The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, February 18th, 2019, and the time is 645 p.m.
Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, February 18, 2019
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Mr. Grigorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act regarding the notice for this meeting?
Madam President, I do confirm we are in compliance with the provisions of Texas Open Meetings Act in regards to this meeting tonight.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this board work-study meeting.
To prepare for this meeting, each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Friday, February 15th, 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 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.
Agenda item 3.1. Madam President. Ms. Vann. I move the Board of Trustees approves the
personnel report as recommended by Superintendent Gorgorski in closed
meeting. Second. I have a motion by Ms. Vann, a second by Mr. Lacey that the Board of
Trustees approves the personnel report as recommended by Superintendent
Gorgorski in closed meeting. Are there any questions? Hearing none, we'll proceed
to vote. All those in favor please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. All those
opposed motion passes next are there any scouts in the audience any Boy Scouts in
the audience go ahead stand up I saw a little one if you'd like please come to
the podium state your name and the badge that you're currently working on my name
is Brian Fowler and I'm working on Eagle Scout welcome it's impressive
Hi buddy.
Erin.
Erin Christensen, second class.
Very good.
Riley Robertson, second class.
Welcome.
Brock Robertson, second class.
Welcome. Thank you boys, I'm glad you're here.
Next we're going to go to agenda item 4.1.
Mr. Gugorski, did you have something?
Okay, sorry. All right. Teacher turnover rate comparison report. Our presenter is Mr. Brian Shush. Brian?
Good evening.
Members of the board, President Doyle, Superintendent Grigorski, have a brief but I believe informative
report for you on teacher turnover this evening.
So first, just wanted to show some basic information on teacher growth over the last three years.
From 2015 to 2018, that's excess of 350 teachers.
As we all know, Katy is a fast-growing district, and so student population growth shows that,
but also increase in teachers over the last three years shows that as well.
For the past three years, and you'll see in the next couple of slides, teacher turnover
rate has consistently remained lower than our neighboring districts large
neighboring districts region 4 and the state of Texas and the following
information has been pulled from the Texas academic performance reports
otherwise known as the taper report you can see in this slide Katie on the on
the far left if you just scan across you can see that teacher turnover is lower
than than these neighboring large districts 11.8 percent and 1718 12% 1617
and in 15-16 it was 11.5%, and actually significantly lower than a few of these districts.
This shows how we compare to Region 4 in the state of Texas.
Again, significantly lower.
That's about 5 percentage points over the last three years,
comparing Katy to Region 4, which is the orange bar in the state, which is the gray bar.
Again, brief report, but I think valuable information for the board to have, and thank you for your time.
Thank you, Brian. Are there any questions? Mr. Scott?
You're right, this is a brief report. Why did you produce this report?
I was asked to by Superintendent Grigorski.
Let's dig a little deeper. You were asked to by Mr. Grigorski.
Yes.
Mr. Grgorski, why did you ask this report to be prepared?
I had a request of a couple of board members who had talked to me about a report that,
an article that had recently appeared in the Chronicle talking about exodus of teachers in KDISD.
And those board members had asked me a little bit about that,
and I talked to Board President Courtney Doyle.
We discussed it and we decided to put a report on the agenda to show the public more of a true accurate picture of the turnover of KDISD with a little bit more context and comparables to our neighboring districts.
So I guess I'm just going to have to be obnoxious like I tend to be because I'm not getting the answers that I think the public deserves.
reserves in the Chronicle story, did the Chronicle story in its turnover report put the KDISD
districts in the context like this report does? That's pretty much a yes or no.
You're correct. It did not.
It did not.
Context.
Okay. So if you just put turnover rates and you're looking at KDISD, you're getting a
pretty myopic viewpoint correct correct okay so when we look at a turnover
report that seems to indicate that Katie ISD has this extraordinary turnover rate
of any percent and you don't put it in the context of the large districts is
that the kind of information you think that this board deserves would you bring
us that superficial a report or would you bring us something more detailed
we'd bring you a little bit more detailed so you can see a big picture so
the Martin ranch when that when it reports individual rates of turnover and
you see Martin ranch had lost certain number of teachers would you like to
tell us if you can't tonight but would it be important to understand that we
We opened a new high school, and some of the Morton Ranch teachers went to Pato.
Would that be important context?
Yes, sir.
Well, let me ask you directly.
When Pato opened up, did Morton Ranch teachers go to Pato?
Yes, sir.
Eleven went to Pato in 1718.
How many?
Eleven.
Okay.
And out of a staff, that's a certain percentage.
Yes, sir.
Okay.
Okay?
And so we would not compare the turnover rate to Needville, right?
Yes, sir.
We're a big urban district.
Maybe many people don't know where Needville is,
but Needville is a very small district.
Crosby, you can think of small districts.
If you're going to do a report relative to the turnover rate of KDISD,
you're going to do exactly what you've done.
Pick out comparable districts, big districts,
and you're going to see what the issue is or what the situation is in multiple districts.
True?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
So true or false?
Yes or no?
The turnover rate in KDISD is pretty much within an industry standard relative to comparable districts, only lower.
True.
Yes, sir.
All right.
So let me make a comment.
in. I'm tired of the Houston Chronicle's vomit journalism, period. I don't know how you can be
this incompetent to create a false, phony picture. I do not know how an editor allows a reporter
to be this incompetent. But what I do know is that it is typical with what we've had
out of the Houston Chronicle. Period. Paragraph. End of story. And Mr. Fundy
Tuss and these folks out here can laugh or smile all they want. Raise your hand.
But the bottom line is once again we are faced with a report that tries to
disparage this district over phony facts. Facts that are true but facts that have
no context. Thank you.
Any other question madam president champagne
This is off the subject subject, but I just wanted to say hello to you. Mr. Suchas. Welcome to the district
Thank you, and thank you for the presentation. Thank you
Any other questions
All right. Thank you so much
Next agenda item 4.2
2019 2020 budget update mr. Smith
All right, good evening, President Doyle and Superintendent Gagorski and trustees.
You should have a handout.
It looks like this.
It's got the same slides or a lot of the slides that we're going to go through tonight.
Let me just say several of the slides we're going to go through tonight.
With me is our municipal advisors Jeff Robert and Nick Boulash and they're in
attendance tonight and Mr. Roberts going to join me up here in a couple of
minutes to to help help present this information to you on our on our debt
program on our interest in sinking program. We've had several meetings in
both in person and over the phone and emails back and forth and always do in
preparation of this and we're constantly updating our long-range debt plan of
of which Mr. Robert's going to go over with you tonight.
As a reminder, this will be our second.
We're preparing for our second bond sale.
In addition to the budget, our second bond sale
will be a large part of the 19-20 budget.
We hope to have that bond sale sometime early this summer.
That'll provide us the cash to complete and work
on the construction projects that are currently underway
or will be underway soon.
Jessica can talk to you about that sale and our debt
plan in general and obviously this as I just said has an effect on our 1920
budget so I'm going to turn it over to before I turn it over to mr. Robert I
want to give you a little timeline and just say that in January we talked about
our introduction to the budget for the 1920 budget process and went over some
parameters that that we're using or assumptions that we're using as we move
forward this year tonight is the long-term debt plan projections and to
to talk about specifically the debt service fund, also known as the interest in sinking fund.
In March, we'll take a little deeper dive in how our staffing plan is looking in our 19-20 budget.
We're going to talk about, in April, any legislative updates that may have happened at that time
or may be on the cusp of happening.
Still a little early in the session, but we do expect something to happen when it comes to school finance this year.
May or June we'll take a closer look to see what did happen in Austin and how it affects
our budgeted funds.
In July we'll look at those again and all funds and then August we'll finish up with
the public hearing to discuss the budget and tax rates.
So last week or last month we showed you this slide and that far right little bump, dot
I guess is sitting on 6% and we talked about using 6% assumptions.
Mr. Roberts presentation is going to actually be a little more conservative at 5% because we're going to go out with a bond sale and as we're preparing for that we're looking at a 5% and then 3% in the outer years, which is we consider very conservative.
So again, our first money sale, we were preparing for this about this time last year.
I think we did it in March.
We had it on May the 22nd.
We called it our series 2018.
It delivered $200 million in proceeds in June.
We had a true all-in interest cost of 3.79% and the average life was 19 years.
So we had bonds maturing very shortly or within a few years and bonds maturing out as far as 30 years in that as part of that sale.
So as we're preparing tonight, we're going to look in our second of three sales.
It'll happen also in the summer of 2019.
And Mr. Robert will have a timeline that he will go over briefly in our bonds.
It'll be bond series 2019.
This is going to be 209.2 million in proceeds.
and will have a true all interest cost we don't know and an average life
we don't know will be as short as we can on our average life
and there's actually you know
no way to tell what we're what interest rates will be able to get at that time
we go to the market
but it has actually been a little bit more favorable to issuers in the last
few months
debt management tools will talk about two of these tonight
there's four of them bond refundings and bond defeasances or redemptions we'll
talk about tonight. Build America Babs, bonds are Babs, we use as a debt rate
manage debt tax rate management tool. We've been very successful using doing
that saves us about a penny on our tax rate using those Build America bonds the
way we do and then of course we have fund balance to help us manage and keep
our tax rates smooth at the 39 cents. I do, speaking of tax rates, I did want to
show you this. I showed you this last month out the far right. It shows that
$51 total tax rate. I'm sorry, $52. $51.66 total tax rate rounded to a $52.
It shows 37 cents and the $1.15. That includes that interest rate swap that we
talked about as part of section 26.08. Our debt plans built around 39 cents. We
We need to hold true to that $0.39.
And as we develop the budget, we will do the tax rate
and those assumptions under current law this way,
but we will make sure that the debt service fund
or the interest and sinking fund does get $0.39 worth of proceeds.
So I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Robert
and let him go over the details of our debt plan and the calendar.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith, Board President Doyle, members of the Board, Mr. Gorski, Jeff Robert with
Hilltop Securities, as Mr. Smith mentioned, Nick Buloch is also with me.
Also here are the District's Bond Counsel Rick Witte and Tonya Fisher with Oreck.
So if we get any legal questions, I'll certainly defer to them.
I'm going to go over three of the items tonight within this presentation, the first one being
being the issuance of the new parameter amount, which would be the $209,200,000 that Mr. Smith referenced.
And on this page here, I've highlighted in blue, we've used current interest rates plus 50 basis points for the proposed 2019 series.
In column four, for the $200 million, we've assumed current interest rates plus three-quarters of a percent, just to hopefully be conservative.
conservative. As Mr. Smith mentioned, we've structured everything around a 39-cent INS tax rate. If you look at the graph below, the bottom blue line is associated with the tax-based growth assumptions that assume 5% for a few years and then tail down from there. The line just above that, just to stress test our model, we've actually backed off the assumptions to instead of 5% to be 3%. And if you want to see the exact assumptions, they're in that booklet, the first page behind tab A. So the blue line is 5% for a few years.
years and then tails off the green line is 3% for a few years and then tails off.
So we're very comfortable here regardless of which ultimate scenario we're looking at.
The purple line there at the top, you know, we don't just look at structuring the current
issue or even the next issuance within this authorization, but we also want to keep an
eye on what you might have coming into the future.
So what we've done is we've looked at a prospective or potential $800 million bond
bond election a few years out and we feel comfortable that certainly with
the 5% growth assumptions that we'd be able to do 800 million and still not
have a tax rate increase over and above that 39 cent level. So that's what that
top line represents.
The next page is just right now a very preliminary calendar to get us ready
for a bond pricing and negotiated bond pricing in mid to late April. Excuse
This will certainly probably change between now and then, but just to give you an idea of the few of the steps that we would go through prior to being prepared for that negotiated pricing in late May.
In terms of interest rates, I always feel like this is a good indicator of where long-term tax-exempt interest rates not only are currently, but where they've been as well.
This is the 20-year bond buyer index.
This is a 20-year tax-exempt A-rated bond price.
It's not meant to tell you what rate you're going to get.
it's just meant to kind of give you an idea of overall where the tax exempt market is and so the graph in the
Background there goes all the way back to the early 80s when we were all earning 13% on our tax exempt basis
hopefully
The graph and blue there on the top right just shows where this index has been over the last year
The the latest this comes out weekly and as of February 14th, I believe is at 424
So it's up a couple of basis points, but but overall from a historical perspective. You can see we're still at historically low
levels in terms of where interest rates are. Mr. Smith had mentioned bond
refundings and redemptions slash defeasances. Within one of the the items
is going to include parameter order for refundings that generate in excess of
3% present value savings. At this time we don't have any that we're certain that
would be executed but this just gives the the staff the flexibility to to
to execute a refunding if interest rates allow for at least 3% present value savings.
In terms of the redemptions and defeasances, if you look at the bottom,
just since August of 2017 through actually, I believe, Friday, which was February 15th,
the district has reduced debt service payments in the district by $63,241,041.
And then you can see the breakdown of principal and interest that's been saved
as a result of these redemptions and defeasances.
So Mr. Smith and his team have done a great job of really tracking opportunities
and working with us and telling us how many funds or how much funds have been available to allow for this
because that's literally reducing your debt service, which reduces everybody's taxes,
but also it creates capacity for future issuances as well.
The different candidates that are included for redemption or defeasance are highlighted there.
I will point out we're including the Babs issue there right now. We don't think we're going to touch it
But with federal law changing all the time at some point in time it might make sense to look at it redeeming some of those
So we're gonna include those in there
I believe the max that we've included for redemption or defeasance is 25 million
Those numbers are far and over and above that but we just wanted to give ourselves as much flexibility as possible
The next page the district has a 115 million dollar
2015 C variable rate issue and it's a multi modal variable rate issue and what
that means is is that you set the term or price the term and interest rate on
reset dates and it just so happens that the reset date for that series is coming
up on August 15th 2019 so we're going to need to reset the term and the interest
rate on that date right now you also have a swap that's tied interest rate
swap that's tied to that issuance. You currently pay 67% of one month LIBOR, which is the London
Interbank Offering Rate Index, plus 55 basis points through that reset date in August.
You receive 67% of one month LIBOR, and on your swap, you're paying what we call a synthetic
fixed rate of 3.92. So if you cancel out getting LIBOR and receiving LIBOR, you're paying 3.92
to plus 55 basis points right now for a total of, what is that, 4.47%.
With regard to the reset recommendation, if you look at the bottom,
we're recommending that you reset the bonds for a two-year term at 67% of LIBOR plus a spread.
The latest numbers look like that spread would be 40 basis points instead of 55,
which would be less than what you're currently paying.
But part of the reason we're recommending the two-year term is because LIBOR is scheduled
to go away in two years.
And so we didn't want to go past that two-year point,
which would bring a lot of unknown variables into the equation
and probably make it difficult on our folks from OREC with regard to documentation.
Instead, we're going to correspond the end of our term to the year that LIBOR goes away,
which will give us a lot more flexibility,
and hopefully we'll know a lot more at that point in time.
So the recommendation on the variable rate issue will be to reset the rate for a two-year term.
I believe that's all the information I have. I did include an appendix that does show once again
the growth assumptions. There's also a long spreadsheet at the very back that if you take
a look at that kind of gives you all of the information with regard to not only your existing
debt, the first issuance of the 2017 authorization, but these upcoming next two issuances to show you
how we calculated the INS tax rate under both of those different sets of tax base assumptions.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Yes, ma'am. Mr. Scott. First of all,
I've done this a long time, and I'm glad to have a new word in my vocabulary,
LIBAR. I have no idea what it means. I hope you do. Yes, sir, and you're in luck because it's
It's going to go away in two years.
It sounds good.
I'm for 67% LIBOR.
Yes, sir.
Okay, that's what I'm for.
Yes, sir.
All right, I've got a couple more months,
and the calendar means that when you get to the budget, I won't be here, which is fine.
But there are about a few topics that I will want to cover under the banner of budget.
This is a budget overview.
view and mr. Smith I would like for the people of the community not to forget or
look over the tax swamp what we did was we moved our tax rate ins up two pennies
and we moved our M&O down two pennies we moved our maintenance I mean the opposite
yes sir maintenance operations down to up to ins down to the net result of that
was how much money over the period of the tax swap that we took from the state
that we would not have otherwise taken from the state. Over 12 million dollars
each year. Each year so that's about 25 million dollars. Yes sir. Okay so the
projections that the financial analysts have just given to us call for us to go
from 37 cents to 39 cents when we get out to a couple of years or so.
But at that same time, can we anticipate that the M&O rate will come down?
That's why it's called a swap.
We took advantage of a loophole or a provision in school finance to increase funding by roughly
$25 million.
dollars and when we go to the new debt issuance we're going to go back so when
someone looks at the 37 cents to go to 39 cents it's not a net tax rate
increase correct okay when we have to go back we will have to go back under
current law because unless there is another flood which we hope to God
there's not that's correct but unless there's another natural disaster and
And we're planning on continuing that swap for the 19-20 school year.
Okay.
But we took full advantage to increase the revenue that the state of Texas gives us
that it would not have otherwise given us.
That is correct.
And so when we get out and we're into new debt situations,
we're going to go back and we're still going to be under the 40-cent rate that was more historical.
That is correct.
Okay.
Okay. Now, another question on the budget is this.
Sometime back, as we were getting ready for the budget that we're in,
I asked you to help prepare some tables that showed the net impact
that the reduction as a percentage of our general fund budget
that the state of Texas was giving to KDISD.
Do you remember that?
Yes, sir.
And the end result of that was not to confuse the property owners and the homeowners of the state of Texas.
It was to explain that since 2012-13, if the state of Texas had maintained its historical funding for KDISD,
the state of Texas would have put over $500 million more into KDISD.
True or false?
True.
Okay, that's not those are not my numbers. Those are numbers that came
straight off of our website and out of historic audits that are posted online.
Yes sir. So I gave you a rough cut of the numbers and you made my numbers better,
correct? I just made sure that the numbers matched our audit. You made sure the numbers were
accurate. So when anyone writes or says that I asked you to produce numbers that
would confuse the public from your perspective as a professional finance guy is that a true or false
statement did i ask you to obfuscate the financial condition of this district no sir thank you
the final thing is i have a question because of i believe that the district has done a very good job
in terms of what i call hard management may i shift and ask mr graham a question on the budget
It's still on the budget.
One of the goals that I had when I got to this district was to get Thompson and Horton
out of this building.
The fees that they were charging this district were outrageous.
Mr. Graham, could you just briefly review the billable hours that we had under Thompson
and Horton realizing that they were doing special education services when the district,
Dr. Hint and with Ken Grigorski's support as deputy superintendent,
made the decision to bring an in-house counsel and send Thompson and Horton packing.
Give us a financial assessment of the impact of that on the general fund budget.
Mr. Scott, as I understand your question, I think we can look at what I think is fiscal year totals.
because that's when that's what mr. Smith is tasked to look at every year
that's what he bases his budget on when I look at the fiscal year totals just
with that one law firm when I consider 2016 and 17 the year before that I got
here the expenditures with that law firm were about eight hundred and nineteen
thousand dollars but that's without two months accounted for because we can't
find those bills because they were flooded out in Hurricane Harvey so I
would probably add another two hundred thousand to that so we're talking about
right around a million dollars for this past fiscal year 2017 2018 the first
fiscal year that we had a general counsel counsel's office in this school
district the total year expenditures without law firm were two hundred and
ninety eight thousand dollars so you're talking about if I remember correctly if
If we look at simply the fiscal year number, it's about $719,000 difference net increase
with that one particular law firm.
Let's take it to the next level.
One of the billable approaches was involving special education, true?
Yes.
The internal counsel, you have an attorney now that is dealing with special education
cases doing the work that Thompson and Horton had previously done.
relative to special education and general law. Fair?
Yes, sir.
So about three-quarters of a million dollars in the budget years because of a hard management decision.
And what I want to say to Mr. Smith, what I want to say to Mr. Grigorski as Deputy Superintendent,
and what I want to say to the missing Lance Hinn,
I have said on many occasions that this district has been finally hard managed over the last couple of years.
And I can find many more examples, and in March I'll bring another case, and in April I'll bring another case, and then in May I'll be gone.
But this is a perfect example of how this district has taken hard issues that have been ignored in the past and taken the decisive action that was needed to be taken.
And I've said this before, from Earl Walden to Bill Moore to Chris Smith, this district could not be in better financial hands than what we are now.
Thank you.
Mr. Scott, I did want to follow up on that.
I appreciate your comments to that total.
I do have the actual numbers here in front of me.
16-17 was $927,000.
17-18 was less than $210,000, $208,000.
So it is about $719,000 worth of difference.
But again, I will remind this Board of Trustees that when the management made the decision to bring legal counsel in,
we understood that we had a certain sunk amount of legal expenditures.
And while we knew that there would be some cost savings, the ultimate goal is and always
will be to get our campuses and departments better and more consistent access to legal
services, which is something that I think that we've...
I appreciate that and I can say I had three missions when I came on this board.
Thompson and Horton is no longer here and if they're watching on video, I'm glad you're
not here.
And that, you can count my efforts on that behalf.
Are there any other questions?
Madam President.
Ms. Fox?
Mr. Graham, are those, I didn't realize this was going to be any part of the presentation,
so my questions are not fully prepared and you may not have answers.
Is Thompson & Horton the only outside counsel firm that we use?
No, ma'am.
Thompson & Horton is really the only outside general counsel legal firm that we use,
and it's certainly the only firm that we have used in this district for special education matters.
You heard Mr. Roberts say that we had Rick Whitty here as our bond counsel, but we also use a couple of firms in specialty areas such as real estate, which is an area that you don't, your general counsel is not going to be specialized enough in to provide you the service that you need.
So that's pretty consistent with the general counsel model for a large organization such as KDISD.
So if we were to look at overall legal fees, it may be very different than the numbers
that were presented here simply by one firm.
Again, I don't have those numbers in front of me, but what I will tell this board is
that you will see a savings across the board.
And I will remind this board that we opened three campuses in this fiscal year.
We continue to grow.
Since I've been here, I think we've added 6,000 or 7,000 children.
And so that's a number I think as we at any department deals with when we look at year-to-year spend and I think that's something
Mr. Smith will talk about in his upcoming budget presentations is how do you certainly we can staff a campus right?
So the campus has another 200 kids. We know how many teachers that number is
But if we have another 3,000 kids, how many more people do we need in our purchasing service department?
How many more police officers do we need? How many more custodial staff?
Those are all numbers that we continue to look at, and I think that our HR department is looking at now, and I think Mr. Smith will be building into the budget as we move forward.
I want to echo the sentiments that I appreciate very much, Mr. Gorski and Dr. Hint, in bringing on our own counsel,
because before that time when a department had a question, they called the attorney, and every department was calling the attorney in billable hours,
And that's how that adds up and now we have we have
Mr. Graham and his assistant
Yeah, and doing a really great job for us so we absolutely have saved money
And I appreciate I appreciate that and thank you for bringing that to us are there any other questions
All right. Thank you so much both of you
Mr.. Smith you're staying with us next we're gonna move on to consent agenda 5.1 consider future board approval of an order
authorizing the issuance of Katy Independent School District unlimited
tax school building and or refunding bonds in one or more series setting
certain parameters for the bonds authorizing a pricing officer to approve
the amount the interest rate price including the terms thereof and certain
other procedures and provisions related to thereof okay president Doyle item 5.1
you just mentioned this is the first step in the process that will take us
through the next 10 to 15 weeks as we move into the summer. In your package you have an order
authorizing the issuance of KDISD unlimited tools tax school bonds in the amount of $209,200,000
and or refunding bonds that would present a minimum of three percent net savings. It also
sets certain parameters for the bonds giving Mr. Grigorski and or myself to be named as pricing
officer to approve the amount, the interest rates, and the price included in
the terms and certain other procedures. With this we plan to with this
authorization we plan to select a syndicate who can help us obtain the
very best pricing for the district and through a negotiated bond sale. Again
Jeff Robert and Nick Bulage are municipal advisors. Of course Rick Witte
is also here from Oreck and Tanya Fisher from Oreck, our bond counsel, are here to
field any questions that you may have on this issue but it would be recommended
that the Board of Trustees approves an order authorizing the issuance of Katy
ISD school district unlimited tax school building bonds and or refunding bonds in
one or more series are there any questions mr. Smith you can move on to
5.2 okay 5.2 is an order authorizing the conversion of Katy ISD variable rate
unlimited tax refunding bonds, our series 2015C, which Mr. Robert mentioned during his presentation.
It sets certain parameters for the bonds, conversion to a new rate period, that LIBOR that we mentioned and talked about.
Mr. Gorgorski and or myself as the pricing author to authorize the preparation of a remarketing memorandum,
appoint a remarketing agent.
The interest rate price included the terms and certain other procedures.
And it also would be recommended that the Board of Trustees approve an order authorizing the conversion of the KDISD Variable Rate Unlimited Tax Refunding Bond Series 2015C to a new rate period authorizing a pricing officer to take certain actions related to such conversion, authorizing the preparation of a remarketing memorandum and the appointment of a remarketing agent and enacting other provisions relating thereto.
Are there any questions?
You can proceed to 5.3.
Okay, this is one of those tools we mentioned in our debt plan,
and Mr. Robert mentioned that we have been able to use successfully over the last few years.
It's a separate order, and it authorizes us to defeeze, redeem,
or simply just pay down up to $25 million in bonds.
We have identified more than that.
Obviously, Mr. Robert mentioned in his presentation,
but this gives us the flexibility to identify those that we may see as financially advantage to the taxpayers of the district to go ahead
And just pay these bonds off
This has been an important part of our debt plan
It reduces our borrowing cost and as mr. Robert mentioned it saved our district about 15 this item alone
Historically has saved us just under 15 million dollars over the last three years
And it would be recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the resolution
expressing the intent to defease or redeem certain of the district outstanding bonds are there any
questions Thank You mr. Smith 5.4 I'm gonna turn 5 point over 4 over to miss fighting her I think
Good evening, President Doyle, Superintendent Grogorski, and the Board.
Item 5.4 is a resolution declaring the district's intent to reimburse itself for project expenditures
from wrong proceeds to be received in the future.
The proceeds from the first sale of the 2017 authorization are anticipated.
Ms. Feitzinger, can you pull the microphone a little bit closer, please?
The proceeds from the first sale of the 2017 amendment, 2017 authorization are anticipated
to be fully expended during the spring of this year.
This resolution will allow the district to utilize available cash by borrowing from the
general fund until the proceeds from the second sale, which we just discussed in item 5.1
are received.
Utilizing existing district funds until the new bond sale proceeds are available allows
allows the district to minimize borrowing costs by avoiding additional interest costs.
With that, it's recommended that the Board approve the resolution declaring intention
to reimburse project expenditures.
Are there any questions?
Thank you, Ms. Feitinger.
Next, 5.5, consider future Board approval of the February 2019 budget amendments.
Ms. Butterfield.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Thank you, President Doyle, Trustees, Superintendent Gagorski.
We have several amendments tonight affecting revenue.
The first, general fund revenue and expenditures both increased to recognize a payment from Harris County for police asset forfeitures.
In these other revenue amendments, we are truing up the budget.
Local revenues are primarily impacted by collections.
State revenues impacted by student enrollments reported through PEMS.
federal revenues are amended to recognize a one-time double up in the
Shars revenues the general operating fund expenditures are decreased to true
up the budget for tours and finally other sources is recognizing the second
Harvey claim insurance payment and this is a timing issue when we receive the
proceeds in this fiscal year rather than last fiscal year the remainder of the general fund
expenditure amendments are direct offsets between different functions and approval of these
amendments will result in a 15 million 720 291 increase to the general fund operating balance
Debt Service Fund local revenues are trued up and approval of these amendments will result in a $1,133,788 decrease to the Debt Service Fund balance.
construction fund amendments are provided tonight for the rivet renovations of the
Katy high school CTE area and for the lighting retrofits and these are from 2017 bond project
savings are there any questions thank you so much agenda item 5.6 consider future board approval of
the 2019-20 property insurance program mr. Nauman good evening superintendent
Grogorski president Doyle Board of Trustees in November 2018 Katy
Independent School District submitted a request for proposal for property
insurance to the marketplace to cover losses to its buildings and contents in
response to the RFP for insurance carrier submitted pricing and program
designs for the period 3-1-2019 to 2-28-20. The respondent with the most
favorable terms and conditions was Berkshire Hathaway through USI Insurance
Services Inc. The policy will cover the following buildings, structures, and
contents, physical damage to both buses and automobiles, electronic data
processing equipment, mobile equipment, musical instruments, and boilers and
machinery major perils include fire flood earthquake wind storm wind driven rain and
named windstorm currently the total insured value tiv for the district stands at 1.944 billion
dollars during the recent policy term the district completed bond projects which added to the insured
value of the district additionally following hurricane harvey risk management reevaluated tiv
of the district where building and content values were considered with the
items adjusted accordingly as a result of the marketing effort of the property
program the following enhancements enhancements were recognized one flood
limits were increased from 25 million to 50 million high hazard flood limits were
increased from 2.5 million to 5 million named wind storm limits were increased
from 25 million to 50 million and wind-driven rain was a new coverage.
Berkshire Hathaway proposal was evaluated by the Risk Management
Department in regards to adequacy of coverage, assessment of risk,
availability of services, and cost. The evaluation of the proposal took into
account the rapid growth of the district and most the most recent Hurricane
Harvey impact to the district. Of note, Creech Elementary required
required placement of additional limits due to the recent total loss and its present location.
We are of the opinion Berkshire Hathaway proposal represents the best value and offers coverage
limits that exceed the maximum expected loss renewal date that's outside of Hurricane Susan,
limits provided in capacity through one carrier, and physical damage coverage for buses and
autos at each transportation center that will provide replacement cost coverage.
impact statement this in action impacts the 2018-2019 general operating fund expenditure
for property insurance premiums by an estimated annual premium of 2.174 million dollars this
action is compliance with board policy CH local CRB legal and CRB local it is recommended that
the Board of Trustees approves the 2019-20 contract for property insurance under these
terms and conditions presented. Are there any questions? Go ahead Mr. Scott. When I'm
looking at your bid sheet just on the surface it appears that 2018 Lexington
has a lower price but it appears to me that Berkshire Hathaway has a higher
level of content coverage, a higher percentage. So if someone that didn't
know what they were looking at, looked at 1.4 million and looked at 2.2 million without
knowing anything like some people don't.
They would say that we didn't take the low bid.
This is well within state law to make a qualitative analysis, the difference between percent,
the differences of coverage in each of these categories.
And so what we're saying is you've made a qualitative decision that this is what you're recommending this board to do.
That is correct.
And it is fully consistent with state law.
That is correct.
And if anybody wants to come throw a different number at us, they just don't know what they're talking about.
You don't have to say that.
I will.
Because I'm going.
See, I can say these things.
Are there any other questions?
Madam President.
Ms. Fox.
Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Nauman.
We went from 25 million to 50 million on a couple of things.
Is that because of the losses that we suffered or because we have more buildings or why?
It's a function of both.
I think as we continue to grow, we have organic growth in our values.
We build new high schools, junior highs.
The cost of construction increases over time through inflation.
But also too with Harvey, one of the things that you do after a loss occurs is you consider
what has happened.
So we looked at limits and we thought that that would be the best play for the district
so that we wouldn't get in a situation where we were pushing the envelope, so to speak,
in terms of limits.
Thank you so much, Mr. Nelman.
5.7, consider future board approval of closed campuses for inter-district and inter-district transfers for the 19-20 school year.
Ms. Frieda Creech.
Dr. Creech, I apologize.
Good evening, President Doyle, board members, and Superintendent Grogorski.
Policy FDB legal and FDB local address voluntary intra-district transfers for students and closed campuses.
campuses. Board policy FDA legal and FDA local address inter-district transfers, which follows
the same guidelines as closed campuses. I'm bringing for your consideration today a list
of campuses that are recommended to be closed for new voluntary transfers for the 2019-2020
school year. Students in KDISD typically attend the schools which they are zoned based on
on their address of the homes in the district.
At times, parents may request voluntary transfers
for their children to attend other KDISD campuses.
Such transfers must meet the criteria
established by board policy.
A closed campus is defined as a campus exceeding
or nearly exceeding its design capacity
compared to the enrollment projection
for the upcoming school year.
This list of campuses was formulated
by using the building design capacity and the projected student enrollment for
2019-2020 school year. Do you have any questions? Are there any questions? Madam
President, I have some questions please. Ms. Champagne. Okay, Dr. Creech, I have a
few questions. First of all, for the public, what, I know you've explained what a
closed campus means as far as the numbers and everything, but what does it
mean as far as a parent who just wants to know I mean what does it mean so why
would a person out in the public need to know which campuses are closed if
someone is requesting a transfer they go by the list or we go by the list when we
are looking at possible options for a transfer if a campus is already full or
close to exceeding capacity then that campus wouldn't be an option for a
parent to choose so we give them other options if they're coming from outside
of the district teachers who have students who are let's say there's a
teacher in district that has a student in sci fair right now and they want to
bring their student with them we still look at where the teachers teaching
locations and available campuses around them that would be our first choice and
then if those are you know overburdened then we would move to a second choice
Okay, but if someone's just moving here and they happen to live in some closed campus,
obviously they just, that doesn't.
They are, no.
You go to your zone campus.
So if you're moving in, that's the campus you go to.
And do the numbers mean that's how many openings there are at that school?
Like Alexander, is that the number?
Like Alexander says 117, 177.
Probably a code.
Is that a code?
Are you looking at a chart?
Yes ma'am. Okay. 117, Alexander, there's a hundred and...
That's not... Okay. All right.
The number beside the list? Yes.
That's our campus identification number for teams.
And then also is this list going to be published on our website?
Once it's approved, yes ma'am. Okay.
Any other questions? Madam President.
Ms. Fox. Hi Dr. Creech, good to see you.
I am surprised by some of these campuses that are here, so maybe you can help me understand.
I don't know if you have enrollment numbers with you or not,
but some of these campuses have typically been under enrolled so I'm
surprised to see them there Morton Ranch Elementary it's usually low is is there
a reason there's an increase in numbers there new developments come in I'm
surprised by Griffin give you we moved a lot of kids into Williams from Fielder
remember we moved a program into Williams.
Martin Ranch has been historically low. I'm sorry instead of Alpha.
Martin Ranch has its normal its regular capacity the
bilingual program that's in there and then the total their total
total right now is right at the capacity. If people are moving in, that doesn't leave
any room for the people buying houses. What's that number, please? What's their capacity?
Their capacity, their projected enrollment is $999. The building capacity is $1030. That's
31 students. Got it. Got it. Okay. Okay. And Griffin?
Griffin is both by location and by program.
They are receiving more special ed programs, which take up sometimes that capacity.
It's not a 22 to 1.
Not a design capacity.
It's a functional capacity.
It's a functional capacity.
This is based on building, so they're pushing the limits now.
So they're bringing in some programs to fill that,
Because that was one of those pockets that when we developed it, it looked good, and then all of a sudden it became, as other Rylander and Holland came in, we ended up having a school that was a bit under.
So we filled it with programs.
That makes sense.
But the brand-new Adams Junior High is going to be at capacity the very first year?
That's the way it looks.
Okay.
And it appears that Beck and Cinco Ranch are being filled based on the rezoning from ties.
Is that what is that what that yes leads me to believe now we filled it until there's it's not open to transfers
And we're watching the atoms
I've got it on the clothes list because we don't want to do to them what we did to Beth key
where it was open and people just keep moving in and then there's
Have to leave room for it
I don't want to tap out a classroom with a transfer when somebody's moving into the district or into that area
you okay and so beck and cinco ranch are much better utilized now after the rezoning of the
ties over crowd absolutely thank you so much that that helps me understand thank you anybody else
all right thank you dr preach agenda item 5.8 discuss and consider future
board approval of the proposed summer work schedule mr shush
Good evening again.
Members of the Board, President Dewell, Superintendent Gagorski.
It's something that we bring to you every year.
We're going to be asking for your approval for the summer work schedule.
This year we're looking to run that Monday, June 3rd through the week of July 22nd, returning
to regular schedule Monday, July 29th.
The week of July the 4th will be a regular week because there's already a holiday on
July 4th in that week.
So with the exception of summer school, the campuses will maintain the same work week as administration building.
And as always, ample notice will be given to staff and the community of the work hours that will be Monday through Thursday, 7 to 5.
Are there any questions? Madam President, thank you for the presentation.
You know, our staff certainly does enjoy that Friday off during the summer and still accomplish great things.
I have a question for Mr. Gorgorski, possibly.
I don't know where the question goes.
When will we talk about salaries for summer school teachers, and has that been adjusted at all?
I know there's been some conversations and questions about it.
And will that come in a different presentation?
I don't want to ask out of order.
We bring a – two things come to mind with that question.
We bring a full compensation plan to the board later this spring.
After we do all the staffing, we'll bring a compensation plan that will have all the pay structures, pay schedules, and so forth.
Specifically speaking about summer school rate of pay, if you're talking about the teacher rate of pay, we make those decisions kind of behind the scenes.
It's not something that we bring forward in the compensation plan.
plan that rate of pay has held as a standard at $25 an hour.
And we did look at, Mr. Schultz and I have had some conversations.
We've run some numbers.
We've looked at what our summer school budget generally can withhold, and we think we can
make an increase to that.
But we don't have that officially ready to roll out just yet.
We generally put out the rates of pay for summer school when we solicit the staffing
for summer school.
Thank you very much.
Any other questions?
All right.
Thank you so much.
Next, consider future Board approval of the naming elementary school number 42 as recommended by the naming advisory committee.
Mr. Grigorski.
Thank you, Madam President.
Last Board meeting, the Board had asked if I would go ahead and move forward with our putting together and forming committee for the naming committee for elementary 42.
and as always it is never an easy task for that committee and we had members of
community members of the board and the principal of elementary 42 get together
and they reviewed all those candidates and as always we always come back with a
winner I believe and we have done that once again many names are deserving of
the honor and we get plenty of good people each time and I wish we can name
all our schools after many of the folks because it gets pretty hard to narrow it
down to one person but like I said I think we've hit a home run once again
and that person that is being recommended is Mrs. Olga Leonard. With
that said I'd like to go ahead and clap if you'd like. I'm gonna go ahead and
share a bio of some of the accomplishments of Mrs. Leonard. Mrs. Olga
Leonard is known for her accomplishments as an elementary junior high and high
school classroom teacher, an instructional specialist, and as an
an elementary campus administrator in KDISD.
First came to the district in 1985 as a first grade teacher at Bear Creek Elementary,
followed by a K-6 instructional careers at West Memorial Elementary and Hutzel Elementary.
In 1987, she began collaborating with the district as a curriculum writer and teacher trainer,
while at the same time providing bilingual instruction to students at Sundown Elementary,
where she was honored as Teacher of the Year in 1989.
After that, Olga served as a teacher, team leader, and ESL teacher at Cimarron Elementary.
Following her years in the elementary setting, Olga began teaching Spanish at West Memorial
Junior High and McDonald Junior High.
She earned her teaching certification for secondary Spanish, served as a member of the
Texas Collaborative Transition Project Committee, soon went on to teach Spanish at Taylor High
School.
During this period of her career, Olga delivered multiple professional development sessions
at the state and national level, even winning best in state.
At the end of the century marked the moment that Olga Leonard began her educational administrative journey.
She served as an instructional specialist for bilingual education, languages other than English, and English as a second language.
Her success in paving the way for multiculturalism in the middle of a Texas suburb granted her the opportunity to take bilingualism to a whole new level.
implementing dual language programs serving both speakers of other languages
and native English speaking students. In 2001 she helped open Schmalz Elementary
as an assistant principal where she served until 2003.
That following year, she was given the opportunity to help open Kilpatrick Elementary, also as an assistant principal.
Always putting children first, her passion for student learning can be seen in the distinctive artistic seal Olga left in the mural she painted and donated to Schmalz Elementary and Memorial Parkway Elementary.
After being an assistant principal in two KDISD schools, she went on to serve as principal of Memorial Parkway Elementary, interim principal of Polly McRoberts Elementary, as a supervisor of student teachers.
Olga Leonard graduated from Southwest Texas State University in 1981 with a
Bachelor of Arts in bilingual elementary education. Her voyage into the classroom
started that same year when she was hired as a bilingual teacher in Spring
Branch ISD. She later earned a master's degree in administration and
supervision with principal certification from the University of Houston and Olga
and her husband have two adult children. Long list of accomplishments. Olga, if you
would please stand and be recognized. We'd appreciate that.
And Olga, you've got a couple of folks with you over there that you'd like to introduce?
That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Congratulations to you.
Madam President.
Ms. Fox.
Ms. Fox.
Will there be a forum for the naming?
Yes.
Yes, we have that scheduled.
I think it's Wednesday night at 6 o'clock.
Wednesday in this room?
Yes.
Okay, awesome.
Thank you.
All right.
Agenda item 5.10, consider future Board approval of a contract for the purchase of a global
positioning system GPS package for the bus fleet.
Mr. Ted Veerling.
Oh, I'm sorry.
It's you.
I move to minimize the long walk of the green mile there.
So, Board President Doyle, Board Members, Superintendent Gorgorski, thank you very much for having me tonight.
I'm excited to present this to you tonight, although it's not as exciting as some of the other topics, I'm sure.
But this one is going to be big for our Transportation Department as well as our parents.
Talking to you tonight about GPS systems, and let me get comfortable here on the big board.
um dr wood is here with me tonight
there we go dr wood is here with me now as well as kathy prickett if you have if we have any
questions at the end they are the true experts uh in our transportation department i did want
to remind you that gps systems is in alignment with two of our strategic design goals
So I'm not going to belabor this point. I know that you are all familiar with global positioning
systems and what they do. We carry on our phones all the time and you know that these systems work
in companies all over the world from trucking companies and shipping companies. When you get
the FedEx notification and all that stuff is working on global positioning systems.
systems and school districts around the country and certainly the state are using these systems
to track their buses.
History in KDISD is our transportation department has looked at and worked on possibility of
GPS systems for about five years now.
We are one of the last school districts that do not have GPS on our buses.
Some of the school districts that do Fort Bend, Cy Fair, Spring Branch, all the big ones around us, they all have GPS on their buses and are able to track their buses down to the second.
If you were kind of behind the scenes early in the school year, you know that we struggled with some routes and some times.
That is not news.
And one of the things that made it a bigger struggle for us is not knowing the exact location of all of our buses at any given time.
To help explain kind of what this does for you, if any of you have children and you have the Find My iPhone app,
you may have your iPhone connected to theirs so you can look them up at any time.
This is kind of the direction we're moving with our buses.
We want to be able to see where these buses are at all times.
So starting in June, myself, my good friend Dr. Wood and the Transportation Department, Kathy,
as well as several others began studying GPS systems.
We issued an RFP request for proposal in October, and Edgelog was awarded the contract for our GPS systems.
So just a little bit of detail.
Edgelog is the current provider of our routing software.
We will provide GPS devices for each of our buses in our route fleet.
that's regular education and special education buses. These GPS devices are
the devices that ping that talk to the satellites. It'll provide detailed
information on everything from location, stops, driving speed, route efficiency.
There's a bunch of safety markers as well as diagnostic tools that this will
give us. It will also give us a parent mobile app in which parents and
and guardians can track the buses on their iPhone
or their Android device.
And it will also allow our schools
to track buses that are assigned to their campus.
Some of the features, we're going
to install GPS devices on, it says approximately 420 buses.
It's actually 422 buses.
Edgelog will provide the GPS tracking software
for the KDIC staff, Transportation Department, as well as Campus
Administration. They'll have, as I said, a Parent Portal and a Parent App. They will
install over spring break. I'll get a little more to the timeline here in a
minute. It'll be a three-year contract and it will cost $202,000,
roughly $202,000 annually. So the Parent Portal, what does that do? That
That allows our parents to track their child's bus at any time when the bus is running.
So obviously the benefit to that is we had a lot of parents in the fall tell us,
gosh, if we would have just known where our bus was, we would have felt better about the situation.
This will allow them to do that.
It will also allow them to set up notification zones, which is setting up a geofence
that will allow them to see when that bus is in that geofence,
and it'll alert them on their phone so they'll know when the bus is close.
Sometimes traffic things happen, all that kind of stuff, right?
This will allow them to see that.
They can also track multiple buses if they have multiple children.
And that picture up there on the screen is an example of what that app is going to look like for our parents.
What it doesn't do, it does not let parents know when their students are on the bus.
So it will not tell you that.
You'll still have to communicate with your kiddos on that. It does not track
students, okay, it does not track students but it does track buses, all right. It
does not tell parents when their students get on and off the bus or at
what stop, so if your kiddos tell you they got off at their friend's stop that
will still have to be, again we're not tracking kids. Does not give parents
information about their child's bus if the application is closed, so the idea is
you would run the application in the background so that it's providing notifications to you
throughout.
And it does not allow student data to be shared.
It protects our kids' FERPA rights.
Obviously, a parent or a guardian could give that information to a grandparent, a babysitter,
somebody who takes care of the kiddos in the afternoon.
They could certainly give that to them, but that's not going to be readily available for
just anybody out there.
Implementation.
We plan on installation of all these devices over spring break of this year.
Our goal in Edgelog has been very helpful with that, getting that software installed over spring break.
None of our buses are running, so it's a perfect time to do that.
We'd like to pilot the software and the parent app this spring.
We're going to do that with three elementary campuses.
We have not chosen those elementary campuses, but we do want to have one from each transportation center
so all our transportation centers get an opportunity to experience the app.
We'll have training materials for parents and we'll get communication out to them.
Obviously this is going to be a big change, but we think a positive one.
Edgelog is going to assist us with that communication.
They've rolled this out in other districts around the country and the state,
and so they can help us with that.
And obviously we know there's going to be challenges with this.
Anytime you download an app, anytime you put a new software system in place,
you're going to have a few challenges.
We feel like the benefits will far outweigh the negatives and allowing our parents to see where our kiddos buses are is going to be a huge is going to be a huge benefit.
I do want to thank our finance department as well as our technology department.
They've been a huge help to us as we put this thing together.
It's been a real team effort and I appreciate their efforts and definitely with Dr. Wood and Kathy Prickett.
Fantastic team. So questions do you have for me?
Thank you Mr. Villing.
Ms. Van.
Thank you Mr. Villing.
This is an awesome thing to bring to all of our parents.
Having two in college and one in high school.
I would have loved to have had this, but my question does be that I do have one in high
school.
Yes ma'am.
Will, since all the buses have GPS, for example the Sapphires had a contest this weekend,
and will a parent be able to, because it was mandatory that they all ride on a KDISD school bus to and from the event,
is that something a parent who doesn't have bus riders but has children riding our buses,
is that something that they'll be able to track,
or would it have to be like the directors tell them what bus number it is, and it's too difficult?
That's an excellent question, and we can find that out.
I think the way I understand it right now is that we would be tracking, you would be
tracking your own student's bus rather than an activity bus.
But we can certainly look into that, see if that is available.
Okay.
Thank you.
Madam President.
I heard Mr. Lacey and I heard a lady.
I'm not sure which lady.
It was me.
Ladies first.
I'm sorry.
I was contemplating this question here.
Go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Ms. Gassoff.
Ladies first.
Thank you.
Mr. Vierling, this is fabulous for anyone who's ever stood in the Texas heat waiting
for the bus to show up.
Right.
Fabulous.
And a couple questions.
On slide six, you're talking about, so I'm kind of interested in the safety, the additional
safety aspects.
Is it kind of, so we all know what a GPS is, but is it kind of like a vehicle data recorder
as well?
Because if we're going to be able to, or if you guys are going to be able to collect data
on driving speeds and I'm guessing that safety markers is kind of like
hard braking that sort of thing yes ma'am what are you gonna do with that
information first of all or what might you do with it that might improve safety
and secondly when you talk about route efficiency I'm kind of interested in
what functionality might assist us in optimizing our our bus routes I don't
think we change things mid-year but maybe it would inform the next year sure
From a safety standpoint, I think any time that Mr. Nauman would agree, any time there's a bus accident, any time you have an issue with a bus, somebody says the bus is speeding down the freeway and they call in, anything that we can do to get a gauge on what that bus is actually doing, either at the time of an accident or a speeding incident or whatever it is, is a positive.
We also, you know, if a parent calls and says, you know, Dr. Wood, that bus never stops for more than two seconds.
If that bus stops, she just runs right through it every single time.
We can say, we can go back and we can look at all that software data.
We can look at that GPS data and say, no, we clocked it.
We know that that door was open for two minutes, and then the driver left and went on to the next stop.
So there's a there's a lot of things in there probably kind of like your phone probably more things and you even know
What you can use?
from a route efficiency standpoint, I think that
Kathy Prickett could probably answer it better than I could but when when you're drawing up routes
You always want to make sure that that the route that you're drawing is is the most
efficient for
or the number of kids on the bus, where the bus is going.
Sometimes our drivers don't drive the route that we think they're driving.
Edgelog will give us, at some point, will allow parents to report to us where stops,
where they're requesting a stop, and that's all down the line.
Kathy, you want to jump in there or Bill?
About routing efficiency?
Good evening, folks.
I would just say with regard to efficiency, it's all about tracking time.
And the other function, what you had mentioned, Ms. Giesoff, is when we have this data, we can then take it, analyze it, and create trainings that are directly associated with the issues that we face through the data we recover.
Sometimes, in all honesty, we are reactionary sometimes.
Sometimes we'll see accidents that happen in Montana or in New Jersey, and we'll pay special focus to that.
But when we get this data, this new data that's real-time, we'll be able to address possible safety issues before they happen.
Thank you, Dr. Wood and Mr. Vierling.
Is it something they have to download?
Do they have to be plugged in every day to download the data, or is it just automatic?
It's web-based, right, so it's there.
Great. Thank you very much.
that mr lacey well i should have gone first because your question is pretty much mine
you're welcome you thank you so i do want to take the next step so does this software can we com
can we basically like a better description plug it into the computer of the uh of the bus as well to
see how our hang on excuse me the efficiency of the bus as they are driving so you know are we
able to monitor what the fuel levels are? Are we able to monitor what the
efficiency of how it's burning the fuel, all that fun stuff? I see somebody's head
going up there like a bobblehead. The short answer is yes. Perfect. And I'll
leave it at that if that's okay. We're learning this as we go. We've got
professional development set up to learn the entire implementation process and
and find all the uses that we're going to be able to use this great app with.
We're learning it now, but that is definitely a function.
Excellent. Thank you.
So my apologies for not having more detailed information on the bus aspect of it.
When we're studying this thing, our thing is all about parents and kids, right?
And then everything that comes with it is just icing on the cake.
Any other questions?
Yes, Madam President.
Ms. Champagne.
Mr. Begerling, thank you for the presentation,
And I want to say it's nice to finally see you in person Dr. Wood because I've heard so many wonderful things about you
From other parents in the community, but I do have a few questions
So I don't know if you'd rather me ask you all of the questions or just one at a time
Serve it up, and then we'll see we'll see who the expert is. Okay, so first of all, I
Would like to know how I know that we have a long
relationship with edulog
but did we do a comparison chart of you know sometimes we're given charts and
we're you know reaction time or cost or you know different things that are
compared to is did the district do that that's that's one question another
question has to do with we all were talking about the watching for the
safety of the bus on the on the route and I know with our insurance company we
We have an app that if we did, it's kind of like a safe driver thing.
And if you're good so many times, 10 times or something, you get a discount on your insurance.
Is that a possibility?
You know, you have to, if you have 10 things, 10 routes in a row, you get like a little 5% discount or something.
So, I mean, that might not mean that much, you know, sound like that much, but actually 5% is probably good.
I don't know if that's something that you could look into. I'm not aware, but I certainly will yes ma'am. Okay, and also
I'm assuming edulog is
Has their own personnel who are managing this but I can also see although I'm excited also for this
I can also see the negative side of it where a parent might complain. Oh, it looks like the bus was
was at some certain place for too long or something like that.
So are we going to have extra personnel here at KDIC
to manage those type of complaints
or those kind of things?
So those are my questions.
Sure.
Sure.
To answer your first question, we did study other systems.
We looked at other systems.
We went up to Bryan ISD.
They've had a successful rollout of GPS and parent app.
We talked to the folks in Fort Bend.
We looked at some other districts.
Bill's done some research on it.
When you put out an RFP, companies will come to you with bids.
And of the bids that we got, we felt like edulog was the best value for the district.
I can tell you that, and as it said in the board document,
We've been a partner with Edgelog for over 25 years.
They've been a fantastic company to us, always willing to help anything we needed, customer service,
and certainly their software has done an outstanding job for us in the routing world.
There was definitely another benefit of going with Edgelog is that it's a one-stop shop for all of it.
Had we gone with another vendor, we would have had routing software provided by Edgelog, GPS software provided by another company, and the other companies that are the other major companies that are running GPS do not have their own app.
So we would have had a third-party app.
So then you have three entities running one system, and they've all got to connect.
and I think Jamie Hines explained it very well.
It's a matter of when you need to have an issue and you want to make a phone call,
in this case the benefit to have an edulog is that you make that one phone call,
you get all your answers all in one shot.
So with respect to price and all of what I just said,
I think edulog for us was the best value for the district.
From a personnel standpoint, we feel like, as I said in the last slide,
we know there's going to be some hiccups. I do think early on there'll be some phone calls. I
think it'll be more about, you know, how do I get this app to work? I can't find my kid's bus on the
app. What am I supposed to do? Those kinds of things. But I think in the long run, I think
it's going to minimize phone calls. The districts that we've talked to that are using the parent app
as well as GPS, their calls were high in the beginning, not any higher than they would
normally be but high in the beginning and then as the as the year wore on people got used to the app
they got more comfortable with it and the calls um declined um tremendously again the the parents
that i spoke to and i spoke to many um both here in my office and then just people that know me in
the community got lots of feedback as as we always do uh and they they they continue to say over and
over again if i would just know where my kids bus was you know if i had just known that there was
was traffic on Clay Road and he was sitting right there, I would have been fine, but not knowing.
And so, again, the way we do it currently is if we don't know where a bus is in transportation,
we call on the radio, right? And when you call on the radio, you're calling every bus. There's
folks talking over each other. Sometimes it's hard to communicate. This is 21st century technology
that I think is going to improve our lives tremendously. I have a question, Mr. Verling,
Maybe for you, Mr. Gagorski, in the beginning when we implement this program and you said there would be a call center,
is this going to be a separate number, not our transportation department?
So if they're answering questions about transportation, bus issues or things like that,
maybe just a completely separate hotline that parents can call and get through to somebody in the beginning?
Yeah, and the other districts that we're looking at, they, Edgelog has kind of their own kind of,
Well, we'll put detailed information on our web page about how to download the app, how to deal with the app, FAQs and things like that.
It looks to me like from the districts that have done this before,
Edgelog has got a separate kind of call center that you can use if you're having difficulty with the app versus difficulty with the bus.
Well, I know that the beginning of the year, the campuses are busy, the transportation department is busy,
so it would be nice so that parents have somebody that can answer those questions.
Right, and we learned a lot, certainly, from the fall, the stuff in the fall,
and I think we're going to make some adjustments on that end as well.
Okay, great.
Are there any other questions?
I have a couple of questions.
One of them, I just wanted to add.
Is that okay, Madam?
Of course, yes.
Go ahead.
I thought you were finished.
I apologize.
I didn't mean to interrupt.
No, I'm almost finished.
The insurance question I had, can you all look into that?
Yes, ma'am.
We absolutely will.
And then also, I was just wondering, when we have the app, are you going to, is it per student?
I know we're not going to be able to know if the child is on the bus,
but I guess I'm thinking about situations where there might be a divorced couple or something
and maybe the non-custodial parent isn't allowed access to the child.
Is there going to be safeguards against that where that particular parent won't be able to have the information about where that bus is?
Ultimately, we want to set it up so that it's completely connected to the KD on the Go app,
so there's multiple levels of security.
Early on, we're not going to have it set up that way.
I guess the first thing I would say is that, and we've talked a lot about security, about this app.
Right now, if you know somebody's address, you can plug it into WebQuery,
and you can find out where their bus comes and goes.
We know though that there are situations where there are either estranged parents, family members, things like that, that don't want access to their children.
In this case, what it's going to ask for is student ID number as one of the questions that you've got to get or that you've got to have that information to get into the app to do that.
date of birth, the school that they attend, those kinds of things. Our hope
early on is that that will provide a level of security. I guess when
we studied this, we're thinking that if a parent knows where a child lives, that
right there is a difficult thing for any family that's struggling with
estranged parents in in this case i think if somebody if somebody had a student id number
if they had if they knew where the child went to school those kinds of things they would have
enough to follow a normal bus on any given day anyway but we do i think in the long term and
we've spoken to edgelog a lot about this want to hook this up to the katie on the go app so
that there's a level of secure an extra level of security in there thank you
Go ahead, Mr. Scott.
Isn't it the same with student records?
Only the custodial parent can give any number to access this.
Yes, right.
But did I understand you to say you can deem it somehow?
If you know the address, you know the student ID number, you can break in and track it.
In our current system, most districts are like this.
They have a system on their website where you can plug in your address and it'll tell you the bus number.
Sure.
Right?
And that's our current system.
So if you were a bad person and you know where somebody lived,
you could theoretically go on the computer right now, punch in their address, and find their bus.
No, I understand that.
Okay.
But to me, there's a different issue here.
I'm the estranged father.
Yes, sir.
I know where my wife and child live.
I can get in a car and I can follow a bus.
That is correct.
Period.
Nothing can stop that.
Yeah.
But if I give that parent a convenient way to know when it's going to be at a particular area,
that is a different issue, and I am concerned if we have a computer system
that we make it easy for someone other than the custodial parent
to be able to give automated.
There's nothing we can do to keep someone from following physically a bus.
What is our protection in breaking custodial authority
to allow access to this system?
That's a concern for me.
Understood.
I don't have an answer, but I do have a concern.
Yes, sir.
Any other questions, Madam President?
Thank you, Mr. Beerling, for the presentation.
So I have a question about efficiency.
So are we expecting, and maybe this is for Mr. Wood, Dr. Wood,
that this will help our efficiency and maybe we've come a long way since the fall,
but according to some parent feedback, we still have a couple, few, multiple pockets of children
sitting in the cafeteria for 30 minutes waiting on a bus is that going to get
better number one and the second rumor I'm hearing is that we're gonna change
times next year to alleviate some of that sitting in cafeterias which I've
never heard from you to answer the first question is yes this will definitely
help us increase efficiency in a number of ways fuel efficiency maintenance
efficiency efficiency with safety standards which goes back to our our
basic functions which is safety efficiency and responsiveness and and my
question was more efficiency of routes so that we eliminate those wait times
for students right right and that will improve and certainly with any new
endeavor it's going to take a little bit of a learning curve for us this is the
first time for all of us we don't have anyone in our department who's who's
done this before so just like we didn't have anybody in our department for a
multi-bill and to answer the second question I ever no discussion about time
changes thank you that'll put the rumor to rest so is it true that we have some
children who are waiting in cafeterias 20 30 minutes for buses now it's mostly
junior high right because they're the last route of the day and by the time
they do the high school and then the elementary and then to the junior high
is that where the that that is correct that would be the area which we do need
to improve and we still need improvement but and we have had I want to be clear
on this we have had situations when we roll this out where we had students
waiting for that long we no longer to my knowledge I'm very sure that I would
have heard about it recently we haven't had that type of time problem so it's
much much better than it was it is we can always improve and we will continue
to improve and that's part of what this initiatives about thank you very much
miss Van really it's really quick but I thought of it and something that you
You said when you talked about maintenance on buses.
So there's times where there's a bus change and, say, your child's on 501,
but today they're going to be on 1023 because 501 had a bad tire or something.
How does that work with the app?
There's another, the beauty of having Edgelog run all those systems is that that's talking,
all those systems are talking to each other.
The routing software is talking to the app, which is talking to the GPS software.
So a parent doesn't need to make any adjustments and follow a different bus.
it will just automatically within the system so okay perfect
you okay is that all the questions I was having a great time all right appreciate
you thank you very much thank you so much we appreciate y'all agenda item 5.11
consider future board approval of design services associated with the
construction of junior high school number 17 miss Cassman number 17 good
evening president doyle board members and mr gregorski yes my only one item this evening is
request for future board approval for the retention of pbk architects for design services associated
with junior high number 17. this is to provide for relief in the northwest area with an opening of
august 2021 and it's going to be on the bandera property which is on the southeast intersection
of clay road and katie hockley road in the city of katie it's going to be a refined repeat of
stock dick and adams junior highs pbk is going to be the firm and it's three percent of the final
construction cost and scott walker will be the project manager for this project are there any
questions yes mr scott did i understand you to say two percent no three percent okay i was going to
say it seemed like three percent that surprised me okay i was kind of moving thank you miss cassman
Thank you.
Agenda item 5.12, consider future board approval to award the contract for the replacement of the synthetic field turf at Taylor High School and Martin Ranch High School.
Mr. Teed, and you actually closed the meeting out tonight, so I'm just going to let you move through each agenda item as the questions are completed.
Yes, ma'am.
All right, thank you.
Good evening, President Doyle, trustees, and Superintendent Gretzky.
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the award of the contract for the replacement of the synthetic field turf at Taylor High School and Morton Ranch High School to Hellas Construction Inc., utilizing the by-board contract number 560-18.
The synthetic field turf replacement project at Taylor and Morton Ranch High School are part of the 2017 bond component replacement program.
District staff has worked with PBK Sports to develop the project scope.
Work is scheduled to start April the 15th, 2019, and be substantially completed by May 28th, 2019.
A copy of the recommendation letter from PBK Sports and the quote from Hellas Construction, Inc. are attached for your review.
The project funding source is the 2017 bond component replacements.
Taylor High School turf replacement cost, $660,775.
Morton Ranch High School turf replacement cost $657,300.
BBK Sports Engineering project cost $82,085.
The owner's contingency $7,500.
For a total not to exceed project cost of $1,407,660.
This contract has been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form.
Madam President. Mr. Lacey. Just for the record, consistent with the same materials,
similar costs, obviously a little bit of inflationary costs added in, but with
that that was replaced at Cinco Ranch and Katy High School? Exactly the same,
yes sir. Excellent, and I know that they are looking forward to getting that at
both of those schools. I never knew how quickly those those fields could
could wear out.
Yes, sir.
Any other questions?
Madam President, it's more of a comment than a question.
We had three of our high school marching bands
go to state competition this year in San Antonio
at the Alamo Dome.
It was Alamo Dome, right?
And they all said how much they appreciated the fields
that they have to practice on here when
they got to that really old, really slick turf
at the Alamo Dome.
So they were very appreciative.
And so when this came on, somebody told me to tell everybody how much they appreciate it.
Yes, ma'am.
Go ahead.
Bringing a recommendation that the Board of Trustees approves the use of 2014 bond savings
for five identified projects at various district facilities in the amount of $2,681,000.
The use of the 2014 bond savings funds will allow for the replacement of the obsolete field lighting at Rhodes Stadium.
The light bulbs for this field are no longer manufactured and all available stock from suppliers has been depleted.
The field lights will be replaced with the district standard LED lighting.
The second project identified is for the replacement of several areas of concrete pavement that have failed and become unsafe for vehicles and staff at the support services complex.
The third project is for the replacement of the gym cafeteria flooring at Holland Elementary School.
This flooring has failed due to high moisture content in the slab.
This moisture will need to be remediated before installing the replacement flooring.
The fourth project is the replacement of stage curtains at 11 campuses located in Harris County jurisdiction.
These replacements are necessary due to a change in the life safety code pertaining to the fire resistance of the stage curtain fabric.
The identified campuses are Galbo Elementary, Hayes Elementary, King Elementary, Memorial Parkway Elementary, Morton Ranch Elementary, Patterson Elementary, Schmaltz Elementary, West Memorial Elementary, Windbourne Elementary, Memorial Parkway Junior, and May Creek High School.
The fifth project is additional security fencing needs that were identified at eight campuses
Creech Elementary, Hutzel Elementary, Cardiff Junior, McDonald Junior, West Memorial Junior
High, Morton Ranch High, Seven Lakes High, and Tompkins High.
The method of purchase for the field lighting and the pavement replacement shall be job
order contract through a purchasing cooperative.
This method provides the best value for these particular projects and will allow for the
a condensed timeline so that work can be completed around building activities.
The method of purchase for the stage curtain and gym and cafeteria flooring replacements
will be through a cooperative purchasing agreement.
The method of purchase for the security fencing project will be through a district bid.
Attached to this agenda for your review are some pictures of the failing concrete areas
that support services and a map of those affected areas.
Project funding source is a 2014 bond savings.
Rhodes Stadium Field Light estimate is $680,000.
Support Services Complex Pavement Replacement estimate, $1.4 million.
Stage Curtain Replacement estimate, $300,000.
Holland Elementary Gym Cafeteria Flooring Replacement estimate, $126,000.
additional security fencing estimate $175,000 for a total estimated cost of $2,681,000.
Madam President.
Mr. Lacey.
Regarding the stadium light expense, does this include the cost of all the electrical wiring that's going to go up through the standards,
and are we able to use the same standards, light standards?
Yes, sir.
we have confirmed we can use the same standards and but the wiring will harnesses will be replaced
what about i know that um several years ago there was a there was a game that was delayed for a day
because one of the fuses blew out um we had and that team had to play it the next morning that
next day um quite a few fuses that are down there they're about 10 feet up from the from the uh
concrete posts are those also going to be replaced yes sir good all new
controls that's the word I was looking for
miss Gassoff I'm sorry mr. Lacey were you was that okay yeah she may just
answer all I could I could miss proceed ahead but with respect to Holland
Elementary the flooring because the high moisture content is that a workmanship
Is there any warranty?
Thank you, Ms. Hessoff.
See, I'm taking everybody's questions tonight.
Okay.
Can you save me a question?
All right.
I mean, I know it was built a long time ago.
I just didn't know if we had any opportunity there.
This is a problem that we have started to see in a number of our schools.
I brought a job to y'all last year for sundown, the same problem.
The new flooring types that we're installing now do not allow for the moisture transfer
that the conventional VCT tile had.
So we're starting to see this bubbling effect.
So what we're having to do is go back in
and we've alleviated the problem in our new construction
because we're doing that up front.
But when these schools were built,
that wasn't even considered at the time,
nor did they have any idea that we would be putting
these newer type materials down
because they weren't even invented yet.
But going forward when we put these down,
we are in court including that in our our initial process when we're bringing
it to you and in fact I'll bring an agenda item later tonight with that cost
already built into it thank you madam president I'm gonna ask the next part of
what you were asking about so is that moisture that's percolating up or is
that moisture from the environment that is percolating down it's actually
percolating up. Anyone else? It's not recoverable, it's just natural. There's no one or insurance to recover.
Madam President? Yes, Ms. Fox. I don't know who my question is for. This is 2014 bond savings, 2.681.
one how much is left in the 2014 on so you knew I was gonna ask you still we
have after we do this oh after we do this it'll be 1 million 1 million so
right now I said 2.9 then I said 3.9 it's 2.7 3 million let you turn that
microphone on let's get the you're going to be mr smith take a number any number pick a number
currently as of as of december 31st there was 3 million 699 156 dollars left
so after this there would be just just at about a million dollars
sorry madam president i'm grateful to have it to do these kinds of repairs that we couldn't foresee
see even at 2017 right when we were preparing and our bond committee was working so hard to make
sure that we covered everything and so when issues like this come up i'm glad it's there i just was
curious because i just felt like it must be gone by now so okay thank you mr lacey i'm sorry mrs
fox i didn't mean to speak over you um the uh the curtains that are being replaced are they going to
be able to be repurposed or do we have to completely eliminate them from the schools
If so, can they be donated to different places? What's the scoop?
They do not meet the fire code so we cannot legally donate them to to another entity
They have to be disposed of
I know and walk and sing through the streets all of us, you know, miss guess. Oh, I'm sorry
Brilliance tonight. It's impressive. No, I had extra coffee
You can be mine the next agenda item
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the award for the contracts for the
replacement of the building management control systems at Bear Creek Elementary, Nottingham
Country Elementary, and West Memorial Elementary to Unify Energy Solutions, LLC, and the replacement
of the building management control systems at Maid Creek Elementary, Sundown Elementary,
and McMeans Junior High to Climatec, LLC, and approves the total project cost not to
exceed $2,050,400.
The building management control systems replacement at Bear Creek, May Creek, Nottingham, Sundown,
West Memorial, and McMeans Junior High are part of the 2017 bond component replacements
program.
District staff has worked with Salus O'Brien Engineering to develop the project scope for
each campus.
Six contractors responded to the request for proposal.
proposal. After careful evaluation of the submitted documentation, it's recommended
and will be in the best interest of the district to award the work to the two highest scoring
companies. Unify Energy Solutions LLC is being recommended to complete the work at Bear Creek
Elementary, Nottingham Country Elementary, and West Memorial Elementary. Climatec LLC
is being recommended to complete the work at Maid Creek Elementary, Sundown Elementary,
and McMeans Junior High. These projects have a tight schedule and the
team felt that this division provides the best value to the district and
ensures the work can be completed on schedule. Work is scheduled to start
immediately with the award of the contracts and be substantially complete
by July 26, 2019. The total project cost includes the engineering fees, necessary
necessary testing and balancing, and a small contingency for any unforeseen issues.
A copy of the recommendation letter from Salas O'Brien, the evaluation bid tab,
and the contracts are attached for your review.
The project funding source is the 2017 component bond component replacements.
Bear Creek Elementary cost $298,000.
Made Creek Elementary cost $250,000.
Nottingham Country Elementary cost $315,000.
Sundown Elementary, $250,000.
West Memorial Elementary, $279,000.
McMeans Junior High, $436,000.
Salis O'Brien Engineering cost $172,400.
And the owner's contingency, $50,000.
for a total not to exceed cost of $2,050,400.
The contracts have been reviewed by district council and approved as to form.
Are there any questions?
Madam President.
Mr. Lacey.
I know that there was a lot of construction done at means within the last 24 months,
and so I'm more curious about this.
This system that we're putting in, is this the,
the, and it's for both Mr. Cruz and for you, is this the system where you're able to remotely
control air conditioning, heating, things like that? Yes, sir. So we can work it? I'm surprised
that some of these schools didn't already have it. It's an antiquated system that's in there.
Okay. Okay. That's what we're doing. Parts are no longer available, so we're upgrading.
More of that part are no longer available. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?
You may move on.
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the award of contracts for the replacement of flooring at Rylander Elementary and Seven Lakes High School to Tarquette, utilizing the Choice Partners Contract No. 17-020-CG-15,
and the contract for replacement flooring at Morton Ranch Junior High to Mohawk utilizing the by-board contract number 561-18.
The replacement of the flooring at Rylander Elementary, Morton Ranch Junior High, and Seven Lakes High is part of the 2017 bond component replacements project.
Work is scheduled to start June 1, 2019 and be complete by August 1, 2019.
Copies of the individual campus proposals are attached for your review.
The project funding source, again, the 2017 bond component replacements.
Rylander Elementary cost $364,018.10.
Morton Ranch Junior High cost $199,315.08.
Seven Lakes High School cost $1,113,442.05.
The owner's contingency for unseen conditions, $90,000.
Total not to exceed project cost, $1,766,775.23.
The contracts have been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form.
Are there any questions?
Mr. Scott.
If this is just natural, I mean, there's obviously has to be done,
but I'm a little curious about the Seven Lakes.
Is this the natural time, or has there been something go wrong?
I mean, if I'm looking at the square footage and the square yardage,
that's a major comprehensive, right?
Yes, sir.
We're on a 15-replacement year schedule for our carpets.
And that's where it's supposed to be?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
Any other questions?
All right, your final item, 5.16.
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the interlocal agreement with Cinco
Southwest Municipal Utility District number 4 and the Katy Independent School District
for recreational facilities at Wilson Elementary.
The Wilson Elementary School Parent Teacher Association has raised funds to install a
shade cover over the basketball court.
The interlocal agreement we are seeking for approval request is for a $5,000 donation from Cinco Southwest Municipal Utility District number four.
A copy of the interlocal agreement and letter of explanation from the campus are attached for your review.
The interlocal agreement has been reviewed by District Legal Counsel and approved as to form.
Any questions?
All right.
Thank you so much for all of those presentations.
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 KDISD Board Policy BED Local does allow.
As defined by this board policy, the first 20 speakers who signed up at least 15 minutes before this meeting began and have provided their first and last name will be allowed to speak.
A maximum of 30 minutes has been allocated, with the time divided equally among those who have signed up.
However, the maximum amount of time for any one speaker is three minutes.
If you 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, 10 copies must be provided to the Secretary for Board Services, for board members, the superintendent, the chief communications officer, and permanent record.
Due to posting requirements of the Open Meetings Act, the board is able to respond only to a statement related to a posted agenda item with a statement of specific factual information given or a recitation of existing policy in response to the inquiry.
If a speaker has not attempted to solve a matter administratively through proper channels as stated in board policy, the presiding officer shall advise the speaker to seek resolution through the appropriate policy.
Board policy BED legal states that it is a criminal offense for a person with intent to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting to substantially obstruct or interfere with the ordinary conduct of a meeting by physical action or verbal utterance and thereby curtail the exercise of others' First Amendment rights.
Board policy BED local provides for removal of any member of the audience
after at least one warning who disrupts the meeting by his or her words or
actions. Finally, pursuant to Texas Government Code sections 551.074
and 551.0821, the board will not permit the presentation of personally
identifiable information regarding a student and will not discuss the
appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or
dismissal of a public officer or employee or to hear a complaint or charge against an officer
or employee should a speaker wish to address one of these issues they must do so through the
appropriate local grievance policies fng local dgba local or gf local as i announce your name please
come forward state your first and last name for the record our first speaker this evening is mr
Mr. Nick Fonditas.
Thank you.
I would like to start by reiterating a request that I made last November for the board to
launch a listening tour similar to what Fort Bend ISD launched in 2016.
Transparency and communication will only serve to improve collaboration with the community
and thus improve the quality of decisions that this board makes.
It is fundamental that the board remember that the board members remember that you have been elected to represent the people of this community.
Listening is the first and most critical step to representing.
I would also like to provide some feedback on the lack of fiscal responsibility recently displayed by the district.
It has become public knowledge that the district hired an attorney that is also a private investigator from a law firm in Dallas
to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in the Katy ISD Police Department.
I would like to understand from the Board what the justification was for hiring a private investigator
at considerable expense to the taxpayers when there are several outside law enforcement agencies
with highly trained investigators that could have investigated the potential misconduct
at no incremental cost to the taxpayers.
Mr. Scott, you can consider that a request to provide context.
During the majority of the district's board meetings, the board touches on state funding as an issue in some capacity.
I would challenge this board to be more fiscally responsible with the funds you already have before seeking additional funding from the state.
Ultimately, every penny of funding that the district receives comes from the pockets of taxpayers.
As a result, you owe it to everyone in this community to scrutinize every penny that KDISD spends.
Mr. Scott, you might be surprised to find out that we are in agreement that metrics such as a percentage of turnover require context.
The reason I laughed, and I have no problem admitting I laughed, is probably for the same reason as some of your fellow board members were smiling or looking around awkwardly while you were pontificating.
It's not that we disagree with the fundamental point you are making.
It's your consistent inability to present your perspective while maintaining proper decorum and exercising self-control that causes the reaction.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Funditas.
Our next speaker is Georgia Strickland.
Georgia Strickland.
Hello, Mr. Gorgorski, Ms. Doyle, and the rest of the school board.
I'm Georgia Strickland. I'm the KDISD Council PTA President.
So I realize there's some in the audience that don't know my position, so I just wanted to clear that up.
I wanted to give you all a PTA update, so I'm going to rattle off some awards that we have.
We have 60 campuses. 33 earned the Head Start award back in the fall. 18 earned
Early Bird. 25 earned the Fall Increase award. And then 26 of those 60s are on
the President list. 16 earned the Welcome Back award. Two, this is probably my
favorite, earned a Voice for Every Child which means that their membership
matches their enrollment. So that's a big accomplishment for any campus.
seven of them are Golden Apple which means that their whole staff is a member
of their PTA the good thing is some of these awards they have till the end of
March so we will be pushing them to submit the application to get these
awards so Golden Apple is one the Mars award means that they have six sixteen
campuses have 50 PTA members that are male and two of those campuses have a
male on their board I know for a fact that more more than two have that so we
We just need to push them to get those applications in.
Fifteen campuses show that they have more than 50 members that are students.
And then these are also really big accomplishments.
These are, they met their membership for the year before, so last year, 2017, 2018, but they've increased it.
So seven of them have met their goal from last year and increased it by 100.
Nine increased it by 250, and that means 250 more members.
and five increased it by 500 members five increased it by 750 and three
increased it by a thousand no excuse me I'm saying this wrong they met their
goal and then they went over so they're in the 750 Club meaning that they have
more than 750 members sorry and three are in the thousand Club and one I
believe it's Wood Creek Elementary is in the 1250 Club and several of us I think
about 50 people from kd are going to rally day in austin on monday so we're really excited we have
very bright purple shirts to wear to represent kdisd and students will be there from morton
range elementary and i will be taking mine as well just to give them a taste of all of that
fun legislative stuff so thank you so much
miss strickland can you tell me which two campuses met the capacity do you know off the top of your
good okay that's fine thank you our next speaker is miss susan wallace
good evening one of you mentioned that many people have no idea what's been going on in here
you surmise that these folks were happy with the way the board operated the implication being that
these people were or are okay with the delay deny discredit policies encouraged from the top down
actually actually these supposedly happy community members were merely uninformed
likely thinking this is all about a junior high bullying incident so you see it's not that people
are happy but rather that they are uninformed people in our kd isd community are and have been
too busy to organize and bring visibility to the areas that need change.
A community-driven movement changed that and gave people a voice.
A community-driven movement gave our community members a source of information that hasn't
been influenced by the mega KISDPR machine, a KISDPR campaign operating to point out artificial
and superficial pictures while suppressing factual problems.
A community-driven movement gave people an opportunity to clearly see how out of touch this board is.
It has become obvious that this board avoids transparency and accountability at all costs,
no matter if it proves to be detrimental to our community's children.
The hiring of the new superintendent is the most recent clear example.
It's easy to sit up on the dais and say the district is not perfect.
It is more difficult to highlight specific areas for improvement and debate concrete plans for tangible action with measurable results.
So far, you have been providing a lot of the former.
As officials elected to represent this community, we expect the latter.
Thank you, Ms. Wallace.
Our next speaker is Robert Willoughby.
Watch out there.
My name is Robert Willoughby.
In 2012, some of us got involved with the school board.
I didn't even know you guys existed before that.
And we spent seven years working with you guys and getting to know some of you.
One of the things that was important to us back in 2012 is that we wanted to make sure that everything we did brought an opportunity to kids.
Saturday night was my first time to go to the rodeo.
I've been here 18 years.
And let me tell you, that is an opportunity for kids.
And I'm so proud that we worked in 14 on the bond committee to have that put on the list.
I'm glad that it made it.
I don't know anything about the budget on it.
I'm not talking money.
but I'm just saying this is an opportunity for the children and when you go out there and you sit and you see them
and you see the kitty cowgirls do their thing
and they shoot out of there on the horses with them, the Texas flag and American flag, I tell you there is dust in my eye.
So that's the bright side.
Very rarely do I ever have a question whether I'm a parent or
or a taxpayer, or just someone calling to ask a question,
does someone give me the runaround?
I don't know.
Maybe it's because I respect what you do,
and I respect the time that you spend,
and I know that you're a volunteer.
Other people may not understand that.
And it's so frustrating for people
that just want to run their mouth and not do something.
get on a committee my kid my last child graduated in 2007 and I'm still up here
volunteering I'm on the committee's because I care about the kids of the
district and they're not even my kids but they need someone to care about them
instead of complaining about what you guys are doing or not doing or they
can't see or they can see get on committee go help a kid and make a
difference because that's what it's really all about. Thank you, have a good night.
Thank you Mr. Willoughby. Our final speaker is Mr. Sean Dolan. Good evening. With GPS
installed on all of our buses why don't we use the monitoring of efficiency and
safety of bus drivers as a means to provide positive reinforcement. We can
gamify this technology in a way that aligns with our safety goals. Maybe the
safest most efficient bus drivers are named bus driver of the month based on this empirical data
maybe even include the student passengers with monthly rewards for helping their bus driver win
which will require their participation in abiding by safe bus behavior. Mr. Scott brought up an
interesting point about legal cost savings which Mrs. Fox seemed unfooled by based on our counterpoint.
Let's not forget about the law firm of Feldman and Feldman who four of you voted to hire to
to consider a lawsuit of defamation against me for reporting mutually observable facts.
A lawsuit which never materialized.
I was informed that Feldman and Feldman then hired Wayne Dolsafino to the tune of $20,000 to investigate me personally and those associated with me.
He found no wrongdoing.
A couple weeks ago, this district sent another private investigator who interrupted my wife and I at a public restaurant to question me.
This attorney works for Littler Mendelson, a law firm that your general counsel has also worked for.
I don't remember seeing a vote on this by the board, and I'm not sure of the mechanism in place to hire private investigators to investigate me with my own tax dollars, but it just seems wrong.
I recorded my conversation with this investigator, and he stated that he costs our district $600 per hour. Seems high.
I made several attempts to speak with individuals of this district at no cost to share the concerns that have been brought to my attention.
I would encourage the district to consider the cost savings of picking up the phone and calling me back.
In the final week of January, a very specific incredible threat was posted on Instagram by a KDISD student to, quote, watch me Monday.
I'll do a school shooting.
And that was followed with, quote, I will kill you.
Thankfully, vigilant members of this community took it upon themselves to report this threat
to the KDISD PD and KDPD and an investigation ensued.
At first when the KDISD PD deputy chief commented about the threat on Facebook, it was unclear
if the threat was initially detected by law enforcement, social sentinel, or members of
the community.
The deputy chief then confirmed that members of the community were the first to report
the threat to the police.
It is unclear if members of the school administration were aware of the threat or not as no information
was cascaded to parents from the school until the presence of a threat was
widely circulated on social media. If Social Sentinel can't detect a threat as
specific as I'll do a school shooting and I'll kill you posted on Instagram
from the public profile of a KDISD student then what are we paying $80,000
for? Why doesn't Social Sentinel include Instagram in the social network that it
monitors? I fear that the PR spin of Social Sentinel by the district may give
the community a false sense of security given the impression that the district
is aware of all online threats or any. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Dolan. Our next
regular board meeting is Monday February 25th 2019. There being no further
business before the board this meeting is adjourned. The time is 8 49 p.m.
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.