The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, February 19, 2018 and the time is 6.37 p.m. The board met earlier this evening in closed meeting. Any action arising from discussions in closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting. Dr. Hint, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act regarding the notice for this meeting?
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Madam President, we are in compliance with the provisions of the Open Meetings Act with regards to this meeting tonight.
Thank you. On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's Board Work Study Meeting. To prepare for this meeting, each Board member has received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Friday, February 16th, and they have had three days to study its contents and to seek clarification from Dr. Hint. This evening, the items posted on the agenda will be presented to the Board by staff, administration, and by the Superintendent. The Board will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss agenda items during tonight's meeting. We will now move on to 3.1, consider Board approval of personnel report.
Madam President.
Mr. Griffin.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves of personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meetings.
Second. Second. A motion has been made by Mr. Griffin and a second by Ms. Doyle that the Board of Trustees approves a personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting. Is there any discussion? Being none, we'll now proceed to vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. No, and none opposed. Motion passes seven to zero. And I see that we have a scout in the audience. Would you please stand? And come to the podium. Tell us your name, your pack, and what badge you're working on.
I'm Chief 1288, and I am working on the communications and the citizenship in the community merit badge.
Thank you for joining us. All right. Next we have recognition. Peace Officer, Oath of Office.
Thank you.
and oath of office. Tonight we have two newly commissioned officers, a call upon Officer Samuel Petrarca and Officer Deirdre Santee to come forward to take the oath of office and be recognized as members of the Katy ISD Police Department.
Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Deidre Santee. I, Samuel Petrarca. Do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of the Office of Peace Officer of Katy Independent School District of the State of Texas of the state of Texas, and will, and will, to the best of my ability, to the best of my ability, preserve, 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 the state, so help me God, so help me God. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.
All for sure, Samuel Petrocco was born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, graduating from Fresno's High School. Sam served five years in the United States Navy before earning his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Texas at Brownsville. He began his law enforcement career with the San Benito Police Department prior to moving to Keddie with his wife and best friend Christina Marie with whom he has two beautiful daughters. Officer Petrarca began his service with Keddie ISD Police Department in October of 2017. Officer Deidre Santee is a graduate of Hempstead High School. She attended college at Prairie View A&M University where she studied criminal justice. Deidre has 15 plus years combined combined state service where she worked with Brenham State Supported Living Center, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, and Texas Department of Public Safety in the driver's license division. She is a certified telecommunications officer and worked as a dispatcher in Waller County. County. In October 2016, Officer Santee made the decision to attend the University of Houston Downtown Police Academy, which she graduated from on April 28, 2017. Deidre began her service with the KDISD Police Department in November 2017. She has four children, and believe it or not, three grandchildren, with whom she loves doing family oriented activities. Please Please help me welcome Samuel Petrarca and Deidre Santee.
Guys, I'll tell you what, we've got a fabulous force here and I know that you guys are going to add to it. I'd like to take a quick moment and just a conversation with our Board President to recognize not only our first responders, of which you guys are part of that group, but also the first responders and the situation that occurred in Florida. If I could, I'd like to ask for just a moment of silence and recognition of our first responders and those families that are suffering through the situation there in Florida. Thank you and welcome aboard again. Appreciate it. Yes, welcome to the
district. Now we'll move on to our consent agenda. 5.1 consider future board approval the recommendation for transportation sustainability based on the results of the Katy Independent School District Transportation Sustainability Survey. Presenters Ms. Christine Wells, Lee Cruz, Bill Wood and
Mr. Bailey. Good evening President Vann, Board Members, Dr. Hinn. As part of KDISD's strategic design plan, goal two asks that the district look to customize resources in response to the needs of a growing district. Specific results 2.3 relating to a three bell schedule and 2.4 relating to a two mile turn-by-turn transportation eligibility both directly affect our Transportation Department and and are closely linked to the growing bus driver shortage we are currently experiencing. Tonight, we are here to provide an update on transportation sustainability and offer a recommendation for the road ahead. To lead off tonight, we will have Dr. Christine Wells with K-12 Insight, and she will be reporting on a recently completed transportation survey by their group. Dr. Wood, our Executive Director of Transportation, will provide an overview of our current transportation model and some of the challenges we are facing as well as some solutions that he can provide going forward. Chris Bailey who is an AP at Stockdick Junior High is here to assist. Chris is currently enrolled in a doctoral program and working on this presentation is a part of his doctoral process. Chris wanted me to be sure and mention that he is a Baylor doctoral program applicant applicant, so he's very proud of that. After they've completed the reports, I'll be back to provide a recommendation from the district on our transportation sustainability moving forward. Dr. Wells.
Good evening. The report that you're about to hear reviews the transportation sustainability Sustainability Survey that was conducted by k12 insight Katie ISD is about evaluating various near-term and future options for transportation sustainability Katie realizes that there are potential changes to the current transportation service model could and would have an impact on the community for this reason the district administered a Transportation sustainability survey to gather feedback for the cup for the community regarding options that address this issue you Katie k12 insight emailed invitations with survey links to parents staff and community members a public access link was available on the district website the survey was open January 17 through the 31st and reminders were sent on January 24 24th and 31st findings for each item in this report exclude participants who did not answer in the charts and graphs that followed data labels less than 5% are not shown. This slide reflects the participation. The number of invitations delivered by email were 98,000. Of those 98,000, 19,135 participants responded. On the public link available on the website, 1,108 participants responded. The survey was available in English and in Spanish. Spanish, 19,644 participants took the survey in English and 599 took the survey in Spanish. Next we're going to take a closer look at those participants who took the survey by reviewing their participant profile. As we go on I want to point out the note at the bottom of the screen. You'll note some information for participants as you review the screens that follow. For example, this slide, the sum of the percentages may exceed 100 because participants for this particular question could select more than one response. The question asked participants, which of the following applies to you? They asked several indicators about their profile. 82% of the participants taking the survey said that they were a parent or guardian of a child who currently attends Katy ISD school, followed by 21% of the participants saying that they are employee of KDISD who lives within the KDISD boundaries. Taking an even closer look we asked how long they lived within KDISD. 41% of the respondents answered that they lived in KDISD for more than 10 years. 30% of participants responded that they had lived in KDISD for one to five years. We then took an even closer look by looking at the participant profile and asked to them to select the region in which they reside you'll notice up here on the pie chart 48% live in the Southwest quadrant the Southwest quadrant of the district is south of I-10 west of Grand Parkway with 48% responding the second highest participant group is coming from the the southeast quadrant of the district, which is south of I-10, east of Grand Parkway. On the next slide, we asked parents or guardians to select what grade level their child was in. Overall, 63% of participants who took this survey said that they have a child in elementary school, followed by junior high, and then closely behind that was high school. We then asked the employee type for participants who are taking the survey. 63% of the respondents taking the survey who identified as an employee of KDISD identified themselves as a teacher, counselor, librarian, or nurse. Now looking at transportation to and from school. We asked parents and guardians how elementary students got to and from school every day. A number of choices were given. Again pointing out that note the sum of the percentages may equal 100 percent percent more than 100 percent because participants could select more than one option for the specific question. 51 percent said said that their student uses transportation by the district for elementary. We asked a follow-up question for those parents or guardians about how frequently they rely on transportation provided by the district to get your elementary school student to school. Parents and guardians respond that almost half, 49%, that they almost always use the transportation provided by the district. 44% said that they never use that as an option. Asking the same two questions, we move on to junior high students. How does your junior high student get to and from school on most days? 55% said that their students use transportation provided by the district, followed by 36% of participants saying that their students are driven to and from school in a car. Again, we asked the question, how frequently do you rely on transportation provided by the district to get your junior high student to and from school? 53% that they always are almost, almost always do rely on that support. And then our final group, we asked parents or guardians of our high school students, how does your high school student get to and from schools on most days? 42% said their student is driven to school in a car, followed closely by 40% of them responding that they use transportation provided by the district. Our final question in this series of questions was asking high school students, parents, or guardians how frequently they rely on transportation provided by the district to get their high school student to school. 48% said that they never did and 35% said always or almost always. We then moved on to two specific questions which we will again to break down further. Asking of one of two options what their preferred strategy and bell schedule would be. The two options provided to participants in the survey were one, option one would to be to modify the distance to a two-mile turn-by-turn model for both elementary and secondary students this will allow the district to provide a sustainable level of service though it would reduce the current service level the second option was to modify a multi-bell schedule that would result in differing start and end times for elementary junior high and high schools this would allow the district to sustain its existing level of service and drivers can make multiple runs as we go on i will refer to them as option one and option two but those descriptions you'll note are in the bullets within the key itself if you need to refer to what those specifically are for this first question uh which of the following options do you prefer participants were given those two subcategories 71% of the respondents preferred option number two. Taking a closer look, we again looked at this same question, but we desegregated the information by elementary, high school, junior high, and employees. If we look a little closer at the school level, as well as the employee groups, number two was favored by all respondents, option number two. 74% of elementary, 70% from junior high, 70% from high school, and 63% all responding option two. We then broke it down even further. If you recall back to slide number 11, the preferred strategy method of transportation to and from elementary school students was that their students used transportation provided by the district. If we focus in on that subgroup, again, 80% of those who had the highest participation on slide number 11 said that they prefer option number 2. Again drilling down even further, when we look at junior high, their highest percentage was students who were transported to school provided transportation by the district. 77% of those who were highest rated in that category reference that they are in favor of option number two and again our high school students who said that most students is driven to and from school in a car 66% of them said that they do favor option two and each of those categories on the specific slide are detailed even further between option one and option two based upon the corresponding slides previously the following question should the district modify its two bell schedule to a multi schedule which grade level would you prefer to have a later start and end time for the school day we ask participants to rank their preferences for the choices listed one being their first choice and three being their last choice you will notice on this slide that each respondent group elementary junior high high school and employees have ranked their top one two and three choices this slide reflects that the data supports high schools having the earliest start time followed by elementary schools and finally junior high schools again we take a little step further and asked looking at the actual overall weight excuse me overall rank with the weighted score in k-12 insight a weighted score is the total number of points of all the submitted answers. For example, a rank of one by a participant on the survey receives three points, a rank of two would receive two points, and a rank of one would be one point. That's where you'll see the total relative weighted score, excuse me, the weighted score followed by an average which represents the relative weighted score. Again, overall the data supports high schools having the earliest start time followed by the elementary schools and finally the junior high schools at k-12 insight we just pull out some data based upon our findings from the survey and that's reflected in this final slide an executive summary overall 71% of Katy ISD community who responded preferred option number two which includes modifying to a multi Bell schedule that will have start and end times that result in high schools being first followed by elementary school and finally junior high schools across all three school levels and employees the preferred strategy is to modify to a multivital schedule that will have start and end times that result in high schools beginning first followed by elementary school and finally junior high schools thank you very much for your time
I'm not used to having to turn myself on. Oh, Mr. Cruz, I'm sorry. You're fine.
Okay, so now that we've had the survey results presented, we're going to move on to a transportation sustainability presentation. And Dr. Wood will be doing the majority of the presentation, as I mentioned, but Chris Bailey will be assisting. existing. Just a reminder that we are looking at goal number two and specific results 2.3 and 2.4. Here's goal two, and that is to develop customized resources to ensure equity in response to the needs of a growing district with rapidly changing demographics. And then here is strategic results, or specific results 2.3, which is a three bell schedule. And we did establish a collaborative team which you'll hear a little bit about and we did have looked at the impact of a three bell schedule or a multi bill schedule on the the district and then finally the two mile turn by turn we also did some study on what what it would show for the district as far as savings and as far as solving our problem with drivers and dr. wood will be addressing that as well and mr.
Mr. Cruz, I'm going to add also not only were those goals actions in our strategic plan, but this board may recall in my first year here, my evaluation, you asked me to investigate those two items as well. Dr. Wood?
Thank you, Mr. Cruz. President Vann, board members, Dr. Hint, it's a pleasure to be here tonight to speak to you about KDISD transportation sustainability. As we move forward, I'd like to take a quick look at current transportation for 2017-18. Currently, our eligibility standard is a half-mile radius for elementary students and a one-mile radius for secondary students. We have 410 bus routes, and we have approximately 375 drivers. As you can see, we're about 35 drivers short of what we need to achieve our goals in transportation. And I need to add that those two numbers are consistently changing as we seemingly add routes every couple of weeks and we have a steady ebb and flow of bus drivers. In addition, School Bus Fleet Magazine, according to them, we have the fourth largest school bus fleet in the state of Texas. So we are a large organization and we are a growing organization. Everything we do in KDISD Transportation is based on our organizational goals. Those goals are safety, efficiency, and responsiveness. Now, you already know that we're down 35 drivers, so the problem is that it is very difficult to achieve our organizational goals and to be an excellent organization when we're down 35 drivers. It's very difficult. Now, to be clear, this is not simply a KDISD problem. This is not a Houston area problem. This is not even a Texas problem. This is a nationwide driver shortage. shortage. And as I said, all areas of transportation are impacted, including safety. When we have to replace a regular driver with another staff member, that staff member does not know the road as well, does not know the route, does not know the kids, does not know the campus as well, and that can impact safety. In addition, many times the replacement drivers are mechanics. mechanics. And that begs the question, if our mechanics are driving for two to four hours every day, who's fixing the buses? That's another problem that we have. And in some cases, this lack of drivers can lead to temporary overcrowding on buses. Efficiency is also impacted because we must replace, those routes have to go. We don't have a choice. We have to run them. We have to to replace those drivers with other staff members, whether it be mechanics, whether it be financial clerks or routers, we have to replace them. And their jobs are not being done in a timely or efficient manner. In addition, the practice of double runs has become and will continue to be a problem. It's inherently inefficient. What a double run is, is a bus and a driver picks up a set of students, takes them on the first three or four stops and circles back to the campus to pick up that the group the next group that was assigned to that bus we simply don't have anyone left at the transportation center to do that job now because mechanics are driving quite often our regularly scheduled preventive maintenance is foregone we have to delay it and when we delay it it cost us money as a district it cost us in terms of miles per gallon and it also cost us in terms of the life of the bus. And finally, we can't be responsive to our community, to our patrons, and to our campuses because there's simply no one left there to attend to the needs. There's no one left in the facility to answer emails in a timely manner or answer phone calls in a timely manner. I think it's important to note some of the variables that we're fighting whenever we try to forecast for transportation, such as hazardous routes. Now, hazardous routes are difficult because we don't know where they are before the school year starts. They are tied to, hazardous routes are tied to growth, and we need to go out and inspect them before we declare them hazardous routes or hazardous areas. So it's difficult to start. We know we're going to have hazards, We just don't know how many. Also, special education is an issue. We allocate resources based on need, and that need for special education is constantly changing. It's a bit like hitting a moving target at times. And also, everybody in KDISD knows about the growth rate and how difficult it is to manage. It's not different in transportation. Our economic conditions and our retention rate go hand in hand. it seems whenever we have an improving economy our retention rate does slow and finally with seatbelts seatbelts no matter how we cut it are going to decrease capacity on our buses and it creates another variable for us in transportation to forecast it's also important to note the area pay rates for bus drivers bus drivers starting pay as you can see for KDISD is 1666 per hour We are pretty much in the middle of the pack, slightly ahead of Cyphair and Spring ISD with Lamar Consolidated ISD at $17.50 an hour. Now, in accordance with Goal 2 of the KDISD Strategic Plan, we have the following options to present. The first is the eligibility standard of a two-mile turn-by-turn with the current bell schedule. Now, what a two-mile turn-by-turn is, it is simply an eligibility measurement from a patron's home address to the school using the public road network. We feel that there are several pros with the two-mile turn-by-turn, including increased safety mainly because our mechanics will be able to stay in the shop and work on the buses and we'll be able to use regular drivers on the regular routes. We'll also increase responsiveness because we will have people on staff to be able to communicate with our community members and our campuses in a timely manner. This is also consistent with state reimbursement. We are not currently reimbursed for any activities or any operations inside of two miles. Most districts use this standard as well. Districts are sized predominantly. And this also allows for flexibility with regard to the seatbelt issue. And as a side note, this will eliminate approximately 127 routes. We feel that this could save the district $2.3 million in savings, and mainly in maintenance and fuel cost. Now certainly there are cons to this particular standard. The change in eligibility standard change is hard at times. The turn-by-turn eligibility issues will arise in the same way that we have issues with the radius standard. Because of the configuration of our neighborhoods in Katy ISD, this will be an issue. This could be an issue. We will also almost certainly see increased traffic congestion near schools because there will be a reduction in eligibility of students. There will be more students walking and more students will become car riders. The second option I would like to present is a half mile and one mile radius standard with a multi bell schedule. Now this will also increase our safety because our mechanics and our staff will be in and our regular drivers will be able to work in their jobs. This will also increase efficiency through enhanced pairing practices. Basically we will be able to run multiple runs instead of two in the morning and two in the afternoon. We also feel that this is going to increase our responsiveness because our people will be in their jobs to be able, our secretaries and all of our staff, routers and our dispatchers will be in their jobs they won't have to be out on regular routes they will be able to respond to our community our patrons in our campuses this will also allow us flexibility one of the more important points I recently held three separate meetings with drivers at the various centers the three centers and they all agree that retention will be increased because we will be able to increase the the bus drivers hours with this particular plan. And also, there will be a decrease in traffic congestion near schools because of the staggering of the start times. And as a note, this will eliminate approximately 75 routes. This will result in an estimated $1.2 million in savings as well. Now the cost of this particular plan, the Transportation Department must set the schedule for the elementary schools. This is common with districts that use a multi-bell schedule and it's really a necessary part of this equation. Also, undeliverable elementary students in the afternoon will create timeliness issues downstream. And finally, the complimentary transportation of teacher and staff kids will, if not be almost entirely, I mean being limited to a very small extent or eliminated completely. Now, these are the proposed bell times for the multi-bell schedule. The current schedule is at the top. The multi-bell schedule is at the bottom. And as you can see, the high school is not changed at all. Elementary group one begins at 8, ends at 3.20. Elementary group two, 8.20 to 3.40. and the proposed time for junior high school is 845-2355.
It's important to note that elementary group one is not a geographic area. You could have an elementary school just down the street from another elementary school that could be on that flex time to help us with the traffic issues around there.
That is absolutely right, and it is also based on the efficiency of the route. Now I'd like to introduce to you Mr. Chris Bailey. He will take the remainder of this presentation.
Thank you, Dr. Wood. Just a little bit more information to share, some information about how this recommendation may affect campus activities and how the district will provide support at the junior high schools, understanding that there may be a need for junior high students to be dropped off at school when their high school siblings begin school, the district would be providing or looking into providing a early morning stipend for supervision for for for students who need to be dropped off at school early either by their high school siblings or by their parents that that are going to be leaving for work so that the building will be open as early as 7 15 or 7 20 in the morning to align with the high school start time also you'll You'll see with this recommendation that extracurricular activities could potentially move practices and rehearsals to early morning start times and create opportunities for students to participate before school, freeing up some time after school. And then we'll also see shifts in academic interventions, tutorials, and so forth moving moving to the morning times as well. Mr. Cruz, there you are.
Well, thanks to Mr. Bailey, Dr. Wood, and Dr. Wells for their reports. And it is really a summary of all these items that I want to make our recommendation based on. So after review of the feedback collected from the district collaborative team, literally thousands of survey responses, and taking into consideration the need to address our bus driver shortage, as well as improve pedestrian and auto safety at our multi-level campuses. We are recommending to the Board of Trustees that the current distance eligibilities remain in place for the 2018-19 school year, with a half mile for elementary and a one mile for secondary. We are also recommending that the KDISD move to a multi-bill schedule as the one presented tonight. At this time, we'll take any questions.
Madam President. Mr. Hint. Dr. Hint, Mr. Frailey had done a roundtable with his high school students just to get their feedback when we talked about this in the past. Did you have an opportunity to talk to your high school students and see how this change would affect them?
I did. We had, I think there's about 130 kids in my student leadership form. They're all high school students, freshman level all the way to senior level. Out of the 130 students, there was only one student that wanted to move to a later start time. Let me tell you what the reasons were. A lot of the students indicated at the high school level, besides the fine arts and athletics, several of them were working jobs after school. Several of them were in work programs. Several of them had CTE internships. And those were the various things that they told me with regards to moving it. Overwhelming, they wanted the high school to remain the same.
Thank you. That's the same thing that Mr. Frailey had found out also. Thank you.
Madam President.
Mr. Lacy.
Mr. Cruz, I have two quick questions. I promise you you'll know both of them right off the top of your head. The first one is, when we're talking about the turn-by-turn, is it start at the front door of the school to the front door of the house, or is it to the bus stop located closest to?
Each school has a designated location. Right now, it's the edge of the property that we measure the radius from, the edge of the property. But if we were to do turn-by-turn, we would probably have to designate something in front of the school, for instance, the flagpole. And it is from in front of their house. Yes.
Okay. Second question is, Mr. Wood, you mentioned that we may be increasing the driver's day. Do we know approximately how much? And are we looking at getting up to 40 hours? or how many and and I should I guess accompany that with how many hours are they working now
generally well there's no guarantee of of hours generally between six and seven each day yes sir
okay thank you and and Mr. Wood I apologize it's Dr. Wood all right I'll I'll give you the credit
you deserve there I'm not offended what uh real quick follow-up is that six or seven with the
new plan or is that what's current? It varies with multiple because we have multiple jobs so we have lead drivers that work more. Our drivers can work between four and five but we expect for them to be between six and seven. Understood. Perfect. Thank you. Madam President. Mrs. Doyle. I have a question. With a
multi-bill schedule, Dr. Wood or Mr. Cruz, either of you could answer this, will this affect if our bus drivers are now running multiple routes in the morning and in the afternoon does this affect our ability for them to transport our children for field trips and things like that the only limitation on field trips
will be the time so the time change will impact basically how far they can go okay we should have adequate staff to be able to to take care of all those field trips
I would follow up I would think with increasing the bus drivers hours that that could potentially increase the interest in people wanting to work in our district? Because I'm assuming every, is there, are there other districts that are running these multiple, whenever we looked at the price, the cost comparison or the, I'm sorry, the salary comparison?
There are other districts that run multi-bell. In fact, Cyfair does run a multi-bell, a hybrid, and they pay less than we do. Other districts do do this. we anticipate that it will be beneficial for us in retention. As I said, we held three focus groups last week, maybe it was the week before, with groups of drivers at each center, and it was 100% that they would be very encouraged to remain bus drivers and thought that it would be better for recruitment purposes if we had the multi-bell set up.
Okay, that's good to know. Thank you. Mr. Scott.
I think there's maybe something that's been left out of the discussion that I would like for you to visit about. I think there's a real safety issue around the high schools and the junior high schools on the current schedule. Would you address this in terms of safety? And then I have one other question after that.
Let me take this one because I've expressed this to the Board of Trustees since I've come to the district. And it's been almost a little less than two years now. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. We have a serious situation. If we remain on a two-bell schedule where we're dismissing junior high and high school kids at the same time, we currently have four complexes that the junior high kids are within 400 yards of the high school dismissal. And we're about to build another complex in the same area. So when we went into this project, that was the number one factor. And I basically said we cannot continue to have roughly 40,000 kids dismissed at the same time the way we're doing it now. I know that the community doesn't see some of the communications that I send to you, but you guys know exactly what I'm talking about when I share with you some of the safety issues that we've experienced in the last year and a half.
Madam President, I'm sorry. No, no, go ahead. I have one more question. Go ahead with your other question. Go ahead. You have the floor.
Having a retrieval problem.
Go ahead.
You forgot.
Dr. Hint, some of the argument from the community could be that why do you continue to build these facilities side by side? And I want you to speak to that, but just recently we had a dedication at Pato, and and I had an opportunity to stand with one of the APs, and it was very interesting for her to share with me, with the close proximity of Stockdick, the collaboration that these administrators and the counselors and the teachers are able to do with being in that close proximity with these kiddos, just from knowing a child's personality and what's best for them as they graduate up to that high school level, and then teaching and things like that. is are there other benefits to why we're building these campuses so I said I did
you answered a lot of your question there but I will say that it's a more efficient use of land purchase it saves the district money this board's been very diligent with that besides the fact of the teaming the collaboration cross-curricular instruction that can occur with the high school in the junior high as well as participation with some of the fine arts and athletics
I just wanted to make sure that the community understood the reason why we make those decisions with the schools being side by side. Absolutely.
And I think Mr. Scott had retrieved.
I have retrieved. What if we do nothing? I mean there are consequences to doing nothing and change. This is a big change. I mean it represents something that is really different for the school district. It's not new to the industry. What are the real consequences of why this board needs to bite the bullet and make this change?
If we don't make the change, I'll go back to the safety issue. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when we have a serious situation involving a student, possibly a junior high kid, and a 16-year-old brand-new driver. And let's hope that it's not a fatality. But it is something that is on my mind every single day, especially when I drive by Cinco Ranch High School and watch dismissal or watch when families are dropping their kids off at the library across the street and they're coming to the school. If it doesn't change, we're not going to be able to sustain the transportation system that we currently have. We don't have enough drivers today. We're adding 2,500 kids every single year. I know I've had some communities say, well, why don't you raise your prices? You know, let's pay them $30 an hour. Well, we've got some equity within our system. We've got custodians. We've got counsel. I mean, we've got other positions that we need to control that. But the data supports that it's not the pay. It's just the number of folks. And when you have an economy that is a plus economy like we're seeing right now, your numbers of bus drivers actually decrease. Our bus drivers have clearly told us they want more hours. We can provide more hours with a multi-bill schedule. We can employ the current drivers we have. We won't have to add as many and we'll have a savings of 2.3 million dollars and we we take care of the safety concern that we all have regarding the same dismissal time. I'm going to say this and I don't know the data. I've been in four four school districts, and this is the only school district I've ever been in that had two bell schedules. Every district I've been a part of had a multi-bell schedule for the reasons we're talking about.
And to your point of sustainability, it's the exact same bell schedule that I had when I was a student here, and we were less than 20,000 kids then.
That was a long time ago.
That was just yesterday. But to put that in perspective, how much we've grown since the times that you and I mr. Griffin were you know students in this district it's the same bell schedule give or take five minutes that was run back then mr.
Griffin wouldn't know he was always late anyway yeah so that's just a put
perspective if we're growing things have to change and for me this is a this is a positive change to go to multi-bill they had invented buses when I was in school
You know, let me close with this because I know there's a lot of times, and I know you may have a question, I'm sorry. A lot of times folks don't think that we listen. We had over 19,000 respondents to a survey, and yes, there are those that can critique the questioning in the survey. I didn't want a first, second, or third. I wanted to know how they ranked what they were doing. folks are never going to be pleased with it but we're going to make it work and i think this team did a phenomenal job and looking how they could adjust to front loading the junior high you have zero periods you can do tutorials then you can do the early morning duty there are some athletics that can occur then so it doesn't doesn't extend the day past the 355 dismissal and it continues to allow a high school student to drop off a junior high student if need be. I've also heard some folks talk about research and that teenagers should have the later start. We've looked at all of the research and it varies but a lot of the research that we saw stated that the youngest of the teenagers which they called the adolescent young teenagers are the ones that this could influence the most with the later start time and that is our junior high kids that's the group we're talking about here so I was thoroughly impressed with the work that they did there were 33 people that were on the committee and you know when I went into this I told them the board asked me to do this we're gonna do it all right and we're gonna bring a plan back to them
I'm stuck. Madam President, thank you very much for the presentation. Excellent. I am a firm supporter of multi-bill schedule. We've needed it. Thank you very much. I know it was very, very difficult. I have something I would like to pass out to my fellow board members just for your information. I for for a while people will not be surprised to hear that I am a firm passionate supporter of later start times for our teenage students it's a
growing trend in the nation can you clarify what teenage students you know
13 14 I think 14 is what I read a lot and there's a lot of research that I've attached here for you and this is only a dip in the bucket I have a whole bunch more here that I can add but of course you're wise enough to be able to find it on your own but but later start times for our teen students the recommendations are for junior high and high school students to not start school before 830 or eight sometimes I see eight it's a growing trend in the nation and I there's a list of Texas school districts who have made the change and you'll see many that look like Katie Frisco Plano Austin Abilene Round Rock Friends would the list goes on Northside Northwest Midland Odessa Richardson, many others who have made that change and I the research you will read says that circadian rhythms change when adolescents you know at that period where they don't their brains don't release melatonin until 10 or 11 teenagers we we've all had teenagers in this desk we know that our teenagers can't fall asleep as early as they did I hear people saying take away their devices but the melatonin doesn't release and the change in the rhythms caused them to not be able to really go to sleep before 11 there's also research that will say that just because they get up later they'll stay up later that's
not what research proves but there is research that says that I mean when we talk about research miss Fox I remember once upon a time there was a lot of research out there that told school districts let's build open concept up to elementary schools. It was something in the moment. Matter of fact, it was 60 years ago that doctors said smoking cigarettes were healthy. So I think we need to be careful about research when we also have research that says the opposite. I understand what you're saying, but the point here is we can't continue to have, I think what you're advocating for is to move junior high later and high school later and separate those two times if possible
if not I just want to point out that the American Medical Association agrees with this the Center for Disease Control and Prevention the National Association of School Nurses American Academy of Pediatrics the National PTA the NEA they They all have agreed with this, and there is just.
Would you agree that, I mean, I looked at this, and I mean, we've looked through it. I haven't seen any research. The 32 folks. Well, I can get Mr. Bailey up, and he's really done some extensive research into this exact topic. But what I will say is I want to be careful about trendy things. and I know you've got the research but you can go back and I don't want to name a lot of the other research that has been found to be false or today is not relevant and there's a lot of it related to schools related to health will write it to this or that the Katy Independent School District with the current bell schedule with kids getting up and being at school at 730 in the morning for the high school being dismissed at 235 I don't know if folks realize this we're We're one of the top performing school districts in the state of Texas. We're the number one ranked school district in the Houston area when it comes to accountability, when it comes to fine arts, when it comes to athletics. My dad used to tell me if it's not broke, don't go fix it. So I'm going to advocate for the board to accept the administration's recommendation based upon the board's evaluation of me to go out there and find a way to make our multi-bail schedule work I can't meet all of the needs but I can tell you this miss Fox we're going to make this work and we're going to make it work extremely well it's going to save the school district money we will meet some of the research that you've shared with the board with regards to our population which junior high is that population that I would like to put a focus on because they're in between. But unless we continue to combine junior high and high school or do a mass change of not only junior high but high school also and possibly elementary, I mean, if you look at this plan, there's really only three grade levels of change other than a slight 10-minute adjustment at elementary school, THREE GRADE LEVELS BEING 6TH, 7TH, AND 8TH. ALL RIGHT? SO I WANT TO BE CAUTIOUS OF RESEARCH, BECAUSE LIKE I SAID, MR. BAILEY CAN POSE THE RESEARCH ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE FROM SOME OF THOSE VERY SAME ORGANIZATIONS THAT YOU JUST MENTIONED.
I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IT, AND IF I COULD JUST FINISH RIGHT HERE. THE REASON THAT I STRONGLY SUPPORT HIGH SCHOOL GOING LAST IS BECAUSE I UNDERSTAND OUR JUNIOR HIGH STUDENTS BEING, YOU KNOW, AT THAT AGE WHERE IT WOULD REALLY HELP THEM A LOT, but every class taken by a high school student has a permanent mark it goes on the transcript it goes toward what their future is going to be every class in high school and in junior high the the impact of their grades their GPA those things don't count it's just it counts so much so and we would have four grades
that would be helped not to I think mr. Bailey can share with you there's a a minimal impact that we're finding in the research that we are going to share that says that there is a minimal impact on grades with the adjustment of the grade. Mr. Bailey, I don't want you to spend a lot of time, but just share with the group.
Absolutely. And Mrs. Fox, you're absolutely right. There's a lot of research out there and about 287 publications regarding the research and almost all of them have been focused on adolescents, those students who are 11 to 18 years old. What the unintended consequence has been is that as school districts have moved high school and junior high students later, they've moved elementary students earlier. And I would reference, and I'll share this with you, a couple of recent research programs, programs, one in particular, where they said, wait, what's happening to our elementary students as we move them earlier? And it would come to no surprise that as elementary students move earlier, the same outcomes are happening for those students, that there are lower test scores, there are more behavior problems, and they're having less sleep opportunities. And along with that, elementary students have less executive control of their schedule. schedule. They're put to bed by their parents and if they don't have their parents to put them to bed at the right time, then it's going to affect them even more. And so one of the things that we did in utilizing this research and the other components that go into this is said, what are our most impressionable children and putting them later, which is the junior high students who are in that state of flux right there in the middle of their
development. Could I ask Ms. Fox what would be your recommended start-stop times for elementary, junior high, and high school? Well in a perfect world I
would have a different answer but because I understand our needs for transportation like the survey that went out was about transportation and our that's the whole discussion began with transportation and let me clarify this I I don't need to clarify what I said. I'm completely supportive of the transportation model that you've brought us. My thing is I believe that while we're making this change and it will cause difficulty for our parents as they figure it out, I just thought what a great time to make one change that has multiple benefits and for our high school students, or I think we'll be back here in a few years going with like oh, there's THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS I KNOW WHO HAVE MADE THIS CHANGE SAY THAT IT IS, THEY'RE SEEING A LOT OF BENEFIT FOR THEIR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. AND MY THOUGHT WAS FROM A RECENT PRINCIPAL WHO IS VERY INSPIRING, SAYING WHAT IF, WHAT IF WE DID SOMETHING THAT COULD MAKE A BIG CHANGE? WHAT IF WE DID SOMETHING THAT HELPED STUDENTS AND DIDN'T HURT ANY OF THE OTHER, IT DOESN'T, It also benefits their athletic performance, their cognitive development, all those things that I have in here I won't go into. So you asked my advice. I would flip the junior high and high school.
But would you disagree that for all the reasons you just said, academics, athletics, fine arts, are we not pretty doggone good right now? I wonder how good we'd be if they had more sleep. I think that's a maybe. It's a what if. Absolutely.
It's really, it's like Mrs. Dickerson said, what if.
Yeah.
And I.
So you would advocate for a broader change than what the administration is recommending?
No, sir, just a flip.
Flip of what?
Junior high and high school.
So junior high would be first and high school last.
High school would be last in the same time schedule. I have a question. Did we determine in all of your research and talking to your committee members, if high school did end at 3.50, would there be many days where kids who had extracurriculars would have to skip their sixth, seventh, or eighth period of school to be able to get there because of our later end times? Because having had two high schools, those exemptions and missing classes and missing missing that being in the physical class even though might be excused is stressful because I just had you know depending on the just depending on the
district we play you're absolutely correct we would be getting high school kids out of possibly school after lunch to get them to athletic performances for school districts that may have the earlier start time versus a later start time because we're not going to be on the same time schedule right now we've got the time to travel and not miss the sixth the seventh period because we've got the time at the end of the day I'll tell you that something don't forget though not all of our kids go home after school they go to work we have CTE programs we have internships I mean the move of high school is going to have a huge impact on what we're doing and it's something that we took into consideration and I will tell you I'd be the first one coming to this board if we were not performing academically and we weren't successful in all the areas that I mentioned I'd say you know what maybe we need to consider this it is true that
in junior high there are high school classes that yet a few I my personal experience if I may add it have given my children and many many children that I I know a great start into high school because they're going with you know 5.0 and in pre AP classes and and have algebra under their belt or their first year of a language or home ec or CTE and those are all high school credits that lays a very good foundation of going in that freshman year when so much also is
changing just wanted to make that no I will say this and this will be I know No. Y'all know I'm pretty good at taking direction. Tell me what you want, and we'll make it happen. You ask me to do something, we can make it happen. Now, if you ask me to change our administrative recommendation, we'll do that. But it's no longer going to be an administration recommendation. It's going to be a board recommendation.
I would ask that we make the community aware of the thoughts that we're having about late start times for high school, maybe offer all the research. what mr bailey and you're talking about maybe some of these things and i really really really appreciate dr hint your um your district your vote that you give our people their voice this is not our district this is their district but the survey didn't include any of this we haven't had conversations even with our community or parents about it well we have
Ms. Fox and there was there was there was the question on there that clearly asked them about a preference and to rank them in order 19,000 votes I mean no disrespect but that's more votes than some board members get elected with. All of
us but there was 3,000 votes between them out of 19% respondents. Madam
President. I think that anybody can challenge the process. No no. The process It was solid.
No challenge. Mr. Scott.
Several things. One, I think adjusting the high school time at this point in time would be catastrophic and create absolute unmitigated chaos. I think it's just a no-brainer at this point in time. Number two, in my experience, which extends for quite a period of time, a lot of research in education and psychology and medicine and all those wonderful groups is advocacy research. You start with a conclusion and you research until you reach that conclusion. Okay? Dr. Hint has laid out and his team have laid out a perfectly rational, reasonable process for this board to make a decision and while I believe in input I don't think there has been an absence of input I don't think there has been an absence of opportunity for input but the people of this community elect us and we take an oath and we're under due diligence obligations to the people of this community the parents of this community and at some point we have to make a decision this is something that has been kicked down the road before I understand that it's a very tough decision on the other hand I've read the reports I've looked at the analysis I am generally familiar with the same research that others are talking about I seriously doubt that if I saw a research that said the time a kid wakes up assuming it's not four o'clock in the morning that there is a statistically valid reliable correlation to test scores i'm going to tell you psychically i believe that that research is cooked and baked this is a perfectly rational decision a perfectly rational proposal and it's time for us to make it and if the community there comes a a time when we have to make a decision because that's our job. And I think we are making the best decision for this community and for the students and the staff for all kinds of reasons.
Madam President, I hear you, Ms. Fox, and the research and things like that. I would like to point out a couple of things that concern me with switching our junior high and our high school kiddos so if we leave high school i'm sorry if we put high school on a nine to four schedule um and we put our junior high kids back early you now have all of the elementary and the junior high kids all getting home before their possible high school counterparts their siblings and in a lot of cases there are families in this district that rely on those older kids to be home because mom and dad are both working to get the younger ones off the bus or to pick them up from school so we're taking our oldest students out of the equation sorry mom and dad now you have to you know you relied on your senior to get your kindergartner off the bus or to pick them up from school that can no longer happen so i think we really need to think about how that would impact our community also we do like dr hint said we have high schoolers that are leaving school they're They're going to CTE programs, internships, jobs because they are contributors to their family. Well, now if they're getting out at 4 o'clock, that's next to impossible. Or we're asking our children to work night shifts. So then what does that do to their homework? What does that do to the time that they go to bed? If they don't have a job and they do athletics or some other extracurricular, if we're not starting that until 4.30 by the time school ends, the extracurricular starts, we've pushed everything two hours, which means we're pushing their homework time two hours, which means we're pushing their bedtime two hours. I don't think we're really solving the problem of the children getting more sleep. I may have a little bit of experience with kids, certainly not a professional, but I can tell you that during the week my older kids get up, they go to school early, and then on the weekends because they know they don't have to get up till 9, they're certainly not going to bed earlier. They're just going to bed even later because they know they don't have to get up. So they're not making up that sleep anywhere. They're just using that time of, hey, I don't have to go anywhere till 9, so I'm just gonna sleep, I'm gonna stay up now instead of going to bed at midnight like I do during the school week, I'm gonna go to bed at 2 or 3 because they're still only gonna get that certain amount of sleep. I've actually seen in my home where junior high has been where I've had the most trouble with my kiddos getting up and getting ready for school. There's something about the developmental stage of their bodies that they do require more sleep and then all of a sudden it's like they hit high school and there is a difference they're they're more responsible they're able to wake up and tend to themselves and so I I disagree with you that we need to have our high schoolers locked up in school until 4 o'clock
mr. president thank you so I just I want to applaud the administration for tackling this obviously complex issue and and and actually I really want to thank you for doing it in February because I'm assuming we are going to be asked to take action on this recommendation that our regular meeting next week and and I want to elaborate a little bit on that because the last time the transportation policy changed as was noted earlier in the presentation was on May 21st 2012 almost six years ago I was here that night in fact at the end of that meeting after that vote I was sworn in to this seat and and I recall that and I think what happened with that change happening right at the end of the school year it passed over a lot of people in the in the community and three months later when school started pick the day after school had started we came to a regular board meeting with a room full of yellow shirts and people that had really not realized until about two weeks before school had started that the policy had changed and a lot of those people had lost eligibility in the process so the fact that we are now talking about maintaining and sustaining the same eligibility that we have, I think is a very good thing. I think going to a multi-bill schedule for a district this size is probably even a bit overdue, but obviously it took a lot of work to get to this and get to this recommendation. So I'm just saying thank you and I think we need to take these next few months while we still have everyone's attention to make sure the community is well educated on what that means. Obviously we're not really changing the transportation piece of this as much, so I don't think it'll have near an impact, but it is going to impact people when we're changing start times of schools so you know I think that's that's the important piece that once we get by this take action on the recommendation next week but I do want to say thank you for for taking on this issue and and really doing all the research and bringing us a recommendation madam president several
things very briefly though because I don't want to beat the proverbial dead horse first of all I think it's good for our community that we are having this open discussion so miss Fox it is good that we do have not opposing but just ideas and other ideas I've talked to several principals assistant principals coaches athletic directors teachers theater teachers band directors within the last month or so and I think and I feel that the junior Junior high really does have a significant impact. I know that as band directors and theater teachers and athletics, they can go earlier in the morning, and the teachers won't be affected because they're getting there at that time anyway. It's not going to extend their days. However, in high school, and I'm going to lump everybody in together, it's not just athletics. It's band, it's theater, it's choir, and especially it is athletics because so many of those kids dance. Oh my gosh, I almost forgot the dancing cheerleaders. I'd have been in trouble. But those kids are affected by late start times, be it whatever sport it is as well. So I think we need to we need to realize that as we consider this and the feedback that we get from our constituents in the public. As a parent of two from Taylor, one from Cinco and one from Katie, I can tell you, I believe, I think that this is a good thing, that we have the high school starting earlier. I think it's a community thing that we need to allow our kids to be able to go out and experience work, get off of school early enough so that they can start to become good, strong parts of the community. Thank you. Thank you. All right.
How does that happen? Katie, Taylor, and Cinco were interested. Moved. I was just curious. Madam President, do you have a question? Madam President, do you have a question?
I would like to thank my fellow board members for allowing me to present my passion. Thank you very much.
Thank you. I believe we can now move on to agenda item 5.2. Consider future board approval of the 2018-19 instructional calendar.
Good evening again. This evening we're going to spend a few moments looking at the results from the instructional calendar feedback survey for the 2018-2019 school year. A project and study details. The feedback gathered were from stakeholders on three instructional calendar options for the 2018-2019 school year. K-12 Insight emailed individual invitations with survey links to parents, staff, and students, and community members. A public link was also available on the district webpage. The survey was open from January 19th through February 2nd, 2018, and reminders were sent on January 25th and February 2nd. The report that we're going to go over in the next couple of slides summarizes the survey results and breaks them down by stakeholder group and region of residency. Again, looking at participation, email invitations were sent to 127,949 participants. Of those email invitations, 22,169 participants took the survey. public access link 1,122 participants accessed that link the survey was taken in English by 22,000 584 participants and 707 participants took that in Spanish digging a little deeper at our participant profile here the question was asked of participants about what statement below best describes them again participants could select multiple responses here so with that in mind the percentages totals may exceed 100% here. Overall, KDISD parents came at 79%, followed by KDISD staff members. Looking again on the right-hand side to the pie chart, please select in which quadrants you reside. Similar to what we just spoke about earlier, 49% of the respondents are coming from that southwest quadrant. There are three instructional calendars that were up for review and options were presented to the participants taking the survey. The three options are as follows. Option number one, instructional calendar for the 2018-19 school year will begin on August 15th and ends May 23rd. It has a five-day Thanksgiving break. March 11th through the 15th would be spring break and a total of 177 instructional days. days. Option number two offered to participants included instructional calendar beginning on August 13th and ending on May 2nd. Again, a five-day Thanksgiving break. March spring break from 11 through the 15th of a total of 178 instructional days. Option number three looked at beginning school on August 27th and ending June 4th. We have a three-day Thanksgiving break March spring break spring break is again the 11th through the 15th for a total of 178 instructional days of the three options that were part of offered to participants overall 65% looked at option number one as their top choice taking a closer look at how people responded within their instructional calendar preference by participant group this slide reflects the preferences by individual respondents you will notice each at the bottom of code of option one is green option two is blue followed by option three yellow and no preference was that of red overall students parents parents and staff members staff members and community members selected as their top choice option number one if we looked at the quadrant again the highest percentage of participants came from from that Southwest quadrant. Almost all quadrants were pretty much equal in terms of selection of their option here, again selecting option number one as their first choice. In summary, overall 65% of the Katy ISD community who responded to the survey preferred option one for the 1890 instructional calendar. This option starts August 15th and ends on May 23rd It includes a five-day Thanksgiving break. March 11th through the 15th would be spring break and 177 instructional days. When broken down by stakeholder group, staff members without children in the district had the highest level of support for option one at 83%, followed by staff members with children in the district at 82%, then students at 62, community members without school-age children at 61, And finally, parents at 58% for option one. Across the quadrants, there were no notable differences between the preferences for the instructional calendar. Overall, 63 to 65% of the stakeholders within each quadrant preferred instructional calendar option one. Thank you very much for your time.
Do we have any questions?
Ms. Bonney is going to go ahead and give you a little more information. All right. Sorry.
Good evening, Madam President, members of the board, Dr. Kent. We are pleased to bring you option one as a recommendation from the administration. Most everything that our KIC advisory group wanted to see in the calendar is here. We're very proud of the fact that we have perhaps the most balanced semesters we've had in a very long time with only three days separating the two semesters. We do have a full week at Thanksgiving, which was quite high on the list. We have two full weeks at winter break, and our spring break once again is coordinated with our surrounding districts. I might mention, however, that there may be need for some minor revisions in the legend, depending on the decision in the previous item and also in the times for the three levels. But otherwise, we're very pleased with the calendar that we're bringing this year. There's no such thing as a perfect calendar for everybody, but this one comes really close.
CHAIRPERSON WONG.
Now do we have any questions?
MR. One question, Mrs. Holland. Thank you, Colin. Because of Harvey, we all learned about instructional minutes versus days. Could you just kind of review how many minutes do we have to have and what is kind of built into that?
We have to have 75,600 minutes is the minimum. But we have built into our calendar two bad weather days and we're covered with that with our minutes. In the next item, we're talking a little bit about the staff development waiver, which which has changed, but in some ways the staff development waiver earns us some minutes back. It's a tradeoff of instructional time for professional learning time, so those minutes are added in. So with this calendar, we have enough minutes to cover two bad weather days plus a little bit of extra if we should need it.
Thank you for that question. Does anyone else?
Okay.
Board, I would, if I may, not to, you know, part of, I know y'all are going to go, oh, here it goes again. Part of your evaluation, you asked me to look at doing a two-year calendar instead of one year and coming back annually. The calendar that we're recommending overwhelmingly our teachers, overwhelmingly the survey, and even our students when we got input from them said we like option one. I'm going to tell you right now, it was a knock it out of the park with teachers by starting on a Wednesday. But we could, if you like, we went ahead and developed a 19-20 calendar. It's exactly like option one. If we were going to bring a two-calendar to you, they would be the same calendar. So if the board would like, we can go ahead, as you requested, approve a two-year calendar. We would have to remove this from consent put it on action next week. I would add the additional 1920 calendar and then you would take a single action vote on it
Madam President, I would like the recommendation that he has of putting a two-year calendar out
Second, I agree. I think it allows parents that further look ahead for their their the days that their kids are going to school and being able to
make family plans so I support it as well we'll go ahead and move this to a single action item next and we'll bring you both calendars so you can have a
discussion madam president like you're right dr. hint this calendar is awesome that the midweek start is good for teachers also parents and students getting back into the swing of things really really like this camera you want
to know why they really like it it's a week off at thanksgiving yes absolutely all of the above
and ending before memorial day before memorial day it's all good i appreciate it uh madam president one more thing uh may i request 5.1 to be removed from the consent agenda to be voted on independently if you get a second all right over 5.1 as well thank you I'll
third it I'd like that vote I'd like that to be a record both a good idea
okay so remember 5.1 and 5.2 to be single action items next week thank you very much for your presentation to be on to 5.3 consider future board approval of professional development waiver for 2018-19 instructional calendar.
In accordance with Board policy, BF legal, once the Board has approved an instructional calendar, then the district may request calendar-related waivers from TEA. In the past years, the Board has approved both early release day waivers as well as staff development waivers. But beginning with the 18-19 school year, there is no longer a need for the early release waivers as long as we have minutes to cover those, which we do. There are no longer staff development days, but rather staff development minutes. So the waiver would allow us to apply for up to 2,100 minutes of professional learning. We have built some great opportunities, we think, into our calendar for professional learning. We think that's important to meet our goal for continuous improvement of students students and also for retainment of quality professionals. So we are recommending that the Board approve our opportunity to apply for a waiver for staff development. Our KD Improvement Council, as required, has reviewed the waiver and was very supportive of it moving forward to the Board.
Any questions for Ms. Holland? Thank you very much. item 5.4 consider future board approval for the prospect prospective plans for the two-way immersion bilingual program at Fielder and Memorial Parkway
Elementary good evening president van board members and dr. Hint as one of the fastest growing school districts in the state we're at a very difficult crossroads and regards to competing priorities specifically space in our schools specialized programs and limited resources as a result administration has has explored many different options aimed at addressing the overcrowding at Fielder Elementary School, which has led to a very difficult decision for the district. The two-way immersion program, often referred to as TWI, exists at two of our elementary campuses, Fielder and Memorial Parkway. This program began with the awarding of a Foreign Language Assistance Program grant in 2006, and it opened in 2008 with an inaugural class of 76 kindergarten students. students. A grade level has been added to the program each year and today the program serves around 430 students in grades kindergarten through the fifth grade. This program is unique in that students are immersed in instruction in both English and Spanish. In addition, incoming kindergarten students are identified for the program through an application process giving priority to siblings, excuse me, giving priority to siblings and home campus students. The process is aimed at identifying 50% fluent Spanish speakers and 50% fluent English speakers. However, because Fielder Elementary is 25% above its design capacity, we've had to examine multiple options to provide relief to this campus, including an in-depth look at our programs. A closer look at our TWI program reveals that this program has an estimated total cost of over 1.4 million dollars serving approximately 1% of all of our KTISD elementary students, thus resulting in a very specialized program. While multiple options were considered and realizing that this is a very specialized program, it is the administration's recommendation to honor the commitment to existing students and families by continuing the TWI program at both campuses. However, considering Considering space limitations and limited financial resources, we also recommended discontinuing the program for incoming kindergarten students in the fall of 2018-2019.
Any questions?
Madam President. Mr. Griffin. Dr. Hinn, I'll remind you of this one. As a board, we asked you to look at our programs and do an evaluation to say what's working and what's not and what where is can we improve on and and in cases like this fine programs that can be money can be used utilized throughout the district for all of our kids and I know that's probably a difficult decision to come to but I'd like to thank you for the recommendation and doing the research and coming up with some changes for the district that benefit the district as a whole.
Thank you.
Mr. Scott. I would like to thank Mr. Griffin and thank the administration for bringing a very tough decision to this board. To me this is a matter of when budget meets equity. It's not just a financial matter. It is a matter of does a public school district carve out for a tiny, tiny, tiny tiny percent of the elementary population to spend a much higher level of per dollar expenditures than we can generally provide across the board. And I'm not saying that this is a pleasant decision. There's nothing pleasant about ending a program or phasing a program out. But I support this 100 percent. And I don't want there to be any doubt on the mind of the people of the community that this is not something that I support. Other board members like Mr. Griffin and I can go on record or they cannot. But this is a courageous decision by this administration. It's one of the reasons that I'm very proud of this administration for its willingness to look at programs anew. So I am wholeheartedly in support of this, and I thank you for having the courage to bring a tough decision to this board. Madam President.
Mr. Lacy.
As a board, we are called to be the stewards of the funds of our school district. We're the ones that set the – that votes on the budgets. were the ones that asked the superintendent and our administration to make very difficult decisions and come back with suggestions. In the case of this particular program, it's a very, very expensive per-child cost to have a very small number of children have a program just for them. we're essentially giving a private school program to a public a very small number of public educated of our public schools and I don't think that it's fair to the entire district that we that we have an expense of 1.4 million for less than 1% it works out to over $3,000 per child per year and I I have to support I think it's a wonderful program, but unfortunately sometimes we have to make hard decisions. And Dr. Hindt, your administration, it's a tough decision to make, but sometimes you have to be an adult and know when we have to sometimes cut things or phase them out. Mr. President?
Mr. Michalsky.
I'm not going to say too much different than my colleagues have already stated, but what we ask the administration to do, I mean we have a finite amount of resources that we have to allocate in the best manner for over 77,000 students and sometimes tough decisions have to be made and this is one of those times so yes, I agree This is is what we've asked of the superintendent administration This specifically but to look at each of these programs and we have to at the end of the day allocate those resources for the best that we can for all of our students across the entire district.
Madam President.
Ms. Storr.
Dr. Kasky, you say there's 430 students in the program, including 179 limited English proficient students. Am I correct in saying that the limited English proficient students are potentially in the bilingual program as well? Are they in addition?
Yes, they are receiving their bilingual services in a two-way model. So we still have a one-way model within our district. We have 13 of our elementary campuses that we service those students. And actually, Fielder and Memorial Parkway also offer the one-way program as well. So those students will continue to receive their services. Yes, ma'am. That was the question. Thank you. Any questions?
Okay. I agree. This is a tough decision. It not only comes down to finances, but equity across the district. So I thank you very much for your presentation.
COMMISSIONER WRIGHT- Madam President, I would like to add, Dr. Hint, since you've been here, we've asked you to do lots of hard things and look at things, and you are constantly doing that, bringing us information, bringing us data, and bringing us recommendations. And I applaud you, sir, for looking at the whole picture and bringing us what we need to make decisions. And thank you so much for doing that.
MR. Thank the staff. They did a good job.
Thank you very much. We'll move on to agenda item 5.5, consider future... Board approval of the February 2018 budget amendments. Mrs. Butterfield.
Good evening President Vann, Trustee.
I don't think your mic is on just one second I think he's working on that. Go ahead, Mrs. Butterfield.
Are we better now? Thank you. We have two revenue and expenditure amendments. These are recognizing additional revenues and equal expenditure budgets. $1,358 recognized forfeiture funds from the Harris County District Attorney's Office to be used by our police department. We also are recognizing $24,000 in additional playoff revenues and offsetting expenditure budget related to playoff expenses. We have three increases to the expenditure budget in the General Operating Fund, $830,358. This is our Hurricane Harvey Amendment No. 6. We have another amendment for $411,109 for chillers at the Katy ISD Annex, and then $58,766 to replace two vehicles involved in a total loss accident. The remainder of the General Operating Fund budget amendments are direct offsets between different functions. So approval of these amendments will result in a $1,300,233 decrease to the general operating fund budget. We have two construction fund amendments for your consideration, $506,600 at Katy High School renovation project that was approved in January, and $1,362,606 for excess costs on renovations at Galbo and Pattison that was also approved last month at the January meeting.
Chris, I know you just got back from your 25 year anniversary and congratulations. Your wife must be a saint. But $800,000 of I think that 1.3 that's part of the deficit or coming out of the general fund is for Harvey expenses that we're looking at recapturing or recouping that.
that is that correct yes sir we do expect to get some of those funds via the insurance and or FEMA okay thank you any questions thank you very much now I
have mr. Nauman consider future board approval of the proposal for builders risk insurance coverage for 2017 bond projects good evening president van dr.
Dr. Sint and distinguished board members. Immediately following the bond election of 2017, a formal request for proposal process was implemented to secure quotes for builders risk coverage for the period April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019. Proposals were sought based on the expected building and remodeling projects as part of the bond package, which was with a guaranteed rate structure. This policy covers the following during construction. Buildings, structures and contents, mobile equipment, boiler and machinery, as well as liability during the construction phase. Major perils covered include fire, flood, earthquake, windstorm, named windstorm, and hail. The total insured value is based on the individual project. During the term, coverage values will fluctuate based on the beginning and end dates. This program allows for the specific designation of a project to be insured, allowing for the management of premium during the life of the bond program. The Risk Management Department determined the need to address market conditions via request for proposal. Utilizing four insurance brokers in 16 markets were approached. Following the review of all the quotes and coverages presented, Risk Management believes New Hampshire Casualty American International Group, or AIG, through USI services will provide the best program for the needs of the district. The rate quoted for this program is $0.05 per $100 value, plus an additional $0.01 per $100 value for both Windstorm and named Windstorm for a combined rate of $0.06 per $100 in insured value. The proposed review highlighted as the following benefits. The primary property carrier for the district is American International Group, which would avoid coverage disputes, fixed pricing for a period of three years, and fixed deductibles. It is recommended the Board of Trustees approves the proposal for the Builders Risk insurance coverage for the 2017 bond projects.
Do we have any questions? questions.
Madam President, real quick, and this may be covered in the next thing. Did our insurance costs change due to Harvey and the claims that we've had and the funds that we've had to lay out?
No, they haven't.
That's amazing. Great job.
Do we anticipate that they may?
It's hard for me to predict what the future will hold. The insurance market, I'd have the lottery won if I could predict that. The market is really in a state of flux. Everybody's trying to figure out what their next play is going to be. We are wrapping up a three-year deal with AIG right now. Next year I will be going out to the market for our total property, our primary property program, and I would also add too that we are currently exploring additional coverages, flood coverages, for our for our properties on our primary property program. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions? Okay all right we'll move to 5.7. You're still up. During the February 22nd 2017 board meeting the Katy Independent School District, Katy ISD Board of Trustees approved the proposal for property insurance from Lexington Insurance Company slash Wells Wells Fargo Insurance Services, now known as USI Insurance Services, Inc., for coverage limits of $250 million for a 12-month term. The policy covers the following, buildings, structures, and contents, physical damage to both buses and automobiles, electronic data processing equipment, mobile equipment, musical instruments, boiler and machinery. Major perils include fire, flood, earthquake, windstorm, and named windstorm. Currently...
Thank you.
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use as we have grown as we have done enhancements to our buildings and we do that every year so we it's primarily related to organic growth within the district and a reassessment of those values that we have in our contents
follow-up at the mind so that's kind of was leading to what's the kind of the methodology are you saying that the same building could have could appreciate year-over-year or is it more things that were added to those buildings it would
really be more associated with what we're adding to it looking at increased technology exposure for the most part the bricks and sticks of the building would be fairly consistent across the district we try to hit that target but when we go in and do a retrofit obviously you're increasing the technological infrastructure, adding new kitchen equipment or whatever it may be. So that causes the bill to increase in value. Thank you. Thank you.
Good evening President Vann, Board of Trustees and Superintendent Hint. I would like to recommend the future Board approval of the contract for awards and trophies. This contract will provide a list of awarded vendors from which the district schools and departments can purchase a wide variety of products to be used as rewards and incentives for staff and students. students. This contract does not include t-shirts, other apparel items, or promotional products not intended as rewards or incentives since a separate KDISD contract exists for these products. 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 as applicable. Purchases will be made by campuses and departments through the issuance of a district purchase order as needed. The Purchasing Department developed a list of existing and potential suppliers and they initiated a request for competitive sealed proposals number 1702 for awards and trophies. All 30 respondent suppliers submitted a complete response and are qualified to provide the goods and services in this category. Therefore, all respondent suppliers are recommended for contract award. A copy of the tabulated responses and vendor evaluation summary are included in the attached documents for your review. Some vendors claim that their pricing is already discounted and are not offering any additional discounts, discounts, while other vendors will consider offering a discount based on actual order quantities submitted. By awarding this contract to all vendors, campuses and departments will have a large selection of qualified vendors to choose from based on product and service offerings and competitive discounts. The proposed contract term is for a period of one year from the date of award with an option for two additional one-year renewals. Based on the previous 12 months expenditures, the total estimated costs for the next 12 months is approximately $300,000. And the Board of Trustees approval to award the contract for the purchase of awards and trophies as presented is consistent with Board policies CH Legal and CH Local.
CHAIRPERSON WONG. Now I am. Do we have any questions for Mr. Young? Thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you very much. Move to 5.9, consider future board approval to award the contract for replacement of synthetic field turf at Cinco Ranch and Katy High Schools. Mr. Teed.
Good evening, President Vann, Superintendent Hint, board members. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the award of the contract for replacement of synthetic field turf at Cinco Ranch High School and Katy High School to Helles Construction, Inc., utilizing the by-board contract number 476-15. The athletic field turf replacement project for Katy High and Cinco Ranch High are part of the 2017 bond component replacements. District staff work with PBK Sports to develop the project scope. Work is scheduled to start April 23, 2018 and be substantially completed by May 28, 2018. A copy of the recommendation letter from PBK Sports and the proposal are attached for your review. The project funding source is the 2017 Bond Component Replacements, Cinco Ranch High School project cost is $603,649. Katy High School project cost $611,851. For a total not to exceed project cost of $1,215,500. This 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.
Do we have any questions, Mr. Teague?
Madam President, how old is the turf in each one of these schools? They were both installed in 2009. Eight years.
I'll go ahead and just tell you, if you recall, the board put the synthetic turf on the fields all at one time. It's a huge expense. We've taken a look at the turfs district-wide and just to be quite honest when Katy High School and Cinco Ranch are playing 14 game seasons they're getting a little bit more wear and tear on their turf. Part of the reason why we've moved Cinco Ranch and Katy up front and we're staggering the expenditures over a period of time.
Mr. Griffin. Dr. Hinn, it's just not the football team that use that turf.
Oh, no, we get banned, track everybody else out there, unless Gary has a say and he kind of stalkers on it. Yeah, it gets word and tell from a lot of folks.
But to your point, it's a comprehensive replacement across the district. We're just doing it.
These are the first two. Madam President. I'd like to ask Coach Joseph if he allowed personally the baseball team to practice out on that turf.
To wear it down.
Joke.
I'm present.
Mr. Halsky.
I noticed in the proposal that they will remove the existing turf and provide to the school as much turf as needed and dispose of the rest. Any ideas of what applications that that existing turf would have?
Yes. Each school has a use for their turf, and some of the other schools as well have asked for it. So we'll be using it at other schools in the district.
So we will repurpose much of the existing turf and utilize it? Yes.
I do have a follow-up question. What is the normal length that this turf lasts? Approximately eight years. Okay.
Madam President, my question for you, Mr. Teague, is the timeline, and I'm going to show my ignorance here, but I kind of, is that in the middle of spring ball, April 23rd? Or spring ball's over? Or how are we going to have spring ball if there's no turf?
I will defer that to Ms. Decker.
Hi Mrs. Decker. Good evening. So we we met with Coach Joseph and Coach Clayton and both of them asked that we do it during this timeline because they can use the grass fields for spring football. They're more concerned about the hundreds of and almost a thousand of students that they have in summer strength conditioning. So, yeah. Ms. Thank you.
Ms. Thank you. Does anyone have any other questions? Mr. Thank you. Ms. Thank you very much. Now I move on to Item 5.10, Consider Future Board Approval of Design Services, associated with the renovations of Fielder Elementary. Ms. Kassman, and you'll be with us for a while.
Ms. Good evening, President Vann, Board members, and Dr. Hint. Tonight I'm bringing for you five items for your consideration. The first item is for the recommendation of Stantec Architects to preside design services for the comprehensive renovations to Fielder Elementary as provided for in the 2017 bond. The firm has extensive experience in the K-12 design process and possesses an impressive design portfolio. They have successfully completed projects at the Robert Shaw STEAM Center, renovations at May Creek Junior High, West Memorial Junior High, and most recently, Memorial Parkway Junior High and Memorial Parkway Elementary. Starting design work on this project at this time will ensure completion date of 2020. The design services fee is 7% of the final construction cost. Ryan Wojtyla is going to be our project manager and Jennifer Henriksen and Pruel Virus are here representing Stantec this evening.
Do we have any questions, Ms. Caspin? Okay. On to 5.11.
The second item is to consider future board approval of materials testing services associated with junior high 16 and high school 9. Construction will be commencing and materials testing services are required immediately in conjunction with this construction of these schools located in the Cross Creek subdivision. Terracon is best qualified to undertake materials testing work for these new schools. Terracon is very familiar with the site, having completed previous site analysis work and and has performed in an excellent manner on several large projects of similar type for the district. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Terracon Consultants for materials services for junior high 16 and high school 9 in the amounts not to exceed $126,000 for the junior high and $298,000 for the high school.
Any questions?
Okay.
5.12.
The third item is to consider future board approval of a proposal for the construction of high school number nine. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Satterfield and Ponticus Construction for the construction of high school nine in the amount of $138,223,000 and approves the total project costs not to exceed $166,838,440. Seal proposals were received on February 1st for the construction of the high school. High School 9 will be located, as I said, in Cross Creek Ranch near the intersection of Fulshire Bend Drive and Cross Creek Bend Lane. Construction of the school is required to accommodate growth in this quadrant of the district and will open in August 2020. Five seal proposals were received. The proposals were evaluated with Satterfield and Ponticus ranking first overall. overall. The proposal ranking tabulation had been attached. The fifth firm was not considered due to incomplete bid documents. Satterfield and Ponticus is the contractor for Creech Elementary Restoration and has recently successfully completed comprehensive high schools for Sy Fair and Kline ISDs. Art Campbell will be our project manager and Alan Patrick the associate project manager and representing Satterfield and Ponticus this evening is Mr. Mr. George Pontekas and John Marshall. In accordance with Texas Government Code 2269, we evaluated the proposals for the high school and junior high that were based not only upon price but the following published criteria. The project team, experience, reputation, quality of work, safety record, and financial capacity in regards to project and past relationship with KDISD. This process allows us to determine the best value to the district by considering considering all these pertinent factors for a successful project, realizing that price is only 30% of the evaluation process. The total project cost will also include architectural engineering fees, utilities, the materials testing, commissioning, builders risk, code reviews, fees, testing and balancing, campus furniture, equipment and technology.
Chair Greg Musil. Madam President.
Mr. Scott.
I want to direct a couple of questions or a few questions and then have a comment, but questions first to Dr. Hint. This is well beneath the amount that was included in the bond issue. I have my own analysis of what it is, but I would kind of like you to walk the community through why this came in at this level in terms of how your administration approached this.
One of the factors was, and it's a conversation I've had with our chief operations officer and his team did a phenomenal job going out to market immediately after the bond was passed. We were the first one that's out there, so we got some really good pricing. Also, if you recall, when we proposed the high school in the 2017 bond, there was a price tag of $209 million on it. got beat up a little bit over that price tag, and it was our choice as an administration and with the board's support that we included everything in that price, lock, stock, and barrel. There was additional square footage for the swimming facility because we needed to have competitions there, but the real hickey was we had a mechanical plant that we didn't separate the cost. We included entirely all of the mechanical plant in the high school, When in all reality, about 40% of it services the junior high. Another reason why it's a benefit to have the dual complex. That's another one. But just to put it quite frankly, you know, we've let our vendors know that there's a lot of work in KDISD. And, you know, if you've done long-term work in the district and it's been good work, then we will certainly consider you. But we have a bid process, and the reason for a bid process is for us to get the best value to the district. And I believe our administration did a phenomenal job on getting the best value to the district. I think you're going to see with the next action item, the junior high, it actually comes under the proposed bond price while at the same time having 100% of the mechanical plant.
So let me ask a couple more questions just so there is there's no misunderstanding. This is the same building that we went out to the public and promoted the high school under the Pato design and we're not using lower construction material or grade construction materials correct? No. We're not we're not taking things material things out of what we said we we were going to build. No. We haven't put shells over here to hide cost. No. And it's going to grow to $206 million. No, it's lock, stock, and barrel. So let me say this, and I want to say this on a personal level. Other board members can speak or not speak. From my perspective, I've watched this district for many years. I've watched many capital programs over time. And you can talk about the market and you can talk about out being out there This is more about management than it is market I think your team has done an extraordinary job of sending a signal to vendors large and small That they have to earn the business. They have to earn the trust from this administration And I also say that the last bond issue was tough for a lot of people who had memories of the last bond issue. You gained their confidence in that bond issue. That's the reason it passed by 65%. With this set of bids, you have earned that confidence. And I want to say to some who have questioned the board, who have questioned our commitment to the last bond issue, I have tremendous confidence in this administration to do what it's done tonight. And trust me, these things don't just happen. And what has happened tonight is that the district is going to have access to more dollars to build more schools, maybe save on future bond issues. And it did not happen by accident. The one thing that is absolutely certain is that tonight, way before the ground is turned, way before the testing is done, way before the superstructure is up, you're going to know it. You do know it as of tonight. And I think this is a remarkable accomplishment on the part of Dr. Hint. I think it is a remarkable accomplishment on the part of Mr. Cruz and the entire team, and you, of course, the entire team that does this. There's something exciting. I've been in public policy since 1973. That's a long time. Okay? There is something exciting about taking a chance and putting your personal credibility on the line, asking people in the community to believe that this was going to be a good bond issue. There's something especially exciting about putting your credibility on the line and trusting someone else to deliver on it. And that's what I feel has happened tonight. And it is my hope that people in this community who had concerns will finally realize there is a new sheriff in town. We have a different commitment to management. And I want to also finish this out this way. I am very proud of the board leadership that we have in Ashley and Courtney and Charles. I think you all have done a tremendous job in being leaders of this board and helping communicate to Dr. Hint and his administration because there's one thing that is absolutely sure. If the superintendent knows that he has the trust and confidence of the board, that he's earned it, then his team understands that. And so I think this is a remarkable night for this district, and I'm damn proud to be on this board and be able to say that. Madam President.
Thank you, Mr. Scott. Mr. Lacy.
Once again, I cannot stress how important this job that I sit in this chair is. And I'm going to say the words that I said earlier when we talked about the TWI. We are called to be stewards of the funds of the public. and dr. hint thank you for for being a wonderful steward of the funds as well with your team you have saved the district quite a bit of money in the construction of the next to the next group of schools so we appreciate that
greatly I appreciate it too but I must say the goal of the bond project is to come in at or under the total six hundred and nine million I don't want I want you all to expect us to come in here with every single project having a savings like this.
I need you to take that at word out and just continue it under.
We got some good, they did a great job. They got great pricing. I appreciate it, Mr. Scott and Mr. Lacy. We got a lot of work to do and we got a lot more projects to do, but I certainly do appreciate your sentiments.
Yes, sir, we do. As do I. Any other questions on 5.12? Okay, 5.13. All right.
The fourth item is to consider future board approval of a proposal for the Junior High 16. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Jemala Construction Company for the construction of Junior High 16 in the amount of $42,932,000 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $51,447,900. Seal proposals were received on February 1, 2018 for the construction of Junior High 16. Junior High 16 is located in the same complex in Cross Creek Ranch as High School 9 at the intersection of Fulcher Bend Drive and Cross Creek Bend Lane. The construction of this school will also help accommodate growth and be opening in the fall of August 2019. Six sealed proposals were received. The proposals were evaluated with Jamal coming in first overall. They were also the contractor on the previous prototype stocked at Junior High as well as numerous other KDISD projects. Scott Walker will be our project manager and Alan Patrick the associate project manager. PBK is not only the architect for the junior high but also for the high school and representing them this evening is Rick Bland, Wayne Bryant and Greg Prince. And then from Jamal this evening we have Jim Hageman and Seth Smith. Just like the high school this project will also include architectural engineering fees, utilities, materials testing, insurance, code reviews, other testing, furniture, equipment and technology.
Thank you. Do we have any questions for Ms. Kassman?
No?
Okay. Then you're all done.
Thank you so much. No, one more. Oh, you do have one more. One more. Last but not least. I do.
I just keep on kicking everybody out.
Consider future board approval of design services associated with the addition and renovations to Katy High School Career and Technology Education Area and the Athletics Area. Is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the retention of VLK Architects for for the design services associated with this work. The $609 million bond authorization provides funding for an addition and renovation to the Katy High School CTE area. In addition, the existing athletics area in the field house at Katy High School does not commensurate with our district standard. A design for the renovation in addition to the CTE area we provided, as well as an alternate design and pricing for the athletics area. VLK is being recommended to provide design services for this project. This firm also has an extensive portfolio and they did the most recent renovation at Katy High School in 2014 bond. They also have been recently responsible for our current successful prototype elementary. The commencement of design work will ensure a project completion in 2020 and design services fee is 7% of the final construction cost. Megan Connell is going to be our project manager. Todd Lean is here representing VLK and we have Dr. Rick Hall and Coach Gary Joseph representing Katy High School.
Any questions? Okay. Now you're done. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move on to Agenda Item 5.15. Mr. Forney, consider future board approval of closed campuses for the intradistrict transfers for the 2018-19 school year. Mr. Forney.
Good evening, Madam President Vann, board members, and Superintendent Dr. Hint. Board policy FDB legal and FDB local address voluntary entry district student transfers and closed campuses. I'm bringing for your consideration the list of campuses that are recommended to be closed to new voluntary transfers for the 2018-2019 school year. Students in KDISD typically attend schools to which they are zoned based on the address of their homes within the district. At times parents may request voluntary transfers for their children to attend other KDISD schools. Such transfers must meet the criteria established in board policy. A closed campus is defined as a campus exceeding or nearly exceeding its design capacity compared to the enrollment projection for the upcoming school year. Any questions?
Board, any questions for Mr. Forney?
No? Okay.
Thank you very much. Thank you all. Now I move on to Item 5.16, Consider Future Board Approval of Proposed Summer Work Schedule. Ms. Edmond.
Good evening, President Van, Trustees, and Superintendent Hitt. Now be prepared because this is going to be the most courageous item you approve tonight. It is requested that the Board of Trustees approves a four-day work schedule for all school employees beginning June 4th and ending on July 27th using hours from 8 7 to 5 with the exception of summer school campuses will work the same hours with the ESC and ample notice will be given to all patrons and community
members do you have any questions thank you very much thank you 5.7 consider future board approval of the resolution concerning district closer closures due to inclement weather. Mr. Graham.
President Vann, Dr. Hint, trustees, thank you for your time this evening. I'll be very quick. You had before you a resolution concerning district closures due to inclement weather. As you will recall, we had a series of ice and cold weather on January 16th and 17th of this year due to the lateness in the calendar and also due to the fact that we were closed for two weeks due to Hurricane Harvey we did not have the sufficient number of makeup days for our employees we have Dr. Hinn and his administration has rearranged the calendar and done some things to provide adequate time for the students to make the time required by statute however you you do have employees that are paid a certain number of days under contract. And so in order for us to continue to pay those employees for that time, I've drafted this resolution for you all to do just that. I'm happy to take any questions.
Madam President, Dr. Hint, thank you very much. Our employees work way more hours than they're paid for. They're very committed and very dedicated, and this was no fault of their own that this happened. and thank you for making sure that they're still able to provide for their families. Thank you very much. Thank you.
All right. Any more questions? All right. Then I will begin to read the proclamation. Board of Trustees, Katy Independent School District, resolution concerning district closures due to inclement weather, State of Texas, County of Fort Bend. Whereas a recent period of inclement weather caused the district to close all operations on January 16th and 17th, 2018, and whereas due to unanticipated closures earlier in the year due to Harvey, the district's calendar currently provides one inclement weather make-up day for students and no inclement weather make-up days for staff. And whereas the district's unanticipated and necessary closures in response to severe inclement weather cause district employees to otherwise would have reported for work to incur unanticipated absences for which they may not have sufficient leave balances or other available leave to avoid a loss of pay during the district mandated closure and whereas closing district operations because of severe inclement weather was a reasonable and responsible action to ensure the health and safety of the district staff students and greater community and it's consistent with all of the board's goals and whereas based on the facts related to the closure of all district operations on January 16th and 17th 2018 the board finds that taking reasonable actions to avoid potential increased unemployment compensation liability and additional costs to ensure employees are treated in a fair and equitable manner and to lessen the financial effects of the closure on employees so they can remain safe healthy and available to return to work to continue to serve all of the KDISD students further an important public purpose and supports the district's goals to retain a high performing staff and have excellence in all operations Therefore be it resolved the Board of Trustees of the Katy Independent School Districts finds all of the recitations made above to be true and correct and further authorizes the superintendent to administer the employee compensation program so that employees continue to receive their regular base salary and this will be adopted on 26 day of February and our next regular meeting will go to consent thank you very much now I go to item 5.18 consider future board authorization for the superintendent to form a committee for the purpose of proposing a name for elementary school number 41 per board policy so we have we are going to authorized superintendent to take the steps to form a committee that will open the nominations for the naming of elementary school number 41 which is located in the neighborhood of Cross Creek and is set to open in August 2018 at the beginning of the 1819 school year and where we well I'll take any
questions because that's pretty simple yeah it's it's the same process we went through in the last couple of naming CW local clearly defines what the process is the board takes the first step by providing me the authority to move forward we will begin the solicitation immediately probably tomorrow we'll start sending notifications out contingent of course on you guys approving this next week but we need to get a head start we are a little bit delayed on this one and we want to make sure that we give our construction folks ample time to get all the the naming material and stuff in place. And CW Local
also lays out the parameters of who can be considered for namesake nominations as well. Any questions? Thank you very much. That concludes our consent agenda. Now we move on to open forum portion of our meeting. At this time the Board of Trustees will hear from patrons. As established by board policy the first 20 speakers who signed up at least 15 minutes before this meeting began and have provided their first and last name will be allowed to speak a maximum of 30 minutes has been allocated with the time divided equally among those who have signed up however the maximum amount of time for any one speaker is three minutes if speakers wish to share non confidential written material with the board ten copies should be provided to the secretary for the board services or or the Chief Communications Officer. Due to posting requirements of the Open Meetings Act, the Board is able to respond only to a statement related to a posted agenda item. Specific student issues, discipline, and personnel matters shall be addressed through the appropriate channels established by policy, and the presiding officer shall determine whether a speaker has attempted to solve a matter through those proper channels. As I announce your name, please come forward and state your first and last name for the record. We'll be able to see the timing up here, is that correct? Okay. So as you speak, please watch for your time. When the three minutes is up, your mic will go silent. All right. So our first speaker is Mr. Gary Brown.
I have some booklets to pass out to each of you. And so they're coming. My topic is toxic gas being emitted by the greenhouse landfill on Greenhouse Road and the contaminated water being dumped into the drainage canal which rolls through Mady Creek complex. If you would open your booklet and go to page 3 of the booklet you'll see what my requests are from the board. I'm going to request that the Katy Independent School District Board comment to the Texas It affects this commission on environmental quality that the expansion of permit 1599B not be approved because it's not in the best interest of the students. Also, I'd like the board to sign the petition in opposition to the expansion. 720 people have already signed that. And also we have the support of Commissioner Raddick and we would like you folks to send him a letter stating that you oppose the landfill also. Going to the first page of my presentation you'll see that Smalsh Elementary, Cardiff is within a quarter mile of the landfill. You'll see that Mady Creek is within one mile of the landfill. fill. Students are exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas and I'm talking about a small amount one part per million. They can suffer all kinds of respiratory consequences, headaches, nausea, various other things. We're getting that kind of exposure at the two schools, Cardiff and Smosh. And by the way, Harris County doesn't measure those exposure moments the landfill has vents on the top of it that vent gas 10 vents temporary vents right down into the neighborhoods and so we're exposed to that teachers have complained to me that their students during recess smell this gas and so I mean it's it's bad thing it's toxic the The other thing is methane gas. It could be explosive. We have to rely on Wiese and the landfill to notify us that we have to evacuate. You look at the tab 3, he agreed to only go to 163 feet with respect to building this landfill in 2000. And so I would think, and the drainage, he's never satisfied his drainage requirement. So please assist us. We're having a meeting on February 22nd at the Westlake Fire Department. to cover this more and we'd like uh you folks somebody to attend and listen to us more at that
thank you mr brown yeah i'm going to comment to mr brown real quick you've got our 100 support i have not yet discussed this with the board of trustees but i know this board the student staff and community of smalls cardiff made creek school school systems over there. We have been in conversation with Mr. Raddick and as an operations department superintendent we are opposed to the expansion of that landfill for all the reasons. We are in the process of documenting a letter under my signature that we will send in conjunction with Mr. Raddick's letter in support of all that you've expressed to us.
Thank you very much. One more thing that I may say if I could.
Okay, now you might be pushing it.
Yeah, I know. I'm going to push it for two seconds. I would like to see the school district put in some kind of monitoring equipment in the schools that are close to test for hydrogen sulfide gas and methane gas so the problem come by so it doesn't harm our students. All right? Thank you very much for your time, and I appreciate it.
Thank you again. Our next speaker is Mr. Sean Dolan.
Thank you. My name is Sean Dolan. I'm an alumni of Galbo Elementary, McDonald Junior High, and May Creek High School. I currently have children in elementary, junior high, and high school. My son's assault on the bus was caught on video over a year ago, and despite my multiple requests to press charges, the attacker remained on his bus the remainder of the year. When my son's iPhone was stolen out of his bag, SIM card chewed up and thrown away, the thief was caught and placed not only back in my son's class, but she was put at my son's very table, where she retaliated and bullied him until we intervened. My son was hit in the face in the hallway and defended himself by punching his attacker. Both were punished equally despite clear video evidence showing that the aggressor was unprovoked by my son in any way. The principal informed me that the attacker had a history of hitting students and she even warned him that if he continued, one day someone was going to hit him back. Unfortunately, that someone had to be my son. Because of the incident, my son was no longer eligible to try out as school mascot, which he had been looking forward to. But it gets worse. My son was pulled out of elementary temporarily to bury and mourn the loss of his older brother. Kids at school began teasing him about his brother's death. Our oldest son was multiply handicapped when he passed away and the bullying escalated without intervention. A child mocked my son one day about how funny it was that quote his brother died from being retarded. My son lost it, picked up a pair of scissors and the boy unfortunately regained control. He kicked the trash can and ran out of the room crying. My wife and I were immediately called in to speak with a principal and counselor to discuss the incident. After telling us everything my son had done wrong in the situation and all the possible punishments he would be facing, the counselor asked if there was anything going on at home that may be causing Sam's recent anger issues. My wife and I looked at each other in disbelief. Despite the loss of his brother being on file, the counselor never asked my son about his brother, not after he returned to school from the funeral or after he picked up a pair of scissors and threatened another student. This is negligence, if not breach of duty. Dr. Hint, you talk about the safety protocol in place to defend our schools from school shooters but where's the protocol to prevent your students from becoming school shooters because I'm experiencing quite the opposite in your schools how many children in your schools are treated like my son and don't have parents to stand up for them I fear the worst especially with the added difficulties hardly thrust upon our students and families I want the board to know that I consider your inaction on this matter complicit if tragedy ever strikes KISD in a discussion second topic in a discussion about a FOIA request I made last week which I was asked three times by your staff to consider withdrawing I was informed by your IT department that you track over 300,000 data points on our children. Facebook is only willing to admit to tracking 98 data points on its users. My further request was to simply learn what these 300,000 data points are, yet this issue has been escalated to the Attorney General by your staff. I also find it odd that with 300,000 mysterious data points public schools are still unable to address the many red flags that occur in cases such as Nicholas Cruz. I hope that you find it reasonable to fulfill my request. By the time this meeting concludes you can find a copy of the the statement on our website abetterlegacy.com. Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Mr. Dolan. Our next speaker is Li Tao Wang. You want someone to speak instead? Is that what you're asking? Next thing. You were the fourth to sign up. That's kind of how we do it. Are you speaking for her?
No. No, we're speaking on the same topic.
Okay. Are you going to speak together, or do you want to both use your time individually?
Individually.
He has to be early. I don't have it.
I've got it. Do you have Mr. Blackman? Here's Mr. Blackman. Okay. All right.
Okay. Hi. My name is Jim Blackman. My son is an attendee in the KDE school district, and I want to talk about public safety. I'm glad you're bringing up the topic of the bus schedule and Mr. Superintendent you commented earlier it's not if but when and it's already happened. A friend of mine's son was run over by a car on his way to school and I and what I want to address is on the transportation issues. Our children are the most precious things we have and I believe this district has done a disservice in allowing for bus drivers not to have a real job so we have these temporary drivers that are not as qualified as the ones that my son had many years ago I had no problem with my son getting on a bus with the same bus driver for five years. This year my son's had three drivers. If you don't start taking care of these bus drivers, what's going to happen? We're going to have an accident. How much is that going to cost the district? Okay, the Zia family isn't going to sue. They're not those kind of people. Their son was run over by a car. Talking about the issues of time, the early morning time that these kids are going to school every single child is going to school in the dark when are we gonna wake up there's going to be other people talking about the academic level of sleep deprivation and everything else but we're sending these kids to school in the dark I don't understand why we can't come up with a better solution now Now back to the transportation part. For these kids, the traffic jams that are committed at these schools, how many kids are running between cars? How many more accidents, how many more kids have to be run over before we do something? How many more bus drivers do we have to continually go through? I don't understand. We've got a lot of money in this district. I do not understand why we can't have more buses, better service, and less kids having to walk further. Just a quick example. At my son's bus stop, four kids are allowed to get on in the morning. In the afternoon, there's 15 getting off. Why can't all those 15 kids ride the bus in the morning? Simple. Let's get more buses. Let's spend more time on our kids' safety. You guys do a great job on the policing side.
but the transfer sick thank you mr. Blackman now we will hear from miss Wang thank you you'll give them to our board secretary
Okay, my name is Li-Tiao Wang. I have two daughters that are enrolled in KDISD. I work at the medical school, so I'm also in the field of education. So just put it out there. So first, I just like, I really want to say I do appreciate all of yours hard work, and I understand hard decisions have to be made. So I understand that but then I have to be honest. I was disappointed at a survey Transportation survey because it was very dry. There's no place to comment and Then so one week before the survey calls my educators instinct kicked in I decided to do some parent education by myself by posting Something on the social networking application next door So I posted a link for the TED talk by a sleep researcher talking about why school should start later for the teens and encourage everyone to vote for letting the high school start later. I received many comments. Unfortunately, some of them were not very friendly. I understand every family is different. There are practical reasons why people do not want to change. And I'm not surprised for the survey results, because we have already built our routines around the current schedule. But think about how much the society has changed in the past decade. We tell our kids they need to learn, but shouldn't we all be lifelong learners? Even as we age, shouldn't we still stay open-minded to scientific studies and recommendations by the experts? If you don't believe in the research, then talk to the superintendent. Maybe one year later, you should talk to the Houston ISD and then see how they're doing. That's just a suggestion. Okay. And I believe it is time to connect the dots between the world of science and education. The high school kids are the most vulnerable group here and they should get a first priority to start school later. Okay, as a result of our discussion on Nextdoor, I finally figured out if I'm not so unhappy, I'm so unhappy about the transportation survey, I'll do my own. So this This is the handout you received. On my survey, there's only like 33 people participated. But 73 participants supported delaying secondary school studying time. There are also two other suggestions. You can read it by yourself. OK. I'm not sure if I can finish this one, but let me try. I just received comments on Facebook. Facebook. So from mom. So this is what she wrote. Every district we have living has this contrary every time.
Thank you, Ms. Wang. Your your three minutes is up. I'm sorry. Thank you. No, it's everyone gets three minutes, so.
that's to be fair and equitable thank you miss wang we do have your information and uh i appreciate your survey of 33 folks we had 19 000 all right and and let me also state this uh it's easy to compare school districts sometimes from an individual that's not within the administration hisd no fault of the current superintendent there but they're in a 208 million dollar deficit All right, their decisions, their decisions were made a lot along the lines of finances and not necessarily on research, but I don't want to speak for them. But if you're going to bring that up, I do need to address that with you as well. Thank you.
Our next speaker and apologize if I get your lovely name wrong is Rizwana Sultana.
Rezwana. Rezwana Sultana.
Hello everyone. My name is Rezwana Sultana. I'm a pediatric sleep specialist. I work at UTMB and I have been invited by a group of parents to address here and address the American Academy of Pediatrics point of view about school start time. time. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 59% of 6th graders to 8th graders and 87% of high school students in the U.S. were getting less than recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep on their school nights. 17% of high school kids report that they have inability to sleep before 2 o'clock and it's because of their natural tendency to sleep later to to be able to sleep later, which is called delayed sleep phase syndrome, in which the person is unable to sleep within two or more hours than the social norms of the society. This results in most of the kids sleeping later than 1 AM, and they are waking up at 5 to 6 AM to catch the school bus on time and reach the school at 7 o'clock. That can increase their sleep deprivation, which can result in serious consequences. And I have submitted this article. I just had one copy, but I have made 10 copies of this graph, which is really evident that kids who are sleeping less than five hours, as compared to kids who are sleeping for seven hours, there is clear association between less sleep and drunk driving, weapon carrying, fighting, suicide, attempted suicide, smoking, alcohol use, binge drinking, marijuana, sexual risk taking, texting while driving, and obesity. So in 2014, American Academy of Pediatrics recommended middle and high schools delay the start of school start time to 8.30 a.m. or later. There are some researches which were done between two different school districts and they have results in which in Australian, adolescents seem to do comparatively well with students 17 years or older report average sleep time between 8.5 to 9.1 hours. And in the National Sleep Foundation showed a poll that moving the school time one hour earlier, 50% of 10 graders reported that they get one hour less sleep. While the school districts who have changed the timing one hour later, the sleep going to bedtime has not changed, but the waking up time has definitely changed which resulted in getting one more hour of sleep. And the research shows that getting even one more hour sleep in a test research study for one week resulted in higher education, higher results among the academic tests which
required thank you very much our next speaker is Carol Berglund had to leave Okay. Our next speaker is Todd Granato.
Good afternoon, President Vann, Superintendent Hinn, and the rest of the board members. I'm here to talk about Article 5.12 that was recommended tonight, which is the high school number 9. As a 20-year resident of the Katy ISD district, the company I work for, Weber Construction, formerly Pepper Lawson, is a 30-year company here in Katy. And also having three kids that graduated from Taylor High School and spending all their years in the Katy ISD district. I'm here to talk about, I think Mr. Lacy said it best, the steward of the funds for KDISD. As a general contractor, we bid the CSP project a couple of weeks ago. I was informed last week that we did not get it. The approval tonight was $438 million. Our bid was $134 million, so what I'm bringing up today is that we are misappropriating $4 million worth of KDISD taxpayers' money. And I understand in our business it does get graded, but Ms. Fox said earlier she had a passion for what she believes in, and by having 13 employees that live here in Katy ISD by spending 20 years in this district you know my passion is for the school both my parents are educators and I know how hard money is to come by I was going to get up here and show a little bit of passion with regards to feeling like you know we needed the job We wanted the job. We want it fair and square. I understand there's a lot more bids that are coming out We are going to bid them. We're going to go after them very aggressively I just hope that next time we get scored a little bit better and in closing I would like to wish KDISD and the construction department Well on high school number nine and junior high number 16 but I felt I did owe it to my employees to come up here and say my voice. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Berglund, I would like to comment. Misappropriating is a pretty, I'm sorry, Mr. Granato, misappropriating is a pretty powerful word when you address a board of trustees and a superintendent. I'm sure you're clearly aware of Texas Government Code 22.69, which we read out earlier.
Yes, sir.
And it does have the portion of recommendations. It's not just the lowest price. It goes with recommendations. Part of that also is reputation, quality of work, safety record, experience, financial capacity. Also, we look at firms that possibly could have some form of litigation, et cetera. So I don't want you to come up and address us in a misappropriation. We've got the best value and the best interest of this district when we make a decision, and there's a process of doing that. And it's a legal process and this district followed that a hundred percent
and president Since this is an agenda item. I think I have the right to ask a question I want to concur with what I was ready to just sit here and be a bump on the log and by me That's a pretty good standard that doesn't happen Yes, so when the word misappropriation Came out of your mouth would you cite the statute? to which you are accusing me and the members of this board of misappropriating public funds. And be aware that misappropriation is a word that has meaning. Words count. Where is the statute that you want to look me in the face and say under these circumstances that I misappropriated a single dollar? And if you want to go into the full scope of this, I'll be glad to go there with you. But right now, where is the statute that you justify saying I misappropriated a single dollar or that this board misappropriated a single dollar?
Mr. Scott, if I could address it. that misappropriation was a word that I used, and it's a word that I feel is the right word, but my heart goes to I feel I am qualified. I feel the company I work for is qualified, and we turned in a bid. Now, if we scored $4 million less than the other teams, then, you know, I'll see that score later. So I apologize if misappropriated was used inappropriately, and I will take that back. But there again, my passion is that the company that I work for put in a competitive bid. We have done 17 projects for KDISD through the years, and we do have the reputation to finish schools.
So you don't get one bid and all of a sudden this board is misappropriating public funds? Well, you said you were. You don't get one bid. You've done 17 jobs and you're telling us that you didn't get this. The administration used its review process, not required under state law to go with the low bid. You're not a rookie. You know that. and so you don't get this bid and you accuse this board of misappropriating dollars? This is probably one of the hardest negotiated contracts and bond issues that I've seen, and I've looked at them in Houston, Houston Community College, City of Houston, school districts all around the state of Texas, I mean all around Harris County, in my professional career. I didn't misappropriate one damn penny.
Like I said before, I wish you all the best. I just feel like I had to say something because it is $4 million worth of taxpayers' money.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Jonathan Otero. I'm sure I said your last name wrong and I apologize. I think I should know how to say it by now.
Yes, you did very well.
Oh, good.
Superintendent Hint, President Vann, members of the board, thank you so much for letting me speak today on the topic of the TWI program at Fielder Elementary. My name is Jonathan Otero, and I have two daughters, one of whom is currently in first grade in the Fielder TWI program, and the other of whom is currently pre-K at Spanish Schoolhouse with, up until earlier tonight, aspirations of being a part of the Fielder TWI program. The conversation earlier today on the recommendation to end TWI was not courageous as some board members had characterized it. It shows short-sightedness and confusion by the administration. In the process of discussing TWI today, suddenly the issue of cost has come to the forefront. front. The original and only rationale for changing TWI up until today was field or overcrowding. Cost is critical, no doubt. I'm not here to say otherwise. But why the bait-and-switch? You all have shown here that TWI is expensive for, you have not shown here that TWI is expensive for a special program. What you've shown is the cost for the program in isolation. To show what how that ranks in comparison to other special programs to say that is in fact expensive you need to have some type of bellwether. Dr. Hinn I would like to ask that you provide what is the cost per student involved for the football program in KDISD. I would argue that the value of students having bilingualism is higher than the value of a game. Either way I think you owe to the community to show what those numbers look like for special programs and not just showing TWI in isolation. You know, I heard that hard work was done here today. No, it wasn't. If cost is a legitimate problem, show me that you looked at different options, different models to address the cost structure of this program and you concluded that it's just not going to work, guys. All I heard today was that artificial turf is more important than bilingualism. Hard work would be figuring figuring out how to make a popular program work, not telling students on a wait list, tough luck. Our world is becoming increasingly globalized, especially our workplace. I'm a commodities trader, and I have many colleagues who owe their careers, their livelihoods, to bilingualism. Bilingualism leads to opportunities for many. Football leads to concussions for the few. I'm very disappointed in those of you who have spoken up against the TWI program. Thank you.
Mr. Antero, thank you for your passion. I'm going to tell you on that. I sense you're upset. But when you- Did you hear that? Yeah, I hear you loud and clear. I've been listening to all groups, all right, for the last two months. I've met with over 100 people. I've heard one side, another side. I've heard three different angles. But when you make comparisons, I think it's my job to help you on this. It's really not about cost as much as it is equity. When you only have 250 kids that really benefit from the program, and I know the response will be, well, then put it in every single school. We can't. Let me also talk to the other programs in the district. Every single child has an opportunity in football. Every single child has an opportunity to be involved in a GT program if they qualify. Every single child has an opportunity to be in a CTE program if they sign up for it. Pre-AP, AP, every program in the district we have, every single child in the district has access to it. And yes, some programs may cost a little more, some a little less. but it's the equity of the program and that's where the administration came down and said you know what if we can't offer it for all and really when you take a look at the 430 kids half of them are going to get their bilingual education through the bilingual program so then it's not my daughter though it's it's it's narrowed down to about 230 kids and then there's a selective process which we're guilty of that if the sibling gets in a child gets in the sibling is automatically in and then I looked at the economically disadvantaged student numbers in this program I started taking a look at the kids that geographically are part of the program I think there's a lot more to it that maybe we didn't explain to you and I'd love to do that at another time it is a good program but it's not a program that we can provide to every single child and your child your kindergartener will still have an opportunity to take Spanish later on in their career in KDISD.
May I make one last comment?
Sure.
You mentioned the concept of equity. That is the third rationale you've provided on this. You're shifting.
Thank you.
Next we have, is it going to be Mr. or Mrs. Arreola who's speaking? Alfredo or Laura? Thank you.
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Alfredo. I'm a father of three kids, two of them who are in the TWI program. I work at Schneider Electric, a transnational company, and I have responsibility for 13 people on my team where being bilingual is 100% necessary. So, yeah, this is about the TWI. My wife and I are still waiting for your call, by the way, which you promised to call us on the last meeting, and we know that you will be there. never receive your call, Dr. Hinn. What I have learned is that even in a non-profit endeavor, money moves almost everything, one way or another. The one that was recently passed in last year, I think it was, is not little money and certainly require many votes, including those votes of the networks around Filler Elementary and parents who in the past have complained about both the school capacity, the cost of the program, their kids being on portables versus TWI and bilingual kids being on portables, to say a few. I think there's a video of a board meeting in the past along those lines. What a way to change stories and to change issues. A month ago, the problem was over the population at Fielder where you promised and reaffirmed the program was not going to disappear. Your words, not mine. Today, the issue is money, the money you would happily spend on studying turf rather than teaching kids a secondary language and expanding that program. This is why in places like Europe and even Brazil and even Mexico, they speak tertiary languages rather than and playing better football. The program is no bigger because the district has not expanded a very successful program where it is proven that demand exists and that students have some of the best grades. And it would be much, much larger if the program had more seats available. Other schools in KDASD have a capacity, such as West Memorial, Memorial Powerway, Wood Creek, Schaefer, Kilpacker, Raylander, Davidson, Jenks, and others add capacity to be able to capacity in the future. There has been a suspicious amount of pressure and hurry to specifically bring Fielder Elementary to capacity and now eliminate the programs all along. Last month you said this would not happen. Your words basically at this point to me and to a lot of families and teachers here tonight basically mean nothing. And we'll make sure that the world knows that as well. A few teachers out of many in the TWI and bilingual programs who love their jobs are seeing him tonight. They are on your payroll. Their opinion about what you are planning to do with their jobs apparently is not important. I guess tonight you just announced to them they should start updating their resume. Believe me, we will also make sure the world knows that. You might support and believe the recommendations made tonight, and many of you might think it's a done deal. From the parents, I am sure the teachers and the teachers on this program, believe me, we don't support and agree with this decision or recommendation. We will make use of TV channels and other news outlets that we will personally contact to dig deeper into this particular issue and the high pressure being inflicted to initially move and now remove the TWI program from Fielder Elementary and Memorial Parkway.
Thank you. Mr. Arreola, let me let the world know right now, no teacher is going to lose their job in the Katy Independent School District at Fielder Elementary School that is part of the TWI program. Let me also let the world know that you're wrong when you say I told you that I wouldn't kill the program. What I told you was any student that's involved in this program I'm not going to take that away from them. Okay? And every single child that's currently involved in this program we're going to continue this program for the next five years and we're not going to take that out from under them. Alright? So I want to make sure that the world knows that that teachers aren't going to lose their jobs. We value our teachers in this school district, and we make tough decisions sometimes. All right? I understand your passion. Believe me, I've heard it for two weeks, and I apologize if I didn't call you. I called a group of individuals that came together as one last week, and I assumed, or the last board meeting, and I assumed I was talking to the individual that was communicating with the rest of them. But I can assure you, and I don't think there's anybody that can deny this, I've had multiple conversations with folks that are in support of TWI, folks that are not in support of TWI, folks that are upset with T buildings on the Fielder campus, and what I told that group at Fielder was that we created this problem, we're going to have to fix the problem, and to do it we're going to have to do it not at the expense of the students that are in the program currently. We considered the movement, but I mean, I I am not going to sit up here and have somebody come up here and misrepresent my words. All right? And I think you did on several occasions. Thank you.
It's just last month it was capacity, now it's budget. It started with capacity.
All right? It did start with capacity. We had 1,200 kids in a building built for 900 kids. We started looking at everything else. There are many other schools like that. I've explained this, but it boils down. Do you not agree that it's an equity issue? Is it fair for a student that's economically Disadvantaged that they don't have the same access to a small pocket. I mean I would love to offer it District wide we can't afford to All right, every other program we have we offer it to every single kid in the district We're a public school system that means equity for all Madam president may address some legacy
Several speakers have said things about comparing school turf, turf on the football fields at Cinco and at Katy. And they're comparing that with the TWI program. We're talking about 250 kids as opposed to thousands of kids. One child, the reason that I asked how old that turf is and what is the anticipated life, was so that I knew when safety comes down to it on the turf if someone gets hurt because there's a seam that pops up because something happens to that turf and a child gets injured it's a safety thing that's why we have to make hard decisions that's why we have to go buy new turf every so many years that's only
one example out of many because there are other programs like robotics for for example, and other things that still money is spent on them.
Robotics is available, just as Dr. Hint mentioned. There are several different programs that are available to everyone, not a very select group of people. Robotics is one that is available to everyone. You go up to the academy superstructure is what I call it. There's a STEAM center that is phenomenal, and it's available to everyone.
everyone. So why not make a second language available to everyone? That was addressed
already by Dr. Hint. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our last speaker tonight is Yen and I apologize if I put your name as well.
Good evening. My name is Yan Rabe. I'm the Houston area chapter leader of the the national organization Start School Later with more than 100 chapters nationwide. We are dedicated to increasing public awareness about the relationship between sleep and school hours and to ensuring school start times are compatible with health, safety, and equity in education. When high school starts at the early start time of 725, there are unintended consequences from chronic sleep deprivation. One of these unintended consequences is an increased chance of sports injuries. A study published in the Journal of Pediatrics Orthopedics showed that athletes who slept on average less than eight hours per night were 1.7 times more likely to have had an injury compared with athletes who slept for more than eight hours. For each additional grade in school, the athletes were 1.4 times more likely to have had an injury. Common injuries are ACL injuries, meniscus tears, and elbow ligament injuries, but the list is long, and as more advanced skills are expected from our young athletes today, it just keeps growing. These injuries, if not correctly healed, may lead to early arthritis and other issues in adulthood, according to Dr. Centeno, a specialist in regenerative medicine and an interventional orthopedic. The implication for starting high school early at 7.25 means students will just have to go to sleep early by 8 PM to get the adequate amount of sleep they need. But they are not sleeping earlier. Band practice and sports events end late. Students are working late and doing homework from a demanding course load. They sleep when they are tired and when they can. And that is about around 11 PM or after. It is a misconception that students will just start sleep later if school starts later. They will sleep at the same time as they do now, but will be able to get more sleep when school starts later. There are studies from over more than 20 years of research to show that starting high schools later benefits students, but there are no studies that show that starting school early does the same. The presentation by Transportation mentioned a savings in 2.3 million dollars in maintenance and fuel costs. This is a small savings compared to long-term costs in students' health, academics, and safety when high school starts early. If the district is looking to save money, starting school later is a cost-effective way to save money. Starting high school will improve attendance rates, graduation rates, health, safety, and academic performance. In addition, teachers' health would also improve when they too can get enough sleep. This health health insurance for staff will be less costly for both employees and the district. We look to the school board to have the courage to make a research-based decision for what is best for students health, academics, and safety.
That concludes our open forum. I'd like to draw your attention to agenda item number seven. Our future meeting, regular board meeting, will be here back in our board room. We're all very happy to have elbow room and be back into our board room that was flooded in August it will be on Monday February 26 2018 there being no further business for the board this meeting is adjourned the time is 934 p.m.
Official documents
About the underlying data (7 notes)
- The transcript on this page was produced automatically by speech recognition. No person has checked it against the recording. It is a way to find a passage, not a quotation.
- Speakers are unresolved where a turn reads Unknown speaker: 234 of the 269 turns on this page. The transcript separates one voice from another but does not name them, and no name is assigned to a turn without evidence.
- The speaker turn timeline is not continuous. There are intervals with no attributed turn, so a gap between two turns is not evidence that nothing was said.
- The district’s video index for this meeting carries no timestamps, so the recording is presented here as a single section rather than divided into agenda items.
- The district publishes this recording as 5 separate files rather than one. The player on this page plays the first file; the later parts are on the district’s own player, linked above. Transcript times run continuously across the whole recording, so a time past the end of the first file will not play here.
- The recording is played here from the district’s own stream. The archive does not hold or serve a copy of the video.
- No speaker on this page is named. The automated attribution available for this recording was derived from names spoken aloud in the transcript, and a surname inside a turn is not evidence of who is speaking. Every speaker is therefore left unresolved.
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 3.1
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 |