Board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, October 15, 2018
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Today is Monday, October 15, 2018 and the time is 6 44 p.m.
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 that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas
Open Meeting Act in regard to this meeting tonight.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this meeting this evenings Board Work Study
meeting.
To prepare for this meeting, each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Thursday, October 11th, and have had four days to study its content and to seek clarification from administration.
This evening, the items posted on the agenda will be presented to the board by staff, administration, and the deputy superintendent.
The board will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss agenda items during tonight's meeting.
The Board met earlier this evening in closed meeting. Any action arising from
discussion in a closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting. We
will now move to agenda item 3.1. Madam President. Mr. Lacy. I move that the
Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by Mr. Gregorski in
closed meeting. Are there any questions? I have a motion by Mr. Lacy, a second by
Ms. Vann that the Board of Trustees approves the personnel report as
recommended by Mr. Gregorski in closed meeting. We will now proceed to vote. All
those in favor raise your right hand. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Do we
have any scouts in the audience? Any Boy Scouts? No? Okay. There being then, we'll
move on to our consent agenda item 4.1 and our presenter is Mrs. Butterfield.
Welcome.
Thank you, President Doyle, trustees, and Deputy Superintendent Gregorski.
Tonight, we have general operating fund amendments, including $867,891 related to timing amendments.
These are all for the Student Support Annex, and these are carrying forward budget from last year's projects to completion in the 18-19 school year for various things like medical equipment, technology, flooring, and the such.
Additionally, at the SSA, there is a need for $318,817 for replacement repair and maintenance related to fire code requirements.
One amendment is for $9,000 of targeted assistance at Raines High School.
And finally, in the General Operating Fund, there is a million-dollar move from the budgeted transfers out to budgeted expenditures to provide funding for the new supplemental support for health insurance premiums.
Approval of these general operating fund amendments will result in a $1,195,708 decrease in the general operating fund balance.
There's one construction amendment. This is for $886,521 for various playground equipment and campus marquee replacements as approved last month.
Ms. Butterfield, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Could you pull the microphone closer, please?
Yes, thank you.
Okay, construction fund.
One amendment for $886,521 for playground equipment and campus marquee replacements as approved last month.
This will be funded by 2014 bond project savings and will result in no change to the construction fund fund balance.
Thank you, Ms. Batterfield.
Agenda item 4.2, consider future board approval of an agreement for the purchase of attendance credits.
Mr. Smith.
Good evening, President Doyle.
Superintendent Gregorski and trustees. I'm here to talk about the consideration
of the approval of agreement for the purchase of attendance credits and I've
got a visual for you that I wanted to show and basically what they're what
we're doing here is we're touching a legal base as part of section Texas
Education Code 41.002. They do consider us, the agency does consider us a
chapter 41 district although we are not and I repeat we are not subject to
recapture we are still classified as a chapter 41 school district and I wanted
to show you two slides one very quickly to show you that that yellow or that
gold line is Katie ISD's wealth per student you can see for many years we
tracked right along with the state average and we still are do track along
with it but we are slightly above the state average now and wealth per student
and state average bringing that light blue line just below,
if you're looking at the far right, KDISD's gold line.
We would have to, our wealth per student, that's total property values,
divided by our number of students, would have to exceed that red bar
before we were subject to recapture, the recapture that we hear about in the media so much.
But one technicality is, and I'm not going to talk about all this slide, I promise.
I'm only going to talk about out here on the far right, and that's this copper pennies.
If a school district like Katie's had a tax rollback election and we accessed those pennies,
and there's been no talk of that, but if we did and it was successful, we would be subject
to recapture.
That little red section that I just popped up there is the difference between the $31.95
or the 319,500 and our wealth of $36.88 or $360,000 per student.
That's that gold line from over here, and you can see that blue line, the state average.
So most of the school districts in the state, if they had a TRE, would also be subject to recapture,
only on those little six pennies out there on the far right.
It does not affect us.
We are not subject to recapture.
We are strictly just going by and doing a formality with this agreement, and it's required.
That's all I have and would offer any questions.
Are there any questions?
Okay.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Agenda item 4.3, consider future board authorization for the superintendent to form a committee for the purpose of proposing a name for the student support annex per board policy CW local.
I would also, I'd like to add Mr. Lacy and Mr. Scott, we typically have two board members
serve on a naming committee.
So we've asked for the superintendent to put together a naming committee for this annex.
Would you all be willing to serve on that naming committee?
Absolutely, yes.
Okay, great.
Great. 4.4, consider future board approval of the English learner enrollment and bilingual education exception ESL waiver application for 2018-2019 school year.
Linda Shepard. Thank you.
Good evening, Madam President, Board of Trustees, and Deputy Superintendent Ken Gregorski.
As required by the Texas Education Code, district personnel shall report to the Board of Trustees
the number of students of limited English proficiency.
As of October 10, 2018, the English Learner District Report indicates 13,301 English learners
district-wide.
Additionally, each district with an enrollment of 20 or more students of limited English
proficiency in any language classification in the same grade level
district wide shall offer a bilingual education or special language program.
The district has identified 15 languages for which a bilingual exception is being
requested. These languages are Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Urdu, Vietnamese, Korean,
Hindi, Portuguese, Telugu, Russian, Tamil, Japanese, Cantonese, Yoruba, Farsi, and
French. KDISD has applied for a bilingual exception for the last 17 years for
various of various languages. Additionally, KDISD is requesting an ESL
waiver for 21 teachers who are providing services to ESL students. These teachers
have been informed of the training opportunities to become ESL certified.
Part of the application process requires that we outline our professional
development and Jennifer Perpilek, who is our instructional officer for ESL, will
provide a few of the components of the application. I would like to share a few
highlights from the action plan included within the application. The Office of
Other Languages has developed a systematic long-term approach for
providing professional development to educators of English learners. The KDISD
English Learner Professional Development Plan consists of three phases. Phase one
involves ESL certification and it provides teachers of English learners
learners not yet certified the opportunity to participate in a one-day training where
resources are shared to assist in the preparation for the exam.
Phase 2, KDISD Sheltered Instruction Canvas Course, is an online opportunity for teachers
to earn 25 hours of professional development credit.
It consists of seven modules relating to English language acquisition.
And then finally, Phase 3 is our Instructional, um, Sheltered Instruction Advanced.
It's a two-day opportunity where the participants implement the theory and best practices learned
from Phase 1 and Phase 2.
The Office of Other Languages offers multiple professional development opportunities for
teachers of English learners.
We provide language acquisition training and professional development in the area of sheltered
instruction to enhance the instructional delivery to ELs.
We collaborate with the district curriculum coordinators to provide training to content
teachers that embeds language acquisition within the content areas. In
addition to the many professional development opportunities provided to
ensure teachers are equipped to provide differentiated instruction, KDISD
employs paraprofessionals who speak the top five languages after Spanish. These
include Vietnamese, Mandarin, Korean, Arabic, and Urdu. These paraprofessionals
are placed on the elementary campuses with the highest of the target language.
These are just a few of the components included in the application.
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees grants approval for the superintendent to sign and submit
the 2018-19 bilingual exception ESL waiver application.
At this time, we welcome any questions.
Are there any questions? Mr. Scott.
Hi, and I apologize in advance if I'm putting you on the spot because this may not be your area, but I'm curious, on the secondary level in particular, credit by exam, that's what we're talking about, the language courses, they earn credit without instruction by taking the advanced exam?
No, sir.
Go ahead.
We're talking about getting your English credit, your course credit for going through high school.
So if I'm taking, let's say I'm a ninth grader taking English 1, as required by law,
if you're ESL, your English 1 teacher needs to be ESL certified.
Right, but if you're taking a, I'm trying to just use one example,
a subject secondary test administered by the University of Texas at Austin.
What are we what is this include as one example?
Emily letella said never mind. Okay. I thought I thought this was
Okay, thank you
Whoever's coming up for that one knows what questions
Are there any questions that's what happens when this is not working yeah
I have any questions for 4.4. Yes, I do. Thank you for your presentation and I know you've explained this to me already, but I just want to see if we can get an explanation for everyone. Tell us what is a bilingual waiver exception application.
application? So it's one application with two components. Bilingual exception means
that I've identified 20 students across the district. Let's say we have third
grade and we have 20 third graders that speak Farsi across the district. By law
we are required to provide a bilingual program. Right now KDSD has a Spanish
English bilingual program and because of the numerous languages and the fact that
our Texas agency they don't provide resources we have 91 languages in our
district so we asked for an exception and we provide an alternate method
instead of a bilingual program we offer ESL services and some of the components
and miss purple ek explained and then the ESL waiver is a different component
of the application and that's when we've had an ESL student that is touching an
English language arts teacher but that teacher is not yet certified but they've
been notified and we will be getting them certified as soon as possible.
Thank you. Are there any other questions? I apologize for that. That's okay. I'm sure
it's a great question for the next person. Next on our agenda 4.5, thank you so much
ladies. Consider future Board approval of a resolution approving examinations for acceleration
or to earn credit good evening president Doyle members of the board deputy
superintendent Gregorski this evening I present to you a resolution regarding
the credit by examination process credit by examination is a method for students
to skip a grade level earn high school credit or recover credit as required
KDISD offers credit by examination to all eligible students in grades
kindergarten through 12. A recent change in Texas Education Code effective August
2018 requires a new level of compliance and accountability with our CBE tests. As
a result, we did make a few changes to our CBE practices and are in alignment
with the law. This resolution confirms that KDISD is in compliance with all the
new administration and reporting requirements. TASB has recommended that boards consider
adoption of this resolution to accentuate the compliance with these tests for grade
level and course credit. Are there any questions about this resolution?
Yes, sir.
I want you to know that for sure. Pick a secondary level subject that's offered by the University
of Texas I will presume it would be the same by Texas Tech or others that would
be algebra it would be English so for several years our end of our end of
course star assessment tested subjects actually we're not in compliance with
the new law so we have not been able to administer a credit by exam for an
algebra one English one English to biology or US history for several years
They are now in compliance.
The University of Texas gives exams to students, as I understand it, who have not had instruction, but take the test to advance.
Correct.
In that circumstance, could you give me an example of a secondary level course so I can ask a question about that?
Okay, so for example, with UT, high school specifically?
Yes.
If we give say chemistry for example. What would be the cut score at
Criterion Mastery to earn credit in a by exam? The I don't know the metrics
behind each exam they're secure exams but the student has to receive an 80% in
order to receive credit without prior instruction. So the point I was going to
make past and now is the state of Texas gives credit for end of course algebra
that's something like 39% content mastery that's an internal state
administered test as part of the star program a student who gets credit for a
high school course not controlled by the TEA has to make 80% to get a course
credit is that that is what we've just said here through credit by exam correct
Correct.
Okay, for credit by exam.
People need to understand what the legislature has done in the field of testing, in the field
of equity, and I'm just using this program, perhaps belatedly, to make that point.
Thank you.
Are there any other questions?
Okay, hearing none, I'll read the proclamation.
resolution of board approving examinations for acceleration or to earn credit, whereas
Education Code 28.023 provides that a Board of Trustees must approve for each subject,
to the extent available, at least four examinations that meet guidelines developed by the State
Board of Education, SBOE, to be used for purposes of acceleration in an elementary grade level
and to earn credit in a secondary school academic subject. Whereas, Education Code
28.023 requires that the Board approved examinations include Advanced
Placement examinations developed by the College Board and examinations
administered through the College Level Examination Program and whereas, 19
Administrative Code 74.24 SBOE rules further provides that the Board may
may approve for each high school course examinations developed by the Texas Tech University, the
University of Texas at Austin, the district, or any other entity.
Now, therefore, be it resolved that for each subject area in the elementary grade levels
and for each secondary subject, the Board of Katy Independent School District approves
the following examinations.
For all elementary and junior high grade level subjects, examinations that meet the requirements
of 19 Administrative Code 74.24 and are developed by the following. The
University of Texas at Austin, Texas Tech University, for all high school credit
courses examinations that meet the requirements of 19 Administrative Code
74.24 and are developed by the following. The University of Texas at
Austin, Texas Tech University, Avant Stamp, AP examinations and CLEP examinations.
Now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent
school districts by adoption of this resolution has determined that the
providers certification and audits demonstrate that the examinations
accurately and appropriately assess the students knowledge and skills of the
teaks for the relevant grade level the authority granted by this resolution is
effective until the board revokes such authority by further action this
resolution will be adopted this 22nd day of October 2018 by the Board of Trustees
Thank you. Next, agenda item 4.6. Consider future board approval of
reaffirmation of the district's vision and mission statement in accordance with
KDIC board policy BQ local. Mr. Gregorski. Thank you, Madam President.
Yeah, this next item is consideration for board approval of a reaffirmation of the
district's vision and mission in accordance with KDIC board policy BQ
I'd like to read just a section of BQ Local.
That policy states, the Board shall approve and periodically review the district's mission
and goals to improve student performance.
Mission goals in the approved district and campus performance objectives shall be mutually
supportive and shall support the state goals and objectives under Education Code Chapter
4, AE Exhibit.
So including in your Board documents, you receive a copy of AE Exhibit.
those goals and objectives listed in there are in alignment with our AE local
or local and legal policies which are aligned with our mission and vision over
the last couple of months we have accomplished a few things as a board in
August and September at those board meetings we adopt or we approved the
district in campus performance objectives which are aligned with
overall student performance as part of what BQ local asked for just recently
Recently, last week on Monday, we had a board workshop which included board training.
Once again, looking at our district strategic plan and those specific actions outlined in that plan,
which once again align back to what BQ Local asked us to do in reaffirming that as a board.
So as stated in the beginning, it's a requirement.
I bring the item to the board for consideration.
Thank you.
Are there any questions?
Thank you, Mr. Gregorski.
Agenda item 4.7 consider future board approval of the contracts for the
replacement of HVAC chillers and associated equipment at McDonald Junior
High, Bear Creek Elementary and Stevens Elementary Schools. Mr. T. Good evening
President Dorrell, board members, Deputy Superintendent Gregorski. It's
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the contracts for the replacement
of HVAC chillers and associated equipment at McDonald Junior High, Bear Creek Elementary,
and Stevens Elementary schools to Hunting Services utilizing the Choice Facilities Contract
number 14-021-JN-05.
These HVAC chillers and their associated equipment at these schools were approved for replacement
replacement is part of the 2017 bond component replacements. These chillers have met and
exceeded their expected life cycle and will be replaced with higher efficiency equipment.
Copies of the proposals from Hunting Services are attached for your review. All replacements
are scheduled to be completed by February 1, 2019, and work will be done around the
scheduled campus activities. The project funding source is the 2017 bond component replacements.
McDonald Jr. High HVAC chiller replacement cost is $490,472.
Bear Creek Elementary HVAC chiller replacement cost, $512,106.
Stevens Elementary HVAC chiller replacement cost, $555,882.
HVAC chiller replacement project total cost, $1,558,460.
The contracts have been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form.
Are there any questions?
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
4.8, consider future board approval of Amendment 2 to the Anzlo Bryant construction contract
related to the additions and renovations to Katy High School career and technical education spaces
and athletic renovations.
Ms. Kassman.
Good evening, President Doyle, Board members, and Mr. Gregorski.
I have two items this evening for your consideration.
Both are being requested to support projects at Katy High School and Fielder Elementary
in preparation for the summer 2019 construction.
Given that these are partial GMPs, these amendments will be incorporated into the final GMP.
The first item is related to Katy High School.
Funding is being requested to include relocation of the portable buildings
for the construction of the CTE facility, provide portable buildings for the Katy
High School coaching staff, relocation of programs, the weight room and the
training room, site preparation, and selective interior demolition. Are there
any questions? Madam President. Mr. Lacy. You mentioned something about summer. When
is this scheduled to start? Actually the athletics will start in January, December
I should say, but running through the summer. Okay cool, thank you. Are there
Are there any other questions?
Okay.
Thank you so much.
4.9, consider future board approval of amendment 3 to the Anzal O'Brien construction contract
related to renovations at Fielder Elementary School.
I'm sorry, Ms. Kasten.
You're with us again.
No problem.
As part of the 2017 bond, the Fielder Elementary School renovation is scheduled to begin in
December.
Due to the extremely tight timeframes as we experienced this past summer with Gobble and
Pattison, we're phasing the project to ensure an earlier, hopefully, summer completion.
funding is being requested to include to provide swing classroom space during the
spring semester to additional portable buildings be relocated fielder until
construction is complete in the summer the current for portables in the campus
must be real relocated while construction is underway on the fire
lane behind the building this is required by the fire marshal portable
moves are being coordinated with the campus administration to ensure that
instructional time is not interrupted and effort effort is made to limit
impact in the playground area. This will also allow us to release subcontractors
for steel, demolition, site utilities, and the portables. Are there any questions?
Madam President. Go ahead Ms. Fox. I'm sorry Mr. Lacy. Ms. Kassman, how is this timeline
different than the Galbo and Pattison ones? We started Galbo and Pattison in the
spring and we didn't have any portables to move around either so that makes a
a big difference. Thank you. Mr. Lacy. You mentioned that we are bringing in two additional
portables. I think we have two or four there now. Yes. Are we going to move those that are there
currently and move them to another area so we can start working in demolition or what are we going
to do with those? We're going to move the existing ones and then bring in the additional ones,
moving everything so we can build that road required for the fire trucks. And is that going
to be at what part of their property? Do you know offhand?
It'll be to the north of the property. Okay. Are there any other questions? Thank
you, Ms. Kastner. Thank you. 4.10, consider future board approval of the
interlocal agreement regarding participation in the Central Texas
Purchasing Alliance CTPA, Gloria Truskowski. Welcome. Good evening, President
Doyle, Board of Trustees and Deputy Superintendent Gregorski. I'll be
presenting items 4.10 and 4.11. Both of these are for approval of participation
in the interlocal agreements. Item 4.10 Central Texas Purchasing Alliance,
What this alliance allows us to do is it includes 70 plus districts throughout the district,
I'm sorry, throughout Texas that kind of come together and what we're able to do is share
our procurement methods and share our bids.
What this also allows us to do is kind of make sure that we get better pricing.
And so this really gives us a really good leverage.
Also joining them, of course, it gives us a cost savings and better efficiency throughout
the district.
so it's really a really good benefit for our district.
CGPA is an administrative agency created in accordance also with our Section 791.01
for the Texas Procurement Government Code.
Are there any questions?
Okay, you're with us.
I'm sorry.
Let's get this off.
Just a couple questions.
Is this new have we done this in the past or this is the first time we're gonna join?
This is the first time that the district is joining CTP a but the district is part of other interlocal agreements
For purchasing. Yes purchasing. Okay
That's not my only question
Adam president miss Fox
So will we still continue to to be a partner like with the TASB by boards and and those kinds of things?
Are we moving to a new now? We would this is just adding to our list
Yes
And it allows us I mean it gives us that flexibility to be able to even kind of negotiate better pricing and even within other
Cooperatives as well right when you buy in bulk you get better prices
So the more people coming together and Katie is growing significantly. So definitely a better
We get better buying pricing. Definitely
Thank you
Okay.
We're moving on to 4.11, consider future board approval of an interlocal agreement with Region
3, ESC3 for participation in the Purchasing Cooperative of America, PCA.
This is also an additional one.
And so this one is more this particular
particular.
cooperatives, of course, through, like you mentioned, Region 3.
It's more for educational institutions, governmental agencies, law enforcement,
and a few non-text organizations.
Joining them, like we mentioned, or like I mentioned earlier,
it really does give us a leverage on volume discounted pricing with a variety of vendors.
PCA definitely goes through a very rigorous solicitation and evaluation process
us and allows us to become partners with them and with the vendors that they've awarded.
Are there any questions? Okay. Thank you so much for your presentation. Next, agenda item 5.1,
discuss and consider future board approval of 39 growth units for the 2018-2019 school year.
Dr. Kasky, Dr. Malachuk, and Ms. Coffey. Madam President, I'd like to say a few things about
this before we turn this over to Dr. Caskey and her team, but at the start of the school year I
did a report with the board and community about the fast growth that we're experiencing, Katie,
and it certainly hasn't slowed down any in the last couple of months. As of today our enrollment
has now hit 79,879 students, which is 398 students above our projection, and it's some of the fastest
growth we've seen at the start of the school year in a number of years. District has also seen a
tremendous amount of growth in our special education programs which are
some of the numbers that Dr. Caskey and her team are going to be presenting to
you tonight but for consideration is that request for 39 growth units but I
wanted the board to know that of those 39 five of those would be used in the
general education classroom and you'll see from the presentation 34 of those
would be used for special education staff that would be teachers and
students so this time I'd like to go ahead and turn that over to Dr. Caskey
and her team to talk about the the needs in special education. Thank you Mr.
Mr. Gregorski, good evening, and we're glad to have this opportunity to share with you information about our special education program.
As Mr. Gregorski just shared with you, we are a fast-growth district,
and with that we're also experiencing fast growth in our numbers of special education students who are requiring specialized services.
As a matter of fact, over the past five years, we've seen an increase from 8.5% of our students receiving special education services
to as of last week 10.7% of our students requiring these services. So at this time
Dr. Malachek and Mrs. Coffey are going to share with you a few slides that will
illustrate this rapid growth in our district and what's driving our need
with this request for these additional allocations at this time. Okay thank you
Dr. Caskey. First I want to start with there are 13 federally recognized
disability categories that a student can receive special education in under and a
A STUDENT MAY ONLY HAVE ONE DISABILITY CATEGORY LABEL, SUCH AS A SPEECH IMPAIRMENT, OR HAVE
MULTIPLE DISABILITY CATEGORY LABELS, SUCH AS A CHILD THAT MAY HAVE AN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY,
A SPEECH IMPAIRMENT, AND AN ORTHOPEDIC IMPAIRMENT.
SO IN TEXAS WE RECOGNIZE ALL 13 OF THESE DISABILITY CATEGORIES AND WE SERVE KIDS IN MAYBE ONE
CATEGORY OR MULTIPLE CATEGORIES DEPENDING ON THE NEEDS OF THAT STUDENT.
SO THAT JUST SHOWS YOU THE FEDERAL AND STATE VIOLENCE WE FOLLOW AS FAR AS DISABILITY CATEGORIES.
One of the goals of the special education department is to provide students with opportunities
to receive their first teaching instruction in the general education classroom where it
is appropriate and aligned with their individualized education program.
As you can see in the chart, the majority of our special ed students receive their instruction
in the general education setting and in the classroom that's represented by the yellow
bar graph with a much smaller percentage of students receiving their special education
instruction in a self-contained setting which is represented by the orange bar graph.
KDIC, as you heard, has experienced major growth across the school district and likewise,
special education has also seen this accelerated growth rate, which can be seen in the bar
graph here, starting in 2013-14 to present day October 2018.
There is no doubt that KDIC is a destination district and many families moved to the district
because of our special education programs.
I'm now going to turn it over to the presentation of Ms. Gwen Coffey, who is going to focus
on our students served in the general education setting and the growth we've experienced in
in this population of students.
Thank you, Dr. Malachuk.
As Dr. Malachuk just stated, we currently
have, as of October of 2018, 8,498 students total served
through special education programming in Katy ISD.
Of that 8,498, 611 were transfers or move-ins to Katy,
meaning they are new to the district this school year.
And thus far this year, as of October of 2018, we have 866 students who are in referral and waiting to determine whether or not they will meet one of the 13 eligibility categories as noted by Dr. Malachuk.
This next slide is intended to look at a snapshot in time during our 2017-2018 school year and again during our 2018-2019 school year to indicate the rapid growth we are experiencing.
During one month in 2017 from September to October we added 61 referrals to our
total referrals. During that same snapshot in time this school year we've
seen 3.3 times as many and have added 200 referrals between September 1 and
October 1. During the 2017-2018 school year last year we added 21 students
during that same snapshot in time to our currently served status in
special education and during that same period this school year we've seen a 4.2 multiplier and we've
added 101 students so it is very clear that we are growing at a rapid rate this school year
this slide is an example of the efforts that are made by our staff to ensure that we have
equitable allocation of resources across our elementary and secondary campuses
and it in specific highlights students that are served in an in-class support setting
As Dr. Malachuk indicated, that is the majority of our students in special education and where
we spend a lot of our time ensuring that those resources are adequate and allocated appropriately.
This discusses the staffing parameters in general for all campuses looking at teacher
caseloads at the beginning of the year versus the end of the year.
It looks at elementary campuses in specific staff to student ratio and what we recommend
regarding the number of students that are in in-class support homerooms in K
through second and third through fifth and the number of students in general
that we allocate in a resource classroom. In secondary when we're looking at
campuses that have co-teach it gives also the number of students we recommend
in those class settings. This is an example of a campus staffing formula
that's utilized in our in-class support classrooms. This is done in January and
September with different goals during each period. In January we are looking to
predict the number of staff we will need for the upcoming school year and we look
at the students that are currently served, the number of students we have
actively in referral, and we added 10% allowance for growth. Last year in
January when we projected these students for staffing we projected 5,481 students.
When we looked this year at students who had actively registered and were being
served we looked at our referrals we came with 6,014 students so we had we
were under our projection in January or over our projection if you'd like in
September of this year by 533 students and that overage is the primary reason
that we are here addressing the board today we are requesting that the board
consider these additional units that will allow campuses to provide students
with needed services we would be happy to respond to any questions you may have
relative to special education staffing are there any questions madam president miss fox i don't
remember a time sitting at this desk that we've had these kinds of numbers certainly since the
day i moved to katie we understood that special ed was a is is an excellent program and provides
very well for that and well known um our special ed families you know share with others about the
success that I've never seen these kinds of numbers before to what do you
attribute such exponential growth well I think there's a couple of different
things that we're looking at for one thing I think we're doing a better job I
think every year that we educate students and we we implement best
practice strategies we do a better job of identifying locating and evaluating
our students so we are more targeted I feel like in our approach as far as the
identification of students I believe we are a destination district one of the
the things we've been analyzing is the disability categories and the percentage
of students represented in each and one of our largest areas is in our autistic
community and we have seen a significant number of students move in in that area
as well I can tell you that from the autism members I've been here six years
so when I came here that we had about 70 percent of our population was students
with autism 17 percent and this current year I just looked at our numbers again
today we're at 24.5 percent so in the six years I've been here we've gone up
7.5% in the number of students with autism that are served.
And I believe that's due to a destination district.
We have families call us constantly from all over the country saying we're moving to Katy.
We want our special ed children to be here.
So I think that growth just continues.
Every year it's gone up higher.
So the other groups kind of stay stable, but the autism population in the district has
really continued to grow every year.
That's my percentage point.
Thank you.
Ms. Vann.
Mr. Gregorcy, it's my understanding this is a cost-neutral item based on our enrollment
numbers and you can speak to that. You are correct. I'm going to turn that over to Mr. Smith over there who has some strategies that he can employ to ensure that the budget can sustain what we're requesting. I'll just start off by saying that based on our enrollment trends, it does, I feel confident that we will be able to adjust the revenue and make this cost neutral. I can't say that for sure until we get our PEM snapshot in, which will be in October, the last Friday in October, but I still feel confident
confident in that. But there's been a couple of other things that happened. In fact, just last
Thursday, we were notified that Mr. Pawanka was able to successfully file an audit of our 2014
property values that will increase and have a positive impact of just over a million dollars
to our general fund for the 15-16 school year. Remember, property values go up. We get late
LACE state money, in this case, Mr. Pawanka's audit pushed them down.
So we generated more state funds from the 15-16 school year that will go to the bottom line in our budget.
And based on when we would hire these folks, that should pay for this and make it neutral.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Any other questions?
Mr. LACE.
Madam President, from the time that a child is referred to y'all to the time that the assessment is done
and they're placed within the special needs categories and then the
assistance for education is there what's the what's the typical so it's gonna be
so we have 45 days on different parents sign consent to have their child tested
we have that to 45 days to do the test assessment to get that completed and
then 30 more days to go through a three-day window then beyond that to
actually have the art meeting where the parents come in and we go over to the
assessment and over the report and say yes your child qualifies or no your
child doesn't qualify for those services so that's that's our window sometimes
Sometimes we're faster, sometimes, but that's the federal window we have to follow.
So that's what we use.
Then as a follow-up, you did mention something about autism being on the rise here.
Do you feel like this is following what the national trends are,
or are we an anomaly because people are coming here because we serve those autistic children so well?
We're an anomaly in the sense that if you look at the federal level, 5% of the population is autistic,
And at the state level it's about 6% when you look at the whole overall so we're way over the state of national trends
And I do believe that's because people are moving here for those services specifics. Thank you
And if you don't mind I'd like to jump in and just clarify a little bit also on the the cost that
Mr. Smith was talking about we have to remember
We're almost halfway through this school year by the time if we approve these growth units and we get everybody hired
posted and hired the cost will be significantly lower than what it would
have cost to hire these at these units at the start of the year and in addition
getting a little bit of an early jump will be productive for us to start
hiring in the spring for additional units we know we're going to need next
year anyway so it kind of gives us that advantage and a little bit of a leg up
start hiring good quality staff when we can get them that they know those
positions are available the other thing I'd like to mention is if miss coffee
and dr. Malachuk can you talk a little bit about some of the changes at the
the federal level that are going to impact our district either now that are
currently impacting it or will in the near future in terms of special ed
growth yes sir we'd be happy to so as many of you I'm sure aware there has
been conversation between the United States Department of Education and the
Texas Education Agency regarding the identification location and evaluation
of students for special education services there is an action plan that is
active right now that's been put out by TEA but is yet to be approved officially
relative to that specific implement of Child Find. The district is, we're in a
good spot in the sense that we have we have for many years I think done a very
effective job of locating, identifying, and evaluating our students, but many of
the districts around us are struggling with this new mandate. The TEA strategic
action plan specifically looks at the identification of students to ensure
that we are not losing students through other interventions such as RTI and 504
so we are actively employing strategies within Katy to ensure that our measures
are appropriate related to child find and we are supporting campuses in
regards to that what that means is that the national average for special
education students is somewhere between 13 and 15 percent depending upon what
state you're at our district currently is that about ten point seven ten point
depending upon who's enrolled at the moment.
And then many states do not serve dyslexic students through special education,
or many states do serve dyslexic students under special education.
Whereas Texas, a large percentage of our students who are dyslexic are served
through 504.
So that makes up a little bit of that difference, if you will, or that disparity.
But in KDIC, I believe that we're doing a very effective job.
We will see an increase, I believe, over the next several years in the number of
special education students due to this action plan but I believe that while we
will have an impact it will be somewhat mitigated based on our achievement and
efforts to locate identify and evaluate these students prior to this year are
there any other questions mr. Scott and the miss guess I'll go ahead in the 37
37, not 37, 39 units.
Do you have a view for how many are teachers, how many are paraprofessionals?
Yes, ma'am.
30 of them are teachers, and then we're requesting eight paraprofessional units.
Thank you.
Yes, ma'am.
Mr. Scott.
Actually, I think if you're starting at zero, everything equal, full year,
I don't believe this is revenue neutral.
I think if you look at all of the factors, I'm going to be interested to see the numbers.
Two or three questions and then a point.
One, of the 611 transfer students, you referred to the district as being a destination district.
Do you do entry surveys to determine of the new people coming to the district,
how many are coming explicitly because they believe that KTISD special ed services are
superior to where they have been.
We don't have a formalized entry survey that addresses that specific question, but informally
we speak to many parents at the campus, and I can speak to the campus I just left.
Many of our parents would come in and share that information with us voluntarily.
I know I heard it many times.
Mr. Smith or whomever, the weighted compensation that the state gives for special education students,
we're not saying that the state allocation for special education covers 100 percent of the cost of educating the kid, are we?
We do receive additional weights for special needs students,
and depending on the type of needs that they have based on that one graph that they are chart that they showed with the 13
different
Types of needs those are differently weighted and so the those with higher needs do receive higher monies
but overall the cost of
Monies the revenue that we get does not it does not meet the needs of what our special education program
All right, so I want to declare victory in my assertion that this is not a revenue-neutral program.
The state of Texas typically does not fund school districts at any level that remotely approaches what the cost of the services are, and I think we understand that.
I think that we also need to understand that I could make a very strong argument that this is yet another unfunded mandate that the state of Texas imposes upon school districts without any intent whatsoever to pay for the services.
is obviously state and federal.
I 100%, if it was possible to be 101%, I would 101% support this.
I think the administration is doing the exact right thing
by getting ahead of the curve to start the hiring process.
We won't feel a full budgetary impact this year,
but when the program is running at full speed,
we will experience the full financial impact.
and once again the Texas legislature will not have funded what the taxpayers
of this school district deserve to have funded from the state level. Let me add
this and I made this reference at the at the special meeting we had last Monday
since I do not believe this program is revenue neutral and since I strongly and
completely support it I hope the administration will take a very very
hard look at how we can shave money off of the budget not just waiting for not
just taking advantage of the fact that the personnel units will not be in place
at the start of this budget year the one area that I would suggest is staff
development I'm convinced that if certain things had not transpired in
this district I know that I would have been pushing more for a correlation
analysis between staff development, the expense of substitute teachers. I related
the tale of my wife who is a classroom teacher being pulled out of class four
times this year to go learn how to teach writing better without any correlation
analysis of whether pulling her out of that classroom and paying substitute
teachers improves student academic performance. I hope the administration
will take a strong, strong look and use the added expense that this is eventually going to have on a full year
to take a hard look at quality control over staff development and see if we can shave $500,000 or $600,000
or $700,000 out of the cost of substitute teachers that would be better spent in this kind of program
than it would be in staff development that I think on the planet Earth and the parallel planet of Norfon,
there is really little evidence to indicate is productive.
Thank you.
Madam President, Mr. Gregorski has something for a second.
I just want to address Mr. Scott's comments there to help out a little bit.
A couple of things with that.
that we do look at a variety of different strategies to recoup money when we gotta shuffle it in between maybe hiring more personnel versus other costs within the budget.
The budget is the budget, what we have, and we always have to find ways to make that work.
But in regards to what you've mentioned about the professional learning and how much we might spend on that,
I think it would be wise that we get some data to the board.
And possibly we can get those reports to you by Friday, I would think, by next week, as you consider this item.
them and take a look if you want to see what we spend on substitute costs in
regards to professional learning about how many days do we ask teachers to to
miss instruction and those kind of things we can put a report together and
get it to the board member board members by Friday an important step but data
sitting alone on a piece of paper is not analysis and I think that over the
course of the next six months or a year.
You're not going to solve this problem.
This is money that we have to spend, that we're morally and ethically obligated to spend,
legally required to spend, and we're going to spend it because it's the right thing to
do.
But when we have a chance, I really am saying that I'm glad to hear what you've said.
I appreciate your remarks.
It's very high on my, I don't know if I got four or five or six months left, but however
much time I have left, it's very high on my priority list.
Ms. Fox.
Thank you, Madam President.
A couple more questions.
Thirty-four out of 39 growth units is what I heard going to this.
I'm not sure who to address the question to, so Dr. Caskey, I will look at you.
Sure.
Is that the other five?
The other five?
Is that it?
Mr. Gregorski, it's October.
And our growth, we will pass 80,000 students this year.
We're ahead of schedule.
Will five units be enough for the rest of our needs through the year, or might you come
back for more?
We anticipate it will only in the sense that we had a few contingency units already in,
and as that growth has already come, we have spent those contingency units immediately
in the general ed settings to lower class sizes and to balance some of the
classes that were above 22 to 1 you might recall we talked a little bit
about waivers at a previous board meeting we use kind of a three-part
strategy to manage growth one is additional classroom teachers some is
using waiver some is possibly shifting our employees around when we're light in
one school versus needing that educator in another school and we do that in all
of our programs we do it for special ed programs do it through bilingual so with what we currently
have on the books we are trying to be as conservative as possible but at the same time
meet the needs of all of our students with what human resources has shared with me we feel
confident we can do that there are a couple of teachers we need to hire but those five still
give us a couple in the back pocket for later should we need those to meet the needs of those
the students thank you for that mr. Gorg or ski I would just from me only mean
as one of seven say to you that if being tight on these units means bigger bigger
bigger class sizes and more of a stretch for the teacher-student ratio I'm not
okay with that and if you need more growth units we need to meet students
needs and teacher to student face-to-face is our strongest asset it's
the miracle that happens and so I hope that that would you would not think that
asking for us for needs when we need them that our teacher-student ratio
needs to be the exceptional if we need to provide an exceptional education the
way we always have so let us know what you need to do that certainly I
I appreciate saying that, Ms. Fox.
I think the board has been very supportive of everything we've always brought forward in terms of staffing.
And I agree with you wholeheartedly.
The most important things happening in this district every day is in that classroom.
And we want to ensure that those campuses get everything they need when it comes to staffing and doing that.
And that would be our goal, to look at that and critically examine that.
And if a need needs to change, something different in what we look at in terms of those numbers,
we'll certainly come back to the board and take a look at those numbers again.
I appreciate that.
Madam President, if I could one more minute.
We do what's right for students, and I'm grateful for that.
But I just want to make a point because of our responsibility to work with our legislators
and to help them understand the mandates they put on us.
And then they talk about vouchers.
as if it's just equal. We'll just give parents a voucher so they can take their children to a
charter school or to a private school. Those schools do not almost, to a large extent, do not
provide special ed services. I have a friend who has a special ed student and she applied to 10
private schools and none of them would take her student because of special ed. So when our
legislators talk about vouchers as if it's an equal exchange they take that
means taking money away from the public education we provide and not and give it
to someone who doesn't have to have the one to seven or one to eight classroom
ratio that we provide for special ed so I think it's important for us to tell
the story of what we do with the money we're given in the type budgets that we
have that we provide an excellent education and are a destination district for all our
families.
Thank you for that.
I think you raise a few good points with that, Ms. Fox.
Just to be clear, we set ratios a little bit low in special ed.
You go to other districts and you will find considerably higher ratios in some of those
classrooms, not everywhere, but some places.
We set those low to make sure we're meeting the needs of those students and teachers in
those classrooms.
classrooms, and we watch all the numbers very carefully.
I can assure you we have our finger on that pulse of where class sizes are getting large,
and we're not, for lack of a better term, kind of blowing up on class sizes right now.
We've got some jobs posted.
Those campuses who need support are getting it.
I don't anticipate anything kind of busting out the seams at those schools, and we've
got a few things in place that those campus principals know who to reach out to when they
think they have a need and we examine that whether it be in a special needs program a general ed
program bilingual as you heard about some of those things we keep a very close eye on that with our
various departments to ensure we meet the needs of all of our campuses and our kids and our families
and communities thank you so much you bet anything further i have a question please miss champagne
Thank you. First of all, I'd like to say I want to find out the expense of the
additional staff for the units. Is it only the salary that is the
additional expense or is there, because I know that the special ed teachers
sometimes have need for more continuing education and more staff development,
things like that so I'm just was curious is is there an additional expense other
than just the salary of that so what's built into the budget is the salary and
then we would pick up the teachers as far as any staff development that sits
in our special education budget so those teachers would be included in that if
they're new teachers they get a mentor they get the support the course of
support from the special education department but that cost it's in our
budget. That's all? Okay, thank you. Thank you very much for your presentation. 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
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 you're not
finished speaking at the end of your time your microphone will turn off we
We have 15 speakers tonight.
You will each get two minutes.
If speakers wish to share written material with the board,
10 copies must be provided to the secretary for board services,
for board members, the superintendent, the chief communications officer,
and permanent record.
Due to posting requirements of the Open Meetings Act,
the board is able to respond only to a statement related to a posted agenda item
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 B.E.D. Legal states that it is a criminal offense for a person with intent to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting, to substantially obstruct or interfere with the ordinary conduct of a meeting by physical action or verbal or physical action.
utterance and thereby curtail the exercise of others' First Amendment rights.
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, pursuant 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 to hear a complaint or charge against an officer or employee.
Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues, they must go through the appropriate local grievance policies,
FNG local, DGBA local, or GF local.
As I announce your name, please come forward and state your first and last name for the record.
Our first speaker this evening is Gary Johnson.
Perfect timing.
Is Gary Johnson here?
Yeah.
Yeah?
Yeah.
All right.
Good evening.
I'm Gary Johnson, the Director of the Office of the Board of Trustees.
Good evening.
Mr. President, board members, and Assistant Superintendent Gregorski,
I'd like to thank you for allowing the Rodeo Committee the opportunity to make our annual FFA Chapter Operating Fund distribution at this meeting.
As you know, we hold a rodeo in conjunction with the FFA Livestock Show each year.
The monies raised from the event are distributed to the FFA Chapters in various ways.
And over the years, we've distributed monies by paying for animal vaccinations, student
teacher development courses and events, FFA American degree fees, and distributions such
as this to be used in the activity fund.
This year's contribution is $65,000.
Out of that $65,000, we've dedicated $5,000 to go to the Special Needs Rodeo that's held
on the Wednesday before the main rodeo.
and we encourage everybody to attend the events on that Wednesday and see the
great job that the school teachers do with these special needs rodeo. These
activity fund monies help offset the cost of events, travel and allow the
chapters and the students to attend many things that they need in order to
continue their development. If I could have all of the ag teachers and the kids
come up take a group photo and I could hand out some envelopes
guys come on up here you can come line up right here real quick some of you
step on the ledge and others of you get in front please as they come out I'd
like to recognize the rodeo in one last moment
CPRA which is the rodeo sanction that we're affiliated with had their finals
rodeo and Katie rodeo was voted as the Cowboys choice outdoor rodeo so we
received this nice plaque outlining that we were there Cowboys choice for rodeo
for last year that's great thank you
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Well, I'm going to give you your vote.
Thank you so much.
Our next speaker is A.J. Henneberger, and I apologize if I said your name wrong.
I'm Arno Henneberger and I appreciate the opportunity to address the board here tonight
and I would like to comment on the current ABM related to the junior high rezoning.
I looked at the published preliminary results of the survey as of September 1 and was positively
surprised to see that at that time you recorded a response of 36%.
That shows that this is an important topic for the community.
As a CFO, I deal with numbers every day and I can appreciate the challenges of a rezoning undertaking like this one.
Obviously, this goes way beyond the pure number crunching and has a significant impact on the community and our children.
We live in Highland Park neighborhood, only a few hundred yards from the Tompkins High School.
My son is in seventh grade at Tice Junior High and my daughter is planning on joining him there next school year.
However, with options one and two of the ABM, we would be zoned to Cinco Ranch Junior High.
My son currently rides his bicycle to school, which is around two miles from my house.
A bike path, safe street crossings are in place, and the exercise in the morning surely helps him to focus better during the school day.
The distance to Cinco Ranch Junior High is close to three miles, which might be too far to bike every day.
and spending time on a school bus would be a poor alternative to his current commute.
Of course, during football season he will have to be at school for practice at a time when there is no school bus service anyhow,
and the same applies to theater rehearsals after school.
As an additional reference, Beckendorf Junior High School is a lot closer to Cinco Ranch with only 2.3 miles.
With Tice being a feeder school for Tompkins High School, they play most of their football
and soccer games at Tompkins, which is only a stone's throw from my house.
The fact that Tice is a feeder school for Tompkins with similar school colors and joint
events is also an important factor for the children.
This being said, I hope you will consider these impacts to your community and children
and select option three.
Thank you very much.
Our next speaker is Puneet Sehgal.
Hi.
Good evening, Madam President and respected Board members.
I'll be speaking on the same topic on the ABM boundary modification for the junior high.
I'm from Zone 68A, which is King Lake subdivision.
A bunch of us have sent you emails.
you probably would have taken a look at them.
You know, a few years ago we were zoned to ties due to proximity with the school, with
the middle school, and now we've been rezoned.
The proposal is to rezone our Soussinkaran Junior High, which is further away, and we
disagree with the proposal.
We want to support option three because that keeps us with ties.
There are a few factors, four or five key factors because of which we want to support
option three and we don't support the default proposal.
One is continuity for our children. It's extremely important for the emotional well-being of the children to have a continuous feeder pattern.
The other options break the feeder patterns, right?
And at this age, it's very critical for them to have a continuous mentoring relationship throughout the school.
So moving them from Kilpatrick to Sincorange and then back to Tompkins, which is across the road from us, is going to be disastrous for them.
Number two, the star results of Sinkoran Junior High, frankly, have been a bit wanting compared to Thais, and a lot of us parents have that concern as well.
It's 10% low across the board.
Number three, the travel time for Thais is much lesser than that to Sinkoran Junior High.
The distance is lesser, and as the gentleman just pointed out, even for King Lakes, that's a problem.
We'd like a safer route to Thais as compared to Sinkoran.
And then there are many other options which such as moving parts of Bekendorf to Cinco Ranch or Beck which would
Not disrupt the feeder pattern as much so we'd like you to consider those as well
you know the
the
Preliminary results of voting clearly showed that 65% of the people supported option 3 as compared to 53
Supporting option 1 I request you to support option 3 for us. Thank you
Thank you. Our next speaker is Sean Dolan.
All right. One of the highest ranking employees in KDIC shared the personal and private information
of my immediate and extended family with a member of this board. The information was then used to
influence the most recent school board election, both illegal. Laws are not subjective. You don't
You don't get to plagiarize because you have a good personality.
You don't walk away unpunished from attempted murder because you're good at football.
You don't get to break the law and spy on my children because you don't like me.
This is unacceptable and I will not back down from this.
As you stated, you're allowed to respond with a statement of fact to an inquiry.
Yes or no, are you aware that a member of your board has been accused by another member of your board of illegally accessing my family's private data?
Rebecca Fox, what say you?
Madam President, I'm going to-
I'm going to remind the speaker, Madam President, I'm going to remind the speaker that this
form is not appropriate for personal disagreements.
Please stop my time.
If you have a personal disagreement, I'm going to refer you to the appropriate administrative
channels, as we do every week.
What is that?
I'm also going to inform you that this is not a question and answer session, as confirmed
by the Fifth Circuit.
If you have an area of personal disagreement, I'm going to refer you to the appropriate
administrative channels.
Can I have my time back, please?
indicated by the board by the board president at the outset of this public forum
can i have my time back please no sir you may continue you have 38 seconds
bill lacy don champagne madam president susie gossett
mr dolan you've been warned your time is up thank you our next speaker is mr nick funditas
Since KDISD approved a defamation lawsuit, tens of thousands of dollars have been spent on legal services from Feldman and Feldman.
As of today, KDISD has not demonstrated any benefit to the public as a result of this expenditure or confirmed that they are still pursuing such action.
I am certain that this money could have been better spent on the safety, security or the education of our children.
Perhaps it could even have been contributed to hiring additional bus drivers or reducing class size.
The Attorney General of Texas has stated that, quote,
because the United States Supreme Court has said the governmental bodies may not bring defamation lawsuits,
the governmental body's employee may not attempt to circumvent that prohibition by bringing a personal lawsuit with funding from a governmental body,
because doing so would necessarily be limited to the employee's personal interests.
The judicial branch of both the state of Texas and the federal government have explicitly stated that a school district cannot sue members of the public for defamation.
Yet this school board has voted to do just that.
And in the process has thrown away tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
This board appears to be spending tax dollars without regard for the judicial system, the education of our children, or your fiduciary responsibilities as elected officials.
And since I have a little bit of time left, I just want to clarify, if you would, on BED
Local.
I believe it says you may respond to an inquiry with a statement of fact or by reciting policy.
It doesn't say that it has to be related to an agenda item.
And the second part of that policy in BED Local says you may also move to add that item
to the agenda of a future meeting, which would therefore imply it doesn't need to be an agenda
item to ask a question and receive an answer of fact or a recitation of policy
would you mind clarifying that mr. Graham I mean that is your BED local
policy right thank you mr. madam president I'd like to offer a factual
response and a recitation of policy as requested if you do look at our BED
local it sets clear limits on what can and cannot be discussed in this forum
it's something that we continually have to go back to with the same individuals
and you with the same warnings from the board president that policy gentleman
has not changed I will also tell you that this is confirmed by the Fifth
circuit who has expressly said that this public forum resolves no disputes and
answer knows what no questions I just want to confirm with your this Board of
Trustees that you have no duty and arguably cannot respond to questions
posed to you from the dais I'm happy to take any questions from any member of
this Board of Trustees. Thank you Mr. Graham. Our next speaker is Lori Harrison.
Good evening Deputy Superintendent, Mr. Gregorski, Ms. Board President Courtney
Doral and all our wonderful board members. A lot of us have noticed the
incredible amount of public information requests, outrageous requests being made
by some people who live in our community. Transparency is important but common
sense tells us there should be a limit to what is reasonable or not. In thinking
back to the letter an anonymous teacher wrote and sent to the local
local magazine the people they fear the most are not their administrators or
their supervisors it's this group requesting all that paperwork not
because they're trying to hide anything but because they don't know how it will
be presented on social media parents and employees across the district are
nervous because this group has requested so much information their information
their children's information I would respectfully like to ask the board to
have the legal department make an inquiry to the Attorney General as to any regulations and rules
that can be enforced to limit the waste of manpower, taxpayer money, and to help ease
district employees and citizens' fears of what this group's next angle might be,
how it will be played out on social media. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Harrison.
Our next speaker is Susan Wallace.
Last month I spoke of my involvement in the community.
Realizing I have your disdain and derision, I'm motivated to help you understand my involvement.
The health of the community is important to me.
I wouldn't have earned volunteer of the year twice and been recognized by so many local
organizations if it weren't.
Being interrupted is unappreciated and I think it's against the rules.
Education of the community's youth is directly tied to the health of the community.
We're all human and thus not perfect.
No one expected you all to be perfect.
But as elected representatives in control of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars
annually, you are expected to be fiscally responsible.
Harvey Expense Tracker shows how over $30 million of relief funds was spent.
There's a line item called miscellaneous expenses coming in at over $4 million.
It seems excessive for a miscellaneous item with no details.
As much as I'm a fan of you, Mr. Gregorski, and I always have been,
I'm unhappy that we're paying for two superintendents.
No one expected you all to be perfect, but we can do better.
The buck stops here, so this is the logical place to bring concerns.
I've observed many people live streaming these meetings and therefore would like to suggest that KDISD implement a policy to formally live stream all board meetings as a way to keep the community informed.
informed. I think that would be something you could do that could bring the community more into
what's happening here today and could see a lot of the behavior that goes on. As far as the expenses
of PIRs that was brought up by someone just now, that's paid for by the person requesting them.
That is not paid for with taxpayer dollars. It might be helpful for them to understand that.
And as someone that has been interrupted numerous times by you, I don't appreciate you allowing them to do that.
Thank you so much, Ms. Wallace.
Our next speaker is Eric San Miguel.
All right.
I'm going to shift this up just a little bit.
Thank you, guys.
I'm going to begin by thanking you guys.
Progress is progress.
and first off Edie White I'm sorry I don't know if you're supposed to mention
names but our anti-bullying advocate for the district is phenomenal she is
willing she's able she's creating dialogue she's making changes in the
district and while we not might not see it come to fruition immediately I know
for a fact she's gonna make an impact because she's not scared she's getting
out there and she's being active and she's trying to do what she can to help
So thank you to her and I want to publicly let her know that I'm at her service if she would like to reach out to me.
I would definitely love to be a part of what she's trying to do.
Also, I'd like to thank Dr. Hint for setting the foundation for some of these things like our app and our technology that we're now implementing or we're going to be implementing or know that we have started implementing.
And I really appreciate that and having the foresight, you guys having the foresight of having some of these things into place.
While we have not been perfect and that's been acknowledged by numerous people, I think these are the steps that need to be taken in order for us to become an even more successful district because we are one of the best districts in the state, if not the best district in the state.
So thank you so much to Dr. Hint, you guys on the board.
I love you guys.
Special Ed, you guys are my heroes.
I wish I could have – I spoke on you guys last time.
I love you guys.
You guys are amazing.
I will never back down and never
Accept that this place is not a place to be KDI SD is the place to be and you guys continue to do your job
Thank you so much
Thank You mr. San Miguel our next speaker is Georgia Strickland
Good evening board
Thank you, Mr. Board, Madam President, and Mr. Krakorski. I wanted to give you all a PTA update. As of October 14th, we have 24,396 PTA members across the district. We now have 60 campuses. We were at 59, but we just recruited Sundown.
I personally would love to get some of those PTOs on our side because the support of the PTA is so
so remarkable that I think they could really truly benefit from it and
so I'm putting that out there publicly if they want to talk to me, I'd be happy to help them and
33 of our campuses won a Head Start Award from PTA which means 75% of the membership from last year was met
by the end of August
22 of them won President's Challenge, meaning that they hit 50% of membership for their enrollment.
And then Exley won a $1,000 grant from National PTA to have a family math night put on by Mathnasium.
So that is, I believe, Thursday night.
And then 55 campuses in Texas won the National PTA School of Excellence Award.
but the best two out of those 55 are bought our very own Bonnie Holland
Elementary and West Memorial Elementary and so thank you for those of you that
were able to join me at that event at West Memorial Elementary is really fun
to talk to them and hear them be so excited about their campus and basically
that award is that they work really well with their parents their staff to build
that relationship to help those kids benefit so again thank you so much for
letting me speak and thanks for your time thank you our next speaker is james strickland
okay good evening board madam president mr Gregorski a little men on campus update some
exciting news so i'm kind of developing this these in phases phase one is actually installing the men
on campus or male involvement program in all of the schools. We have 59 campuses
that have a male involvement program so I'm very excited about that just a few
left. Phase two is basically a sort of a better way of describing this is going
after the schools that already have a program and making it better either
getting more men on the campus or finding out what the the feedback is
from the men if they are enjoying their day if they're doing what they're
thinking they're supposed to be doing, getting with the campus principals and
the counselors and the people involved there to make sure that they're happy
with what the males are doing on campus. Part of that is a website that's been
developed. I am a web designer so I've developed this. It's free of charge. It
will never have a cost and a lot of the campuses are already using it. It's
manoncampus.com but if they want to use it in order to do their registrations,
their calendar, their online scheduling, surveys.
It actually helps a lot to more effective communication with those dads.
Have them reach out to me, menoncampus.com, and I appreciate your time.
Definitely you guys are very hardworking and I am sorry.
On behalf of the people who are not up here for a personal agenda, if it's for the community,
I think you should be up here.
If you're not, then you should go home.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Laura Evans.
Hi. I'm Laura Evans. I have three children here in the district and we moved to Katy strictly for the schools.
As a former teacher, I had done my research and we had a close family member who actually taught in Sy Fair for over 30 years who told us Katy is where you need to be.
I was in part of leadership Katie the first year Dr. Hint was here and the
first time he talked to us I could tell he had big things planned for Katie and
his enthusiasm his love for the district was so evident typically you know there
tends to be a adversarial relationship between central administration and
teachers my teacher friends loved him they were excited he was visible he was
accessible they felt like they listened he listened to them and morale was high
They wanted a week off at Thanksgiving. They wanted to be done by June 1st.
Both of those things he and you all worked to get done for those teachers.
So much good was going on. He was working on so much that we didn't even know about.
Then the attack started on him, on you. Unfortunately, I'm sorry, some of you are still being harassed.
I just wanted to come up here tonight and say I'm sorry.
And I think I speak for a lot of us that wish we had stood up sooner.
I think we thought if you just ignored the attention seeking behavior it would stop and
it didn't.
It got worse.
The hatred, the vitriol against some of you has been more than most of us could even relate
to.
Maybe if we had stood up sooner things could have changed.
We might still have one of the best superintendents in the state of Texas.
But I know there are still several teachers who are afraid to be here.
So we're speaking for them. They're afraid to speak up for fear. They'll be targeted and
I just wanted you to know that
Never again
Well me and I think several of us stand silently by and let the hatred invade the community like it's done
We really do appreciate the work that you do. Thank you
Thank you, I'm next speaker is Rory Robertson
Good evening, President Doyle and Board of Trustees, also a two-time Volunteer of the Year.
Forgive me, could I well do a little bit of reading? I'm not good at public speaking.
But a few weeks back, I was invited to attend a performance by the Morton Ranch Theater Program
to see their production of The Addams Family, which was performed this past week, Thursday through Saturday.
I thought it was a great chance to teach my kids about the arts and also show support for the students,
so my wife and I jumped at the chance to see it.
We showed up Saturday, and we were warmly welcomed by staff and students.
The entire room was filled with excitement.
After the play was over, I was absolutely astonished.
I saw a fantastic performance by these high school kids.
The acting was superb.
The singing was incredible.
The jokes were hilarious.
I laughed out loud many times.
The set could rival any play showing at the Alley Theater in Houston. It was incredible.
And the kids built it. It wasn't construction company, it was the kids. And it was not just
the actors on the stage either. There were many more in the back working just as hard
changing up the set and making sure that it was a flawless performance. Well, I have since
students learn that we, KDISD, have a phenomenal theater program. And I urge all of you, most
and in the audience, to attend one or many of these plays. So I'll offer you all two
more opportunities this semester at the high school level. This coming week, Thursday through
Saturday, Cinco Ranch is showing the performance of Murder in the Air, which is interactive.
It's interactive during the intermission. And Pato, the following week, Thursday to
Saturday is showing their performance of Romeo and Juliet. In addition to these
performance made, junior highs are doing their performances in November. So you
can't beat the prize, you can't beat the acting, come out and give it a shot and
enjoy. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you.
A factual question.
Mr. Scott?
If we come to that, we won't get killed, will we?
I'm not a .
Our next speaker is Robert Willoughby.
Uh-oh.
Hang on.
Don't start.
talk.
Okay, I've got plenty of time.
Except I can't find what I was going to say.
So I'm going to wing it again.
I've got to learn how to use this stuff.
So look, last time that I was here, we talked about the darkness and the light.
And I'm happy to say that the light is doing well.
tonight I want to talk about being positive. I've been told by some of my
fans that I haven't been very positive lately and I promise that I will work on
that. But what I also promise is that if someone comes and attacks one of you
falsely I will with all of my vigor defend you in public, on the internet, in
in private, wherever that shall be.
Now, you also know that if there's something
that I am critical of, I will also come to you and say,
hey, we need to fix this.
How can we work to do that?
But my criticism is not to tear down.
My criticism is to build up.
And I hope that, and I know you do,
I hope that you know that that's my purpose.
We're a great district.
I know a lot of you people, and you're great people.
Some of the things that you've had to endure is just, you know, it's embarrassing for me.
And last Monday when you had your team building, that's when people should come and see.
that it's not that you show up twice a week, run through the paces and vote and go home.
You spend a lot of time with this district, and I appreciate it, and I'm out of here.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Reagan Kalina.
Kalina.
Hi.
Hi, my name is Reagan Kalina and I'm a senior at Seven Lakes High School.
I'm president of my high school's Best Buddies chapter, a manager for our wrestling team,
and I serve on Dr. Hindt's superintendent's roundtable.
I never met Dr. Hint before our first roundtable, but it was immediately evident his passion
for our district and community.
Though we were there for a meeting to discuss district stuff, he made it informative while
being entertaining and fun.
He addressed our questions and concerns with honesty and fairness while making us feel
like us students we could actually make a difference. Barbara DeAngelo stated
the more anger towards the past you carry in your heart the less capable you
are of loving in the present. I do not believe Dr. Hint is the person he was in
the past. Through his own admission by asking Jesus in his heart he transformed
his life. Being a young adult it is scary to think that society expects us to be
perfect from birth as there seems to be less and less room for compassion, grace,
grace, redemption, or forgiveness.
I ask that the board find a way to reverse Dr. Hindt's decision to retire.
With his leaving, the teachers and staff will feel the absence of a great administrator.
But I think the students lose the most of all.
As we lose someone whose faith in us is powerful and unwavering,
I don't think it is possible to find someone who has a passion for
or more vested interest in the success of our district.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Angie Waller.
Good evening, Board and Mr. Superintendent.
My name is Angie Waller.
I have four children, two of which have already graduated KDISD.
My oldest son was the first graduating class of Tompkins High School and now I have a freshman
at Tompkins High School.
My youngest is home school because he learns better with a one-on-one education, not because
of anything through KDISD.
He was in special education and this was my oldest son and KDISD did amazing teaching
my children through their special education program.
I really love the KDISD.
I think that's why our growth has gone up so much because people move here for our special
education program and I also just want to ask Dr. Hint to please stay he's done
amazing things for this district I know people want to accuse him of plagiarism
or whatever that's not for us to decide that's not for a Facebook court Facebook
to decide that is for the University of Houston to decide until they have a
decision no one else is to judge whether or not he plagiarized or not that's up
up to his school to determine whether or not he did.
Madam President, to the extent that this is a complaint against an employee of the district,
I would refer us to the administrative procedures in policy.
Okay, I'm sorry.
I just wanted to say that many of us do not believe he did.
It's right here.
No, that's okay.
Thank you.
So, and I just want to thank you all for everything that you do.
and I really I support Dr. Hint and I really would love to ask him not to
resign and to stay with him because he's done amazing things for our district and
also what Rory was saying with this place I've seen three of them so far and
they've all been amazing so you really should get out and see some of the high
school plays we've got talented kids in KDISD because KDISD is truly an amazing
in place football fine arts special education whatever your child thank you thank you
next on our agenda board member report tazza tasby delegate assembly mr lacy well good evening thank
you thank you to all those that uh participated and spoke by the way so uh last weekend i was one
of the board members as were several of my other board members that attended TASSA-TASB,
which was held in Austin. I had several seminars that I was able to sit in on. The ones that I
found most interesting and the ones that I focused on primarily this year was on the economy and
growth for not only the state of Texas but nationally as well as us here locally.
We as a district are in alignment with the growth throughout the state and the greater Houston
area. The robust economy in Texas as well as in Houston is what is causing our
growth here in KDISD. The anticipated continued growth in Houston area is due
to both the jobs in the medical field as well as in the energy industry.
That particular best data was from the speaker from the Fed, the Federal Reserve
system. It was a gentleman out of the San Antonio office, but he is from the
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. I also attended Mr. Scott's presentation, which
discussed the funding for the local school districts and how they pay money,
we pay money, to the state of Texas and how the state of Texas in turn gives
those monies back to both school districts as well as into their general
funds. Lastly, as the delegate representing KDE Independent School
District, I attended the assembly on Saturday afternoon. We voted on a new
board and voted on several advocacy resolutions. Some were amended and others
were left as is. Overall, the experience was very enlightening and educational to
me personally. While we as a high-growth district have our own unique set of
experiences and challenges we share with districts of all sizes throughout the
state with issues and funding student issues and safety I look forward to
being the delegate further and being your representative for TASA TASB for
the upcoming year thank you thank you mr. Lacy our next meeting is Monday
October 22nd 2018 there being no further business before the board this meeting
is adjourned. The time is 8 23 p.m. The board is reconvening an open meeting at
9 17 p.m. on Monday October 15th 2018 from closed meeting under section 2.5
and Texas government code 551.074. There being no further business this
meeting is adjourned at 9 17 p.m. on Monday October 15th 2018.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
The motions and votes for this meeting have not been recorded here yet. Whether any were taken is not stated either way. The agenda and the recording above are the primary sources.