will be utilized for a period of time during the summer to accommodate the summer athletic and administrative schedules. HVAC chillers and associated equipment project funding source 2017 bond component replacements. total project cost $2,095,943. This contract has been reviewed by these district legal counsel and approved as to form. Board approval of this recommendation for award is consistent with board policy CH legal, CH
local, CV legal and CV local. Mr. Scott. What is the cost of the temporary I mean come out of general operating or can it be included in bond? I mean, we're going to rent it or we're going to own it?
No, no, it's included in the project cost. And it's about $20,000 for a month. Oh, that's... Delivering, set up, and then take down. And as part of the optimization cost, I'm kind of proud of this particular project. We're looking at about a $250,000 a year savings. Okay. And we get done with it.
anyone else okay thank you mr. T thank you
those bathrooms will be cool too
I don't 5.13 consider future board approval of an out-of-district service agreement between Katie and Bennett school district and the Harris County Municipal Utility District 5 4.95 associated with Agro-Cosmetic Sciences
Center mrs. Cass good evening president van board of trustees and dr. Hint my first item this evening is the recommendation for the district to enter into an out-of-district service agreement for utilities for the Ag Science Center. This is a long-awaited item. In lieu of paying the prorated share of the impact fees of the water plant and wastewater treatment plant facilities, we will be receiving 20 utility connections necessary for the Ag Sciences Center. KDISC will convey to Harris County Mud District 495 an approximate 7.188 acres on the southern boundary and this will be for for the Harris County drainage requirements. Any questions?
Okay.
5.14. The second item is for the guaranteed maximum price for the renovations at Galbo and Pattison Elementary. The comprehensive renovation for Galbo and Pattison Elementary schools are identified projects and the last of them for the 2014 bond. The design for these renovations were presented back in October of 2017 to the board by VOK architects. The design team has been working hard in conjunction with the campus central office staff and Brookstone to finalize construction documents and obtain pricing to establish a GMP. The construction is anticipated to be substantially complete for August 2018. Amendment 1 is for $28,067,732. The project will also include architectural engineering fees, builder's risk insurance, code reviews, HVAC testing and balancing, materials testing, furniture and technology for a total project cost of $31,986,427.
We can't get those projects done fast enough. They're ready to start come after next Monday.
But this is the, this is one of the very last ones, 2014. 2014. And the Ag Science Center. Any questions for Ms. Cotsman? Thank you. Thank you very much. Item 5.15, consider future board approval of an interlocal agreement between Harris County and the Acadia Independent School District for public health emergencies. Mr. Bremer.
All right, so we have this agreement. It's an interlocal agreement between Harris County and the school district for public health emergencies that covers both planning and operations during public health emergencies. This is actually a renewal of an existing agreement. We've had an agreement with both Harris County and Fort Bend County for many years. This is an update and renewal of that. This agreement is similar to but not the same as our agreement with Fort Bend County. And it is consistent with Chapter 37 of the Education Code, which requires us to plan jointly with Public Health and with Board Policy CKC Legal.
Any questions?
Okay.
Real quick, since both of them are here, I would like to acknowledge Mr. Bremer and the time he's given to the district. He's retiring at the end of the school year, but we also have his replacement that's kind of modeling or shadowing, and that's Ruben Martinez, and I just wanted you guys to be able to put a name with your face. Thank you. All right.
Now we'll move to item 5.16. six consider future board approval of the proclamation for National School Counseling Week here more marina all right this is the proclamation reads proclamation of the Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees National School Counseling Week whereas school counselors are employed in public and private schools to help students reach their full potential and whereas school counselors are actively committed to helping students to explore their abilities strengths interests and talents as these traits relate to career awareness and development and whereas school counselors help parents focus on ways to further the educational personal and social growth of their children and whereas school counselors work with teachers and other educators to help students explore their potential and set realistic goals themselves and whereas school counselors seek to identify you lie and utilize community resources that can enhance and complete comprehensive school counseling programs and to help students become productive members of society and whereas comprehensive of school counseling programs are considered an integral part of the educational process that enables all students to achieve success in school and therefore the KDIC Board of Trustees do hereby proclaim February 5th through 9th 2018 as school national counseling week. This also will go to our consent agenda for next week but just announcing that National School Counseling Week in our district will be recognized February 5th through the 9th. And now we're going to consider board approval for the proclamation for career and technical education
Yes, we are
Proclamation of the Katie and fennish school district board trustees career and technical education month Whereas the month of February has been designated career and technical education also known as CTE month by the Association for career and technical education and whereas career and technical education offers students the opportunity to gain the academic technical and employability skills necessary for true career readiness and whereas students in career and technical education programs participate in authentic meaningful experiences that improve the quality of their education and increase student engagement and achievement and whereas career and technical education provides students with career explorations opportunities earlier in their education educational experience, which enables them to make informed and beneficial decisions about their academic coursework, as well as pursuit of established programs of study and career pathways, and whereas leaders from business and industry nationwide are for increasing challenges related to skills gap and connecting qualified professionals with available careers in critical and growing CTE-related fields, including healthcare, energy, advanced manufacturing, manufacturing, and information technology, and whereas career and technical education prepares students for these and other fulfilling careers by offering integrated programs of study that link secondary and post-secondary education and lead to the attainment of industry-recognized credentials, and whereas ensuring that employers have access to a qualified workforce is a crucial step in ensuring productivity among the businesses and industry communities, as as well as continued American economic growth and global competitiveness. And whereas Smith Hughes National Vocational Education Act was signed by Congress in February 1917 providing funding for career and technical education, which allows us to celebrate how far CTE has come to become a powerhouse of America's economy. Therefore, the Katy ISD Board of Trustees do hereby proclaim February 2018 as Career and Technical Education Month in Katy Independent School District and urge all citizens to become familiar with the services and benefits offered by the career and technical education programs in this community and to support and participate in these programs to enhance their individual skills and productivity. Also we'll be on our consent agenda next month next week. One more proclamation. All right. Now we're going to consider the future board approval of proclamation for school bus driver appreciation week. Whereas school bus drivers consistently put the safety of our children first, maintaining an awareness of student needs, school bus routes, mechanical issues, traffic and weather conditions. and whereas school bus drivers may face many driving perils, both natural and unnatural, while conducting their daily duties, and whereas school bus drivers consistently exhibit patience and kindness towards students, parents, and school staff in the faithful and dedicated performance of their responsibilities, and whereas school bus drivers have collectively built a remarkable and exemplary record for safety by driving for hundreds of thousands of miles year after year, Therefore the Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees do hereby proclaim February 12th through 16th 2018 as Best Driver Appreciation Week in the Katy Independent School District. Madam President. Mr. Racy. I would like to
commend you for getting through all the whereases. That was a lot of stuff. I won't be counting sheep, I'll be counting whereases.
I'm going to hear you're saying whereas when I sleep tonight. Well, luckily, that is the last proclamation. I am going to read a resolution I have to read tonight, and that also wraps up our consent agenda. So all items except for item 5.6 will be going to consent. We will hold item 4.6. 5.6. Sorry, I'm a little tired. I'm tired. 5.6 will be held for an action item as of next week, next week at our regular board meeting. Now we move to agenda 6, section 6, discussion with 6.1, discuss and propose a revision to board policy CW local naming facilities. This discussion item was requested by board members Mr. Scott along with Mr. Lacy and Mr. Griffin.
Madam President.
Mr. Griffin.
I drew the short straw. I'll give you a little background on this one. I got to be on the naming panel that looked for Johnson Field Legacy Stadium. And then last month or the month after that, we were talking about board policies and procedures. And Mr. Scott said, hey, here's a great idea to update. And he spent a lot of time looking over board policies and procedures. In the district, we can't, well, the board can really do anything at once. but the administration is limited by board policies and procedures and they protect the administration and they give them guidance so mr. Scott and I were talking about this procedure and we're like oh my gosh here's one that we got a policy for the gander but the goose doesn't really have anything we can name the administration can bring us a name over the over or as a board member they can bring us a facility name as a board member. Mr. Scott and I were talking and we're like, man, I don't know if that's really appropriate because we as board members really represent everybody in the district. So I think it's good to have a discussion as a board. Would we want to protect the administration by writing or revising our policy that limits the administration from bringing us a name of a current board member that's sitting on the board?
Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. Madam President, thank you, Mr. Griffin. I want to remove and recommend that the Board remove any ambiguity as to whether or not the Board can name a facility after an existing Board member. It's not that it's happened. It's not that it would. But as I review the policy and I think about things, I would just like to remove the ambiguity. I would like it to be a declarative statement that the board and the committees that operate on behalf of the board cannot, cannot, shall not name any facility of the district after an existing board member who was a board member at the time the decision is made. It's pretty simple to my way of thinking.
Madam President.
Mr. Lacy.
Just for the record so that, and I'll read this directly from the naming facilities guidelines. under the name name for a person item number four the district it says that a facility may be named for a person who has worked in the district if the person has been in education for at least 20 years and has been a distinguished employee for at least 10 years and is retired or deceased number five says the portion of a facility such as a librarian auditorium or a gymnasium may be named for a person who has worked in the district if the person has been a distinguished district employee for 10 years and is retired or deceased. I think just the clarification and I'm not opposed to naming it after someone after they have served on the board, but I think it's important that we do add that clarification because it is very clear for the educators and for the administrators that they need to be retired and heaven forbid we don't want our current board to be deceased any uh anytime soon but i think we need that clarification on
our policy and one other thing in that policy as i've read it i don't know for instance can this board name a facility after joe adams he served on the board for 27 years uh the longest tenured board member in the history of the district i think he had one or maybe two years more than dr Williams and I just think a revision of the policy to make it absolutely clear because when we send it out to the committee there is an expectation that the committee has some you know some special do and I think that we we have an obligation so I appreciate the discussion well I appreciate you
bringing this we as a board of seven our role is oversight and it's you know know an oversight of the entire district entire facilities the entire you know everything so being a current board member and possibly having your name on a building doesn't really I know it doesn't it doesn't drive with if you if you have ownership and oversight of a hundred percent of the districts and your name shouldn't be on one entity so I appreciate that's my that's the way I looked at what what you have brought to the board this evening it's a matter of
President. Dr. Hemp, when we were having the discussion about Legacy Stadium, Mike Johnson Field, one of the questions that came up was can we name it Legacy Stadium because if you look into the attributes that was an attribute not a person, place, or thing. So when you were revising this policy once again could we get a little bit more clarification on it's those things or others but when you bring us a name that way we won't have people in the community saying is this in accordance with board policy or procedure. Yes sir I will. And I think that's what Mr. Scott was talking about too.
When does the board want me to bring the policy? Monday. Oh. Before we go out to the next committee. Our ask would go out. I can work on a policy I can have it before the board this coming Monday doesn't have to take action on it it will be an independent action item that provides you guys a little bit of opportunity to discuss it with us so that if we have to revise it and bring it back the next month that would be good.
So I just want to point out because I'm pretty fine with the things you guys are talking about here but it doesn't necessarily preclude a future board from taking those actions if they so desire just as a step in the process to go change the local policy
You're absolutely right. And I have to say this. I mean, to be quite frank with you guys, the very first sentence in the policy provides you the oversight, independent of a committee, independent of anything. time. But I think this board is set on going through a process, seeking input, going through a committee, making sure that we vet it to process so that we can bring a name to you that's not as challenged because of the process that we went through.
And it's my opinion that you all be asking to possibly have it by Monday because we do have an elementary school, 41, that will be opening in August.
My only concern is if we don't bring it Monday, and let's say we bring it February, and then there are some revisions to it in February, then we may be. We're slowing down the process. Yeah. So I would rather bring a draft to you Monday so that you can give me direction or say, hey, we're okay with it. But because I'm bringing it to you absent of being on the consent agenda, it'll be an independent action item.
But it would send a message for the board, even if it's not finalized. if the committee process got going before this was finalized, there would still be a clear intent and a clear progress by the board to signal that.
We could. My preference would be that we have the policy voted on and move forward.
Yeah. My perspective, too, the policy should be final and they have it in front of them. Yeah, not hold on, we'll get you a real one next month. I'd rather focus.
Madam President.
Mrs. Fox.
I probably am the only board member who was here when we created this process because in the early days of my service, we didn't use a committee to do it. It was the board's responsibility, and it was just so difficult to do, to discuss names of people and things without violating OMA because you just wanted to go, do you know anybody? how do you know you know what do you think about this person so so we created this policy to use a committee and help our community help us decide those things and there was a lot of research that went into I think mrs. Snyder maybe was the one who went out and found what best practices were from other school districts and how they did it and so we worked really she worked really hard and we all did look through these and put those things in place how many years did they need to be in education and needed to be retired or or deceased and so i mean clearly we didn't even think about a school board member getting a facility named after him it wasn't anything there and if that were to ever happen it feels implied to me that that person whoever it should be should not be in sitting active member because it just seems like the clear intent is there so I appreciate Mr. Scott I appreciate very much your dedication to looking through and seeing where we need to find tooth comb things and and find revisions and I think it's a great it's good you're right but then there's there's no ambiguity at all but I think it's a good thing so just wanted to give some some more history on how that happened. Good idea. Thank you.
Anybody else? Okay, so we'll look forward to this being a separate action item. Sweet. Alright. We have one more discussion item, item 6.2. Discuss board member attendance at board meetings. Also brought to us a bribe request from Mr. Griffin along with Mr. Scott and Mr. Lacy.
Ron, we're glad you you made it back we missed you we wanted to give you an opportunity to talk to us and tell us in the community how important the meetings are we feel there are and you know can you make them
I can address that first I do want to say yeah absolutely recent history I have been absent at several board meetings throughout the fall and I want I want to say to my colleagues on the board here, thank you. Thank you for picking up this link and I was paying attention to what was going on. And I felt like I needed to come back and whip you into shape. I would have, but no. No, I mean, quite frankly, I do believe and agree that it should be a priority for all board members. as part of the duties of the job. That being said, you know, Harvey hit us in August and impacted this entire community. I'm sure everyone in this room was somewhat impacted by that. Some people had very significant flooding in their homes. Obviously the district was greatly impacted by that. A lot of families were greatly impacted by that. For me and my Harvey related story, you know, I didn't have some of those things but I'm in the disaster restoration business and when that hit it was an all-hands-on-deck moment and really created a time period where it was time to go to work and still still going through that today because it didn't stop with Harvey right after Harvey hit tropical storm Lydia hit in Cabo which created some another challenge for us to go perform work for our clients there just after that a couple of weeks after that hurricane Irma formed out in the the Caribbean and it hit through the Virgin Islands as a Category 5 hurricane, which we are performing work in the Virgin Islands right now. It came on through after that and went through up the spine of Florida as well. About three weeks after that, Hurricane Maria, another Category 5 storm, went through the Caribbean, and I think most people know the impact that that had on the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. And with that, it created an environment where it was just, it changed my priorities. And because of that, and because it is more difficult to make this a priority today, you know, I'm at the end of my term coming up in May, and I will not be seeking re-election in May of this year. And I do encourage that anyone that is considering that to understand what that role is and what is important. And so with that again, I just want to say thank you to my colleagues It's not over. I will be striving through the end of my term to fully participate as a board member But I'll let you right know right now. My work is requiring me to be in New York City next Monday So I will not be here
Thank you, mr. Mouski is even have anything to add Okay. All right. Now we move on to agenda item seven, open forum. At this time, the Board of Trustees will hear from patrons established by board policy. The first 20 speakers who have signed up at least 15 minutes before this meeting began and have provided their first and last names 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 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 or the chief communications officer. Due to posting requirements of the Open Meetings Act, the board is able to respond only to to a statement related to a posted agenda item. Specific student issues, discipline, and personnel matters shall be addressed through the appropriate channels established by policy, and the presiding officer shall determine whether the 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. Now, because we are still out of our boardroom, we don't have our clock, our visual clock, for you to see your timing. Mr. Griffin will act as our... oh we have those now! He used to have to say it. He'll say it too, but I think you can't really miss that safety green card. But he will tell you when you have one minute remaining and then once that one minute is up your mic will be turned off. So first up we have Jeannie Griffith. Is she's still here. Madam President. There she is. Yes. When the one minute I'm
just gonna keep it up till the time is up. You're just gonna hold it? Okay. Go ahead and
shoot the sign right now. Yes go ahead. I'm Gigi Griffith your council PTA council president. The tradition has been in January for school board appreciation for us to bring in all of our presidents and present you with books that then they donate back to the libraries in your name. Logistically we just couldn't do that this year for obvious reasons. So what we would like to do instead is invite you to our March meeting to honor you and to put all the presidents in front of you because they want to tell you how much they appreciate you. So I'll let Sharon know when and where that is and you can come. We got you a little something that's on all of your that's from council and it's just a small thing to put on your new desk to say thank you and then we had some words that our leadership came up with that they wanted me to share with you tonight thank you for all that you do on behalf of our students and their families thank you for giving your time and talents without pay and often without recognition thank you for your service your selfless acts that make our public school district like Katie possible we might not always agree on issues but but please know that always, always, we support you in your work. That's it. Thank you. All right, thanks.
Thank you. All right, our next speaker is, and I'm probably gonna say your last name wrong, Yen, is it Rape or Rabie? Rabie. Rabie, okay, Yen Rabie. Should I start? Your time will start. When you get going, we'll hit your timer. Good evening.
My name is Yen Ra Bay. I am the Houston area chapter leader of the national organization Start School Later. We are dedicated to increasing public awareness about the relationship between sleep and school hours and to ensuring school start times are compatible with students' health, safety, and equity in education. One way we do this is by speaking at school board meetings like yours. We have already spoken at Houston, Goose Creek Consolidated and Pasadena ISDs. School districts are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of starting school later and are making the change. As you may have heard, HISD has recently announced that they will start middle and high school at 830 for the next school year. Goose Creek CISD will decide very soon. Texas City, Deer Park and Friendswood ISD all start high school at 830 or later. Dallas ISD high school starts at 9 a.m. and 915 a.m. Teenagers need a recommended 9 to 10 hours of sleep. The implication for starting school at 725 a.m. means students have to go to sleep by 8 p.m. in order to wake up well rested at 5 or 6 a.m. for school. How many teenagers do do you know go to sleep at 8 or 9 p.m.? Circadian rhythms research help us to understand that students biologically cannot sleep until 11 p.m., resulting in two to three hours of sleep deprivation per night. That is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8.30. Elementary school students also need adequate sleep, daylight to walk to the bus stop, and time to eat breakfast. That's when we recommend that elementary schools start no earlier than 7.45. What are some of the consequences of chronic sleep loss for teens? More automobile accidents and sports injuries. Increased depression, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse. Poor attention, poor problem solving, and academic performance. Increased risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Since we know about these unintended consequences, and if we do not change, it may result in potential problems arising from negligent suits, pointed out by Dr. Paul Kelly and Lee Clark of Education Committees of the States. On the other hand, studies have found when middle and high schools switch to later start times, student health and grades improve. There is a link between later start time and a reduction in sports injuries and car crashes involving teens. Number three, it did not appear to reduce the amount of time students spend engaged in afternoon school sports and other activities. Number four, more parental supervision after school. Number five, the benefits to the benefits to cost analysis is nine to one. Lastly, parents can implement an electronic media device.
Good evening. I'm kind of sad because a week ago today, and I'm going to do this with as much sensitivity as I can, we had another tragedy in the school district I'm sure you all are we're aware of what happened but it's very alarming to me because we have had presentations of special education students at open forums who have been talking about the bullying that they are receiving in 2014 2015 under a previous superintendent we had a program brochure created called beam several of y'all's names are on here as Board of Trustees and there's other people's names on here but we appeared to be doing something about bullying in our district. We had stickers, we had a program in place, y'all were all on board with this but somehow or another in four years we've seemed to have done nothing with it because nothing has changed. If anything we have had more upticks in bullying so we seem to have dropped the ball from a creation of a program in a previous super superintendent to now. Now this past summer I attended the PTA conference which I love those things and one of the things that I attended was a seminar on a new law that went into effect September 1st. It's called David's Law and it's in regards to cyber bullying and cyber stalking. I have seen absolutely nothing from this district in regards to educating the children on this and I'm really not asking the school district I am telling y'all we have to do something I don't ever want to spend another night in the emergency room holding the hand of a woman who attempted to commit suicide who I had no knowledge of knowing I was called to come and hold her hand I don't ever want to remove a knife from a teacher's throat again where she was going to commit suicide because she was being bullied by her principal we have a very serious culture that has permeated our district and it isn't just this it isn't now we if this has gone back to superintendents so what I would like is a commitment from this board and from you dr. hint for zero tolerance and that we really actively do something we have some great programs that some of our principals have put on mr. Cummings was speaking about one that he put on at McDonald junior high but we have a serious problem and it has to be addressed I'm not really asking so y'all know it that's pretty much what I have to say I mean thanks
right our next speaker is Andrew Sandeen did I get that right
good evening Andrew Sandeen president Van superintendent and board members so So tonight I want to just briefly bring up some of my comments about, as I put on the piece of paper, the book, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. That I'm going to tell you my understanding because I have not been able to get too much of a current status. I read the media in December. I found out what happened in November 6th board meeting. I did make two calls last week to contacts on your directory. Unfortunately, neither of them were returned. I was just trying to ask for the status of the review on this book. Because it was taken out of the library. So let me give you my impression of what I feel about this. First of all, let me tell you right up front, I read all 444 pages of this book. Okay, I think it's an excellent book. I think it's excellent for adults. I think it's excellent for teenagers. I give it some conditions. I go by what some of the experts say. There's a commonsensemedia.org that reviews movies, videos, books, everything for children. I find it's a good resource. It rated this book five stars. It rated it as far as a role model five stars. Educational value four out of five. So let me go kind of what I heard. You know, I heard through the media that this was removed from the library because it was pervasive vulgarity and racially insensitive language. language. So having read the book, let me read the definition of persuasive, pervasive, excuse me, pervasive from Merriam- Webster. Existing in or spreading through every part of something. I read the book, not true. It is not pervasive. It is in the early beginning, which the gentleman in November mentioned, and it is at the end. It is not pervasive. Racially Insensitive, this is a book about African Americans, their community, and I will tell you the impression I got with this family that this girl, 16 year old girl's in, they value education. The parents value education. They sent them to private schools to better themselves. This is a really family oriented book. Yeah, it has some language in it. And Racially insensitive this is a black community where a boy was killed and there were riots yes and appropriate yes so I think there's just a lot of value in this its family and strong values what concerns me is the way this was handled it came across and believe me I have so much respect for Katie is D great teachers a strength but the way this was handled one person thank you our next speaker
is Victoria or epitan I tried
Yes, I do. I live in Mason Lakes. Thank you. Good evening. I'm also here to talk about the hate you give. I am a product of KDISD. I went to Windborn Elementary before it was Windborn Elementary. I went to McDonald junior high which I heard someone mention earlier I went to Beck junior high because we moved and I went to and now teach at sinker in tri school it is important to me that students have the opportunity to read because reading is a window to Everything right and it is also important to me that students be able to make informed choices about the books They read I teach English one pre AP and so my students are curious. They are intelligent They are competent, right, and they are teenagers, right? They're interested in a variety of issues and a variety of topics, and they are changing and growing and learning. And so, for example, we just finished reading Oedipus Rex, which if you know the history, right, many of us know the story. It is a difficult and complex and sometimes controversial story, and what students gain from it is both an understanding of the world they live in, the world that Oedipus lived in, right, and the rules of our society. And so when we tell students, you can't read something, one, if you've ever known a teenager and you tell them no, then you know that they're going to do it. But two, right, you rob them of the chance to learn something about themselves, about the world around them, about their community, right? When I grew up in KDISD, there weren't as many people that look like me as there are now. And it's important to me that if I have students, and I and plan to raise children in Katy ISD, that my kids can read stories about people that look like them, telling positive stories, right, about the world as it exists, and that they get a chance to be exposed to that. And that we don't rob them of that opportunity because something makes us uncomfortable, or we don't like the language, right, or we're uncomfortable with the content. We can't change the world our kids live in.
One minute.
Right? But we can equip them for it. And one of the best ways to do that is by exposing them to worlds that are slightly different to theirs or adjacent to theirs through literature, right? None of us think our kids are going to become wizards because they read Harry Potter, right? But they are more sensitive and more creative because they've read the story of someone who struggled through something difficult. And that is also true for the hate you give. I would like us to be on the right side of these types of things, right? Our district has a history of pulling books that are award-winning and literary. and I would like to see that change. I'm concerned because tonight I hear big comments about a change to policy that I believe gives you the discretion to make these changes without any input from anybody else and I do have concerns. Thank you.
I do appreciate both speakers for coming and I think this is an opportune time for me to visit with our community and the two of you that came and spoke regarding this piece of literature first of all never did the district imply or say that the book was banned we removed the book pending further administrative review and that was because of an individual that came to the board and an 11 year old sixth grade female student took the book home with her in which the father was able to view the book with her I have the book here and I I've read the whole book also and I will tell you this it is a good book the content in the book the story the thesis it is practical and it is relevant to today all right but by the author's count and I would challenge anybody in this room to read some of the pages here I can't use the language in this meeting that's written in this book I think we're all adults and we know what the F bomb is all right it's four letters starts with an F and it ends with a K it's listed 92 times by the author's account in this book as a descriptor and just as a shock factor and I purely understand culture I purely understand our kids hear this all right they speak it unfortunately but but let me just explain because never did the district ban the book we removed the book because it is our jobs as educators to determine what is age appropriate as far as what's in our books never would I give a second grader an algebra 2 assignment or would I provide them that and expect them say that that's intellectual freedom. It's our job as educators to determine what is age-appropriate content. Also during that process I found that policy EF legal and nobody really wants to look at EF legal they referred to local policy that had some discrepancies in it. EF legal clearly provides discretion to a district to remove materials because because they are pervasively vulgar. Now, I know that a gentleman just told us Webster's Dictionary, and there is a lot of people that will try and define what is pervasive. Ninety-two times with the F-bomb in a book, as superintendent of schools hired by this board of trustees, I believe that is pervasive. Now, I'm not going to mention the total number of the S-word. It starts with an S and ends with a T. All right, I won't talk about the dam. I won't talk about the total number of racially insensitive The n-word I think we all know what we're talking about. I won't talk about the total numbers of the B word Referred to as a female dog. I won't refer to The ass word that's night were reviewed nor the use of And pardon me goddamn spirit throughout the book. I'm telling you folks. There's decision that has to be made by educators and when we talk about policy that says the district I am the district unless this board of trustees tells me otherwise and I did visit with folks never did we ban the book all right EF legal like I said says it can be removed because it's pervasively vulgar the book was not removed again because of the content or because of any dislike of the ideas expressed in the book it was removed purely so that we could get our hands around what is new literature in our schools and in our libraries and they are deemed as young adults you can go to a lot of these book reviews and they do not indicate the total amount of profanity in these books they they come in as young adult so I'm not saying we're removing these books I'm saying that we have to determine as a district based upon our local values what is great appropriate with these books and that's what we're in the process of doing that's what this local policy did here's the bottom line and this is what I am going to tell you as a superintendent we have a discipline management plan and you're an English one teacher will you let your kids stand up in your class and use the f-bomb I I as superintendent I disagree all right and we won't let kids run up and down the hallways using that bomb and as superintendent I will not have staff utilizing profanity f-bomb in whatever way in the classroom all right that is not going to happen we have firewalls on our computers in our district that do do not allow for these words to be accessed through our firewalls. All right? We have this book that's going to be made into a movie, and I'll probably go see it. But it will be an R-rated movie. It will be restricted. It will not be available for kids that are 17 or younger unless they are with a parent or a guardian. you FCC the reason I can't say in this microphone and say those words that I just described to you because we will be fine I can't go on a news report I was offered and I said look if I come on your news report I'm going to use the actual language in the book and they said you can't do that or we'll get fined by the FCC that's radio and TV all right so folks this has nothing to do with the content I love the story too I read it I read it twice but I do fundamentally a superintendent of schools disagree that we can put that type of language profanity in the hands of a minor student without some type of informed parental consent and I know that we have some adult or some some information that is provided to kids through some of our AP classes that we ask for informed parental consent. And if the parent does not want that child with that resource, we provide them an alternative. We don't force it on them. So again, you know, we can't provide unfiltered access to books. We have to make a determination what is grade appropriate. And we as a committee of my administration have determined it is not great appropriate for junior high and it is appropriate for high school if there is informed parental consent and I have no problem whatsoever putting a parent in between the decision making of whether a child takes a piece of literature that has a great story but has more than 300 uses of profanity 92 F bombs used in various ways of describing I don't have that problem and this board hired me an hometown kid I believe to represent the values of this community and unless this board tells me otherwise I'm going to move forward with the plan that we have in place that we've incorporated discussions with our librarians we'll have a process in place that will be electronic and it's informed parental consent for books that that we determine as young adult books. I'm not removing them from the shelves, but I wanna make sure a parent is aware that their child has that book in their hand before the next sixth grader shows up at home with a book that has this type of profanity. Now, here's the deal. I clearly understand that there are those that will agree with me, and there are those that will not agree with me, all right? But again, the luxury of being hired by a school board is that they put their faith in me to make decisions that I believe is in the best educational interest of our students. Alright? And that's what I have done here. Again, it's not banned from high school kids, but there is going to be a process in place that a parent is in between the decision making process. A parent of a minor child is going to help with the decision making process as to whether or not that student has access to that text. And it's not this text. I know we've got a lot more coming. It's a new day and age in public education. So I appreciate you coming. I really do. Alright. I appreciate the opportunity to explain because I think there's a lot of misconception out there or there's a lot of people thinking I removed it because of the content. That's a hundred percent false. It was not removed because of the story or the content. It was removed because it has over 300 uses of all those different words that I've had here and again I would challenge any parent that is in here now that wants to see what I'm talking about to visit with me afterwards and I know this isn't the only book we have on our shelves now I believe this is the only one that has that total number of the f-bombs in it unless I find out otherwise but but I understand that we have content and I just as this becomes more prevalent in our schools and in our libraries we've got to get a grasp on it now so that we don't put ourselves in a decision-making process where we side with one side that thinks it should have unencumbered or total access to kids where we have another side that says we don't think it belongs on our shelves at all all right so I hope you guys understand this is has not been an easy task I think that the district has taken some undue press that was totally skewed from the reality of why it was removed again it was not removed because of the content it was removed quite simply because there were 92 F bombs that ended up in a book in the hands of an 11 year old girl and and And we had to get our hands around that. All right?
All right.
Our next speaker is Nashira Lundy. I'm sorry if I said it wrong. It's a beautiful name.
Actually, my name is Nashira. Shirelendi and I'm 15 years old. Could you be a little bit closer to the mic?
Just so I can hear it a little bit better. Can you hear me now? Okay. They know that I have a hard time.
I'm sorry about that. Today I'm here to thank you for placing the hate you give back on the school shelves with parental consent. Before I read this book I didn't feel very confident in who I was. I felt as if the people at my school wouldn't accept me for who I was. Then I picked up this book and read Star Carter's story. I was shocked. For the first time I was able to truly see myself in a book character. Like Star, I'm a black female who attended a predominantly white prep school. I struggled to feel as if I could be myself. After reading her story and seeing how she went from feeling like she had to adjust to the environment that she was in to feeling as if she had a voice and that she should be bold enough to share it, it made me feel confident and as if I shouldn't be afraid to embrace who I am. This book also taught me about the real life emotions that people go through in a time like this, a time of unnecessary crisis. It taught me that I have the capability to fight with my voice even even when it's hard. It feels good to know that other students will have the opportunity to read this book, with parental consent, of course. I hope that they have just as much of a connection with STAAR as I did. Once again, on behalf of myself and the 4,000 who signed my petition to get this book back on the shelf, thank you so much.
I recognize the name now.
You sent me a tweet, didn't you? Yes, sir. All right. And let me ask the question, though. I think you started off with this. You have no problem whatsoever with your parent being involved in the decision making process.
Why no sir, I believe that students should have intellectual freedom, but if their parent does not agree, then that's between the parent and them. I do not think that one man, the man who said that, who read 13 pages, should have control over what the students read. So, yes sir. Thank you.
See I did want to agree.
Our next speaker is Jonathan Otero.
I'm clearly not Jonathan Otero. My husband was to speak, but he had to fly out, so he didn't make it. So I'm going to be speaking for him. I'm clearly not Jonathan Otero.
I wish I would have known. I'm sorry I would have put him ahead. He had been waiting here so patiently all evening.
I apologize.
Give him our apology. We had a lot of speakers tonight.
Yes ma'am. So I'm not Jonathan Otero. He was born and raised here in the US. He's a commodity trader by profession and he has an educational background in mechanical engineering. He's the father of two daughters who you guys got to see sitting here with us. Now they're very busy with their slime. Our oldest daughter is in the first grade TWI program at Filber and the other is in pre-k at Spanish Schoolhouse because we want her to go to TWI as well. He is a native English speaker but he has worked extremely hard throughout our life to become a fluent Spanish speaker. He can tell you first hand the value of second language exposure at that early age like we're trying to provide for our daughters. Both of his parents are native Spanish speakers. He, however, does not speak with native proficiency because they did not continue to speak Spanish until past the age of three for personal reasons. He will never speak as a native speaker. His proficiency level has been acquired through tremendous study, meeting with tutors, taking classes, everything he could do. And none of his siblings speak Spanish because they did not have any native exposure as a young child. It's really, really important to our family. And it's greatly influenced by exposure at the younger age. It's precisely because of this that we want our daughters to be in the immersion program. And if it weren't for Fielder TWI, we would have moved to Sugarland. We moved to Katy specifically for the TWI program because it just made so much more sense for our family to prioritize our children even though economically and for his work life it made sense to be in another area. We specifically sought the house that we live in to be zoned to Fielder so that we wouldn't be zoned out of the program as well. And we never imagined that a problem program like TWA might be taken away from the school so we didn't even consider that. It's kind of like McDonald's deciding that they weren't going to serve hamburgers anymore to take away such a popular program that people from out of the country call to talk about. Over having is definitely a problem we understand that but our school is super well liked and Fielder is very well rated partially because of that program. I know many people in the neighborhood move primarily to be in that program. The last thing you want to do is get rid of it we really pray that you will not. A A better solution, we think, would be to expand the program. There are under-populated schools like Williams that would attract more students. We just plead with you guys, please. It's really important to many of us. We've prioritized and wrapped our whole lives around our children being in this program because their education comes first. So we ask that you help them get that early exposure. Thank you.
So I don't have a question.
Is Jonathan?
You can call me Jonathan, whatever.
What is your name?
My name is Tamara.
Tamara, thank you, Tamara. Thank you.
Our next speaker is Karen Linares. I have all of it. I'm sure I probably said that wrong.
Can I approach you to call it?
It's really quick.
Should I start? Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. My name is Karen Linares. My background is in psychology and early childhood development and learning. Mother of two children at the grader in the two-way immersion language program also known as TWI and a first grade grader in the bilingual program at Fielder. We are a group of parents whose children are enrolled at Fielder Elementary and are students in the two-way immersion program. The majority of us, if not all, live in the area zone to Fielder. We are here representing many families like us who have chosen to come to KDISD in search for an exceptional academic experience within a family-friendly community. Currently, Fielder Elementary hosts two different language programs. The one-way language program, also known as the bilingual program, and the two-way immersion program, or TWI. The bilingual program is for Spanish-speaking children to develop stronger English skills skills so that they may transition to English only classrooms. It is not only essential to reduce academic failure, it is required by the state of Texas. The two-way immersion program or TWI serves two groups of student populations. Native English speakers and native Spanish speakers. The main goal is that both languages are developed and maintained for both groups. Fielder is part of the TWI program and and both bilingual and TWI have become part of our identity. Now, it has been brought to our attention that Fielder Elementary is currently overcapacity. The factors related to the overcrowding of Fielder are numerous, and according to our observations include, first, new multifamily housing units built within Fielder's current zone in the last five years. Second, an exodus of empty nesters or families with other children from the school zone. Third, the consequent influx of families with elementary age children moving into communities within the zone, including those who move as a result of Harvey. And fourth, the lack of popular special language programs at other schools in the district, other than those of Fielder and Memorial Parkway Elementary Schools. schools. We want to emphasize that special language programs, both bilingual and TWI, are in high demand, and moving them out seems like a step back. Current demographics makes it necessary to expand these programs to other schools. Our proposal today is to open more special language programs in neighboring schools like Cimarron, Alexander, Exley, and Williams Elementary. The centralization of the language programs is an elegant solution to the LEDA overcrowding at Fielder and help mitigate future growth. In addition, it will bring more children closer to their neighborhood schools. To summarize, we propose to keep, spend, and continue. We are prepared to give DWI a spin there.
Thank you.
Our final speaker for this evening is Jennifer Marbach.
Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Jennifer Marbach. My husband and I have lived in Katy since 1999. We have two kids in Katy ISD and my daughter is the third grader in the TWI program at Fielder. I do not speak Spanish. I know very, very little, but I will tell you the program has been remarkable for her and we feel very fortunate for her to be part of it. Obviously, I represent a larger group of parents who want to be heard in this forum. At Fielder's open house in October, we learned that as a result of Fielder's overcrowding, the leadership of KDISD has begun to review possible options to reduce the student population. They're considering moving, removing, or removing either bilingual, TWI, or both of the special language programs. The following are our main concerns. Number one, initially the TWI program was placed at Fielder and at Memorial Parkway because those campuses already housed bilingual programs. Due to the nature of the two-way immersion program, many students qualify for bilingual support services. Moving only one of the programs presents the problem that the students would be left without the necessary support staff and resources afforded them through the bilingual program. In addition, many families have one child in bilingual and one in TWI. this solution would divide those families between two schools. We have also heard that the board is considering moving these programs to another location such as Williams or Cimarron Elementary. However this would just transfer the overpopulation from Fielder to another school. Based on what Dr. Hint expressed the night of Fielder's open house, students currently enrolled in the TWI and or bilingual program would not be affected if the programs were were moved to another school because the program would be phased out year after year through attrition. However, the concern is that families with younger children would be split between two campuses and younger siblings would not attend the same school as their older brother or sister. This would obviously produce a logistic issue as parents would have to pick up and drop off their students at different schools with the same schedule. After expressing these concerns, we would like to propose to keep, expand, and continue. We advocate to keep TWI and bilingual at Fielder, to expand this wonderful program of TWI and bilingual to other campuses, and to continue special language programs in middle school. Thank you.
I think you started off with though you understand that it's campus that was built for nine thousand nine hundred kids and we're sitting there at about twelve hundred kids and then you closed with you would like to see us keep the TWI and the bilingual and yes I did speak to the open house group and did come and speak and said look we created this problem we're going to have to fix the problem and I want to correct you on one thing I do feel for the parents that live in the Fielder zone that if we were to move one of those programs they're now not going to be at their home campus so we're looking at various ways but my question to you is if you got a campus built for 900 and you've got 1200 and you want both TWI and bilingual to stay and actually want to see it expanded into junior high what's your solution for Fielder Elementary's overcrowding
Well, I think that a lot of kids are brought into the programs in the bilingual and TWI because it's only, I can speak for TWI, it's only at two campuses. I know from going to the information nights when my daughter was going into kindergarten that there's so much interest, especially from the English-speaking parents, which is what I represent, for this program. and really you have to be zoned to Fielder or West Memorial where the other one is in order to even have a chance of your child to getting into the program. I would really like to see it expanded to other elementary schools. It's a great program. The only Spanish I know is what I know from Dora the Explorer. My daughter, but my daughter can can do a whole speech in Spanish and it just it
just is amazing to me. But I think you understand the challenge because really I didn't get an answer 900 kids 1200 there there's 500 kids there that occupy either 250 and bilingual 250 in TWI and about a hundred of those kids in bilingual and a hundred of those kids in TWI are actually zoned to field or so I don't want y'all to think that I don't know the dilemma that we're faced with but I want you to know that first and foremost we have to get a campus down to a suitable number where we don't have half of a playground that has 12 to 14 T buildings on it. So that there's something that has to happen and it's probably not going to be popular with a few but we're still going to provide the opportunity to be involved and to participate in TWI and bilingual. That's not going away. It just may be be that it's not at that building and it may be at another building. And I'm just sharing this with you because we've spent a month now, over a month, matter of fact since the time I met with the Fielder parents at Fielder to understand the issues and I've become more acquainted with those. But we're going to bring a plan forward. My hope is that we have something in place before the end of this month that we can communicate first of February that meets the needs of our kids and will meet the needs of those parents that are zoned to field or elementary whether you're in regular ed
bilingual or TWI I would request that maybe some of the parents be involved in some of the research that you're doing oh believe me okay I mean I'll admit I am the least informed of probably all of these ladies that are here tonight but but some of them have spent hours and hours going over this and putting something together. And I'm sure there's some really great ideas that we could come up with.
And let me say this also. I know that because of our policy, y'all had to combine and had to put some thoughts together. I do have Ms. Padillo, Ms. Johnson, Ms. Fernandez, and Ms. Alvarado Pacheco that I will get in contact with within the next couple of days. No school tomorrow because of ice. but I'll be in contact with you just to hear your thoughts and what you wanted to share all right thank you
all right there being no further business before the board this meeting is adjourned the time is 8 53 p.m. better than last week month
Official documents
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Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 3.1
PassedI move that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the superintendent in Closed Meeting.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| bill-lacy | Yes |
| bryan-michalsky | Yes |
| charles-griffin | Yes |
| courtney-doyle | Yes |
| george-scott | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |