Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this regular meeting of the Board of Trustees Acadian Independent School District to order.
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting Agenda
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, April 26, 2021
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Today is Monday, April 26, and the time is 5.04 p.m.
Dr. Gagorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of Texas Opens Meeting Act with regard to the notice for this meeting?
Madam President, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting this evening.
Thank you.
We will open tonight's meeting with the Pledges of Allegiance.
Dr. Gagorski, would you like to introduce our pledge leader?
Yes, thank you, Madam President. I'm going to go ahead and invite Lily McCrary up to the microphone,
if you'll step up there, young lady. So Lily's with us from McIlwain Elementary. She's fifth
grader. I think her principal out there is Huberta Lucas. Her parents, Mike and Chloe McCrary,
has a sibling named Violet. Special interests, gymnastics and art, favorite subjects, writing
and social studies, and a couple of nice quotes here from Mrs. Hornsby. Lily is an exceptional
student who strives for excellence in all she does. She's a brilliant thinker,
hard worker, and a respectful friend to everyone around her. It's a true joy to
have her in my class this year. And from Mrs. Mueck, Lily is an amazing student
that adds so much to my classroom community. I love to watch her get
excited about her reading. She is a creative thinker with a caring heart.
Lily is an example of what is a true friend should be. She's a delight to work
with in my classroom this year. So she also did they pledge for the McIlwain
dedication that is true so awesome job so round two lily it is all yours to lead us in the pledge
of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic
for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all
I honor the Texas flag.
Pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.
All right, Lily, I understand you have some things to share. It is all yours.
Good evening, President Vann, board members, and Superintendent Gagorski.
My name is Lily McCrary.
My adventures here at McIlwain Elementary have been outstanding.
My teachers have opened up my eyes to a love of learning.
I love being a student here because the learning environment and the teachers are amazing.
And no offense to my amazing teacher, Ms. Hornsby, but I've had an amazing experience with my teacher, Ms. Mick.
Thank you for a wonderful experience and I hope that generations to come will love it as much as me.
I've got a certificate for you here.
It says you are a pledge leader today.
And then you are the first student at McIlwain Elementary to receive our nifty little backpack
nap set.
Here we go.
Now move to item three on our agenda, a recognition portion of the agenda.
Next on our agenda, I'd like to introduce Ms. Maria DiPetta, Manager, Media Relations
and Multimedia to begin the board appreciation portion of our meeting.
Good evening, President Vann, board members and Superintendent Grogorski.
We begin tonight with the Texas Association of School Business Officials Award of Excellence in Financial Management,
which recognizes Texas school districts that have implemented professional standards, best practices, and innovations in financial reporting.
This year, the organization has recognized KDISD as one of 10 Texas school districts to receive the award.
At this time, please welcome Ms. Tracy Ginsberg, Executive Director of TASBO, to present this award tonight.
Thank you very much for allowing me to join you this evening.
This is indeed a great honor for Katy ISD.
I served as CFO in Fort Bend ISD.
As a matter of fact, I worked with your superintendent in that role.
But and I would always call Katie for best practices. How are you doing this? What are you doing? And Ken, Chris was always so gracious to allow us to come over and work with his finance team.
And so I wasn't surprised when TASBO began an award in a year of COVID when everyone's working from home.
Katie was one of 10 districts that stepped up and compiled the volumes of information which we required to ensure that they were indeed had risen to the standard.
And this award was created primarily to recognize those districts which go the extra mile.
number one do they have great accounting processes and procedures but they're
also transparent with the public and Chris's application was one of the
highest scored he had an outstanding application it reflects his and his
team's dedication to the district and to the district's taxpayers and so thank
you Chris it's an absolute honor to be able to recognize you tonight
They did the work.
And they did the work, but two of them aren't here.
Sarah Patsalis put together a lot of this, and Terry Dowdle retired.
They're sitting her over to retirement.
But this group did a lot of the work and it's what they do every day and I'm glad that they
could be here to meet up in the picture.
Chris can I get you guys to come this way to take that photo and do that presentation?
That would be awesome.
And if I might say while you guys are getting set up, Tracy thank you for coming out.
It's good to see you again.
And we've got over a thousand school districts in Texas.
I don't know if the public knows that.
But to be one of ten school districts to earn this honor is a pretty big honor for this
team and they do a fantastic job so I appreciate everything you guys all do so
thank you
Thank You miss Ginsburg and congratulations once again to the
financial services team for your commitment to Katy ISD community as well
as the families that live in this area next Katy ISD teachers are dedicated
dedicated leaders, supportive mentors, and selfless educators who invest in the well-being and the future of our students each day they walk into their classrooms.
Their value is immeasurable to all.
The City of Katy has issued a proclamation in honor of all Katy ISD teachers, which states,
Whereas teachers are responsible for shaping the minds and the hearts of countless students in order to ensure they all have equal chances at life through education,
and whereas teachers spend countless hours preparing lessons creating safe
and loving school cultures building deep partnerships with families and
communities collaborating with colleagues and reflecting on their craft
and whereas teachers go above and beyond the call of duty to fill many roles such
as mentors role models coaches and motivators and whereas teachers engage
students with exciting and rigorous teaching and learning and whereas the
city of Katy recognizes and supports our teachers in educating the children in
our community now therefore be it resolved that I Bill Hastings mayor do
hereby proclaim May 3rd through the 7th 2021 as Teacher Appreciation Week in the
city of Katy Texas and encourage all members of our community to personally
express their appreciation to our teachers for their dedication and
devotion to the children of Katie. In witness thereof I have here unto set my
hand and cause the seal of the city of Katy, Texas to be affixed this 26th day
of April 2021. Signed, Bill Hastings, Mayor of Katy.
Tonight we are proud to honor all our Katy ISD teachers. We wish all of them
were here tonight because they prepare and inspire each student to create the
future let's give them a round of applause and with this with this
well-deserved proclamation we conclude the recognitions portion of our meeting
tonight Thank You mr. Pettit will now move on to agenda item number four open
forum at this time the board of trustees will give members of the public an
opportunity to speak in accordance with KTISD board policy BED local. As defined
by board policy the first 10 speakers who signed up at 2 p.m. Monday April 26
have provided their first and last names will be allowed to address the board. A
maximum of 30 minutes has been allocated with the time divided equally among
those who have signed up. However the maximum time for any one speaker this
evening is 2 minutes and 10 seconds because we actually have more than 10
speakers this evening so we divided the 30 equally if you are not finished
speaking at the end of your two minutes and ten seconds your audio will turn off
if speakers wish to share written material with the board you must email a
copy to the secretary for board services for board members the superintendent
chief chief communications officer and for permanent record if a speaker has
not attempted to solve a matter administratively through proper channels
as stated in board policy providing officers designee shall advise the
speaker to seek resolution through the appropriate policy.
Finally, pursuant to Texas Government Code sections 551.074 and 551.821, 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 a charge against
any 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, CKE local, and GF local.
Our speakers will be called forward in the order that they signed up to speak.
Our first speaker for the evening is Jacob Bradley.
Bradley.
Bradley decided not to join us.
So our next speaker is Anne Russey.
I had this down to three minutes, so hopefully my thoughts are still organized on the two and ten.
With respect tonight, I'd like to speak specifically to you, Dr. Gorgorski.
I hope you can hear what your silence as our superintendent is communicating.
The majority of our student body identifies as a race or ethnicity other than white.
It's not a stretch of the imagination to say our students and their families feel the effects of racism both inside and outside of our school system.
People in our KDISD family are feeling invisible and unsupported in the pain and trauma that's only been exacerbated by this past year.
year. Your silence says I'm either willfully ignoring your suffering or I see it and do not
care enough about you to acknowledge it. We've read social media posts and news stories projecting
hateful words and ideas from students, parents, teachers, and even board members. Your silence
says I choose to ignore the problems because it feels safer to say nothing and hope no one notices
than it does to address these problems. You've been told that teachers are
afraid to speak up when they experience or witness racism because they fear
retaliation. Our existing policies are not sufficient to address these concerns.
Your silence says you have no plans to make meaningful changes to how we
respond to reports of racism, so indeed it is best if everyone keeps these
things to themselves. Our district has been largely silent on issues related to
race equity inclusion for decades. That's not making racism go away. It's not
helping us hire or retain teachers of color. It's not increasing diversity on
our school board. It's not encouraging allies to speak up when they witness
racism or discriminatory behavior. It's not ensuring our non-white and LGBTQ
LGBTQ plus students and staff feel as safe, valued, and supported as their cisgender,
heterosexual, white peers. We can't claim to be a school district that values diversity and equity
when you remain silent. Please speak up. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. If I might just
share a thought on that. Please go ahead. I'm not sure what Ms. Rusty is concerned about in terms of
remaining silent. I welcome anybody internally and externally within our
community, within our school district. They can reach out to me directly with
any concerns they have and if there are things going on in this district that
are racist or anything discriminatory practices, I will march hand-in-hand with
you to stop those practices within our district. But if you're just asking me to
go out to social media and rattle cages and do political theater, no that's not
what I'm gonna do. But once again I extend my hand to anybody in this
district and I will go hand in hand with you with anything that's going on in
this district that you have found discriminatory or racist in terms of a
practice we probably have over 50 maybe as many as 60 policies that address
racism or discrimination within our district not sure which policies you're
speaking to directly but I'm willing to look at those policies with anyone who
wants to look at them in terms of a policy review and find out which
which policies are not addressing what you're speaking to this evening.
So if you want to say that as silent, you can get up here and say that that is silent,
that I'm being silent on that.
But I've yet to have anyone contact me and ask me about any of these things that you've addressed today.
But like I said, and I'll say it again, anybody who wants to contact me,
we will work in partnership to resolve any conflict, any resolution that we need to resolve within this district.
Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Korski.
Our next speaker is Mary Ellen Cuzela.
Hello. Tonight I'd like to talk to you about courage. There are critical issues our country faces right now and it all starts locally.
We need school board members to be bold and courageous more than ever before and not afraid to speak up when things need to change.
If this school board is going to discuss whether it is just male or female, whether a boy identifying as a girl could compete in girls sports,
whether our country was founded in 1776 or 1619, or whether a person's worth is solely based on their race, creed, or color,
I want transparency from this board and ask that you be courageous.
Do not allow manipulation of these topics to further agendas.
Respect the natural law that makes this planet function and speak truth even when it's unpopular.
KDSD parents and taxpayers need a voice. We don't get a voice when school board members just go along to get along and rubber stamp stuff to keep things nice and tidy and avoid conflict.
On June 1st, the masks in online school will magically go away. Why is this not happening effective immediately?
What is so scientific about June 1st? Why are we postponing truth till June 1st?
Justice delayed is justice denied. For me, this is a cowardly decision lacking any respect for reality.
Do you educate yourselves on the facts or just deny them in the interest to go along to get along with the TEA or some other arbitrary group?
The TEA even announced, quote, local school boards have full authority to determine the local mask policy, end quote.
You had the opportunity to make masks optional, but you still did not.
Remember kids can go freely all sorts of places now without a mask like the DPS office, friends homes, many churches, businesses, but only when they go to school they're still mandated to wear a mask.
What do you think they're thinking when they go to school? I think many are not thinking at all.
And this is the sad reality. We are not modeling critical thinking and leadership to them. This is not a legacy anyone should leave behind.
There's still time to make mask wearing optional effective immediately.
You will make so many students and parents happier, healthier and safer.
As I understand it, you're not paid, except for a superintendent.
What do you have to lose? Thank you for being a public servant. We need you.
Thank you, Ms. Gisella.
Our next speaker is John Bastaroff, and I'm very sorry if I did not get your name.
It's a lovely name.
So, first of all, thank you guys for allowing me up here to speak.
I wanted to, first of all, congratulate you guys and compliment you all on KDISD being one of the top school districts in the state.
That's quite an accomplishment.
I think where we're falling short, however, is when it comes to the safety of our students.
And what I mean by that is basically drugs and vaping that's happening at the school district.
So let me ask you guys a question.
Do y'all have any idea how many bathrooms there are at Cinco Ranch Junior High?
I'm guessing you don't.
There are nine bathrooms at Cinco Ranch Junior High and approximately two officers, whether
it's security or police officers.
Now I have no idea how two police officers or security officers are supposed to monitor
all nine bathrooms, but it's not happening.
And I think that's a big issue here.
here. So when my children are in my care, I know where they are, what they're doing,
who they're with, and everything about them. And when I send them to your schools, I expect
you to protect them. I protect them when they're with me, and I expect you guys to protect
them when they go see you guys or when they go to school. I called Cinco Ranch Junior
High and I spoke with the assistant principal and asked her if she was aware of the problem
of vaping and drugs in the bathrooms and the answer I got was yes yes we are
aware of it no follow-up with an action plan of what we plan on doing about it
no here's our here's what we're gonna do it was just yes we're aware of it well
so what are you gonna do about it I have no idea I still don't know what the plan
is to rectify that but you guys you know you'll have an elected duty to protect
our students not only just to protect them from violence but also from drugs
You also have an elected duty to ensure they have an exemplary education that will lead to a bright future.
What good is that bright future if my kids are dead or doped up?
So I just wish you guys would invest as much money in our children's safety as we do a football stadium.
With that, I yield back.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Our next speaker is Dr. Zachary Hodges.
Good evening, Madam Chair, Board members, Superintendent.
It's good to be here.
It's good to be home.
Let me take a few minutes to do a couple of things.
One is the history of HCC and Katy ISD and then to brag a little bit about our new campus
over across from U of H. We've served Katy ISD since 1979.
There was one high school then, Katy High School.
We had classes after school. Howard McDonald was principal. So we go back a long ways.
And our first campus was in the mid-80s at Park 10 and then we moved in the mid-90s over to Frye Road.
And now I'm really happy to tell you that we're opening across the street from the University of Houston, Katy, over on Colonial Parkway.
And if you've driven by there, you see the wall is going up.
So we'll be open in the spring of 2022.
U of H will not be offering freshman and sophomore level courses.
They'll depend on us to do that.
It will be a great partnership with a clear pathway from dual credit,
which Katie has the largest dual credit program at Houston Community College.
And so we want to encourage those kids to get dual credit.
it, then come over to HCC and finish at U of H, college degree under $25,000, stay at
home, finish at home.
So we also want to brag about that this campus is really going to be around creativity and
innovation, project-based learning.
We believe that's what students want for the future.
and we'll have our share of workforce programs that are relevant to the local
workforce needs and again we're very very serious about what you know KDISD
and what a good partner you are and maximizing this opportunity for these
students so glad to be here we're gonna have a tree topping meeting tree topping
ceremony June 25th at 1030 and we want you to be a part of it and I'd be happy
to follow up with thank you thank you doc thank you dr. I just appreciate it
we're excited to have H to see you here in Katie the campus here okay our next
speaker is miss Amy Baird good evening my name is Amy Baird and I'm the mother
of a Katie ISD elementary student I went to Texas public schools from K through
12 got my bachelor's and PhD degrees at state universities in Texas and I'm a
biology professor at a public state university in Houston. I obviously
believe very strongly in the Texas public school system. However when we
received the announcement from the KDISD superintendent on April 16th regarding
COVID protocols being lifted I realized how precarious our system had become. The
school board and above all the superintendent is ultimately
responsible for the education of our children. What does it say about how much you actually
value education when you are explicitly ignoring scientific experts and the CDC recommendations
regarding safety measures to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic? On June 1st, when KDISD will lift all
safety measures, we will have many children attending summer school who are still ineligible
to be vaccinated. There's no guarantee that children under 16 will be able to be vaccinated
vaccinated before the fall semester begins. Even though some students can still choose to wear masks, all of the scientific data we have demonstrate that masks need to be worn by all people in an enclosed space in order to be effective. They are not fully protective for those wearing them unless everyone is wearing them. On the KDISD website, there were five items listed as superintendents non-negotiables. One of those is we will provide a safe and secure learning environment for our students and staff. During this
unprecedented time the only way to truly provide a safe learning environment is to follow evidence
based guidelines from the cdc when the texas governor announced in march that the state would
no longer require masks several local school districts immediately announced that they would
continue to follow cdc safety guidelines no matter what the state required kdisd waited weeks to make
an announcement until they heard that the tea would still be required requiring them to continue
continue their safety measures. Now that we're abandoning even the TEA guidelines claiming that they expire June 1st, even though a TEA spokesperson has said that there's no expiration date on their guidelines. Again, all of the reputable experts in virology and epidural...
Thank you, Ms. Baird. Thank you.
you our next speaker is Tara mayor hello thank you in order to keep this anonymous
I'll remove the names in the schools see that that'll be okay hello my name is
Tara mayor I'm here as a parent from a junior high in the district I also have
children on two other kdisd campuses have been a parent in this district for 13 years and am
privileged to get to be a district employee my purpose for being here today is simply to bring
awareness to what happened at a junior high last week not here to point fingers or cast blame and
i'm not angry i just want to make sure the situation is looked into last tuesday april
20th parents of this school received a district email stating a principal has been transitioned
to a new kdisd assignment the rest of the email was about his interim replacement to the reader
it appeared that this person was gone without a word with 30 days left of
school, STAAR Test, all the end of the year responsibilities to come. That same day I
emailed the assistant principals and the area superintendent expressing my
concern. I received an email back from the district stating how his service to
KDICD is and will continue to be appreciated. In my 13 years as a parent
here I've seen many administrator teams change. In fact at one of my children's
schools I saw three principals and three assistant principals leave retire or get
get promoted in six years.
And in every one of them, there was clear, comfortable
communication.
There was closure on the campus with staff and students.
And they all occurred over the summer,
so there was zero disruption to learning,
which is what makes this situation so strange.
It doesn't take an expert to do a Google search
and see that this person does not show up
on any other campus in the district.
And given the fact that no one is saying a word about it,
including this person, who is an avid communicator
with his parents, it gives the impression
that he must have done something wrong to warrant
this type of action but here's the problem with that I know him I've worked
with his wife I know they are God-fearing kind people I also know he
loved his staff and his admin team I know he loves the parent community of
the school and that he had no intention of leaving anytime soon I know from all
that he has persevered through over the last years that he isn't easily swayed
from duty and that even when life was heavy he valued his role as a principal
a leader like that he was spent 21 years in the district would not punt his
responsibilities and leave without a word to anyone it just thank you miss mayor
our next speaker is bonnie anderson
Hi. It's been a rough night for you guys. I kind of feel bad. But so my first public
forum in this room I was naive to think that a parent's logical presentation to elected
elected officials would have any impact.
When my concerns fell on deaf ears, and they were important enough to me to come do this
month after month, I've been learning that I'm not the only one.
And actually, as it turns out, my concern has been greatly overshadowed by what I've
learned.
So I've seen board meeting videos where a mother who couldn't even read her own statement,
somebody read it for her about her son who was thrown into a garbage can headfirst and
sodomized at a junior high by a basketball team.
The basketball team's punishment was the quiet table at the lunchroom.
Another mother stood up here and talked about how her kid jumped out the second story window
at the school to attempt suicide.
aside I am not the first and I'm sure I won't be the last in a long long line of
parents who come to this board with concerns why is this we've built a
system that fosters bullying I do believe that teachers do all they can to
protect and nurture students but I think they're fighting down a top-down regime
some of you are new board members some of you have been here for years and
you've been letting this happen for years so I'm asking you to be courageous
and stand up for students teachers and parents have integrity have courage stop
letting this happen when a parent goes to the trouble to stand up here and
and express a concern to you talk to them thank you
thank you miss anderson the next speaker is claudia turcott
45 days. That's the difference between leading with courage and leading from behind.
Every single person under the sun who wants the vaccine can get it.
So why are our kids still sitting in masks for eight hours a day?
Your letter on April 16th references the TEA guidance,
which states the governing board of a school system may modify or eliminate by formal action
the above mass related requirements again I asked why I fear the answer is a
desire to just go along to get along since the school year is almost over the
decision to continue this charade is not based in science or reality this
approach is teaching our children to act out of fear to choose the path of least
resistance and to live small timid lives we the adults should be modeling courage
courage and critical thinking for our youth. Just today I received an email from KDISD with a video
about the upcoming election. It featured a principal and two district award winners standing
outside wearing masks. Kindly provide the science that supports this practice. You can't because it
doesn't exist. You're teaching our children to blindly follow without regard to logic or common
sense. Dr. Gagorski, we pay you a great salary and I absolutely applaud you for
the success of reaching that level of making that much money, but we all know
with great power comes great responsibility. Our children have been
offered up as a sacrificial lamb on the altar of appeasement, but it's not too
late for you to do the right thing. Just last week, Umbilay SD announced they
would no longer require masks for their elementary students, effective
immediately. That's a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough.
There is a month left of school. I am pleading with you to return some
semblance of normalcy to our kids. Thank you.
Thank you Ms. Turcotte. Our next speaker is Ms. Amy Traynor.
Good evening. Thank you board members for your service to the students of this district and the opportunity to address you this evening.
My name is Amy Traynor and I'm the mother of two children, one in Katie and one, regrettably, was failed by the language arts and reading curriculum and interventions provided in this destination district and is now in private school.
Seeing elementary English language arts and reading programs on the agenda for tonight gave me hope for the students, families, and educators in this district.
Tonight I hope that we hear that Dr. Caskey shares that KDISD has looked outside of itself
and toward other states who are changing the literacy trajectory for their students and
that KDISD is following their lead.
States such as Colorado and Arkansas who have banned the use of Teachers College units of
study and Fountas and Pinnell knowing that there is evidence that these programs are
not just ineffective but can also be harmful to learners with diverse learning needs.
I hope Dr. Caskey shares that rather than settling to be a district doing okay in the
the 42nd lowest performing state in fourth grade reading on the National
Assessment of Education Progress that our side is set on being the district
leading our region to embrace the science of reading following
Mississippi's lead. While Texas and Katy ISD have remained stagnant or even
demonstrated regression in our NAEP and state assessment scores, Mississippi has
demonstrated the most growth in student achievement. According to the 2019 NAEP,
results show that Mississippi students living in poverty are outperforming
their peers nationally. Both black and white students from low-income homes in Mississippi
achieved higher scores than the national average in all four NAEP subjects. Hispanic students from
low-income families outperformed their peers nationally in three out of the four tested
subjects. What is Mississippi doing that is allowing all of their students to outperform
ours? They have fully embraced training educators on the simple view of reading,
the science of how students learn to read. The Reading Academies also address the science of
reading, and I hope our district is not relying on in-house providers, providers that are heavily
entrenched in the units of study and stark contrast to the science of reading
but instead have looked at third-party Academy providers to bring our district
out of our stagnant literacy progress if we continue to hold on to curriculum and
teaching practices including units of study and found to some panel and do not
fully embrace the opportunity to provide our educators and unbiased training on
how cognitive science tells us how students learn to read we are deciding
to stay stagnant thank you miss trainer thank you so much our next speaker for
the evening is miss Kristen Martin
Ladies and gentlemen, I feel like we are at a precipice here.
You see, I pulled my kids out of school six weeks ago with no backup plan.
I had that motherly gut check where you know that your kids are being undereducated and
over indoctrinated I was shocked my sixth grader was taught about mental
health and suicide in school and asked to memorize sheet music to sing for her
choir class based off of a play that the subject matter was mental health and
suicide even required to sing that that song it's a shame for the many great
teachers that there are but parents are now wide awake. We're smart, we're
organized and we're gonna be relentless. We are facing a transition point like we
never have in our lives. Many have lost faith in our most esteemed institutions.
We all have a civic responsibility to set our children up to succeed in life.
We've traded decency and moralities for lies and new ideologies. Kids are being
Having dared to misgender their classmates with the expectation that they are to memorize
a new growing spectrum of genders that's not even legally recognized.
It's gotten way out of hand.
Our children are not pawns for some fringe, bizarre social experimentation.
I also want to know how our general counsel is the elections administrator.
I didn't get an answer from the superintendent regarding the incident that happened in this
very boardroom she was framed and singled out bullied and censored and
that is everything that's wrong with society today I would ask you to ask him
to make a public apology and set the tone for standing up against bullies
tonight. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Martin.
Our next speaker is Alicia Calvas.
I'm sorry if I mispronounced your first name.
That's all right.
Good evening. My name is Alicia Calvas.
I am the parent of three children in our district.
Thank you to the Board of Trustees and Dr. Grigorski for allowing me the opportunity
to speak and for your service on behalf of all of our children in our district.
I am grateful to the Board for examining our literacy practices and I am hopeful that our
experience can shed light on the necessity for change.
Our daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia in December of first grade.
She continued to struggle to read and despite the accommodations and dyslexia classes her
school provided i began researching and learning all i could about dyslexia in an effort to support
our child as our challenges grew it became clear that our family would need to make more drastic
measures to help our child i quit my job to support our child and over the next two years
our family made great sacrifices to help our child learn to read my daughter and i lived in atlanta
for a summer away from our family so that our our child our daughter could attend a private school
school and I could be trained in dyslexia intervention. We have spent hundreds of hours
in additional training and thousands of dollars in private intervention grounded in the science
of reading and evidence-based intervention, all so that our child can learn how to read.
Our situation is not unique. Affluent parents in Katy can afford the time and money to have
their children's reading difficulties remediated. Like us, they pay thousands of dollars for
for private assessments, specialized schools, tutoring, lawyers, advocates, all to ensure
that their kids get what they need.
For my daughter, the barrier of illiteracy will be removed.
I'm here because there are still far too many kids in our district who aren't getting what
they need.
Literacy is a basic human right and the foundation of all other learning.
Regrettably, the balanced literacy program that KDISD uses is devastating to our most
vulnerable students students with dyslexia and students who are not able to simply augment the
services katie provides it de-emphasizes direct teaching of foundational reading skills in fact
it actually teaches kids to guess at words or pictures rather than teaching children to
accurately decode words paying attention to the letters and sound and words in the thank you ms
Ms. Calvis.
Our next speaker is Mr. Luther Mahler.
Board members, Mr. Superintendent, I'll be short.
I sent all of y'all an email today.
I wasn't sure I would get here, so you can read what I said in that.
that, but briefly, if I send a district administrator an email, I expect a response. I may not like
it, but I expect a response. Teachers respond, your administrators respond.
Nineteen years ago, I moved here from Miami-Dade County, Florida. I have about 45 years in
public education, K through college. I've been on a number of committees here, bond
committees, et cetera. When we moved here, we had four or five high schools, one football
stadium. Now we have nine high schools, two football stadiums, but we only have one alternative
learning center. Populations of people is a bell curve. So many need encouragement.
That number of encouragement is being ignored. I think you hear that here on individual cases.
I suggest that you build another alternative learning center. Because as administrator
in one of your schools, what are they going to do with Johnny who put the other kid in
into a trash can.
What?
Put them in jail?
No.
Today, in society, we have to have more police,
more security.
Our little church now hires a policeman
every time the doors are open.
I suggest that you hire more hall monitors, security.
My last regular high school, I had two police departments
and 24 security monitors.
I'd be glad to talk with the superintendent, anybody
on your staff if you want to about particulars. We won't do it here. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Mahler.
Madam President, if I can. I will speak about the alternative center. Those of
you who may not followed our 2017 bond very closely, we do have an additional
building going on at that property out there. It's a two-story building. It's
It's costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million.
So we did have one alternative center many years ago.
I don't remember the dates on that.
We built onto that alternative center and added the Martha Raines High School onto that,
which is a different type of alternative center.
But we are building a two-story building out there,
so then the alternative center for what I think you're describing is the discipline side
will be able to move into the old building that was added years ago, expanding that,
And then we're going to have a brand new Martha Raines Academy, which is a type of alternative center, not disciplinary, but a different program.
So we are addressing those needs.
Thank you, Dr. Gorski.
Our last speaker for the evening is Dr. Lisa Babin.
You walked in just right on time.
I did not get a return receipt, so I did not know I was speaking.
So thank you for accommodating me.
Good evening, school board, Ms. Vann.
Dr. Grigorski, I'd like to discuss voting integrity, voting issues.
Unfortunately, I encountered an issue, and I did not receive a return phone call from Mr. Graham,
and that concerns me because as chief of elections, I think it was his right to call me back.
The issue is, is the election judge was in my voting booth behind me,
and that scared me for my ever-living life.
You're very lucky you didn't receive a call to peel me off the cathedral ceiling
because then I was rattled. She had no business being behind me in any way, shape, fashion, or form.
It's my understanding this has happened at other polling locations as well as that location.
Unfortunately, Dr. Gorgarski, I did try to contact your office, and since I received no return
communications from Mr. Graham after talking to the election administrator, I did file with the
Secretary of State. It is my right to report those voting irregularities and things. One comment that
I heard from someone who had the same issue was from a voting clerk that said
we've been doing it this way for 30 years and if you don't like it move this
has been an issue with me for a long time is that statement if you don't like
what we do in KDISD move no that's not what we want to do we want to fill seats
we want a waiting list in KDISD you know sorry we can't accommodate you we're
full you know brimming we're having to build more schools it's just irritating
because that's been going on that kind of attitude has been going on since my
time in the district with dr. Merrill and it's rude and we're not rude in
Katy ISD I think we have better manners and morals than that so that's my issue
tonight is voting election integrity best practices my booth was backed up to
a window anybody could have looked in but the election judge was behind me in
in my booth and I'm not cool with that at all.
So thank you.
Madam President, if I may please, a factual response.
Yes, Mr. Graham.
The incident what we're referring to in this case,
it is a policy and practice and a law in the state of Texas
that you cannot take your cell phone into a voting booth.
You cannot take a recording device into a voting booth.
If you do need assistance, you can ask for assistance and we will provide that assistance.
However, I will tell you that
there have been no incidences of voter intimidation, none that I'm aware of.
Ms. Babin did get several return calls from my staff and was actually given the forms and
recommended that she file with us Texas Secretary of State. In our last May election, which was the last one run by Katy ISD,
we had an inspector sent here from the Secretary of State's office
and that individual found no irregularities in what we're doing and
actually sent us a thank-you letter saying thank you for what you're doing
in KDISD. We do seek integrity in our elections and we do encourage people
that have problems to contact my office. However, we're not the arbiter of those
and so we'll send you to the right place to do so. Anyway, so we stand behind what
we do here in KDISD with our elections process and I appreciate the
opportunity to respond factually. Thank you Mr. Graham.
May I respond?
I asked for a voting irregularity form and none was provided to me.
When I entered the voting booth, no one told me that I could not have my phone and I was
misinformed that disabled people could have their phone pulled up and have a sheet.
Not once did they tell me I couldn't have my phone.
Everybody that was in there was playing on their phone.
Okay, Dr. Babin, that was your 20 seconds.
Thank you for responding.
This concludes the open forum portion of the meeting.
The Board will now convene and close meeting as authorized under Section 551.001
of the Texas Government Codes for the following purposes.
Texas government code 551.071, 551.129, and 551.074.
The time is 6.50 p.m. On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's regular board meeting.
Each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Friday, April 23, 2021.
The board will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration, and superintendent on these agenda items at tonight's meeting.
Board members will be able to ask questions, receive answers, and should be
prepared to take action. The Board has just reconvened from closed meeting. In
accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, any action arising from
discussion in a closed meeting must be taken in an open meeting. 6.1,
consider Board approval of the naming of the principal for Rains Academy. Dr.
Agorski. Thank you, Madam President. I bring forward a recommendation as
discussed in closed session for the principal at raines academy for richard merriman madam president
mr reban i move that the board of trustees names richard merriman as the principal for
raines academy as recommended by the superintendent in closed meeting
second recommendation by mr redmond a second by ms gessoff we will now proceed to vote all those
those in favor please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. I was off my game
there for a minute. I was moving a little slow but I do want to say Richard Merriman is
with us looks like he might have brought some family but Richard's been a
longtime employee of Katy ISD. He's been eager and wanting to step in this role
as a principal we believe in him. I think he's gonna do a super job but he's
currently the associate principal over at Katy High School. He served as an
assistant principal teacher and coach all throughout the district. He's done a good job for us. I think he's here to stay for the next 30 years, so that's a good thing. But Richard, if you would, please introduce the folks you have with you.
you.
I have my lovely wife, Lauren, our beautiful daughter, Kennedy Carol, who just turned one
back in March, and then I have my mom fly in from Michigan, and then my mother-in-law,
Donna Hartman, and sister-in-law, Sarah.
Hey, you bet.
And what some people may not know is we like to employ all the Merrimans and Hartmans,
just like a couple of them sitting over there work for us and we're happy to
have them as well so it's always exciting when we have people coming
here living here raising their families being part of KTISD working for KTISD
for a long time that's what's one of the things that makes us special here yes
sir congratulations move to item 6.2 consider board approval of the naming of
executive executive director of maintenance and operations dr. Gagarski
You bet. As discussed in closed session, naming Nathan Fuchs Executive Director of Maintenance and Operations is my recommendation.
Madam President.
Mr. Redman.
I move that the Board of Trustees names Nathan Fuchs as the Executive Director of Maintenance and Operation as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting.
Second.
We have a motion by Mr. Redman and a second by Ms. Gassoff. We will now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
motion passes 7 to 0 and madam president if I may Nathan's in here somewhere we're
you back hiding in the back there Nathan so Nathan's been with us a long time in
Katie is d18 years he's worked in construction he's worked in M&O he's
following a great leader which I'll mention mark T does if marks in here I
don't know but mark is retiring you guys hear from him every month for a board
meeting he's outstanding and we know Nathan's gonna step in and do just as
good a job maybe even better we're not sure but he's got some big shoes to fill but uh nathan do
you have anyone with you back there with you you bet all right well thank you nathan congratulations
we move to item 6.3
what do we have on six madam president this guy's off i move that the board of trustees approves
the one-year staff member term contracts one-year employee probationary contracts one-year employee
dual assignment probationary contracts one-year employee term contracts one-year employee dual
assignment term contracts and two-year employee dual assignment term contracts for the 2021-2022
school year as recommended by the superintendent in closed meeting do i have a second second
motion by ms gussop a second by mr redmond will now proceed to vote all those in favor please
raise your right hand and say aye aye motion passes seven two zero we'll now move on to our
action item agenda item will 7.1 consider goodbye i'm all tongue-tied consider board approval of a
lump sum payment madam president i move that the board of trustees approves a one-time lump sum
payment in the amount of 500 to each kd isd full-time employee and a one-time lump sum
sum payment in the amount of $250 to each KDISD part-time employee at the end of the 2020-2021
school year. Second. Motion by Ms. Guestoff and second by Mr. Keller. We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Motion passes seven to zero.
If I could just take some time to address this. Some notes I have about some of the background
and thought on moving forward with this lump sum to our employees. From a global pandemic to winter
freezes, this year has been an extremely challenging school year for KDISD families
and our KDISD staff. The lump sum payment trustees have just approved tonight for our permanent,
full-time, and part-time employees that have been employed since January 4, 2021,
as well as long-term subs who've worked more than 70 or more days, is in recognition of the
the enhanced procedures and duties added to all staff this past year as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic and other unexpected events like our freeze, like storm Yuri. During this school year,
KDISD employees were instrumental in the continuity of learning and the district operations during
these events. They demonstrated unwavering commitment and compassion toward our students
and families during a very stressful and at times emotionally taxing school year. From our
operation staffs to our food service employees to our teachers principals and support staff
thank you for everything you have done this year to help our students continue learning
regardless of the challenges and the circumstances presented
madam president mr champagne i just want to add one little thing thank you so much dr grigorski
and um mr smith for finding a way to make this happen
yay teachers
All right.
Item 7.2.
Madam President.
Ms. Gasol.
I move that the Board of Trustees enters into a cost-sharing agreement for drainage facilities
with Harris County Municipal Utility District number 171 for drainage, floodplain mitigation,
and overflow mitigation associated with the future school site as described in the attached document.
Second.
Is that you, Mr. Redman?
Yeah.
A motion by Ms. Gasol, a second by Mr. Redman.
We'll now proceed to vote.
all those in favor please raise your right hand and say aye aye motion passes
seven to zero well now we'll move on to our section agenda item eight reports
eight point one results of the Katy ISD virtual high school interest survey
Dr. Gorms.
Good evening, President Vann, trustees, and Superintendent Dr. Gorms.
I am here this evening, as you said, to present the results of the KDISD Virtual High School
INTEREST SURVEY.
THIS SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED BY AN OUTSIDE RESEARCH FIRM, K-12 INSIGHT.
THEY ARE UNAVAILABLE TO PRESENT THIS EVENING, SO I AM PRESENTING THE RESULTS ON THEIR BEHALF.
AS YOU KNOW, AT THE LAST BOARD MEETING, THERE WAS SOME DISCUSSION ABOUT THE POTENTIAL FOR
A KDISD VIRTUAL HIGH SCHOOL, AND THERE WAS A QUESTION AS TO WHAT THE LEVEL OF PARENT
INTEREST MIGHT BE.
Administration was asked to conduct a survey to determine the level of interest.
That survey again was developed and administered by K-12 Insight.
The administration date was March 31st and it was open until April 14th.
The survey was emailed to all 8th through 11th grade parents in Katy ISD.
That represented about 37,000 emails.
And those parents who received the link to the survey were emailed a reminder every two
days between March 31st and April 14th.
The survey results you will see are a summary of that survey.
Here again you will see that the survey was emailed to 37,469 parents to be exact.
Act. 6,878 parents responded to the survey.
Primary question that was asked in the survey was, would any of your children be interested in attending the KDSD virtual high school for the 2021-2022 school year based on the criteria outlined above?
That criteria above in the survey outlined what a potential virtual high school would look like.
And you'll see that 1,238 participants indicated that they would be interested in a virtual high school option.
That is 1,238 out of the 6,878 that responded.
Now, in terms of total enrollment for 8th through 11th graders, that represents 4.7%.
So if you look at that graph to the side, there are 26,332 current 8th through 11th grade students.
4.7% of parents of those students indicated that they would be interested in a virtual option.
The survey also asked the participant how many children they currently have enrolled
that are 8th through 11th grade students.
And you'll see that 78% indicate they have one child who is within that 8th through 11th
grade criteria, 19% have two, and 2% have three children who are either 8th through
11th grade students. So we looked at that by campus. You'll see at the bottom of
this chart, that last row, total by grade level, all the way to the right under the
last column that also says total, there are 1,386 students who could be
potentially represented by those parents who expressed an interest in a virtual
high school option because again some of these parents who responded have more
than one child who are who is in eighth through eleventh grade and this chart
shows the breakdown by the of that potential interest by high school
This chart is also very similar looking at the percentage of parents who would be interested
in a virtual option for their child by high school campus.
this. At the end of the survey, those who participated were asked to express why they
would prefer a virtual learning option. And you'll see some of the main themes that came
out of the 954 responses included because they had concerns about health and safety
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They liked the flexibility that would be offered through
an online learning program and they felt that online learning might be less stressful for
their child.
Some parents also expressed that they did have some concerns about the reduced access
to the same course opportunities in an online virtual high school.
They expressed some concerns about limited access to extracurricular activities and athletics.
And some parents who participated in the survey expressed that they had a concern about the potential for students to cheat in an online program.
And those are the high-level findings from the KDIC Virtual High School Interest Survey.
Board members, do we have any questions?
Madam President, Dr. Grooms, I just have a question, a couple questions on the slide four,
page four, where it says interest in Katy ISD Virtual High School.
And so it says, would any of your children be interested in attending a Katy ISD Virtual
High School for the 2021 school year or 2021-22 school year?
And then you have 18% said yes, and then 82% said no.
But then over here in your little graph, it says number of yes is 4.7%.
So I explained that. We're looking at two different numbers. Okay. The 18% is 18% of the 6,878 who responded to the survey.
Now we actually have 26,332 students enrolled in 8th through 11th grade.
grade. So when you look at that 1238 as a percentage of the total enrollment of 8th
through 11th graders, you get 4.7%. Okay, but of the ones that responded, 18% wanted
it. Correct. 18% out of the 687 that actually responded to the survey. So then on the next
one where it has your graph are those numbers representing the 18% or the 4.7%
that represents the approximate 18% oh I see yes mm-hmm okay thank you
anyone else the damn president yeah I have a question I don't know if it's if
dr. Gorski can ask what's the you know that obviously the numbers are somewhat
somewhat low, right? So what's the break even on doing something like this? I mean, you know,
obviously there's a lot of work and resources that go into a virtual high school, and when
you're only getting a 4.7 percent normalized, does that make sense to do that? Is that even
something that is, does it make sense to do that? Yeah, that's a good question, Mr. Schulte, and
so a couple of real challenges in designing this. So should we move forward with this design?
We can start scratching out what we believe would be a framework of what that would look like and
and put some cost to it and figure that out.
The challenge is going to be is if, and I mentioned this before,
but I'll bring it up again,
and we've got the legislative session going on right now.
At one time there were 16 bills filed about virtual instruction.
I don't know which one of those bills might make it across the finish line
and what would that bill say on what would be required to do that.
I also don't know how the virtual program will be funded.
Is it going to be full-day funding like we get for a student
who has in-person instruction?
And I won't know that until maybe one of the bills passes or maybe none of the bills pass and maybe the legislature kind of punts to TEA and says, we don't have a bill, but you can create what you want through TEA and you can fund it the way you feel.
Okay.
That could happen because TEA does have a lot of authority and a lot of rulemaking that isn't part of legislative action.
So we're sitting back waiting and see what TEA might say.
So to put a cost on it would be real hard because I don't know what the funding mechanism is just yet.
So if I knew the funding mechanism, I could match that up with there and balance it.
Yeah, we could do that.
So we're at a little bit of an unknown right now on that.
We're getting into May soon.
It'll be May.
Will one of those bills get passed and give us a little sunshine into what that really looks like?
I don't know.
Maybe will it be June?
I don't know.
But if we don't start putting some sort of framework together now, then it'll be real hard to get it done in August.
But at the same time, we've got this Katie Virtual School that we do right now, not the Virtual Academy due to COVID.
But we have all those courses we've designed that kids take in the summer and in the evening.
So we've got a pretty good template of having the courses already designed, especially for high school.
Clearly, it's not everything under the sun, but it's a good framework.
So we're not starting from scratch with that.
so I think we could put something together so a little bit of time will
tell on that about what that really looks like but I do hear your concern
and it would be one of my concerns as well four point seven percent of the
kids have indicated they would want this I mean so all right so if we could
create an academy that has twelve or thirteen hundred kids in it okay that's
kind of a small high school you know sort of speaking big junior high heck
there's high schools all across texas that have less than 1200 so but small for us in comparison
but i do welcome the board's um feedback on this you know i mean your discussion of what you think
if you want to hear more about it and we think we might want to create that i think the next action
would be come back in may with uh maybe a skeleton framework of what that looks like and some
some possible costs of what that looks like.
As you saw on there, Andrea, will you put the graph back that had the number of students by camp?
That one, perfect.
So if you look at this, these schools have already been staffed for X number of students,
but when you look at it this way, if that many students came out,
and I'll take Cinco Ranch because they're on the first line up there, that's 214 kids.
If 214 kids left Cinco Ranch, they could give up a little personnel, you know what I mean,
in terms of starting to get late for that we'd have to work through some parameters
but if you start talking about 100 200 300 kids leaving a campus we might have teachers on that
that could just rotate you know i mean from in person and now somebody could provide a teacher
from that campus for the virtual school so there's a few things we've kicked around that that would
be a cost savings in terms of that or cost neutral because we've already hired those teachers
we're gonna we're gonna educate the kids regardless whether they're in person or not
That's I guess what I'm saying.
One of the questions, if it's physically neutral that you can do it or not do it and it costs
about the same and obviously gives some of those parents that have those concerns about
wanting to have the virtual, is there any other disadvantage of doing it?
Or is it just if it's physically neutral and you get the same funding and you've got the
teachers to do it, it's not a net increase, is there a disadvantage of doing it?
I couldn't think of a disadvantage.
I think there's more advantages than disadvantages to offer one additional option within KDISD.
to meet the needs of our students who want something different.
When you look at it, we have traditional high schools.
We've got nine of them.
But we also have some other programs as well, like the Miller Career Center,
which is an option for kids.
And not everybody takes that, but it's an option for kids.
And then I spoke earlier about that expansion on our Reigns Academy.
That's an option for kids.
We have the Simon Youth Academy, which now will fold into the Reigns Academy.
That was an option for kids.
So we do have other options for kids who don't want the traditional high school 9 through 12 and want something different.
So it wouldn't be unheard of to create another option within this district.
I don't know if it'll be 100% cost neutral because I would need somebody over the academy,
and I hesitate to use the word principal, but somebody to lead it and make sure everything is running for that,
to hire the teachers, select the teachers.
I would need a counselor and a registrar because off to count credits
Make the graduation plans ensure they're connecting with the kids because you can't just let them kind of fly by their own
So I need somebody kind of managing that so there would be a few positions in there
But maybe the teacher side would be neutral to the extent we could I
Think you were asking for feedback. I know my impression is I haven't heard anything tonight
They would tell me that it makes sense to kill it now
It sounds like we should at least take it to the next step and get some numbers and see what you guys come back with
And may that be my opinion anyway sure you bet
Madam president, I'm sorry. Okay, so I'm sorry and then I'm sorry. Mr. Redmond
Is have you seen anything in the proposed legislation that would require us to provide some sort of virtual school at the elementary level?
Or junior high level. I mean we've talked about you know kind of look floating the high school idea
but if the legislation is based on coming out of a pandemic, do you think that might happen?
It could happen.
Nothing is coming to mind, and I have to admit I don't have them all memorized,
but it wouldn't surprise me if there's some things in there that give districts the option to do it.
I don't think anything would be in there that would be mandated.
There are several bills that talk about kids being able to kind of, for lack of a better term,
jump across an attendance boundary line and that districts would have the option
of enrolling kids from outside the district which gets a little bit of a
challenge that you would enroll anybody within your district from anywhere in
Texas that gets a little bit of a challenge and then keeping up with the
numbers and be able to do that then it goes back to funding and how are you
gonna get that you're obviously not getting any tax base for that right so
that wasn't one of the things we talked about doing but it could be something
that sneaks through with the legislature on some of their bills on that so we're
just kind of kind of sitting back and watching some of that stuff all right
thank you very much dr. grant you 8.2 teacher incentive allotment or otherwise
known as TIA mr. chef and madam president I'm gonna say a few things
while Mr. Schuss is walking up here to present that.
And just so the folks, I think the board knows this,
and maybe some internal folks know,
but I don't know if our patrons in our community
or anyone watching live stream knows this.
This is an entirely new program called the Teacher Incentive Allotment
coming out of House Bill 3, and Mr. Schuss will speak of that.
But I don't want anyone to walk away from here tonight
And I think this is any bit related to the teacher attendance-based performance incentive that we've been doing that we will continue to fund this year that teachers are getting.
This is not the same thing.
This is something totally different and new for presentation to the board and feedback to see is this something we would like to do in KDISD moving forward.
So with that said, I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. Chesley.
Thank you, Dr. Kogorski.
actually Daniel let me need some help it's not
Well, that was simple. I apologize. Okay. All right, the teacher incentive allotment. So the point tonight is just to give a high-level overview of what this is, what came out of House Bill 3.
We've kind of morphed a couple of TEA presentations to show you. I apologize in advance. This says the three-minute guide to the teacher incentive allotment, but it's going to be a little longer than three minutes, but I'll be as brief as I can.
And this is an actual TEA presentation.
So these are the goals that TEA set forth for the teacher incentive allotment to retain,
reward, retain, and recruit.
So House Bill 3 established three levels of designations, recognized, exemplary, and master.
And for school districts that develop a local designation system, teachers then have access
and the district has access to designate teachers in these three categories, and they have annual
allocations, annual allotments associated with them.
So the recognized designation is $3,000 to $9,000.
The exemplary is $6,000 to $18,000, and the master is $12,000 to $32,000.
$32,000, that's a lot of money.
But one thing I would like to note, this is based on campuses and it's based on their
socioeconomic needs.
So the higher the need, the higher the allotment associated with the designation.
Currently in KDISD, all of our districts, and going back up, TEA decides the allotments
at the campus.
We don't have anything to do with that.
So TEA sends out a spreadsheet every year that says, okay, all the campuses across the
whole state of Texas, this is your allotment based on your socioeconomic need.
And so all of our campuses in KDISD hover around the minimum of each of these designations
And they're recognized, 3,000 to 5,000 in the exemplary, 6,000 to 8,000 in the master, about 12,000 to 15,000.
We do have a campus.
The highest would be 19,000.
So if this is something in the future we were to move forward with and develop a local designation system,
we would just need to be very careful that we communicate actually what these allotments would mean for our teachers at our campuses
because the language that you hear out there is up to $32,000.
dollars and you know we wouldn't be able to provide that but again that's that's
decided by TEA teacher eligibility that's really easy I have to be a
teacher have to have one credible year of service and you have to be certified
the district spending requirements at least 90% of the funds from TEA have to
remain at the campus with those teachers at the at the campus where the
designation is districts can withhold up to 10% for administrative costs or costs
associated with supporting the local designation system and developing a
local designation system especially in the district this has a kitty I see would
be would be a huge undertaking and then there would be a cost associated with
that once it's developed because and it has to be managed so the designation
a lot of travel with the teacher so this is a pretty neat deal if you're a let's
say a teacher comes from Dallas ISD who does have a local designation system
comes to Katy, we do not yet have a local designation system. Whatever that teacher is designated would, these designations last for five years.
And so that designation would follow the teacher and even though we don't have the system in place yet, that teacher would receive funding for wherever they're, if they're recognized master or exemplary.
Now, it follows, it goes from campus to campus, so if they were at a campus in their previous district where the allotment was higher, you know, the allotment could change based on the campus they moved to.
The district and state roles.
District role, develop and implement the system.
The state role is to approve the district system.
Now, something else that isn't on here, the state role is to fund the system.
This is a state-funded program.
program and in doctor Gorski and I've talked about this many times at length and you know this is something that could get very expensive for the state and you know there were there were concerns after House Bill three in the previous legislative session. How long can the state continue to fund this program? You're talking about up to $32,000. That's one teacher right now. Only about 82 districts have either a local designation system in place or have started the application process. So we're what about 1200 districts in the state of Texas. So it's
it's a low number. If that number gets up to 100, 200, 500, 600, this could be a pretty expensive
program for the state. So as we move forward, if we decide this is something we want to participate
in, I think it'd be fair to say we could only participate in it as long as the state continued
to fund it. So how the process kind of looks, you know, in this step one is about a zero to two
years. That's where you're, you know, kind of where we are looking at feasibility studies. If this
This is something that would be a good thing for KDISD.
Planning stakeholder engagement.
Stakeholder engagement would be very, very important when you're looking at implementing something like this.
Then you have your application process, and then you have your data capture year.
So that data capture year becomes your baseline year.
And then following that baseline year, you submit all of that data to TEA and Texas Tech, and then they approve your plan.
And then the year following that is the first year that teachers could be designated and paid into the program.
So, it is a little bit of a lengthy process.
Then just some additional information.
Some of this information is probably going to seem redundant.
I apologize just to do it that way so I could go into a little more detail if we needed.
We've talked about the local designation system and the funding, the high needs campus and
the 90% of the TIE funds must stay on the campus where the designation is.
We talked about one way teachers could participate in the program at KDISD without the local
designation system.
if somebody moves here from the district.
But there is another way that teachers can participate as well.
I'm going to talk about that in a second.
But what we're probably going to bring to you next month
is a recommendation to at least put this 90%, 10% in place
because we have to have that in place
if we have teachers that can actually earn those funds
even though we don't have the designation system.
So that's something we'll talk about next month.
So the other way teachers can participate,
see under the Recognize here, the National Board Certification,
If teachers have a national board certification, they can participate at the recognized level, even in a district that doesn't have a local designation system.
So they will automatically receive the funding at the designation level as long as the district has the spending requirements and the funding mechanism in place.
National board certification, there are very few teachers in the state of Texas that have it.
There's about a little over 800.
And I think that's one of the reasons the state did this is there's a little bit of a push to have more national board certified teachers.
I'm not an expert in national board certification.
I've learned a little bit more over the past few months.
What I do know, it is a very rigorous process.
It takes about one to three years to complete.
It costs about $2,000.
But along with this House Bill 3 and this program, if a teacher decides to get national
board certified, those fees can be reimbursed by the state.
So they have to pay for it up front, but they can have those fees reimbursed and then be
be on that recognized designation and receive funding from the state.
It would be a pass-through through the district.
Just a little more about national board certification.
There are 25 certificate areas, 16 disciplines,
and this is just so you all can see that virtually any teacher
would fit into one of these categories to get a national board certification
if they wanted to.
Certainly not something we're pushing,
but we do want to put that information out to our teachers
so they know that if this is something they want to do,
they can earn a little more money once they get that certification.
Another thing TEA and Texas Tech are doing,
and this is something we'll see in the future,
is they're going to present to districts actions that they see,
that master teachers, exemplary teachers, recognized teachers,
the actions that they take and what impact those actions have on student performance.
I think that's something that's very important to consider.
Is this really helping our students?
That's what it's all about.
out and to get a little bit more money in our teachers' pockets.
Designation system components, it has to be at minimum based on teacher observation and
student performance.
Obviously, the observation would be the t-test.
That's the program we use for teacher observation.
For the student performance, this is determined by the district.
Some of these districts that do have local designation systems in place, it's STAAR testing
and the student growth measure that goes along with that.
but there have actually been a couple of other districts that have completely
created a whole student growth measure. Again that's a that's a big undertaking
but that's you know these are the questions that we're gonna have to
answer and what we're gonna have to look at if we decide to move forward. Optional
you can add additional factors, mentoring teachers, student surveys, things like
that. The fees and reimbursements we've talked about this the district does have
to pay a fee if we decide to move forward with the local designation system but
but that is reimbursed once it is approved.
So that's really not that big of a deal.
And we've talked about the state will reimburse the fees
paid to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
once that teacher earns National Board certification.
Teacher compensation considerations.
We've talked about the 90% and how the money will follow the teacher
to the new district.
And one more slide from TEA about National Board certified teachers.
And you can see the numbers there.
And this is their comparison.
since not hires, but they show Texas 350,000 teachers and 873 National War
Certified compared to North Carolina with fewer teachers and 21,000 so and
there's a there's a little statement there about NBCT. I think it is important
at the bottom though that they do note NBCT while very vigorous does not include
any explicit requirements to demonstrate high student outcomes. I think that is
important to note but again it is a it is a another training for our teachers
and we're going to put that information out so they are aware that some potential money for them is out there.
And so as far as short term, teachers that have national board certification
or are interested in getting national board certification,
they would be able to participate in this program without a local designation system,
and then teachers that move into the district that had a local designation system from their previous could participate.
participate. Beyond that, you know, that's more discussion that we'll have. And again, looking at feasibility, looking at what that would look like in Katy, looking at some of these approved local designation systems from other school districts.
districts and because TA they have said that you know once they see some of these really
you know great applications and those are approved they're going to send that out for
other districts to consume.
So again it goes back to only about 82 districts right now are either approved or in the process.
So any any questions?
Mr. Schulte?
I got a question.
So how many of the of the schools that are going through this that are maybe ahead right
and you said they're going through the process.
How many teachers in a school district
would be eligible for this?
If you've got 5,000 teachers, is it,
I'm assuming it's not, it's probably not realistic
that it's 5,000 teachers are eligible.
I'm assuming it's a very small percentage,
very hard to get to that category,
but I'm just curious how many.
Well, so it's a very good question,
and really, it's hard to answer because it,
first you have to decide how many teachers
are even eligible.
Is it the whole district?
district. You know some some districts that have local
designation systems. They're targeting certain campuses. It
doesn't have to be available to the whole district. I'm not
saying that's a good thing to do or what we would do, but those
are a lot of questions that we would have to answer. You know
how many are eligible and then how many would actually receive
that designation. But again, that is all a part of it. Tia
allows us to develop our own system and say this is what
will qualify teacher for recognized or exemplary or
master we would come up with that and then they in turn would approve the plan
but one other question to bypass that system and kind of get a quick pass to
getting this potentially is to get the certification then you just go straight
to the you get certification you can bypass the whole getting your plan
approved and the process in place yes sir yes sir it's great thank you in mr.
Schulte I'll add to that too when you talk about the number of teachers you
You can get your national board cert in so many different areas,
and we've got close to 6,000 teachers.
If they all had their national board cert,
and if TEA is going to go ahead and award them with some dollar amount,
depending on where your location is,
that's the first step in getting more money into teachers' pockets.
Then we'd have to look at designing a program that builds in that growth measure
and those other requirements.
Any other questions?
Madam President.
I have two.
So I think one of them kind of goes in line with where Mr. Schulte was asking.
So I know we have teachers, we have instructional coaches, but those are also certified teachers.
So would a program like this apply to them, even if they're not specifically necessarily teaching in the classroom?
It would be classroom teachers.
So just classroom teachers.
And it goes by how they're coded in PEMS.
And so, yes.
Okay.
Okay, and then my second question is, if we have teachers growing with this designation,
does then that increase our district rating, you know, that we receive overall in a part of that A through F?
No, I don't believe this impacts district rating at all.
Okay, thank you.
Good question.
Madam President.
I have a few questions.
You say this 90% is used for compensation of teachers employed at the campus,
So I would assume the district will, any district that does this will come up with a formula of, hey, we're going to pay this teacher who earned the certification a little extra, and then there will be additional funds to use across the campus.
Is that probably accurate?
You could do that.
Actually, what we're discussing is having that 90% go to that teacher.
And that leads to my next question, which is probably unfair because this is very early.
Is this going to create districts recruiting teachers because they can set their own benefits with this,
and maybe one district gives everything to the teacher, maybe one district doesn't?
Yes, sir.
You know, there's, again, you know, Dr. Gorgorski and I have had many discussions,
and every time we discuss it, it's questions like those that we bounce off of each other,
And that's when you start, you've really got to really look at this methodically, slowly,
to make sure that it's going to be a positive, and it's going to have a positive outcome
before you put something like this in place.
Because, yes, it certainly could create that.
Obviously, you know, I'm saying that none of our campuses qualify for the $32,000.
I mean, right there alone.
Right?
Right.
Thanks.
Thank you.
And then not in the not requiring just to reiterate what you said 30,000
It's based on being a title one or not a title one and in socio-economic needs. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am
So just so that's right again. Yes, ma'am
Anyone else president?
Do we have any teachers that are currently national with the National Board certification in our district or four?
So if I know most teachers sit at home on Monday nights watching this this meeting
The riveting presentation?
Yes.
But I know that almost every one of them that was is already certified,
has already Googled what it's going to take to get that so that they're already ahead of everybody.
Madam President.
Ms. Champagne.
So, but one of the things you said was, I believe that you said,
is that we have to have this implemented or in place.
I mean, if a person just became certified and we didn't have this in place,
they're not going to be able to be considered for the.
We don't have to have the local designation system in place.
The only thing that we have to have in place is that official approval of that 9010.
And just so we have the funding.
So, no, we do not have to have a local designation system for nationally board certified teachers
or teachers that move into our district that previous district had a local designation system.
They will be able to participate.
But we need to approve the 9010.
Yes, ma'am.
So are we looking to do that?
So that's a recommendation and Dr. Gorski and I are going to meet on that and that's a recommendation we'll probably bring to y'all next month.
Well, we all have to have at least one question.
Why would we want a local designation system? Why wouldn't we just go with what the state recommends? Why would we want to complicate things that way?
Okay, so you mean, so it's either use the program and allow teachers with the national board cert or moving into the district.
The reason you would have the local designation system is then you could have that recognized exemplary master designations in place.
And so that would be the reason you would have it, because then you could open it up to more teachers that aren't necessarily national board certified
or didn't just move into Katy with a previous district having a local designation system.
So that's why you would do it if, again, if we determine that it's the right thing for Katy ISD.
Mr. Schuss, I'm going to jump in on that one and just further clarify that for you, Ms. Gissoff,
if that's what you're asking.
The state set a few parameters when they built this, but they do not have a designation system.
They don't have like a template one we can just grab and use, like the state plan on this.
They don't have one.
They've told every district, create your own plan with these parameters, submit your plan
to Texas Tech, who is the approver authorized by TEA.
Texas Tech will look at your plan and either say yes or no or work with you to get it to
the state standard.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a plan created by the state that everyone in the state of
Texas followed and said, this is how you do it?
But they didn't do that.
So you could have a teacher with an exemplary status next door at Sci Fair that's different than our exemplary status?
Yes, ma'am.
Pretty much, yes.
There are certain parameters everyone has to follow, but there is some flexibility in there.
That's why we're anxiously looking at some of the plans that have been approved, but yet they haven't released any of those to us.
But we'd like to see one.
Yeesh.
Sure.
Anyone else?
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
We'll now move on to
item 8.3 board member required continuing education report bear with me this is long
completing the annual required continuing education is a basic obligation and expectation
of any sitting board member under the state board of education rule the kdisd board of trustees has
completed all required training for the 2021 2022 sorry 2020 2021 putting us in the future reporting
year tier one training for the two new board members greg schulte and leah wilson consisted
of four hours of local orientation, three hours of orientation of the Texas Education Code,
one hour of Open Meetings training, and one hour of Public Information Act training.
Greg Schulte and Leah Wilson have completed the local orientation, the orientation to Texas Education Code,
the Open Meetings Act, and the Public Information Acts training.
Tier 2 training consists of board self-assessment and superintendent and board team building.
At least three hours of Tier 2 training are required each year.
All board members have completed the required Tier 2 training for reporting year of May 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021.
Tier 3 training consists of continuing education for board members in areas of assessed needs.
All board members have completed the required HB 503 child abuse prevention one hour every two years and HB 3834 cybersecurity one hour annually.
At least 10 hours of Tier 3 training are required for new board members.
Greg Schulte and Leah Wilson, new board members, have exceeded the required continuing education for the year.
Greg Schulte has completed 19.5 hours of Tier 3 training, and Leah Wilson has completed 21.75 hours of Tier 3 training.
At least five hours of Tier 3 training are required each year for experienced board members.
All experienced board members have completed the required Tier 3 training for the year.
year.
Duke Keller, Position 1 has exceeded
the required continuing education with
19.5 hours.
Lance Redmond, Position 2 has
exceeded the required continuing
education with 27 hours.
Ashley Vant, Position 3 has
exceeded the required continuing
education with 6.5 hours.
Sussing Gesboxing, Position 6 has
exceeded the required continuing
education with 15.5 hours.
Dawnboxingboxing, Position 7 has
exceeded the required continuing
education with 24.5 hours.
Tier 4 training consists of
evaluating and improving student
outcomes training.
At least three hours of Tier 4 training are required every two years.
All Board members have completed the required Tier 4 training for the reporting of year May 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021.
Completing the annual required continuing education is a basic obligation and expectation of any sitting Board member under State Board of Education rule.
No Board members are deficient in any air continuing education training for the year May 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021.
2021. Also under the Texas administration code, Title 19, Chapter 61, Subchapter A, Section 6.1a,
the framework for governance leadership adopted by the State Board of Education used in structuring
education for school board members shall be distributed annually by the president at each
board of trustees to all current board members and the superintendent. The framework is attached
in board docs for each board member and the superintendent to review. That's it. Item 8.4,
for Elementary English Language Arts and Reading Programs,
Dr. Christine Caskey.
Daniel?
Sorry.
Okay, I got it.
I'm good.
I'm good.
All right.
Good evening, President Vann, board members, and Superintendent Krakorski.
We are pleased to be here with you this evening to provide you with a comprehensive curriculum update
and an overview of the Katy ISD elementary English language arts and
reading program tonight you're gonna receive a lot of information and I
request that you take notes and as we go along and hold your questions because
it's possible that I may answer some of your questions during the presentation
but we will absolutely have time at the end to respond to your questions this
evening we will specifically clarify the state and local processes for adopting
adopting new standards that Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills often refer to as the
TEKS and as our written curriculum. We will review the selection and the adoption process
of instructional materials as well as the House Bill 3 literacy requirements, which
includes the Texas Reading Academies. We will touch on evidence-based instruction and the
workshop approach, which is used in many school districts across the nation as well as in
KDISD.
Lastly, we will address supports that are in place for students in need of instructional
intervention including the dyslexia program.
We will start with the foundation of learning which are the state standards or the TEKS
and the written curriculum.
In Texas, the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency establish policies,
regulations and guidelines that drive curriculum instruction and assessment
for every local school district to set the context for the teaks and the
written curriculum I'm going to start the text in Texas Education Code as
noted on the slide which requires every school district to provide instruction
in the teaks with state standards in Katy we also have local policy specific
to curriculum which includes knowledge skills and attitudes as well as the
acknowledgement that our curriculum is aligned to the TEKS and state assessments and that all
teachers are required to teach the KDISD curriculum. So where do the TEKS come from?
The state determines the TEKS revision cycle, which is approximately every eight to ten years
per content area. This multi-year process includes review committees, which are formed at the state
level. In KD, we have been very fortunate that we have had staff members who have applied and been
been accepted to serve on these state committees, which proactively helps us as a district stay
ahead of any curriculum changes or adjustments that may need to take place. The state also seeks
input from the public, and they set timelines for implementation of new and or revised TEKS,
as well as the selection of instructional materials that support the TEKS. Again,
every public school in Texas is required to use these standards to develop the curriculum.
Once the state finalizes the TEKS and they are adopted by the State Board of Education,
KDISD begins the curriculum development process.
We follow a similar process that includes carefully reviewing the TEKS and organizing
these standards into unit plans that make up our curriculum.
This work is led by our curriculum coordinators with assistance from instructional coaches
and teachers.
teachers. In 2017, the State Board of Education adopted new TEKS for English Language Arts
and Reading, I may refer to that as ELAR. The TEKS were required to be fully implemented
statewide in the 2019-20 school year. That was last year. There were many changes made
to the TEKS during the revision process and I would like to highlight three of the most
significant changes first the ela artiques are expanded to include seven strands as identified
on this slide developing and sustaining foundational language skills comprehension
response multiple genres authors purpose and craft composition and inquiry and research
additionally each strand includes the domains of listening speaking reading and writing
Secondly, the new ELA-RTICs repeatedly emphasize the integration of reading, writing, listening,
and speaking as an instructional best practice where skills are to be integrated and recursive
throughout the learning process.
And thirdly, the new ELA-RTICs highlight the importance of text complexity, which is the
vehicle to grow students in the area of literacy.
As skills and knowledge increase, students apply standards with more complex texts through multiple genres.
In KD, the curriculum committees study, analyze, and format TEKS into unit plans.
All courses in our district utilize the unit plan format that includes a timeline for the duration of the unit,
the TEKS, our KDISD instructional cornerstones,
as well as references to resources for teachers to use as they plan their instruction and develop their lesson plans.
All curriculum units are accessible by teachers in an online curriculum management system
where teachers plan and develop their lessons,
and they are accessible in Canvas in an interactive capacity
where teachers can click on links for quick and easy access to their instructional materials.
I would also like to highlight that over the past few years,
the curriculum team has developed many online resources accessible to parents
in our district on our district website. If you visit the KDISD website and click
on the parents tab you will see a link to curriculum. One of the items in the
curriculum drop-down list is a curriculum search where you can find
detailed information about our KDISD curriculum. We have also included quick
instructional videos of our KDISD teachers teaching concepts to further
assist parents and students in their learning through the work of our
curriculum staff and in collaboration with our teachers and our coaches
there's a tight alignment between the written the taught and the tested
curriculum that's fully aligned to the Texas essential knowledge and skills now
we'll transition to the section to this I'm sorry I knew water it's long guys
now we will transition to the selection of the instructional materials and
and discuss how they are aligned to the curriculum
and support instruction in our KDICD classrooms.
Years ago, this process was referred to as the textbook
adoption process.
As technology and instructional resources have evolved,
the process is now referred to as instructional material
selection process.
Like the TEKS adoption, this process
is completed in tandem with the state.
The state sets the adoption timelines
through proclamations, and districts
BEGUN THE SELECTION PROCESS WHEN THE STATE PUBLISHES THEIR LIST OF RESOURCES THAT ARE
ALIGNED TO THE TEKS.
AT THE DISTRICT LEVEL, WE ESTABLISH CONTENT PRIORITIES, WE FORM REVIEW COMMITTEES TO REVIEW
THE MATERIALS, WE SOLICIT INPUT FROM MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDER GROUPS, AND ULTIMATELY DETERMINE
RECOMMENDATIONS THAT ARE BROUGHT BEFORE THIS BOARD FOR FINAL APPROVAL.
WE'LL NOW EXPAND ON THE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ALLOTMENT, OR IMA, WHICH BY THE WAY IS MY
NEXT PRESENTATION THIS EVENING.
In 2011, the Texas legislation, through Senate Bill 6, created an Instructional Materials Allotment, or IMA, for school districts to purchase instructional materials, technological equipment, and technology-related services.
IMA replaces both the procurement process for textbooks and the former technology allotment.
Senate Bill 6 replaces the term textbook with the term instructional material, which includes books, supplemental materials, workbooks, computer software, digital media, digital courseware, and online services.
Additionally, since 2011 and the establishment of the IMA, districts are no longer restricted by the adoption lists that are generated by the State Board of Education and the Commissioner of Education.
districts may use IMA funds to purchase materials that are not on either list with this increased
flexibility comes an increased responsibility for districts to plan strategically and systematically
during the decision-making process for selecting and procuring instructional materials with IMA
funds and local boards as you will hear in my next presentation must annually certify
that instructional materials cover all of the state TEKS. After the 2017
revision of the ELAR TEKS, the adoption of the new ELAR instructional
materials was included in Proclamation 2019. In KDISD, the ELAR 2019
Proclamation adoption underwent a five-phase process over the span of
seven months during the 2018-2019 school year that included committee members
from all campuses as well as district representation from special education
interventions and bilingual as well as parents and community members after a
thorough review of available materials aligned to the teaks the committee of
close to 100 representatives selected 12 products for in-depth analysis through
the review and alignment process the feedback collected concluded that the
recommendation be the units of study from the Teachers College as the primary
RESOURCE TO SUPPORT READING, WRITING, AND PHONICS.
ADDITIONALLY, THE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED SCHOLASTIC AS THE
BEST RESOURCE FOR GRAMMAR AND HANDWRITING WITHOUT TIERS AS
THE RESOURCE TO SUPPORT HANDWRITING.
THE COMBINATION OF THESE RESOURCES ENSURE THAT KDISD'S
ADOPTIVE MATERIALS ARE 100% ALIGNED WITH THE ELEMENTARY
ELA ARTICS.
THE UNITS OF STUDY WERE SELECTED AS THE PRIMARY
RESOURCE TO SUPPORT READING, WRITING, AND PHONICS
INSTRUCTION FOR SEVERAL REASONS.
Aside from the tight alignment with the ELA RTs, these high quality resources have been used as a supplemental resource in our district since 2013, which creates an easier transition for our teachers with a familiar resource.
These materials used in over 500 districts across the state support instruction that is personalized to meet student learning needs and includes choice and pre and post assessments that are built into the design and delivery.
As outlined on this slide, the process of adoption of instructional materials is comprehensive.
It is a multiyear process that is aligned to the state standards and state timelines.
The process includes input from multiple stakeholders as well as years of training, implementation,
and assessment to make adjustments that are in line with student learning goals.
This school year is the second year of implementation of the new TEKS and these new resources.
resources.
To summarize, before we move to House Bill 3 requirements, there are connections between
the TEKS, the instructional materials, and the instructional models and strategies that
we use.
The TEKS are developed by the state of Texas, and they are influenced and supported by the
instructional materials that are selected for use in our classrooms.
Additionally, the instructional models and strategies that we implement are research-based,
best practices that support students in their mastery of the TEKS.
need a break now we will address House Bill three and the components of this comprehensive
bill that are related specifically to reading and literacy and how our district is addressing
these new requirements we have examined the processes directed by the state related to
WE HAVE EXAMINED THE PROCESSES DIRECTED BY THE STATE RELATED TO CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION,
BUT ANOTHER WAY THAT LOCAL DISTRICTS ARE IMPLUENCED AND IMPACTED IS THROUGH STATE LEGISLATION.
HOUSE BILL 3 WAS A COMPREHENSIVE BILL THAT AFFECTED NOT ONLY FINANCE, BUT INCLUDED SEVERAL
initiatives aimed at improving reading outcomes for students in the state of texas the literacy
initiatives included in house bill 3 include the following requirements every teacher and principal
in grades k through 3 must successfully complete reading academies by the 2022-2023 school year
districts must provide systematic direct instruction and phonics in grades k through
three districts must use integrated reading instruments that have been
identified by TEA to support pre-k through second grade students and lastly
local school boards must identify and monitor progress towards early literacy
and mathematics goals KDISD is in compliance with these initiatives and
now we will look more closely at the specifics of each requirement we'll now
examine how we are implementing reading academies in KDISD. To fully understand
the background of the literacy requirements of House Bill 3, we need to
consider the history and the evolution of the teaching of reading. Over the
years there have been many changes and advancements in the thoughts and
research as to how to best teach reading. In the 1930s through the 1960s, children
learned to read with books such as Dick and Jane, where students memorized
decodable words the 1950s ushered in discrete phonics and controlled
vocabulary instruction this method came about after the book why Johnny can't
read was published and was focused solely on phonics the 1960s in the 1970s
were all about social learning with a memory connection theorists believe that
children learn better from their environment and memory of what they saw
and what they heard the later 1970s brought about basal readers students all
read the same story they completed workbook pages and test on a single skill at a time the 1980s
saw the dawning of whole language this method was based on the belief that children learn to read
naturally like they learn how to speak they read books learning words as they moved along they
could tell stories from pictures and they learn how to write words that they knew first and they
used infinite spelling but the 1990s there is knew that we needed all of these things phonics
and whole language merged together.
They knew that reading and writing go together.
Balanced literacy, still the most popular method of teaching reading,
seemed to encompass all that students needed.
However, without proper training, many teachers left out phonics instruction.
2018 was the beginning of the movement towards the science of teaching reading.
Research identified how students learned to read, and phonics was a large part of it.
Today, we are focused on a comprehensive literacy approach that encompasses all of the effective
strategies identified in both balanced literacy and the science of teaching reading.
Because the view of teaching reading has evolved and adjusted over time, TEA implemented the
reading academies to ensure that teachers include the science of teaching reading in
their reading instruction.
We know that the teaching of reading goes well beyond word recognition and phonics skills.
skills. As noted on this slide from the TEA Reading Academies, Scarborough's rope is a
visual which illustrates the intricacies and the complexity of the teaching of reading.
Dr. Hollis Scarborough is a leading researcher of early language development. He works with
the International Dyslexia Association, the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading,
and the Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties of Young Children. In this diagram,
you can see the language comprehension strands include a student's background
knowledge vocabulary language structures verbal reasoning and literary knowledge
you can also see the word recognition strands phonological awareness decoding
and sight recognition of familiar words work together as the reader becomes
accurate fluent and increasingly automatic with repetition and practice
For one to be a proficient reader, one has to possess all of these vital skills.
TEA has developed the content and lesson modules of the Reading Academies that is built on the foundation of this ELAR Teak strand tree.
I won't get into the details of the graphic, but know that the content of the Reading Academies is specific, targeted, and directly tied to the ELAR concepts and skills as defined by TEA.
The vision of reading academies is to ensure that all kindergarten through third grade
educators are highly trained in the science of teaching reading and to increase teacher
knowledge and implementation of evidence-based literacy instruction that promotes critical
thinking, listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
Given the complexities over this past year, we're very thankful that we decided early
early on in KDISD to start our reading academies this year with our KDISD principals, our instructional
coaches, and our district staff, including me.
Over the next two years, the focus will be on our teachers to become certified participants
by the 2022-2023 deadline.
While the content, format, and delivery of the reading academies was developed by TEA,
The training and the facilitation of the academies is required to be delivered through an authorized provider.
To be an authorized provider, districts and other entities such as regional service centers must demonstrate capacity through a rigorous application process,
which includes submitting credentials of key personnel involved, draft program implementation plans, performance and evaluation measures, as well as financial management and sustainability plans.
After a thorough review of multiple implementation models, KDISD determined that becoming an authorized provider would be the most beneficial to our district for a number of reasons as outlined on this slide.
Internal facilitation of the process provides direct services and supports to our teachers and to our administrators.
TEA approved KDISD as an authorized provider for the Texas Reading Academies for the 2020-2021
school year, and we will reapply for this authorization in 2021.
That does not mean that we determine the content of the Reading Academies.
I'll probably say that over and over.
TEA sets the content.
We do not adjust that content.
Reading Academy participants are led by a certified cohort leader who is required to
to pass a three-part assessment, including two tests and a video submission.
The Reading Academy consists of 12 modules developed by TEA and include about 60 hours
of coursework.
The modules include discussions, reflections, pre- and post-test, checks for understanding,
and the submission of two artifacts, which are evaluated and graded by two outside district
cohort leaders.
Participants must make an 80 percent or higher on the check for understandings and the artifacts
facts in order to be certified to enhance alignment between the TEA skills
and concepts presented in the reading academies and the KT is DLA our
curriculum participants also complete a KT is D connections to House bill 3
course this short course contains a monthly to-do list that helps
participants adhere to the pacing calendar and connects them to the KT is
D resources that are correlated and aligned with the House bill 3 reading
reading initiatives. Our cohort leader has also developed videos for these courses featuring
KDISD students and teachers making connections for each module.
House Bill 3 requires that literacy instruction be systematic and evidence-based. Next, we
will explore how KDISD is in alignment with these requirements. This TEA slide shows what
what systematic phonics is and is not.
In KDISD, we adhere to the systematic phonics
instruction approach, which includes a careful scope
and sequence that follows a continuum of skill complexity,
builds on previous learning,
and includes review and repetition.
Additionally, our phonics curriculum is explicitly taught
through the direct instruction focused on letter sound
relationships or phonics skills.
During the instruction of phonics,
we focus on systematic and sequential skills,
including teaching prerequisite skills first introducing the most common and
frequently used letters first utilizing the gradual release model making
connections and providing step-by-step instruction explicitly stating teaching
points and utilizing assessments to inform instruction along the way this is
an actual slide from the reading academies module 2 evidence base refers
to explicit or direct and systematic instruction of foundational language
skills it also refers to the inclusion of rich and varied opportunities for
students to build vocabulary comprehension and composition skills
that are aligned to the teaks this slide identifies the features of
evidence-based instruction a hallmark of evidence-based instruction is that it is
explicit this can be seen throughout the workshop model which includes whole
class lessons small group work and one-on-one conferencing evidence-based
Based instruction and reading includes the crucial components of phonological awareness
and phonics instruction.
Our curriculum provides opportunities for students to work as a whole class and in small
groups to connect phonics to both reading and writing.
Another component is fluency.
A fluent reader reads with accuracy at a conversational pace with expression.
Reading comprehension is an important aspect as the ultimate goal of reading is to make
meaning.
instruction of comprehension strategies and students independent use of them develops a
student skills and analysis so that they will become independent and lifelong learners knowledge
is both a building block and a goals for reading we build this throughout the curriculum by exposing
students to a wide variety of genres as identified in the teaks and we emphasize the process of
writing and a variety of contexts throughout our curriculum in order to fit all of these
components together for effective instruction we utilize the workshop structure the workshop
structure is an instructional practice that consists of three parts a mini lesson a workshop
for application and a debrief of learning this model is commonly used in reading and writing
and even more recently in math and social studies the goal of the model is to support learners and
a read is to support learners and reading and writing independently through scaffolding
instruction with teachers modeling leading to guided practice and then supported by independent
practice in kdi hd each day primary students have three workshops beginning with a reading workshop
then phonics workshop and finally writing workshop phonics workshop is placed in the middle of reading
and writing workshops to allow students a maximum transfer of skills for example concepts that may
be learned in a phonics workshop on monday are applied in reading and writing throughout the week
The KDUSD curriculum and instructional model would best be classified as a comprehensive
literacy approach which uses a continuous loop of teaching, learning, and assessing
to build students' reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.
It embraces the integral components of balanced literacy and the science of teaching and reading
and includes explicit, systematic, and sequential phonemic awareness and phonics instruction.
It also includes authentic texts, interactive read-alouds, shared reading, close reading,
foundational skills vocabulary decodable text writing processes and the
application of skills in reading and writing all components of literacy are
integral they're valued and included in instruction it is a dynamic system that
constantly adapts to the needs of individual learners now we will take a
look at data and how our students perform in the area of reading national
National data is another reason that Texas has an increased focus on reading initiatives.
According to the National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP, in 2019, Texas ranked 42nd in the nation for fourth grade reading.
Additionally, the Texas Academic Performance Report, or TAPER, in 2019 identified that
52 percent of kindergarten students are identified as kindergarten-ready and 76 percent of third-grade
students met the passing standard on the STAR reading assessment as set by TEA.
While we are not able to extrapolate the NAEP data specific to KDISD students, and typically
Typically, it's a sampling of students that participate in KDE and the NAEP.
I do want to point out that 61 percent of our kindergarten students were kindergarten
ready and 89 percent of our third grade students met the passing standard as set by TEA on
the third grade STAR assessment.
KDEIC students consistently outperform their peers across the region and state in their
area of reading.
In fact, the last official district grading by TEA shows KDEIC as the largest district
in the state with an overall A rating.
When we look at reading data longitudinally,
KDISD's third, fourth, and fifth grade reading STAAR scores
are consistently well above state and region.
Gathering data through frequent and formal sources
gives teachers the information that they need
to make informed instructional decisions for their students.
KDISD measures literacy development
and the effectiveness of the curriculum
throughout the school year,
are utilizing a variety of data sources out as outlined on this slide
additionally House bill 3 requires districts to use integrated reading
assessments
pre-k through two these TEA identified and approved assessments are fully
aligned to instructional materials and the corresponding teaks this chart
illustrates the TEA approved assessments which we use in each grade level to meet
these House bill 3 requirements the purpose of the House bill 3 early
childhood literacy and math goals are to monitor and track progress and make
necessary adjustments within our primary grades to support an increase of students who meet standard
on the third grade star in july of 2020 the kdisd board approved the goals and targets for the
district and for each campus while we have many data sources and assessments in our district to
measure literacy the fountas and pinell assessments are used for progress monitoring because they are
are consistent in our district across all grade levels. For progress monitoring, initial data on
the Founders and Pinnell was reported to the board in January of 2021. End-of-year data, along with a
change from beginning of year for each campus and the district, will be reported to the board
in September of 2021. The 2020-2021, this current school year, is the first year for the House Bill
3 goals and targets to be required. And all data can be found within the campus improvement
plans located on our district website. Now let's delve into what happens when students
experience difficulties in their learning. In KDISD, we have a multi-tiered support system,
MTSS. This is formally known as RTI, a response to intervention. Multiple forms of data, such as the reading data sources from the previous slides, paired together with grades and teacher observations, help teachers to assess students' needs. The multi-tiered systems of support, or MTSS, is a structure that we use to ensure that we are meeting those needs.
This system is tiered, and each level of the triangle represents increased level of support
for students.
The base of the triangle, Tier 1, represents classroom instruction, while Tiers 2 and 3
represent supplemental intervention supports for students.
Certain structures are used at each tier to support student learning.
Tier 1 is the universal classroom instruction that all students experience in the general
education setting.
It includes guided reading and strategy groups, one-on-one conferring, and the use of tools such as learning progressions to monitor each student's progress on a pathway to mastery.
Tier 2 represents an increased level of support delivered in small groups by classroom teachers or by an academic support teacher, either within the classroom, a pushed-in model, or outside the classroom, a pull-out model.
Instruction at Tier 2 is targeted towards students' identified learning gaps.
Tier 3 represents the most intensive level of support.
Tier 3 may use the same resources as identified in Tier 2, however the group size may be smaller,
they may meet more frequently, or for longer periods of time.
Services beyond Tier 3 are provided through special education or through Section 504.
In an MTSS model, all students experience universal Tier 1 supports.
And for the majority of students, these supports meet their needs.
According to the model, smaller numbers of students may need a Tier 2 targeted support, and an even smaller number of students may need an intensive Tier 3 support.
This is the universal model here. I can tell you that in Katy, on a snapshot last week, we had about 9% of students in Tier 2 and 2.5 in Tier 3.
So that's about half of what this model is indicating.
teachers administrators and specialists work collaboratively to determine whether or not to
advance students through the tiers if a teacher observes that a student is not responding to tier
one instruction the teacher may recommend that the student be considered for supplemental support at
that point a collaborative committee will meet to review data and to determine the next steps if the
committee determines that a tier two or three support is warranted the student will be assigned
to receive small group instruction.
If at any time the teacher, the committee, a parent
suspects that a student has a learning disability,
then the student may be referred for an evaluation
through special education or through 504.
A variety of resources are available to support students
who are in need of supplemental reading support
at Tier 2 and 3.
We strive to provide resources that match
a comprehensive range of literacy skills.
The chart outlines the resources that may be used,
the appropriate grade levels, and the skills and concepts
Once again, just as the data drives the decision to place a student in tiers two or three,
in Arvindan's data is also used to determine the best resource to meet the student's needs.
It is important to recognize that MTSS is not designed to create barriers to supplemental services.
Students are not required to pass through the tiers of MTSS in a lockstep order.
The tiers are intended to be fluid, with students moving up or down the triangles as needed.
Also, students may be referred for further evaluation through special education or 504
if a disability is suspected regardless of where they are on the tiers.
As we evaluate students, some are identified as being dyslexic.
Dyslexia is a disorder of constitutional origin manifested by a difficulty in learning to
read, write, or spell despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence, and sociocultural
opportunities.
Of the approximately 40,000 elementary students in KDISD, a little over 2,200 receive dyslexia
services.
This represents 5.7% of our overall elementary students.
Dyslexia intervention must comply with the requirements outlined in the current Texas
dyslexia handbook this slide outlines the skills and concepts that any
dyslexia intervention program must address in order to be compliant with a
handbook KDIC began using the dyslexia intervention program sometimes referred
to as dip provided through region 4 and the early 2000s and continued the use of
that resource through the 2018-19 school year reading by design was released by
region 4 during the 2018-19 school year so it built upon the previous resource the dip and it
included significant enhancements particularly in the areas of comprehension vocabulary and
morphology teachers were trained during the spring and summer of 2019 with implementation of the
resource beginning in the fall of 2019. this resource is used by over 600 school districts
across the state of Texas.
Reading by Design is our main resource
for dyslexia intervention, and it
meets all program requirements outlined in the Dyslexia
Handbook.
This program is aligned with research-based practices
for developing literacy and is designed
for students with basic reading difficulties, such as dyslexia.
This program follows an intensive, explicit,
and cumulative design of remediation of reading
and writing skills at all grade levels.
If a student in grades K through 2
has significant deficits in letter recognition and or oral language, they will first receive
intervention through the night house reading readiness to address the areas of need, and
then they will progress on to reading by design.
In addition to outlining the skills and concepts that must be addressed, the dyslexia handbook
also outlines how dyslexia intervention must be delivered.
Reading by design is aligned to all the required instructional delivery components.
components.
In choosing a dyslexia intervention resource, our first priority is to ensure that the resource
aligns to the required components outlined in the Texas Dyslexia Handbook.
An RBD or reading by design meets that criteria.
Additionally, we have found that Region 4 products and trainings to be of high quality.
Utilizing this program enabled us to easily transition our students and our teachers from
the previous DIP program while simultaneously providing significant upgrades in the areas
again of comprehension vocabulary and morphology beyond the quality of the
program we also value the flexible training options that are provided by
reading by design while we can send teachers to region for training as
needed region for also offers a trainer or trainer option for large districts
such as Katie which allows us to turn around the training in-house this
enables us to respond quickly and address training needs as we onboard new
new interventionists.
OK, conclusion.
Our intent this evening was to provide you
with a comprehensive overview of the processes
that we used to develop our local curriculum
and select materials that support the TEKS,
highlight the literacy components of House Bill 3
and steps that KDIC has taken to be in compliance
with those initiatives, as well as showcase the model
that we used to ensure that students receive the best
instruction.
We also touched on steps that we take when students are not
successful with their reading abilities and how we are organized to support
struggling students in our district as the data indicate we continue to be a
very high performing district but that fact does not stop us from continuing to
strive to analyze data to review resources to implement training and
best practices to reach even higher levels of student achievement in Katy
with me this evening our curriculum and instruction staff before I ask them to
stand to be recognized please recognize that they are the content experts and
their field and we are all here to respond to any questions that you may have curriculum instruction
team now they are going to answer all their questions i know it's a lot of information
to take them and i believe the board also received some additional information that
was requested this evening in relation to some different sub-pops.
Madam President, or no, go, please. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just got off. I have a few questions,
so I guess I'll just go back and forth with whoever. But first of all, wow, that is a great
presentation and I really appreciate that but on I'm just going to take the page number so page 16
which is the ELAR proclamation 2019 I noticed that spelling isn't there
and I thought spelling was a teak for dyslexia
Dr. Corbin.
All right.
Yes, ma'am.
Good evening.
Spelling, you are absolutely right, is a part of the new TEKS and the TEKS strand.
It's a part of the foundational skills strand.
Our word study and phonics curriculum and program and instructional materials covers all of the spelling TEKS.
Okay.
So even though spelling is not called out on its own,
it is absolutely covered in the curriculum.
It's just under the umbrella of phonics and word study.
OK, thanks.
So in general, are people excited about the reading
academies, do you think?
Is the initial feedback good from the ICs
and the principals?
Want me to tell you personally?
I will tell you personally, because I am going through the reading academies, and it's a
lot.
And for somebody who doesn't have a background in reading, somebody who's been out of the
classroom for a long time, as I said, reading has changed.
The teaching of reading has changed significantly.
So learning about phonemic awareness and some of those things that aren't in my wheelhouse
and probably aren't in a lot of our principals' wheelhouses, it's reaching.
It's a deep reach.
I'll be honest and it's it's time-consuming that 60 hours is no joke no joke and
I am glad as I stated that we started with our principals on there in it
They're doing it you know we kind of touch base these guys are in it and going through the reading academies our coaches as I
said
It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough for the teachers
It just says it's a lot of time. It's a lot of time. I don't know if anybody wants to add
They're all shaking their head. Yeah
Yeah, I think everybody is excited about the information is good.
So no one has a problem with the content.
It's 60 hours.
So no one has an extra 60 hours just laying around.
So I think they're a little anxious about that.
But we're going to do our best.
We have outstanding cohort leaders that are going to help them and really work with them to help find the timing to pace it out.
So we've got lots of things kind of up our sleeves and in mind and are getting feedback from the current
Participants to really be able to turn that over to teachers in the best way that we can
So it's about getting half a master's in one year. It's ten months. Actually, it's not even a full year
So it's ten months is the amount of time that they can have to begin and end it
So it's a lot but we're gonna make it great and the information is good. So it's all gonna work out
Okay, so we'd like to enter Kim Westmoreland is here. She is our cohort leader
AND I WILL TELL YOU, HAVING, YOU KNOW, DOING THIS AS OUR OWN AUTHORIZED PROVIDER, KIM IS
RIGHT THERE.
EVEN THOUGH I'M IN THIS BUILDING WITH HER, I SHOOT HER A TEXT, YOU KNOW, I'LL SHOOT HER
AN E-MAIL.
SHE'S RIGHT THERE, RIGHT THERE TO HELP OUR PRINCIPALS.
SHE'LL BE THERE TO HELP OUR TEACHERS.
WE'VE HAD TWO MORE COHORT LEADERS.
THAT REALLY DOES HELP US TO PROVIDE THAT ONE-ON-ONE ASSISTANCE RIGHT THERE WHEN YOU GET STUCK.
I SHOULDN'T TELL ON MYSELF.
I DIDN'T DO SO WELL IN A MODULE.
I GOT SCARED, YOU KNOW.
BUT YOU KNOW, IT'S A LOT.
It's a whole lot and having somebody with the expertise right here has been absolutely
I know beneficial to me and it will be to our teachers as we move forward
Yeah, I hear great things about
Miss Westmoreland. Yeah, she's amazing
So, I mean you exactly answered my question this is a big change right this is a huge turn and we're a cruise ship
So I get it. It's a big change and and I guess you know
And I mean, I'm the one who asked for this to be on the agenda, and I said when I asked for it,
you're doing an amazing job.
We're an amazing district.
I know how much work goes into all of this.
I'm not meaning to cast dispersions at all.
I just realized this is a big change, and it's a big ask,
and it's a big ask of a district and a cohort of people who pretty much were trained up in balanced literacy, right?
I mean, that's what the colleges were teaching.
Language.
That's what we've been doing.
Or if you're a little bit older, maybe whole language, right?
So it's a big change there too.
And that's why I asked the question.
I just want to know how we're going to manage that change.
Are we giving the teachers...
And we've been invested in what we have been teaching.
A huge amount of work and time and effort has gone into what we had been teaching.
Now we have to teach in a new way.
and are we going to hold on to those old ways and you know it's going to be a big
change and are we gonna have enough resources for the teachers when they
come back and they're on fire for you know the science of reading are we gonna
have decodable text and bilingual decodable text and or are we gonna try
to use what we already have in this balanced literacy program yeah I our
Our materials, like I think I've pretty much beat it.
I mean, our materials are aligned to the TEKS.
They are aligned to the TEKS.
And, you know, we're here to support how we package those
and how we put those together for our teachers.
Like, we're only in year two of the adoption.
And now we're coming out with House Bill 3.
So there are a lot of things going on at the same time.
But I do believe very strongly that they are aligned.
And we're here to support our teachers and how we, it's a paradigm shift.
You're exactly right in how we go about making that shift.
We always support our teachers and Katie, I mean, if you look at us compared to other,
we have instructional coaches who are there to work with our teachers.
We have so many professional learning and the supports that we're able to put in play
to support our teachers.
So I believe that we're well poised and these guys would probably agree.
I guess the only thing I'd add to it is that Susan, it's in addition to balanced literacy,
not in lieu of it.
So the science of teaching, the science of teaching reading adds specifics to balanced
literacy that weren't often called out.
So sometimes phonics and some of those areas were swept under the rug by some balanced literacy
Proponents and so it doesn't say don't do balanced literary this balanced literary and it better be phonics better be a part of it
So we're already there. We already have the units of study in phonics. We have
Phonics embedded in the curriculum. So this is shining a light on one aspect of it
It's not saying don't do other things
It's in addition to a lot of their plate that one slide that had the two triangles and it talked about comprehensive
I've never heard the term comprehensive literacy. That's a new one for me today, but
Yeah, the pink one. Yes, so but isn't it kind of the other way though?
Don't you do the science of reading kind of first isn't that like I think that was agent that we've had the balanced literacy in
Place and we've added the knowledge that's been added into or that's been shined a light on is the science of teaching reading
So I think it's chronic chronology of which came first balance literacy
was expected and then the addition of you're leaving out some things and so
really this big light shining on it and in the course and in science of teaching
reading it's not just phonics that is definitely highlighted but it definitely
talks about comprehension and all different things that are involved in it
so all of that is actually in the TEA course the TEA course is comprehensive
literacy not only science of teaching reading so after everyone does their 60
60 hours of PD next year, I mean, what do you, and I mean, I know it's hard to answer
this question because it's a year out, but like what will be in place to help the teachers
after that?
So actually it wasn't one year, it's two years.
We have two 900 person cohorts.
There will be 900 participants next year and then an additional 900 the following year.
And what we're going to have is really well informed administrative staff with the principals
and the instructional coaches.
They already will have taken the course
and be fully knowledgeable to help support the teachers.
And of course, all of the curriculum staff
is taking all of these trainings as well.
And so you will see all of these things embedded
in the trainings that we're doing.
But that starts right now.
We're not waiting two years to embed all of that.
But you will see that in the summer trainings that they do.
Whether you've taken the course or not,
you will have this information embedded in everything we do.
So as a student in second grade, it'll
all start to see that next year?
Absolutely.
I think that you should have a robust curriculum right now, and then you're going to have even better prepared teachers
They've have 60 more hours of instruction. We love professional development, so that's just going to be great
So I think that you'll just have more knowledgeable and people that are really looking at all of the components of
Literacy and not leaving anything out for the students, which is what's in the teaks which is what's in the curriculum?
So and the resources and I have to ask the 800 pound gorilla question that because people email me and so I have to ask
this so Lucy Calkins that's also what we so that provide that resource is also
what is it College what teachers college teachers college is that same thing it
is Teachers College is she works at Teachers College and then units of study
is that the same that's a product that's produced by that cup by that school
system it's in New York okay and and I know in the presentation you talked
about how we don't have to use the recommended resources but it's not a
recommended resource is it it is not on the state list right they did not go they didn't apply that's
correct so so they did not to be on the state list the vendors apply to be on the state list
and teachers college resource did not apply to be on the list lots of them um there's some that did
some that didn't it's a it's a big thorough process to be on it just for texas and that
company did not and i mean just you know i've read some articles about that resource where they you
you know, it doesn't, you know, you can make almost anything aligned, but like that it doesn't
align really well and that some states
are banning that resource. Yeah, we spoke actually, we heard
that and we went to the publisher and asked them to get for the information. The publisher
said that it's untrue. They have no knowledge of it being banned anywhere.
So we definitely wanted to know, wow, we've not heard of such a thing. Let's find out. And we couldn't find evidence
of that through Google or through Heinemann Publications.
And I, yes.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Next.
I was just so excited.
It is exciting.
Madam President, I have a few questions also.
So I'm just trying to understand, is the Teachers College being used as a resource then?
We use units of study.
There are three different resources, units of study reading, units of study writing, and units of study phonics.
And they do come from Heinemann, which is done by Teachers College.
But is it evidence-based?
Yes, it is.
Okay.
But real quick, I want to go back to something that Ms. Gasop asked about.
With the House Bill 3 and the 60 hours, are the new students that are education majors,
are they receiving this training so that way when they're out, you know,
if they're just going to graduate right now, will they already have it and you don't have to reteach them?
No.
The answer is no.
Okay.
So what's going to happen is anybody that graduated that does not have their certification before January 2021, which already happened, they all need to go through the reading academies.
They could have taken science of teaching reading exam, but they still have to go through the reading academies.
And I'm going to give you a quick little thing about my daughter really fast.
So here she is, alternative certified, coming out of Sam Houston, took the science of teaching reading test, made a 53%, which is considered passing.
I need you to know that, right?
So she still needs to take the reading academies because, obviously, she knows a little bit of it.
But remember, she was a health major in college.
So that is just something I think people think that they can go take the science of teaching reading test and not do House Bill 3 reading academies.
But it's two totally separate ideas like they said it's 60 hours of instruction and really kind of like dr
Kasky said it's really more a little bit more than 60 they have artifacts they do and they have videos they watch they respond
They have discussions reflections in which I read all of them and give them feedback
back. Madam President. Where did that come from? Right here. Okay. So if I was looking at the chart right, the new TEKS and standards here hit in 2017? No, they went into effect 2019. 2019? But yes, and 2017 is when the State Board adopted them to be implemented in 2019.
2019-2020.
Okay.
And this is maybe just more of a statement, but when should Texas start to see our 42nd
ranking start climbing if what we're doing is effective?
Soon, I would hope.
I mean, as you see, there are a lot of things going on in play right now.
And so I think all of these things put together, you know, we'll hopefully we'll see that needle
start to tick.
But, you know, we continue to score very, very high in KDISD.
And even when you look at our scores compared to the region and the state, even in the data that you got not included in this presentation,
our students who are economically disadvantaged, our Title I students are still performing above the region and the state.
So we're solid in KD, but, again, we want the whole state.
We can't carry the whole state, but we will do our part.
We'll do our part.
When do we revisit it?
Right, because there is obviously, I mean,
Ms. Gassoff brought up, right, cruise ship,
starting to change things.
I mean, we're supplementing what was taught in college,
and some people it's entirely new.
When do we revisit and say, all right,
we're heading the right way, we're not, like,
where's that improvement or evaluation happen?
Right, so there are a lot of different pieces
that come into play there.
I shared a lot of data points that we have in KDIC.
you we it isn't just fountas and pinell i showed you that huge long list right so some of those are
teacher-based assessment that the campuses are looking at teachers are looking at those
principals are looking at those the data teams on the campus are looking at those some of those
we're looking at in central office too we're constantly looking at our dla data right of course
our star data data our fountas and pinell data but we're also looking at those data points to see
if there are holes and gaps in curriculum that's our piece it's the curriculum piece right is there
there a misalignment there?
And then how does that inform
our professional development moving forward, right?
So, and even, you know, we hear talk about COVID slide.
I mean, we're constantly looking at data
to see where our students performing.
We're gearing up for summer training
to make sure that teachers hit the ground running
when our students come back in the fall.
So that's a continual process,
but the House Bill 3 data that the board approves,
we will bring that back to you all in September of 2021.
So you saw in July the beginning of your data.
So we will bring back to you in September
that end of your data.
And we have targets that are set per each campus,
per each sub pop, right?
Thank you, Natalie.
So again, it was a lot of data
that Natalie shared with you all in July.
I would urge you to revisit that if you have any questions
and we'll continue to bring that forward.
You also got an update in January of 2021
and the data reports that Dr. G shares with you.
Thank you.
I'm not speaking for everybody on the board,
but we have some amazing teachers.
And whether we had the absolute best curriculum
or just a really good curriculum or a bad curriculum,
I know our teachers are going to go above and beyond
and do everything that they can to get our kids where they need to be.
and I think just the the excitement in this conversation tonight was just one
of those things that let's give them the best thing that they can so that they
don't have to always give that 110 percent when you know it is and it's a
lot of miss guests off you know made that statement too it's new and it's
different and it's a paradigm shift and anytime that you have a paradigm shift
It's hard.
And teaching and reading is hard.
It is hard work.
It's so different than when I was in the classroom and back with the whole language and the basals.
And, you know, it's a lot of different data points, way more data than we had, you know, in the past.
And the components, it's not a textbook.
We don't hand them a textbook.
It's a kit.
So there are a lot of pieces that need to be put together.
We do a lot of that heavy lifting at the central office through development of that curriculum and helping our coaches to help our teachers.
So that's a lot of how we're organized to help support our teachers
But it is a huge shift and a teacher is hard work every single day every single day
Or members any other questions, madam president
Okay, I have a couple so I'm sorry
If you can bear with me for a second, so I have a question and it's on the MTSS
referral process so what specifically is going to let's say
I wrote it down here so I don't mess it up, but what data is going to be triggering that
child find rule within that?
I'm going to speak to this, and I've said it before because I have a special ed kiddo.
I had no teacher ever say, no, I had the teacher come to me and tell me I needed to do it.
She wouldn't do it.
If I've already been through that process, I know I'm not the only one, and this is just
six years when I brought my family here.
So what is cuing that off, I guess, in our district?
And are teachers really reporting that, or is it the onus all on parents?
So what I would say is that teachers are looking at multiple data points.
So they have access to all of the reading assessment data that you saw there.
They have grades. They have observations in the classroom.
And they're looking at all of that data, and they're monitoring their children's progress.
If at any point they have a concern, they bring that concern to the MTSS committee,
and the MTSS committee at that point discusses the data and determines what the next steps
need to be.
So here, for example, they may recommend advancing the student to Tier 2 or Tier 3, but also
if they think the student has a disability, that at any point they can submit the student
for a referral, obviously with parent permission.
Okay, so at some point in here, what the expectation is that they're communicating with parents?
Absolutely.
There's a requirement that if you advance a student within the tiers, you have to notify
parents.
And obviously before you can refer a student for an evaluation, you need parent consent.
I had that part, just no referral for 504 or IEP services.
It just kind of stopped there.
Okay, so that's what my question is concerning that.
Okay. And does this happen in just case?
three or is this happening across all grade levels okay all right and then um so
i want to go to the dyslexia piece for just a minute too um within dyslexia my question
and i guess it's a piece of what i know and i'm looking to gain more knowledge on katie
so i know we're all broken up into regions right we're in region four right we've got lots of them
and region 10 happens to be kind of like the dyslexia hub i guess for the state to some degree
so if they're seeing that and if they have those things and we're using different pieces or a
different program why would we not be using what another region is putting out if they house that
person i think this is my question like wouldn't that be shared from region to region
Well, I think ultimately any region in the state has to make sure that whatever resource
they're using meets the expectations of the Texas Dyslexia Handbook.
And so every region in the state, districts within those regions, are choosing resources
if they're doing it properly to ensure that they're addressing the critical components
identified by the handbook.
So you have variability across the state.
So it's not the case that by region, you may see some trends, but I don't think we could
assume that within a region everybody's using the same resource.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Really quick.
quick. Star, is the STAAR Test now going to be combined reading and writing? Yes. Yes?
Yes. Are we thinking about combining the reading and writing workshops then?
They're actually unique workshops. They're unique workshops, but one plays off the other.
So the suggested order is that you do reading workshop, then phonics workshop, then writing
workshop we're encouraging them to be taught by the same teacher and if they
get continuous loop but they're using what they've learned in one workshop to
assist them on the other so you know reading and writing are separate topics
and they can't just be reading about their writing about their reading they
have to write way beyond that and so they they work through each one but they
what they've learned in one they use in the other and that's in a 90-minute
block yes okay and then slide 41 that was the one that um dr caskey got us some more information
because i'd asked for it broken out by title one and bilingual is it 41 it's 41 on my slide
I just wanted to clarify as you mentioned earlier, this is approaches, right?
This is star approaches.
We're running it for you for me.
Right.
And masters.
But it will be interesting to see both of those because approaches is such a low, I mean, it's a big deal.
It's a big deal, but it's still you know the lowest level of of support and then my only other question is
Maybe we can use the new tool that dr.
Gorski is piloting but be interested to get to have a good feedback loop with the teachers
I mean, I know they have the ICS and the principals, but you know it might be a good use of that tool
Just to be like how's it going? Yeah, and and even in our previous tool that we used
I TOLD DR. G, I READ EVERY ONE OF THOSE COMMENTS.
I SEARCHED ON CURRICULUM AND CAUCUS AND UNITS OF STUDY, CURRICULUM.
I PUT SEARCH WORDS INTO EVERY COMMENT IN INTERGAGE.
AND I'LL SHARE WITH YOU WHAT I SHARED WITH HIM.
AS SOON AS SOMEBODY SAYS I CAN'T STAND THOSE UNITS OF STUDY, THE NEXT PERSON SAYS OH, MY
GOD, THE UNITS OF STUDY ARE AMAZING.
And so you find that you know there are some folks that love this direction and there are other folks that that don't you know
I totally agree and but hopefully we can ask the questions of like, you know, even better if right, you know
We're doing this and you're doing great. But like what could be better and right? So anyway, I
Just want to thank you
I know this took hours of work and effort and you all took your evening to be here to spend time to explain all of
This and to answer our questions. I'm very grateful for your time and effort
Can I ask one more question?
Can I just go back to the whole units of study or teacher college, however you want to define that piece of it?
Why would we use a program that hasn't gone through the rigors of getting approved by the Texas Board of Ed, I guess,
and we would choose to use it for us, I guess?
Because that's what y'all said, right?
It hadn't been approved here, but we're using that.
Is there a reason?
I would just love to know the reason, because I'm sure there is one, and I would just like to know what it is.
This is Nancy Bradley, one of our curriculum coordinators.
Thank you.
Hello.
I think that was on slide 22, perhaps.
I've already gone to another presentation.
I'm already moved on here.
That's all right.
Okay.
One of the reasons that we said we went ahead and went with the units of study is because we had previously had them in places in the district, not throughout the whole district.
It was a supplemental resource, and our teachers were very familiar with it.
We researched every aspect of it that we could to see, like, how they have been used for years and years in many different states to see, like, how effective is that?
And we really liked how they worked together, the whole reading.
And it used to just be reading and writing workshops.
But then when they introduced the phonics, we really loved that part of it because it was a piece that was missing in KDISC.
We had phonics, but it wasn't defined.
So there could have been places where it didn't have as much emphasis as it needed to.
And so we brought it when we adopted the units of study in phonics.
It really served that missing piece.
And some of the other reasons, like we loved that instruction is personalized for all of the children in your classroom.
Like you could be a fourth grade teacher.
And as we know on many of our campuses you could have kids reading at the second grade level in that fourth grade classroom
All the way up to the eighth grade level and using the workshop approach and the units of study it allows the teachers to
Personalize the learning for those students everyone in their classroom so they can get the instruction that they need and grow at least a year
Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. Oh
Yeah, I'll go board I
I hesitate to do that, but I do have to ask one question, Dr. Caskey.
Do you want me to go to a slide?
No, I don't want you to go to a slide,
but you mentioned something about the Teachers College and the units of study
and not being an adopted material in Texas,
but are we out on a limb here as KDIC?
Are we one of the only districts using that,
or do other people in Texas use that resource as their model as well?
Where did that slide go?
You do need to see it.
There is a slide.
Okay.
I know.
I had it in here no there was a slide okay yeah so over 500 503 districts in
the state of Texas utilize the units of study it may not be their adopted
primary resource but they do utilize the units of study as we have since 2013 yes
the list you only have to meet 50 of the teak so don't think it's like this end-all be-all kind of
list i mean it's still subject to you know what your your district needs and those kinds of things
and so it's not tea picking the best resources for the districts it's these publishers have met
these standards and they're going to be on a state purchasing kind of cooperative and a lot of times
since they went from before you could only get materials from the state list since we don't have
to some publishers don't choose to go through all that because we can purchase for them directly
so it's not necessarily a this is the best of the best and this is why you should choose it
there's other kind of right here yeah miss miss chloe you might as well stay up there since you're
You're going to sit?
Okay.
Madam President, I have one other question about that.
I'm sorry, Dr. Grogorski, can I ask something about the Teachers College?
No, because I didn't know what it was, and so I actually looked it up and read about
it a little bit.
And I see why, you know, I mean, I'm not an educator, but I just read some of the criticisms
of them, and I can probably assume that, you know, almost every program has some kind of
criticism about it.
So is this just one, like in other words, is this just one resource that we're using?
It's not like we're using all of Teachers College, are we using the whole program,
or are we just picking apart the parts that we want of it?
The units of study are our primary resources, but we have loads of supplemental resources.
So we have other things that they could, but that is the primary thing that they should go to.
and as they go work with children depending on their needs we have lots of
opportunities for them to have additional resources so there's other
resources not that we're just using this it is our primary resource but it's not
our only resource previously it was a supplemental resource we were using what
did we determine journeys before thank you very much dr. Caskey and your team
excellent excellent presentation and as miss guests off expressed it took hours
and hours your time I appreciate you also being here tonight to answer all
all the questions and now you're up again it's much shorter I'm this boy all
right we ready okay we are here this evening to provide you with an update on
our instructional materials allotment and request your approval of the annual
TEKS certification. Just to recap the history of IMA, very short. In 2011, Senate Bill 6 was
passed to create the IMA from the State Textbook Fund and the Technology Allotment Fund. This
provides districts the flexibility to select our instructional materials and the flexibility to
purchase textbook supplemental materials and software. Our IMA is based on a per pupil amount
out and is funded every two years. It is also important to consider that the KDISD curriculum,
as we just heard, is not driven solely by textbooks. In fact, we use multiple resources,
including online resources, literature libraries, and other hands-on learning tools in our classrooms.
This slide depicts our timeline for the selection of materials. We began the process in November by
by establishing our review teams.
The teams work to review materials to make recommendations
based on need and alignment to our courses.
All proposed instructional materials are then posted
with login information on our district website,
including inviting district-wide teachers,
inviting district-wide teachers and community feedback.
We changed that this year because of COVID,
so this lady here, Ms. Coy, put everything online
to gather all of our feedback.
Typically, when you come to the ESC, our hallways are lined with books and resources for the
community to come in and to review.
So in March, we collected feedback and we prepared the final recommendations.
While pre-kindergarten systems was the only state-issued proclamation for 2021, we've
identified needs in several other areas, including career and technical education and high school
ELA, math, science, and social studies, as you can see listed on this slide.
You have a detailed list of all materials that are being recommended in your board packet.
This chart outlines the planned expenditures for the next year and is broken down by content area.
The total estimated expenditures are about $5.5 million, which will leave a negative balance of about $1.5 million.
This money will be replenished in September when we receive our next allotment of about $14 million.
Every school district must certify annually to the State Board of Education and to the Commissioner that students have access to instructional materials covering all TEKS essential knowledge and skills for all the required subjects.
In your packet is a copy of the certification document indicating how the district meets this requirement.
You may notice that this year, those of you who have been on the board through this process before, you may notice that this year, TEA revised that certification document to be more specific and is broken down by resource.
This slide shows the upcoming proclamations for the next five years.
The next large adoption that you'll see will be in 2024 with a K through 12 science adoption, which will be a big one for us for sure.
And that concludes my IMA presentation and Ms. Coy and I are here if you have any questions.
She facilitates the process.
Madam President, really quickly, just, you know, we talk about surveys that we send out
and we don't get a lot of response.
I just wonder, you know, when you had that posted in March and all that time, how much
parental and community input did you get?
A lot?
A little?
A ton?
Yes, go to the mic.
Go to the mic.
We posted kind of like our virtual display for two weeks.
One week was because it was during the freeze, so we extended it for another week.
It kind of takes a little bit of work to get the publishers to say,
yes, I'm going to let you have open free reign for anyone to come in and look at everything that's there.
Online especially.
Yeah, we had two feedback forms, yes ma'am.
Okay.
And we typically do not receive a lot.
Historically, when we have it in person, it'll be at the district office for two weeks,
and we'll stay late a few nights, and we generally try to have it on a board meeting night
or when there's something else going on,
but generally there's only a handful of parents that come up to view.
So we thought we'd have really good feedback with it being online.
And we did email personal links to everyone who was interested in serving on the committee.
We sent individual emails with the dates that the instructional materials would be posted
and a link to the website where they would be as well.
Thank you so much and thanks for going to all the effort to put it all online.
No questions?
I'll entertain a motion.
Madam President?
Ms. Gessau?
I mean, Ms. Champagne.
I've been so used to saying Ms. Gessau for a little bit.
Sorry.
Ms. Champagne.
This time it's me.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the Recommended Instructional Materials Allotment,
or IMA, in Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Certification for the 2021-2022 school year.
Second.
A motion by Ms. Champagne, a second by Mr. Keller that we will now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes seven to zero. Item 9.2, Mr. Lance Nauman and Mr. Damon Archer.
Discuss and consider Board approval of the purchase of nine pre-owned semi-trucks to
support the logistics and transportation needs of high school fine arts.
Thank you.
Can you hear me now?
Executive Director of Fine Arts.
For many years, the KD Fine Arts Department, along with volunteers of booster clubs,
have supported the marching band programs with the donation of large 53-foot trailers
to transport district and student instruments to competitions and football games.
Over this period, a variety of local companies provided transportation logistics for these large trailers free of charge to the district.
Local companies provided tractor trucks along with drivers to move trailers where they were needed for student programs.
Recently, because of ongoing changes in the insurance marketplace and business decisions by these organizations,
continued assistance to the KDISD band program is no longer an option.
For the 2021 school year, logistic options became very limited to the Fine Arts Department.
Various options were evaluated, such as new companies, contracts for hire, and the rental and or purchase of tractor trucks.
Reaching an agreement with new companies was an option that these organizations were not willing to release their fleet for this use.
Additionally, insurance issues related to trailer ownership further
complicated matters. The second option of contract for hire or rental was not
considered for insurance purposes as well as not being a reliable source of
trucks and drivers. The last option of purchase was deemed to be the best
opportunity which supported long-term stability for these special student
student programs. A collaborative effort was undertaken with Risk Management, Transportation
and Fine Arts to enter into the marketplace to purchase and acquire nine used tractors
via a Request for Proposal. As a result of the RFP, two vendors submitted proposals.
Select Truck Freightliner of Houston entered the best option which includes providing local
local support for the district. It is recommended that Select Truck Freightliner of Houston
be awarded the bid purchase nine used tractor trucks with a price not to exceed $60,000
per unit. Madam President? I move that the Board of Trustees approve the purchase of
nine pre-owned semi-trucks to support the logistics and transportation needs of the
high school fine arts programs with a price not to exceed sixty thousand dollars per unit
madam president could i just say ask a question about this real quick
i'm so sorry i'm sorry i'm so sorry i just wanted to i first of all i'm a previous band
mom so and a band kid so i know how important this is because this has been a problem
um you know with the trucks but where are the tractors gonna be kept i'm just curious during
During non-use times, like primarily in the summer, we will keep them at one designated spot,
primarily East Transportation.
This can support maintenance and their upkeep.
But as we look toward the fall, I guess it would be anticipated we will place those tractors logistically
that would support those programs and be close proximity to the high school.
So somewhere on the campus, I guess?
No, man, we would the plan would be to support those at the east west and south
Transportation centers that would act as a feeder to support those. Okay. Thank you. I
Thought in January we had we had made a motion where some of the like the trailers we were given the trailers back to the
To the the clubs, but now we're buying stuff. I'm just how does that how does that mix together?
So who owns the trailers we just don't in the can you help explain that sure?
Two distinct things.
The trailers that you're mentioning that I brought to you previously are small utility trailers
that can be pulled by a truck or a car.
These are the large 53-foot box trucks, box trailers rather, that need a large tractor to pull them.
So the two are two distinct pieces of equipment.
So the big trailers, the school district keeps ownership of those small trailers,
go back to the booster clubs?
That makes sense.
Yes, sir.
by Ms. Wilson and second by Mr. Keller.
We will now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Thank you so much, gentlemen.
We'll now move to 9.3, discuss and consider board approval
of February 2021 financial reports.
This is Ann Feitinger.
Good evening, President Vann, Dr. Gagorski, and Board. Item 9.3 is to consider approval of the district's February 2021 financial reports.
The financial statements, the first report, reports revenues and expenditures of budgeted funds, and these are our general fund, our food service fund, and our debt service fund.
This month's report is for February, which is six months through the year, so we're halfway.
You're going to see that several of the functions and objects are not running at 50%. They're running just below that.
One of the things I wanted to point out is the food service or our child nutrition program, typically operated by the district, is accounted for as one of our budgeted funds and is presented within these financial statements.
Footnotes on page two of the report indicate the revenues and expenditures accounted for separately as a special revenue program for the summer feeding program.
So we have two pieces here that you have to add together to get the total program, one of which is budgeted, one of which is accounted for as a special revenue fund. This is strictly an accounting treatment.
You will see a budget amendment tonight that reduces the budget that you're seeing on this report, and that's because so much of that is being funded through the special revenue fund, not all of that budget is needed in the budgeted funds.
So you'll see that coming through tonight.
And that should more accurately reflect the current accounting that's required for those funds.
Also included is a footnote for the ESSER I funding, which indicates salaries,
quarters, expenditures in federal ESSER program during 2021.
Those expenditures will return to the general fund next year.
You have the construction report, which obviously handles our 2017 and 2014 authorization,
our E-rate funding, and our TERS funding.
The tax report we've talked about last couple of months, you'll see this month we have returned
to more of the historical collection percentage, so we have caught up for those timing differences.
Finally, you have a check register.
This is a very large month for our check register because February has our first debt, semi-annual
debt payment, which is our largest debt payment, so it is larger this month.
Those are our February reports.
Thank you.
Do we have any questions?
Madam President.
Mr. Redmond.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the district's February 2021 financial statements.
The motion was made by Mr. Redman, a second by Ms. Gassoff.
We will now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
The motion passes 7-0.
Thank you so much, Mrs. Feitinger.
9.4, discuss and consider Board approval of the April 2021 budget amendments.
Mrs. Sherry Butterfield.
Thank you, President Vann, Trustees, Dr. Vygorski.
Tonight, the General Operating Fund is amended in revenue and expenditures by $35,840 to recognize the camp for CTE STEM camp.
Expenditures are also amended $3,396,129 to cover winter freeze damages.
There's no revenue amendment tonight on that.
It'll trail later.
Revenues are anticipated from either FEMA or insurance claims, but those numbers are still under development.
Additionally, $657,818 covers startup costs in bilingual classrooms at Wilson and Rylander,
and expenditures are also amended for special ed classroom startups of $267,529.
One amendment for $690,000 includes those tractors Mr. Nauman was talking about
and the trailers that will eventually be purchased all for fine arts programs,
and the remainder of general operating fund expenditures are direct offsets between different functions.
So the effect of all of these amendments will result in a $5,047,316 decrease to the general operating fund fund balance.
Our food service fund has a pretty substantial change in it.
The local and federal revenues are decreased $13 million and $16 million in change, respectively, due to the changes in operation that Ms. Feitinger was explaining.
This is a result of a change in operation from COVID, where we went to the summer food service program.
And this is budgeted in a different fund and special revenues.
news it's not a budgeted fund that you see on a monthly basis a general operating fund the fund
240 for child nutrition and then the construction amendments that we bring to you periodically
so uh additionally the the expenditures will decrease 28 million 382 473 dollars which is also
associated with that same SFSP program and approval of this amendment will
result in a nine hundred and twenty two thousand nine hundred thirty two dollar
decrease to the food service funds balance construction funds are amended
for gym bleacher replacements five hundred and one thousand two hundred
fifty one dollars and for gym floor replacements two hundred and nineteen
thousand six hundred fifty five dollars and funds are available for these within
the 2017 bond project savings resulting in no change to construction fund
balance thank you do we have any questions madam president mrs.
Butterfield the startup for the new bilingual classrooms and for the
special ed classrooms what does that include oh that includes lots of stuff
So we've tried to take a comprehensive approach when we have these new program ads in the bilingual program.
It's splitting a couple of programs at some high enrollment campuses.
So what we see in an amendment like this is anything that's needed to take care of everything.
So it's going to be the instructional materials.
materials, it's going to be the technology needed to go into the classrooms, it's going
to be the FF&E or the furniture, any equipment, any connections of the portable building itself,
anything that needs to happen to make that seamless for the campuses so that there's
enough resources for each little component.
Okay, thank you.
Any other questions?
Madam President, Ms. Gessauf.
I move the Board of Trustees approves the District's April 2021 budget amendments.
Second.
So you're done.
The motion by Ms. Gessauf is second by Ms. Champagne. We will now proceed to vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0. Thank you so much, Mrs. Butterfield.
I am 9.5 discuss and consider board approval the proposal for the replacement of air handling units at Hutzel Elementary School. Mr. T
Good evening, madam president board members and dr. Gagorski
It's recommended that the Board of Trustees
approves a proposal for the replacement of the five rooftop air handler units at Hutzel elementary to MLN service company in the amount of
$342,175, utilizing the by-board contract 631-20, and a total not-to-exceed project
cost of $352,175.
The five rooftop air handler units and associated piping originally were installed in the 2003
renovation and were damaged during the February 2021 freeze.
The M&O Group requested proposals from five contractors and received pricing back from
three of the five.
The proposal from MLN was judged to be the best value to the district.
An owner's contingency in the amount of $10,000 has been included to cover any unforeseen
issues during the replacement.
The replacement will be
be coordinated with the campus and is expected to be completed by July 30, 2021.
A copy of the proposal and the proposal tabulation is included for your review.
The funding source is the general operating fund and the total replacement project cost
is not to exceed 352,175.
Do we have any questions?
Madam President.
Ms. Champagne.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the proposal for the replacement of the five
rooftop air handler units RTU at Hutzel Elementary to MLN Service Company in the
amount of $342,175 with the total not to exceed the project cost of
$352,175. Second. I have a motion by Ms. Champagne, a second by Ms.
Gassoff. We will now proceed to vote. All those in favor please raise your right
hand and say aye. Aye. Motion passes 7-0. You're up again Mr. T. Yes ma'am. It's recommended that the
Board of Trustees approves the proposal for the connections of three portable classroom buildings
at Wilson Elementary to Brown and Root in the amount of $274,869 utilizing the contract number
R200102 and a total project cost not to exceed $427,415.
The connection of these three additional portable classroom buildings at Wilson Elementary is needed to provide classroom space for the relocation of a bilingual program to relieve overcrowding currently at Campbell Elementary.
entry. An owner's contingency amount of $35,000 has been designated to cover any unforeseen issues
found during the project. The total project cost includes architect and engineer design fees
necessary to create the permitting documents. It also includes technology equipment and furniture
allowance. Estimated completion is August the 2nd, 2021, and a copy of the proposal is included for
your review. Again, this is the general operating fund as a funding source and the total project
cost not to exceed is $427,415. Thank you. Any questions, board?
I'll entertain a motion. Madam President. Mr. Redmond. I move that the Board of Trustees approves
the proposal for the connections of three portable classroom buildings at Wilson
Wilson Elementary to Brown and Root in the amount of $274,869 with the total project costs not to exceed $427,415.
Second.
I have a motion by Mr. Redman, a second by Ms. Gassoff.
We will now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Thank you so much, Mr. Teague.
Thank you.
Item 9.7, does Sessom consider Board approval of a contract for the construction of vehicular
stacking and driveway improvements at multiple campuses?
Ms. Lisa Kastner.
Good evening, President Vann, Trustees, and Dr. Gagorski.
In November 2018, the Board approved the retention of S&G Engineering for Design Services associated
with vehicle stacking and driveway improvements at multiple campuses as requested initially
by Harris County.
Seal proposals were received on April 6th for six projects, including Bear Creek, Franz, May Creek, Rhodes, Hayes, and Stanley.
Seven seal proposals were received, with Stewart Builders Incorporated ranking first overall.
Stewart Builders successfully did the work last summer at Schmaltz and Galbo.
Do we have any questions?
Madam President.
Hi, Ms. Gassman.
Could you give us, you know, just for the benefit of those that are watching, Mr. Schulte asked a good question and Dr. Kogorski answered it for us.
Just explaining what this project is.
It's a safety issue, right?
It is a safety issue.
For example, at Hayes Elementary, you know, cars stacked up on the side street blocking neighbors' driveways.
May Creek Elementary, it's kind of a traffic nightmare with the junior high,
so it's rerouting that traffic. Bear Creek taking it off also the small roads,
going in back of the campus. Same thing with roads, getting some of that traffic
off of Clay Road. So it is a safety issue, making it easier and I know the
police department will be happy with that also as well as the campus. And some, in
some instances we had to make some changes, right? Or there were permitting
implications? Yes, and that does happen in this case. These issues are brought up both by the
campus and Harris County, so we work together with them collectively. That is great news. Thank you
so much. Thank you, Ms. Kastman. Any other questions for Mrs. Kastman? Madam President, I got one quick
question. How quick is this going to get done? Is this something that can be done before the next
school year starts? Yes, it's going to be done this summer, and steward builders, they're a
subsidiary of Keystone Concrete, so they definitely have all the resources to man all these.
Permits and stuff get approved that quick?
Permits are in process right now as we speak.
That's why you won Planner of the Year, right?
That's right.
Only when you're Mrs. Gassman.
Any other questions, Board?
All right, I'll entertain a motion.
Madam President, I move that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Stewart Builders Incorporated
for the construction of vehicular stacking and driveway improvements at multiple campuses
in the amount of $4,881,000
and approves the total project cost not to exceed $6,413,981.
Second.
Motion by Ms. Gesoff, second by Ms. Champagne.
We will now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Thank you, Ms. Casper.
Thank you.
Item 9.8, discuss and consider board approval of the minutes of the March 2021 board meeting.
Madam President.
Mr. Redman.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the minutes of the board meetings held in March 2021.
Second.
Motion by Mr. Redman and second by Ms. Getzoff.
We will now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Now on to Agenda Item 10, Information Items.
Ms. Champagne, you are up on number 10.1.
Okay.
Okay. So first of all, I would like to say that I was elected by this board in December 2020 to be TASB director, but I was officially elected by TASB board on March 26th of this year.
And so the first meeting was March 25th to 27th, and I was only able to really go to about half of that because I wasn't actually elected until the second day of it.
But I wanted to tell you some things about TASB that I thought was kind of interesting.
TASB is not a governmental entity and therefore is not subject to the Open Meetings Act.
TASB has 100% membership of the school districts in Texas.
And TASB employs 468 people.
And one of the significant actions of this meeting was electing the new interim TASB director.
I was one of the four who were elected.
My position is Region 4E, and during this meeting, we were assigned to committees.
I was assigned to the Bylaws Committee.
Our terms as interim TASB directors will be up in September 2021, but it's actually a three-year term.
So there are 44 directors in Texas.
Twelve of us are large district directors.
directors. This means we are from districts that have 1.25% of the state ADA, which is
average daily attendance. The others are all regional directors representing their regions.
Of note is that the executive director, James Crow, who has held that position for over
25 years, will be retiring in August. TASB held a student video contest. Our district
district did not enter but I think that we should enter in future contests first place winners were
from sci-fair Allen and spring so some of those are our neighbors and I want to beat them so
um okay so there is now division this was this is a big thing I think there's now a division of
diversity Equity and inclusion in TASB which began in December 2020. the director of this division is
Cecilia Chavez and its vision is the TASB lead council creates and sustains a diverse,
equitable and safe workplace that values and respects all, empowering everyone to fully
realize their potential.
Summer leadership is, there's two different ones, June 16th to June 29th, I mean June
June 19th and 21 in San Antonio and June 23rd to June 26th, 21 in Fort Worth.
It has been decided that one can attend either virtually or face-to-face,
but there is a lottery which the districts have to enter by May 6th.
So we have to, I think we want to go to it in person, but we have to enter a lottery.
The Board of Directors' next meeting is September 22nd to 26th,
and the TASB TASA conference will be in Dallas from September 24 to September 26.
And finally, I wanted to leave you with a quote from the TASB president,
who is Jim Rice from Fort Bend ISD.
He said, we need each other, we need a team, you can't do everything on your own.
Thank you, Ms. Champagne.
And one little update, we did hear since I sent the email to the board
and you had your training, that because you are on the board of directors,
we're considered a VIP school district.
So we will be attending in person.
Duke's the only one who's unable to join us,
but we have the option of our entire board
and some of our administration to attend in person
because you are serving on the board of directors.
So thank you for your report.
And I have, if you want, a paper.
Okay, that'd be great.
Thank you so much.
Item 10.2, donated items to Katy Independent School District.
The board was provided a copy of the donated items to KDISD.
10.3, quarterly investment report.
The board was provided a copy of the donated item.
It says the same thing.
That's my script.
Same thing.
Donated.
Okay.
We were provided information on the quarterly investment report.
Agenda item 11, future meetings.
Our regular board meeting will be Monday, May 17, 2021, right here in this room.
And with that, we are going to go into closed meeting.
I need to ask anyone not involved in the closed meeting to please vacate the room as we need to secure the room.
Are you going to hit the dabble thing?
Did you already?
Whatever.
We ended it.
9-14.
It's over.
The board will now reconvene an open meeting.
Today is Monday, April 26, 2021, and the time is 9-50 p.m.
The board has heard a level 3 DGBA grievance.
DGBA 21-005 pursuant to the Katy Independent School District policy DGBA legal and DGBA local.
Regarding employees Kayla Vinco, Joseph Dana, Christopher Ashmore, Jasmine Garcia, Ryan Pickett,
Kim Garcia, Ryan Simpson, Paola Centoia, Christina Cantu, David Plant, Jose Gonzalez, Larry Johnson,
Robin Seaman, Joseph Aguilar, and Pablo Cantu in closed meeting. In accordance with Chapter 551
one of the Texas government code, any action regarding this matter must be taken in open
meeting.
Board, this is now time to deliberate and ask any questions you have from the hearing
that you previously heard and closed.
Madam President.
Ms. Champagne.
I would like to ask a question.
Who are you?
Okay.
I guess Mr. Hadle.
I don't know.
Yeah. So can you distinguish to me what the hazard pay is and the modified pay, and did they get paid?
The officers got paid for the one week, the initial week, and then the compensation stopped.
They went back to their straight pay.
The policy actually doesn't – the policy uses two terms, and it talks about kind of an emergency pay,
and then it talks about disaster pay, and it doesn't define what the emergency is.
So if you look at the, during a quote, emergency closure, I think you have to go back above to see what that means that either the district is closed or individual campuses are closed as a result of, among other things, an epidemic.
So they continue to get paid while we were on the modified work schedule?
They continue to get paid for the hours they were showing up and working their shifts?
Yes, ma'am.
Okay, thank you.
any other questions yeah man a president yeah I guess it's for I guess it's for
Graham but on the on the does the policy say that the district closed or is it
school closed or is it is it both what is the exact wording on what is it what
what the policy says regards to the hazard pay or is it not clear I want to
be clear there's no such thing as hazard pay in Katy ISD is disaster pay
Disaster pay, I'm sorry.
Which occurs during a closure.
And when you go to your policy, DEA, and it says pay during closure,
it says all eligible employees shall earn seven days of emergency closure leave per fiscal year.
And then it says this emergency leave closure shall only be used
if the superintendent has closed the district or individual campuses
as a result of regional natural disaster, epidemic, or other emergency condition
resulting in the unplanned closure of the district.
or individual campuses and the superintendent has determined that the work days shall not be made up by the employees.
Any other questions?
One more question.
Yes, Ms. Shanahan.
What was the, I don't know if it's which person asked, but what was the modified work schedule for the police officers?
Do you want to speak to that?
The modified work schedule that began, I believe it was Monday, March 23rd, when we went into
the modified work schedule, employees that were able to work from their location reported
to work, and that was the police officers, maintenance and operations, food service,
a few others.
So they maintained their regular schedule beginning on that day and then through the
spring and through the summer.
But you also have to remember, we're talking about police officers here.
So we talk about modified work schedule.
So some of the modified, it was a modified work schedule and also a modified hours, right?
So it's your schedule and your hours.
And so if we did have campuses that were closed, if you have an SRO that's assigned to a campus,
say Morton Ranch High School, the two SROs at Morton Ranch High School would have then
continued to get paid and earn their time, but they would have been put, they would have
either been put in a different capacity.
maybe it's roaming, maybe it's helping food service, centralized, things like
that. So there was some modification there. Can you confirm, because it's the first time I've
heard it, that our food service that was handing out food was contract? I thought
those were our food service employees. Yes, our food service employees are KDISD
employed and paid by KDISD. They weren't outside contract? No. Mr. Cahill? The officers
were working there. There were contract companies doing the food distributions.
These officers were there. It wasn't the food distribution wasn't solely being
done by the KDISD cafeteria staff. Madam President, if I may explain part of that.
If it's a KDISD serviced meal, those are only served by KDISD employees. What
Mr. Cagle might be referring to is we had some outside agencies, i.e. maybe a
church group or other entity who provided meals to the KDISD community
but they were not food service meals. Correct and the officers worked staffed
those distribution sites. Okay. Madam President, Mr. Graham you had cited some
language from DEA local. Can you can you cite the first sentence of the last
paragraph when it talks about non-exempt employees I'm not sure which I'm not
sure which I could share it with you non-exempt non-contractual employees who
are required to work during emergency closure of the district shall be paid
disaster pay it talks about an emergency closure of the district that recommendation
to the board we we did not have an emergency closure of the district no sir and that again
by board action y'all went to a modified work schedule for all employees do we have any other
questions or comments none I will entertain a motion madam president mr. Redmond I move that
the Board of Trustees denies the level 3 DGB a grievance DGB a 21-0 0 5 thereby upholding the
decision of the level one and level two hearing officers second second i have a motion by mr
redmond a second by miss gassoff that the board of trustees denies a level 3 dgba grievance dgba 21
dash 005 thereby upholding the decision of the level one and level two hearing officers all
those in favor please say aye aye aye lead the june motion passes seven to zero thank you very
much for being here tonight being there's no further business before the
board this meeting is adjourned the time is 9 57 p.m.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 6.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees names Richard Merriman as the principal for Raines Academy as recommended by the superintendent in Closed Meeting.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 002 · AGENDA 6.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees names Nathen Fuchs as the Executive Director of Maintenance and Operations as recommended by the superintendent in Closed Meeting.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 003 · AGENDA 6.3
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees, as recommended by the superintendent in Closed Meeting, approves the one-year staff member term contracts, one-year employee probationary contracts, one-year employee dual assignment probationary contracts, one-year employee term contracts, one-year employee dual assignment term contracts, and two-year employee dual assignment term contracts for the 2021-2022 school year.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 004 · AGENDA 7.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves a one-time lump-sum payment in the amount of $500.00 to each Katy ISD full time employee and a one-time lump-sum payment in the amount of $250.00 to each Katy ISD part time employee at the end of the 2020-2021 school year.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 005 · AGENDA 7.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees enters into a Cost Sharing Agreement for Drainage Facilities with Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 171 for drainage, floodplain mitigation, and overflow mitigation associated with a future school site as described in the attached document.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 006 · AGENDA 9.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the recommended Instructional Materials Allotment (IMA) and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) certification for the 2021 - 2022 school year.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 007 · AGENDA 9.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the purchase of 9 pre-owned Semi Trucks to support the logistics and transportation needs of the high school Fine Arts programs with a price not to exceed $60,000 per unit.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 008 · AGENDA 9.3
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's February 2021 financial statements.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 009 · AGENDA 9.4
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's April 2021 budget amendments.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 010 · AGENDA 9.5
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the proposal for the replacement of the five rooftop air handler units (RTU) at Hutsell Elementary to MLN Service Company in the amount of $342,175.00 utilizing the BuyBoard contract #631-20 and a total not to exceed project cost of $352,175.00.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 011 · AGENDA 9.6
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the proposal for the connections of three portable classroom buildings at Wilson Elementary to Brown & Root in the amount of $274,869 utilizing the National IPA Contract No R200102, and a total project cost not to exceed $427,415.00.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 012 · AGENDA 9.7
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Stewart Builders, Inc. for the construction of vehicular stacking and driveway improvements at multiple campuses in the amount of $4,881,000 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $6,413,981.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 013 · AGENDA 9.8
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the minutes of the Board meetings held in March 2021.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |
MOTION 014 · AGENDA 13.1
PassedThe Board of Trustees denied the Level Three DGBA grievance in DGBA 21-005, thereby upholding the decision of the Level One and Level Two Hearing Officers.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| susan-gesoff | Yes |