The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, March 19th, 2018, and the time is 6.31 p.m. Dr. Hint, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Opens Meeting Act in regard to the notice for this meeting?
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Madam President, we're in compliance with the notice regarding this meeting tonight.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's board work-study meeting. To prepare for this meeting, each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Thursday, March 8th, and have had 11 days to study its contents and to seek clarification from Dr. Hindt. This evening, the items posted on the agenda will be presented to the board by staff, administration, and the superintendent. The board will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the agenda items during tonight's meeting. The Board has just reconvened from closed meeting in accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code. Any action arising from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in an open meeting.
Chair Greg Musil.
Madam President. Madam President. Mr. Moholsky.
I move the Board of Trustees enters into an agreement to purchase from Morgan 157JV an an approximate 157-acre parcel of property for a future high school and junior high school combined campus for a total acquisition cost estimated not to exceed $6,717,599. Second.
I have a motion by Mr. Mohalski, a second by Mrs. Doyle, that the Board of Trustees insert into an agreement to purchase from Morgan 157JV an approximate 157-acre parcel of property for the future high school and junior high school combined campus for a total acquisition cost estimated not to exceed $6,717,599. Is there any discussion?
Okay.
Being none, we'll take a vote. All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye. Aye.
The motion passes 7-0.
Madam President. Sorry. Madam President. Mrs. Doyle. I move that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting. Second.
A motion has been made by Mrs. Doyle, a second by Mrs. Fox. The Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting. Is there any discussion? We will now proceed to vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Motion passes 7-0. Do we have any Boy Scouts in the audience?
Alright.
Now we'll move on to the report section of our agenda. 4.1. Portrait of an Educator.
Alright. We've got Ms. Caskey and I think Ms. Lawson. I'm sorry, Dr. Caskey. Okay. That's fine. Go ahead. And Dr. Lawson. Just call me Lance.
It's okay, Mr. Hent. Not a problem. Not a problem. Good evening, President Vance, school board members, and Dr. Hent. We are pleased to be here this evening to present you with the KDISD Portrait of an Educator as part of our district strategic plan. Goal 5 of the strategic plan focuses on attracting and supporting high-quality staff to optimize the learning environment for our students. One of the specific results identified as a year one priority was the creation of a portrait of an educator that encompasses our learner outcomes and the learner profile. profile. The development of our portrait included input from many stakeholder groups, beginning with a community survey and leading to the input of our strategic design team, which included parents, students, staff, community members, as well as board input through the participation of Mrs. Fox and Mr. Scott. We further vetted the input process through campus leaders, instructional coaches, and and our curriculum and instruction team members. At this time, Dr. Lawson will now share further details of the process and the development. But please take a look as she's talking because you have some beautiful posters right up here that might be easier for you to see.
All right, thank you, Dr. Caskey. This specific result has been enjoyable and rewarding to be a part of. Many people assisted with the development of the portrait of an educator, and tonight we are lucky to have a few of those staff members with us. I will have each of them introduce themselves as they come up shortly. As Dr. Kasky mentioned, a variety of input was gathered and utilized during the development. Karen Muller, Director of Elementary Curriculum Instruction, led an activity with some instructional coaches. She asked them, what are the most important characteristics of effective teachers? After individual reflection, they worked collaboratively in small teams to answer this question, and then they created illustrations. illustrations. The illustrations capture the essence of what effective teachers do, what they look like, and even what they sound like. Every illustration created was unique and fabulous. In total, 11 illustrations were created by the instructional coaches. On the screen you see a few of them. You can see they worked hard. They got very creative, didn't they? Two posters even resembled superheroes. In our eyes, teachers are superheroes. KDIC teachers do amazing things for our learners. You will notice there are sticky notes added to many of the posters after the teams created their own poster they had an opportunity to view and provide feedback to others you'll also probably notice some commonalities between the posters from here the 11 illustrations were narrowed to four which are before you on the screen and also before you in the podium they were then narrowed to four by a small team of curriculum instruction staff members here are the top four illustrations These four illustrations were taken to the Elementary Curriculum Advisory. This committee is comprised of at least one representative from every elementary school in Katy ISD. Representatives are either a classroom teacher, instructional coach, or a campus administrator. The participants provided additional feedback to these four posters. Suggestions and edits were made to all four, even more sticky notes. Four themes naturally emerged during this process and there was an attempt to not lose any critical idea or any critical meeting as we narrowed down the process. Advisory members also selected and ranked the illustrations. The illustration at the far left or to your left was the most preferred. The next step in the development of the portrait of an educator included meeting with a KDISD graphic designer. He spent time hearing about the process, reviewing the documents, and examining the four posters and comments in detail. Several visuals were created from these four top four drafts. So now before you see the final product, I'd like you to have an opportunity to hear from a few of the KDIC staff members who directly worked on this so you can hear more about the four themes.
Hi, my name is Debbie Barker and I'm the principal at Pattison. One of the things that we really spent some time discussing was relationship building, and we think that's so critical for an educator. As an elementary principal, our teachers are often at the door greeting the children in the morning. They're doing community circles with them, and many of our teachers even will go to their football games or their games on the weekends to build those relationships with those children. not only are relationships important with the children but we also feel like it's systemically important for them to have them with their cohorts so they'll team plan at least twice a week usually they're working together collaboratively collaboratively to play in good lessons for the children but they also take care of each other and they also laugh and have fun because that's what keeps people coming back and keeps people building relationships so we think that that's been very important in helping us create this
Hi there, Castilda Steele, the Executive Director for Secondary Curriculum Instruction. Educators in KDISD are lead learners. Lead learners care about instruction and learning. They are innovative and are risk takers when facilitating learning in the classroom. Ultimately, they have high expectations for their students and are passionate about their craft.
Hi, I'm Deb Hubbell. I'm the principal at Morton Ranch Elementary. Communication skills have always been important in teachers, but our paradigm has shifted. No longer are the most important things elocution and precise delivery of content with the teacher standing at the front of the classroom. For what we have learned through brain research the last two decades, it is the person doing the most talking that is doing the most learning. Therefore, the portrait of the successful KDISD educator now includes reciprocal communication with teachers who are highly effective in listening. When we truly listen to children as they make sense of things, we can skillfully design next step instructions and when we're truly responsive to them, their growth can be exponential. The teacher's role in communication has changed from orator, lecturer, and sharer of information to inspirer, engager, and promoter of class discourse. Teachers who communicate effectively in these senses will produce students for whom the sky is the limit.
I'm Kelly Oliver. I'm the instructional coach at Tize Junior High. Instructional coach for English. And as English teachers, we are storytellers, but I won't take a long time. My mom used to talk about how much my grandfather had seen change over the course of his life. And as my grandchildren enter, get to that kindergarten stage, I'm thinking they will probably see the same kinds of change over the terms of their life and maybe even more and when we worked on the portrait of an educator we were feeling charged to think about teachers as models of what we want in our students and what we want to see grow in them and So for the collaborators realizing that this is going to be something that they they do more and more in their lifetime time we were very cognizant of how important it is that out of those relationships they work cooperatively and that they're adaptable and that they're dedicated and they're problem solvers and that they are willing to take in different ideas and work with lots of different people so collaborate collaborators that's what we need in our portrait of an educator
all right well thank you all very much for the elaboration and now we would like to present you with the KDIC Portrait of an Educator, as you can see here on the screen. All of the pieces coming together. So our next steps include the development of a communication plan, which will be shared with our campuses, posting our Portrait of an Educator on our district website, and ensuring that our Department of Human Resources has a copy of it as we move into preparing for recruitment and our teacher job fair in April. And at this time, we will be pleased to address any questions that you may have. We'll put it back on that pretty picture.
I'll just comment.
Thanks for the hard work on this. I know that Mr. Scott and Ms. Fox can attest to this. This has been a year-long process. We started with the development of a strategic plan, the approval of a strategic plan. And as the board knows, we are strategically bringing these items to you. Perfect timing because we're right in the hiring season right now. And this gives us common language as a school district as we start talking about what it is we see in educators and what it is we look for in educators as we employ them. So I just want to say great job, folks. I know you all worked hard at this. It seems like a simplistic task, but when you get a lot of folks involved, there was a lot of information the first time I saw it, and I thought, there's no way. We've got to narrow this down. and I think this is pretty precise. Thank you. Madam President, thank you so much.
You're right, we did similar things like this and it's not an easy task. I have a couple of questions. What were the greatest differences you saw from input from elementary to junior high to high school? Because while we all just fits all of them, how did that differ in your discussion? You know really there wasn't
a lot of difference between the different levels. When we really think about what great educators and effective educators do what they look like and sound like it's all very similar even depending on the age level it's just appropriate to the age of the student so as we took this to different groups we were saying the same things but maybe just in different terminology that's why you see the sticky notes on the poster boards we didn't want to lose as we maybe narrowed in the process from 11 to 4 and then down to one in our visual with our graphic designer. We didn't want to lose any meaning. We wanted everybody as a part of this. There were over 1900 folks that filled out an online survey during our strategic design process. We wanted what they said represented as well. And so you would see similar words. It may not have been the exact word we landed on, but after discussions we were all saying very similar things as we thought about what we want effective teachers in K-ISD. We had many effective teachers in K-ISD and we were happy to make an illustration that captured that.
Follow up, Madam President? I love the visual that you have here. And this reminds me of our portrait of a graduate, right? So it's our goals to aspire to this. Will this in the future be built in as an accountability or a measurability or is this our like epitome? This is our hope to be.
This is our vision of what our expectations are. I think what you're gonna see more what you're talking about is when we roll out our legacy learning framework Which has also been an important component of our strategic design Which is a framework if you will for how we go about designing instruction in our classrooms So I think what you're getting at is going to get a little more granular with our legacy learning framework I think this is a vision of what we want and what we expect of our teachers in Katy ISD that helps Thank you so much. Thank you. Madam president
Anyone else? Thank you all very much. Next we have 4.2, Hurricane Harvey Recovery Update, Ms. Feitinger and Mr. Nauman.
While we're pulling this up, good evening. President Vann, Dr. Hint, Board of Trustees. Financial services is here this evening to kind of bring you up to speed on where we are with a hurricane Harvey process we're at a six-month watermark I guess you could say pardon the pun but we want to kind of preface this we have a video that we partnered with AIG on and then we'll go into our statistical update you don't mind
The Houston area received a year's worth of rainfall in a matter of three days. It was continuous.
Through this partnership with our adjuster and AIG, the response was incredible.
The best I've ever seen in 30 years in respect. It was practical, it was real, and it was heartfelt from our underwriter to our claims department at AIG
that they're going to help us get back in business, and our business is short.
AIG's been around for a long time, so with our experience, we were able to provide the services
that the insured was looking for and that the insured needed at that time.
Some of the solutions that we offered for KDIC, for example, with the environmental specialists, we provided a list of specialists that they could use at their disposal. We sent them into these facilities that were damaged to make sure that there wasn't anything wrong and they wouldn't have any future issues. They want to make it safe if you have kids here. And to have that ability and that solution that we provided for KDIC isn't something that is typically in your policy. to come to a facility like this and seeing it all come together and being rebuilt and some of the things that have been salvaged and some of the ways that AIGs come together to help KCIC get to a point where they can operate again is a great feeling. And it's exciting to see and I'm proud to be a part of it.
All right, we'll go ahead and get started here. I thought I'd approach this in sort of a timeline of how things have progressed. On Wednesday, August 23rd, we began as a district preparing for the upcoming storm. We gathered supplies, finalized our emergency call trees. We've secured our locations for wind and water threat. It's based on what we knew at the time. And as always, we talked off of fuel tanks in our maintenance vehicles and some of our strategic buses that would be later used. On Friday, August 25th, we went ahead and already filed our insurance claim, knowing the damages were already in place that were coming, and facilitated on-site adjusting services from our insurance carrier prior to our even having, knowing what damage was actually out there. On Saturday, August 26th, that's when the rains came down. Heavy rain and the storm hit the Houston area and continued, as we know, for several days. On Sunday, August 27th, the ESC and the LMC flooding occurred during the night. Our first responders moved from the LNC to the Legacy Stadium complex, and later the National Guard arrived at Katy High School. On Monday, August 28th, Katy ISD buses began transporting flood evacuees to shelters at Cinco Ranch High School, Morton Ranch High School, and Cinco Ranch Junior High. On Thursday, August 31st, you met and approved a resolution regarding the immediate needs associated with Hurricane Harvey, which was an excellent, excellent move. On Wednesday, September 6th, staff returned to work. And on Saturday, September 9th, we received our first $5 million advance from our insurance carrier, which was really phenomenal. On September 11th, the students began returning to classes. Bear Creek Elementary was relocated to Pato High School because of a wastewater treatment plant pump problem. And Creech Elementary relocated to the University of Houston property located in Cinco Ranch. On September 25th, Bear Creek Elementary returned to their home campus. And on November 29th, the second $5 million advance from our insurance carrier was secured. And then on January 20th, Saturday, the third $5 million advance from our insurance carrier was secured as well. The insurance claim progress. Eligible insurance recovery includes Creech Elementary, the ESC, and the Leonard Merrill Center for damages. All the other district location damages that we sustained are within the stated deductibles. Presently we are gathering all the source documents to support the remaining remaining $10 million in insurance coverage to finalize our final proof of loss. The final proof of loss will support the $25 million in total limits and will conclude the insurance activity for this loss. And we'll scroll some pictures for you to give you a sense of where we were before, the progress, and where we presently are right now. you'll take a look at these this was at Creech Elementary you can see the damages here we are at the ESC Back in Dorff Junior High, in Cardiff. Katie High School outfield fence. Simran and Cinco Ranch. And then the ESC. The rebuilding efforts at Creech. and here we are back at the ESC now but miss an five-year continue with FEMA
okay so after insurance where insurance leaves off we'll try to pick up with FEMA and agency We had our original scoping meeting with FEMA on October the 26th, and in that meeting we were discussing the review of the initial damages that we were aware of and identified how the process was going to move forward. The first thing we needed to do was develop our damages inventory. This is a listing of each line of damages of each facility, separating buildings, contents, portables, very, very minute details. The importance of this document is only items that are identified in the damaged inventory will be able to move forward through the FEMA claiming process. So if it didn't make this inventory, we weren't going to be able to claim it. The amounts are estimated at this time for all of those to include all possible categories. We try to cover our bases. If we think we might have had an employee touch that, we make sure we're going to estimate some labor costs in there because we're now in the process of trying to break those costs down. So the different types of categories are forced account, which is our labor costs, contracted services, equipment, usage, supplies, and material. And as you can imagine, we were very thrilled to find out our original due date was Christmas Day. However, we were very excited when the entire state of Texas was extended to January 24th and then extended again until February the 10th. We actually submitted our inventory on February the 8th. We were advised to wait toward the very end so to make sure if anything else were to come up, we could get it into that document. Okay, the project's identified. We do have 102 FEMA projects, which is 275 detail lines. We will claim our shelters, the three shelters, to the Texas Department of Emergency Management, the state of Texas, and we'll also be claiming DPS and National Guard costs for housing those agencies. Included are 74 campuses and or department facilities, 130 portable buildings that had some sort of damage, and additional vehicle damages, emergency protective measures, etc. One of the things you might imagine is that, you can imagine is that we're currently working through the payroll costs of allocating the payroll. those maintenance crews are out there working on all those projects, allocating their payroll costs to every portable they touched, every facility they touched, and so that's a pretty daunting thing. And I have a couple people that I'm going to recognize here in a minute, several people that I'm going to recognize here in a minute that are doing a lot of work on a lot of that detail. Our total estimated damage, which, again, this is including every possible category on each possible project, is 36.8 million. We think that should be high because obviously some of those are not duplicated in multiple areas. So what are our next steps? We're collecting electronic copies for both insurance and FEMA claims for every purchase order, every invoice, every check copy, every procurement, method of procurement, and the documentation of how we procured it. Photographs, which we gave you just a sample of those. We have many more that we're collecting to show the proof of damages. Again, that calculation and allocation of payroll costs is a massive undertaking, and we are working on that as well. We will submit all of this through the grant portal or through the assigned agencies, and we're working with them now and will be for quite some time to address any other items that they identify that they need or what the agencies might need. And so I do want to take a quick minute to recognize, I think we have three people out here that are doing a whole lot of work in the background. That's Liz Haven and Kayla Smith and Jennifer Lee. Will you guys stand up? And we really appreciate all your work.
Do you have questions? Any questions? Mr. Scott.
All right, so we have $25 million of insurance money and $36 million of FEMA claims. I'm assuming that you'll get paid once. So of the total damages, what percent do you think we will end up being made whole? Do you have any way of looking at what FEMA will do that insurance doesn't?
That's going to be a very good question.
That's a crystal ball, to be quite frank with you. What about a hazy crystal ball? A hazy crystal ball? I would – we are doing – I will tell you this. We've been working very close with FEMA and have been very transparent in our dealings with them to prevent any questions four or five years from now. Right. And I think FEMA has really been responsive to that. So I think – I'm very optimistic about our abilities to recover the delta, so to speak. I think we have a very healthy working relationship with them in that regard.
We do. We have weekly meetings with our FEMA rep that she's actually coming out again this week to try to make sure that we're moving forward in the right method, that we're giving them the documentation that they're going to need in the end. We try to eliminate some of those questions on the back side, but as far as exactly what they're going to be able to, we're going to be able to get funding for is kind of going to be up to them as we see that as the rules change.
Just from my observation, kind of rewinding my own brain for the last six months, y'all were into documentation very, very early. I mean, y'all started off very, very strong. So whatever we get, the taxpayers should understand just a whole heck of a lot of work started even before the flood water was gone.
Anyone else? Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move to the consent agenda portion of our agenda. By point one, consider future board approval of the March 2018 budget amendments. Ms. Butterfield.
Good evening, President Vann, Trustees, and Dr. Hemp. Tonight we have two general operating fund amendments that are increasing expenditures. The first one for $196,063 is our seventh Hurricane Harvey amendment. And then the second general operating fund amendment for $400,000 that is to provide the budget for the increased insurance premiums approved last month at the February board meeting. Together, these will result in $596,063 decrease in the general operating fund fund balance. There is one construction amendment tonight. This is for $207,582, and this is for language labs to bring consistency throughout the high schools in the district.
have any questions thank you very much thank you 5.2 consider future board approval of the renewal of the Texas associated school boards TASB casualty
insurance program mr. now good evening again president van dr. Hint board of trustees in March 2017 the Katy independent school district board of trustees approved the renewal premium quote from TASB risk management fund for a 12-month period providing auto, general liability, and school board liability coverage for the district at a cost of $242,062. The Risk Management Department seeks to renew this program, which provides casualty coverage for the district. Although the district continues to grow, adding more employees and assets yearly, the renewal premium offered is 3% higher than expiring. This is the result of organic growth rather than loss experience. This program provides commercial auto liability coverage for the vehicles owned, operated, and or leased by the district. Additionally, the program provides general liability coverage to ensure actions against resulting from the day-to-day operations of the district. Lastly, the program affords coverage for school board legal liability for those claims related to administrative issues. After the evaluation of losses over the past three years, risk management believes it is not cost effective to purchase comprehensive coverage on the district's fleet as the premium expense is far greater than the loss experience. This program only provides liability coverage. The proposal has been reviewed in regards to adequacy of cover, assessment of risk, and availability of services and cost. It is recommended the Board of Trustees approves the renewal of the existing TASB casualty insurance program as presented. What an entertaining
questions you may have at this time. Any questions? The liability component covers the district for catastrophic loss if it's our fault. For auto and its operations. So we're not taking we're not subjecting the taxpayers to any risk if we're at fault and our insurance has to pay through liability correct? That is correct. We're taking a risk on comprehensive but what you're saying is that our losses over a period of time do not justify the premiums for that luxury.
If I may, let me clarify, just clarify that for you. If you'll think about in terms of your own auto policy, you have liability coverage and then you have your comprehensive auto coverage, where if you run your car into your garage, your carrier will pay for the repair of that. We self-insure those type of losses for the district. And we insure a catastrophic event under our property policy. So if we have a tornado come through the East Transportation Center and wipe out all the buses, that's covered under our property policy rather than our auto policy. Because we have almost 850 vehicles in the fleet, yellow and white fleet, and the premium on that is exorbitant. So we're saving money, but the premium savings and the cost that we pay in claims is a great savings to the district.
I appreciate that clarification because every family at some point with your car, as an example, it's much more complicated for the district. But, you know, there comes a point when you drop your comprehensive and you just make a cost-benefit analysis, and this sounds like what you've done. This is exactly what we've done.
Mr. Prism.
Mr. Mahofsky.
Mr. Nauman, thanks. I was kind of looking at this and thinking, man, for a district this size, those are pretty low premiums. You start looking at the deductibles and all of that, you've got about $100,000 deductible on the GL and the school board legal liability, along with, why don't you explain a little bit more on the auto liability part of that with $100,000 deductible as well. And I guess with that, while you're answering that, I'd also kind of like to get an idea over the last two, three years, how many times have we experienced claims that have exceeded that deductible?
The deductible that we have selected, we look at this on an annual basis. And that is at the most that we can take. TASB wants some dollar for their risk, and that's the optimal level. And if you back it down to, say, $50,000, it doesn't move the needle that much. In total losses for our own fleet, we have yet to have one even come close to approaching that $100,000 deductible.
So in saying that, if I could follow up, really this is more of a self-insured with a stop loss. Exactly. And that we haven't actually experienced for the most part. Which leads me to one other question, if I might, which is kind of more in the budgeting of that, because you were saying that to do comprehensive would be the premiums would most likely be more expensive than our recent history with that how are we budgeting those types of losses are we looking at at historical and maybe factoring in with a factor for growth or or what what have we
done there we we do a three-year look back and a rolling a rolling three and uh look at our losses and try to look uh on frequency what as we as our buses grow as you know as we open up an elementary entry school or a high school what what that what that expected growth will be and we we budget for that accordingly plus the claims administration piece of
that well one final thing I'll say because over the last I guess six years or so though I've been hearing you give these presentations I know that you know that you and your department certainly turn over every stone and look at everything and what's the best value for the district so much appreciation for the work you do there. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Thank you very much, Mr. Nauman.
Thank you. 5.3, consider future board approval of the naming of elementary school number 41 as recommended by the naming advisory committee. Dr. Hint. Yes, in accordance with CW Local,
the elementary school 41 naming advisory committee met on March 8th to review all submitted names and supporting documentation for elementary school 41 I just want to briefly talk about the committee we had two board members miss van and miss Doyle we also had principal Jamie Shipley you know she's going to take over 41 and then we had three parents two from Jenks elementary school that will have students at the new elementary school and one from Randolph elementary school that will have students at elementary 41 just to give you a little bit of the the guidelines of CW local and what we followed as far as board policy CW local guides the naming of schools and facilities I'm not going to go over the whole policy but I do want to hit some of the bullet points of course the first line and that policy says the board shall have complete authority and responsibility for the permanent naming of district facilities in the policy it also sets forth detailed guidelines for each specific category when naming a district-owned property. A facility may be named for a person in honor of a historic event or place, a subdivision, a geographic area, or for a major donor. The committee is tasked to review names and supporting documentation and shall conduct background research to determine whether names meet the requirements of the policy. And then the committee is to hold a public forum to solicit input on the selected name. Of course tonight we're going to give you the name and I I know y'all are all waiting on it. The drum roll, I'll get there. Wednesday night, we will have the public forum, and then we'll bring this back as an action item again so that if there's additional conversation based upon the public forum, the board will have an opportunity to ask questions or respond. So with that said, I am going to go to the committee's recommendation, and this individual, I hear the drum roll, is her name is Amy Campbell and some of you may recognize the name. I'm going to give you a little bit biographical on Miss Campbell. A native of the Texas Panhandle, Campbell grew up in the Houston Memorial Area and attended school in Spring Branch ISD. After graduating from Sam Houston State University in December of 1981, Amy began her teaching career as a substitute special education resource teacher in Spring Branch ISD in the spring of 82. In the fall of 1982 she was hired as the adaptive behavior teacher at Katy High School. This position evolved into her teaching students from all grade levels with emotional difficulties in a crisis intervention program. Beginning in 1987 at Katy High School, Amy piloted the life skills program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the occupational lab where students completed small jobs for local businesses. While at Katy High School she helped to start a swim program for students with special needs that later became known as the adaptive aquatics program. Amy was recruited by her supervisor in 1995 to go to James E. Taylor High School to start the life skills and vocational adjustment program now called our work based learning. In In 2001, Amy and a fellow special education teacher founded the second high school chapter of Best Buddies in all of Texas, with Katy High School being the first. She remained as a faculty sponsor until her retirement in December of 2015. In 2005, Amy was named James E. Taylor High School's Teacher of the Year. Spent 33 years in the district here from start to finish. Amy also has been busy out in the Katy community. community in 1989. She was present at the first organizational meeting of Katy ISD staff and parents of students with special needs who worked together to form a local chapter of the Arc of Texas. Amy has been a member of the organization since its original charter in August of 1990. She later served as a member of the board of directors and then as vice president of the organization. While waiting for plans to come together for the Arc, Amy conducted Cane Island camp at Katy City Park during the summers of 2004 through 2006 for adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities. She collaborated with like-minded Arc of Katy members to start the Arc of Katy's pilot adult day camp in 2005. In 2014 she was recognized for her service to the Arc of Katy by being named as honoree of their annual Triumph Gala event and was re-elected to serve on the board in May of 2015 and our former mayor Don Elder is here and I I know he knows her very well. We saw some information submitted by you. Thank you very much. So with that said, I'm excited that the committee has recommended Ms. Amy Campbell.
Mr. Griffin. Mr. President, I would just like to thank you for using this policy and bringing us, the board, a name. I know we've tried various processes in the past, and I think this is the best process that we can use to have a name recommended. Thank you.
You're very welcome.
All right.
Madam President. As part of that board, I would like to say that, yes, the policy that we have in place to do the work is excellent, and it was no easy task. We spent quite a few hours and really wanted the parents of students who are going to be attending the school to get a feel for their namesake and find ownership in that. and it was it was fun to watch it was fun to be part of and like I said it was not easy there were quite a few names that made it to the final four I guess you could say that that were amazing there are some amazing people in this district it was hard to choose then it came down to two and it was just it was a toss-up on on all and we had so many great choices so I'd like to thank those committee members that sat in there and did the work alongside us and it was good I think it's a great name yeah I agree with mrs. Doyle it was a it was
wonderful to be part of the process and to have the passion of future parents at elementary school 41 involved and to hear what what they wish for a namesake for their school that you see embodied in so many of the current namesakes that we have and Mrs. Doyle is correct the binder was this thick of information on namesake nominations and it was what a blessing and a sister to have so many wonderful people that you know who wanted these are the schools we've named after and there's a lot more schools coming so that's a good thing too but it it was a very interesting process and one that I was also very very lucky to be a part of so very exciting all right and we were going to request we need to request a 5.3 say on action yes ma'am go to action and not not go to consent that's correct okay all right we'll move to 5.4 consider future board approval to award the contract for the replacement of carpet flooring at Morton Ranch High
School mr. T good evening president van board members and superintendent hint It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the award of the contract for the replacement of carpet flooring at Morton Ranch High School to Tandus Centiva, utilizing the Choice Facility Partners Contract number 17-020CG-15. The flooring replacement at this campus is part of the 2017 Bond Component Replacement Program. The carpet and flooring is scheduled for replacement at Morton Ranch is throughout the campus and the replacement of the flooring will begin June the 1st 2018 and work will be completed by August the 1st 2018. A copy of the proposal is attached for your review. The flooring replacement funding source is the 2017 bond component replacements. The carpet for Morton Ranch High School of replacement cost is $1,049,519.41. Board approval of this recommendation for award is consistent with board policy CH illegal, CH local, CV legal, and CV local.
No questions. Okay. Thank you very much. You're also 5.5.
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the award of the contract for the purchase of nine portable buildings to Palomar Modular Buildings utilizing the by-board contract 463-14. The purchase of these portable buildings is part of the 2017 Bond Component Replacement Program. These nine buildings have exceeded their useful lifespan and need to be replaced. The buildings scheduled for replacement are located at the following campuses. Taylor High School has two buildings. Maid Creek Junior High has two buildings. Morton Ranch Junior High has three buildings. Schmaltz Elementary has two buildings. The new buildings will be delivered to the campuses starting June 1, 2018, and delivery is expected to be completed by July 1, 2018. The Maintenance and Operations Department will be bringing the Reconnection Services Contract to the Board for approval in April of this year. A copy of the purchase contract is attached for your review. The Portable Building Replacement Funding Source is the 2017 Bond Component Replacements. Taylor High School Total Building Cost is $124,862. dollars. Maid Creek Junior High School portable building cost is $124,862. Morton Ranch Junior High School portable building cost is $187,293. Schmaltz Elementary portable building cost is $124,862 for a total portable building purchase cost of $561,879. Board approval of this recommendation for award is consistent with board policies CH legal, CH local, CV legal and CV local.
Any questions? Madam President. Mr. Griffin.
So what do you do with the buildings that are currently there? They will be demolished and recycled. The metal part of them will be recycled.
Usually they recycle themselves on the spot when they're trying to move.
Thanks.
I think we all have that. And I know that it was pointed out by Mr. Teet, but these are replacements, not additions to T buildings.
Anyone else? Thank you, Mr. Teet.
Thank you.
5.6, consider future board approval of the proposal for the construction of elementary school number 42. Mrs. Kastner.
Elementary 42. 42.
Good evening, President Vann, Board members, and Dr. Hint. Today I'm bringing only one item for your consideration. This item is to consider future Board approval of a proposal for the construction of Elementary No. 42. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Dremala Construction for the construction of Elementary 42 in the amount of $24,844,000 and for total project costs not to exceed $31,665,425, approximately $1.3 million under budget. SEAL proposals were received on February 22nd. Elementary School 42 will be located in the Morton Creek Ranch subdivision south of Morton Road and west of Grand Parkway. Construction of the school is required to accommodate student enrollment in the highly rapidly growing northwest quadrant of the district and will open in August of 2019. Four SEAL proposals were received. They were evaluated and Jamala ranked first overall. Jamala has successfully completed numerous projects in KDISD as well as other districts. Megan Connell will be our project manager. Jim Hageman is representing Jamala this evening. Alan Coy and Monica Castillo are representing the architect VLK. The project will also include architectural and engineering fees, utilities, material testing, commissioning, insurance, code reviews, fees, testing and balancing, and other non-contract costs, furniture, equipment, and technology.
I think you glazed over something. There was a $1.3 million savings on this, combined with the high school savings and the junior high savings. I think our construction department did a fabulous job. Thank you.
Madam President, Ms. Weill. Will this be the same design as 41 and Jenks?
It was Bethke and 41. Remember, Jenks is a little bit larger for the bilingual, so this will be a 41 and Bethke model. Okay.
Thank you.
Madam President.
Mr. Scott.
Just to clarify, all of the things that we're approving attributable to the 2017 bond, these are way under budget or under budget, and they're total expenditures, no hidden cost.
That's correct. Furniture, fixtures, you name it. Everything. All of that.
And for every project for the 2017 bond, I'm going to ask the same question, because y'all need to be very proud of that we call it lock stock and barrel
like that okay thank you very much miss Kassman 5.7 consider future board approval of a campus staffing plan for the 2018-19 school year miss Edmund good
Good evening President Vann, Trustees and Superintendent Hint. I am here to present the 2018-19 Campus Staffing Plan, which reflects the growth in student population to ensure that the district has quality employed staff to ensure success, growth and efficient and effective operations. Over the past three to four years our district has grown by an average of 2,700 students. students. So for the 2018-19 school year, we're requesting a total of 154.22 campus staffing units in addition to 89.2 campus support and auxiliary personnel. Those individuals will provide direct support to our campuses. So the total number of requested units for 2018-19 school year is 234.42. In addition to that, we always request growth units, and that's for any unforeseen growth in the upcoming school year. So we were requesting, we are going to request 35 additional units to divide among special ed, general ed, and CTE. So just to give you a little comparison and to be a little transparent, as opposed to what we're requesting for 18-19 for the 17-18 school year you will see a decrease in what we're requesting. Last year we requested 239.74 campus staffing units and 96 that supported the auxiliary departments and campus support which was a total of 335.74 so there is approximately a 30 percent decrease in the staffing units that we're requesting for 18-19 but I would like to point out that that decrease does not mean that we're understaffing for the upcoming school year. It just simply means that we're now choosing to follow our staffing formulas a little bit tighter. So we're going to stay in compliance with those formulas that we put in place. And then the other part of that is next year we're opening one campus in comparison to three campuses which we had the previous year. So in closing, it is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the 2018-19 Campus Staffing Plan as proposed by the Superintendent.
Any questions? I would like just to quickly comment, and really it's just praise, and I just need to do this. I know our HR department and our Department for School Leadership and Support, as well as Financial Services and Curriculum and Instruction, they worked jointly to come up with this plan so that we made sure we didn't miss anything. Now that's no guarantee, all right, because as you know this next action item or this next item on our consent agenda Where we're going to ask you to approve this policy I'll have to come back to this and share with you we may have to come back at some point now for some more But we'll move forward
Thank you. Thank you so much 5.8 consider future board approval of changes and board policy FDA local mr. Gorky
Good evening, President Vann, Board of Trustees, and Dr. Hint. For your consideration are changes to board policy FDA local, that is our policy on admissions and intra-district transfers. Currently, our policy allows those employees who reside outside the district to bring their children to the district on transfer if they were employed prior to the year 1996. 1996 for your consideration on this policy would be a change to strike that higher date of 1996 and just make the policy simply that any permanent full-time employee for Katie is D Would be allowed to apply for transfer for their children if they reside outside the district bring their child into the district on transfer additional proposed change within that same policy is Looking at revocation of transfer if that needed was necessary that that a revocation would take place at the end of a grading period. It does not currently say that in policy, but that is our common practice to revoke at the end of the grading period if we revoke a transfer. Prior to spring break, a survey was delivered to 2,622 employees who reside outside the district. Preliminary results of approximately 900 responses indicated that 73% were extremely interested and 13% were somewhat interested, which is a pretty high number of responses that are interested in a change to that policy. Of those with children, 528 responses, 97% of those respondents indicated that they would bring their child to KDISD if that option existed. The survey is still out there for a few more days, and when those results are finalized, we'll be able to give a report to the Board of exactly all the survey responses in that survey.
If the Board recalls, several of you have asked me about this in my little bit less than two years here. I think a couple of you remember when this option was provided with some of the recent changes moving to a three bell schedule Or the multi Bell schedule we wanted to find something that might provide some assistance to our employees what I call our superstar staff We'll have the permanent results of the survey. I think Thursday I've asked that this be a action item so that we can bring those results back to you share that information with you So that you can make a well thought-out decision on this, but we needed to get this on the agenda now so that we could get it approved next week. We've got a short turnaround to provide this opportunity to staff. Also, I'd ask that Mr. Smith comment to the finances of this. You know, naturally the concern is, okay, if we already have 2,500 kids showing up, and then let's just assume 200 or 300 of our employees bring their kids, That's going to be a little bit larger hickey, per se, to the district and on our enrollment. We just asked you guys to approve that staffing. We may have to, and we've done this in the past, come back and ask for additional staffing units. The survey was set up so not only do we know the number of kids, what age or what grade level the kids are, but also the geographic area in which they come from so we can do an estimate of what impact that may have on some of the schools in those areas and then finally two years working with with some great educators our teacher of the year from every campus meets with me in a teacher leadership form and dr. grooms wouldn't you say this is the number one question asked week or month after month when I meet with those individuals different cohort of group individuals every year and these are questions they get from their campus so Chris if you'll just hit us because I think that one of the concern is what kind of financial impact from what you and I talked about it could actually be a plus to the
district sir as we've spoke before we we do receive five thousand forty dollars is the basic allotment so for every new student we will get the adjusted to basic allotment of $5,040 adjusted for for for KDISD's purposes times every number of students so if you had five students that's twenty thirty thousand I'm sorry five students is three hundred thousand dollars I'm sorry thirty thousand my math's not working tonight I'm sorry I think it was a all that time I'm out my brain with the mush last week. No, but so for me, so what we hope with this is that we're able to absorb those students without having much expense associated with it. You know, if you fit number 22 into a classroom, there's no expense added to it. There may be cases, such as Dr. Hindt said, that we would have to add a teacher here and there, but for the most part, we think that we may come out ahead financially.
Madam President. Mrs. Doyle. I have just a few questions. If you have a high school teacher and she has elementary age kids, is it going to be similar to what our teachers have now, which is the child will be enrolled in the closest school to where the parent is working? They're not going to be able to choose what elementary school they want to go to?
No, it wouldn't just be a total open enrollment to pick and choose any campus. Our current practices right now, because we do have some students here from the 96 rule on that and those students attend the closest school to
that work location okay and if a teacher is employed in the district and then they are no longer employed in the district but the child is a sophomore in high school they would have to move outside of the district when mom or dad is no longer employed in the district or would they have the opportunity to finish school where they started they would lose that
option if the employee left the district but there are some provisions in there to allow them to finish at the end of a semester or into the year to finish that school year right but then they would have to enroll in their their home district if the employee no longer work for the district almost as if the family
moved yes okay but they wouldn't have the option to finish school at a lifetime lifetime school kids not necessarily are okay and then my last question is are there are the surrounding districts doing this are their teachers allowed to bring their children into the district if they don't actually live in the
district some districts you have that option yes and so we see this is as a recruitment and a retainment tool as you mentioned an employee might consider leaving the district but if their child is here and progressing and doing a good job they might just stay for that very reason same thing with recruitment since there are other districts that allow that, we'd be stepping up and making an option as well to impact recruitment.
Well, I'm certain with the new multi-bell schedule, that would definitely be beneficial to our teachers who don't live in the district to have that option. Regardless of the bell schedule, I think any parent that's traveling and then has the option to bring their kiddo to have them closer is really a great benefit to our teachers. And so I'm glad that we're taking a look at this. Thank you both.
No present.
Mr. Scott.
You know, the administration brought us what was a very tough decision. Anytime you have that kind of change, people are impacted. And I think it is so important that the administration is making every possible avenue to make this as smooth a transition as possible for our teachers. You know, we have two things going. One, we really needed to have a multi-bill schedule for all the reasons that have been discussed. And we have great teacher staff at all of our campuses. And one does have the potential of affecting the other. And I think this is a very profound, very important move and message to school teachers. And it helps the board feel very good about supporting you for a pretty tough decision and a pretty tough recommendation.
Mr. Maholsky.
I like that as well. One question. Of course, last month we did take action on the multi-bill schedule. I believe also on that agenda was when we took action on campuses that will be closed to intradistrict transfers next year. So I just was wondering how that would be applied to a potential change in this policy as well. And specifically, well, specifically, yes, will any of these students be allowed to go to a closed campus if or if not that their parent is working at that campus.
So let's talk a little bit about that. This is we're talking about intradistrict, those that are outside. We currently have a policy internally for those who are currently employed by the district that you get to bring your child to your work location or your closest location if you're employed by the district and what we do is we loosen those closed campus restrictions for those employees. The The closed campus restrictions do apply to everybody else, but if you work at a closed campus and you want to bring your child, we allow you to bring your child, and we would exercise those same rules under this practice as well to help those employees in those tougher situations.
Okay, that's very good. One follow-up if I might. So, yes, if the parent works at a school that's a closed campus, they can bring their children. But say that teacher's a high school teacher that has an elementary school, and the elementary school closest to that school is also a closed campus. How does that work then? We allow them to select that school as well.
And that's the current practice now for inter-district? Okay.
Correct.
Good.
Okay.
Thanks. Madam President.
Mr. Lacy.
Mr. Gregorski, how does that affect UIL-sanctioned events?
Like, would they be qualified to participate in those types of things? I might look over my left shoulder and ask Ms. Decker to respond to that one there. Oh, look, she's already there. She knows that rule on UIL more than I would butcher it for you, so I appreciate her coming up here and telling you how that works.
So typically athletes that would be in that type of situation would have to do previous athletic participation form and probably a residency waiver in order to be eligible for varsity. Unless they were there for 365 days and then they would become eligible. and as far as the waiver process goes you know we send it in and we cross our fingers and and if we have the right documentation sometimes we're able to get those approved just just depends on the situation I will say this I've been
part of two school districts that implemented a policy like this and what you'll find is you will have a large number of elementary folks typically your junior high and high school kids are already established in a school school setting in a social network, a group of kids, and you'll find your numbers are probably 80% at the elementary level of those kids coming versus 20% up top.
MS. All right.
Madam President. MS. Ms. Fox. MS. I have a few questions, and one of them already asked by Mrs. Doyle and one by Mr. Michalsky. So Mr. Gregorski went through those numbers, and I was writing as fast as I could. How many teachers total in the district have school-age children they could bring if they choose to? You said 900 filled out the survey, but you had a number of teachers.
We have, according to our records, 2,622 employees who reside outside the district. That's how many the survey went to. We had approximately 900 respond as of when I pulled this data about three days ago. And that's where we were coming up with those numbers of those 900 responses, the 73 that were extreme, 73% that were extremely interested, and the 13% that were somewhat interested. So that's a pretty high percentage in the 80th percentile in there that are interested in some way. Of those employees with children who marked that, those were 528 responses so far. Because obviously the survey went to people who reside outside the district who don't have school-age children, you know.
Of those 26, 22 not all have school-aged children. Is that what you're guessing? Correct.
We don't have any data that tells us one way or another. Okay. Okay. So
528 of them were 98% sure that they would bring their students.
97% of those respondents indicated that they would bring their child to the district if that
option existed. Now that also... We don't know if they have one child or multiple children.
We will at the end of the survey because we asked them to mark do they have one child, two, three, four, five plus. us and we know that we will know their work location which will help us kind of map out that feeder pattern and we'll also know one of the questions also was if you don't have school-aged children do you have a child who will be school age in the next five years so some of them won't be coming immediately but we know that we'd be coming within the next five years so we can get a kind of a
better handle on that okay for mr. Smith may I continue for mr. Smith you said the $5,040 is what comes from the state, but what's our expense per student? Because they don't,
they pay 38 percent. Is that, is that, am I wrong on that? No, again, if, if, if a classroom goes from 21 to 22 students, there's no expense associated with it, unless a classroom goes over the 22 to 1 ratio and at the elementary level, then we would have to add a teacher, but, But so there's no real way to know at this point.
I guess I'm asking our average cost per student is not $5,000.
Our average cost per student is more than $5,000, but that does include administrator salaries, transportation, UIL activities, utilities, et cetera, that would be the same regardless.
Okay.
Okay.
So being the longest serving member on the board at this point, we have talked about this through number three superintendent, that we've talked about this, and I love our teachers, and I get asked this question all the time, and I love being able to offer teachers something that is, it's just, it's non-tangible, right? It's not salary. It's something that we can offer, and I, in my heart, I love this idea. As an elected member from my community, I just simply have to ask these questions. The question that has come up before is, as we have a lot of bond elections and as we, as our taxpayers spend money toward our buildings, these are more bottoms and more seats. And that's where the wrestle was every time was how many students, what does, you know, we are overcrowded and growing rapidly. And so that's where the struggle has been all the time. So, you know, 528 students, not that many, 77,000. And so I would love to be able to offer this to our teachers. but thank you for answering my questions, which is my job as a trustee is to ask, and I am looking forward to more information about the patterns because closed campuses, those kinds of things I'm interested. Will we get more information, Mr. Superintendent?
Yeah, that's why I've asked that we place this as an action item so that we can get the data Thursday. We can really cull through it, and then we can bring it back to you Monday next week, and as an action item, you guys can ask all the questions you want. We'll present that information to you at that time. And also I'd like to add that this is not just a 12-month open window. We will give a window of opportunity. It may be six weeks that they fill out and submit that info. And then we shut it down from that point forward until the next year at that time. We can't just leave it open year-round because we can't account for that. We need to know exactly what that number is going to be at a certain point in time so that we can make sure that we staff our campuses appropriately and don't overburden them.
Is that why we need to make a decision next week? Because I'm just wondering from our community members' feedback.
I will tell you this. From an HR perspective, they've pushed really hard to try and push this off a year. But because of a multi-bill schedule, that's not pushed off for a year. And because this has been a question by several board members asked of me to investigate, as well as the number one leading question on our teacher leadership for month after month after month I felt like it was an appropriate time to bring it to the board you know based upon those those factors but no let me tell you the board has the liberty to approve deny or postpone anything or the
majority of the board does and if I may just follow up on that for you miss Fox We do have an annual enrollment as Dr. Hindt explained there that it's not an open enrollment year-round to bring your children. So our transfer process opens up in April of each year. Our target date this year is to try and open that up around April 9th. But that's all sorts of transfers, you know what I mean, internally. And then this would be part of that external transfer that we fold into that process. So we will start our transfer process regardless in April whether this is a piece of it or not or whether we need to make a decision on that later and make it a piece of that later.
I love it for the hiring and retention of the finest superstars we have. I love it for them. Thank you.
I would like to echo something that Mr. Smith said and others have alluded to. When you have INS debt, that's part of your per-student calculation. It doesn't change the financial analysis of this thing. There are legitimate financial issues associated with making a decision of this number, but it's not just a straight line calculation. So there is elasticity within the buildings. And so if you get the real numbers, or when you get the real numbers, you'll be able to look at the potential refinement of policy recommendations. This starts the ball rolling. This expresses the will of the administration first, the will of the board to take this to a logical conclusion. But it's not because of the way state finance is, because of the way the budgets are constructed. It's not just a net loss because our cost of education might be $8,000 a student or $8,400, whatever it is right now. So I think this is a tremendous move to start down this path. And when we get all the data, we can make the right decision. But this is the direction, and I'm pleased with the direction that the administration is moving.
Thank you. Yes, thank you. I mean, our district is strong because of our teachers, and this is a gift to them. And honestly, until I served on this board, I didn't know that teachers outside the district didn't have the opportunity to bring their students, their children into the district. So I think this this speaks highly to respecting our greatest commodity, which is our which is our teachers people coming to this district because of the the education that they Receive from our staff. So I appreciate it. Thank you all for all of your comments and questions. I think it was a interesting and Pulled us a lot about this one forward. So thank you so much. All right. So now we have 5.9, consider future board approval of proclamation for National Library Week. That's when you get to hear me read. Whereas libraries have long served as trusted and treasured institutions, and library workers and media specialists fuel efforts to better their communities, campuses, and schools through the power of reading, and whereas library media specialists are organizers and information experts experts who have for centuries have guided people to the best information resources. Librarians provide more than facts. They provide the expertise and the services that add meaning to those facts. And whereas library media specialists continue to fulfill their role in leveling the playing field for all who seek information and access to technologies, especially regarding the changing information landscape and the skills needed to thrive in our digital world. And whereas library media specialists work collaboratively with classroom teachers to support the curriculum and teach skills which are vital for student achievement and success. And whereas libraries open a world of possibilities through innovative STEAM programs, maker spaces, job seeking resources. And whereas libraries continuously grow, evolve in how they enrich the educational experience in the district. And whereas Whereas libraries, library media specialists, library workers, and supporters across America are celebrating National Library Week. And therefore, be it known to the Katy ISD Board of Trustees does hereby proclaim National Library Week April 8-14, 2018. We encourage visits to the library this week to explore what's new at your library and to engage with your library media specialists. because of you and our experts in the library libraries transformed and that will be signed next Monday March 26 and item 5.10 consider a future board approval of the proclamation for public school volunteer week and you thought you were done hearing you read something whereas public school volunteer week This week offers the opportunity to honor contributions of KDISD parent and community volunteers who, through the gift of time and resources, contribute to the success of KDISD students, teachers, and staff that advance the goals of public education. And whereas parental and community involvement is a significant factor in the quality of our schools and the success of our students, and whereas we appreciate the dedicated volunteers who give their time and talent to assist professional educators and support staff, and whereas we volunteers reflect the highest values of our society and become role models for students by demonstrating an interest in education. And whereas volunteers are called upon to assist teachers and staff with the day-to-day activities involved in providing a balanced education for our students and are an important part of a team that strives to ensure each and every one of our students succeed. Whereas it's fitting to recognize and thank the volunteers who invest in public education and play a key role in building the legacy. And whereas when parents, schools, and communities work together, they provide a strong foundation in preparing the students of today for the world of tomorrow. Now, therefore, be it known that the KDISD Board of Trustees does hereby proclaim Public School Volunteer Week, April 16th through 20th, 2018. That will also be signed next Monday, March 26th. That wraps up our consent agenda. Now we move on to our open forum. At this time, the Board of Trustees will hear from patrons as established by board policy. The first 20 speakers who signed up at least 15 minutes before this meeting began and have provided their first and last name will be allowed to speak. 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 a speaker wishes to share non-confidential written material with the Board, 10 copies should be provided to the Secretary for Board Services. Due to posting requirements of the Open Meetings Act, the Board is able to respond only to a statement related to a posted agenda item. Specific student issues, discipline, and personal matters should 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. Our first speaker this evening is Mr. Don Elder, Jr.
I'm here representing Harris County Department of Education and Choice Partners. partners. We have an award we want to present to the purchasing department and to the total KDISD board and administration and the school district. President Vann, board, Dr. Hint, He's always got a comment for me, so we've known each other a long time. But we have an award that we'd like to present to you, and what we deal with is contracts and procurement at Harris County Department of Education. We have a group called Choice Partners, and we deal with various programs which are provided to the school districts. Some of our procurement projects are facilities, food, and IT programs. We also have various programs which we deal with on therapy services, records management, teaching and learning programs, and also staff development and other various programs. I sat here and listened to the board and everybody here and it's amazing. I was on this board from 1982 to 88. In fact, I gave Superintendent Hint his high school diploma.
That's proof I got my diploma.
Yeah, you got one. But it's amazing the questions that you ask, the transparency that you have. It's very important to school districts or any type of governmental entity. Having been mayor, we tried to do that all the time. It's just the way you direct the program, conduct your business. You should all be congratulated. administration and you people out here in the audience that do the everyday work in the school district too you should be commended. Debbie our superintendent is head of the UIO infractions committee you probably know it James Colbert and all and he he thinks Katie's got one of the greatest school districts around so at this time I'd say let's say Chris you have your people here any of them from purchasing okay I see Paul hiding back there you You have 15 minutes. You're like me, Paul. You have a hard time running. I'd like to present. This flag is purchased in department in the school district,
and it's what we call the gold standard to our department department. Congratulations, FY 2017, top supporter, KDISD, the Paris County Department of Education. Congratulations.
Thank you all for all you do in the school district, and appreciate you letting me have time tonight. Thank you very much. I'm going to have to leave. We got a meeting with Amy Campbell and Arthur Cain.
Would you share with her that I made a telephone call to her? I certainly will. Just call the superintendents looking for her.
We tried to get her. Thank you, Marilyn. Next up, Mr. Gary Brown. And when you're speaking, I forgot to say this before Mayor Elder spoke, that you can see the time at the top, and we won't give you an audible when you have one minute. So if you want to keep track of your time, you can see it on the screen up there.
there. All right, thank you very much. Good evening, President Van, Board of Trustees, Dr. Hint. I want to thank you first for listening to my presentation on the greenhouse landfill expansion on February 19th. I was talking about the encroachment of the landfill on Cardiff, Swash, and the Mady Creek complex. In the handle I just gave you, I only have one attachment this time so it should take less than three minutes. Harris County has filed a contested hearing request with TCEQ with respect to the expansion of that landfill and it's attached to this document. It mainly addresses the the drainage. Currently in my place, when I live on the back side of it, I'm getting flooded with the two inch rain, which is pretty a bad thing. The greenhouse is now trying to attempt to modify their drainage plan. But I want to point out to the board, and this is very important, that all of the stormwater coming off the landfill drains through the main complex. complex. There's one ditch that goes through that and if this permit expansion goes through, they're going to drain water through there until the year 2053. Current permit allows them to do it until 2030. That discharge permit is up for renewal, by the way, in 2021. I talked to you a little bit about toxic gas last time. they're spraying the landfill with a product called air care which is kind of like freeze or glade all right and so they're just covering the spill that's what they're doing i have given in this document we've started a gold fund site because harris county is only going to represent harris county i hate to tell you that if you don't file a complaint a tceq you're really not going to have a voice in a contested hearing hearing hearing. And so you should probably do that. If you look at the site that I've cited on here, Stop Greenhouse Landfill.com, you'll find all the documents that I've given you in electronic form that you can look up with respect to our efforts. So I recommend that you file a contested hearing request with TCEQ to get on the record. And there's a lot to impact in addition to the gas the drainage contaminated water can flow in that ditch and contaminate your property that could take place in the future even the mosquitoes right so i just want to encourage you to follow that request in opposition with tceq and i want to thank you for your time thank you for listening to me i appreciate all the effort
and i'd like to respond as i stated last time we do support the opposition to the landfill expansion thank you for the additional information i will tell you where we're at with as a school district right now we want to make sure that every t is crossed and every i is dotted the document that we're going to submit to tceq is in our legal department and we're looking at probably the end of the week or the next two weeks to get that submitted we also wanted to make sure that we were in partnership with Commissioner Radek and some of the language he was providing so just to make sure that you're aware we haven't forgotten about this again we're working on it right now and hopefully we'll have something submitted within the next week or two excuse me I got you I hear that that every morning.
Our next speaker is Sean Dolan.
Sean Dolan First off as the first president of Best Buddies at May Creek and the former DJ of the Ark Dances, Amy Campbell sounds like a great choice. A month ago I spoke here at the work study meeting expressing my concerns about the safety of my children and the students of this district. The response to my statement from this community has been overwhelming. Students, parents, and teachers of KDISD shared their stories of victim blaming and negligence by the hands of administrators. Many asked that I not mention their name for fear of retaliation, but not all. The channels through which I shared last month's statement received over a hundred thousand views on the internet. Over 30,000 of these were seen by parents of KDISD students. Hundreds of comments were made and dozens of horrific stories were shared with me. For a point of reference, the A Better Legacy Facebook page has more followers than the KDISD Communications YouTube channel and more followers than anyone currently running for school board. Despite the cord, my message has struck with the community it seems to have fallen on deaf ears with this board and with this administration. Before I spoke last month, I was approached by an administrator who tried to talk me out of speaking, telling me that this was not the place to discuss bullying. I was asked to instead reach out to her secretary and schedule an appointment to speak while I insisted on speaking. I've also left four voicemails with the secretary of this administrator and received not a single call back from her, from any administrator, or from the board. If you look at the organizational chart of this district, at the very top is the community. Below that is the board. Below that is the superintendent. I would like to know why our concerns about the safety of our children are not worthy of your response. I encourage administrators, teachers and students to do the right thing in their schools and treat others with respect especially those who don't fit in. If nobody comes to the rescue bullied children eventually turn inward or outward which is suicide or violence to others. others. And if you won't, if you instead choose to perpetuate the cycle of bullying, then know that you will be recorded and you will be exposed. You can find a wrist recorder just like this online for $40. It records up to 12 hours of audio, so anyone can send their child to school and record the entire day. If anything suspicious, any bruises, any stories that they tell you at the end of the day, you can check the audio and see what happened. If you're being bullied, document it. If you need a platform, you can contact me. I will continue sharing these stories on abetterlegacy.com.
Thank you. 30 seconds. You guys want to say anything? Okay. Mr. Dolan, I'll go ahead and respond. You can sit down. I've got my three minutes now. All right. You know, since this is the second time you've addressed the board, let me provide some factual responses. And this is recorded, by the way. On February 19, 2018, you addressed the KDISD Board of Trustees during the public comment. portion of the work story study. At that time you made various allegations against the district. As you are aware, each allegation was addressed in full at the time it occurred. Despite these allegations occurring years ago, we have no record of you following up on these concerns, at least no, not until your public comments to the board last month. Nevertheless, given the serious I'm curious nature of your allegations. We have reinvestigated each incident to the extent we could. Our review indicates that each allegation was addressed fully and appropriately when they occurred. The results of this review were shared directly with you again. There is no evidence that the district failed to investigate, address and follow up on your concerns at each turn. I believe our legal department has sent you some information. Might want to check your email. All right, and when you do, please make sure that it's date stamped and when you put it in your video. Also, I just got a question for you. The last time you addressed the board and you indicated that, and it's not easy, all right? I know having a child that you lost, but did that child ever attend school here in Katy ISD? It's just a yes or no question. Okay. I will share this. We have no record of that child ever attending school in KDISD, the deceased child that you referred to. Thank you, sir. No, you had your three minutes. I got mine. No, I can't.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Mr. Greg Barrett.
My name is Greg Barrett. I graduated from KSD in 1983. I started in 1975 with Mr. Lance. My legal name is Greg Gay. I was bullied, unbelievably bullied. I started out and I had teachers that bullied me. I had kids that bullied me. Even the coaches, I had nobody to turn to. One day at lunch, I had my head shoved in the urinal where it busted my lip. I had laid on the ground in a fetal position as the kids kicked me. I got up. I rinsed my face off. I walked out of the lunchroom, walked straight to the principal's office, and he told me, these kids will grow up someday. day. They won't always be like this. But yet here I am covered in urine from laying on the ground underneath the urinal. My lip was busted and they sent me home. Well I went home and I got the 45 out of my father's drawer and put it in my mouth because at this point I had nobody, Nobody in the school system to help me. Is that the way this is going to be? Lance, you were the one that shoved my head in the urinal.
Thank you. I'll tell you what, this is unbelievable.
You want to debate it? Because I've got witnesses that were there when it happened.
All right, our next speaker is Mr. Joey Beckham.
Good evening. My name is Joey Beckham. I teach eighth grade U.S. history for KDI State at McMeans Junior High School. It is truly an honor to work for this district. I want to begin by saying thank you for all your hard work and dedication. I'm here this evening to discuss safety for campuses and would specifically like to discuss gun-free school zones and the Texas School Guardian program. As our KDIC school board you have the weighty responsibility of establishing policy that could literally mean the difference between life and death. This is a sober responsibility and I know that you do not take it lightly. We appreciate that you place school safety at the top of your priority list. As you evaluate policy decisions concerning safety please consider that your policies have life or death consequences. In the Parkland Florida shooting last month we now know that when Broward County Sheriff arrived on the scene of this active shooting they made a policy decision to stage outside of the school rather than entering the building to engage the shooter. This policy decision This decision cost the lives of several students and faculty. Here in Texas, our legislature has placed on the school board the responsibility of establishing policy around confronting deadly threats at schools. When you as a school board affirm the gun-free zone policy of the state of Texas, you are assuming a huge responsibility. Not only are you taking away the right of license to carry individuals to protect themselves and their fellow teachers and students, You're also making a promise that you will establish policies that protect people in these gun-free zones. Sadly, across the nation, there's been failure after failure on the part of school boards to fulfill their obligation to protect. The last 20 years in the USA, almost 100 school children have been killed in public school gun-free zones by active shooters. Some argue that guns do not protect people from those wanting to do harm. This seems utterly illogical. Walk into a bank and you will see an armed guard. Go to Cinemark this weekend, you'll see two armed policemen. Try to get near any worldwide celebrity and you will be met by armed security teams. Go to any courthouse or legislative building and you will find armed officers. In fact, this very meeting is protected by armed individuals. We protect the things we care about with armed security. Because of this sad reality of life, I believe we should have armed protection on each of our campuses here in Katy ISD. Our campuses should have individuals on site who are trained and equipped to protect our most precious commodity, our children, from a deadly threat. I believe that not having armed personnel on school campuses is a serious oversight on the part of any school board. There are many options for establishing armed response on site at each campus. One option is the Texas School Guardian program. This is a program recommended by the Texas legislature that allows school districts to identify and train guardians who are responsible for confronting and dealing with active shooters on a campus. I strongly recommend that the board
Thank you very much. Our final speaker for the evening is Mr. Jonathan Otero.
My name is Jonathan Otero and thank you all for letting me be here to speak on the topic of the TWI program. For those who are not aware, last week's regular Board meeting saw the termination of this program. Issues cited were cost and equity. I'm here to talk about those two issues today. 28 days ago the administration and board members expressed in no uncertain terms that the TWA program was too expensive, held too high a price tag at 1.4 million dollars per year. What the administration never provided nor did the board ask for was what is the breakdown of this cost? What constitutes that $1.4 million? Thanks to an open records request, I am proud to say that I can share that with everyone here today. The sheet you have is simply tabulated data of information provided by the district's public information units. Starting from the bottom, you'll see a grand total, which confirms the total cost number for this program at $1.4 million. Where it gets more interesting is when you look at what the breakdown of this cost is. If you look at the top it says cost of teacher. Teacher base salary which is base salary calculated based on teachers experience and seniority nothing to do with TWI specifically. That teacher base salary is 1.366 million dollars. Next largest item for the program is teacher stipends. This is stipends provided to teachers for being a part of this program. Incremental cost associated with TWI at 60 grand a year. Following that, there's a couple items on testing as well as professional development. Those items lump together at about 18,000 a year. The point of all this is you have a $1.4 million program which was acknowledged, of which $1.366 million is fixed costs that cannot be eliminated by eliminating the program. The marginal cost of this program is $78,000 a year. This is a far cry from the $1.4 million that the administration had presented as the cost of this program. You know, to me this raises questions of why. Why wasn't this information presented? Why wasn't this cost breakdown presented? Why didn't the board ask for this information as trustees? Why would it just be accepted as $1.4 million at face value? Why? It doesn't make any sense. Is $78,000 a year what breaks the bank? That's $181 per student per year. I have that in my pocket. The real reason why the TWI program was canceled is out there. I don't know what it is, but it will come to light. What I can tell you is these red herrings that have been presented as the reason are not it. Thank you.
Thank you. We did, school board, because he brought this forward, we did receive the information and monetary figures provided by Twist, Mr. Ontario, in their press release are accurate figures which KDISD had given to the group as part of a public information request. The district does not dispute those numbers or numbers you guys have seen through information I provided to you over a period of two months. The district does not dispute the fact that the majority of the cost of the TWI program is in staff salaries. Eighty-eight percent of our maintenance and operations budget in this school district go towards salaries and benefits. It appears that TWIST seems to believe that the district would continue to need all 24 TWI teachers regardless of whether or not the TWI program existed, which is an incorrect assumption on their part. When roughly 430 TWI students transition into general education classrooms and or the bilingual one-way classrooms respectively, the students will occupy open seats in those classrooms. The end result will be a reduction in the number of teachers needed overall. If we were to eliminate the TWI program completely as it exists today and redistribute the roughly 430 students back to their home campuses into the general education or into the bilingual one-way classrooms, I maintain there would be a savings of $1.4 million. million dollars and let me be clear that is not an ambiguous statement. Please note that although we expect a reduction in the number of teachers, no teachers, I'm going to say that multiple times, no teachers will actually lose their teaching position as some in the TWIST or TWI community have indicated. They're not going to lose their position within KDISD as the TWI teachers will fill vacant vacant or growth positions within the district. We have vacancies, we have retirements, we have resignations, we have a new building opening up next year. Now, Mr. Ontaro mentioned two things. I maintain cost, equity or inequity, a program that serves less than 1% of our elementary students through a lottery drawing where siblings of students already in the program receive priority in the acceptance process are factors in the decision. And let's not forget this program has contributed to the overcrowding of one of our campuses. Alright so there are multiple factors there's not one single factor and these are the things that I've explained to you as well as my staff has explained. By law we are required to provide general education services, special education services, and one-way bilingual services up to third grade. We actually provide it in the fourth and fifth grade as well. There is no law that says we are required to provide a bilingual two-way immersion program that serves less than 1% of our students. This program started with a grant as many of you know then we as a district assumed all costs. We cannot maintain the program as it exists today but I have said this multiple times I've said it to multiple TWST or TWI folks we can't maintain it as it exists today but the staff is looking at alternatives that could provide an immersion opportunity for all interested english-speaking students but this will not happen overnight it is going to take some time and let me remind you too we didn't kill the program a hundred percent if that's that's the language that I keep hearing no child is going to lose an opportunity in this program because we're phasing it out only kindergarten next year while we as a district find a way that we can provide an equitable program for all kids that want to experience the program so I want to get back to your numbers you can throw numbers out there they're flawed though because you're assuming that we're going to still need those 24 teachers for those students and that's not factual when you have a district of 78,000 kids almost 40,000 of them at the elementary level and you redistribute kids back to those campuses there's available space as mr. Smith said to assume those lower numbers not 430 at one time mr. Ontario I appreciate your time I know my secretary got in touch with you I will be meeting with y'all when the time is right but I want to make sure that when we present data to this board it is factual and don't think they haven't had data because they've had quite a bit this has been a trying time for all of us all right and I'd appreciate y'all's patience as we look for a way that we can serve not less
than 1% but all interested students. I'd like to call attention to our future meeting. Our regular board meeting will be Monday March 26 2018 with there being no further business for the board this meeting is adjourned the time is 819 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: 145 of the 166 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.
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Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 3.1
PassedI move that the Board of Trustees enters into an agreement to purchase from Morgan 157 JV an approximate 157-acre parcel of property for a future high school and junior high school combined campus for a total acquisition cost estimated not to exceed $6,717,599.
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 |
MOTION 002 · AGENDA 3.2
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 |