The Board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, April 16, 2018, and the time is 646 p.m. Dr. Hint, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act regarding to the notice of this meeting?
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Madam President, we are in compliance with regards to the Open Meetings Act with regards to 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 the documentation for this meeting on Thursday, April 12th, and had four days to study its contents and to seek clarification from Dr. Hint. This evening, the items posted on the agenda will be presented to the board by staff, administration, and the superintendent. The board will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss 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.
Madam President.
Mr. Moholsky.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting.
Second. I have a motion by Mr. Moholsky, a second by Ms. Doyle, that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting. Is there any discussion? Being none, we'll take a vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Motion passes 7-0. Do we have any scouts in the audience? Please stand up and tell us your name and your reason for being here tonight. Thank you for joining us. Now I move to the report section of our agenda, 4.1, 2018 Healthcare Plan Update. Mr. Naumann.
At the items of interest for the 2017 health care plan, we're going to take a high-level review of 2017 and its operating results. We're going to look at the Mercer projection for 2018, and we will review some plan savings that have impacted 2018 for the plan year. We're going to look at Arthur Gallagher's projection for 2019. I'm going to update you what's going on with TRS Active Care and also What's going on with the Affordable Care Act? This slide you will see How our funding has broken down last year our total funding was fifty eight point three million dollars The cost per covered employee in 2017 was eight thousand four hundred fifty dollars on an annual basis For a covered member, it was $4,629. The cost of medical claims in 2017 was $42.1 million. That equates to, on an average daily basis, we spent 115,375 days. The cost of pharmacy claims in the same period was $29,853. dollars. This slide will show you what our monthly rates were for the for the plan and if you will draw your attention to the the most affordable plan the ninety-two dollars a month that is dictated by the Affordable Care Act. We must be within the guidelines set by that act and we're currently at ninety $92 and that is a very affordable plan. Let's look at 2017 the plan projection versus the actual results. In 2017 we were projecting an $835,000 operating gain. Results came in we had a $3 million operating loss. Some very key important factors. We had a 5.7% increase in plan member growth. Our medical trend was 10.6 percent and the key driver in last year was our large claims those claims greater than a hundred thousand dollars grew by 53 percent um you will see in the exhibit below how the incremental cost in 2015 went from 84 or 84 claims to 91 claims and then last year to 108 claims We are currently in a, this was in our four-year cycle and in the self-insured plans you have these rolling years and last year was that year. This graph simply points out how our eligible employees grew and the corresponding per employee per year cost followed form with the spike this year in 2017 which is exhibited by the gray line. Looking back over the last three years, I came to you in 2016 we had a 1.7 million dollar operating gain. 2017 we had an operating loss of 3.0 million and then Mercer currently projects for 2018 we'll have a 1.7 million dollar loss. I'm going to talk to that in here in just a moment. To impact the savings on the plan, last year we took some steps. In effective April 1st, 2018, the interlocal agreement between HISD and Aldine fell into sunset. As a result, we recognized the following savings. We eliminated the Houston ISD administration fee of $250,000, the THCP on-site contractors of $575,000, Long Ground Company, which is our communications vendor, of $300,000, and we reduce our consulting fees of $133,000, representing a total hard dollar savings of $1.258 million to the health plan. What's going on with TRS Active Care? Last year in 2017 in September, they increased their maximum out-of-pocket expenses. They increased the ER copay significantly. And then lastly, across all plans and all tiers, the participation saw an 8% premium increase. And not only just did they see a premium increase, but when you transfer, you increase your maximum amount of pocket, you're transferring those costs, more expense, to those employees. The Affordable Care Act. We continue to be mandated by the Affordable Care Act. We are still required to report to the government, to the IRS, who is on health care and who is not. This is really, really interesting how the individual mandate by Congress was eliminated, but yet the IRS is not caught up to that. So we still have to bear the expense of communicating our employees have health care. It's still, as I mentioned in the previous slide, we must mandate affordability. We still incur PCORI fees, which is a technology fee associated with our plan. and as I just mentioned the elimination of the mandated coverage for individuals what are we looking at for 2018 we're consulting with the district administration as we normally do we'll consider plan design changes for 2019 we will present to our benefit advisory liaisons communicate with them what they're seeing in the marketplace and get their input and then I'll update you you again in July of those results and our underwriting projections and then I'll come back to you in August of 18 and give you my recommendations for plan year 2019 and I would open up in questions that you might have at this
time. Madam President, just one I know that you said that your one of your costs your over $100,000 costs went up 53% what was the bulk of those?
Well, there are, let me go as far as we're protected by HIPAA. I can't individually go into them. A lot of it has to do with just large losses. We had some sick people that we had to take care of. I believe that's probably the best way to answer your question. Just, and numerically, it just happened at this year.
Do you think that it's because we just have such a larger number of staff that we're incurring that? Because I know we can't go into the details.
We are growing and our trending is staying paced historically. Our planning grows with our growth as a district at about 6%, somewhere between that 5.7% I alluded to is within the normal range. It's just one of those anomalies and underwriting. You go through these cycles every three or four years and this was this year. Okay. Thank you.
Anyone else? All right. Thank you, Mr. Nauman.
Okay. Thank you for your time.
Next up, 4.2, 2018-19 budget update. Mr. Smith.
President Vann and Superintendent Hint and Board of Trustees, we've been talking now, I guess this is the fourth month, to talk about the 18-19 budget. As we've expected, this is the month we're going to talk about our interest in sinking fund budget. Our municipal advisor, Jeff Roberts, here from Hilltop Securities, he's going to talk to you about the details of what we're gearing up for that's going to affect the 18-19 budget. budget. As a reminder, he's going to speak a lot about our first bond sale of our 2017 authorization. As you know, several of those projects we've already bid and the constructions are going on. We've not been paying for those contracts with bond funds. We've been using general fund dollars. But we are going to need to get to a point soon to where we do have our bond sales to pay for those, to pay the general fund back and to pay for that ongoing construction cost. Jeff's going to talk to you about the state of our about that sale and our debt plan in general and obviously this is like I mentioned earlier this is going to affect the 18-19 budget so I'm going to turn it over from Jeff Roberts our municipal advisor from Hilltop
Securities and you should have one of these. Thank you Mr. Smith, President Vann, Dr. Hinn, members of the board, Jeff Robert with Hilltop Securities also here this evening that I'll yield any legal questions are Rick Whitty and Tanya Fisher the the district's bond counsel from Oreck. There's a little bit of information that is in your your hard copy that's not included in the in the PowerPoint just because there's a lot of numbers that I think would be difficult to see but as I work through this if you have any questions please don't don't hesitate to stop me and I'll do the best I can to answer them. Here on the first first page here kind of a projected issuance of the 609 million of 2017 authorization as of now based upon the cash flow needs that the staff gave to me we're looking at 200 million for this 2018 issue for series 2018 200 in 2019 and in the remainder in 2020 the amounts that that those construction cash flows showed is in terms of what the district would look to spend over that time time period is in the blue there. As those numbers change, we'll update this and they could certainly change with the the issuance amounts and the timing as well. The next page, as Mr. Smith mentioned, we're not only looking at this current issue that we're contemplating but also the issuance of the entire authorization and also just a hypothetical $802 million potential 2020 authorization. So what this shows is the black line shows what what your calculated or projected tax rate would be on the INS side for just your existing debt. The green line shows what it would be projected after the issuance of the 2017 authorization, and then the blue line shows what it would be projected to be at after an $802 million 2020 authorization. And as you can see, we feel pretty comfortable that we'll be able to maintain the district's current 39-cent INS rate throughout the life of these issuances. For this upcoming issue, I always like to kind of show this graph just to give you a general idea of where tax-exempt rates are currently as well as historically. This is what's called the Bond Buyer 20-Year Index. It gives you the 20-year bond price of 20 different bond issues that are rated A or higher. The white graph in the background shows what that index has been all the way back to the early 80s. the blue graph in the top right just shows what that index has done over the last year. And so while we're not at the very lowest points, you can see from a historical perspective, we are at a very low rate environment. Mr. Witte and Ms. Fisher have prepared the parameter bond order that I believe you'll consider next week. Just kind of a little bit of a refresher on that. It's allowable under Section 1371 for new money, 1207 for refundings. the board delegates final pricing authority to members of the administration, and you establish parameters within the bond order, and if those parameters are met, the pricing officers can approve. And I know you've done this on the majority of your issuances. This just gives your financing team flexibility in terms of timing. The parameters that are included within the order, superintendent or CFO would be the two delegated pricing officers. The maximum principal amount would be $200 million of new money issuance, up to $30 million of refunding. We don't have a definitive amount yet because I think the amount that we either refund and or defease is going to be dependent upon where your taxable values come in. If the taxable values come in high, we might decide to defease some of those bonds. If they don't come in as high as expected, then we might do a refinancing and save money by doing that. The minimum savings threshold on the refunding is going to be 3% present value savings. and the expiration of parameter authority is 360 days. And then the last slide that is not in the book, because we had a quick last minute change, so I had emailed it to Mr. Smith, but the last slide here shows the projected schedule for issuance. Some of these dates may change, but just to give an idea, a general idea, we'd be looking at hoping to price in mid-May and then close and deliver funds in early June. And then if you'll recall the graph that was shown a few slides back, the numbers that were used to generate those lines there are in that appendix. You have two sets of tax base assumptions that we've looked at and then the detail behind the issuance of the $609 million of 2017 authorization and then the projected issuance of even the $802 million of 2020 authorization as well.
Do we have any questions? Madam President, Ms. Voss. Thank you so much for your presentation. I have a question. When you talk about whether we will defease or refinance based on the taxable values that come in, have you already taken into account the reevaluations from the Harvey flood?
Well, I know that the district will receive the preliminary certified estimate at the end of this month, And that's why we were waiting to to price this first issue to see where those values come in and that's that's really a kind Of a hot topic for the rating agencies as well They want to see the answer to that question as well that's a very good question and we're kind of waiting to see what the The values will be at when we get that value at the end of the month
Thank you very much
for the answer. Any questions? Okay. Thank you very much Mr. Robert, Mr. Smith. Now I move to consent agenda 5.1 consider and consideration and future board approval of an order authorizing the issuance of Katy Independent School District unlimited tax school building and or refunding bonds and one or more series setting certain parameters for the bonds authorizing a pricing officer to approve the amount the interest rate pricing include the terms thereof and certain and other procedures and provisions related there too. Mr. Smith.
We'll take us through the next six or ten weeks. And with that said, I'll say step one. this is the formal step one. Mr. Robert and some of my staff and other staff that from Hilltop have met several times via conference call or in person for many hours to talk about where we are right now and some of the numbers that you've seen before you and our options. But this is the formal process that will take us over the next six to ten weeks on preparing our upcoming transaction. action. In your package you have the order authorizing the issuance of KDISD Unlimited School building bonds and or the refunding of building bonds. Those that also set certain parameters of those bonds it gives Dr. Hinn and or myself designates us as the pricing officer to approve the amount, interest rate, price including the terms and certain other procedures. It also approves our participation with Oreck. Rick Whitty is here. You've seen him many times. I've worked with Mr. Whitty over the last 20 years doing transactions that date back almost 20 years from well in 1998 so I guess that's that is 20 years. Oreck, Mr. Whitty now works for Oreck. Andrews Kurth, his other firm and that was bought or was merged with another law firm out of the Virginia area. Oreck took on the entire municipal division, not the entire but most of the municipal division of Andrews-Kirth. It's a great opportunity for us because Oreck is a very large player in the municipal bonded market as well as they have deeper resources for Mr. Witte and his staff and Internal Revenue Service resources. I call it the letterhead change. It's still the people we worked with over the last 20 years. And with this all in place, it will be the intent of the administration to select a syndicate to help us obtain the best pricing and to proceed again down the next six to ten weeks for the negotiated bond sale. Again, Mr. Jeff Robert is our municipal advisor and Rick Witte are here in case you have any questions but it would be recommended that the board of trustees approve the order authorize the issuance of these bonds. Do we have any questions?
Alright. 5.2 also Mr. Smith. Okay 5.2 is a separate consideration it's a
resolution to express the intent to defease this has been an annual thing it's the separate from the order that I just talked about but it does authorize us the ability to defuse or the plan to pay down or just simply pay down $30 million in bonds or up to $30 million in bonds. This has been an important tool in our debt plan management over the last few years that we feel has been a very big part of our reduced borrowing costs.
Any questions?
I'm present.
Mr. Maholsky.
Mr. Smith, I kind of keep track of this, you know, since I started on this board six years ago, and I think this, if we can get this one done, it might get to $100 million over that time period that we've either refunded or defeased. That's quite a record in a relatively short amount of time. So thank you for taking good care of us. And when we get the opportunity to pay these down and save some interest dollars, we're absolutely doing that. So thank you.
Great. Thank you.
5.3 Consider future Board approval to award the contract for maintenance and operations center parking improvement. Mr. T.
Good evening President Vann, members of the board, Dr. Hint. I'm bringing to you a recommendation that the Board of Trustees approves the award of the contract for the maintenance and operations center parking improvements to Ansel O'Brien for the contract amount of seven hundred ninety eight thousand dollars and approves the total project costs not to exceed nine hundred ninety nine thousand oh fifty five dollars the paving expansion is part of the central maintenance and operations phased expansion project district staff work with PBK architects to develop the project scope and contract documents. There were six respondents to the request for bid. Ansel O'Brien has successfully performed work here in the district in the past. Work is scheduled to start immediately following approval and be completed by August 3rd 2018. A copy of the recommendation letter from PBK architects, the bid tabulation and the contract are attached for your review. Project funding source is the 2010 bond savings. Total proposed contract amount $798,000. The total project cost includes architectural and engineering costs, materials testing, and a contingency for unforeseen permitting requirements. We have included $201,055 to cover these costs. Total not to exceed project cost is $999,055. The contract has been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form. Board approval of this recommendation for award is consistent with board policies CH Legal, CH Local, CV Legal, and CV Local.
Do you have any questions?
If you don't mind, I would like to comment to this real quick. Although it's not directly related to this item, we're using the money from 2010 bond funds, remaining savings from that 2010 bond fund. As the board recalls, every board meeting, regular meeting, we have a document that shows what the amount is remaining in that. And just so the board is aware, where we've got a little bit less than $300,000 left in that 2010 bond, the savings from that 2010 bond. So, again, appreciate the presentation, and the expense for this, again, is coming from that savings.
Thank you. 5.3.
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the award of the contract for district-wide lighting upgrades, package number one, to McDonald Electric for a contract amount of $2,922,315 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $3,125,154. As part of the 2017 Bond Component Replacements Program, the campuses identified in this recommendation have interior and exterior lighting systems scheduled for upgrade in the first year of the bond project. The maintenance and operations department worked with LEAF engineers to package the various projects together, developing the project scope and construction documents in order to gain best value and to bring these campuses lighting systems up to the current district standard. There were three respondents to the request for bid. McDonald Electric has successfully performed work here in the district in the past. work on the various projects is scheduled to start immediately following approval and be completed by August the 3rd, 2018. A copy of the recommendation letter from LEAF engineers, the bid tabulation, and the contract are attached for your review. The project funding source is the 2017 bond component replacements. Total proposed contract amount, $2,922,315. The total project cost includes architectural and engineering costs and a contingency for unforeseen issues. We have included $202,839 to cover these costs. Total not to exceed project cost, $3,125,154. This contract has been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form. Board approval of this recommendation for award is consistent with board policies CH legal, CH local, CV legal and CV local.
Do we have any questions?
Madam President.
Mr. Lacy.
Are we moving more towards more LED in the way of lighting or is this incandescent?
These are all LED, yes sir.
Anyone else?
Okay.
5.5. Please.
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the award for the contract for the Multiple Campus Life Safety and Special Systems Upgrades Summer 2018 Package to LECS for a contract amount of $2,371,132 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $2,593,950. $40,900. As part of the 2017 bond component replacements program, the campuses identified in this recommendation have life safety or special systems scheduled for upgrade in the first year of the bond project. The maintenance and operations department worked with LEAF engineers again to package various projects together developing the project scope and construction documents in order to gain best value. There were three respondents to the request for bid. LECS has previously successfully performed work in the district. Work on the various projects is scheduled to start immediately following approval and be completed by August 3, 2018. A copy of the recommendation letter from LEAF engineers, the bid tabulation, and the contract are attached for your review. The project funding source, 2017 bond component replacements, Total proposed contract amount, $2,371,132. Total project costs include architectural and engineering costs and a contingency for any unforeseen needs. We have included $169,768 to cover these costs. Total not to exceed project costs, $2,540,900. The contract has been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form. Board approval of this recommendation for award is consistent with the Board policies CH Legal, CH Local, CV Legal and CV Local.
Any questions? Okay. And your last one, 5.6.
Thank you, Mr. T. It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the award for the contract for portable building package summer 2018 for the connections of portable buildings relocated for student growth and replacement of report of portable buildings to Brighton route Industrial Services LLC under the terms of the national IPA contract number R160402 for a cost of $2,329,303 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $2,436,683. In meeting with district staff, it was determined that 32 portable buildings would need to be relocated to allow for student growth at nine campuses. In addition, as part of the 2017 bond component replacements, the district is replacing nine nine older buildings located at four campuses, and those connections are part of this project cost. The Maintenance and Operations Department worked with PBK Architects to develop the project scope and permit documents. There were three respondents to the request for bid. Broughton Root Industrial Services LLC has successfully performed this type of work in the district for many years. Work is scheduled to start immediately following approval in the form of applying for permits and all of the connections will be completed by August the 7th, 2018. The copy of the recommendation letter from BBK Architects, the bid tabulation and proposal are attached for your review. Included in the total project cost are the architectural and engineering fees, owner's contingency and the cost for surveying and elevation certificates now required for portable building permitting. We have included $107,380 to cover these costs. The project funding source is the 2017 bond component replacements, and those are for Schmaltz, Mady Creek Junior High, Morton Ranch Junior High, and Taylor High School for a 2017 total bond cost of $526,478. dollars the project funding source of the 2017-2018 general operating fund for beth t elementary bonnie holland elementary katie elementary kilpatrick elementary seven lakes junior ties junior high wood creek junior seven lakes high school and tompkins high school the general operating fund total cost is $1,910,205. The total portable building project cost $2,436,683. This contract has been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form. Board approval of this recommendation for award is consistent with board policies CH Legal, CH Local, CV Legal, and excuse me, CV Local.
Any questions?
Madam President.
Mr. Lacy.
I'm looking at May Creek High School moving nine portable buildings out. That's incredible. Even more importantly, the fielder kids get their playground, and they've got three buildings going out of there, and that means that these kids can go outside and play and not have to be quiet when they're outside playing because they're disturbing other kids. Excellent job. Oh my gosh, I get to add those up? That's even better. Wow, still, they get to go on their playground. Excellent job, guys.
Anyone else? Thank you, Mr. T.
Thank you. Promise kept.
Yep, promise kept. 5.7 consider future board approval of the April 2018 budget amendments. Ms. Butterfield.
Thank you, President Vann, Trustees, Superintendent Hint. Tonight there are very few budget amendments, but we do have two recognizing revenue and recognizing expenditure budgets. These are for summer camps. The first one's for the CTE STEM camp and the second one for the summer camp at the Shaw Center, the STEAM camps, and the combined total for both is $51,200 and that'll be an increase to revenue and an increase to expenditures in the general operating fund. Other Other amendments tonight are direct offsets of existing budget between functions, and approval of these amendments will result in no change to the general operating fund fund balance. There is one construction fund expenditure amendment for $180,000 for carpet replacement related to the service support complex to be funded from $2,017 savings.
Any questions?
And I would like to make the recommendation that we go ahead and put this on action next week based upon a couple of the items Mr. Smith presented earlier in the agenda with bond-related items. This is subject to change. We'll make those adjustments and bring it back to you next week.
Okay.
5.7 will be pulled from consent and moved to action. 5.8, consider future Board approval of the financial audit engagement letter.
Good evening, President Vann, Board, and Dr. Hint. Tonight I'm here to present to you item 5.8. The Texas Education Code requires each school district to have an annual financial audit. The audit must be completed by an accounting firm licensed by the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy and be in the appropriate format. Included tonight is a proposed engagement letter from Whitley Penn, engaging them to perform the annual financial audit and to review the comprehensive annual financial report for the years ended August 31, 2018 and 2019. The estimated annual fee for each of the two years is $92,000, which remains the same as the current agreement. Mr. Lupe Garcia, the firm's audit partner assigned to KDISD, is here tonight. Should you have any questions? So it is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the audit engagement letter appointing Whitley Penn to perform the annual financial audits and to review the comprehensive annual financial report for the years ended August 31st 2018 and 2019 any questions
and I would like to say thank you Lupe no increased costs on this is that
correct that's great all right thank you very much 5.9 consider future board approval of the contact for the purchase and installation of language labs at 8 district high schools. Mr. Smith.
Several months ago the district assembled a committee comprised of teachers, curriculum and instruction staff and technology staff. This This committee viewed demonstrations of vendor products. It was determined that Stevens Learning Systems, Inc. will provide the district with products and services that best meet the instructional needs of the district. This is also an equity issue as it will put all our high schools on the same page when it comes to these labs. And with that said, it's recommended that the Board of Trustees awards this contract for the purchase of and or upgrades of our high school language labs, again creating an equity issue amongst all eight schools by creating an issue solving an equity issue I'm sorry any questions all right thank you mr. Smith item 5.10
consider future board approval of changes in board policy FDB local mr. Mr. Paborski and Ms. Holland.
Good evening, Madam President, members of the board, Dr. Ant. Tonight we bring you for your consideration Board Policy FDV Local on inter-district transfers and the revisions that are being recommended as a result of consultation with our TASB consultant.
consultant. And I would like to address this. We posted the agenda on Thursday and my understanding is well before my arrival in 2013, the board put together a policy that was very clear. I know the board is very, very aware that TASB has recommended here in the recent years that we We remove a lot of the day-to-day stuff out of policy and make it more of a governance policy and then move those items to regulations. As a result of changing FDA, as you guys know, you approved the allowance of district employees to bring their kids to the district that live outside the district. We had to change FDA, which resulted in us having to change FDB. Because of limited time conversations I had with cabinet this morning, looking at this policy today, I would like to move this to action, return it to the board next week because we are under a little time situation here. I would like to leave the information, although it goes against TASB, the day-to-day stuff, because I want our community to know that they can go to a policy and they can see, a community member or a district member can see exactly what those requirements are versus us moving it to regulations. Then we'll bring it back to you next week with it cleaned up a little bit, a lot of this red line to just include those items that are necessary to blend FDA with FDB without removing some of the specific information that folks might want to go to. And let me tell you the main reason. I don't want you guys to have to tell a community member, well go to talk to an administrator. I'd prefer that you guys could defer them to a policy that they could clearly I can clearly see it written out. And again, I take ownership for this one. I apologize. We were in a rush to get it here. We want to clean it up a little bit and bring it back as action next week.
Okay. Madam President. Ms. Fox. Thank you, Dr. Hint. I appreciate the cleaning up and the presentation brought, and I agree with you. I think it's easy for us to, when community members ask us a question, point them to policy. It's clearly written easy to find regulations aren't quite as easy to find online And so this gives exact rules that they can apply they know to apply for a transfer or no that doesn't you know? Their situation does or does not qualify and then you're not Deciding based on who's calling and which person they're talking to it's clearly written out and I appreciate that easy for people to find Thank you No, we'll be we will have it on Monday
Thank you. All right, so 5.10 will not go to consent and it will move to action for next week's meeting. 5.11, consider future board approval of a contract for air testing and balancing services associated with the construction of high school number nine. Ms. Kassman.
Good evening, President Vann, Dr. Hint, Board of Trustees. Tonight I bring forward for your consideration future board approval of a contract for air testing and air balancing services associated with the construction of High School No. 9. Construction of High School No. 9 is located at the Cross Creek Ranch subdivision near the intersection of Fosher Bend Drive and Cross Creek Bend Lane and is now in progress. As heating, venting and ventilation air conditioning systems are installed in different areas of the facility, a testing and balancing firm is required to test the systems and balance the air consistent with project specifications. Engineered Air Balance Company, Inc. is the best qualified to undertake air testing and balancing services for this set days of work. This company has successfully provided services for several other district projects, including Payto High School. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Engineered Air Balance company for air testing and balancing services associated with the construction of high school number nine in an amount not to exceed five hundred twenty five thousand seven hundred ninety five dollars president mr. Lacy
dr. hint you can probably answer this is this going to be an additional cost that we're gonna look at is the budget under the budget for this building or is this
an ancillary cost it's already included in the overall cost of the building for this project as you know we're already pushing dirt out there and now we're going to do their quality testing
perfect
madam president i don't have a comment about that but do you still just go high school number nine wow right i'm just like wow high school number nine thank you yes i do
Anyone else? All right. Thank you, Ms. Kassman. Thank you. 5.12, consider future Board approval of the Instructional Materials Allotment IMA update and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills TEEX certification. Dr. Caskey.
Good evening, President Vann, Board members, and Dr. Hent. We are here this evening to provide you with an update on the Instructional Materials Allotment, which I may refer to as the IMA, and request your approval of the annual TEKS certification. To recap the history of IMA, in 2011, Senate Bill 6 was passed to create the IMA from the State Textbook Fund and the Technology Allotment Fund to provide flexibility to school districts in the selection of instructional materials. materials. This flexibility includes the purchase of textbooks, supplemental materials, and software. Our IMA is based on a per-pupil amount and is funded every two years. It's also important to consider that the KDISD curriculum is not driven solely by textbooks. In fact, we use multiple resources, including online resources, literature libraries, and other hands-on learning tools in our classrooms every day. This slide depicts our timeline for the selection of materials. We began the process in January by establishing review teams. January through March the teams work to review materials and make recommendations based on need and alignment to our courses. In March feedback was collected and we prepared our final recommendations while there was no state issued proclamation in 2018 we've identified needs in several areas including secondary science social studies ela and ela courses as you see listed on this slide in addition we've identified several supplemental online resources and technology equipment in In your packets this evening, you have a detailed list of all materials. This chart outlines the planned expenditures for the next year and has broken down my content area. The total estimated expenditures are about $3.7 million, which will leave a balance of about $7.2 million, which will be used in upcoming proclamations. As noted on this slide, you'll see that 2019 is a rather large proclamation, so we feel confident that we have the funds in that account to be able to pay for the instructional materials in our upcoming proclamation for 2019. You also see on your slide upcoming proclamations for 2020, 2021, and 2022. And this concludes our annual instructional materials allotment update, and I'm here to respond to any questions that you may have.
Any questions? Madam President, Ms. Fox. Thank you, Dr. Kaske, for the presentation. I'm really glad in 2011 that the state decided to let us choose when we want a textbook and when we want an additional resource, and I think that's proven to be very beneficial for our students and teachers. My question is when you add something that's not a textbook and something that enhances our educational things, do you find something that you take out? Or if you get a subscription for something, I see some of those here for a course once that's over. Or do you just it's an ongoing thing. I'm just wondering if we're adding on or if we're replacing or deleting things that no longer are necessary.
It's a great question. Actually, when Dr. Hint first came, he asked me to do an overview of all of our software. So some of that's paid for out of our IMA and some it's not paid for out of our IMA, but we were able to identify some duplication. Sometimes campuses have subscriptions and the district has subscriptions. So over time we have been able to eliminate some redundancy in cost. So we do look at that, look at our software budget on an annual basis now. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Dr. Caskey. 5.13, consider future Board approval of the purchase of the Social Media Threat Alerting Service, Social Sentinel. Dr. Erlane. Nope. Mr. Hines. Mr. Hines. Sorry about that.
Good evening, President Ban, Superintendent Hint, Board of Trustees. Social Sentinel is an alerting service that scans public posts each day from 12 social media sources, including Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and others. The service identifies possible threats using a library of behavioral threat indicators and matches those threats to a specific geographic region through geolocation and keyword association. When a possible active shooter or self-harm post is identified, an alert is sent to predefined users in the district via text and email. In addition, a daily report is emailed to all identified threats of all identified threats to a predefined set of users in the district. No KDISD data, student, staff, or otherwise, is shared with Social Sentinel. The only purpose of the service is to alert the district to a possible act of violence to oneself or to others. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves a three-year purchase and service contract for the Social Media Threat Alerting Service, Social Sentinel, through SHI Government Solutions with an option to terminate at the end of each year at a fixed total annual cost of $80,968.75. While the pricing is set, the final terms and conditions are being negotiated by the district's general counsel, so it is recommended that the Board of Trustees authorize administration to finalize the negotiation of the terms and conditions of the contract. I can take any questions.
I would like to reiterate no KDISD data is shared with social centennial. Also, this falls in line with our strategic plan, strategic plan goal number eight that talks about the social and emotional well-being and safety of our students. We believe that this can be a resource for us to identify possible concerns so that we can address them proactively instead of reactively.
Mrs. Doyle. So explain to me again, you said that this monitors social media sites, you named several, for specific word usage?
It scans those sites for specific word combinations that would civilize a threat and then locates whether or not the post would have been within the KDISD boundaries.
Okay, so for instance, I post on Instagram gun or suicide or shooter, something of that nature.
Yes, ma'am.
Your program is going to scan that and...
It would take more than just a single word. it would have to associate that with certain threat indicators that would conclusively, based off of, you know, the company has algorithms that the program looks at, mostly based on historical incidents. And so they've researched that and they've created a library to where they can take more than just gun, but figure out exactly what a threat looks like. And if it if it seems like a viable threat then it alerts someone in the district immediately
Or if there's a repeated like if this is a pattern maybe from my Social media you see a pattern or something like that. Maybe an algorithm. Is there an algorithm out there that it monitors or you know You see the same
Behavior, it's not just figure it out. It's not monitoring any individual social media any any individual person organization or group it's monitoring everything and are not monitoring but scanning everything for certain textual indicators like kill gun and then putting those together if there are enough indicators if it sees someone said I killed that shot and has a basketball game in the in the the post it's going to be smart enough to know that is not a threat but I'm going to
kill someone today then it would know that that is a threat it's only scans publicly available social media posts nothing private all right also when it locates a possible threat to oneself or to somebody else it can geographically narrow it down within KDISD so that we can identify maybe a junior high, a high school, or elementary school, or maybe a pattern. So then we can notify our counselors. Let's assume that somebody threatens to take their life, suicide. It's unfortunate we've dealt with that in the district in the past. It would identify that if that individual were to put that on social media that's not private texting it whether it is through a you know Instagram post and then we can address it proactively with the staff with the location to identify that and see if we can get to the bottom of it well because they're clearly with
some of the most recent situations that we've seen in in the news media there there's been some indication or there has been clearly indication where people have gone back and said there was posts prior to these mass shootings prior to these these events that people they publicly announced exactly what they were gonna do and it was missed so this is something that potentially could have caught this this type of program is what you're saying could have potentially
caught potentially yes ma'am and president dr. hint if this program is approved, do you currently have in process procedures to who gets this information and how do you disseminate it or is that going to take a whole new
program to be set up? No, Social Sentinel already has, they identify folks, let's just say for instance if there was a threat of a gun on campus then that goes to our PD immediately. If it is a threat of bodily harm to oneself then that would go through our counseling department she doesn't know it yet Christy maker probably would be the contact person who would then notify those counselors at that location we do have already personnel that we can assign to these locations as soon as this board approves it and it moves through the item next week and we'll start working that for implementation
next school year our president following so dr. Hint you think this program has a potential to save our children's lives. If it saves one life, I think it's well worth it.
Thank you. Madam President. Mr. Lacy. I just, this whole computer thing is just beyond my brain sometimes. How close, I don't know how to try and describe this, how close can you drill down to where if you, if you perceive a threat, if this is coming in, How close can y'all bring it down? Can you identify a specific phone? Can you identify a specific home? Something like that?
This is only a public post, and we would only be alerted of the actual post. And so the post would be sent, and then if it was on a public account, which it would have to be to be a public post, then we could see who the possible owner of that public post is.
would be like little Jimmy does this said this then we would be able to be notified and then in turn our people weren't in would scan and see if little Jimmy is one of our students if it's someone that's outside that is of age of a school and doesn't go here but maybe goes to a private school will we be allowed to alert that other school or we have our law enforcement departments do
that right now okay that would be something that we did alert through that individual but yeah if we saw that it would be our due diligence to do that
mr. Scott what will not be covered in the scan what what percentage of coverage for an area what will not be picked up what kind of communications would not be picked up I guess and maybe except when you say what type of communications? Yeah, I mean private chats, I presume if you're in a private network, but if I'm on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or some of the things I don't even know the names of, is that the kind of, is that, are those the kinds of
programs that are going to be captured? Yes, and I've listed some of the sources, but yes, those sources that I listed, the social media sources, those people who have their accounts or they post public, any type of a public posting, that's what would be analyzed.
So Sentinel picks up a conversation or a text, a message, an email or whatever at 9 o'clock at night. How quickly does that come to the attention of someone that could do something about it? Immediately. Immediately, sir.
Okay. And you do say this is a three-year contract, but with every year the district can reevaluate and assess if we're getting the value and it's and doing what is provided as as much as we think it's meant to do. Exactly. It's a
three-year contract because of the the terms, but every year we can reevaluate and we can choose to discontinue the service at any time.
At the one-year mark of the three years.
I'm sorry, one more if I could, if I might. I really will be interested in the metrics of how we evaluate this. I would like for the board at some point to be able to see, before we're into the program, what are the standards that we're going to look at, because if you say it can be renewed at the end of every year, then I would say the first year is really when we need to be able to see and probably ongoing. I think that would be very important.
We will add that to the reports reporting document that we have for the board and set a date that we would report that to you either in closed session or through an open forum. Yes, sir.
Okay, anyone else? Okay, thank you very much. Item 5.14, consider future board approval of a proclamation for School Nutrition Employee Week. This is when you get to hear me read lots of words. Whereas nutritious meals at school are an essential part of the school day, and whereas the staff of the district's Nutrition and Food Service Department is committed to providing healthy, nutritious meals to the district's children, And whereas the men and women who prepare and serve school meals help nurture our children through their daily interaction and support, and whereas KDISD expresses deep appreciation to these valuable employees and commends their good work on behalf of children, therefore the KDISD Board of Trustees hereby proclaims the week of May 7th through 11th, 2018 as School Nutrition Employee Week in KD Independent School District. It will be signed on the 23rd day of April 2018 at our regular board meeting. Item 5.15, consider future board approval of the proclamation for teacher appreciation week. Whereas teachers are the heart of KDISD making our district great and whereas teachers work to open students' mind to ideas, knowledge and dreams and whereas teachers fill many roles as educators, listeners, explorers, role models, motivators and mentors. teachers. Whereas teachers continue to influence us long after our school days are only memories. And whereas our country's future depends on providing quality education to all students. Whereas teachers spend countless hours preparing lessons, evaluating progress, counseling and coaching students, and providing community service. And whereas our community recognizes and supports its teachers in educating the children of this community. Therefore, be be it resolved that the Katy ISD Board of Trustees does hereby proclaim the week of May 7th through 11th 2018 as Teacher Appreciation Week and strongly encourages all members of our community to personally express appreciation to our teachers for their dedication and devotion of their work. This will also be signed on the 23rd day of April 2018 at our regular board meeting. I have one more. Consider future board approval of the proclamation for school nurse day Whereas children of the future and by investing in them today We are ensuring our world for tomorrow whereas families deserve to feel confident that their children be cared for when they are at school Whereas all students have a right to have their health needs safely met while in the school setting Whereas children today face more complex and life-threatening health problems requiring care in school whereas school nurses have served a critical role in improving health and ensuring student academic success for more than a hundred years and whereas school nurse nurses address the home and community factors example given social determinants that impacts students health whereas school nurses are professional nurses that advance the well-being academic success and lifelong achievements of all students by serving on the front lines and providing a critical safety net for our nation's most fragile children and whereas school nurses act as a liaison to the school community families and health care providers on behalf of children's health by promoting wellness and improving health outcomes for our nation's children whereas school nurses support the health and educational success of children and youth by providing access to care when children's cognitive development is at its peak whereas Whereas school nurses are members of a school-based team, example given, school health services, 504 IEP, disaster emergency planning to address the school population. Whereas school nurses understand the link between health and learning and our position to make a positive difference for children every day. Therefore, be it resolved that the KDISD Board of Trustees do hereby proclaim May 9th, 2018 as school nurse day in observance of national school nurse day. This will also be signed on the 23rd day of April at our regular meeting next week. We now move to agenda item 6, open forum. At this time the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak. A meeting that is open to the public under the Texas Open Meetings Act is one that the public is permitted to attend. The act does not entitle the public to choose the items to be discussed or speak about items on the agenda. A governmental body may, however, give members of the public an opportunity to speak at a public meeting, which KDISD Board Policy BED Local does allow. As defined by this Board Policy, the first 20 speakers who have signed up at least 15 minutes before the meeting began and have provided their first and last names will be allowed to speak. A maximum of 30 minutes has been allocated, with the time divided equally among those who have signed up. However, the maximum amount of time for any one speaker is three minutes. If a speaker wishes to share written material with the Board, ten copies must be provided to the Secretary for Board Services, for the Board members, to the Superintendent, the Chief Communications Officer, and this will be for permanent record. Due to posting requirements of the Open Meetings Act, the Board is able to respond only to to a statement related to a posted agenda item with a statement of specific factual information given or a recitation of existing policy in response to the inquiry. If a speaker has not attempted to solve a matter administratively through proper channels as stated in Board policy, the presiding officer shall advise the speaker to seek resolution through the appropriate policy. Board Policy BED Legal states that it is a criminal offense for any person with intent to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting to substantially obstruct or interfere with ordinary conduct of a meeting by physical action or verbal utterance and thereby curtail the exercise of others' First Amendment rights. Board Policy BED Local provides the removal of any member of the audience after one at least morning who disrupts the meeting by his or her words or actions. As I announce your name, please come forward and state your first and last name for the record. Our first speaker this evening is Ms. Jeannie Griffith.
Hello, my name is Jeannie Griffith and I am your Katy ISD Council of PTA's president. I'm here to deliver the report for our council to the trustees. We have a newly elected board for the 2018-2019 year. The president will be Georgia Strickland. Is it okay to have her stand? She's here. She's amazing. And one of her best assets is her family who is with her tonight. She has a husband who's very supportive and committed to increasing male involvement in our schools and three kiddos who have sat through more board meetings already than most of our parents. Our VP of programs will be Leah Wilson. Our secretary will be Teresa Wilkinson and our treasurer will be Shannon Kim and they are all very excited to work with you. I also wanted to let you know that the Texas PTA Nominating Committee has announced their slate for 2018-2019 and our Cindy Cruz Davis has been slated to be a Director-at-Large. So many of you know Cindy, she served on our council and we're very proud of her. Our membership has surpassed 27,000. I don't have a number based on today's but we We broke through that barrier and we're really proud of it. We welcome our newest PTA, Campbell Elementary, and they are so, so stinging cute. Between Mrs. Shipley and Mrs. Campbell, they are a group of inspired parent leaders who cannot wait to get their PTA off the ground. So we're excited for them. Our final council meeting of this school year will be May 7th. It's actually here in the 1200s. It'll start at 6 and then at 630 there's a vendor fair and you are all invited. It should be a really good time and it's gotten bigger over the years. So actually everyone in the building is invited if anyone wants to come. The final thing I have is just to say thank you. This is my final report as the president for council and I wanted to thank the board, Dr. Hint, and actually everyone in this building. from the front door to the second floor, everyone, for everything. I couldn't have asked for a better two years. And I'm appreciative. Thanks. Thank you.
Thank you. And I apologize. I forgot to say, due to the number of speakers in our 30-minute allotment, every speaker has two minutes and 18 seconds to speak. So the time is on the screen up above and it will cut off at the 2 minute and 18 second mark. Our next speaker is Mr. Jerry Clark.
Since 2003, I have put three students through KDISD. The oldest dropped out senior year not three months before graduation because of the abuse she received from staff and students. The second is now a doctor. The third graduated only after the staff was called to task for all the mistakes they had made in the execution of their duties. I currently have three more at Katy ISD. The fourth was jumped and beaten by three peer students in elementary school. Two more groups of students beat him in the hallways in junior high. On video. And this year he was attacked again and left in the hallway floor until a teacher noticed he was missing and found him. KDISD refused and blocked our ability to bring charges against the various assailants until the most recent event. In elementary, the vice principal victimized my son by telling him Santa doesn't visit bad kids, simply because he fought back against that third attacker. In junior high, my son tried to jump from the second story balcony at the school to end his life as the school staff would do nothing to help him. We later had to have the ARD amended to get him an escort for him between classes to get him there safely. This coupled with multiple other incidents has taught my family one important lesson, trust no one in KDISD. Now my youngest and third special needs student has begun to feel the bullying that KDISD staff doles out. For example, she has been denied the ability to use the restroom just this last week. For the second time this year, left to sit in wet clothes for the day because the teacher felt she might play around in the restroom. Neither parent was ever called and just a note was sent home. There has been worse for her, but not enough time here today to go over all of them. As parents, we have two been bullied, including being threatened with arrest by the principal because we needed to have a kindergarten or move classes due to her status. There was no legitimate charges. The police left and said, sorry, we cannot do anything for your principal. He said, that's OK. The rules are mine to make. The law is mine to make. I give your child 50 50 chance of success. That's the best you can give me. That's it. She failed.
Our next speaker are Bill and Michelle and I'm sorry if I have your last name wrong, Hick.
Hick. All right. Dear Board, thank you for the opportunity to speak. We're here in support of Dr. Hint. Our kids graduated from Dulles High School, our oldest a decade ago, and we also have some other Dulles parents from here. So we don't have a dog in this hunt because Lance is here at Katy ISD, but we read the newspapers and see what's in the media and I just I cannot believe what I'm seeing and reading and what's going on. He was a good man. We know his work from Fort Bend ISD at Dulles High school and you guys have a good man or you wouldn't have hired him and you wouldn't vet him and here we are i'm reading stories about what happened 35 years ago and to me i don't know what's going on because i don't live here but there's something more to the story than just what happened what he may or may not have done 35 years ago so in my view this is a witch hunt okay and we live in a world where the media plays got you they don't really care they care about selling newspapers and selling advertising. And I have enough wisdom and experience to know there's another story behind the story. And I just can't sit here and just watch this go on and not say anything. So my message to the board is simply this. Don't be bullied by the media or a few or a small group of people that have a hidden agenda that the media is not going to report on. Okay, Because to me, that's the story today, is our media bullies people. And that's what's going on. And that's my message to you. And my message to the parents of this district is if you support the board and Dr. Hint, then you need to get out in droves and say something. Because I can tell you this, if this was going on at Dulles High School right now, we would be out 100 to 1 in support of this gentleman. Okay? And we came all the way up and some other parents from Dulles High School to support this man. So I don't think we need to drive from Sugar Land to support him. Y'all need to get out in your community and support him. Because, again, I'm speaking about someone that we know. We know his body of work. You have a good man, so stick with it and don't be bullied. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker, and I, again, will probably not get the last name right, so I apologize, is Michael Shaman.
You think security. What do virtually all school shooters and suicides, including these public posters, have in common, most were outcasted long, like years before bullying. Why not stop the outcasting before the shooting and the suicide starts, before you get media on your case, if you want safety and security? My thoughts, if you censor school bullies without letting victims fight back themselves, no, not their pretty parents, whatever, just fight back by themselves, ultimately if you don't want fight back ultimately workplace bullies will step in take credit for a non fighters job or credit for work problem itself sometimes the person doesn't even get employed okay and here's a plan to unveil talents goals dreams censored by a bullies labeling a victim why not mass-publish a bullied student selected list of talents hobbies like in your make your publications, newspaper, website, whatnot, to reestablish the victim popularity and actually give the person fair credit for his or her work and personality and expression. Must only pair victims in classes with friends, defend off bullies, and let victims become more expressive, fun, creative as people for everyone. Also students inviting bullying, they are admit by say objectively overstating skills or interrupting others really being annoying I think should be privately and peacefully alerted that they have those problems and given the option to be coached into actually having those abilities and not stay weak the option to have I don't think you should have surveys to find known outcasts private surveys lacking socially marketable talents some of these people might not be interesting to most people. Just at least let them network among themselves. Put them privately in contact with others on campus in similar positions as friends and host fun activities for them. Get them out of the outcast category so they don't become dangerous. Also, especially for those with disabilities, why not have surveys to ask them what they want to life instead of having their parents their counselors school system whoever
tell them thank you sir thank you mr. president ask a clarifying question
Michael are you are you a student here at Katy ISD no I'm not that's okay thank you for coming here and doing your presentation and giving us some solutions along with some of the issues.
Mr. Michael? Yes. Do you have a copy of some of the suggestions that you had for the board? Yes, I do. Do you have 10 copies?
I'll pack an email.
Could you send an email, please, to our board secretary for some of the suggestions that you had?
Absolutely.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Angela Waller. Good day board and good
evening Dr. Hanton board. My name is Angela Waller. I have four kids. Two have already graduated KDISD. One is currently at Wood Creek Junior High and my youngest. I have chosen to homeschool and it's nothing against KDISD. He just learns better in the environment with me there to teach him. We've had problems with bullying with some of my kids and as a parent I worked with the school to find solutions to it. It's no it's not been perfect and I know that and I think that there's ways that the schools can improve to help but I know that the schools are doing what they can to help combat bullying. There's just more that can be done and I know y'all want to see change. Y'all want to improve our children's lives because many of you have students going to Katy too and I know y'all don't like the bullying and you're not purposely ignoring what happens with our children and I just I'm confident that y'all will find a solution and I just want to thank you Dr. Hinn for everything that you've done for our district especially during the hurricane how you got out there and you helped our community you opened up sinker ranch so these families would but have a place to go. Without you leading us, I don't think that we would have been able to come together as a community like we did during that time. It was a difficult time for all of us, but you made it better. You made us show that we are Katie Strong, and we can continue to be Katie Strong as we fight all these negative attention towards us and come up with better solutions for our students. And I believe you're the right person to lead us, Dr. Hindt. So thank you.
Our next speaker is Susan Wallace.
I am Susan Wallace. I am speaking for another mother who couldn't be here. Here's a mother's story. Although it's been seven years since the incident, it's still a fresh reminder that not much has changed concerning KISD's response to bullying. Had I not called the police or gone to the administrative building, I seriously doubt there would be any record of what happened to my son that day at school. When my son was 13, an eighth grader in KISD who was dumped upside down in a trash can in the locker room, de-pants and sodomized with a pencil by three other students. No adult was present supervising the boys before this basketball practice. When we reported this traumatizing event to the principal and school counselor as well to the coach, it was met with a boys will be boys attitude. The principal said that he had spoken to the perpetrators and gotten their side of the story. I was not allowed to be a part of this conversation nor was my son. The principal called to let me know that he had handled it and that all three boys would be sitting at the quiet table during lunch that week. When I opposed this somewhat slap on the wrist response to what I perceived to be an assault, he opted for some other school detention. Still not satisfied, I asked for KISD police to intervene. There was pushback and belief that it was better to keep this fracas in house. I called them anyway. The end result by the police after interviewing those involved and witnesses was that the The principal would have the final say as to what the punishment should be. A report was filed. Furious, I went to the superintendent's office with a copy of the zero tolerance policy. I spoke with an administrator who assured me that he would investigate the matter. He was very kind and sympathetic about the impact this attack had on my child. After several days, we had another meeting, and by now, the final first place district basketball game had been played. All three boys, two of them basketball players, would be suspended for three days. It was too little, too late, in my opinion. By this point, the incessant teasing by other students in the hallways was taking its toll on my son. The district thought it best to transfer my son to another campus. There would be no transportation to and from school provided for him. That burden fell on me. I also incurred the cost of over the next six months of professional counseling for my son. So who really got the ultimate punishment? The victim. In conclusion, there appears to be an overall allegiance to protect the reputation of KISD over the welfare of the students. If policies are created and touted as exemplary, then they should be followed when an infraction occurs, to the letter, and swiftly. When it's inconvenient, embarrassing, or might cause the kids to be excluded from exporting events, there should not be double standards. Thank you.
Madam President, clarifying question.
Has she not called the police?
Ma'am, who are you speaking for?
I can say her name? Can I say her name? I thought her name is Rebecca. She's a mother named Rebecca. Do you want me to tell you her name? I thought we couldn't say names.
If you're speaking for somebody.
You can't say names of staff.
Yeah, we just.
Her name is Rebecca Phelps. And students. Okay, thank you. Rebecca Phelps. Our next speaker is Chrysander Parks.
President Vann, Dr. Hint, and Board of Trustees, I'm here to tell y'all, thank y'all for attacking, or not attacking, but explaining the bullying situation. Let me start reading because I get nervous. Sorry. I would just like to say my son's in eighth grade, and he goes to Beckendorf, and we are very happy in Katy ISD and thank you very much.
Our next speaker is Sean Dolan.
So I have tried for two months to get a response from the people behind me to validate and address the issues my family has been going through for the last few years. Instead, they've called me names like liar, manipulator, evil.
Excuse me, Mr. Dolan?
Yes.
Madam President, my understanding is that speakers address the board. This is our meeting and you're addressing us, Mr. Dolan. I request...
I am no more evil for pulling out the failings of this administration than you teachers. You're evil for giving a student a failing grade, a student who deserves it. You don't fail them to destroy them. You fail them because it's honest and they need that honest feedback to become better. That is not evil. That is good. No of you here today are complicit in the building.
Please address the board in your remarks.
Madam President, you read a protocol before we began. Thank you very much for enforcing it.
Our next speaker is Dr. Lisa Babin.
Good evening. Peace be with all of you. I want to say thanks to everyone that showed up to pray outside at the flagpole. I kind of love it if we made that a frequently repeating event at the district. Just saying. One of my favorite things in the district is the In God We Trust stickers that are on the back of our police cars. Now I have no problem if Duncan, Shipley, Hertz, Tiff's Treats, anybody else wants to pay to put a sticker on our police cars and get a little advertising of it, that would not bother me at all. We have an election coming up. Please vote. I don't care who you vote for. Just show up. I'm hoping that this will be the highest voter turnout that we ever have. I'd like to say thank you to Mr. Griffith and Mr. Mohoski for serving. You guys have proven that in six years you can get a lot done and you don't need to camp out on the board. You've brought a lot to the board and I've learned a lot from you and I think a lot of other people have. Mr. Griffith, I don't fly commercial, but I certainly would fly if I knew you were the pilot. And Mr. Mr. Mohoski, I hope you got my email. I sincerely meant what I said, and I appreciate the expertise that you brought to the board. Term limits. Term limits are a big thing with me. I think you don't need to camp out on the board, so I think that's something we need to look at. We've grown the district. We have not grown the board, and it's impossible to put that burden on y'all. It's just too big of a district now. We need to add some members to the board, at least two, possibly three. just because to fairly and adequately represent the people of the district, there's no way that y'all can possibly cover the entire board. Other than that, we have sidewalk issues up in Maid Creek. We'd kind of like to address with the board if they could kind of help with Mr. Radek and some of the homeowners associations with that. And that's it. Peace be your journey home. Safe be your travels. Thanks for serving.
Our next speaker is Sarah Montgomery.
My name is Sarah Montgomery and I have a question about graduation but a few comments first. I have two daughters who have been students in Katy ISD since 2006. My older daughter graduated from Taylor High School in 2013 and in 2017 earned her bachelor's degree graduating with honors from the University of Houston. Today she has an excellent job in the engineering industry. My younger daughter graduates from Taylor in May and will attend college with the ultimate career goal of becoming a certified nurse practitioner. When both daughters had finally graduated from Taylor, I intended to write a letter to the superintendent of KDISD expressing my personal gratitude for the education and nurturing my daughters received during the last 12 years from KDISD schools. The events over the last four weeks involving Superintendent Hint, his past and present behavior, as well as the complete mishandling of this situation by the KDISD Board of Trustees has left me embarrassed, ashamed, and sad to live in the district. I am utterly unable to pen a thank you letter. What Superintendent Hint does not seem to recognize is that while employed by our school district, he reports not to his God, but to the taxpayers of KDISD, the state of Texas, and the United States of America. We pay your salary, Mr. Hint, an extremely healthy salary that you no longer deserve. Thanks to you, our A-plus reputation has forever been tarnished. The very parochial Katy ISD board is ignoring the fact that people move to Katy, such as myself and my family, not from just the local Houston area, but from around the country. the globe to work reside and raise their families in reality without our a plus school system Katie has remarkably little to offer prospective residents over surrounding communities do you plan to speak and attend Katie ISD
Our next speaker and another last name I'll probably not get right is Ryan
Gragnano. I've got a helper with me. Good evening President Vann, members of the board and Dr. Hint. My name is Ryan Gragnano and I'm a parent of a first first grader and an incoming kindergartener at Fielder Elementary. I'm here this evening to share what I believe to be two of the many benefits of the two-way Spanish immersion programs currently being offered at Fielder and Memorial Parkway Elementary. The first benefit I'd like to highlight is language proficiency. One of the more obvious benefits of the two-way immersion program is our students develop develop oral reading and writing proficiency in two languages. My daughter Lily is interested in demonstrating this for you.
Take it. Take it.
Turn it on. Hit the button there. On.
Hello, my name is Lily Gregman. I am 7 years old. My school is Field Elementary and I am in first grade. My teachers are Mrs. Bayliss and Mrs. Espinosa.
The second benefit I'd like to highlight is really the cultural benefit. I believe the cultural benefit is one of the more understated benefits of the TWI program. Our children are learning about other cultures and customs firsthand from their peers. My daughter's classmates are from Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, and a variety of other countries. This is significant when a report just published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas states 48% of the Texas workforce was born outside the state. The report goes on to share in 2016 domestic migrants to Texas made up about 25% of the state labor force and international migrants constituted 23% of the state's workers. So at a time where our communities, our state, and our country are becoming more and more diverse, here in Katy we've decided to end a two-way Spanish Immersion Program. I ask that you please consider this information as you create
Thank you. Our next speaker is Jonathan Otero.
My name is Jonathan Otero, and thank you all for allowing me to speak tonight. I wanted to follow up on last week's conversation in the open forum session in regards to the TWI program. Last month I shared that the non-salary costs of the program are $78,000 a year. That in contrast to the $1.4 million in savings that the superintendent continues to offer as part rationale for having phased out the program. I'm happy to hear that the administration does not dispute the fact that the majority of these costs are salary and benefits. but continuing to claim an outsized savings from the program's phase-out is wrong. The premise behind the argument that a savings above and beyond non-salary costs of TWI is possible is that vacancies across the district would be filled by sliding students who are currently in the program through their home schools. The problem with this argument can be illustrated in the fact in looking at student-teacher ratios across the district. The key point from this data is that if you look at the student-teacher ratio at schools that do not have a TWA program, you'll note that those elementary student-teacher ratios do not max out at the 22 to 1 legally mandated maximum student-teacher ratio. And that is because of statistics, quite frankly. The bottom line is that the district cannot choose where to send their students. The boundaries are drawn and then people choose to move to houses accordingly in those areas. So you will always have a gap between that 22 to 1 limit and what is achieved. So to state that you can somehow increase the overall student teacher ratio of the district by eliminating this one program, quite frankly, is statistical malpractice. The reality is that the TWI program does have a lower student-teacher ratio than the rest of the district, which is 20.4 versus TWI at 18. But there was no look at opportunities to increase utilization in the classroom because all the parents were spent on this wild goose chase in regards to overcrowding. You know what, the KDIU-CD community deserves better than statistical fantasies in regards to rationales for...
Thank you. Our last speaker for the evening is Mike Murray.
Good evening. My name is Mike Murray. I'm a teacher at Cinco Ranch High School. My wife, Catherine, is a school psychologist in Katy ISD. My two children have attended Alexander Elementary, Beckendorf, and Seven Lakes High School. My daughter will be a senior at Seven Lakes this fall. I'd like to address the all too real possibility that this Board of Trustees may be asked to vote on whether or not to place loaded firearms in Katy ISD classrooms in the coming months. As you know, a school marshal program was approved by the Texas Legislature in 2013. That program allows school districts to place a loaded firearm in a school classroom. Less than 10% of Texas school districts chose to implement that program and most of the ones that did were rural and they stated they did not have enough municipal officers to stay close to a school. Back here at home, proponents of arming teachers say that a week of training a year would help prepare a school teacher at Alexander Elementary to instantly step into a firefight. fight. A firefighter against a sociopath armed with an assault rifle and outfitted in military tactical gear. All this while the teacher is armed with a pistol and an aqua colored stingray t-shirt. Proponents here say that a seven-lates chemistry teacher would be prepared to take the life of an active shooter even if the active shooter is a child. This of course would be in the the middle of a day of differentiated learning of each of their 120 chemistry students, grabbing a quick sandwich while grading assignments, serving as a part-time counselor, a mentor, a role model, and while desperately searching for one quiet moment in the day to find a way to reflect on how to improve their children's lives outside of the required curriculum. If this board considers a vote to place a firearm in my daughter's classroom next year, I would ask that they consider how the $7,000 that it may cost to arm a teacher can instead be used to hire more outstanding KDIC police officers, like Mike Seiss at Cinco Ranch High School, or more psychological services to help identify and address the root cause of suicidal and homicidal behavior among troubled kids. Respectively, I urge the board members to speak out on your position. Arm us with school psychologists. Don't arm us with school psychologists.
Thank you. That concludes our open forum for the evening. I'll call your attention to our future meeting. Our regular board meeting will be Monday, April 23rd, right back here. There being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned. The time is 8.24 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: 126 of the 156 turns on this page. The transcript separates one voice from another but does not name them, and no name is assigned to a turn without evidence.
- The speaker turn timeline is not continuous. There are intervals with no attributed turn, so a gap between two turns is not evidence that nothing was said.
- The district’s video index for this meeting carries no timestamps, so the recording is presented here as a single section rather than divided into agenda items.
- The district publishes this recording as 6 separate files rather than one. The player on this page plays the first file; the later parts are on the district’s own player, linked above. Transcript times run continuously across the whole recording, so a time past the end of the first file will not play here.
- The recording is played here from the district’s own stream. The archive does not hold or serve a copy of the video.
- No speaker on this page is named. The automated attribution available for this recording was derived from names spoken aloud in the transcript, and a surname inside a turn is not evidence of who is speaking. Every speaker is therefore left unresolved.
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 3.1
PassedIt is recommended 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 |