I hereby call this special meeting of the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order. Today is Tuesday, November 17, 2020, and the time is 5 o'clock p.m. By law, for purposes of canvassing election results, only two board members are required to constitute a quorum. Noting that at least two board members are present, the board will now convene an open meeting. Dr. Gagorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to the notice for this meeting.
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Madam President, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for this meeting this evening. Thank you so much. We'll
turn to agenda item 3.1, consider board approval of the canvas for the November 3rd, 2020 Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees election. Our
presenter is Mr. Graham. Trustees, Dr. Gorgorski, President Doyle, thank you for for having me here tonight. I do have the official Canvas numbers in front of you. They're also available on our website for anybody that's interested. As we discussed throughout this election cycle, which really started in January of this year, so we're in our 10th month of it, this is gonna be a historic election for Katy ISD, historic election for the state of Texas and ultimately at the national level. Historic for us because, as you will recall, we traditionally hold our school board elections in May. Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, Governor Abbott ordered us to move that May election to November. And in doing so, that takes the control of the elections out of my hands. I also serve as the district's elections administrator, and it forces us to contract with the counties in order to hold an election. The unique thing about KDISD and its 184 square miles is that we encompass three different counties, Waller County, Harris County, and Fort Bend County. So we are required to enter into contracts with all three of those counties in order to hold this election. So I'm going to read some numbers to you here, and then I'm going to go over just a few more specifics and take any questions that you may have. The candidate vote total for November for position number three, Ashley Vann, was unopposed, and she had 39,068 votes. And then for position four, Leah Wilson was elected with 61,893, 61,893, as opposed to Michael Dillard, who had 47,099 votes. And that would be for position number four. For position number five, Mr. Greg Schulte was elected with 63,150 votes, as opposed to Mr. Bill Lacey, who had 45,659 votes. Now, those are totals for all three counties. I will, as of note, the number of votes actually cast for Ms. Vann seems a little low. Harris County did not have her on the ballot as she was uncontested, so they noted her for one vote so that she would win the Harris County and certainly had she been on the ballot she would have she would have garnered a lot more votes again I'm going to talk to you about this election being historic the last time that I was here reading to you numbers from a 2017 election was from our bond of November in 2017 and at that time we actually was a was a big win for the school district as we move forward to build the buildings that are are being built right now to include Haskett Junior High, which I think is our last building out of that bond package, which is currently in construction phase. When we ran that bond election, contracting with the three counties and the other expenditures from our office, it cost us $147,000 to do so. Compare that to a traditional May board election where we have anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000 people vote that normally cost us anywhere from 94 to 120 000 dollars to run and now again my office is in charge of that and so that's for us hiring poll workers doing we own our own machines counting the ballots the mail-in process etc for this election and i don't have firm totals yet but i know everybody is curious uh for this election it it appears that our historical cost is going going to be slightly over $450,000. In fact, the number that I have right now is $450,634.62. Now, we don't have a final total from Harris County, which I think is going to take them some time to get us, and we don't have numbers from Waller just yet. So it's cost us over $450,000. So even compared to the 2017 bond election, over $300,000 extra spent, and compared to a traditional election for us $350,000 more than we would traditionally spend had we had this election in November. So I just want us to be mindful of that as we talk about it with our public, that this is an additional cost of COVID. This is a directly attributable to COVID, and we'll do our best to seek recovery of that money if we can. But it's one of those things that kind of goes unmentioned, and it did make a substantial difference to us. I would be remiss, given the hectic election season that we've had, you know, with the extra week of early voting period and the headache of communicating with three different counties. If I didn't give a big warm kudos to Ms. Ellen Hebert. Ms. Hebert is over here. She is the rock for KDISD. She is, if any of you know that have been elected or those of you who are here tonight, the new trustees, you'll find out she is the expert in the elections area. We could not do it without her. and you know I just consider it to be a success this election season that she's still working for us after all the headaches so the big kudos to her and I do think our two new trustees are here just so the public knows we will not take any other action tonight other than to certify the canvas but we do have a posted board meeting tomorrow at 530 wherein we will swear in our new trustees and have a reorganization of the board as is required by law so So having said that, I'm happy to take any questions you may have.
Are there any questions, trustees?
Madam President.
Mr. Lacey.
I'd like to move that the Board of Trustees canvases the results of the November 3, 2020 Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees election as reported by the Central Counting Committee and declares that the winners of each position are as follows. Position 3, Ashley Vann, with 39,068 votes. Position 4, Leah Wilson, with 61,893 votes. And Position 5, Mr. Greg Schulte, with 63,150 votes. Second.
I have a motion by Mr. Lacey, a second by Mr. Redmond, that the Board of Trustees canvases the results of the November 3, 2020, Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees election, as reported by the Central Counting Committee, and declares the winners of each position as follows. Position 3, Ashley Vann, with 39,068 votes. position for Leah Wilson with 61,893 votes and position 5 Greg Schulte with 63,150 votes board is there any discussion hearing none will proceed to vote all those in favor please raise your right hand and say aye all those
opposed motion passes mr. Graham so we have in front of us again consider certification of that election I simply need a motion and you have that language
in front of you. Madam President. Mr. Lacey. I move that the Board of Trustees certifies the November 3rd 2020 Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees election for position three where at whereby excuse me Ashley Vann was duly elected, position four whereby Leah Wilson was duly elected, and position five whereby Greg Schulte was duly elected. I second it. I have a
motion by Mr. Lacey, a second by Ms. Champagne, that the Board of Trustees certifies that the November 3, 2020, Katy Pendant School District Board of Trustees election for position three whereby Ashley Vann was duly elected, position four whereby Leah Wilson was duly elected, and position five whereby Greg Schulte was duly elected. Board, is there any discussion? 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. This completes the canvassing of the election. There being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned. The time is 5.08 p.m.
Official documents
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Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 3.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees canvasses the results of the November 3, 2020 Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees Election as report by the Central Counting Committee and declares the winners of each position as follows: Position 3, Ashley Vann with 39,068 votes; Position 4, Leah Wilson with 61,893 votes; and Position 5, Greg Schulte with 63,150 votes.
4 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| bill-lacy | Yes |
| courtney-doyle | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
MOTION 002 · AGENDA 3.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees certifies the November 3, 2020 Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees Election for: Position 3, whereby Ashley Vann was duly elected; and Position 4, whereby Leah Wilson was duly elected; and Position 5, whereby Greg Schulte was duly elected.
4 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| bill-lacy | Yes |
| courtney-doyle | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |