The Board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, December 10th, 2018 and the time is 6.31 p.m.
Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, December 10, 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 regard to this meeting tonight.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's meeting.
To prepare for this meeting, each board member received the agenda and documentation for
this meeting on Friday, December 7, 2018, and have had three 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, administration,
and the acting 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 are there any scouts in the audience then all right we are gonna
move on to 4.1 recognitions chief Jenks
president of board members acting superintendent Gorgoski newly
Newly commissioned peace officers are required to publicly swear a firm and oath of office.
Tonight we have one newly commissioned officer.
I would like to ask Officer Kimberly Garcia to come forward to take the oath
and be recognized as a member of the KDISD Police Department.
Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.
I, Kimberly Garcia, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of the Office of Peace Officer,
of Katy Independent School District, of the State of Texas,
And will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state.
So help me God. Congratulations.
Thank you.
Officer Kimberly Garcia grew up in Garland, Texas and surrounding areas until she graduated
from Lakeview Centennial High School in 1998.
She then met and married her now husband, Rene Garcia, with whom she has three children,
Jacob 19, Nathan 16, and Alexandria 12.
They have called Katie home for over 15 years.
Kimberly worked as a licensed insurance representative at State Farm for over 10 years before finding
her home here at Katie Independent School District.
In 2017, after working for Katie ISD Police Department as the truancy clerk for three
years, she decided to join the police academy.
Kimberly graduated from Wharton County Police Academy in May 2018.
She hopes to continue to learn and grow with the Katy ISD Police Department and is excited to see what the future holds.
Please help me welcome Kimberly Garcia.
MS. Thank you so much, Chief Jinks, and welcome, Ms. Garcia.
Next 5.1, our presenters are going to be Dr. Martin and Dr. Caskey.
Dr. Martin?
Okay.
Strategic Design Goal 1, Specific Result 1.8, CTE Course Expansion Report.
MS. Good evening, President Doyle.
Board of Trustees, and Mr. Gregorski. I'm pleased to provide an overview of career
and technical education as it relates to our strategic design, specifically goal
one, all learning environments will foster engagement by integrating
personalized learning experiences. This report is a result of actions required
by KDISD's strategic design goal one specific result 1.8 which focuses on the
feasibility of expanding CTE courses.
Career and Technical Education, also known as CTE, is an educational option that provides
leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to be prepared for college and careers.
It gives purpose to learning by emphasizing real-world skills and practical knowledge
within a selected career focus.
CTE is no longer referred to as vocational education, as we are much more than that.
CTE is where theory and application come together CTE is differentiated by six
program areas which are further broken into career clusters within the
clusters or pathways made up of a coherent sequence of courses a program
area is defined as a sequence of courses at the high school level that provides
students with the academic and technical technical knowledge and skills needed to
prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging
professions we offer the following six programs in Katy a career cluster is a
group of jobs and industries that are related to skills and products within
each cluster there are pathways that correspond to a collection of courses
and training opportunities to prepare you for a given career there are 16
national career clusters and we offer 15 of those clusters in Katy let's look at
the demographics of our CTE students compared to that of our district last
year our reported enrollment was 18,537 for grades 9 through 12 and as you can
see CTE students mirror that of our district almost identically CTE
enrollment saw a large increase once the diploma plan changed from the former
recommended high school plan also known as a 4x4 to the foundation and
endorsement plans and the requirements set forth by House Bill 5 CTE is a
included in four of the five endorsement areas business and industry public
services stem and multidisciplinary so what is the purpose of current technical
education CTE is a pipeline to industry we prepare students with knowledge and
skills to succeed and further education in the workforce working closely with
the West Houston Education Association and Katy area Economic Development
Council CTE courses course offerings are based on job outlook data the course
offerings are a direct reflection of the industries offered in Katy and the
Houston Metroplex CTE prepares students for further education and the workforce
by developing student leadership skills through our co-curricular student
organizations by offering work based learning opportunities and opportunities
to validate the skill sets by way of our industry certifications
Career and Technical Student Organizations, also known as CTSOs, are an integral part
of all CTE classes.
You may recognize our student organizations by their acronym or logo.
CTSOs are co-curricular, meaning that leadership skill development is embedded into each of
our CTE courses.
One of our department goals is to provide each student the opportunity to be part of
their student professional organization at each campus.
campus.
We know from experience and research that students who are active in a student organization
are more likely to stay in school and pursue further education in the area in which they
are most passionate.
In addition, university leaders state that students engaged in their CTSO are one and
a half times more prepared than their peers.
Students are able to participate in work-based learning opportunities through enrollment
in career prep, practicum, or internship coursework.
work-based learning opportunities support our instructional cornerstones
these courses service students who want to put their classroom skills into
action through on-the-job training students enrolled in these courses are
hired by companies and work a minimum of either 10 or 15 hours per week the
classroom teacher and employer work close together and follow the student
progress through a training plan and evaluation often students stay with a
company after high school graduation to fund their college expenses students
Students involved in an internship work closely with their mentor, learning firsthand what qualities are sought after for industry.
Oftentimes, these interns are included as one of the crew when they arrive on the job site, as they attend meetings and are involved in many projects.
One of the questions we ask ourselves is, how do we know they know?
How do we know that students have mastered the skills and content taught in a CTE course?
We don't have EOCs or STAR.
are. In performance-based education, which is what CTE courses are all about, we use
third-party testing agencies to measure their student's progress and success. In other words,
we have incorporated the use of industry credentialing. We started tracking our students' performance
in 2013 with 585 certification tests given. Last year, we gave over 3,200 exams, and as
you can see, we have made large gains in the number of certification exams given. As we
As we implement new CTE courses or programs, we are doing so with purpose, making the connection
to the workforce as well as to post-secondary education.
Most of our CTE courses are aligned with an industry credential.
Those that are not will be using a third-party assessment to validate the students' knowledge
and skills in their content area.
CTE courses are at every junior high and high school, as well as Miller Career and Technology
Center.
In the 2014 bond, five junior high CTE production labs and kitchens were renovated to meet the
standards of our district and CTE labs.
Mays Creek High School CTE spaces were renovated to meet the standards of our high school programs,
and the Agricultural Sciences Facility has almost reached construction completion.
Katy High School CTE spaces will soon be updated to meet standards as well as support the increase
of CTE enrollment.
So let's take a look at some of our CTE data.
CTE has an impact on student achievement.
Students who are enrolled in two or more CTE courses during their high school experience perform at a same or higher rate than the students who have no CTE experience.
Looking at our spring data from last year, students with two or more CTE courses outperformed students with no CTE exposure in every area but Algebra I, in which the scores were identical.
According to the Bureau Labor Statistics, students who are enrolled in a CTE course
graduate at a higher rate than those who are not.
The graduation rate for KDCT students is much higher than those of the state and region.
Participating in CTE courses decreases the risk of dropout for students who are of average
age or younger than average age upon entering high school.
We attribute this to students being actively engaged in CTE programs and the corresponding
student organizations.
Simply put, involvement equals success.
Additionally, CTE is part of our state accountability measures.
Districts earn points for students who earn industry credentials, they earn points for
following a coherent sequence of coursework, and who are admitted into postsecondary education
industry certification program.
KDISD conducted a student interest survey grades 6 through 12 in February of 2018.
The purpose of the survey was to assist the district in making decisions about future
programming for students.
There were over 30,000 surveys delivered and 22,376 responded, a return rate of 58%.
There were four questions directly related to high school career and technical education.
The number of respondents was 2,783.
That's only a 7% response rate.
The first question was geared towards student satisfaction of their CTE preparation in postsecondary
education or employment.
With a sample of 2,783, 81% of those respondents were somewhat to very satisfied with their
CTE preparation.
The second question related to industry credentials, whether the student has received or is working
toward earning a credential as a result of their CTE program. Of the 2,783
currently enrolled CTE respondents, 2,764 responded with a 33%
reporting that they had earned a credential. The third question related to
plans after high school. 2,765 responded to this question. 79%
responded that their plan after high school was either closely related or
somewhat related to the CTE program they are working on now and the last question
was seeking information on career clusters which of the following career
clusters best describes their program of study I was surprised to see the low
response rate in AG as our enrollment clearly clearly states that one-third of
all of our CTE students are enrolled in a agricultural sciences course there was
one question on that survey geared toward junior high school students and
And that question asked whether students knew anything about Miller and Career Technology Center.
Of the 12,774 students who responded, only 38% of the students reported that they knew something about Miller Career Center.
An additional piece of information we use to gauge future programming needs is concluded in our four-year plans.
In the fall of each year, CTE students grades 9 through 12 are requested to complete a four-year plan survey to indicate intent to continue in a CTE pathway.
We include a survey question that requests input from students on which courses they would consider enrollment if those courses or programs were offered.
Students may choose more than one of those programs.
This information assists our department in choosing which courses, programs, or pathways to consider implementing.
money. The decision is not based on student input alone, rather we consult
with economic and workforce development, higher education transition
opportunities, job outlook data, and current facilities and resources. As you
can see there is still a high demand for the health sciences programs and an
interest in the electronics field. This leads us to our recommendations. Specific
result 1.8 asks us to provide the report on the feasibility of expanding career
and technical education courses while many might think the word expand means to offer more
we choose to define expand as building awareness of our current cte offerings and providing
additional opportunities within the current pathways there were five recommendations that
bubbled to the surface the first recommendation was to build partnerships we are developing
We are developing partnerships with Texas State Technical College, specifically in the areas of our health science pathways, farm tech and dental assisting.
In addition, our manufacturing program at Miller will undergo a review from TSTC to credential our lab for alignment with their manufacturing program.
We are also developing partnerships with HCC and University of Houston Victoria in our education and training pathway.
pathway. Students will have the opportunity to complete an associate's degree in applied
art and teaching with HCC and have automatic admission into U of H Victoria teaching program.
The second recommendation is to increase industry credentialing. We are very purposeful when
implementing new credentials to our pathways and programs. We don't implement a credential
just for the sake of adding a credential. There must be an alignment to the credential
to our TEKS and standards. In addition, we seek input and guidance from our
industry partners, general advisory council members, asking the question of
whether the credential is of value to the industry, recognized by the industry,
and whether it is appropriate fit for secondary students versus post-secondary
students. The third recommendation is to promote CTE. We often jest by saying CTE
is the best kept secret. In reality, being kept secret is not beneficial to our
students, our parents, or our community. Those of us who work in CTE every day
know the value and benefits we offer students. We need to educate others and
begin a marketing campaign that includes showcasing all of our CTE programs,
including those offered at Miller Career and Technology Center. The results of the
survey illustrated that 62% of our junior high respondents had not heard
of Miller Career Center. Mr. Faldin, the principal of Miller and I are working
very closely with each other to bring CTE and Miller to the junior high
high campuses. The fourth recommendation is to continue our involvement. CTE
should be a direct reflection of our workforce. Continuing our involvement in
local area economic and workforce development groups provides us with a
plethora of resources that assist and guide us in looking at our programs and
pathways. It also provides resources that will directly impact our students in and
out of the classroom, such as the equipment and work-based learning
opportunities and finally our fifth recommendation is to conduct an
in-depth analysis taking a hard look at our current pathways for relevance and
opportunities for continued education and employment post high school the CT
department works in collaboration with teachers business and industry partners
workforce and economic development councils reviewing the job outlook and
program courses that support the data again we do not implement programs
before we have enough information and data to support the program in our
district president Doyle Board of Trustees and mr. Gorg or ski this
concludes my presentation this evening I'm happy to answer any questions you
may have thank you dr. Martin are there any questions I have some please okay
thank you miss champagne okay thank you so much for your presentation Thank You
mr. Fowler dr. Martin but I would like to know on when they show the the
the percentage of the dissatisfied and the think that was on page 20 to 14%
slightly satisfied and 5% not at all satisfied and then when you go back to
they didn't get their certification do those kids are they the same do you know
the ones who didn't get their certification or they didn't pass are
those is your question whether they're not those same student groups is the
same who answered the preparation question as far as the certification
question the ones who answered the questions and said that they weren't
satisfied are they the same ones who didn't pass the class and I don't know
if I can drill down to that okay because I'm just wondering if part of why
they're not satisfied with the class is because they didn't they didn't get
their certification in it that was just something but I also wanted to know if
If you were concerned with 21% of the kids on page, I think page 21, their CTE program,
they didn't feel was going to be related to the job that they were going to have afterwards,
if that's a concern or not.
This is this slide right here?
Yeah.
No, no, no.
That was the first one I was asking.
Let's see.
Page 21.
Let me go back to page 21.
Yes, that is.
That is?
No, no, no.
Page 21.
Yes, that one.
So 21% say to what extent is your plan after high school related to the CTE program you're working on?
21% said not related.
Right.
So oftentimes students will drop in our CTE programs and take one or two courses.
For instance, we have a student who was in our automotive program at Miller who ended up wanting to be a mechanical engineer.
So while that may not look like a direct correlation,
auto mechanics to mechanical engineer, they're very much related in their processes
of how they use the engineering design process, but the student may not have made that connection.
Okay. And the last thing I want to say is I really think that the effort to try to promote this
in elementary and junior high is going to really be great because I hear from a lot of younger,
well younger, people that have younger children say that they don't know about the program.
And I know that the school is so so good and I think that that's going to really really help
promote
Thank you for the presentation
I would also like to focus on page 21, but maybe from a more empirical standpoint with with my questions
Preface by saying one of the reasons we have goal six and one of the reasons that we have put so much effort and resources
into it
CTE is not new. It's not new in the state of Texas. It's not new in KTISD. The
purpose of Goal 6 is to improve the productivity of CTE as I see it. And so
I'm curious as to the 67% that did not get industry credential certifications
or licensure, do we have more empirical analysis of what programs did not result
in license or certifications have we done any quality control analysis over
what the reasons that they did not do it beyond the episodic kinds of stories
where a mechanic becomes a mechanical engineer that's that's a growing story
but it's not it does not lend itself to empirical analysis correct and mr. Scott
as you would you'll notice that our sample size that returned that response
response rate was only 2,700 students, while our student enrollment is over 15,000.
So it's a very small group of students who replied to this survey.
So I do have by credentialing, by school, and by program,
how many students sat for a credential.
So I could give that to you, I could pass that along to you.
All right, but beyond that, beyond that, I'm not,
I'm not a super, super advocate of these kinds of surveys.
What I'm more of an advocate of is understanding what are the students doing that come into
CTE.
I fully understand that not everybody that comes into a CTE course is destined to become
a professional or get certification.
There is value to CTE that does not include ultimate certification.
But for instance, are there things that we should be doing as a part of Goal 6 to bring a higher level of productivity that would increase the licensure?
Are there ways that we can figure out how many of these are matriculating either to Houston Community College, Lone Star, San Jack,
and even though they didn't get a license or a certification while they were at Katy High School or May Creek High School or in our program,
One semester later, two semester later, they did.
Because our goal is to lay a foundation, whether they either get a license certification or they are a lot closer.
Because if we get them closer to that certification, the amount of money that they and their parents have to expend in closing that venture is a lot less.
So both Mrs. Fox and I served on the Goal 6 plan, and I can assure you that I think I can speak for her.
We really take that seriously, okay?
And so I agree even with Ms. Champagne.
Percentages do not really tell me a whole lot, okay?
They really don't tell me a whole lot.
The truth of the matter is when you look at the percent of students that go to
community college and do not get a degree and do not get a certificate, any
kind of certificate is a significant percentage of the graduates not of just
KDISD but of the state of Texas. The goal six strategy here is to take our CTE
program and improve that. So I'm interested in more data, more analysis of
programs, more problem analysis as to what we need to do because the truth of
the matter is bottom line not everybody's going to college, not
everybody wants to go to college and this is an extremely important function
of public education today.
None of my comments should be viewed as critical.
What I'm trying to say to you is this is a very vital program,
and I can't imagine anyone on this board not taking recommendations
to up our game more seriously.
Any other questions?
I have a comment.
comment. To Mr. Faldin's credit, I know that I've had two graduate from high school already
and they didn't, like you were saying, they really weren't aware of what the opportunities
were for Miller and sometimes by the time they got there they hadn't had their prerequisites
to be able to apply and be a part of it. I know that when Courtney and I first were elected
the very first time, one thing we said was it needs to be exposed in junior high. And
And I can say having a ninth grader when she was in eighth grade, and this is to Mr. Fulton's credit, they did have a program to eighth graders about Miller Career Center.
And there was a lot of questions and a lot of excitement generated.
So I think I'm just going to give you all credit where credit is due.
That's on the right path to exposing our kids to the amazing opportunities at Miller.
Any other questions?
Madam President.
Ms. Fox.
Thank you, Dr. Martin.
So if you would go way back to like slide four or five or six, around in there, at the beginning, where it talks about the variety of programs that, one more back, right there.
When I look at those and see the vast array of opportunities for our children, you know,
that says IEP to me and you know what, I talk about all the time that it would be awesome
if we could have 80,000 individual education plans, but this gets us as close as possible
because the foundation program, the foundation plans where they changed from four by four
to the foundation plans, the intent was to reach children where they are. What do
you care about and let's tap into that and get you classes that aquatic science,
those kinds of things instead of you know physics if you're not going to be
an engineer. So I love that we're offering those things. If you'd advance
to the next slide please. And these are the career clusters they can choose from
and it gives boys and girls an opportunity to be like I really do want
to pursue that or these are the opportunities that they can have so it gives them exposure
at an earlier age for us moms and dads who don't pay for four years of college and then oh you know
after two years i don't like what i'm doing i'm going to change and i'm going to change i'm going
to change and we're seven years in so i absolutely love having this kind of thing for them now if
you'll advance all the way back to where where you were before the ones everybody's talking about
Keep going.
Keep going.
Just that one.
Here's the thing.
So we go to lots of presentations around the state and around the nation as school board
members and they have presentations that tell us how much money students are making coming
coming straight out of college with a four-year liberal arts
degree, and those who have a certificate in things that
have some of these lower numbers, plumbers, HVAC,
electrical.
Those are the ones, those students,
I wish we had today a comparison,
like how much money they could make
with straight out of high school or a two-year degree
or a certificate in those kinds of things.
For those of us who flooded and for those many, many people
who flooded in our area they know who's making all the money right it's it's
builders and HVAC and plumbers and electricians they're making six-figure
salaries without a college degree and yet we told our students a number of
years ago that everybody had to go to college and accrue all that debt and
they come out and they there are no jobs so all of that to say I have a heart for
more, sorry, vocational is what we, traits.
Traditional trades.
Traditional trades, that's the one I'm using.
And while I appreciate all of the programs that we offer,
if we're going to expand or increase or look
at other things, I really would like to see us offer more
traditional trades for some of our students who are just,
they know from the beginning, they work with their hands
but they're not college bound.
And I wonder if we had a way to tell them, to show them some
of those statistics and what they could be doing that if if those numbers would change if they knew
that working in hvac was um job security and the amount of money they could make and be happy
uh doing what they love so i wonder if maybe in your as you're going forward that you might have
a way to to expose them to the gainful employment in the six-figure salaries that they might be able
to it was like 80 to 140 thousand dollars these kids were making with the
with a high school degree so now I have one little thing that I'm so we we have
this amazing new agricultural science facility coming and I'm thrilled about
it for our agriculture students and we're gonna have one that sits empty
right here on our parking lot and I keep thinking about wouldn't it be fabulous
if we could have some of those trades.
It already has water.
It already has electricity.
It's a great big huge building with all kinds of possibilities.
I dream about all the possibilities of having a facility, having parking,
having availability that all of our kids from all over the district could come
and maybe we could like Habitat for Humanity, but not, sorry,
I don't mean to that organization,
but I just see kids learning hands-on, having an opportunity,
and maybe in a building we already own, maybe in land we already own. It's just a dream of mine.
It's just an idea. It's not exactly my idea because, you know, when I was sharing my dream
with one of your amazingly talented CTE people, they're like, you mean like at the, I was like,
oh, oh, oh, awesome. So, I mean, it's just a dream and I haven't stopped thinking about it since we
had that conversation and i see possibilities and i just wanted to throw it out there that i think
you'd find a lot of agreement from people about reaching boys and girls where they are and giving
them the success they deserve thank you thank you miss fox any other questions thank you so much for
your presentation thank you next agenda item 5.2 planning for growth results of the community
feedback survey on the 2019-20 attendance boundary modifications associated with junior high
number 16 and recommendations. Mr. Ted Vierling. Welcome Ted. Thank you. Good
evening Board President Doell, Board Members, Acting Superintendent Gregorski.
It's a pleasure to be with you tonight to provide an update on the K-12 Insight
survey results related to the attendance boundary modification on junior high 16.
Dr. Shelby McIntosh is here tonight representing K-12 Insight. She'll be
providing the final survey results for the junior high 16 attendance boundary
modification and we'll be able to answer any questions related to that survey data.
Dr. McIntosh.
Good evening. Let me get us caught up here a little bit.
Here we go.
Just a little bit of background to remind you all where we left things last time we talked
about these survey results. Specifically focusing in on
the feedback on the attendance boundary modification for junior high 16.
The survey that we're talking about tonight opened in June or opened on June 20th of this year and ran through October 17th.
During that time, there were a number of reminders that were sent out to potential survey participants.
You can see there were two of those in July on the 3rd and 18th, two in August, the first and the 15th, and then the final two in September on the 17th and 27th.
People were invited to participate in the survey through emailed invitations.
You'll see in the next slide how many of those that we distributed and then
anyone who did not receive an email invitation or who couldn't locate their
invitation could take the survey either through a link that was posted on the
district's website or if they contacted us or the district directly we provided
them with a link in order to provide their input. A couple of notes as always
about these survey results. They are reflective only of those who elected to participate in the
survey and not generalizable to the entire KDISD community. And you will see in each chart and
graph there may be a data label that is not shown, and that means that that percentage is less than
5%. And I'll point those out to you if there are any of those. So again, regarding participation
here we distributed 10,418 invitations. Of those of those emailed
invitations we received 3,244 responses via email. An additional 2,199
came through the public URL that was posted on the website for a total of
5,443. When you use that 10,418 as the denominator there you have a
response rate of 52 percent. We'll note this is a very strong, very high participation rate for
the history of us doing these surveys. However, you'll notice that it does leave about 5,000
individuals who elected not to take the survey this year. A little bit about those who did
participate. The far majority of them were parents. Some of them, you see that we did have some
responses that about those being either a parent of a graduate or a future student. Some were
employees you'll notice the note at the bottom of this where the percentages
exceed 100% because they could select more than one option here you also see
there for those that that said that they were parents we asked them where their
child their child went to school and we had the most participants from Ties
junior high and Seven Lakes junior high school all of the the junior highs on
this list were represented we did also have LUZ information for anyone who took
the survey via email invitation we did not for those that took the survey via the public url we
didn't ask them their luz most people don't know that information but we did have it pre-populated
for those that took it via email invitations you can see the numbers of participants there's lots
of numbers here i'll just point out some of the higher ones there 51b had over 100 participants 107
On this second list here, you also have high numbers in LUZs like 68A and 68B.
And then on this third list here, we had over 100 from LUZs like 74C and 74H.
Some of those will obviously make more sense whenever we get into the next phase of this presentation
and you look specifically at maps and where those LUZs are located.
So in the next part of the presentation, I'll show you responses to survey questions where
we ask them their level of support for the three different options that were presented
to them.
In the first part of this survey, we asked them their level of support for each option
and then a few questions about why they do or do not support each one.
Option number one is the first one we're looking at here.
And if you'll recall, the possible responses here were fully support the recommendation,
somewhat support it, do not support it, or not sure. We're showing you both the percentage for
each response and the end count for each one as well, just so you can see exactly how many people
we're talking about. One clarifying point here is that only parents of either a future or current
KDISD students who are zoned to those specific junior high schools that you see listed at the
the bottom were answered this question. If they were not specifically impacted by this attendance
boundary modification, they were directed around these questions here. A couple of additional
points. We did look a little bit more deeply into these specific groups here, those that
voiced support for opposition to this option. If you'll recall last time I gave you an overview
of these responses they can voice support or lack of support for all three
of them didn't supporting this one did not preclude them from supporting option
two or option three and the final question I'll show you does force them
to rank and preference but a couple of things to note about this group here
those that you see the 34% that said they did not support this recommendation
a strong majority of them did support option three which we'll talk about in a
second. Another thing to note about those that did not support it, their primary concerns or when we
asked reasons why they did not support it, they like the distance that they currently are from
their current school. They are worried about the feeder pattern and the impact that would have on
their child's transportation to and from school. Those were the the most frequently cited reasons
for for not supporting this option here option two of the three actually had the
we could either say least amount of support or the most amount that did not
support this recommendation reasons for not supporting this were were very
similar but really the focal point after seeing these results for option two was
really option one and option three which received the most amount of support of
the three options so that really takes us to option three here you can see that 52 strongly
supported or fully supported this option 14 somewhat and 18 did not support the recommendation
the next slide here is the one that that asked them to rank those three options and a couple
of things i want to point out to you regarding number of participants relative to this so you'll
see at the top of this slide just over 5,000 individuals responded to these three questions
and when we asked them to rank you'll see at the top of this that that number jumps down to about
3,800. We saw the same thing occur for the elementary school survey not uncommon that when
you ask someone to rank options they elect not to respond and it's we're certainly drawing assumptions
if we try to assume why but one thing we know about common survey behavior
patterns is that this if they don't have a strong enough opinion to really rank
options that they'll elect not to answer so it could be one reason here but we
don't know for sure why that number drops down as much as it does so just
looking at what those 3,800 individuals said here you can see option 3 is a is
overall based on the responses here ranked the highest that is because of a
a number of reasons if you look at how we calculate the results here we put it on a relative weighted
score based on the number of times it was ranked first versus second versus third and relative
meaning we put it on a scale from zero to 100 just so so you can see what a lot is and what not very
much is and when you look at that relative weighted score you see that option one is actually
very close to it so from 100 it drops down to 97 the gap there between the two is not very wide
A couple of reasons for that. When you look at the far right column, the end count there, there's a difference of about 700 individuals who ranked option three first versus option one.
Then if you look at those who ranked option two, a far majority of them ranked option one as their second choice.
So that gave that option one more weight there and bumps it up to closer to option three.
That's a long way of saying that the two actually, when you put them on this kind of scale, are
actually pretty close.
But when we did look at the relative weighted score, option three did have the highest score.
I can certainly answer any questions about that in a moment.
I think the only other thing I was going to tell you about this slide here, just also
to note that we're only looking at parents who have a future or current student zone
to those specific junior highs when we look at these results here.
year. That is the full results that I have prepared to show you for this, but I am certainly
happy to answer any questions you have. Madam President. Mr. Lacy. It's okay. I had to think
for a second. I apologize. That's all right. I do have a few. So in making, in comparing one and
three is there any large difference in the number of bus routes are we going to
increase the bus routes if we go one over another or three over one or one
over three what's the scoop on that it's a great question that certainly falls
outside my area of expertise but I can either defer to mr. Kruse or I can
answer that for you we've done some estimation on that and certainly you
you would never think that these are ironclad numbers,
but with option one, we estimate that we would decrease by five to six buses,
and with option three, you're looking at eight to 11.
So somewhat close in your number of decreased buses for each option.
Okay.
Another question.
I noticed that in option three, a few of the schools would still be very, very high in numbers,
and it looked to me like even going out three or four or five years that we would need to adjust those numbers in the future again.
So we'd be sitting right back here having the same discussion.
Is my analysis off, or is that something that you all are seeing?
I'm getting a really bad feedback.
Is that just me?
Okay.
There we go.
Are my calculations, what I'm looking at, is that correct, or is that?
I think Dr. Poole's going to detail that in the next section where she goes over all of the projections for each school, and that's part of Mr. Cruz's presentation as well.
Super. Thank you.
Are there any questions for Dr. McIntosh?
And I'm sorry, Mr. Scott, go ahead.
I've spent a lot of time with the numbers from the ABM, and this is what I do sometimes.
times. Okay, I am who I am and I'm going to make this statement. The survey to me
is fundamentally flawed. It is not statistically reliable. It allows for the
ballot box to be stuffed and I'm not going to make the decision based upon
the survey. I would like to see for future surveys a combination of rank and
and file outreach, et cetera.
But I would also say on issues of this importance
that there ought to be focus groups so you get qualitative
analysis of why as opposed to just being
put into an arbitrary box.
What I can say is, and I'll be a little bit facetious
because that's what I do, Einstein,
when he invented the theory of relativity,
probably never saw this survey.
but he had it in mind when he talked about anyone calling this a heavy turnout.
There are significant numbers and percentages of people who did not participate,
and anyone who has been, for instance, in the political arena with polling
knows that people who don't vote have voted.
And there is a lot of science behind that, actually.
I think that it's important, and I do not want anyone, anyone, please don't underestimate that I understand the level of frustration that some parents may feel.
But I've seen the first board meeting I covered in KDISD was 1977 as a professional reporter.
And I've seen every attendance boundary modification from that time, and they're never pleasant.
They are never pleasant.
Here is something that's not statistical.
Every boundary has a perimeter,
and every perimeter does not automatically get to go where they want to go.
Bottom line.
And I don't think that this survey advances the analysis of public input
the way a properly conducted survey could do.
I'm going to be guided by my numerical analysis and I've spent many many hours
on an Excel spreadsheet doing my own various analysis we've had this data for
three months and you know I'm gonna do what I think is best that's what people
elected me to do and that does not mean that you make everybody happy when you
do what you think is best.
Is there any other questions?
Ms. Fox.
I have one quick question.
Community members have called and asked that once, because they don't have a child, they
don't get to answer these questions, but they own a home, they believe their home values
are attached to this kind of thing, right?
If they live right close to a school and it's not there anymore, what will it do?
Is there a reason why you omit homeowners that don't have children in school?
That's a good question.
We've actually done it both ways in prior years.
We've done a survey like this for every ABM in recent history, and we've done it in both ways.
And typically whenever the results have been reviewed, there's been primary interest in those parents who were specifically impacted.
And there's a, you know, I could kind of argue it either way where if you ask them, you should look at their results.
And if you're not going to look at their results, you shouldn't ask them.
But I think there's value in doing it both ways.
And we certainly could go back to that way if you prefer after, you know, discussion for the next time we do this.
As long as there's a category that says those kinds of things, that's, you know, our job is to, you know, check our public and see what our community wants to tell us.
and this option didn't give them an opportunity to tell us.
That's all.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
All right.
Thank you so much.
Next on the agenda, we're going to move to consent agenda, item 6.1,
consider future board approval of the 2019-20 attendance boundary modification
associated with junior high number 16.
Mr. Cruz, welcome.
Thank you.
Good evening.
Well, President Doyle, board members, acting superintendent Gregorski, tonight we enter
the final phase of our junior high attendance boundary modification process for the 2019-2020
school year.
The need for this year's ABM is precipitated by the completion or the scheduled completion
of junior high 16 in the Cross Creek Ranch subdivision.
Here with me to present tonight is Chris Poole from Population and Survey Analysts, and this
is Junior High 16 again.
As a reminder, here's the process we've been following to get us to this point.
Note that the Junior High final recommendation will be made tonight, while the elementary
ABM recommendation was approved already in November.
As you will note on this slide, our intent in this process for Junior High 16 in particular
particular is to review the enrollment capacities for junior
highs with specific emphasis on providing relief for ties,
Wood Creek, Seven Lakes and Seven Lakes Junior High Schools.
Here's our timeline for the ABM process.
This is all review, as you know, which indicates we are moving
into the final phase of a process that really started back
in June.
It's hard to believe that the time has moved that quickly, but
but we are at the final step here.
Our communication plan remains in place for parents and stakeholders
with communication of the final approved attendance boundaries
scheduled for January of 2019.
So we'll notify.
We've already, I believe, we're starting to notify elementary parents in December here,
and we're going to notify the junior high parents in January.
It is now my pleasure to introduce Chris Poole from Population and Survey Analysts
to review our current attendance zones and the recommended options.
Good evening.
I hope to be able to present the maps to you all again.
They're very familiar.
It's very similar.
Can you hear me?
Very similar to what you've seen in the past
and hopefully be able to answer your questions like that
that are more numerically related here.
So in order to discuss the junior high ABM,
I'd like again to start with our current junior high attendance zones
because I think it's very important to understand where we are so we understand where we should be headed.
This map is similar to one that was shown in October's presentation where we presented the information to the board,
the new demographic update for the first time.
And this shows that based on the 2018 demographic update figures,
we will need to relieve Woodcreek Junior by around 850 students,
Ties by more than 500, and Seven Lake Junior by 825.
So if you sum those three numbers together, and that's just to get the schools down to about 1,400,
then we're looking at an excess of 2,175 students, and we have one school of 1,400 that we're looking at opening.
Now, yes, Mr. Lacy, it does, we are looking at how to handle additional students here.
And so that is really sort of what this all hinges on is how do we handle those excess students.
We sort of have the need for an additional half of a school,
but yet we also have additional space available in other portions of the south side of the district.
And so we aren't planning for another facility in the south part of the district,
so we are needing to figure out how we're going to distribute those students through the southwest portion of the district.
So option one is the first one, obviously.
This shows the recommendation that we're presenting tonight.
The black lines here show the existing junior high zones,
And so you can see that Junior High 16 pulls from Seven Lakes and it pulls from Wood Creek.
Ties gains two lane new zones from Wood Creek and loses to both Seven Lakes and a Cinco.
And then Cinco gains from Ties and from Wood Creek,
and the section of Cinco Ranch Junior High east of the parkway moves to Beck.
And so it is perhaps Ties that sees the biggest change here,
but it's sort of losing pieces and gaining pieces on the perimeter there.
We're leaving Beckendorf alone.
alone, this has been a question that we've gotten and we've talked about it a little bit along the
way. We're leaving Beckendorf alone. Yes, we're seeing 1,700 students, but when we create the
projections, we look at the kids that we think are coming in in the future based on new housing,
but we also look at the kids that are there. And so we have a breakdown of students by grade,
all the way down to kindergarten, all the way down to the EE level that reside in Beckendorf.
And so, for example, the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes are much larger than the
first second third fourth classes so we're projecting beckendorf to go ahead and and
decline so we were trying to leave as many laney zones alone as possible so that's why there are no
changes there to beckendorf even though it would be maybe be 1700 to start we're projecting it to
be 1600 very quickly this option places all of the schools except beckendorf between 86 and 105 of
of capacity in 2019 so right there around that 100 and between 97 and 109 in 2021 and when i say all
of the schools i'm talking about all of the ones that we're looking at junior has 16 wood creek
cinco beck beckendorf seven lakes and ties okay so all of these that are in this sector of the
district we were trying to keep as close as possible to their capacity but even with the
moving around that occurs in option one that left wood creek still fairly high fairly quickly and so
option two looked at can we further relieve wood creek in any way and so this moves some students
on to cinco ranch junior but the problem is with ties with ties being so full we can't move the
students from wood creek we have to move them to cinco ranch and so then we're looking at 1600
students in 2019 for cinco we are projecting cinco to go ahead and age out in the near term but we
We would be overcrowding Cinco there in order to relieve Wood Creek.
And in 2019, we would have 1,100 students in Wood Creek and 1,600 in Cinco.
So we did move on to option three.
Option three was sort of a minimal approach.
What might we do just to get junior high 16 open?
And so this shows that if we leave Cinco Ranch and Beck alone, along with Beckendorf,
that senior high 16 would then pull only from Wood Creek Junior and from Seven Lakes.
And while that leaves Junior High 16 and Seven Lakes in good shape,
under this scenario, Wood Creek will exceed its capacity shortly,
and then Ties is never expected to get below 1,700 students.
So even long-term in the 10-year projection period that we have,
we never see Ties drop below 1,700 students.
And so as a result, that's why we felt that this was a less tenable option
and why we're recommending option one.
So as you can see, this is a review slide mostly with one bullet changed on it.
The ABM is necessary with the opening of junior high 16.
It has been crafted collaboratively.
We've worked with principals.
We've obviously listened to our community some on this because we have surveyed them.
And in the final estimation, we still are recommending option one as the administration's option for the ABM.
And the reason for that is it does the best job of balancing that southwest quadrant enrollment in the near and long term.
So option one is our recommendation.
And at this time, we would be happy to take any questions.
Are there any questions?
Madam President.
Mr. Lacy.
It does get down to, it's not a question, it's more of a statement.
Like George, I have played with these things for three months,
and it does come down to knowing that we want to not affect students.
Like I said three months ago, my goal, my long-term goal,
is to try to lock this down as much as we possibly can
so that we don't have to affect students in the near or far future.
I think that's the most important thing.
we need to start building community having these students go from go to a
school that feeds as much as possible from a junior high to a high school is a
wonderful thing but we've got to be able to not have our children not be
overcrowded for a safety standard if nothing else be in schools that are not
overcrowded so that we can effectively have them learn the things that they
need to have prepared to when they enter high school so like George I've played
and played and played and I've tried to come up with a fourth or you know
different option it just it's difficult to to do without without affecting some
people and I don't mean that some people in a negative aspect it's just we people
are gonna have to understand that we have to do as trustees what is best for
the district overall so that's all i wanted to say thank you thank you mr Lacy miss van to uh piggy
back a bit on what mr Lacy is saying i think a point that's been missed that i know some of the
community wants to hear knowing that the children are going to be impacted is that there is no
change in high school feeder pattern right so that if if you're currently going to ties and you are
going to be shifted to sinker ranch you're still we'll be tending tompkins and so on across the
board with with all the high schools i know that uh some of our luz land use zones specifically 68
a and 68 b have been expressed concern about moving from tompkins high school and we do not
have i don't see that happening because those are literally across the street from tompkins high
school so they're they're that would not be in our future plan and we will have a high school
zone coming starting in June.
Are there any other questions?
I would like to ask something, Madam President.
Ms. Champagne.
Mr. Kowarski, I had a question for you, and you answered it very well.
And I just would like to see if you would please restate, because I had asked you a
question about the possible grandfathering, and you gave a very good answer.
And I thought maybe just for the record you could explain like you did to me
Certainly be happy to do that for you miss champagne. There was a question that came up about grandfathering students in junior high
It's not something that we've done in Katy before
With any junior highs or elementary schools we have some limited grandfathering when we get to high schools
But not for the junior highs and the elementary and some of the things that we had discussed
That would be real challenges when you do that is
We open up our high schools with just 9 and 10, okay, but we open up our junior highs with 6, 7, and 8.
So the question I pose back, one of the questions I pose back when we look at that and examine it is,
if we gave a grandfathering option to every child that was in 6, 7, and 8 to remain in their home campus,
what would happen if every student chose to stay and we opened up a brand-new building?
Now, that's highly unlikely, and I wouldn't expect that to happen,
but we could actually open up a brand-new building that houses 6, 7, and 8.
that might be half full underutilized or very slow utilization in there or low
utilization so that is certainly a challenge we have if we if we do the
grandfathering there's a couple other issues in there that I point to that
would be more of an economic issue we count on using our portable buildings
especially our existing portable buildings to manage growth throughout
the district we've got 68 campuses and growing and we need those buildings so
So if we keep those portables at their current locations with overcrowded schools for one or more years,
it kind of hurts us in the way of moving those portables around to manage growth,
and they would have to remain there.
I think right now we can get to it.
I could ask Mr. Cruz if he's looked at those portable buildings.
Why don't you answer that real quick, and then I'll continue.
If option one were to go through, we would probably have about 21 excess portables
that we could move to other locations as needed.
And those are not inexpensive, as you know.
So we examined that.
A couple other things come up when you start to use underutilized school.
There's inefficiencies with utilities and some costs related to that.
There's definitely some staffing issues that come into play with underutilized schools.
So if you looked at something from the standpoint of, okay, let's grandfather in,
possibly just rising eighth graders your current seventh graders so those kids
that have been there for two years could stay in their current campus there's
some real challenges in that you open up junior high 16 and with a very small
possibly eighth grade class it's limited number of electives that could be
offered you have challenges with athletics and sport teams or making
sports teams and balancing sports teams same thing goes with fine arts if you
have a very small pool of students coming into junior high can you offer an
orchestra program per se you'd probably have a band but very limited opportunities so um a lot
of the the uh answers i gave to ms champaign in the in the board members when that question came up
uh had to surface around those kind of things there's some real challenges in there and then
moving forward like i said it's not an option that we've we've done in the past and it would
certainly set a new precedence moving forward with grandfathering and some of the challenges that
kind of fall into that play i didn't even mention them you know i mean remembering a lot of this
from memory, but there are some staffing implications in that we begin staffing with HR beginning
in January.
In February, we know what our numbers are based upon our boundaries and the information
that PASSA provides as our demographers, but that would change some of this as we'd have
to do new surveys and get student choice involved in that.
That would certainly put a delay on the staffing and moving forward and some of those kind
of things in there.
That falls under that kind of economic challenge that we sort of face there.
there. Thank you, Mr. Kukorski. Ms. Champagne, did you have anything else? Yes, I did. First of all,
thank you very much for explaining that because I think that that will be good for other people to
hear that explanation. But also, I know that we all know this, but I just would like to go on
record and say that I know that the people are not happy, some of them, with the attendance boundary
and I've heard that this is one of the hardest things that the school board has to make a
decision about and I know I've heard mrs. Doyle and mrs. van and probably
mrs. Fox all say this before but I just want to also say that when the kids when
your kids get read zone to a new school they're they're gonna they're gonna be
okay they're gonna be with their people in their neighborhood and this has
happened to us before too and it seems terrible but it ends up being okay I
I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that I really care about this, but it's going to be okay.
Thank you for that.
Thank you, Ms. Champaign.
Does anybody have anything else?
I'll give Susan.
Madam President.
I do.
Ms. Fox.
Such heartburn.
ABM, such heartburn year after year after year.
It's not easy for us either, Ms. Fox.
No, I'm for all of us, right?
Right, and for the families who are struggling with the changes, like we've lived it.
My children struggle through this, and it's never easy.
I would like to make a couple of comments, if I may,
that I understand option three is a favorite of people who took the survey.
When we as trustees, I will speak for me, me as a trustee,
when I look at option three, we have schools that are underserved and ties remains far too crowded.
And it's just not optimum for our student success is to have too many children for the things they love to do is not algebra.
They love to be in band.
They love to be in choir and theater.
And when you just have so many students, it's hard to serve all their needs.
And you have a bet going down to 900 students.
and we have to fully utilize our resources.
So I prefer the balance of option one.
If I were, I do have a question for Dr. Poole.
When you talk about the Beckendorf numbers decreasing
because their numbers are still a bit big for me,
that happens over time as it decreases
because these neighborhoods are aging out, I would guess.
guess my question is why did we not consider when when you look at that map
if we could put that up just maybe the option three map so see that little hot
pink thing right there on that border of the black that's but junior high and the
people who can see it from their back door were never even considered to go
there and with that was never any of these options and they have to go all
the way across that horrible fry road grand parkway nightmare of traffic to get to beckendorf
is that because of the decreasing age of the population or what was that well we a couple of
a couple of different reasons so under option one with beckendorf or any of the options are all the
same um we'd be looking at beckendorf in the 1400s in 2023 1445 about four or five years out so that
That puts it real close in the pretty near term.
We were trying to leave as many people alone as possible.
And then also the Beckendorf zone, if memory serves me correct,
and it's been a long time since Beckendorf was opened,
but when that zone was drawn, Grand Lakes requested to stay together,
and the option worked.
It worked completely all the way around, and so that was the option that was made.
I've actually had people about maybe two or three years ago from that area come
and say thank you thank you for leaving us alone uh so yes that's a possibility we've talked about
it we wouldn't be able to put all of grand lakes there we'd split grand lakes in half
and uh what we are doing by taking the eastern side and you know option one for example as you
were talking about crossing the freeway we actually fixed some of that for those that are
east of of 99 that would that are currently going to cinco we fixed some of that crossing there
on one end of the area. So yes, we kicked around a lot. You know, we meet with the principals and we talk and we talk and we talk.
And we can click on the land use zones and say, well, this would net us 175 here and that's too many and run through all of these things.
So it was a consideration. But for those reasons, these are the options that we chose.
Thank you. I look at that pink and I see the 62A and B and 63A and know that those are going to require buses.
They are.
For Beck.
But the 76B and the peak would divide Grand Lakes.
And I know they want to stay together.
I get it.
I have lots and lots.
I live right by there.
I have lots and lots of friends who say, my kids could walk to school.
They could ride their bike to school.
Please put us back at Beck.
So I was just asking.
I'm asking on their behalf.
And I'm trying to also keep in mind Mr. Lacy's comment about buses because we, you know, have such struggles with those.
Now with the multi-bell schedule, getting all the kids where they need to be quickly and efficiently.
And so, but I've had a lot of time to look at it.
And I, too, play with it and look at it, play with it some more.
And it's just not a happy thing.
And there's no perfect solution.
But I did want to just bring out those points to people.
So for clarification, Ms. Fox, your thought process was to take everybody that's east of Peak Road and put them at Beck?
Is that what you were asking?
Why don't we take that group?
So that would be 76B and 79A and move them?
Or are you talking about everybody east of Grand Parkway?
No, no.
No, no, east of Peak.
Just east of Peak?
Yes.
We couldn't take all four.
That's way too many students.
And I don't even know how many geocoded students are in there.
I just get a lot of comments from those two sections that want to be at Beck because their kids could ride their bike and they
One day they didn't get home till 5 o'clock because there was some traffic problem on Frye Road as you all know what Frye Road's like so
They're happy people are happy at Beckendorf junior high. They are happy at Beck junior high
I'm so happy to see Beck junior high more
Appropriately utilized here in option one. I really like it. I know it's difficult
I just was asking because they asked me that's my job
So I'm not suggesting it. I'm asking questions because people ask me
Are there any other questions
Miss guests off welcome. Do you have any questions for this?
Okay
All right. Thank you so much
We're going to move on to agenda item 6.2, consider future board authorization for the
superintendent to form a committee for the purpose of proposing a name for junior high
number 60 per board policy CW local.
Mr. Gregorski, I'd like for you to start that process.
Mr. Madam President, we can certainly start that process and I will work closely with
our communications department to start putting together a timeline and we can start getting
that process ready immediately okay thank you agenda item 6.3 consider future board approval
of a contract for air testing and balancing services associated with the construction of
junior high number 16. miss Kassman and you are going to be with us for a little bit so
when you finish one we can just move on to the next okay thank you yes five items this evening
for your consideration the first is to consider future board approval for air testing and balancing
for junior high 16 that is currently under construction. As the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems are installed in different areas of the facility, a test and balancing firm is required to test the HVAC systems and balance the air consistent with the project specifications.
Engineered Air Balance is the best qualified to undertake this phase of work and they have successfully provided projects throughout the district.
The second item is to consider future board approval for amendment 5 to Ansel Bryant construction related to the renovations at Fielder Elementary.
In October, I presented a partial price that included costs to commence with portable relocation, site preparation, including infrastructure, material procurement, and relocation of programs in anticipation of the guaranteed maximum price.
The costs are now complete and the total project cost, including that from the previous amendment, amounts to $20,854,960.
Item 3 is to consider future board approval for the Ag Sciences property plat.
The plat reflects all boundaries, utility easements, road right-of-ways, and associated dedications
and is consistent with the design as presented previously to the board with both existing and future additions and modifications.
The last two items, four and five, are to consider future board approval ratifying a resolution authorizing identification of real property of both Harris County Flood Control and Harris County in connection with the Ag Sciences Center.
The Agricultural Sciences Center originally allowed for drainage to the northeast corner of the property.
It was the best interest of the district to continue the drainage in this direction for the new drainage requirements of the site expansion.
The design of the drainage directly into South Mady Creek includes crossing Katie-Hockley
Cut-Off and through the 1.31 acre parcel of land that we purchased back in June 2017.
Once Harris County and Harris County Flood Control right-of-ways are dedicated, there
will be no excess property remaining for Katy ISD.
It is our recommendation in regards to these Board agenda items that the noted acres be
dedicated to Harris County Flood Control and Harris County.
Thank you, Ms. Kassman. Are there any questions for any of the items that she presented?
Ms. Gesoff?
So, does the air balancing have anything to do with efficiency?
It does because you want to make sure that when the engineer designs that we designed for the current engineering energy requirements,
So they test all that to make sure the airflow is correct not too much cold air not too much hot air
Okay, so it's not only a requirement, but there is an efficiency benefit from from doing that work. Okay, and then
The the total cost for the amendment for the AG building does that include the contingencies
There were two contingencies. I think like a hundred and fifty thousand dollars each
For the fielder?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that includes everything in that.
Okay.
So the max not to exceed includes the contingencies?
Correct.
Okay.
Sorry.
I think I have one more.
No problem.
Nope.
That was it.
Okay.
Thank you.
Good for you.
Thank you so much.
Anyone else?
Thank you, Ms. Casper.
All right.
Thank you.
Agenda item 6.8, consider future board approval to designate the superintendent the authority
to execute an electricity contract.
Mr. T?
Good evening, President Doyle, board members, acting superintendent, Mr. Gregorski.
I'm bringing a recommendation that the Board of Trustees approves the acting superintendent or designee
the authority to execute an electrical supply contract for Katy Independent School District for up to 60 months,
provided the price complies with a benchmark effective rate of below .045 cents per kilowatt,
plus transmission distribution charges and any public utilities assessment and gross receipts tax charges.
KDISD is issuing a request for proposal for electricity services to allow KDISD
to negotiate and obtain electricity prices for the district's electricity load.
Due to fluctuating and volatile pricing of the electricity, rates are typically valid solely for a day or possibly hours.
Consequently, the district is seeking approval of the board of trustees to negotiate at a rate at or below the benchmark of .045 cents per kilowatt hour.
For an extension, pass the existing term for up to 60 months.
The existing term expires in June of 2022.
22. This will allow the district to take advantage of low pricing and lock in a rate for budget planning.
Are there any questions?
Mr. Scott.
When you say lock in a rate, does it anticipate increases or is it lock solid?
It's lock solid, sir.
Okay.
Any other questions?
Madam President.
I'm going to go with Ms. Gesoff and run ahead.
Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Teed, why did we set the benchmark where we set it? What was the basis for that?
We are anticipating to get lower than that, but we wanted to set a benchmark that we would not even entertain any pricing above that amount so that potential bidders on our load, and we have a very large load because this will be all of our load, will understand that and bring their best offer to us.
And so do we think that's pretty conservative? We're setting that you know, we're kind of setting the target
Conservatively for them to hit yes, thank you. We're anticipating a much lower price than that
Miss Fox, mr. Teague. Thank you. Do we currently have two?
Two providers right now for most of our buildings is one and then we did something for a small amount of buildings
Sorry, I'm not raising that very well. How much do we pay on each of those? Yes, ma'am
Last December, we took an RFP out for our new buildings to add on rather than to go on to our current provider.
And that price is .03622 versus our rate with direct energy, which is .05237,
which saves the district over the term of that contract about $685,000.
So when we locked in the contract with Direct Energy, is that what you said?
Mid-America last December.
No, the .052.
Oh, yes, ma'am.
That was the best anyone had ever seen.
Yes, ma'am.
That was done several years ago.
It was like unbelievable that you could get five cents a kilowatt hour when we locked it in.
And we locked it in for 60 months at that time?
60 months, yes, ma'am.
60 months.
and then the rate dropped so we took in something new at 0.03622 which is why our new buildings we
didn't add to that contract because we were able to get a better rate yes ma'am right so the 60
months sounds really good and they give you a really good rate at the current time but then
the rates fluctuate sex correct when you say that our existing term expires in June of 2022 do you
You mean on the lion's share portion, the direct energy contract?
Our current contract expires in June of 2022.
Yes, ma'am.
That one does, as does the Mid-America account.
Both of our contracts will expire in June of 2022.
So we're looking to put all buildings on one new contract.
What's the hurry?
It's 2018.
We're at historical lows right now in our gas prices.
and if we could wait, and that's one reason why we set the benchmark where we do at .045,
is if we don't get that lower rate, we can just step away from it and say,
we'll come back in the spring or next summer and try it again.
We have time to negotiate with our load and to all of those providers out there,
but because we have such a large load, we think that because of the gas prices now,
Now they will commit to a very, very good price to KDISD.
We could, no matter what it is.
We're committing the district from 2020 to 60 months out from there.
Up to 60 months.
We may decide that the best rate they give us will be only for one year.
It's what has to be negotiated with the RFP.
Well, the better rate comes with certainly a 48 to 60 month contract.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay.
It seems like we're, I understand the gas rates are low.
So we, because we have so much time to make these decisions,
and I just, I think the amount of, the cost of this is going to be so significant,
I would I would really like for the school board to see it as the RFP comes
we're looking at a whole bunch of these things in here and we see the tabulations from everywhere and I would
propose that the school board look at this contract and the tabulation so they come in and
See who see who's bid there is one other part of?
This that let me let me address this
KDSD has how many kilowatt hours at the current time? Our current load is 155
megawatts. 155 megawatts that's a whole bunch of electricity so we can drive our
price down. When we take our 155 megawatts away from the state share in
our TASB energy co-op which is who we have our current contract through, that
causes all of the prices to go up for everyone else in the in the state
because they buy in bulk as well so part of our contribution there if we could
get and we have a pretty reasonable price there is it helps us and it helps
others and I I like that portion of it that together it's like our by boards
and everything else we do with TASB right George that we we work together to
make it better for the entire state and so will we have will TASB energy co-op
be one of the people who is who did yeah they did on our last one right I just
kind of like to see it come to the board instead of designate the superintendent
to do this be interesting I think for all of us to see it's a huge amount of
money that we are giving away our authority to the superintendent to make
a decision for us and I would like to keep that just authority here thank you
Mr. Scott.
Clarify.
As I read this, and if I'm wrong, I apologize for that,
I see that we're authorizing the superintendent to negotiate.
This contract would come back to the board, would it not?
The contract would be negotiated, and they would require a signature
either the same day or within hours of that negotiation.
So that's what we have done in the past is, you know,
to bring it back and put it on the board agenda, you know,
that kind of stops us from doing that presumably I mean I understand what Mrs.
Fox is saying presumably if you've got a deal if if we're if we're two years out
and you wait closer to the deadline your leverage goes away that's just that me
that's clear so if you negotiate a good price then there's going to be
communication to the board president communication to the board leadership
that if there is a specific need but you could risk an exposed bid if you don't
act on it is that what I'm hearing yes we could do that but again most most
districts have gone to this negotiation process because the energy providers are
wanting an immediate answer saying we're going to give you this rate at this time
period but we want to know now that you're going to buy our energy from us
Because they may have several buyers.
They may be negotiating several bird in the hand as well as Bush.
Is that kind of what we're doing?
Yes, sir.
So does the board want to have that?
I mean, Mrs. Fox has raised a legitimate question.
Does the board really want this to come back to the board,
or do we want the board leadership to just be informed?
Because we're not experts in negotiation, and I would be hard-pressed, I think,
to to gum up what is perceived to be an extremely good negotiated price I mean
you were obviously on the board when you got the five cents and you know if it
just seems like we don't want to create something that would would hurt the
negotiating position of the district or cost us a great deal there is time to
talk about it. I think you've raised a good point for discussion, but I don't think we
want to do anything that would hinder flexibility for our professionals to take the right deal
at the right time.
Madam President, if I may respond. I agree with you, Mr. Scott, but we aren't even looking
until four more years out or three and a half years before we actually need it. I understand
I understand gas prices are low, but I don't think this is like critical to make a decision, you know, immediately.
I think there's time.
And I also know because of working on the energy co-op for the state, for the entire state, that from a state level that we have so much buying power that we can, they'll wait on us.
They're not going to go away because we don't make a decision in an hour.
There are other people waiting in line to get our business and they'll lock it in for 60 months
Are you kidding? They will wait until we can make a decision. I've
Negotiated parts of negotiations. I'm the chair of the Texas energy co-op
We negotiate for the entire state for all of the not at the entire state for the number of school districts who come together
And we get a better price because we buy in bulk and those kinds of things happen
And I just clarify you said that TASB
bid on the last one and got beat by the three-cent bid?
Yes, sir, they did.
So the theoretical, I mean, we can't be hawking for TASB.
They just got to get in line and do the best.
I'm not.
And even I'm the TASB, the district's representative on TASB.
I sit in all the board meetings, the budget and finance.
We get the reports from the different sub-things.
I mean, I don't think we want to do anything that hurts the negotiating ability and the judgment of our chief executive officers.
We're not energy negotiators at this table.
And, President?
Ms. Fann.
In the past, when negotiations have been handled, it has not come to the board.
It's been a decision of the superintendent.
Is that my understanding?
In the years that…
Or their designee.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay.
Okay. I'm sure Mrs. Fox has been on this board when there's been many negotiations that have happened.
And I concur with Mr. Scott that locking in what's best for the district on those who know, have some background and information, are the ones tasked to handle it.
Are there any other questions?
It happened that way last time. How many times has it been that way, Mr. Teed?
You haven't been here very long. I just want to clarify that I don't think that's how it's happened every time.
I believe I've seen paperwork where we've done power buys with TASB three times,
and all three times it was handled in that manner.
Where the administration handled the negotiations, correct?
Yes, ma'am.
Okay.
Ms. Gesoff?
I just wanted to ask about kilowatt hour plus transmission and distribution charges.
I only say this because once upon a time I signed my husband and I up for Green Mountain
Energy and I thought I got a really good deal and I'm not dissing any energy company.
It just so happened that was who I signed with and I thought and I was just looking
at the kilowatt hours.
I wasn't looking at the transmission charges which were quite a bit higher than what we
had been paying.
So I think as long as we set parameters for our chief executive officer to negotiate within,
then I'm fairly comfortable in that space.
But it just says plus transmission and distribution charges.
Are we going to set limits in that area as well?
Yes, ma'am.
Well, that's why we call those out separately.
Those are set by ERCOT and the public utility group.
Whatever they are, we can't negotiate those.
We have to pay those.
And we do that currently now with our negotiated rate with TASB.
TASB as well as our Mid-America account. What we're asking for is by putting it out publicly
this way, we are including in the bid that they give us, the rate that they give us, all nodal
and any other administrative fees that they may charge or pass on to us. And that's what we're
setting at the 0.045 rate. Whereas with our TASB account right now, those are not inclusive. And so
So we're actually paying a much, not a much higher, but a higher rate than what was originally published.
So the .045 includes the transmission and distribution charges?
It does not include the transmission and distribution.
And it includes the nodal and any other administrative fees.
The only thing, it's excluding those because those are set by the public utility.
So we can't negotiate them anyway?
No, ma'am, we cannot.
I understand.
Thank you for explaining that to me.
Are there any other questions with regard to this agenda item?
Okay.
Thank you so much, Madam President.
Ms. Vaughn?
I request this item to not be on consent agenda so that we can.
Okay, do you want to move it to action?
Action item for next week.
Thank you.
Agenda item 6.9, consider future board approval to award the purchase and installation of security cameras, package number one, Mr. Christofferson.
And you'll be with us for four agenda items.
We'll just roll through all and then ask questions at the end.
Thank you.
All right.
Good evening, President Doyle, members of the board, Acting Superintendent Gregorski.
As part of the 2017 Bond Safety and Security Improvement Security System retrofits,
KDISD contracted with Leaf Engineers to provide engineering project management services
for the upgrade of the campus security camera hardware and wiring infrastructure.
The solution will replace analog cameras in 23 elementary schools,
seven support facilities with IP-based digital cameras
that will integrate with the district's video management system.
The solution will increase the security camera coverage at each school
as well as improve the quality of that video. Based on their responses to RFCSP
1811, it is recommended that the Board of Trustees award the contracts to the
following. Group 1 was pyrotech systems in the amount of $231,176. Group 2 is
AccuTech in the amount of $286,636. Group 3 is AccuTech in the amount of
$271,222. And Group 4 is pyrotech systems in the amount of
$162,364. The contingency amount of $15,000 for additional fiber work needed at the East
Transportation solution to provide this solution, the amount totaling $966,398, funding source
will be the 2017 bond.
Are there any questions?
Madam President.
I'm sorry, Mr. Lyser. I'm sorry, I was looking at you like that.
I wasn't looking back. I'm sorry.
I know. I apologize.
One real quick question. I know this is really simple. I think I already know the answer.
Fielder's not included in the list because we're going to be doing that with the reconstruction,
correct?
Right.
Perfect. That's it.
Okay. Go ahead.
Okay. Next item is 6.10. District has contracted with Education Partner Solutions Incorporated
to solicit quotes in accordance with the E-rate requirements. The district will seek E-rate
reimbursement for qualified fiber optic connectivity solution. Based on the
responses to RFCSP 1810, the Technology Department recommends the Board of
Trustees awards RFCSP to Pure Speed Lightwave. Pure Speed Lightwave
Solutions offers the best value to the district and has successfully performed
fiber optic services for the district in the past. Fiber optic connectivity for
elementary is 43, junior high 16, high school 9. The total amount would be
$237,264.98 and this is also a 2017 bond.
Are there any questions?
Okay, 6.11.
Okay, the district is contracted with Education Partner Solutions to solicit proposals in
accordance with E-rate.
The district will seek E-rate reimbursement for funding of qualified wide-area network
electronics.
This hardware is used to connect the fiber optic network.
network. Based on responses from RFCSP 1812, the Technology Department recommends that
the Board of Trustees awards RFCSP to NetSync Network Solutions. NetSync offers the best
value to the district and has successfully performed technology work in the district
in the past. The cost for network electronics is for elementary 43 is $20,220.60, junior
High 16 is $20,220.60 and High School 9 is $26,579.90.
The funding source is 2017 bond and the total proposed amount is $67,021.10.
Are there any questions?
6.12.
The district has contracted with Education Partner Solutions to solicit proposals.
In accordance with the E-rate requirements, the district will seek E-rate reimbursement
funding a qualified network and wireless electronics defined in rfcsp 1813. this hardware
will provide wired and wireless connectivity within the schools based on the responses rfcsp
1813 the technology department recommends that the board of trustees awards rfcsp to networks
netsync network solutions netsync offers the best value to the district and has successfully
performed technology work in the district in the past the cost of network electronics for elementary
elementary 43 is $197,079.10. Junior high 16th is $242,141.50. And high school 9 is $644,443.80.
This is funded from the 2017 bond, and the total proposed amount is $1,083,664.40.
Are there any questions? Ms. Gussow. Mr. Christopherson, when I look at the matrix,
It looks well in the cover letter you noted that there were two complete bids and then there was one that was from an alternative
manufacturer integrated
which on the
the last one the electronics
Yes, it's outside of our standard solution that we use and we support across the district. It's a new technologies. We have to learn
We have support
So we give it less credit than the rest of the solution. Okay? I just notice there's a price differential
But then you know they kind of weren't they weren't rated very high on the other
Products weren't the same. Okay, and it's kind of a new right they use a different solution that we use everywhere else. Okay. Thank you
Any other questions?
Thank you so much
Agenda item 6.13 consider future board approval of the December 2018 budget amendments miss Butterfield
Good evening, President Doyle, trustees, and Deputy Superintendent Gregorski.
Tonight we have 10 general operating fund budget amendments, and two of them to note.
One is increasing the revenues by $220,000 and offsetting expenditures in the same amount
related to Davidson Elementary playground equipment.
And then $34,004 for HVAC controls at Creech Elementary.
Two construction fund amendments.
These I believe we talked about last month.
So $799,202 for replacement of the boiler at Morton Ranch High School and Seven Lakes.
and then $8,455,291 for the athletic-related projects over at Katy High School.
Both of these are being funded from the 2017 bond project savings.
Are there any questions?
Okay.
Thank you, Ms. Butterfield.
Agenda item 6.14, consider future board approval of an interlocal agreement
with Fort Worth Independent School District to participate in the Texas
Public Sector Group, a cooperative purchasing association. Ms. Truskowski.
Good evening President Doyle, Board of Trustees and Acting Superintendent Mr.
Gregorski. Today I'm here to ask the Board to consider future Board approval
of an interlocal agreement with Fort Worth ISD to participate in the Texas
Public Sector Group, which is a cooperative purchasing group.
KDISD has a limited travel card system and an e-payable solution through Bank of America.
And the e-payable solution allows the vendors to receive electronic payments, make electronic payments at no cost to the district.
The district receives rebates based on the dollar volume paid through these e-payable solutions.
So it's kind of a win-win for the district.
Bank of America pays all the rebates directly to KDISD.
There's no cost to join in a local agreement, and we can definitely terminate upon any written notice.
Are there any questions?
Okay.
Thank you.
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 have 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 allotted, 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 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, for board members,
the superintendent, the chief communications officer, and permanent record.
Due to posting requirements of the Opens Meeting 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 bed legal states
that it is a criminal offense for a person with the intent to prevent or
disrupt a lawful meeting to substantially obstruct or interfere with
the ordinary conduct of the meeting by physical action or verbal utterance and
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 an 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.
State your first and last name for the record.
Our first speaker this evening is Terry Majors.
Madam President, just so everyone knows, we have 18 speakers signed up tonight,
so every speaker is going to get a minute and 40 seconds of the 30 minutes.
Thank you.
Good evening, President Doyle, members of the board, and Mr. Grabowski.
My name is Terry Majors.
I'm a Katy resident and a former school district principal.
Currently, I serve on the Strategic Design Committee, and I am also on the District Bullying Committee.
My combined years in education exceed four decades.
Hiring outside consultants to do a superintendent search would be an egregious error.
We have many outstanding educators in this district, including our acting superintendent, Ken Gregorski.
Promoting from within boosts overall morale, increases positive productivity, and is beneficial to all.
Considering looking outside is an insult to our students, our staff, and our community.
allowing the bullying behavior of a few to squelch the best judgment and intelligence of the majority would be ill-advised to the point of absurdity.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Majors.
Our next speaker is Eric San Miguel.
Thank you, Ms. Majors.
Thank you again to the board for letting me speak tonight. I have a few things I'd like to recognize. First of all, the Tompkins Orchestra came to our Rotary Club Christmas party and I was very impressed by their performance. It was wonderful. They are a great group of kids, very respectful group of kids, so good on those kids.
kids. Second thing is I want to recognize my physical education teacher at Hutsal Elementary,
Robert Brashear. He has done a fantastic job. We had a field day that was like an American
Ninja Warrior style field day and it was amazing. The kids really loved it and that's something
we're going to continue to do and we're even going to design a fun run around that. So
I thought that was awesome. On a light note, Tompkins and Katie also had a wonderful football
season not the result we always expect around here but hey they they did a
great job lastly I'm here to thank dr. Hint it's it's really a sad sad moment
that he's gone but he's done such an amazing job for our district and I wish
him the best in retirement but don't think for a second that what he started
won't be finished we'll make we'll make sure his plans are seen through I'm
personally going to focus on elementary education and around bullying and create
a foundation of leaders. One thing I'm not going to do is give one ounce of
energy to the immature and short-sighted attacks by those who have no interest in
helping kids. They just really want the attention grab and destroy for publicity.
That's a short play and it will fail. Dr. Hint, you did a great job here. Your
legacy will live on. If you ever want to have coffee with me, I'd be honored. Thank
Thank you so much and Merry Christmas.
Thank you, Mr. McGill.
Sam McGill?
Bethany Cobb.
Good evening, President Doyle, board members, and Mr.
Gregorski.
My name is Bethany Cobb, and I am
a teacher who is a product of the KDISD education system
and I've returned home to pursue my passion for teaching.
At the conclusion of this year, I
will have worked in KDISD for 15 years.
I want to begin by saying thank you for volunteering your time
and that extra pay that's going to be in this month's check and getting to wear jeans for the rest of December is a blessing and put a huge smile on my face.
As I said before, I'm in the midst of my 15th year in KDISD, and throughout this time I've had many mentors,
and although I wish I could praise all of them, I do want to recognize two current administrators.
Yvette Sylvan, who is my former principal at Franz Elementary, always shot it to me straight
and was a sounding board when I needed to talk through an idea or an issue.
And my current administrator, Mark McCord, is a breath of fresh air.
His ability to energize our campus and make us feel like family is very appreciated.
I'm also learning the art of feedback so that I can be a better communicator to my colleagues,
students and parents.
At Stockdick, we say things like, I notice and I wonder.
In that spirit of feedback, I would like to provide a little bit of feedback as well.
I noticed when Dr. Hint was hired his passion and joy for this job was evident. He loves students and he loves teachers.
He wanted to hear our thoughts, which was again appreciated and Dr. Hint, even though you might not know it,
you were a mentor to me and I'm going to take that
energy and joy and continue to take it to my classroom and it will be with me throughout my teaching career.
But I now have to wonder, I have to wonder how our district's going to move forward.
Thank you, Ms. Kahn.
Next, Georgia Strickland.
Good evening, everybody.
I wanted to give you all a PTA update as per usual.
We are at 28,786 members as of Friday.
Friday. Our goal, if you remember, was 30,000, so we were very, very close. Wood Creek Elementary
PTA put kindness posters in all their bathrooms on their campus. Fielder PTA is holding their
annual toy drive until December 14th. Seven Lakes High School held their home tour that
engaged the campus and the community, so I've loved seeing the pictures. I did not get to
go because I have small children probably a bad idea. Wilson PTA is donating their funds to their
campus to purchase a sunshade for their basketball court and Tompkins PTSA had two nationally
recognized speakers come to their campus and discuss social media and the impact on mental
health. They had a very good turnout for that and Griffin did is doing a toy drive and giving
in a giving tree to benefit their sister school.
Hayes PTA is helping purchase collaborative soft seating
for their campus and charging poles for their library.
And just real quick, speaking as Georgia Strickland,
just a parent, it's been an honor to work with Dr. Hint.
I have loved getting to know him.
He is a breath of fresh air.
I feel comfortable speaking to him on any issue I have.
So I will miss him dearly, and I know my family will as well.
thank you so much thank you our next speaker is james strickland
good evening so my last update of 2018 is here so since my last update was uh let's see it was uh
october 15th i believe we've had three junior high schools and one additional high school who have
started a male involvement program specifically watchdogs and because of men on campus we now have
hundreds of men on campus how about that throughout the district and will continue to grow
this program into and throughout 2019 and beyond with the continued support of you guys thank you
very much and the administration of kdisd and with the additional thousands of hours being added each
month. I am now exploring some additional capacities for the men on campus program
and I will let you guys know early 2019 what those are because they're still
developing but very exciting. So if I don't see you happy holidays. Thank you
very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Sean Dolan. I'd like to commend the board
for continuing to have an agenda item focused on the hiring of a new
superintendent. Transparency and open discussion with the
community is always going to be more productive than secrecy and filtered
discussions. I would strongly recommend that the board actively engage this
community in the process of hiring a new superintendent. The selection of a new
superintendent will have a lasting impact on our children, our community, and
our great educators and therefore it should not be done in isolation. If as a
board member you don't believe that KDISD is worthy and capable of attracting
the best talent available nationwide to lead this district then I'm disappointed
in your assessment of this district and your belief in our district's value and
differentiation from others. Imposing limits on the pool of candidates that
are eligible for the position of KDISD superintendent directly imposes limits
on the future potential of this district. A national search would not exclude the
the talent from within KDISD and if you are absolutely certain that KDISD
already contains leadership talent that cannot be surpassed elsewhere in this
nation that a national search will only serve as validation of your theories and
confirmation to the community. If the talent already exists within the KDISD
organization to provide stronger leadership moving forward then you have
failed in your duties as board members to recognize that potential and promote
that better leader for the benefit of the district before your hand was forced.
The next superintendent must be a stronger leader, have stronger principles, and be more
capable than the last superintendent of achieving new levels of greatness in KISD.
With all due respect to Mr. Gregorski, if he is that person and you have failed this
community and him by not promoting Mr. Gregorski to superintendent before your hand was forced,
if Mr. Gregorski is not a strong leader, then the-
Thank you, Mr. Dolan.
Our next speaker is Melissa Nixon.
Thank you President Doyle, School Board, Interim Superintendent Gregorski for giving me a few
minutes.
I just want to say that first of all I think KDISD is amazing.
Everyone in this room who fights for this school district every day and for our kids
deserves a lot of credit.
it. I'm very proud to live here. I'm proud that my kids were educated here. I have one left in KDIC
as a senior at Cinco Ranch High School. I'm just, you know, want to express the fact that
I'm not sure what's going to happen with the superintendent search, but whatever is going
to happen, whoever is going to end up being the superintendent is going to be blessed to be here.
We have an amazing community, amazing staff, amazing educators. The people in this community
are here because education is a number one priority to them.
No matter what their views are, we all fight for our kids here.
I just really hope, and I really don't understand how we went from one meeting where we weren't in a hurry,
and now we're in a hurry, and I don't really understand what's going on.
But wherever we end up, my hope is that we can come together as a board,
and that whoever is selected, they will get a 7-0 vote.
because if you cannot get a 7-0 vote it's going to be very difficult to pull
the community behind you you all need to find a way to come together find a
process that you all can agree on because this district is worth working
for worth fighting for and you know what if mr. Gorgorzky is a superintendent
whatever you decide they all deserve a 7-0 vote so you need to work together
to figure out how to get us there.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Chris Corkett.
Good evening Madam President, School Board, and Interim Superintendent Mr. Gregorski.
I wanted to congratulate Mr. Gregorski on being named interim superintendent.
You haven't been at the school district very long, but I look forward to getting to know you and your vision for the district.
As a former trustee, I was not privileged to participate in a superintendent search as a trustee,
but I was an employee at the time when a superintendent search was done.
and that process was one that gave great value and buy-in on the part of staff
and I encourage you to consider using an outside search firm to identify a
superintendent. The process of using surveys and listening meetings with
staff, parents, community members, and other stakeholders has informed the
candidates and boards on issues and aspirations of the district in a time of
transition. There needs to be a mechanism for all of you to be able to get that
kind of information and input as well as sharing with the community your vision
for dealing with the challenges of 2019 and beyond. Without that kind of open
dialogue neither the board nor the applicants will know what the
stakeholders want. This puts you all at a disadvantage. Both the loan finalists and
the process need to be supported with a seven to zero vote to have confidence
have the confidence of the community and to communicate your confidence in your work.
I confess to being confused.
If, as the Chronicle says, you are posting the position on 11-day posting,
does that mean you'll be naming a superintendent in December?
I wonder what the rush is.
You have a competent interviewer.
Thank you, Ms. Crockett.
Our next speaker is Billy Ann Crockett.
Okay, Bill and Ann. I'm sorry, the way it was written.
You're welcome. Thank you.
Madam Chair, members of the board, I'm Ann Crockett.
This is my husband, Bill Crockett.
We live at 1130 Farm to Market Road, 1463, Katy, Texas.
and we have lived here for over 45 years.
My husband and I have lived here for over 45 years,
and we've been closely involved with education at all school levels.
We've worked on school boards, school teachers, administrators,
community members, and the government.
When we started the Katy, the National Association of Educators, we were based on putting children first, professional conduct, promoting high standards, and now we have over 100,000 members.
In our school district, Katy ISD, we have the opportunity to continue to improve and expand on the last two years.
Educational leaders rarely come along who offer such positions of opportunity, who reward PATH to a better education for our children.
children. We believe this is the best way to be. Thank you so much and I appreciate everything that you do. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Michael Scheman.
!
every year.
I think it would make students in general
far more productive and far more inspired.
And as far as security cameras,
FERPA states when a video is an education record
of multiple students,
FERPA requires the educational agency
or institution to allow upon request
an individual parent of a student
or the student if the student is a knowledgeable student
to whom the video directly relates
to inspect and review the video. And this has to do with both past and future
instances of things such as bullying. And just as a general thought and question,
can you reliably step up to enforce that this policy is obeyed and that the
parents will, without any sort of hassle, be allowed to see these videos and
review them? Thank you very much. Thank you, Michael. Our next speaker is Joe
Joe Kimmel.
Good evening.
My name is Joe Kimmel.
Of the 36 years that I've lived in KDISD, I spent 12 years on this Board of Trustees.
As a point of interest during my very first Board meeting, I became involved in the process
of replacing a superintendent.
superintendent. That board immediately engaged the search firm and appointed an interim superintendent.
While the search process lasted several months, it resulted in the hiring of Dr. Leonard Merrill
as the superintendent. During Dr. Merrill's tenure, this district grew from about 24,000
students to over 55,000 students. That pattern of growth has obviously continued.
KDISD is nationally recognized as a top performing school district.
That recognition in concert with the exemplary quality of the staff and employees clearly
contribute to the ongoing performance and the growth in this district.
With that in mind, I would encourage this board to engage in a national search for a
new superintendent.
Selecting a superintendent through such a process benefits the students, staff, and
community in KDISD by assuring that the person selected for this job is the best
candidate for the best school district in the state of Texas. Thank you. Thank
you Mr. Kimmel. Our next speaker is Susan Wallace.
us it's my understanding that money was used to investigate the board's
detractors money collected for the education of our communities children
while it sounds like it's possibly illegal I can say with complete
certainty that it is highly unethical and a sign of moral corruption that's
That's you, veteran board members whom this describes.
What will you do with this information?
As you discovered, we're pretty light on skeletons, unlike our disgraced superintendent.
We know the information was shared amongst some of you.
Again, unethical.
So now here we are with an acting superintendent that has never been a superintendent, giving
him the job of running a district of 80,000 students.
Pretty cavalier about filling the position with the best possible candidate.
it assuming there aren't any former superintendents already employed here in
Katy ISD by hiring within you're considering putting someone in the
position that has never run a district more poor decisions I understand there
will be some discussion tonight regarding the superintendent search
however you hold the discussion after public comments thus robbing us of the
opportunity to comment regarding the information you share more of the same
in the last few months it has become apparent that here in Katy ISD there is
is a culture of impunity.
Most of the board, truly most of the room, suffer from a vacuum of accountability.
It's time for a change.
It's time for a better legacy.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, our next speaker is Laurie Shusterman.
Good evening.
Good evening, Madam President Doyle, Board of Trustees, and Acting Superintendent Gregorski.
Thank you very much for this opportunity tonight.
My name is Laurie Schusterman.
I'm here tonight to acknowledge the last night of Superintendent Hindt's time with us.
I want to express my deep appreciation for Dr. Hindt's steadfast sacrifice, his committed
service and his unparalleled growth that we've experienced under his strong
leadership. We are better students, we are better families, we are better staff
because of him. We will miss him. Thank you so much and have a blessed Christmas.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Mr. Don Elder.
Good evening. I'm Don Elder, and I just appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening to address
Courtney Dole, the board president, the board, and Mr. Gregorski, the acting superintendent.
I appreciate this opportunity, and I feel very strongly about the subject I'm going to speak about.
I feel strongly about it because it is a leadership position which we are looking at in this district.
I served on this school board and also the county school board for 16 years.
And leadership is very important to the community in this district.
Both from an academic and a common sense perspective, we have always had a combination of strong leaders in this district.
I hope that this board will give strong consideration to people in the district who are qualified.
A national search is admirable, but I feel that at the same time,
we have very highly qualified people in this district to continue the continuity,
the type of education for our students and constituents that they expect with
a group with this group that's here as a governing body of this district your
responsibility to make the decisions for the future of KISD I wish you well in
these endeavors and thank you for your consideration thank you so much mayor
elder. Our next speaker is Laura Freeman.
President Doyle, board members, assistant, I'm sorry interim superintendent
Gregorski, my name is Laura Freeman. I've been a KDISD resident for 19 years and
I've had a child in KDISD school since then and will have a child in KDISD
until 2023. I came tonight to thank the board for beginning the discussion on the superintendent
search tonight and to ask the board to search nationwide for our next superintendent. I was
the Katy ISD Council of PTA's president when the district began searching for Dr. Hint.
Many community members, myself included, were part of the process, giving input on what the
trait, sorry, on what traits we wanted the next superintendent to have. This created a lot of
community buy-in. When Dr. Hint was finally named, he walked into a community that was excited and
ready to work with him. We were excited because we knew we were getting the candidate that best
matched the community's wants and needs. I think it would help this heal this community if you
include us in creating the portrait of the superintendent and like the board has in the past.
I also feel that you should search nationwide for our next superintendent. While our next
superintendent could very well already be employed by Katy ISD. We don't know who else is interested
in coming to Katy unless it is open to a nationwide search. Katy ISD is a destination district for
parents that hasn't changed. I have heard some people wonder given the decisiveness in our
community who would even be interested in coming to Katy. The thing is we don't know and we won't
know who's interested in coming to Katy unless the search is opened up. We may find some awesome
people who might not yet be ready to be a superintendent that would be a
fantastic member of the new superintendent admin team so I
encourage you to create a nationwide search for our next superintendent thank
you thank you miss Freeman our next speaker is mr. Eric Duhon a lot thank
you all for your time mr. president Doyle mr. Gregorski and honored board
board members. You were elected by the public to serve on this board, right?
That gives you a great responsibility. I had it for 12 years. It's not easy
and it's not always fun, but you have a great decision to make now that's going to
guide KDISD forward. You've heard everyone else speak, but I'm
here to tell you that you have to ask yourself the questions.
Are you afraid that maybe the public thinks that this is a split
board? Because if it is, get together. Solve that problem. Start to get
had some common thoughts going. Are you afraid that the strategic plans that you have put forth
are going to be changed? Well, they will. Every time a member changes in a group, dynamics change.
Every time you change leaders, dynamics change. You have to be ready to adapt. So be ready to adapt.
So it really is your responsibility. It's your first, I want to remind you, sorry,
sorry, your responsibilities to the students first,
which you have in place,
and the strategic plans you've made are for the students.
That's a great thing.
Keep it up.
But understand it's going to change.
Selecting the person who sits in that seat
is the most important thing you're going to do
because they are the ones you rely on
to guide the rest of the district
and to create a team.
Don't take it lightly.
A national search you should not be afraid of.
You put the guidelines on it.
You put the constraints on it.
You make the decision.
Just do what you know in your heart you need to do.
search your heart make sure that you can vote 7-0 for the new superintendent no
matter who they are please do that for the good of KDISD thank you thank you
mr. Doohan our next speaker is Charles Griffin
Hi, I'm Charles Griffin.
It's good to be back here.
I'm so sad that Lance Hinn is leaving.
I remember the day that we hired him.
Ken, I remember the day he brought you in.
Those are two awesome days.
Y'all have done a phenomenal job of helping this district achieve the level of greatness that it has.
and I'm glad to see that the board has recognized the opportunity to put you in
that seat so that this district can continue to go in the direction you know
sitting here tonight it was amazing they asked a question why would somebody want
to come here well we have a board here that can't even trust a superintendent
to negotiate an electric rate we're having a debate about pulling a power
that was given to him away from a superintendent. I mean I don't
know about the rest of the country but I sure wouldn't want to come here to try
to lead a district when a school board can't even give me the power to
negotiate an electric rate. I was floored. I mean I thought your job was to lead
and to educate children but we're worried about one or two pennies when
y'all done a the administration has done a phenomenal job. It amazes me.
me. Ken, I have full faith in you. I'm so proud that the board had the courage and the
strength to recognize what you have and the capabilities that you have. And I hope that
they just pick you because right now everything I've seen while I was here and what I've seen
up to this point, you are a phenomenal person and you have every asset, every skill necessary
to continue to take this district in the direction that this board has asked you to do it. Thank
you.
Thank you, Mr. Griffin.
Mr. Dolan, you cannot holler out.
That's your first warning.
Thank you.
Mr. Willoughby, you're our next speaker.
I'm sorry.
Better than Mr. Strickland, I can tell you.
You know, I'm not prepared with anything which usually works out in my favor.
I don't care if you're 7-0.
I don't care what your vote is.
I have one thing that I care about, is that you do the right thing.
You do the right thing.
Not that you do the right thing because somebody else thinks you should do the right thing.
You do the right thing.
It's your vote.
It's not mine.
It's not theirs.
It's nobody's.
It's yours.
You've been in the seat.
You've been down the path.
You know where it's gone.
You know where it can go.
You know the seeds that Lance has planted.
let them grow. Now in my last minute I just want to say that that in the two and a half years that
Lance has been here I've seen a traumatic change in our district in the personality in the in the
way that the the staff acts you know how they're treated how happy they are the kids just look at
the the newspaper articles where we're on at the top of all the charts you know that just doesn't
happen so he's planted the seed he's built the plan he has the staff let the
let it go forward do what you think is right to hell with the rest of the stuff
it's your vote you do it seven oh four three whatever I don't care do your job
like you're supposed to do thank you very much Thank You mr. Willoughby that
concludes our open forum portion of the meeting next we're going to go to agenda
item 8.1 discussion of the KDISD superintendent search and just as I did
in the last time that we held this agenda item I'm going to start with the
board member who sent me the email requesting this and then we'll work our
way around from new board members to leadership so I will start with you miss
Gesoff you were the first email that I received thank you president Doyle for
adding this to the agenda so we can discuss it here in the public forum and
I have to say just listening to everyone's comments I I I hear you
reflecting exactly what this group has been discussing and debating ultimately
I wanted to put it on the agenda because I think it was as miss Nixon said we had
a discussion here three weeks ago four weeks ago that was the topic was
superintendent search I made the point that when we put that on the agenda I
thought the discussion was how we were going to search for a superintendent but
when we came in and had the discussion miss Fox and miss Champaign and I talked
about how we thought the search was going to go and then everyone else talked
about community healing and taking time and potentially that the leadership that
we needed was sitting right here among us so it wasn't really the discussion that i i thought we
were going to have but all that aside since that time so we left the boardroom having had that
discussion and since that time the job has been posted internally and i for one did not know the
job was posted internally so i wanted to have this discussion so that i could hear from the leadership
about how that happened and what the leadership proposes we're doing going
forward or what in your mind we're doing going forward I would just like to
understand what's going on how it's going to progress in your mind so that's
why I asked for it to be put on the agenda
Thank You miss Gus off miss champagne you're next thank you for letting me
have the opportunity to talk about this. I want to say that I was elected along with Susan on May
5th of this year and on May 10th we found out that Lance Hint had announced his resignation
and we were inducted on May 21st. So right away I knew we had a big big job to do. We had to hire
a new superintendent because I knew that the superintendent was the only school board's
employee. It was never suggested to me by Dr. Hint or the other school board
members that we would not be faced with that task. So every training opportunity
I was given in which I could choose specific training sessions, I would
choose to attend ones that pertain to superintendent searches. As any of you
can see, several times we had had the superintendent search on our closed
meeting agendas. I had guessed that we would need to act fairly quickly because
I knew that Dr. Hindt's last day as superintendent would be on January 1st.
I had done enough research to know that the process of hiring a new superintendent would take at least four months,
so I figured we would start in August or September with our search.
I also felt that since Mrs. Vann, Mrs. Doyle, and Mrs. Fox had been through this process before,
that they knew when it would be best to start, so I deferred to their expertise.
I found out that Lance Hint and Alton Frailey were hired with the help of search firms,
so I assumed that this would be the best route to take.
Last month at our last board meeting, Mr. Scott publicly stated that the politics of KDISD had been poisoned with thuggery and that poison has now infected the board.
I take great offense to that because I am sure that he was speaking of me.
And if this is true, although it is not, what does this have to do with allowing for a broader search and allowing for public input?
And if this is true, all the more reason to possibly find someone from the outside not influenced by the political thuggery that has poisoned KDISD.
I would think that someone from the outside would bring in a fresh perspective and a fresh point of view.
Mr. Scott also said that night that he trusted the adults in the room, and I thought, so do I.
I trust the adults in the room.
Most of those adults in the room are community members and staff members.
I want to hear from them too, not just my fellow board members.
Mr. Scott said that this is not the time to make a political power play inside the boardroom at the expense of the district.
This is not a power play.
I have no political agenda.
When I signed up to run for this position, the issue of choosing a new superintendent did not exist.
I ran for this position because I care about the children, teachers, and the community.
I think the power play is being made by the other four board members forcing the entire community to have only one choice of a
New superintendent that is a power play if I if I have seen one
Mr. Scott says that he admires Ashley Van Courtney Doyle and Bill Lacy because they show courage
But what courage this was the easy way out to pick
From inside and that's probably going to lead to the deputy superintendent who was appointed by dr
Dr. Hint, who is already in place, and by the way, as far as I know, has not been interviewed.
And I do not know what chaotic turmoil that Mr. Scott referred to that will be caused by allowing a broader search.
Our only goal should be to find the very best superintendent for the job.
Ken Gregorski may be the best, but how do we know?
I agree with Mrs. Vann when she said that the hiring of superintendent is the most important job we are tasked with.
She said it was her opinion that quality candidates would not want to come here.
This is Mrs. Vann's opinion, and while I respect that, what about everyone else's?
What about all of your opinions?
How does she know that no one will want to come here without even trying to look?
She said we have the best district in Texas, and I agree.
We have the very best district, and surely we would attract qualified candidates.
Can't we try?
Mr Lacy said we were elected to be business people and not self advocates who want to
be the center of attention.
I am trying to understand what this has to do with hiring of a superintendent.
I'm not sure who he's speaking of, but if he was talking about me, I can assure you
that me wanting to use a broader net to find the best superintendent for our district has
nothing to do with me.
It has everything to do with ensuring that our district remains the premier school district
that it is.
I want our best choice and superintendent to benefit all of our current and future students
Mrs. Doyle said we had we have to build trust back with the community and we want the community to trust the next superintendent
How can this happen if we don't even ask the community what it wants?
That's not how to build trust. We can't demand trust
We have to earn trust a great start to this would be to show that we care about what the community wants
that we value our community's members ideas and opinions and that these ideas
and opinions should be heard and by the way in our board operating procedures on
page 4 under ethics the fifth bill bullet point it states be responsive to
the community by seeking its involvement in district affairs and by communicating
district priorities and concerns mrs. Doyle said that we aren't in a position
to get the best of the best how does she know this and what is she saying about
the people and internally is is mr. Gorgorzy not the best all all the more
reason we need a larger pool of applicants to choose from after
November's board meeting I heard from some community members that the three of
us who spoke about the search firms are trying to fast-track the process first
of all what's fast about us discussing how to begin the process six months
after we knew that dr. Hint was leaving I think it's so ironic that we were
criticized for fast tracking the process and suddenly there was a job posting for the new
superintendent 24 days later especially when some of mrs doyle's last words at the meeting were
some board members have an opinion of not searching right now i thought that meant we would
be delaying the hiring of any superintendent so i don't understand the sudden rush the job opening
closes this friday december 14th three days prior to our next board meeting which is one week from
today is that when we will vote in closing i want to say that i have nothing against ken Gregorski
he is a professional polite intelligent and very knowledgeable about the goings-on of kdisd
there's a strong possibility that we could look at 50 or 100 candidates and mr Gregorski would
be the best of all of them i just want to make sure of that thank you for your time and attention
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Champagne.
Our next speaker, Ms. Fox, will let you go next.
Good evening.
Thank you, Mrs. Doyle, for including this on the agenda.
I'm the senior member here.
I don't mean that's the oldest, but I am the senior member sitting at the dais.
And I'd like to talk a minute about our role as trustee.
this position is so important to me and I love it I take it very seriously and I
want to honor the people who put me here the role of school board is to ensure
that school districts are responsive to the values beliefs and priorities of
their communities providing community leadership as advocates for children the
the school district and public schools.
Boards fulfill this role by performing five major responsibilities.
We adopt goals and priorities and we monitor their success.
We adopt policies and evaluate effectiveness.
We hire and evaluate one employee, the superintendent.
We adopt a budget, set a tax rate, and we communicate with the community.
community. Our focus is children. We work for the community. If we were to look at an
organizational chart, the community would be at the top. Then would be trustees, then
the superintendent, everyone else falls under the superintendent and it is his or her responsibility
to do the day-to-day management. I believe it is an injustice to our
community not to ask for their voice on our superintendent search. Our
communications plan says your district, your voice. Madam President, when you do
your videos you say that. When we had our K-12 insight at the bottom of every
slide it said your district your voice we should ask for your voice before we
choose a superintendent we should ask I think mrs. Freeman is the one who said
she participated maybe mrs. Crockett others said they participated in the
past they create a portrait of a superintendent they say what
qualifications minimum standards the characteristics the leadership style so
So many people, Mrs. Cobb spoke about how important it was that Dr. Hint came and he asked for your input.
He knows who you are.
Choosing him was the right person for the right time in our community.
We need to think about the focus and the vision for our district and gather that from our community.
What do they want for their future, for their children, for their community?
We have amazing educators in KDISD and we may very well have the very best candidate
already in our employee.
But to offer a contract to someone without the input of our community or before we honor
a transparent process is an insult to our stakeholders and it is completely unfair to
our future superintendent.
Why saddle a superintendent without buy-in? We are not setting him up for success.
This isn't about any one person. It's about a transparent and thorough process to obtain the most highly qualified superintendent to lead our very successful, very desirable district.
district.
A divided board does not communicate strength and it doesn't provide our superintendent
with the strength he or she needs to lead our district.
I agree 100% with Mrs. Champagne.
I think Ken Gregorski is honorable, full of integrity, kind, informative, smart, brilliant, and a great leader.
I think to offer him the job, the position, without inclusion from our community doesn't give them the excitement that one of our speakers talked about how excited everyone was when Dr. Hint came because they helped create the position and the vision and they were so excited when he came as they should be for our next superintendent.
superintendent. We must find the right person, the right leadership, and use the right process
to lead us and guide our legacy. How can we hire a superintendent who has never been interviewed
or shared his resume with the Board of Trustees? Why are we in a hurry when we were told the
idea was to give him a chance to prove he could do the job, a trial run? I'm not exactly
I'm not exactly sure, Mr. Lacy, what your words were, but I really appreciated them.
I think that's a very wise idea, to give him an opportunity to lead and to show us his vision and his leadership,
to give us an opportunity to work with him and him to work with our community.
As a group, at the beginning of this, we talked about naming a lone finalist by the end of March.
As Mrs. Champagne was saying, there are three of us who have done this process before,
And as we talked through a timeline, we talked about the end of March.
Well, if we did a national search process, that couldn't happen.
And when I mentioned March last time, someone commented that it was a fast track.
And I don't care what day it is.
I just want to make sure that we do the right thing and that we're transparent and inclusive
of the people we work for.
I do have some questions for you, Mrs. Doyle.
How was the job decided to be posted?
Who decided the requirements that a principal experience would be what was required?
And shouldn't the board have had an opportunity to discuss that?
And why are we excluding our stakeholders from the process when we ask them for feedback on everything?
everything from the attendance boundary modification, multi-bill schedule, our strategic design.
We hire experts to help us with all of those major decisions to get information from our
community.
We use K-12 Insights tonight to talk to us about our attendance boundary modifications.
We use Engage to Learn to talk about our strategic design.
Experts know how to guide us so that we come out with the very strongest product.
because if the seven of us had decided the attendance boundary oh my goodness
what you know we would have all wanted something different so I'm just
suggesting that we use if you don't want to use a national search firm what if we
did a my suggestion is to do a community survey and just get some feedback there
we could use our k12 insight people to design the survey and get input so that
that we have ownership from our community to make our new superintendent to set him
up for the most success.
I will start by, I think you have the answer to that question, but in fairness, that you
want it to, you want Mr. Graham to answer it again.
I'm going to defer one of your questions to Mr. Graham with regard to...
Ms. Kassoff doesn't have any of that information, though.
We'll get her a copy of that.
Mr. Graham, would you address the posting and the legal rights for us to do that, please?
Trustees, I have provided you some information in a format which is confidential attorney client
information.
which cannot be released publicly without some action on behalf of the board, a majority of the board.
I can speak generally to how job postings are done in light of the requirements of Chapter 11 of the Texas Education Code,
specifically 11.1513, 11.201, chapter 552.12 of the Texas Government Code,
along with your own board policies, BJB, legal and local, and BJA, legal and local.
Chapter 11 really sets out the duties of governance for school districts.
and in in that process it talks about you know that the hiring that the
employment of the superintendent of schools is the sole discretion of this
board of trustees as with any other as with any other school district in the
state of Texas this board has the sole authority to hire employee evaluates and
you know ultimately terminate the superintendent of schools however if you
you go in and look at your own policies, administrative job postings are just that.
They are the purview of administration. I believe it's my understanding that we had several board
members ask for an item to be placed consistent with our board operating procedures that an item
be placed on the December 17th agenda to consider the hiring of a superintendent of schools.
schools. In order to do so, a posting has to be posted for at least 10 school days in
accordance with 11.1513 of the Texas Education Code. So that posting was made, I guess, last
Monday in order for that discussion to be had at next Monday's meeting. So that posting
was made, again, at the direction of the Board saying, hey, this is the item that we want
to discuss next Monday. I don't know how much further detail that I that I want
to go in I don't want to waive any attorney-client privilege here I can
talk generally about what that process looks like and if you have any specific
questions. Do you have any questions for him? Go ahead Mr. Scott. Can you answer the
question that the specifics the specificity of the job posting was
something that has been used by this district prior to this yes sir so what
we did is we pulled we pulled the posting that was used last time I pulled
that posting that was used last time as the information about the internal only
and added information specifically that goes back to what your board policy says
in BJA about the quality qualifications of the superintendent let's not get lost
in this the specificity of the qualifications the parameters of those
who would be eligible to apply were the same that mrs. Vought Fox had when she
went out for the last superintendent when she was a member of this board
correct I I believe so like I say we referenced BJA legal and local and added
the internal piece only.
Mr. Graham, I'm asking a question,
and if you tell me you can get 90% there or 95% there,
I'm not talking about internal.
That was an add-on.
I'm not talking about BGA.
That was an add-on.
But there was an explicit enumeration, 20, 25 things.
Of those 20 or 25 things,
was that a template from a prior posting for superintendent
posted by a board for KDISD? Yes sir it's my understanding that that's correct.
The only thing that I cannot certify to this board right now is the high school
or the principal experience. Okay. Principal experience qualification. Can I
ask a question about that please Madam President? You have a question Mr. Graham?
Yes. Okay. Well I don't know if I'm wrong about who to direct this to you
you can let me know, but I thought that the qualifications for the superintendent were picked by the board.
Again, okay, so I'll go back to that job posting was made in accordance with our board operating procedures.
I was done as I was, administration did, as it was instructed to do in accordance with our board operating procedures.
I will remind this board that no formal action has been taken and that if you guys decide to look at internal candidates and decide that you're not going to take any action just because that a job has been posted does not mean that any action is required.
If you feel like you look at your applicants and they don't meet your qualification standards as the majority of this board will dictate, then you do not have to take any action.
I'm trying to answer you.
I'm not trying to be evasive.
I'm trying to answer your question, and I think that that is what we need to keep in mind,
is that the board does select the candidate,
and your action will determine whether or not that candidate meets the qualifications of this board of trustees.
Madam President.
One second.
I would like to point out in answering your question, Ms. Fox,
the agenda item was for the consideration of naming an internal candidate.
Mr. Gregorski, no offense.
I'm not sure why his name is the only one that we're discussing.
We don't know who all of the applicants are because it is protected by state law and until
all applicants at the end of the 10-day period have submitted their information, we won't
see those.
So I'm not sure why Mr. Gregorski's name is the only name being talked about right now.
The agenda item that was requested of me by three board members, similar to the item that
you three requested of me today was to put on the agenda the opportunity for an internal candidate
for superintendent with that came the directive that the posting had to happen 10 days prior for
that to be a discussion um so i hope that answers those questions are you have you concluded your
conversation i would like to ask you a question about that so are you saying that the job posting
The agenda posting ends on December 14th and on December 17th, three members of this Board
have asked for an agenda item to name a loan finalist on December 17th.
And between December 14th and December 17th, we will have time to interview all of the
applicants?
No, I'm not saying that at all.
Mr. Gregorski's name is the reason.
With three days between those two dates and knowing that three members would like to name
a lone finalist on december 17th that was excuse me but that was my deduction that it would be mr
gregorski that's why i said his name okay mr scott there are times to go outside there are times when
superintendents fail catastrophically we've had catastrophic failures of superintendents in this
district before not going to name names but those of us who have been around for
a while could pick out one or two there are times to stay in I believe based on
my 45 years of experience being in and around public education that this is
is precisely the time to stay internal for the next superintendent.
Those who question whether or
not the politics of this district have turned vile and vicious
are not living in the KD in which I live.
Those who believe that what has happened over the past nine or
or ten months has done no damage to the potential stability of this district or
not observing what I am observing. I said earlier that my first meeting as a
professional reporter covering KDISD was 1977. I've seen board members all the way
through from that time to now. I've seen controversies come and go. What I have
seen and I've played a part in that at some point in time, I have fought tough on issues.
I've never been as vicious and mean spirited as what we have seen over the past nine months.
We lost a superintendent of schools because the politics of Katie were nationalized. Period.
Now, I want to say...
Mr. Dolan, that was your second warning.
I'm sorry.
Thank you.
Please do not...
I'm sorry, Mr. Scott.
Please do not holler out.
That was...
I'm not sure who it came from, but that was your first warning.
Second warning, you're asked to leave the meeting.
Scott, please continue.
Some of this is partly personal.
Most of it is professional.
What Ms. Gesoff and what Ms. Champagne...
I got mentioned a lot, thank you.
What Ms. Gesoff and Ms. Champagne and Ms. Fox have failed to tell you
is that three months ago, some three months ago,
I wrote an extensive five-page detailed memorandum
suggesting that if we wanted to have a search, a national search,
that I was suggesting a different way of conducting that search
than a traditional external search. In my history, in my experience, I have observed
on a crescendo basis that the external search process in the state of Texas has
become an insider's game. You have former superintendents acting as consultants to
search firms and there is a game that is played and the game is it insulates the
the school board from being integrally involved in the selection process all the way through.
I have interacted with 30 superintendents professionally, up close and personal, 45
to 50 as a professional reporter or a public policy person.
I can tell you that in the last superintendent search process, thank God there was a landslide
because that search process, and I can't talk about it in detail,
that search process, I will tell you this,
if Ken Gregorski had been a finalist in the last search process
and Lance Hint was not a part of it,
Ken Gregorski would be my superintendent of schools.
The notion that we're taking that by staying internal
is that we're getting a second-class superintendent,
a second-class educational leader.
The notion that we have to go outside, the notion that we have to have a 7-0 vote is pablum.
It is rhetoric.
It is not the real world.
The real world is this.
We have had a dramatic improvement in the hard management of KDISD in so many realms that you can't see because you're not involved in it.
We have so many programs that are going. The strategic plan is comprehensive across the board. We have put hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands and thousands of man hours into that strategic plan.
plan. From goal one to goal eight, goal six is mine. The history of KDISD over the last
two and a half years will be. If we can take goal six on academic and accountability to
fruition, Lance Hint and Ken Gregorski and his team will have done more to advance the
cause of academic equity for at-risk kids in this state than any superintendent before
them. What is in jeopardy if we go external is to take all of the effort, all
of the manpower, all of the work that has gone in to hard managing the district,
making tough decisions, goal six, and we're saying we're going to turn that
over to someone else. Former board members might come and say, well, anytime
time you have change you're going to have differences well it may be true but
stability stability in management at this point in time in the face of
political turmoil is absolutely essential I look at the rows over here
just start right here go down go around that corner I see people in this in this
room I've met people throughout the district I've met people in all of the
GOAL 6 meetings, the strategic meetings. We have an extraordinary team in place. I have
watched Ken Gregorski for over two years now. Anybody that thinks the deputy superintendent
of an 80,000 student, 75 to 80,000 student district is just a kindergartner in public
education just doesn't have an association with what the role of public
education management is. I'll say this, I've had 45 years, it doesn't make me
smarter, it doesn't make me better, but I've been around the block in dealing
with superintendents and chief financial officers and deputy superintendents and
counselors and the whole bit, okay, all the way through. We have two members of
of this board whose cumulative experience in association
with public administration adds up to about one year.
I have watched Ms. Doyle and Ms. Vann and Bill Lacy
work their tails off to become extremely positive,
good, tough board members.
The notion that we're doing a surprise attack
attack on this community about a superintendent selection process is pure nonsense.
I am the one that asked for the agenda to include the option of choosing a superintendent
of school from an internal search.
Two other members of the board.
We are having this discussion in open after a prior open discussion, after three months
of me telling three other members of this board I'm willing to look at a
search but we're I want you to consider I want you to consider that we're going
to go and and make a better process out of the the inherently conflicted interest
that is often familiar with external searches I asked for that three months
ago. Not one of them brought that to this board table. They could have done that.
They did not do that. They left an opportunity to have a search that would
have begun three months ago because they insisted apparently that it was their
way or the highway and they failed to bring it to this table and you can shake
your heads but the but the answer is this was there an agenda posting any by
any of these three to to follow a different process here's the bottom line
to all of this we have a tremendous school district it is not broken we have
management that can bring stability to this school district and if it's Kim
Gregorski if someone else emerges. We have people in this school district and
what I hope for, what I hope for is this, that we can have a superintendent that
can maintain stability of the programs, calm the waters, not relinquish our Human
Resources Department to the political shenanigans that we've had for the last
nine months bring some stability and in two years or three years or whenever
mr. if mr. Gregorski maintains a superintendent or moves on somewhere
else that it's the next superintendent where you have a national search final
point there are times that you go outside this is not that time and I
didn't spill my coke thank you mr. Scott miss van we'll go to you next thank you
um I appreciate all the speakers tonight I appreciate what my fellow board
members have said to this point I stand pretty firm on the statement that I had
last month about the search and and how to do it I just thought I'd give a
little insight on one thing that kind of gives an example of what any candidate
it would look into coming here from outside. Upon hiring our new area superintendent for human
resources, he was immediately questioned and attacked by the same group we've been in battle
with since last winter. Our new area superintendent secretary at his past job was called, interrogated,
and yelled at for that district hiring him. A social media outlet found it their job to question
his credentials and background the man and his family aren't even in kda and he's already had
to deal with this top leaders in texas education know this happened to mr suss did all of you
know this happen national leaders in education are aware of this homegrown attacks
that this chaotic turmoil of staff administration and leadership
as well as mayor elder said a national search is admirable but who wants to
risk their career being destroyed by uprooting their family and coming here
it's already been done once to the one leader of this district deserved as a
trustee I'm not afraid of a national search it's more to the point of those
good candidates being afraid to come here and as mr. Scott said this is the
time to stay inside and it is time to give leadership within this district who
love this district who know this district who like all seven of us would
fight tooth and nail for this district to step into leadership and we just need
to have the opportunity to let that candidate put their name forward or
candidates put their names forward and let us then do the job and share
information with the community as we're tasked to do thank you thank you miss
Ms. Vann. Mr. Lacy. I get to follow all this. This is pretty amazing. I would like to say to
all of my fellow board members as well. Guys, we share one common thing. We are here to do what's
best for our community and children. And we all have that same heart. And I know that we all do.
And it's okay that we disagree sometimes. That's what adults do. But we treat it and we speak as
adults and we have been guys we're doing the things that we need to do and
sometimes we have to hear the other opposing opposing people's thoughts to
be able to start to consider and understand where they're coming from all
of us all of us I want to start by clarifying something one of the speakers
asked mentioned that they didn't think that mr. Gorgor ski had been in the
the district long enough. He's been assistant superintendent for a year and a half, two and a half years.
He was at Katy High School for over 10 years. I don't know, I'd like to know what's long enough.
What's long enough? The people that I have spoken to, and I'm not about to say that Mr. Gregorski is
like to come into this opportunity. But guys, I'll agree with Mr. Scott, I'll agree with Ms. Vann,
and I'll agree with everyone else. Guys, there are times that we do need to go outside
to find a candidate. But as Ms. Vann so eloquently and very wisely put, the community,
community. Our community.
That already attacked our head of.
Human resources that isn't even here.
One member of the community that put on LinkedIn.
A posting and asked for resumes to be sent to him. What kind of
privacy is that?
That's crazy.
That is absolutely crazy.
The people that are going to be applying for this job, the
the professionals that we need for this job need to be able to look at our strategic plan
and go, you know what? This is pretty bulletproof. Not only is it bulletproof, my gosh,
it takes us from being an incredibly strong district to an elite district. And not only that,
oh my gosh, I'm rambling a little bit, guys, but I'm sorry. It takes us to that elite. And here's
the path here's how you do it oh yeah and the community already had input on that along with
our senior member of our board that sits up here now and mr scott i believe you were on that as
well if i recall clearly guys we already know the path to bring someone that is from outside
of the district may be the right idea but is it the right idea at this time I
ask you this and I'll get a little bit interactive especially when I'm and when
I'm at church and I I preach sometimes too or I call it leading my pastor says
no bill you're preaching so I'm going to ask you this guys by a show of hands how
many of y'all have bought a car come on guys this is an interactive part
everybody's bought a car when you go to buy that car do they only allow you to
drive it and test drive it in Reverse I want to see I want that test drive
Rebecca you brought it back up and I am so glad that you did excuse me miss Fox
because that is something that we need to do you said that we need to have that
test run but to be able to do a test run we have to be able to drive that sports
sports car in all five or six or 12 years.
I want to be able to sit in the seat and see where it takes us moving forward.
And I want to see how strong that engine is.
We're only going to be able to do that to be if we give teeth to the position.
If it's Mr Gregor ski or anyone else that may is apply may apply internally,
then that's what we need. But our community
Guys, I don't know about you, but I don't know that I would want this position coming
in right now.
Thank you, President.
Madam President.
Thank you, Mr. Lacy.
I appreciate all of your comments and your questions for me.
So in my statement, I'm going to answer a couple of those questions.
But first, I want to say this.
We didn't ask for this change.
As a board, we did not ask for this change.
We did not ask to be put in this position that we are being put in. We were forced into it.
At no time has the leadership of Dr.
Hint been in question with regards to what he has done for this staff and for this community and for these students. Not once.
That is not why
he's leaving. Not because he didn't do a good job because we have the ability as a
board that if he had not been doing good good job for our staff and for our students we could have
let him go but that is not why he is leaving he was forced out by community members a small
majority of community members that were very loud and his family could not continue with what was
happening and i love this community i really do this community put me here miss fox you're
absolutely right this community put me here but where was that community when
this was happening to him I do have to question that and I just really think
that most of this community is very happy they're happy in their schools
they're happy with their teachers and they genuinely did not even realize what
was happening I still have people that say today I had no idea I had no idea
because they weren't paying attention because they're happy and normally
people when they're happy they're not up here speaking y'all most of you have sat
through our open forums very few times do we have somebody come up and and
thank us or praise something that's happening in this district most of the
speakers that take the time to come to these meetings are upset about something
most of the emails that I get are not because people are happy it's because
people are upset and that's fair I get upset I'm a mom I get upset with
teachers I get upset with administrators but my point is is that I understand
asking this community what they want but we did we asked this community what they
wanted and they wanted Lance Hint and that's who we had they did this
community didn't ask us to get rid of him and so I don't think that the
opinions of what they want in an ex-superintendent are going to change
from what they wanted two years ago to what they want now so I have a little
bit of a disagreement there on that. His focus and his vision have never been in
question and he didn't do it alone. Lance Hint is a great superintendent and
he has been a great leader but every great leader is supported by great
administration and so I don't know who has applied for this job but I can tell
you with full confidence that I could sit here and name multiple leaders
sitting in this room that work in this building that could apply and could be
qualified and they have been part of the team that has gotten us to the point where we are
yes did lance hint lead absolutely but there's others that are part of that team that are
qualified and can do this job um it's been said that why did the opinion change why was it don't
rush now it's rush and and i will point out this um and and i'm not trying to be ugly but miss
Gesoff when when you were running i remember exactly where we were standing and we discussed
us the fact that we were going to possibly have to look for a new superintendent. He had not resigned
at that retired at that point. And one of the things that you said to me is, well, I would hope
that we would look at promoting from within to not spend the additional money on a search firm
and doing a search because I know that we have qualified candidates internally. And that's
something that you see in the position that you're in all the time. But you have a little different
voice on that today which is fair similar to my voice being a little
different as well. Here's the blessing guys we live in a democracy and this
community trusted each and every one of us to do this job and so because I was
elected to do this job because the majority of this community put me in
this position then I feel confident that I'm capable of doing this job. So with
With that, that is all I will say, and our meeting is adjourned.
9.30.
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.