The Board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, July 16, 2018, and the time is 627 p.m.
Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, July 16, 2018
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Mr. Gregorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act regarding the notice for this meeting?
Madam President, I confirm we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act in regards to this meeting tonight.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this meeting's board work study meeting.
To prepare for this meeting, each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Thursday, July 12th,
and have had four days to study its contents and to seek clarification from administration.
This evening, the items posted on the agenda will be presented to the board by staff and administration,
and the board will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss agenda items.
First, do we have any scouts in the audience?
having none we'll start with our reports agenda item 4.1 2018 accountability system dr. Allison
matinee good evening mr. Gorg or ski president Doyle members of the board I am here this evening
to share with you some information about our new 2018 accountability system this is in preparation
in advance of me sharing results next month in August as well as the upcoming
release of the accountability system results this slide outlines for you the
the reason for the change House bill 22 from the 85th legislative session
required a shift in our accountability system to an A through F system for districts and campuses.
On this slide you'll see the A through F outline with corresponding words. Some of these words are
a little familiar from previous systems. And the timing includes on August 15th the ratings will
be released to district staff. The next day on August 15th, which happens to be our first day
of school will be the public release of accountability related ratings and on August 27th I'll be
back here to discuss with you what KDISD's ratings say, what our data means for each
campus in the district.
So for this year, for 2018, districts will receive an ABCD or F rating label.
A, B, C, or D is assigned for performance in each domain and an overall rating for districts
that meet the performance target for each letter grade.
And F is assigned for overall performance and for performance in each domain to districts
that do not meet the performance targets and then not rated as assigned under specific
circumstances.
In 2018 for campuses, we will still be held to the Met Standard improvement required ratings
that we have been used to over the past few years met standard for performance
in areas that meet performance targets improvement required for areas that do
not as well as met alternative standard and not rated under circumstances for
campuses and districts in 2019 so this slide is for next year campuses and
districts will both be held to the a through F ratings that we'll see for
districts this year.
So in looking at the three domains for our new accountability system, we have student
achievement, school progress, and closing the gaps.
And I'll talk through each of these briefly with you to increase your level of understanding
for each of these.
For the overall rating, as you can see from the bars on the top, we'll have the better
of domains one or two, and that's worth 70 percent, and domain three, which is closing
the gaps is worth 30% in our overall rating for campuses and districts. So
we'll go into the student achievement domain. The weighting for the student
achievement domain for elementaries and our junior highs is 100% star based. So
all of the weight of domain one for elementaries and junior highs will be
based on star assessments. For high schools and KDISD and districts that
have k-12 schools which we do not 40 is star based 40 is college career and military readiness
indicators which we'll talk about in a minute and 20 is graduation rate so our college and career
military ready indicators include this list that is on your screen we have college ready indicators
which include meeting a criteria of three or higher on ap tests meeting specific tsi criteria
that students can achieve through various tests, including SAT and TSI.
Students who complete courses for dual credit are included in this.
Students who earn an associate's degree complete an on-ramps course,
which is a specific dual credit program through the University of Texas,
and meeting standards on a composite of indicators indicating college readiness.
You'll see a few of these have the red asterisks by them.
those are not going to be implemented until 2019.
Students have to, in order to be included in the college career military ready portion of the accountability system,
students only have to check off one of these boxes. They don't have to meet four or five of them.
They just have to check off one of the college ready or the career ready or military ready. So for career ready,
students who earn an industry-based certification can be checked off.
Students who are in a CTE coherent sequence of courses are included in the
system at 0.5 so we get a half a point for students in the CTE coherent
sequence. Students who graduated with completed IEP workforce readiness are
included and students who are admitted to a post-secondary industry
certification program. So those are all ways that our students can show that
they are career ready according to the state accountability system. And then
And students who are military ready are those who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces.
So we have begun tracking those students through our PEM submission system starting this school
year.
So again, students only have to check off one of these boxes to be included and considered
as college, career, and military ready according to the accountability system.
For school progress, that's our domain two.
It has two parts and we have to have the better of either academic growth or relative performance.
For elementary, middle, high schools, and districts, the higher of Part A or B is included.
So for academic growth, that's our Part A, we're looking at all assessments with a star progress measure,
those reading and math in grades 4 all the way up to algebra and English 2.
districts and campuses earn credit for individual student results that either
maintain proficiency or meet growth expectations so we're making sure that
students are making forward progress from one year to the next so this is one
sample that TEA gives us as to how we can consider it so if in third grade a
student achieves approaches grade level in math and then in fourth grade they
achieve meets grade level, that's the highest arrow up from the orange box up to the blue
box, we would get one point for those students.
As you can see, if a student went from approaches to did not meet, we would not receive any
points because that is declining in academic achievement.
For domain part domain 2 part B the relative performance this is where achievement for
students relative to other campuses is considered when you consider the socioeconomic status. So on
this chart when you look at the section on the left we are looking at star performance from
from domain one, if it's a high school or district,
star plus your college and career military ready
is considered.
And we're looking at it in relation
to the percent of economically disadvantaged students
we have at the campus.
So then all of that data is plotted along this graph
so that we can see, for example, if you
have a lower percent of economically disadvantaged,
disadvantaged, you need a much higher domain one achievement score in order to be considered
an A, a B, and so on. If you have a higher economically disadvantaged population, then
it takes a lower score in order to get that A. And so then the state's going to plot all
of our campuses and across the state, elementaries with elementaries, junior highs with junior
high schools with high schools to end up with a grade for this part B.
Moving on to domain three, this is closing the gaps.
This is our domain that meets the requirements of the federal government for looking at student groups, including all the race ethnicities, special education,
education, students who are continuously enrolled in KDISD schools, students who are mobile
and move back and forth between districts, English learners, and economically disadvantaged
students.
As you can see on this slide, I'm not going to go through all of these areas, but all
of the student groups considered in Closing the Gaps domain are on the left.
So it's quite a few student groups we're going to be looking at.
And then the components, all the ways that they're measured, is there on the right.
So we're looking at achievement, growth, graduation, college career military ready,
and English language proficiency status. For domain three they're going to look at how many
indicators met the targets for each student group in order to come up with the overall domain grade.
And again calculating an overall rating we're going to look at the best of domains one and
two that's worth 70 percent we're going to look at closing the gaps is worth 30 percent
so we determine the best outcome we wait those we wait the closing the gaps domain and then we total
everything together here's a sample slide so as you can look if this sample campus received an 89
for student achievement and 84 for part a and 72 for part b and an 81 for closing the gaps
the better of the 84 and 72 would be an 84 and then now you take the better of
domain 1 & 2 which is the 89 because the 89 is domain 1 so the 89 is worth 70
points and the closing the gap 81 is worth 30 points and so then you see your
weighted points the overall score of an 87 which is a B so actions that Katie ISD
has taken to date. We've been following the developments of the system very closely over
the course of the last 12 plus months. We created and published an accountability learning video
series for principals over the course of nine weeks, short eight-minute videos for them to
share with staff to get them acclimated to the terminology of the new system. We've had
department sessions here at the ESC so that departments can be apprised, and we've talked
through how the system impacts departments such as special ed or office
of interventions we've had a leadership team work session where where principals
got their 2017 data and we actually worked through what would it look like
in this system with last year's data so they could they could physically work
through the components of the system we've had individual campus one-on-one
learning sessions where we've gone out to campuses and either talk to whole
staff or leadership teams or sometimes just the principal to make sure that
learning is where it needs to be. We've had campus data talks where we've come
out and shown this data as far as 2017 and where they are at 2018 and the
trajectory. We've maintained an instructional focus when we have these
conversations. The improvements that are made should not be about an
accountability system or one-star test. It really is about instruction and
moving students forward, every student, every standard, every day. And we're
really focusing on monitoring growth so how do we monitor that we're moving kids
forward every day using the standards and not just waiting for one test at the
end of the year it's about growth every day in the classroom for students and
with that I'd like to ask if you have any questions
Dr. Matt Neen, you, no one in KDISD, or no one on the planet earth that works for school
districts has one darn thing to do with this accountability system.
It's the state of Texas, right?
That is correct.
This is imposed.
That is correct.
Would you turn back to the slide, academic growth measuring advancement?
It's the one with the arrows.
Back, back, back, back, back, back.
I went down to that one.
That was it.
I would like for you to see if my interpretation of the orange is correct.
You're a testing expert.
You know this stuff backwards and forwards.
So let me praise you and hope you agree.
What this says is that if a student in the approaches range is functionally illiterate
last year and remains functionally illiterate next year, the state of Texas is going to
give you a point, a half point.
From approaches to approaches is a half a point, correct.
And if that translates from functional illiteracy to remaining functionally illiterate, that
still is a half point.
That same example is I have a point, yes sir.
Very good.
Now, are you aware, I'm not, I'll just say up front, I'm not, are you aware of any specific
explicit study that the TEA has produced that says the cut score at meets, the cut score,
the content mastery cut score at meets, what that means on measures independent of the
STAAR Test, whether it's AP, SAT, PSAT, if the cut score it meets is 3000 index score,
scale score, do we know the statistical reliable correlation between that and a host of other
independent metrics not controlled by the state of Texas. I am not aware that
TEA has that. They don't but I'm glad you your memory in mind is the same. Let me
ask you this. If someone goes from the cut score of meats to slightly better
than the cut score of meats, we don't know what that means, do we?
independently of what the state of Texas likes to assert it means.
Correct.
Okay.
One final question.
When we have an A or a B, no, I'm going to do,
my last one is going to go back down to the regression study.
There.
Measuring school progress.
There you go.
Basically this is creating a line like this, okay, and what this says is if
you're above that line you get a higher, you're closer to A, and if you're below
that line. So it takes the schools within your cohort and it draws a line of
average performance. And so if you're in B and even if the other school district
is functionally illiterate students and you are slightly less functionally
illiterate then you're going to get a higher mark true or false that is
correct based on the regression correct and if you are just a little bit less
functionally illiterate than your cohorts you'll get a lower grade that is
correct here's what I want to say and people need to listen to this okay the
state of Texas we are now tabs teams TAS tax and star the state of Texas has
spent 35 years creating a phony, baloney, crooked, dishonest accountability system.
This one may be the worst of all because it's creating lots of smoke and mirrors
to make you think that they're holding things accountable. In reality, if you go
go back to the Senate Bill 7 which says the academic equity gap will close, if
you go to the Supreme Court of 1995 that validates that from the Texas Supreme
Court, and if you go to the 2000 federal district court that says it's not
discriminatory and TAWS is okay, what this does you need the Hubble telescope
to see Senate Bill 7, the Supreme Court in 1995 of Texas, the federal Western
District Court in San Antonio in 2000 to see this accountability system and I
want to close by saying this you and Freda and Dr. Carbell and Dr. Hint and
other people in this school district have done a remarkable job over the last
18 months working behind the scenes with with due diligence with care and with
with passion to help this school district come to a process and to get the kind of data
that we need to challenge this nonsense.
And I thank you for your efforts.
I thank everyone in the administration for its efforts.
But if anyone thinks that this accountability system has a nano ounce of academic integrity,
you need to go actually read it.
Thank you.
Madam President.
Yes, I'm sorry.
Sorry.
Was that you, Ms. Montague?
Go ahead.
Okay.
Dr. Mattany, thank you very much for your presentation.
I really enjoyed it.
But I wanted to go back to page 17, and I'm glad that George Scott asked that question,
because if they're functionally illiterate, like he said, and then the next year they
remain functionally illiterate and they all get a half of a point, then technically schools
schools that could be full of kids that are functionally illiterate could have better
scores than kids who have higher, test higher because maybe that year they went down a level
but they're still at, meets the standard.
So in other words, a school that could have, let's say, a lot of masters level, then the
next year they lower to meet.
So they're still meeting, but they're going to have a lower score than the school full
of kids that have the, uh, financially dis- you know, illiterate children, more of them,
because they all remain the same.
So that is accurate, is measured by this part of the domain system.
So remember, this is domain B part A, and then there's domain B part, domain 2 part
B, so there's two pieces.
So if you have a school full of students who went from masters to meets, they're still
scoring at a high level, they're scoring at meets, so we're going to have quite a
few points for them in domain one in the student achievement and that
will be reflected in domain two part B as well. So it's one of the reasons why
the construct of the system is the better of. You don't have to meet all
three so you can have high achievement but not high growth or vice
versa and still come out because it's the better of the the top is going to
rise okay thank you and I have another question it's on page 24 let's see let
me get to page 24 when they're talking about closing the gaps and they have the
student groups or the achievement target who picks the target and who judges
whether they're making the target so that's a great question the targets were
were actually set based off of 2016 and 2017 baseline data
from the state.
So the state looked at its average data
for each of these student groups.
And then it actually went through a couple of iterations.
So one iteration was it set one target for the same target
for all student groups, sent it to the federal government
for approval.
Because remember, domain three is our federal government
domain. So they had to approve the components of this one specific domain.
And so they they looked at the targets and the federal government actually sent
it back and said we want a different target for every student group because
your data shows that every student group has a different average. And so we, what
the state did was looked at the average from the previous years and then added a
few points to the target and then every five years will be expected to increase
each of those for the next 15 years.
And I think that's all. Thank you very much.
Madam President, I also like to chart 17 if we could. Page 17. I'm certainly in
agreement with my fellow colleagues here. My question for you is, so we had a
a presentation similar to this at our TASB conference because of SB1566, all school district,
I mean all school board members are required to understand these kinds of things. So we've
seen it and we're seeing it again and it's, would you discuss for us the difference between
did not meet approaches, meets and masters and help us just kind of quantify those for
us. Absolutely. So did not meet is students who
Students who fall in that level are not at grade level expectation.
Approaches grade level is actually the minimum what's considered passing level.
So a student that achieves approaches actually passed, met the standard for passing the test.
However, what TEA says is they show significant gaps in readiness for the next grade level.
For meets grade level, they show that that's the second level of passing, so it's that mid-level, and TEA considers that they are prepared for the next grade level.
And then masters grade level, the highest level of performance, they're considered well prepared for the next grade level TEKS.
So that would be similar to the commended that we see, right, is the masters.
Correct.
So approaches is the one that concerns me most, that our boys and girls.
So that's meeting a minimum standard of a minimum test, and there are still gaps there.
So the approaches doesn't say to me that our boys and girls are ready for the next level,
and this is the area that concerns me most.
And I agree with my colleague, Mr. Scott.
You know, you can still not be doing great, but you get a half a point for next time.
It's just frustrating.
The whole system, the ABCDNF, based on what I spoke to one of our legislators about when he was thinking about this, was motivation.
Because if your school gets a bad grade, a C or a D, your families are going to jump right in and race up there and make sure their schools are not getting a bad grade, and they're going to jump in and help.
And so I'm not sure that the design that came out of that is the intention that he had.
I appreciate his attention to family engagement and trying to make sure that families are supporting our schools
I'm not sure that this I'm absolutely sure that this is not the avenue to get us to the
intended goal
What I do know is that Katie ISD children
Will be very successful
We see great success in our area. We see our kids being successful in graduating
They go on to the career and college and whatever is next in their lives and they're very successful.
Most of us have had children go to college and be like, wow, I'm so prepared.
KDSD prepared me well.
So I'm confident that our children will do better than most or, you know, I'm confident in the success that our children have.
have. Dr. Caskey, thank you for you and your group and our teachers in the trenches every
day who care so much about boys and girls. They're not going to be distracted by all
of these arrows and bar graphs. They're there to meet children where they are and help them
be greater than they were when they got them. And I'm appreciative for that. And certainly
from our family, I thank you for what you all have given to us and to all their children.
Thank you.
Are there any other questions?
Ms. Gesoff.
I won't belabor it or take long because as Ms. Fox pointed out, we did get a three-hour
session on this and I was lucky enough to have the Commissioner of Education sit in
on my session.
So I got it firsthand.
But just a point of clarification, do you have an idea if a student meets about how
many questions could that student get wrong and still meet?
It's different for every test.
right math for example different for every grade level algebra one is
significantly lower than other grade levels right so the as you go up in
grade level then that that bar lowers but it could be in some tests like 50%
and so for example for example algebra one masters is 78% of the test correct
Act as masters.
Meets, I believe, is, I just did this with a group this morning, about 58.
And then approaches, I believe, is 37.
Okay.
I just wanted to get that in the room.
And then also the fact that in the TEA session, the TASB session with the commissioner present,
they did an analysis, sort of what Mr. Scott was suggesting, comparing to ACT scores, normalizing it, and how we could expect our children to perform when they got to college.
And at the master's level, they had a 75% chance of getting a C in college-level classes.
And at the meets level, it was a 60%, a 60% chance of getting Cs in college-level work.
So I think you're getting the point that the bar is not set very high
One follow-up question. I know per the Senate bill
Tia is supposed to develop a database that schools can use
Obviously we have amazing IT staff and amazing dashboards of data
But I'd still be interested in us getting access to that just because I'd like to see you know
What what the rest of the state is seeing?
Thank you
Anyone else?
Thank you so much, Dr. Matney.
Thank you.
Next, we'll move on to our consent agenda, item 5.1,
consider future board approval of the July 2018 budget amendments.
Ms. Butterfield.
Good evening, President Dole, trustees, Mr. Gregorski.
Good to see you. Tonight we have several amendments to review. There's one revenue and expenditure amendment for a payment from Harris County for an asset for forfeiture of $951. That increases revenues and expenditures in the general operating fund budget.
Expenditures also increased 45,000 for overtime in the concessions department and $36,000 for settlement expenditures.
We have a Harvey number 11 amendment that is an expenditure decrease.
This is a decrease of $1,572,460.
Pardon me.
And the remainder of the general fund expenditure amendments are direct offsets between functions.
Approval of these amendments will result in a $1,491,460 increase to the general operating fund.
So that's a little different than normal, but that's good.
We have three construction fund amendments coming from the 2014 bond project savings,
$2,766,473.
dollars at the ag science center expansion a change order 83 000 for replacement of a wall
partition at wood creek and then the million four for roadway improvements at peak and stocktick
approval of these amendments will result in
no change to the construction fund fund balance are there any questions thank
you miss Butterfield item 5.2 consider future board approval of the notice of
public meetings to discuss the budget and proposed tax right miss fighting
Good evening, President Doyle, Mr. Gregorio Scamian, Board.
Item 5.2 is to consider future approval of the notice of public meeting to discuss the
budget and proposed tax rate.
The State Comptroller's Truth in Taxation Guidelines require the Board of Trustees to
approve the proposed maintenance and operations tax rate and interest in sinking tax rate
that will be included in newspaper publication.
publication. Each tax rate is to be published separately. The rates are what we have been
presenting in our budget discussions over the last several months and remain unchanged
from the current rates of $1.1466 per 100 valuation for maintenance and operation and
37 cents per 100 valuation for interest and sinking rate. Currently the publication is
scheduled for August 2nd and the public meeting is scheduled for August 20th. An example of
the form to be published is attached in this item and I believe unless there are
questions there is a portion that may be to be read tonight into the record.
Do you have that? Do we have any questions? Okay. Item 5.3? Uh-huh. Go ahead.
Okay. Item 5.3 is to consider future approval of the contract for the collection of delinquent taxes.
The Texas Property Tax Code permits school districts to contract with attorneys to collect their delinquent taxes.
The code also permits the attorneys to collect penalty and interest, including a collection fee, which is paid by the delinquent taxpayer.
No costs are incurred by the district associated with the collection of delinquent taxes.
I request for competitive seal proposals was developed for delinquent tax collection services
and the district received two responses.
Each response was evaluated based on their criteria presented in the tables attached
in this item.
Both firms demonstrated their ability to provide delinquent tax collection services.
However, the firm of Linebarger, Goggin, Blair and Sampson LLP was chosen due to their experience
and the inclusion of the property value study appeal services at no cost to the district.
The agreement for tax collection services for a term of three years commencing October 1st, 2018,
and provides for the option, but not the obligation of the district, to renew and extend the original agreement for up to three one-year renewal terms.
Mr. Scott.
Just one question. The contract has a termination clause in it as well, correct?
Correct.
I was the one that asked for this to be placed delayed a month.
I want to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Hint, to Chris Smith and your team,
the entire team, for responding with what was a rather substantial response to information that I had requested.
I have long said that the issue involving delinquent tax,
kind of like the accountability system for the state of Texas, has nothing to do with KTISD.
It is a statewide issue. I've identified that. Here's the thing I want the public to know.
Dr. Hint and Chris, but Dr. Hindt's leadership, has provided information that is research quality
in terms of allowing a researcher like myself to get behind and understand the delinquent tax industry,
Previously, we had board members come up here and act like buffoons over the
line worker contract. There was no justification. There's not a reason for
the board to be at each other's throat or for the board to be at the throat of
the administration over this contract. Because I have such respect for Dr. Hinn
and his team and because I respect so much that the board gave me this extra
month to be able to get the information that will allow us to look at this
contract going forward. I'm going to ask the Board President if next week when
this is on the consent agenda if I can make the motion to approve the consent
agenda which includes this contract. I have no problems with this contract
going forward. This is the kind of research project I routinely did in the
private sector. It's going to take a hell of a lot of time and I look forward at
at some point in the future to being able to address the issues.
But right now, I have absolutely no objection whatsoever to this contract going forward.
Anyone else?
Thank you, Mr. Scott.
Thank you, Ms. Feitinger.
Madam President, Ms. Fox.
I just have a question for Ms. Feitinger.
Did you say something about the tax rate thing?
Do we read something into the record tonight so that it can stay on consent agenda?
No, we need to.
I didn't know if you had a copy of that.
We just have one.
I don't think we do.
I have a hard copy if you need it.
Okay.
And then it can stay on the consent agenda if we read it in tonight.
Is that my understanding?
Thank you.
Thank you.
The KD notice of public meeting to discuss budget and proposed tax rate.
The KD Independent School District will hold a public meeting at 6.30 p.m. August 20th
in the Boardroom Education Support Complex, 6301 South Stadium Lane, Katy, Texas, 77494.
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the school district's budget that will determine the tax rate that will be adopted.
Public participation in the discussion is invited.
Thank you, Ms. Fox.
Next, Item 5.4, Presenter Ms. Kassman.
Good evening, President Doyle, Trustees, and Mr. Gregorski.
My first item this evening is the presentation of the design for the Fielder Elementary renovation.
The team this evening is represented by Ryan Wojtyla, the project manager, Ms. Mona Carden,
Fielder Elementary principal, Mr. Steve Pittman from Ansel Bryant, the contractor, and Stantec
architect representatives Jennifer Hendrickson, Pruil Vias, and Scott Klaus.
Ms. Cardin, the principal will say a few words followed by the architect's presentation.
Good evening, President Doyle, Mr. Gregorski, the board.
I just want to say it's been such a pleasure to work on this project.
The design team, I feel like they really took our ideas and concerns and suggestions to heart, no matter how silly they might have sounded to them.
As long as we gave them the meaning and the reasoning behind why we went at some of these design changes
I felt like they really jumped on board and they try to incorporate everything that we wanted into
The design of course not only we wanted the building to bring it up to date make it more modern
But we really looked at trying to maximize the space that we currently have trying to increase student
Safety and security and creating some collaborative spaces which were some things that we didn't have at builder
So I'm really excited for you all to see the design and thank you again for letting me be part of this project.
Good evening, Board President, Ms. Doyle, Deputy Superintendent, and respected board members.
We are here today to present our progress through design development for Fielder Elementary School.
And we would like to acknowledge and thank the board and the administration at KTISD to provide us this opportunity
and thank the design team and the school team working with us to get us where we are today.
Field Day Elementary School was identified as a comprehensive renovation in the 2017 bond program.
In terms of the scope, identified some of the keys, renovation items were upgrading the classroom and the core curriculum areas
to be more to meet the KDISD elementary school program needs that meet the most current program needs.
updating the kitchen equipment, mechanical, electrical, plumbing upgrades and replacement,
replacement of finishes in interior and exterior, and then ensuring that overall the building
complies with the most recent codes. Fielder Elementary School was constructed in 1993 and
since it was built today, there have been some upgrades done through the maintenance and KDISD
programs. In 2008, there was some classroom renovations and another significant renovation
that occurred was in 2012 when a security vestibule was added and upgraded, some security
updates. In May of this year, Ansel O'Brien joined the team as a construction manager at RISC,
and we have Steve here with the team representing Ansel O'Brien. Since then, they have worked with
worked with us together working on the phasing and the construction schedule
and we plan to submit the GMP for board approval in November and we are looking
at starting construction hopefully in December to be able to open the school
in fall of 2019 so we are looking at the ideal situation is that we start
exterior renovations through the spring to the winter break in December and then
get inside and do the major comprehensive renovations in the interior through summer.
We met with the school team and the design team with the traffic engineers, reviewed the site specific
issues they face as of today and one of the key things that came out was that
the way their main entry is located on site, it's off to the side and not very central and
doesn't engage the courtyard and it doesn't feel like a main
like a grant entry to the campus.
Other issues that came up was the traffic,
the stacking of the cars all the way to Grand Parkway
during drop off and pick up.
And then in terms of code compliance,
the majority of the back portion of the site
doesn't have fire access.
So these are some of the key factors
we are taking into consideration when we develop the site.
And as we go into the plan,
decisions that we made, you will see that we kind of centralized the new entry that engages the courtyard and
we are adding a fire access drive to the back of the building.
This plan shows our
this plan shows our kind of the first floor what we ended up with based on some of the meetings we had and
the key factors and Scott will talk about it further in detail, but
but we kind of centralized the entry
and the administration is more central in the building.
The library kind of moves further to the north
so that we can get more daylight.
And then we are upgrading the floor plan,
the layout to be more,
that meets the more recent elementary school standards
like teacher planning rooms, the activity rooms,
the restrooms are large enough to meet the code.
And we achieved most of this by very minimal
additions outside and then kind of straightening up all the angled walls and making the spaces
inside more usable and Scott will go further into the floor plan and designer we'll get into kind
of blow up to these areas later but again I think it was a great point that the focus of this was
really about safety and security for the kids upgrading the facility to the current Katie
standards or as close as we could get it and also just giving the school a new
facelift inside and out this is these are the different sort of levels of
renovation and addition that we're looking at for the school so the
majority of the of the effort will be put basically in that front portion of
the school when you come in what's that front door everything else is just sort
of a minor finish in terms of classrooms as we get into the to some comparison so
So what you're looking at here is you're looking at an existing layout of the school on the left-hand side
and the renovated portion on the right-hand side.
So in terms of the administration, I think the biggest impact really here is for safety and security.
Currently, when you come into the existing school, there is some technology to allow the person at the reception desk
to be able to see through cameras who's entering the school.
But it's not an ideal scenario.
area we've been working with with ryan and the district uh their new security standards they're
putting together now to make sure that we're making you know has a lot more visibility there's
different levels of layers of security and there's a touch point uh in in the vestibule for uh a
parent or whoever's visiting the school to talk to receptionists through a slide window before they
ever come into the school at all uh so you know making sure that we're we're doing due diligence
there there were a lot of complaints about spaces either being too big or too
small in that admin so we're trying to rectify that as well as we as we go
through the plan in terms of the library as we've centralized the admin in order
and now we're back filling the library as pool said to get some more natural
light you know just well just kind of reconfigured a little bit the music
rooms have really been an improvement the existing music room is triangular
shaped with a column in the middle which is not extremely functional so we're
trying to square those up and try to deal with the columns to get those out
of the way to help for instruction we're also again introducing activity areas
we're doing that by blowing out a couple of classrooms in the back of the schools
and then opening everything up so that kids have a flex space to to use as an
in addition to the teacher planning spaces that we're providing and also improving the restrooms
so that they're closer to what the newer k schools are doing
and then we're also making improvements in addition to special ed
special programs this is the existing school uh at the main entry uh so some of the things we're
trying to address really are the the green mansard roofs and you know green gabled roofs that are on
the front of the school that are just dated and uh so we're trying to give a new a new face left
there uh so this is what our proposal is for the for the new school so we're trying to make it a
little bit more a little more grand at the entry a little more transparency as you approach the
building and this this this is not an exact same location from the previous view that you look at
it's actually a little bit further to the south so it's you know a different location in the
building this is the back of the building again uh you know similar aesthetic i want to do something
to come kind of open things up and clean it up and this is what our new uh proposal so these are
those activity areas that i was showing you recently or uh just previously uh it was visibility
in and out of those spaces uh this is a an aerial of the overall uh building uh so you can see that
you know all the existing mansard roof at the gym and and at the entries those those are all being
removed and coming in and giving a new fresh modern one student activity areas
in the middle or in the back I'm sorry of the of the classrooms this is a view
again these are not completely rendered out they just want to give you a sense
of what the space could be but just you know in general so again trying to bring
some warmth in with the wood and the materials and creating a nice nice area
for the kids to gather and then the other goal that we had was the main corridor down this school
is very very tight and very very dark we wanted to try to get some relief there bring some more
natural light in from above through clear story and give a little pop of color and that's another
view of the entry if i have any questions
madam president yes okay so i love the presentation and i love um filter elementary and
your staff and um i just wondering what is the security type things that you're adding to the
front entrance way i'm just curious and what what are y'all what is what is in the plans for that we
We met with the security team this morning and some of the key aspects we discussed was using like a laminated bulletproof glazing wherever we introduced glazing at the front.
We will have the two-end phone where you buzz in, which has already been implemented at several schools.
We also talked about if we have full-end glass, then we have some side furniture in concrete or ballers that prevent maybe a car driving into the glazing.
So we are looking at different aspects and I get this was our first meeting today and we are going to have several meetings
With the chief and getting it further figured out and so that everybody is comfortable
Okay, are you gonna have kind of the best you build at some schools have?
Yes, we will have a dual so we will have an airlock vestibule is the first entry and then a set of doors where the
receptionist can buzz in and allow a person to enter and there is a
a window, transaction window, and once you get checked in is only when the second set
of doors would be opened up.
Okay, and I have another question.
I'm just curious, what is your current enrollment at Fielder?
This past year we had 1150 and this next year we're projected to be at 980.
Okay, because I was just looking and I see that there's six classrooms in each hallway.
Eventually we'll get to six classrooms and we have the TWI program on our campus right now that's currently being phased out and we had some
bilingual
Like changes, so we will six is the goal that's going to be good. Okay. Yeah like kindergarten next year
We'll have six classes. All right. Thank you very much
Any other questions? Madam President?
Miss Fox and then I'll go to Ms. Gessa
Thank you for your presentation. With the additions that are included here, adding the Y caps and permanent classrooms, and Ms. Cardin with the moving of some of those things, are we going to have the full playground?
Will there still be portables with all the additions that you're making and preparing? Will you still have portables at Fielder?
There will still be a few portables until the TWI program is completely phased out because like I said next year
Kindergarten will have six classes, but first through fifth will still have eight sections
So as it gets phased out the portals will go with it
So we will currently next year there's
There's four that are going to be used as club before full portables a classroom
So that's during the renovation process once your renovation when will the renovation be completed?
Next fall.
Okay.
I just want to make sure.
With the renovation, there's six classrooms for a great level.
I understand, and that's coming as it comes.
I just want to make sure that we have a nice playground for our boys and girls as we're making, you know, as you're adding on.
I want to make sure we're not making it too big that we're right back to, you know, not enough green space for our boys and girls.
While we have, while you're building, while you're doing the remodel, I know you've done this many times,
but student safety is paramount and so you'll be adjusting some here and some
there and you'll how will you be transitioning students
during the construction process
so we're actually working with the contractor it's really important to have
a good team so that we can work together uh i don't
think all of the phasing has been figured out but i think at some point
the entry will be moved to another location
and we've already been having discussions about what we're going to do
at that entry to make sure it's as secure as what they have today
So there may be a little bit of extra money spent to make that happen, make the phasing
happen, but we'll make sure that the kids are safe at the same time.
Thank you very much, Ms. Cardin.
Many principals have had to live through that remodel, and some of us Harvey people have
had to live through the remodel.
It's not pleasant, but the end result will be so worth it, and I know you'll have a lot
of support from other principals like Dr. Craig and many others who have lived through
it.
So it'll be really nice in the end.
Ms. Gesoff. Ms. Kassman, I just wanted to ask, so does this become kind of a new standard
remodel design? Like will, as we remodel additional schools, will this sort of become the way
that they all look or? It would be for this floor plan, so you've got McRoberts, Alexander,
Hayes, for that generation's a school, that is the goal to have them follow this model.
Okay, thank you very much.
And Ms. Vann?
Ms. Gesoff actually asked my question.
One thing when we're looking at the levels of renovation slide,
I'm remembering because I spent 13 years in Alexander,
so this floor plan is that in my head.
Fielder does have the doors at the end of the hallways, right?
Are those that lead to the classrooms?
Yes, and they will.
And those doors are going to stay?
They will stay.
Okay.
On the inside.
On the inside.
So if you look at the levels of renovation in the pink shaded area, every hall that leads
to K first, second have the doors.
These doors.
These doors.
Oh no, at the end of the hallways down the main hallway, we are thinking about taking
them out and making them all open.
Okay.
That was my question because isn't Fielder the only one that has the doors at the end
of the hallways?
Yeah.
Okay.
And that was my confusion on the levels of renovation.
It still shows the doors.
Yeah, no.
And I didn't know sometimes I think because the other schools that don't have that obviously
This floor plan we can
Be taking them out and those areas will become like kind of a relief area in the hallway from a collaboration space
Oh, okay, so that's yeah the pigs coming out. Okay?
Madam president
Mr.. Lacy, okay, so I noticed some lovely purple there
Which we need to keep because purple is the perfect color
But I did notice some of that Alabama red.
We want to make sure that there's more purple, less of the Alabama red.
I do love the pink.
Is that scarlet?
Crimson.
Okay, sorry.
I do love the addition.
We've got a child that went through there, and just like the other members here,
I know this thing like the back of my hand,
and several of our neighbors have children there,
and I know that this is very welcome,
and they're all very excited about it.
So I commend us all for getting this done,
and I think it's going to be fantastic once it's completed.
Thank you all.
Mr. Scott.
I hadn't noticed the purple.
Is it too late to change that?
And with that, we will thank you for your presentation.
Or we could be here all night arguing colors amongst the board members.
Yes.
In all seriousness, any other questions, Board members?
That's okay.
Thank you so much.
Item 5.5, Ms. Tasman, you stay with us.
Okay.
The second item is a blanket electrical easement for Elementary 42.
This item is similar to the easement I brought last month for High School 9 and Junior High
16.
This easement will allow for center point access to the site so we can begin to pull
wire, set the poles and transformer, and then a permanent easement follows.
Are there any questions?
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
5.6.
Mr. Teague.
Good evening, President Doyle, board members, Mr. Kowarski.
I'm bringing to you tonight a recommendation that the Board of Trustees
approves an interlocal governmental agreement for recreational facilities by
and between Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District number 57 and the Katy
ISD. Fort Bend Municipal Utility District number 57 desires to construct an
accessible playground equipment structure and some other pieces at
Davidson Elementary. Plans and specifications will be prepared by the
Katy Independent School District with the approval of Fort Bend County MUD.
The MUD District Number 57 shall contribute up to $200,000 of the funds necessary for
the design and construction of the project.
Previously in 2015, the District entered into a similar agreement with Fort Bend County
Municipal Utility District Number 57 for play equipment improvements and a shade structure
at Davidson Elementary. Design work will begin immediately following the
approval of the interlocal governmental agreement and construction is expected
to take 10 to 12 weeks once the design is approved. Are there any questions?
Madam President. Ms. Fox. Mr. Teed, will we see a drawing or who will approve the
design? We'll get a landscape architect to do the drawing and I can
bring it to you and also to the board for the municipal the mud district 57.
and did did i hear you correctly they've already done some improvements there and this is a second
round or this is the first one we did some improvements back in 2015 and they also came
through and did a a area walkway throughout their subdivision that was also done in 20
late 15 early 16 and so this will kind of build upon that are you thinking it's
it's play structures or is it more like walking paths or do you have any idea
yet what they're talking about here is strictly a play structure I know that
Creech Elementary received like a basketball court and covering and some
walking paths and things from their mud district and it's just quite nice it's
very very nice for a community to benefit and to work in partnership with
our mud districts the willow fork mud also did that willow fork park out there in conjunction
with us so very appreciative when we have that wish we had one for every school yes ma'am thank
you are there any other questions yes madam president i have a question um i i'm so appreciative
of the mud district also doing this because it it obviously saves us a lot of money and we get that
When I was the president of the PTA at Exley Elementary, we tried to get something like that and we couldn't.
I would love it if somehow we could share information on how to get those things pursued successfully for other schools.
You know, obviously Davidson and CREATESH have done something right, you know, getting those things approved.
approved. We didn't know what we were doing and so anyway that's just an idea for the
future. Sure. You could share that with other schools and we could a lot of more schools
could benefit from things like that. Yes ma'am. Any other questions? You're with us for 5.7
as well. It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the installation of security
fencing at multiple campuses by Aber fence and supply company Inc using the
KDISD contract RF CSP number 1494 in the amount of 1 million five hundred and
seventy thousand seven hundred and ninety dollars and sixty-five cents the
security fencing is being funded by the 2017 bond the fencing will be installed
at 42 campuses to provide secure playground areas and access to the
portable buildings at the elementary level and secure access to the portable
buildings at the secondary level. Campuses not included in the count of 42
already have security fencing in place or it is in the process of being
installed as part of the 2017 bond component replacement program. This
additional work is scheduled to be completed by December 31st 2018. The
The security fencing funding source, again, is a 2017 bond.
Total cost security fencing is $1,570,790.65.
Are there any questions?
Mr. Scott.
I certainly support this, but I do have a question.
At the secondary level, we have a lot of schools that have several apartment cities or mobile cities.
So will each one be individually fenced or will there be a broader perimeter around the school?
It will be specific to each site.
again we're having to meet fire code and egress requirements so I'm trying to
think in some cases Tom Tompkins there will be two areas fenced because the
they're far enough apart that it won't be a problem with egress some of the
other schools like ties for example will have one fence that can go across three
I think Katie yes Bekendorf will have probably three areas because they're on
each end of the school and then one in the middle so here's the question I
really have as we take portable buildings away from those campuses as we
do the reboundery will we be able to reclaim the fencing or is it in and done
but will there be some ability to, as portables go to another site, are we
starting fresh or are we going to have... It's our intent to reuse the fence. If we
take all the portables away from a facility, we want to take the fence and
reuse it wherever they're going at the next facility. So it will be constructed
that way? Correct. Yes, sir. Thank you. Madam President, Ms. Gesoff first and
and then I'll go to you, Ms. Champagne.
Mr. Teed, mine's an easy question.
How high is the fence?
Six foot.
Six foot?
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you.
Ms. Champagne.
Okay, this may not be a question for you,
but I have run into a situation where a lot of times those gates are not locked.
And what is the protocol for making sure?
I know that they become unlocked maybe in the afternoon for activities
and for the community to use,
but what's the protocol to get them back locked again for the morning?
We have our staff check them in the morning.
Once children have come into the building, our custodial staff goes around,
and if we find some that are not working correctly or jammed or something,
they report that to us, and we try to get them fixed that same day.
Any other questions?
Okay.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Next on our agenda is 5.8, Consider Future Board Endorsement of a Nominated Individual
for the Texas Association of School Boards, TASB, Director for Region 4, Positions A and
C. Board members, you received documentation.
We have Position A from Spring ISD, Justine, and Position A from Klein ISD, Georgianne.
We also have for position C channel view ISD was Steven and from Friendswood ISD was
Daniel he goes by Tony Hopkins you received their bio. We need a nomination for
position a and
Position C
In the same nominee in the same motion
Or separate. Okay. Yes, we'll be in the same motion one for position a one for position C a madam. I Madam President I
I nominate Georgeann Reitmeier for position A and Tony Hopkins for position C.
Second.
TASB board.
Does it need a second?
I second.
Is there any other discussion?
Madam President, I know both of these people, as does our TASB director here, Mr. Scott works with them.
I've known them for a few years.
They are quite qualified.
qualified. They represent our Texas children very well and they are very dedicated to their
jobs and I'm in complete agreement with Mr. Scott. Yes, they've both been serving but
they are doing an excellent job and in my opinion deserve the right to continue to serve
our Texas children.
Okay. Is there any other discussion?
Thank you Ms. Fox and Mr. Scott. Next, item 5.9, consider future board approval of a delegate
an alternate delegate to the 2018 Texas Association of School Boards TASB
Delegate Assembly. Madam President. Mr. Lacy. In as much as Mr. Scott has been
the delegate for the last 12 months and he's done what I feel has been an
excellent job at representing us, I would like to make the motion that we continue
to have Mr. Scott be the delegate. Madam President, according to the official
delegate designation form it says if one of your board members is also a TASB
director do not designate this member he or she will already be participating in
its voting delegate in the assembly I think we have to have another one
according to the delegate designation form I don't know bill Lacy do you
want to do it do we have another nomination are you pointing it no nobody
I know that I was the I was the Dell I was the alternate last year I think I
think you might enjoy it mr. Lacy under seeing the process I've done it mm-hmm I
nominate I nominate mr. Lacy for our delegate and an alternate we need
And we need an alternate?
Well, I feel like one of the...
Susan?
There you go.
Susan raised her hand.
Okay.
Okay.
Is there any other discussion?
Okay.
So we will have Mr. Lacy and we will have Ms. Gesoff as our alternate.
Thank you, Board.
Next, Item 6.
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 to 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 KDIC Board Policy BED Local does allow.
As defined by this Board Policy, the first 20 speakers who signed up at least 15 minutes
before this meeting began and have provided their first and last name will
be allowed to speak. A maximum of 30 minutes has been allocated and the time
divided equally among those who have signed up. However, the maximum amount of
time for any one speaker is three minutes. If you are not finished speaking
at the end of your three minutes, your microphone will turn off. If speakers
wish to share written material with the board, ten copies must be provided to the
Secretary for Board Services. Due to posting requirements of the Open
Open Meetings Act, the Board is able to respond only to a statement regarding the posted agenda
item. If a member of the public inquires about a subject for which notice has not been given
on the posted agenda, the Board may only make a statement of specific factual information
or refer to existing policy in response to the inquiry. If a speaker has not attempted
to solve a matter administratively through the 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 a
person to substantially obstruct or interfere with the ordinary conduct of a
meeting by physical action or verbal utterance. Board policy BED local
provides for removal of any member of the audience after at least one warning
who disrupts the meeting by his or her words or actions. Finally,
Finally, persuadant to Texas Government Code Sections 551.074 and 551.0821, the Board will
not permit the presentation of personally identifiable information regarding a student
and will not discuss the appointment, employment, evaluation reassignment, duties, discipline,
or dismissal of a public officer or employee, or hear a complaint or charge against an officer
or employee.
employee. Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues, they must go, they must
do so through the appropriate local grievance policies, FNG local, DGBA local, or GF local.
As I announce your name, please come forward, state your first and last name for the record.
Our first speaker this evening is Sean Dolan.
Mr. Dolan, you're going to have to use the podium microphone.
The rest of the mics have been turned off.
Thank you.
Can you hear me?
So our district pays $111,000 a year for a director of utility conservation.
I searched Google for this role at other schools in any district anywhere in any English-speaking country,
and I could not find that role anywhere else.
And you would think that somebody with the full-time job of conserving utilities in our district,
we would have a decrease in utility usage year over year.
I notified the district that they had not been in compliance with the law about posting utility usage at the end of the year,
and they responded by posting it.
They'd been almost two years behind.
And after looking at the numbers, the 2016 to 2017 year, utility usage per student increased by the following amounts.
electricity usage went up 8.32 percent, natural gas usage went up 4.28 percent,
and water was up by 12.66 percent. That's usage per student, utility usage, not cost,
just usage. And over the last two years, prior to this last year, that is two
million dollars in bleed, efficiency bleed. So we have someone whose full-time job is
to make us more efficient and this this job can't slow down the waste to the
tune of two million dollars so that kind of blows my mind and prior to asking us
for more tax dollars to see waste like this is very frustrating and does not
make me want to pay all more money on the topic of security I asked the
district to simply tell me is as months ago what they track what you guys track
track on our children.
I believe it's fundamental right to know what documentation
a government body is keeping on its citizens.
You denied my request.
I went to the attorney general, and they
supported your decision to deny my request
to know what you're tracking on myself and my children.
So to demonstrate my concerns, just the other day I found,
And can I say your name, Courtney Doyle?
You just did.
Okay, is that a warning?
Yes.
It is a warning? Okay.
So a person here's email address had been hacked,
and the email and password were listed online for anyone to publicly view.
Another gentleman on the board who I won't mention,
his email starts with B and ends with Y,
uh had four breaches of his email which compromised data included buying preferences
charitable donations credit status date of birth another woman on the board her email was hacked
as well even the chief of police was a part of five breaches of his private information
thank you mr dolan next is dr babin
Thank you.
Welcome, Dr. Babin.
Good evening.
First, I'd like to offer my condolences on the loss of another district employee.
I'm kind of shocked that we didn't mention it as a board.
I think it's just out of respect.
I would expect that from the board.
It's been kind of a sad summer, kind of a long year.
I don't know about y'all.
I'm really excited to get past the anniversary of Harvey, hopefully.
I'd like to talk about the last work-study meeting, open forum,
and I'd like to ask you, President Doyle,
to not allow board members to interrupt and disrupt speakers during open forum.
It's just extremely rude.
We're not allowed to interrupt y'all when you speak,
and y'all don't look at your optics.
It really looked very aggressive and very bullying.
And I know that's a hot topic word.
But, you know, when a speaker is speaking, you could wait until the end and give them the courtesy.
Because we come, we sign up to speak, we get 1.5 to 3 minutes to cram in what we want once a month.
A lot of times our emails are not returned when we try to approach all with, you know, questions.
some people on this board are fantastic at returning phone calls and texts and
will call you personally but maybe that's an area for our board to improve
on on you know overall as a whole it's just kind of disappointing so not the
time those people were interrupted was not restored that's kind of not cool
Let's see. The door to the ESC external is not ADA able. The inside door is and the exterior
door is not and I'd really like to see that improved upon. As you know, special education,
special needs is like a big issue with me and it's just always struck me as kind of
strange. We do a lot of upgrades but that one door has not ever been upgraded in three
going on for our superintendents now, our interim superintendent, hopefully our next
superintendent. Welcome to the hot seat, by the way. Good luck. I'll pray for you.
Board member grades, we have three board members holding an A and an S for satisfactory,
one board member holding a B and a satisfactory, one with a C, and two board members with an F
and an unsatisfactory. It just goes to trust, and it goes to optics, and it goes to a lot of
other little things and I'd like to see some improvements on that. Honestly we
need to expand this board and you know that we need to expand this board. It's
too large for y'all to handle. HISD has nine members, perhaps seven positions and
two at large might be something we need to look at, single member districts. I do
have one staff issue that I would like to make an appointment and discuss with
you mr gregorski um i believe in speaking kindly so i'd like to handle that privately so that's it
thank you miss babin
next we have latasha bishop
um hello everybody my name is latasha bishop and i am a kindergarten teacher at mcrobert's
Elementary. When I tell you I absolutely love my job, I love everything about what
I do, I'm actually ready to go back to school, I love the community that I serve
and I absolutely love my students. I'm here today to propose a great community
engagement opportunity to the teachers and staff of our district. I'm aware that
the 2018-2019 instructional calendar has been approved for the upcoming school
year. My main concern is Monday, January 21st, 2019 which is Martin Luther King
King Jr. Day. It is a federal national holiday which is observed throughout our entire nation.
Our calendar requires that teachers and staff to work on this day labeled as professional
development. I have researched 19 surrounding school districts in our Houston area, the 20
largest districts in Texas, and the 10 largest districts in the United States including New York,
Illinois, California, Florida, Virginia, Nevada, Hawaii, Maryland, Georgia, and North Carolina.
100% of the top school districts in these areas allow their teachers and staff to have this day off.
This does not include KDISD.
Although I would love the opportunity to have the day off to attend one of the multiple MLK events surrounding our Houston area,
I know that I would have to use a personal day.
My main concern with that is I have 99% attendance rate record.
Since I've been working here at KDISD, I've only missed one day of school.
My brother graduated college in May.
Little brothers ruined everything.
Now I have to start all over and start my streak again to be back at 100%.
But other than that, I've only missed one day.
Now to my proposal.
Martin Luther King promoted equality, diversity, and unity.
It's something that I teach to my students on a daily basis and something that we encourage
within our district.
That day is not just a day off, but a day on.
Also, it's known as a National Day of Service.
With that being said, I am proposing to spearhead a KDISD, a district-wide MLK KDISD Day of Service.
In August 2017, our community was devastated by Hurricane Harvey.
During the initial recovery stages, our district got down and dirty, went to the community,
offered our love and support. Specifically my kindergarten team met
this family. They're strangers to us, went in their homes, we put on gloves, we packed
their their houses up while her husband was still knocking down the walls in
their house. I cannot explain the gratitude that this family had by the
random acts of kindness by the Katy ISD teachers. I would like to mirror this day
on January 21st 2019 in addition to other multiple community projects
throughout our district. Imagine the impact that this would have on our
students, parents, and communities to show that these acts of kindness
are not random but intentional. One of our KDISD instructional
quarterstones is social contribution and... Thank you, Ms. Bishop. Thank you. Next
Next speaker is Susan Wallace.
I'm back.
I started coming to these meetings to support my neighbor whose son was bullied repeatedly.
My first meeting was in March.
I noticed you've all started to pay more attention to the speakers since that fateful meeting.
Thank you for picking up your heads and giving us, the general taxpaying public, your attention.
Since I started paying attention, much has come to light. You guys, the stewards of educating our
community's youth, have some issues. Promoting teachers and administrators that practice the
three D's. Remember from last month? Deny, delay, discredit. I've learned of instances of abuse that
should have been brought to CPS. Injuries that a parent would most certainly get jail time for
and you guys are okay with promoting the administrators and allowing the abusive teachers to walk away?
I've often looked around this room with crowded KISD employees and wondered how many of them were promoted following the suppression of assaults on campuses.
Then there's the crazy decisions on spending. First off, to continue to do business with a company that vetted our outgoing superintendent, doctor, or mister, where is he anyway?
Then telling taxpayers that hiring the son of a friend of Dr. Mister to do the in-house legal work will save us money, I'd like to see you prove that.
That's a simple request.
Telling special needs parents who request cameras in the classrooms, which is legally required when they request it, that there isn't the money, but seem clear to giving a disgraced employee three-quarters of a million dollars.
Can't find the money for the Spanish Immersion Program, but surprise, surprise, four months
later you have money for Social Sentinel.
And how about instead of hiring another person to deal with bullying, you get your administrators
to do their jobs.
We are going to focus on KDISD because every problem that exists in public education exists
in KDISD, including the deterioration of the quality of the school board.
Thank you, George Scott, October 2015.
2015.
When can we expect...
Mr. Wallace, I'm going to ask that if you have a complaint about a member of the Board
of Trustees or an employee that you address that complaint through our complaint process.
It was a quote that I was going to attribute to the person that said it.
So then it comes to mind, nothing's been posted.
When can we expect a general update on the search for the replacement for Dr. or Mr.
Mr. Outgoing Superintendent.
There's 30 seconds if anyone would like to respond.
How about this?
There's a staggering lack of institutional courage in today's modern school board.
It's not that school board members are bad people on a personal level.
They've allowed themselves to be convinced that state law denies them the authority they need
to hold administrators accountable.
Unfortunately, too many members of school boards are too intellectually lazy or have
become over-impressed with their community status as elected leaders.
Thank you, Ms. Wallace.
Our next speaker is Mr. Funditas.
Thank you.
On June 18, 2018, at the KDISD work study meeting here in this room, I made a request
to the Board of Trustees to answer a simple question with a statement of fact, a question
that many taxpayers in this community are waiting to hear the answer of.
After a member of the board acknowledged that the rules permitted the board members to answer,
that board member stated that the trustees could also choose not to answer.
All six of the board members present at the meeting made the choice not to answer.
Ms. Vann, you weren't present at the last meeting so I'd like to afford you that opportunity to
answer. Have you read the dissertation by the outgoing superintendent? So also choose not to
answer. Every taxpayer in KDISD needs to reflect upon this moment and asks
ourselves if the duly elected members of the board are prioritizing the interests
of the people over the interest of KISD administration or if they have lost
their way. Has the KDISD Board of Trustees become afraid to represent the
people that have elected them? We also need to remind ourselves that members of
the board have sworn an oath to preserve protect and defend the Constitution and
and laws of the United States and this state.
To quote a former member of the KDISD board,
"'It's not the board president's job to police us,
"'it's the community's.
"'Let the community decide what is good or not.'"
To quote an active member of the board from November 2016,
"'There has been an effort in KDISD
"'to filter public discussion.'"
Integrity is typically defined as doing the right thing
when no one is looking.
Integrity shouldn't need to be defined
mind is doing the right thing when the entire community is looking. Courage is the willingness
to act despite fear and the pursuit of truth irrespective of the outcome is required by
each and every one of you as a trustee in order to fulfill your obligation as an elected
official. If we expect to foster these qualities in the children of KDISD, you must first embody
them as the adults on this board. I would request that each member of the board go home,
look at your children, grandchildren, spouse or another loved one in the face
and spend some time internally reflecting on your performance regarding
the oath you took with regard to your obligation to serve the people of this
community and not the personal interests of the KDISD administrators. Mistakes
have been made but it's not too late for you to do the right thing. Since I still
have some time I'll pick up on a quote from earlier today, phony baloney smoke
in mirrors for accountability is what I would use to describe this board of
trustees. A nano ounce of academic integrity? I would go even further and
say your outgoing superintendent doesn't have a pico ounce of integrity. Mr.
Funditas, again if you have a complaint about an individual employee, remember
the board I recommend you go through our public complaint process. In general I
would just say those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Examine
yourselves internally before you start complaining about the state of Texas.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Funditas.
Our next speaker is Michael Scheman.
Hopefully this will be a simple solution compared to many of the other options on the table
which you know security higher increased security hiring more staff
most of the behavioral corrections and legal cases I'm
hopefully going to propose a simple solution that'll solve a lot of bullying
it's two surveys one survey is you know given to all kids have each child name
name as many kids in the school as possible and say,
this is what's interesting or talented or otherwise special
and in a strong way about their fellow students.
And on the other hand, take a second survey from the kids
on what do they think they are good at.
And for the kids who aren't mentioned by others
and or don't mention anything themselves,
get those kids into groups together to work on these things even if they don't seem immediately
related to academics make sure that they're half decently happy and as a side to those surveys
pros the idea of telling students that you know they will be in a way rewarded if they are caught
in a situation where somebody is pretty much being bullied and the student steps up and says hey that
kid is well that person is our like you know like teammate it's you know fantastic like fantastic
at god knows like marvel trivia has some odd talent like riding unicycle anything and give
awards to the people who step in and but it's not under just condition that they say some talent but
but it's that staff members and other students who completed the surveys can actually say,
yes, that's absolutely true.
Why you heard this person who's doing these really interesting, great things.
And the point is to level the social playing field
and do so based on students' actual actions,
not just being nice, but honest, genuine respect for each other.
And that's it.
I hope I just hope that somebody will step up and have the courage to implement something like this. Thank you. Thank you. Mr.
Schumann
Our next regular board meeting is Monday, July 23rd 2018 there being no further business
This meeting is adjourned time is 755
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