Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this regular meeting of the Board of
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting Agenda
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, October 25, 2021
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Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.
Today is Monday, October 25, 2021, and the time is 5 p.m.
Dr. Gagorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with provisions of the Texas
Open Meetings Act with regard to the notice of this meeting?
Mr. President, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting
Act for our meeting this evening.
Thank you.
We will open tonight's meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Dr. Gagorski, will you please introduce the pledge leader?
Thank you, President Schulte.
I'm going to bring up to the microphone.
You can step up right now.
Luciana Bautista Ucece, Morton Ranch Elementary fifth grade student.
I see her principal, Deb Hubbell, is over there.
Parents Lena Ucece and Angelo Bautista.
She's got a sister sitting with her over there, Antonella, in the third grade.
Student special interests, singing, dancing, and art.
Favorite subjects, reading and science.
A couple of quotes from her teachers, from Ms. Montoya, fifth grade teacher, Luciana is always willing to lend a helping hand.
And from Mrs. Vivas, fifth grade teacher, Luciana's smile is contagious.
She is always smiling.
And look, she's smiling right now.
I can barely see her, but she's smiling.
All right, we're going to turn it over to you.
Go ahead.
Okay.
Okay. I pledge of 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.
Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.
You've got some words you'd like to share with us?
Yes.
All yours.
Good evening, President Schulte and Superintendent Denteck-Brigorski and board members.
Thank you for the opportunity of allowing me to be here.
This is truly an honor for me and my family to represent my school.
Morton Ranch Elementary is special to me because everyone is so kind, especially my teachers.
They are always willing to help me.
One of the things I like most about Moreton Ranch Elementary is that we are like a family.
We are here for each other.
When I grow up, I want to make sure to be kind and help others like everyone has taught
me at this school.
And, I am proud and grateful to be able to represent the bilingual children of Katy ISD.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Do we have any scouts in the audience tonight?
No scouts, okay. Recognitions?
I'd like to introduce Dr. Andrea Grooms, Chief Communications Officer for the recognitions
portion of our meeting.
Good evening.
Good evening, President Schulte, board members, and Dr. Grzegorski.
This evening I would like to introduce Representative Mike Schofield, who is here to present two
recognitions to two of our legacy coaches here in KDISD.
And Representative?
I don't have my glasses on this evening, so I can't see that far.
Thank you and thanks for allowing me to be here today.
As usual, Katie leads the way in a lot of areas and we've probably had more
recognitions of Katie ISD personnel in the legislature than we've had in for
the entire rest of the state put together, which makes a lot of sense if
you ask me, but then again I represent Katie. So please allow me to read from
the from the resolution passed by the Texas House of Representatives in honor
of coach Bubba Fife. So whereas Bubba Fife a retired coach and assistant
ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR IN THE KD INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT WAS RECOGNIZED WITH THE BE
GREAT AWARD BY THE GO BE GREAT FOUNDATION ON APRIL 15, 2021.
AND WHEREAS THE BE GREAT AWARD CELEBRATES INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE OVERCOME ADVERSITY AND
WHO HAVE SHARED THEIR TALENTS AND GIFTS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OTHERS,
THOSE ASSOCIATED WITH THE NONPROFIT HAVE CONTRIBUTED THEIR TIME AND RESOURCES TO A VARIETY OF CHARITABLE
causes all over the country and whereas coach bubba fife first began coaching for the irving
independent school district in 1964 which is the year i was born and i'm old he was hired as head
football coach and athletic coordinator for taylor high school in 1987 marking the start of his long
and highly successful affiliation with kdisd remaining there for 12 years before taking on
a new position as assistant director for athletics for kd high school coach fights retirement in
2009 kept an impressive career that spanned 45 years, including 35 years as a coach. And Coach
Fyfe was inducted, as you all know, into the Texas High School Athletic Directors Association Hall
of Honor in 2009 and was also recognized with the Distinguished Service Award from the Greater
Houston Football Coaches Association that same year. And in 2020, earned a place in the KDISD
Athletic Hall of Honor and through Coach Fife's outstanding commitment to the
profession he's had a positive influence on countless young athletes and may
indeed reflect well and with pride on his receipt of this well-deserved
accolade is therefore determined by the Texas House of Representatives that
Coach Fife is a distinguished citizen of Texas and ought to be honored and
recognized and we certainly are happy to do that here this evening
Thank you.
I'm not going to read from Coach Joseph's.
I will point out that I don't tweet very much.
And of all the tweeting that I've done, the one that got the biggest number of likes
was after Coach Joseph was given the 2021 Tom Landry Award.
when I said I didn't know if Coach Joseph should be more honored to be
associated with Tom Landry or Tom Landry should be more grateful to be associated
with Coach Joseph I will say I did have the honor of meeting Coach Landry one
time in Baton Rouge Louisiana where I went to law school and Coach Landry had
just written a book and came out for a book signing which is not unusual what
is unusual is that the reason why he went he didn't need to go out to Baton
Rouge, Louisiana to a bookstore for a book signing, but a lady in his church had also written a book
and he wanted to give her every opportunity to sell books. So he went all the way to Baton Rouge
and sat at a table for a couple of hours so that his friend could also sell some books. And of
course a bunch of us felt like we'd better buy one. That exemplifies Tom Landry, the namesake
OF THIS AWARD.
IT ALSO EXEMPLIFIES COACH
JOSEPH, WHICH IS WHY I THINK
IT IS VERY FITTING THAT
COACH GARY JOSEPH HAS BEEN
CHOSEN THE 2021 TOM LANDRY
AWARD WINNER FROM THE TEXAS
HIGH SCHOOL COACHES
ASSOCIATION.
AND HERE TODAY, WE WOULD LIKE
TO MAKE THIS AWARD.
THERE WAS ALSO A RESOLUTION
PASSED BY THE TEXAS HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES.
THEY FINALLY SAID,
ENOUGH, ENOUGH, WE GET IT.
KATIE'S GOOD AT COACHING,
AND YOU ARE, AND THANK YOU
VERY MUCH.
Mr. President, I don't know if we've said, but I'm sure Coach Decker, that Coach Joseph
is probably very busy working right now, but Coach Decker is the athletic director for
the entire district.
Good to see you.
watching film thank you representative Schofield and congratulations once again
to mr. Bubba fife coach fife and coach Gary Joseph that concludes our
recognitions portion and we will move on from here thank you thank you dr. Brooks
well now we want you to agenda item 4 which is the open forum portion of the
meeting at this time the Board of Trustees will give members of the public
and opportunity to speak in accordance with KDISD board policy BED local. As defined by this board
policy, the first 20 speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, October 25, 2021, and have provided
their first and last name 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
amount of time for any one speaker is three minutes. If you're not finished speaking at the
the end of your three minutes, your audio will turn off. If speakers wish to share written
material with the board, you must provide 10 copies to the Secretary for Board Services
before the meeting begins for board members, the superintendent, the chief communications
officer, and permanent record. If a speaker has not attempted to solve a matter administratively
through the proper channels as stated in board policy, the presiding officer's designee shall
advise the speaker to seek resolution through the appropriate policy. Finally, pursuant to
Under Texas Government Code Section 551-074 and 551-0821, the Board will not permit the
presentation of personally identifiable information regarding a student and will not discuss the
appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public
officer or employee or to hear a complaint or charge against an officer or employee.
Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues, they must do so through the appropriate
appropriate local grievance policy, FNG local, DGBA local, CKE local, or GF local.
Our speakers will be called forward in the order they signed up to speak.
So this first speaker tonight is Carrie Richardson, and the second speaker tonight is Carol Wettenauer.
Carrie Richardson.
Carrie Richardson.
Carol Wettenauer.
No?
Delynn Mitchell?
Courtney Phillips?
Starting to wonder if I got the right list.
Welcome.
The speaker after that is Emily Lewis.
I've never spoken before, so this is about the Jerry Craft book.
I'm sure you all know about that.
Even though the books will be placed on
shelves again, sorry my daughter's calling, even though the books will be
placed on shelves again, I am concerned to what led to them being
removed. Can you count on your hand and tell me how many people of color
you've ever had at your home? Not to repair something, not a potluck, a cookout,
or birthday party but just a nice evening dinner or chat on your porch or in your home discussing
others upbringings feelings and opinions about just living if you're having trouble or just
can't remember a day or time please tell me what do you possibly know about what's wrong with the
book you've never lived have you ever went to work for two years and have someone call you britney
every morning i have because my name is courtney you know the correlation if you've read the book
New Kid by Jerry Kraft. Did you read it? Have you ever picked out cities in 2017
given the names of Katy, Atascocita, Pearland, and the Woodlands and many more
to your older white realtor and have him tell you, oh I think you'd like it better
and humble and never once showed you the houses for the selected cities. Mind you
he lived in Atascocita. Well I have. Have you ever served this great country in
and the Washington, D.C. inauguration of 2000, Korea 2001, Iraq 2003, Afghanistan 2015, Fort Hood 2016,
only to have your 15-year-old twin son call you in the middle of a workday saying he doesn't like his pay-to-high school
and learn that the doctor visits of anxiety and stomach pains for the last 12 months
were only due to a white teen calling your son the N-word for the last year of 2018.
Well, I have. If you read the book, you'd understand the correlation once again of the Oreo joke.
How dare you 444 signatures remove what little representation my culture has to show its reality in literature form on the modern day shelves.
I thank Bonnie for poking the bear on Facebook and the 444 signatures for bringing white, black, brown, pink, blue, and invisible rainbows together for the greater good.
I don't applaud you for placing the books back on the shelves.
My only hope is that you not allow the unknown and false narratives to sway your judgment on needed representation of us all.
representation does matter please don't thank me for my service I do it because
I love it many friends and battles have died and bled for it as for Katie ISD do
what you should and need to do to uphold the standards of fairness justice and
representation for this school district so I can thank you for yours thank you
thank you the next speaker is Emily Lewis
mr. president you seem to have a problem with our time right there so I will keep
keep time and I will let the folks know.
The next speaker is Emily Lewis.
Nope. Ryan Apt.
And the speaker after that
is Michelle Walla.
First, I do want to applaud KDISD for rescheduling the event with Jerry Kraft and for returning
his books to the libraries.
However, I believe that this board is capable of and should engage in a stronger stance.
My statement is based on my expertise as a historian of education, race, and censorship
in the 1930s and 1950s Texas schools, and as a parent of KDISD students who wants his
son to know the experiences and beliefs of people who don't look, think, or act like
them.
My concern is that by legitimizing the complaints of the misguided and fearful among us, that
that this body has established a culture of fear
that will lead to decentralized censorship.
In other words, educators fearful of investigation
into their own books and lessons will
err on the side of caution and purge
their spheres of minority experiences and perspectives.
My apprehension is based in history.
In 1953, the Texas State Textbook Committee suggested,
quote, the deletion of the entire text
of the Declaration of Human Rights, end quote,
from the textbooks selected for the state. The Texas State Board of Education took this under
consideration. A few loud Texans stated their anger about the declaration to the board and newspapers.
They were furious that portions of the declaration articulated the right for adults to marry, quote,
without any limitation due to race. It challenged their laws against interracial marriage.
Ultimately, the state board kept the declaration but removed authorial statements on it.
Nevertheless, the publishers got the message.
By 1954, they were scrubbing the Declaration of Human Rights from the textbooks.
One publisher stated, I would appreciate it very much if you would look over this book
and see if the treatment in our books on the Bill of Human Rights can in any way be objectionable.
Those documents did not appear in future textbooks.
I call on this board to make a statement in support of libraries and classrooms which
embrace diversity of experience and perspective of our racially, religiously, ethnically,
gender and ably diverse community that it will not bend mr. at the scene of
your time thank you sir
I gave you all handouts if you could take a look at that please it looks like
this. I don't know why this went to 220 right away but okay. I'm here today regarding kids in the
Westlake subdivision being zoned to Cinco Ranch Junior High instead of Tay's High School. Westlake
is zoned 100 percent to Wood Creek, 100 percent to Tompkins and then when they go to Cinco Ranch
they're leaving all their Wood Creek fans to a school where almost everybody
there goes to Cinco Ranch after the fact and then they're coming back to
Tompkins. So you know there are a couple of things that I wanted to talk about
with that. So one is we all know it's a very pivotal time during childhood. I
think that I myself have tried to steer my son away from social media so I would
prefer him to be able to be with friends that are around our neighborhood and
and that are like within biking distance rather than having to be online.
So, you know, I think it's vitally important for kids' mental health
to have them by schools that are close to them
and that they can ride their bike to and, you know,
that they can be with friends around.
So right now my son, only our little specific neighborhood went to Wood Creek
and is going to Cinco Ranch Junior High,
so he's left a lot of friends behind,
and he's been a lot more on social media, which again, I don't think that's good for
preteens mental health. Additionally, I know Katie has transportation issues with
so many people on buses and
it takes my son 30 minutes to get to school, 30 minutes to get back, and he could literally ride his bike six blocks down.
It's like less than 10 minutes. We ride it every weekend. It's like five to ten minutes depending how fast we go.
So, you know, I don't want to increase this isolation.
I don't want to, you know, to have kids rely more on social media than being able to have interpersonal relationships.
So it would be very helpful if...
Ms. Lala, that's the end of your time.
Okay. I mean, I guess your timer's not working, but thank you for your consideration.
I don't usually, if I didn't come up here to talk about politics too much, but I just
want to say as a Jewish man of Jewish background, I understand persecution, I understand subjugation,
I understand annihilation, and I commend the state and I commend the board on standing
firm against critical race theory and being taught in our schools, and I hope you also
also resist any form of mandates that might come down the line with regards to vaccines,
enough politics.
The next thing I came here to talk about was your technology usage, Canvas, home access.
Great system, love it, LO.
I got to say, you know, I have a kid who's failing at Taylor, was told by the principal,
I have hundreds of failing students at Taylor.
They don't do anything to correct this, no group detentions, no academic detention, nothing
going on to help us you know curb this thing part of my problem as a parent was
not being able to figure out what's going on my kid he'd come home he go hey
dad I did all my homework in school I did it in class we do it all in class we
did it in class okay great comes to find out it's not true and then I don't find
out until it's too late and then I know I'm looking in the grades and they're
missing and he's only I'm making it up and I would like to request if it's
possible. It took me half a year to figure, or it took me several weeks to figure out
how to even find things in there because there's no standardization of the use, no standardization
of use of the technology. I wish you guys would install some standardization. I also
wish you would address this issue of them doing work in class, and then if they are
doing work in class, figure out some way to have them take a photo of it and upload it
so that we as parents can see it, so we can call our kids out and know what the heck they're
doing half the time because it was very very difficult to follow along you have the technology
you have the platform i just would ask that you make better use of it help us help us maybe do a
zoom session in the beginning of the school year to teach us where things are you know we can all
come on board we can see how the system is used where kids are you know how they're using it and
and again this whole thing of our students telling us oh i'm doing it at home i'm doing it at school
I'm doing it there. Mr. K. I would like to see it and have some way of you guys being able to upload it and see it. Mr. K, your time is up. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is April Inman and the speaker after that is Mary Ellen Cuzela.
Superintendent, board members, neighbors and friends.
My name is April Inman and I serve as the president of the Katy Area Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was established in 1913 and is a private, not-for-profit, non-partisan organization
whose purpose is to provide assistance and support through established programs
in local communities throughout the world.
Katy Area Alumni Chapter is the organization's 1053rd chapter
chartered on June 14, 2020 for the sole purpose of carrying out the established
programs and projects in this community that are aligned with our national
programmatic thrusts. To know who we are as an organization, one would have to appreciate
what motivates us to serve tirelessly in our community. Since our founding in 1913,
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority has distinguished itself as a service organization that boldly
confronts the challenges of African Americans and hence all Americans. Our
mission is realized through our five-point programmatic thrust economic
development, educational development, international awareness and involvement,
physical and mental health, and political awareness and involvement. As a newly
chartered chapter serving Katy, Brookshire, Fulcher, Simleton, and Seeley,
we are ecstatic about this opportunity to introduce ourselves to the Katy
community. As we continue to grow our programs and projects in the community,
we are looking forward to connecting and engaging with charitable partners,
corporate partners, and sponsors and continue the legacy of Miss Inman at
That's the end of your time.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Mary Ellen Cozella,
and the speaker after that is Jennifer Myers.
Every speaker has two minutes and eight seconds.
Two minutes and eight seconds.
it it it it's so the way it's set up it's three minutes but it's limited
that's the max and if there's more speakers show up then we limit it and we
don't know how many people are not going to show up and to be fair since we
We didn't know until we started doing this.
If we give everybody later when we know there's less people,
then the people at the beginning didn't get their fair time.
So we're just trying to be reasonable and fair.
So that's how we do it.
Mr. President, every speaker was notified of the amount of time they had.
Okay, thank you.
Ahead of time, thank you.
It was just confusing when it was mentioned three minutes when you began.
Okay.
Thank you.
So I'm grateful to speak to you again tonight.
Thank you.
I'm going to speak about library audits and critical race theory,
about library audits if we filter on a student's internet access at school why
don't we have a filter on the kinds of books that are in the school's libraries
there are inappropriate books in our libraries I recently complied with the
district's current process to consider removing a book which was successfully
removed but I see room for further improvement removing one obscene
inappropriate book is a great step in the right direction but it does fall
short. We need to understand how the book got into the libraries in the first
place including who and how it got approved so we can fix the process, waste
less time and taxpayer money, and avoid unnecessary review meetings. I realize no
librarian teacher nor parent can read every book but together we can read some
and work together to implement smart checks to filter out more of them. In
addition to fixing the process we need to answer these questions. How is the
district panel chosen when a book is under question? Who chooses the individuals that
sit on this review panel? Is the panel permanent or does it change for each book review meeting?
About critical race theory, to be clear CRT creates more division and more racists. It is
based in Marxist ideology. It separates us by skin color and robs each of us by achieving success
based on our own merits. It stunts our success and predetermines for us the
path to follow. This is not the American dream. Our children are KDISD's most
valuable constituents. KDISD should be focused on the six inches between a
student's ears and not the color of their skin. CRT would say a black child
is in a permanent oppressed state and whites are automatically above blacks.
That is racist. CRT keeps racists on life support. A black mother said our
ancestors white black and others bled and died right alongside each other to
push this country to a more perfect union. Let's not erase that history. Like
Florida let's institute a civics curriculum that focuses on patriotism
the traits of a desire. Ms. Cuzela that's the end of your time. Thank you.
you the next speaker is Jennifer Myers and the speaker after that is Ling Lei
here presidential tea board members superintendent Greg Oski my name is
Jennifer Myers I have a son who goes to Davidson Elementary when I wrote this
speech this morning I wanted to congratulate a school district on a
a bunch of achievements recently, but since now I only have two minutes, I will save it
for another day. But please know, all your hard work is now gone unnoticed.
Reason I'm here is to talk about my concern about penetration of critical risk theory
in our schools. I'd like to point out that although Texas banned teachers from teaching
of CRT, the social justice activists are coming to our children and schools in
all ways. This summer, at least two KISD teachers vowed to violate laws to teach
CRT, claiming structural racism is a defining characteristic of our society
today. You may further investigate this matter and I look forward to this
response from you. I'm standing here to voice my strong objection to such
practices happening in KISD. As a first-generation immigrant, I am an example that such racism
statement is ungrounded, will only lead our country to disaster, not prosperity. I moved
to U.S. 11 years ago with two suitcases and a scholarship for my MBA in Rice University.
Today, I work in the largest company in the country. I have many Asian immigrant friends
who share the same experience. How is this structural racism? Make no mistake, I'm not
denying that there were oppressions and sufferings happen in the past to not
only African Americans but also all other minorities. On the other hand, I
know the number eight strategic goal of KISD is the emotional well-being of our
children. I'm curious to know if our children are constantly told explicitly
or implicitly that their skin color defines they are either oppressed or
oppressor because books and teachers say it one way or the other. How can we raise
kids with self-respect and love their neighbors. No wonder nowadays we see arrogant and low
self-esteem kids everywhere. It's not their fault, but the society shaped them in that way.
I wish I could more time tell you my family stories during the Cultural Revolution in China
and how it- Ms. Myers, your time's up. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Ling Lei, and the speaker after that is Victor Perez.
Good evening.
My name is Ling Lei, and I'm here again to raise my concerns about critical risk theory,
or CRT in short.
I spoke at the last meeting and made my point very clear.
One, CRT is a dangerous ideology and should not have a place in our schools.
schools. Two, with many other parents, I am against the books with CRT concepts by author
Jerry Craft. Three, America does not have systematic racism. And America's problem is
not race, but the infiltration of Marxism. However, after discussion between the book
review committee and the parents, the district has determined that the books by Jerry Craft
are appropriate for grade students and rescheduled a Zoom meeting of students with him throughout
throughout the district.
His book said basically white kids are oppressors
and black kids are being oppressed.
That really confused my kids.
Are they supposed to oppress others or to be oppressed?
Like I said before, it is never race,
but the common values that hold people together.
I have been asking what is the basis
of this determination since October 8th?
There is no response to that.
I found that CRT has another name
called social emotional learning,
which is in goal number eight of KTISD's improvement plan. Is this the reason for
this determination? Also is this the reason why two KTISD teachers vowed to
teach CRT even though this means they will violate the state law? Also I have
been asking if there's any consequence of deputy superintendent lying to
parents. There is no answer to that. A little background. On September 28th
Deputy Superintendent told me that the district cannot cancel the meeting with the author due to Texas law.
So I asked her for specific law citations.
Then she said it is a district guidance document that does not allow the meeting to be cancelled.
I read the document and did not find such language. As a parent, a voter, and a taxpayer,
I believe that the district has the obligation to explain this to us. Thank you.
The next speaker is Victor Perez. The speaker after that is James Strickland.
Thank you. I'm here also to speak against critical race theory.
Just last week, Condoleezza Rice denounced critical race theory in schools,
declaring black children can be completely empowered without making white children feel bad for their race.
Quoting still, I don't think it's productive to make white kids feel bad for everything that happened in the past.
We teach the good and the bad of history, but what we don't do is teach seven to ten year olds,
make them feel they are somehow bad people because of the color of the skin.
This is what Jerry Craft books do. Also I would urge you to listen to these statements by her.
Also there's a new book out by Dr. Carol Swain called Black Eye for America. Dr. Swain called
CRT the civil rights issue of our time and also listen to the statements made
by Ben Carson about CRT. The Jerry Craft books divide our country. CRT is divisive
and racist. The whole focus is on race and dividing us. We don't want our kids
to be shamed and this is not good for the black kids either. They're made to
feel like victims and like they need different standards in order to succeed.
I ask you as a board to take responsibility.
In my opinion, the board needs to come out with a statement, a policy from the top down
addressing CRT and what CRT means and the definition of CRT.
That policy needs to be followed from the top down.
Make a statement and establish that policy and take a stand and stand up and be specific
about what it is.
Don't leave it up to some nameless committee working in the shadows.
Who are they and what did they base their decision on? Be transparent.
If we're not speaking for the decision-making body, then who should we be speaking to?
Don't allow CRT to creep in like a snake, a slithering snake.
Take a stand and be transparent about this process.
As I've said last time and you've heard today, this is a Marxist ideologist
that seeks to divide our country and ultimately bring it down.
you know opting in or opting out. Opting out is not...
Mr. Perez, your time is up. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Our last speaker tonight is James Strickland.
Good evening. Alright, so I'm going to make it short and sweet.
So those of you who don't know me, my name is James Strickland.
I am the Men on Campus founder. We are a father involvement initiative. We started about, I don't know, four or five years ago, and we actually started longer than that.
But in a nutshell, we help father figures get into Katy ISD schools, especially the men, or men, but especially the fathers.
In the past few years, other school districts have taken notice of what we've done here in Katy, and actually now we've expanded to all of Texas.
primarily we utilize the watchdogs program but we're willing and able to
support any father involvement initiatives with specific goals such as
you know other all pro dads guides there's other campuses that kind of
started their own programs that don't have a brand like watchdogs obviously
the studies show but a quick walk through the halls in our schools in
fact that just came from a school show that we need to step up as men in our
community. A third of our students shockingly do not have a positive role
model in their lives. That is our job as a community to try to fill that gap. Not
asking to be surrogate fathers, we just need to step up as role models. Growing
up without a father myself, I know exactly what it feels like. It will
continue to fuel my passion for not only men to be involved but all parents in
our community and members of the community. Our community definitely
depends on it. I want to thank KDISD and the Board of Trustees for their
continued support in our efforts. Ms. Hack, Dr. Gorski in championing
championing, I can't speak tonight, in championing male involvement in our
schools. If you want more information on that either the principals or how to
start at your own campus, menoncampus.com I'll be glad to help you guys out but
thank you very much for your time.
thanks everyone spoke tonight this concludes the open forum portion of our
meeting the board will now convene and close meeting as authorized under
section five five one point zero zero one of the Texas government code for the
following purposes Texas government code five five one oh seven one five five one
one two nine and five five one zero seven four thank you
The board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Today is Monday, October 25th, 2021, and the time is 7.05 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, October 22nd, 2021.
The board will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration, and the 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 closed meeting must be taken in open meeting.
Excuse me. We'll now proceed to Addend Item 6.1, Consider Board Approval of Naming of a Principal for Cimarron Elementary School.
Mr. President?
Yes.
We're making the, just make the motion right now, right?
All right.
I'm right into it, yeah.
I move that the Board of Trustees names Lindsey Chase as the principal for Cimarron Elementary
as recommended by the superintendent for this meeting.
We have a motion by Mr. Redman, a second by Mrs. Fox.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Mr. President, if I could add, I see Lindsey is with us tonight.
I think she's brought some family.
I'd like her to stand and be recognized.
introduce some folks that are with her.
Awesome.
Well, congratulations.
Congratulations.
Congratulations.
And Lindsey, I see Wood Creek Elementary principal there,
Ronnie Mosier.
Ronnie looks happy today, but I think by tomorrow when
you're gone, he might be crying.
But we'll see.
All right, congratulations.
Welcome board.
Congratulations.
We'll now proceed into agenda item seven, action items.
Agenda item 7.1, consider board approval
the termination of the cost sharing and development agreement associated with the hasket junior high
school site president yes i move the board of trustees approves the termination of the cost
sharing and development agreement associated with hasket junior high school site second i have a
motion by mrs vanna second by mr redmond and will now proceed to vote all those in favor rise your
right hand say aye aye the motion passes 7-0 agenda item 7.2 consider board approval of the minutes of
the september board meeting mr president yes i move that the board of trustees approves the minutes
of the board meetings held in september 2021 second second we have a motion by ms champaign
a second by miss wilson any questions i'll proceed to vote all those in favor raise your right hand
say aye aye motion passes 7-0 now proceeding to agenda item 8 the public hearing agenda 8.1
presentation of the district's rating on the financial integrity rating system of texas first
mr chris smith chief financial officer and miss anne feitinger executive director of finance
will give a brief presentation on the district's rating on the financial integrity rating system
of texas afterwards the board of trustees will receive public input regarding this topic
Good evening.
Thank you.
So there are five new ones that this board has not seen before.
It's ABCF ratings, 70 to 100 is the superior achievement.
And I'm just going to go ahead and start, actually I'll turn it over to Ms. Feitinger,
who's going to start with Indicator 1.
Okay, so Indicator 1 is was the annual financial report filed within one month of the January 28th deadline?
and yes we filed that on January the 28th. Indicator two is was there an
unmodified opinion in the annual financial report which means we had a
clean audit opinion with no modifications and yes we did have a
clean audit report. Indicator three is was the school district in compliance
with payment terms of our debt agreements so that we make all of our
bonded debt payments on time? Yes we did. Indicator four talks about our payroll
withholdings and payroll district contributions and we make all those
required payments to TRS, Texas Workforce Commission and Internal Revenue Service
on time and yes we did. Indicator 5 was not scored last year and was not scored
again this year. The indicator is was the total unrestricted net asset balance in
the statement of net position or assets greater than zero. If we took the same
modifications that were done the last time this indicator was scored we would
have passed this indicator so the answer would have been yes. I'm going to turn it back over
Over to Chris.
All right.
So was the average change in fund balance over three years less than 25% decrease?
Well, our fund balance did not decrease over the three years, so yes.
Were the number of days of cash on hand and current investments in the general fund for the school district sufficient to cover operating expenditures?
Yes, they were.
Does the district have a sufficient current assets to current liability ratio?
Yes, we do.
Did the school district's general fund revenues equal or exceed expenditures?
Yes, they did.
Our revenues did equally exceed our expenditures.
And if that were a no, would you have more than 60 days of cash on hand?
And we would score that as well as a yes.
Did the district average less than a 10% variance when comparing budget revenues to actual revenues over the last three fiscal years?
And yes, we averaged within that variance.
It's very, very close.
I'm going to turn it back over to Ms. Feitinger.
Indicator 11 asks about the ratio of long-term liabilities to total assets for the school district.
Was it sufficient to support our long-term solvency?
And yes, we did pass that indicator.
One of the things is this district would not have received all points for this indicator outright.
However, this indicator recognizes high-growth districts.
and that we incur additional operating costs and open new instructional campuses,
and therefore we do receive full credit.
Indicator 12 asks, does the district assess property value ratio sufficient to support scheduled debt payments?
And yes, they were.
This asks about our ability to make debt payments, and we did receive 8 out of 10 possible points,
as did many fast-growth districts.
districts, this indicator did not have an allowance for fast growth districts in
it, so we did not receive the full amount of points. Indicator 13 was, was the
school district's administrative cost ratio equal to or less than the
threshold ratio of 0.0855? Ours was well below, one of the lowest in the
areas of 0.035. Indicator 14 is, did the district not have a 15% decline in the
the students to staff ratio over three years.
These are all worded to the answer they want is yes.
Yes, we did not have a decline in our student to staff ratio over the last three years.
And then indicator 15 was the district's ADA within the allotted range of plus or
minus 7% of the district's biennial pupil projection submitted to TEA.
We do submit our projected ADA, what we think it's going to be for the biennium.
and ours was just over 1%, so we were well within that 7% allowance.
All right, did the comparison of PEMS data to like information in the annual financial report
result in an aggregate variance of less than 3% of expenditures?
Ours of $680 million, we were $600 off or $300 off.
That was all rounding in that electronic report.
So yes, we were well within that.
Was the annual financial report free of any instances of material weaknesses in
internal controls?
Yes, it was free of material weaknesses in our internal controls.
Was the annual financial report free of any material noncompliance for grants,
contracts, and laws related to local, state, and federal funds?
Yes, we were in compliance.
Did the district post require financial information in regards to the government
government code, TEA code, Texas administrative code, et cetera.
And, yes, we had all the correct postings on our website as required.
Did the school board discuss the district's property value at a board meeting before the budget was adopted?
Almost every meeting that we talk about the budget, we mention the property values and the estimate that we're using there.
So, yes, we did talk about that.
What's our rating?
We passed all the indicators and we received 98 of 100 points.
We have a superior rating again.
That's the highest rating possible, the superior rating.
And as Ann said, one of those new indicators did not take into account our fast growth.
So we have a superior achievement again.
And I'm going to turn it over to Ann to talk to you about this that you should have at your diet.
Okay, so in the report you will see that it contains, first of all, a copy of this presentation
that we just went over.
It has the 19-20 accountability ratings for each indicator, so you can see how we answered
each of those indicators and how the results fell, and also for 18-19, the year before.
There are required disclosures in that report.
There are a schedule of reimbursements that we have paid on behalf or to the superintendent
and trustees and there's also a schedule of outside compensation and fees
received by the superintendent of which there were none gifts received by the
superintendent and trustees again there were none and finally business
transactions between the district and any trustees and there were none of those as well.
We've asked we have a copy of one of these that we're asking from you for
for the 2021 fiscal year again that ended August 31st.
And that way we'll have it and we'll be able to present it
this time next year and hopefully,
and I'm confident that we will report
as good as we did tonight
with our superior achievement a year from now.
Any questions?
Congratulations, that's thanks.
I offer my gratitude for that.
THAT. YOU GUYS DO A GREAT JOB. HOW MANY YEARS HAVE YOU GUYS HAD THE A RATING?
I THINK SINCE IT'S AN EXCEPTION, WE'VE HAD A LOT OF ACTIVITIES.
THAT'S INCREDIBLE. AND THE LAST QUESTION, WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU LOSE YOUR A RATING? WHAT
HAPPENS IF YOU GET A B OR A C? HOW DOES THAT IMPACT THE DISTRICT IF THAT HAPPENS? NOT THAT
IT'S EVER GOING TO HAPPEN, JUST CURIOUS WHAT THE...
THERE IS NO IMPACT ON THE DISTRICT. AND I KNOW OF IT, YOU FAIL IT. OBVIOUSLY, MULTIPLE
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Okay, Agenda Item 8.2 was supposed to be a public hearing on this topic,
but there's nobody that signed up for the public hearing,
so we're going to skip 8.2.
We're going to go to Agenda Item 8.3.
8.3, Ms. Sherry Ashhorn, Charge and Discipline Administrator, will give a brief presentation
on KDIC's designation as a District of Innovation.
Afterwards, the Board of Trustees will receive public input regarding that topic.
Good evening.
Thank you, President Schulte.
Dr. Grigorski, members of the Board, I gave you a fast and furious rundown of the District
of Innovation process, and I assured you that you would be seeing a lot more of me as this
process is going to take us a little bit of time.
As a reminder, it's going to require board approval.
We're looking towards January for that, and it allows exemptions for a lot of different areas,
such as certification, first and last day of school, contract requirements.
There's a few things that we are not allowed to exempt from,
one of those being the stand accountability system or assessment system or areas of school finance.
It's not approved by the conditioner, I'm sorry, commissioner, but it may be revoked
for unacceptable academic ratings which I know we're not concerned about today.
As a reminder our plan is expiring at the end of this instructional year and
we have three areas of exemption. The first day of instruction and teacher
certification for those hard to fill spots and campus behavior coordinator.
So in September we went ahead and checked a box. We had a board resolution
to go ahead and move forward. Here in October I have the you are here button. I
I talked about that maybe last month that, you know, it's a long process, but this is where we are right now.
Later in this meeting, we're going to ask you to appoint a committee to develop a plan and move forward.
But just looking ahead, in November, if the board elects that committee and we decide to move forward,
we're going to have some committee meetings to go ahead and talk about those exemptions,
what would give us those flexibilities that would best benefit the district.
We'll continue those in early December.
And then our plan would be in December to have the plan posted online for 30 days,
notify the commissioner of our intent to vote and have a public meeting with the
Katy Improvement Council and assuming that passes with the two to three vote
in January we'll be asking for your review and consideration to approve that
local innovation plan after that we're going to notify the Commissioner of
Approval post the plan online officially and send a copy to TEA the plan can be
in effect up to five years as you remember our current plan was in effect
for five years. So that's just a quick rundown of where we're headed and where
we are and as I mentioned you'll see me again shortly with the committee for
your approval. Any questions? Mr. President, I have a couple, I'm sorry. So I
have a couple questions about our DOI exemptions on the teacher certification.
application. Can you explain that to me, what the exemption is for that?
Sure. So it says a person may not be employed unless they hold the appropriate certificate
or permit. So I know that when we first looked at that five years ago, we were looking at
some of our Miller jobs that were available to where that person maybe didn't have that
teacher certification credential, but they had a lot of life experience, that field experience,
historical knowledge where maybe they were a great applicant and this allowed
us to hire that individual and put them in that classroom okay and also on the
campus behavior coordinator a person at each campus must be designated to serve
as a campus behavior coordinator so we do not have that no we do not so we
utilize all of our assistant principals as kind of their own campus behavior
coordinator for their grade level or alpha breakup depending how it is
Actually, Ms. Chase, previous Wood Creek Junior, Wood Creek Elementary AP, at their campus,
they chose to utilize only her for discipline.
She handled discipline across the campus.
But by exempting from campus behavior coordinator, it gives the campuses the flexibility to decide
how they want to best utilize their assistant principals.
But can't they just be designated as the behavioral coordinator?
I mean, can't, so can't that campus just say that that AP is going to be the behavior coordinator?
I think that's part of the flexibility that we could still, that is still allowable, but
it's not required to pick that one person to filter all the discipline decisions through.
And so I think some of the comments that we had in our local innovation plan currently
talked about utilizing different administrators to be responsible maybe for their own grade
level.
That's a pretty common practice.
It allows them to build those relationships with those students and get to know those
students better instead of having that global, all of those students funnel that discipline
through that one person.
Okay, and then the last question I have for you is, so these are DOI exemptions, but where
does the reading academy that's required by the TEA, would that be part of the DOI, District
of innovation, you know, for the teachers.
Is that part of this or is that a completely separate thing?
I'm not sure on that.
Dr. Caskey, do you have any feedback?
Actually, that's a requirement.
It's a legal requirement, so I don't believe that we can exempt out of that.
We can certainly look into it, but I don't believe that we can.
Okay.
I just was wondering because I'm just trying to find a way to help our teachers
with the little kids either get an exemption or an extension or something
something and when I saw this DOI exemption I thought maybe we could find a way to do
that in there.
Just an idea.
Any other questions?
Mr. President.
Ms. Ashworth, we have three exemptions here.
How many are possible?
As many as we want.
But they have lots of options in the DOI, right, that they give you, you can do these,
these and these.
We chose as a district, I was here when we first did this, to do, you know, because parents were like, no, we don't want exemptions from the laws, but the ones that really applied to our area are the ones we applied for, and these three seem to be serving us very well.
Do you think that there will be any recommendations to add any?
I do believe so.
We had an exploratory committee meet this summer just kind of looking to see what's out there.
When our plan was first adopted five years ago, DOI was very new.
I think we weren't really sure what other districts were doing.
We knew these would serve us well.
We've really taken the opportunity to look at some of our neighboring districts, some
districts across the state to see what creative things they're exempting from that have given
them flexibility.
And so we'll be providing that information to the committee to see what other districts
are doing so that we can apply that lens for KDISD to see if that's something that would
benefit us as well.
I would anticipate they'll be considering these three and many more.
I know that we really, really appreciate the flexibility to the school start date, and
the legislators did not like that one at all, because a lot of people went back to August
8th or 10th, and it's tough.
But it's certainly the fourth Monday in August makes it so late that there's no flexibility
to have time off.
You couldn't have the week at Thanksgiving, and it just pushes it way into June, the end
end of school and then like university start before all this was happening for our teachers
who wanted to take a university class or something so i'm i think these have served us really well
i'm looking forward to see what else you bring us thank you any other any other questions
thank you very much very informative um agenda item 8.4 was a public hearing
on the KDISD designation as a district of innovation.
I understand no one signed up for the public hearing,
so we're going to move on to agenda item nine, which is reports.
9.1, we're going to get a design update on renovations
to the Miller Career Center and Technology Center.
Ms. Lisa Kassman, Executive Director of Facilities,
and Ms. Kelly Carrilla.
Was I even close?
Was I close?
Carrilla, yeah.
Okay, sorry about that.
Principal of Miller Career and Technology Center.
Thank you, and I apologize.
Thank you.
Good evening, President Schulte, the trustees, and Dr. Degorski.
Ms. Kirill and I are presenting the layouts for the design development for updates at the Miller Career Center.
The content, we're going to talk about the new vet med labs, culinary, cosmetology, EMT, health sciences, and construction trades.
This overview of the first floor plan kind of highlighted the areas we do renovation work in,
and as well as on the second floor.
The vet med renovations.
Okay, so what you're seeing on the screen right now is our current vet med lab.
And this is the exterior entrance in which customers can come and drop off their pets.
And they come into a reception area that really kind of mimics what you would see in a vet clinic.
And our students are able to check our customers and their pets in.
This is our current vet med lab, and we do have one lab.
We currently have three teachers teaching our vet med and vet assisting classes, and they share one lab space.
So what that currently means for us is that either multiple classes are in the lab at once,
or they're sharing that lab space and having to float in and out of that space.
Our three teachers each have like a traditional classroom, and then they share this lab space.
When we're looking at building utilization and kind of room use moving forward,
we really want to maximize that classroom being the lab space as we move forward.
What you're seeing here is the proposal for two new vet med labs to be added, which have
a sliding door in between so that we could create a larger lab space too.
We would keep the existing vet med lab as well.
Our current three teachers would be able to use these as their classrooms and the labs,
so we wouldn't have to be sharing space moving in and out.
They could set up the labs the day that they want to on their lesson plans when they have
have it in their curriculum shows and be able to conduct those labs.
Additionally, what you see is a new kennel space in one of the brown areas.
That's currently being used as a storage closet.
And that'll allow us to have more pets in when we do our grooming Fridays so
that our students are getting more hands on experience,
as we're limited with kennel space right now.
You can also see the new wash area.
We currently have one shower which is a little small.
You can fit half a great Dane in there at the time.
And so we have quite a few large dogs that come in.
So on the other side where we currently have kennels right now,
they're going to have a new shower that's larger for our big dogs and a new bath area installed.
That's really where our holdup is on our grooming Fridays is in that bath area.
And so we're hoping to get that fixed as well.
One last piece that you see is an access door.
So the picture you saw of customers checking in, now it'll kind of lead right through,
rather than having to go through the existing Vet Med Lab into the hallway and into the kennel space.
There will be an access door straight from the check-in area through and to the kennel space.
This is one of the sketches of the proposed Vet Med.
You can kind of see the openness in between the two classroom spaces.
This is currently actually a classroom space where two of our Vet Med teachers are.
So we're just kind of transforming the space, making it a little bit more usable for our students.
And really, this is just going to improve instructional delivery for our teachers as well.
Culinary arts area, we're just going to be staying within the footprint of the existing facility.
We're going to be repurposing two classrooms and expanding the existing and doing an upgrade to the bistro.
All right, the current space that you're looking at is our current bistro kitchen, our culinary kitchen.
As of right now, we have two culinary arts teachers.
And we have one kitchen.
So that kind of creates a little bit of a space issue.
This is where all of hot food is made.
And our pass is actually kind of located in an awkward spot.
If you're looking at hot food being created, you'd want to pass it right away.
So we're looking at some renovations that kind of just make more sense structurally in a kitchen, in a bistro kitchen for production.
So we're looking at that as well as obviously adding additional teaching kitchens so that
our culinary arts students and our practicum students each have their own kitchen spaces
and can be in the kitchen every day that they would like as well.
Right now we're having to kind of share the space.
You can see that in kind of some of the next pictures too.
This is our currently called dish pit and so that's shared between whoever is in the
kitchen at the time and it's quite crowded.
It has a little bit of a small dishwasher for the size of our classes and who we hope
to eventually be able to serve in the bistro.
So expansion of these areas as well, the shared area.
This is actually the bistro which currently we're not able to open because we're using
the bistro dining area as an auxiliary kitchen at the time.
Our culinary arts students, one thing that we found with instructional delivery is that
if you don't get your first year students into the kitchen quite often, then they're
not really ready for practicum that second year class so we're really trying to maximize
our culinary arts one students really building those skills being in the kitchen as much as
possible so that when we move into practicum they're fully ready to support the bistro
you can kind of see in this picture from the blue the proposed area where the new
culinary labs are that's actually two classrooms in each of those spaces one is where our current
culinary classrooms are so yet again we've got teachers who are in classrooms and then
then they're floating into lab space.
What we're proposing is that their classrooms are their lab spaces at
the same time, so building utilization where students would be learning in there,
learning theory, and then right away if they want to transition into cooking,
cutting, they can right away because they'll be in those spaces.
This would also allow for growth as we move into the future.
Our culinary program is quite popular.
We have two full time teachers, which we haven't had for quite some time at Miller.
And this will allow for growth as we continue on.
This is actually one of the sketch-ups of what we call our teaching kitchen.
So we'll still have the bistro kitchen, which will really be our practicum
students, so that's our second year students who are delivering most
everything that's going to be going out in catering and in our bistro dining area.
This is where our students will really be learning those skills.
So at the tables in the middle, that's where we'll do theory.
Students will have stools and they'll learn in that space.
And then they can transition.
We've got six stations in each of the teaching kitchens where students will
be able to then practice in small groups of three or four at those areas.
And you see a big demo table at the front.
That's where the teacher can demo, or if we have guest speakers come in,
demoing different dishes and recipes.
That's where they can be and all the students can see that happening and
then mimic that at their own stations.
This is the renovated bistro.
It's really just keeping the same footprint, just an update and a refresh.
So if you've been in the bistro recently, you've probably noticed that it could use
a little bit of a refresh.
It's also kind of taking the serving area where people, patrons check out, and we're
reimagining that.
One of the kind of small things that's actually a big thing is we're looking at doing a beverage
station back there, whereas currently we sell canned drinks.
That doesn't really mimic industry.
And so we're trying to update or we're really mimicking what you would see if you go into a restaurant.
Cosmetology, what we're going to create is its own separate storefront, similar to VetMed.
Because right now, and we'll show in the next picture, a patron comes in, they have to check in the front office, Raptor, come through the hallway.
By creating an exterior storefront, they'll be able to walk right in.
And so as you can see, this is where they go right now.
I'll create an exterior access plus we'll have room for two additional stations and here's the
new exterior access so come in that doorway right away not have to intermix in the hallways and then
we're adding to a new workstations as well health science and EMT this is the work that will be
taking place on the second floor right now a health science as an EMT share the space so now
Now we're going to separate the two and I'll forward along.
This space that you're looking at right now, this is our current, I guess what we call
health science lab.
It's really for clinical rotations, our students in there.
This is a wildly popular class right now and we actually added two new teachers to this
program this year.
So this is quite a small space for five classes to kind of float in and out of or share.
So oftentimes what happens, and you'll see in the next picture, we spill over into what
is really the EMT lab. That's what it's set up to be, but you see some health science students in
there working on an activity as well as then our EMT students also using the space. It just becomes
a little bit crowded and if they're doing different things, you know, it can be a little bit chaotic
as well. Like I said, these are growing programs and just with the size of them, I think expanded
space is really necessary. Once again, we're going to enlarge the health science and put the EMT
across the hall and have two EMT classrooms with the lab in the middle.
This is the enlarged health science. So you're taking over essentially the EMT, current EMT lab.
And what we were putting in there is two phlebotomy chairs and then two examination tables.
So if we bring on any new programming as well, in addition to clinical rotations or just for
our clinical rotation students to use some of the different equipment.
And this space, it's kind of a little bit enlarged and
students can move around a little bit more freely.
Additionally, CTE already got for us this year additional EKG machines,
which is one of the certifications we offer to our clinical rotation students.
More space, a better setup in there to actually use those EKG machines.
Across the hallway, it's two classrooms that we would be taking over to create the
EMT lab, and we're really mimicking what exists currently in the EMT lab. You've got visuals,
as you can kind of see with the large windows, visuals from the classroom into the lab space.
Even if students are in the classroom and kind of the lab space intermixing, it's all
kind of one large area together. It would be two EMT classrooms flanking the lab space.
Okay, our final area is a new program, Construction Trades, which will start next August.
And we're going to be taking over the current Katy Flex space.
As you can see, the big garage door opened, so we'll have a lab and a classroom.
Now let Ms. Carrillo talk about the program.
The Construction Trades program, we're really excited about using that Katy Flex space as
well to bring this on.
I think this is a huge need. I think after the freeze we all noticed that when people were
scrambling looking for people in the construction trades. The career cluster that this belongs under
is architecture and construction. The program of study is construction management and inspection
and then this would be part of the business and industry endorsement. What we're proposing for
August of 2022 is that we bring on construction trades one and in that students would take
principles of construction and what we would call our construction trades one class this is a
combination of construction hvac electrical and plumbing so a lot of school districts around are
kind of doing where students have to choose a track this is a more overall full construction
trades program and the space that has been selected to put the lab in can can support all
of that in the different kind of corners of that large space the industry-based certification
opportunity that we're looking at bringing on in that first year is OSHA 30, which CTE has done a
great job at talking to different industry professionals and industry experts. And that,
of course, they're quite impressed that our students would be doing OSHA 30 in their first
year of this program. That's something very transferable. There's a potential for summer
internships. And then as we move into the following school year, those who are in
construction trades one could transition into construction, sorry, construction trades two.
And that year students would maybe kind of choose a little bit more of a specialty.
But students could get their EPA 608, which is refrigerant handling.
That certification, once again, very transferable really into the HVAC world.
And then there would be internship opportunities available for
students then as well.
And that concludes.
Any questions?
Any questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I just have a, first of all, I love it so much.
but how are the students going to be able to continue to do for example their
culinary work when the kitchen is under construction so our plan is to start the
kitchen in March April miss Kruehl is making alternative plans and the goal is
to have it done by the end of the summer so it only be they will not be in class
when we're doing the work I'm just curious because you know because I know
Some of these kids are only in there that one year, you know what I mean?
So what else can they be doing?
Yes, we've talked to our culinary teachers,
and we're looking at kind of the curriculum,
rearranging a little bit of that this year.
And these were conversations we started having early in the year.
Our students were actually in the bistro kitchen working earlier in the year
than they normally have been to kind of offset that potential
if we do these renovations.
And so just kind of shifting a few things around.
We're looking at potentially later on in the year,
revisiting certifications, looking at theory a little bit more heavy, and then we're kind of
researching what we can potentially put in our relocated space also to keep cooking.
That's all I had. Thanks. Mr. President. Mr. Redmond and I had the pleasure last spring
to walk through your school with you, and you pointed so much of this out to us,
so it's nice to see it actually. I'm remembering all the things and just seeing the visuals of it.
but I think it's going to be really excellent to all the programs there.
Piggybacking a little bit on Ms. Champagne, the same with the vet med.
Are you going to start that early since you're taking away the classrooms?
We can do that during the summer.
That's a smaller scale than the culinary aspect of it?
I know that's a growing, very popular coursework too,
and having all that extra space is just going to help it grow as well.
That's my only question.
Thank you. Any other questions?
Mr. President.
Just tag me if somebody else needs to talk because I just wrote down a few questions.
I'm so excited.
I'm so excited about this.
All the ideas that you have, all the renovations.
And so let me go back.
So it looks like that new EMT lab, you're going to move that ambulance thing just across the hall and the whole thing,
and it's portable, I guess.
It's just super cool to go in there and the lights flash and the whole thing.
It feels like you're in an ambulance.
I love that. I love everything you do there. So here are some of my questions.
Let's start with the ones that currently exist. So of these programs that we've talked about that
are getting some renovations, we'll just stick to those. How are the students doing,
like once they finish that, how many students do you think, do you track them? How many of them
transition to do that in their field or use that to help them put themselves
through college can you give us some of that that's a really great question and
that's something coming into the position last year we sent out something
to all of our outgoing seniors so that we could try it was something they could
sign up for obviously not every student had to but where we at least have some
contact information for them going into the future because we probably don't
have as much data on that as we would like to kind of track over time one of
One of the things that Ms. Gray and I, who's the assistant principal at Miller, we really
do like to talk about is that we're not only a springboard for students to go into a career
of choice, but we're also a great place for students to explore potential careers and
say, hey, maybe this isn't for me, or maybe this is something that I can use as a hobby,
or this is absolutely something that I want to pursue as a career.
Either way, I think students are getting a great experience no matter what they move
move into, but that's something we are hoping to have more data moving into the future and
what students are choosing after they leave us.
I appreciate that.
And the reason I'm asking is because these programs can be very expensive, right?
This machinery and all the things and updating and the dental chairs and the, you know, all
the things.
We're investing a lot of money and we want to because we want students to have that opportunity
to leave high school and make it you know have a great job if they if a great
career if they choose are there certifications to provide for increased
income after graduation or do most of these lead to college classes before
they can really like really to it just depends kind of thinking through I'm
trying to like think through each of the programs we've talked about for culinary
What students can get is they can do their serve safe food handler and serve safe food manager.
So that's a completely hireable in the culinary industry right out. So students get those certifications while they're with us.
That's something that they can do or they can choose to go to culinary school if they'd like to pursue something a little bit further.
In vet med students if they go through us for two years, they can do vet med then vet assisting and they can actually get their
certified vet assistant.
So that's something that you could be hired immediately or
that's kind of a springboard to get into a vet program or
something in an ag related field.
So that's a potential for definitely a career.
I'm gonna track through all of our areas.
Cosmetology I think is the best bang for
its buck program quite honestly at Miller because students are saving tons of money
where if they would go to a cosmetology school that they would have to spend.
So students can leave us absolutely with their license and
and can begin practicing at the age of 18 when they go out.
So that's one of those areas.
EMT and health.
EMT, students can get certified as an EMT basic.
Once again, can go straight out into a career,
continue to move on within that field.
Some of them use that experience to apply to nursing school,
different things like that as well.
Students in our clinical rotations
can get their EKG certification
and their patient care technician certification.
Both of those are things that students can go out
and get a job with their hireable or they can continue on nursing doctor any
kind of health care position that they would want to go for health you know
after what about the construction trade so you talked about OSHA it's OSHA 30
and there's the refrigerant thing is that because here's one thing when you
you said a lot of schools do one thing they do HVAC or plumbing or electrical
if we're trying to do it all what what do they leave with that they can go be
employable that's actually a really good question and one of the things that I
will say and I'm gonna kind of throw this to dr. Martin as well I feel like
they're doing a really great job building out this program having and
been at a CT campus before to as administrator really the certifications
our students are leaving with or certifications that they would get if
if they were in a straight HVAC, straight plumbing,
straight electrical on different campuses.
Or on a campus, kind of going through
that particular program.
So students leaving this program would really have
a lot of the same opportunities
and leave with the same certifications.
Also too, I think talking-
How is that possible?
I've spent a lot of time looking at this, my passion,
and I'm so thrilled, so thrilled.
I also have a mentor student at the Flex thing
and I'm dying to know where she's going to be, but I'll find her.
If those programs in other districts are a two-year program just for electrical,
how are we going to do four and come out with an apprentice person?
I think you want to talk about apprenticeships and that.
So when you think about construction trades, they're not certification-bound.
Either you're going through an apprenticeship program is where you get your hours,
and you become a journeyman or a master's.
So what those construction trade employers are really looking for is experience.
So we've built in two internship experiences for these students.
After the first year, you have a summer internship,
and we have commitments from a few of our partners already that we've talked to
that we'll hire our students on as summer interns.
One in particular is a hunting group.
And then after, well, I'm also going to talk to Mr. Verling,
But we have also, he's also committed that we would have students work in our own maintenance and operations field.
So they would shadow our master electricians or plumbers.
So they get that experience.
And then hopefully we're hiring our own, right?
So they're getting trained through our building and going straight into working for KDISD.
And we can't say enough about starting early to earn your retirement dollars, right?
right? But then after our second year, that is when, again, our program partners are looking
for our students to work full-time. And again, as well, we could hire them on for KDIC. So we're
looking for internship opportunities because apprenticeship goes a long way. If you're looking
for certifications for an individual trade area, they're really not there for an 18-year-old.
They're all based on the number of hours working in the field alongside a master.
Okay, and the refrigerant handling, can you talk just a little bit like what is that?
So anytime you work with an HVAC program or an HVAC unit, you have to be certified to handle refrigerant.
So it's really just a safety test on handling that refrigerant.
Thank you.
So I love this.
I think it transfers very well.
Certainly there is great need for the construction trades, right?
We all know that.
I flooded everybody who froze, right?
Right. There's such demand for that. I'm so excited to have that for us.
And each of these programs, you know, for students who are like, oh, I've always wanted to do that.
Right. I'm I consider myself, you know, a helper in the culinary because I come to the bistro all the time, you know, just to give the kids practice because I need, you know, it's just the right thing to do.
Right. To eat the dessert and the lunch and with friends.
So I love all of that. And sometimes you're right. They find that it's like, I love the cooking. I love the prep, but I don't like working nights and weekends. Maybe this isn't the career for me. Also valuable to a lot of parents that like I didn't pay for a great big CIA internship or whatever in New York. And they have that. And I love all of these programs and the opportunities they offer for students.
and I wish we had like 10 more schools for 10 more programs.
I love the opportunities for students is what we're about,
and this is it.
And I absolutely love the outdoor entrance to the cosmetology.
What a great idea, because once you get into the hallway,
unless you're escorted, you just kind of could wander anywhere, right?
So I like it.
And this construction is going in the former automotive collision.
Yes.
And the reason we're not doing that anymore, my understanding, is the same students who do the automotive things,
and they get certified there and can go to any of those great dealerships up and down I-10.
But it's the same group of kids who are interested in both.
So is that true or is that not true?
I can probably speak to that historically just from what I've heard though more than anything is the class
It struggled to make sometimes on our campus
and so when you're looking at really kind of use of staff and space overall to automotive has been
Popular or automotive one and automotive two and so that's from my understanding
Really the decision that was made a few years back
Last question. Do you have waitlist for most of these programs all of the programs?
I mean, certainly it looked like the EMT thing was kids everywhere and that area.
One of our most popular obviously is our clinical rotations.
That's why that expanded all science space and potentially looking at different things
in the future in terms of programming as well.
EMT, I'd have to actually look at our wait list right now too to see.
We do have wait lists in some of our areas.
We try to pull students off of those as we've had students change their mind throughout
the summer or maybe scheduling conflicts, moves and things like that.
but it depends on program and just kind of student interest year to year to what we have and what programs run.
My friend, Chris Crockett, who served on the school board for a few years back a few years ago,
she was like all these hospitals that are being built.
We need to have a place for EMTs and nurses and medical people because that's going to fill this area when that when those hospitals were being built.
And so this was certainly a dream of her.
She'll be very excited.
it i'll share this with her and it it's right this is exactly what our area needs so i'm so
glad that you're there i hope our students can get lots of jobs or opportunities at our hospitals and
our with our doctors and all of the things bravo bravo mr president thank you all very much i love
this uh more opportunity for more kids um whether we're expanding our options or having new options
This, at TASB a few weeks ago, went to one of the sessions,
and I'm familiar with the Construction Career Collaborative
here in town, and it's a nonprofit that helps the trades expand.
And one of the great things that they were talking about was the way that
they even partnered with some of the general contractors and subcontractors
that are building our own schools.
And we're just willing to be flexible on our schedule,
because really on a construction site, you work in the morning,
and most of the time by two or three o'clock they're gone and so they would send kids to work
right do the half day in the morning start at like six and get out there and work and then come to
school in the afternoon and so i'm excited we're kind of on the track to be to hopefully be able
to expand that and do some great things so thank you all very much that was a great love this
building any other questions thank you very much thank you well now move on the agenda agenda item
item 10.1, discuss and consider board approval of the August 2021 check register.
The presenter is Ms. Ann Feitinger, Executive Director of Finance.
Welcome.
Good evening, President Schulte, Dr. Gagorski, and board.
Item 10.1 is to consider approval of the district's August 2021 check register.
As I mentioned last month, in August we only bring the check register forward for approval.
We will bring the entire annual financial report to the board for approval in January for the fiscal year ended 8-31-21 when we present the audit for approval.
The check register you have for approval today indicates vendor payments made in the month of August 2021.
August is normally one of the larger months.
In addition to school starting up, we make one of our semi-annual debt service payments.
Next month, we will bring all of the financial standard monthly financial reports back for you for the month of September as we start our reporting for the 2122 school year.
This present. Yes, I move that the Board of Trustees approves the district's August 2021 check register.
Mr. Chair.
Second.
We have a motion by Mr. Redman, a second by Mrs. Champagne.
Are there any questions, additional questions?
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Agenda item 10.2, discuss and consider board approval of the October 2021 budget amendments.
The presenters, Ms. Sherry Butterfield, Director of Budget and Treasury.
Thank you, President Schulte, Trustees, Dr. Grigorski.
Tonight we have a couple of amendments, $25,000 for repairs and replacement of windscreens that were damaged back during the winter storm at multiple campuses.
And expenditures are also increased, $69,339 to cover the cost of some help desk software and training.
And then we have five amendments related to timing.
and again, timing amendments are for re-budgeting
where purchases were made last year with funding
and product not received before 8-31.
So it's a fiscal year issue.
Products since received, we need to re-budget in this fiscal year.
Those five timing amendments total $515,314.
approval of these amendments will result in a $607,653 decrease to the general fund balance.
Thank you. Any questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I would just like to say, Ms. Butterfield, I like your jacket.
Thank you.
No questions.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move the Board of Trustees approve the district.
Oops, sorry.
I'm on the right one.
I move the Board of Trustees approves the district's October 2021 budget amendments.
Second.
I have a motion by Mrs. Vann, a second by Mr. Redmond.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
The motion passes 7-0.
Thank you.
Agenda item 10.3, discuss and consider Board approval of an additional 1% one-time lump sum
for a total of 2% payment of the midpoint to be paid in December 2021 for all district employees.
employees. The presenter, Mr. Brian Schuss, Chief Executive Human Resources Officer. Good evening.
Good evening, Mr. Schulte, members of the board, Dr. Gorski. We are real excited to bring this
recommendation to you all this evening. You know, each and every year, well, each and every year,
for the last few years, the KDSD has been lucky enough to pay one percent one-time lump sum to
our employees in December. It is something that is really appreciated. We know that.
But this year we are recommending that we in essence double that payment by adding an additional 1% for a total of 2% for the one-time lump sum this December.
It's been a tough year for our employees.
We know that.
We acknowledge that.
It's really been a tough over a year and a half for employees.
And it's awesome in a district like this.
Our employees are 100% committed to the success of this district.
and it goes without saying, but we do need to say it, that we are 100% committed to them.
So again, our recommendation is for the one-time lump sum payment this December be 2%.
That is of the midpoint of the respective pay grades for all of our employees.
And that's it. I'll take any questions.
Any questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
Is there any questions?
I move that the Board of Trustees approves an additional 1% one-time lump sum for a total of 2% payment of the midpoint to be paid in December 2021 for all district employees.
Second.
We have a motion by Ms. Wilson and a second by Ms. Champagne.
I think Mr. Rogorski had something to say.
Go ahead and vote.
Make it after the vote.
Okay.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
I appreciate that, Mr. Stolbe.
I did want to jump in and just throw a couple of comments towards what Mr. Schuss had shared there, and I agree with everything he said.
I just want our board and our public, they don't always see the figures and they don't see the budget,
and they don't know how hard we work behind the scenes to make these happen for our folks.
And we wanted to do something special and a little bit extra for our folks in there.
But please know that that's a $6.2 million expense every time we do 1%.
So it's not easy to find $6.2 million in the budget.
I think Chris and his team you guys see him present each each month when we come in here
You also see our rating as a rating superior
We do a great job with our finances and I appreciate his team
Looking through that budget and working a few different things that we could do that we can support our employees with doing that
I just want to make sure we mention that because it's hard work to do that with the budget. It's not easy and
Appreciate what they've done and what we've been able to bring forward to the board and I appreciate our board supporting that as well for
our folks so thank you yeah it's great to be able to do that it's awesome work um agenda item 10.4
discuss and consider board approval of pursuing the district of innovation designation for kdisd
and the appointment of an innovation plan committee and ms sherry ashhorn is back i'm back
thank you president schulte members of the board dr gregorski this agenda item is twofold the
the administration is asking for you to approve
pursuing district of innovation,
and also in doing that, approving a committee.
So we've submitted a committee for your consideration.
It's doubled in size than from five years ago.
And so we think we have a good mix of,
central office experts,
about 50% is campus staff for their input,
some community members.
And this is gonna be the team that you're going to task
with developing the local innovation plan
that will be brought back to you hopefully in January.
Mr. President, how big is the committee?
You said doubled in size.
48 members.
Are there board members on the committee?
No, there are no board members.
You'll just bring that recommendation up.
Okay.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approve pursuing the District of Innovation
Innovation designation for KTISD and the appointment of the Innovation Plan Committee as presented by the administration.
Second.
We have a motion by Mrs. Champagne and a second by Mr. Redman.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Thank you very much.
Agenda item 10.5, discuss and consider board approval of the English learner enrollment
and the 2021-2022 bilingual education exception ESL waiver application.
The presenters are Mrs. Linda Shepard, Director for ESL and Bilingual Programs, and Mrs.
Jennifer…
Ms. Prypyluk.
Mr. Thank you, Prypyluk.
Ms. I was going to wait and see how you said it.
Mr. Thank you.
You're going to let me suffer for a little bit there, huh?
Oh, they actually have it on there, Prypyluk.
Okay, Instructional Officer for Elementary ESL.
Good evening.
Ms. Good evening.
Good evening, Board President, Board of Trustees, and Superintendent Gorgorski.
As required by the Texas Education Code, district personnel should report to the Board of Trustees
the number of English learners. As of October 7th, the English learner district report indicates
18,214 English learners. Next year, you're going to hear us call them emergent bilinguals. It's
just a change in state, so we're changing terminology. To get perspective of the growth
we've had this year, last year around this time, we had a growth of 354 students. The growth I just
gave now is about 2,800 additional students this year, so quite a bit of
growth this year. Additionally, each district with an enrollment of 20 or
more English learners in any language classification in the same grade level
shall offer a bilingual education or special language program. The district
has identified 14 languages for which a bilingual exception is being requested.
These languages are Arabic, Cantonese, Farsi, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin,
in Portuguese, Russian, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Vietnamese, and Yoruba.
The bilingual exception application will be filed with TEA on or before November 1st.
The application will include a description of how the district will provide instructional
support to the elementary campuses for the students who speak the aforementioned languages.
KDISD has applied for a bilingual exception for 20 years.
Additionally, KDISD is requesting an ESL waiver for 112 teachers who are providing services
for ESL students.
These teachers have been informed of the training opportunities to become ESL certified.
As part of our application to TEA, we're required to spell out how we're going to support our
students and Jennifer Perperluck's going to share some of our professional development
opportunities.
Jennifer Perperluck, KDISD Student Development Officer, KDISD has developed two pathways
to support teachers seeking ESL certification and develop sheltered
instruction strategies that support English learners. Pathway 1 ESL
certification is offered to all English language arts and reading teachers and
other content teachers who are not ESL certified. This in-district training
provides preparation for the Texas supplemental ESL exam. Teachers learn the
fundamental language concepts and the structures and conventions of English
language to support emergent bilinguals teachers also develop an understanding
of ESL teaching methods and how to use the knowledge to plan and implement
effective ESL instruction 10 opportunities throughout the school year
are provided for pathway 1 ESL certification pathway 2 ESL sheltered
instruction course is a more robust course offered to teachers who are
seeking ESL certification along with comprehensive sheltered instruction
instruction training. The participants in this pathway complete 52 hours of test preparation
and professional development in sheltered instruction best practices. The goal is to
equip teachers with knowledge and strategies to better serve English learners. Using ESSER
funds, participants completing the Pathway 2 ESL certification program will receive a
$1,000 one-time stipend. The effective linguistic and cognitive needs of English learners are
are addressed throughout the comprehensive professional development plan.
The plan ensures participants increase their understanding of the importance of effectively
planning for the delivery of instruction that meets the needs of English learners at varying
proficiency levels and academic experiences.
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees grants approval for the superintendent to
sign and submit the bilingual exception and ESL waiver application prior to November 1st
as required by TEA.
At this time, I welcome any questions.
Thank you. Any questions?
Mr. President, I have a question.
So I'm not claiming to know much about this program or anything,
but I am looking at that on some of your paperwork,
you say that the bilingual exception for 2021 was 201,
and then 21, 22 is 218.
But the number of teachers for whom an exception or waiver was filed
in the previous year who was successfully obtained certification is zero for 2021.
That's for bilingual exceptions so we're requesting a bilingual exception for like
Mandarin English or Vietnamese English so we're not seeking certification those areas because we
currently don't provide those bilingual programs. In DUC or the ESL waiver we do try to get
them certified. So I'm just curious is there a lot of people who want to do
this? I mean do you have a lot of people that want to be certified and you know
and all that? Yes. We have a very high number of English language arts teachers.
We advertise it quite a bit and we count on our principals also to advocate for
the needs of their campuses. We have some campuses that have almost half their
population are English learners so they're wanting the strategies to help
their students be successful and part of that is with the certification training
hey thanks any other questions mr. president I have a question so we are
filing the exemption for the ones where we don't have teachers who can teach
Mandarin and Arabic and Russian the exception to a bilingual program so we
have English Spanish bilingual program we don't have we're asking exception can
Can we have the exception for Mandarin English,
Vietnamese English, Aruba English?
And the waiver is for the ESL.
So we don't provide help for children who speak those languages?
Not in their native language, but we provide them ESL instruction.
So here's my question.
How quickly do they transition without, like,
Like, so our bilingual program, it's part of the day in Spanish, part of the day in English, all of that.
But these languages where we're doing the exception, the waiver, they get help, but not in their native language, but they transition to English.
Do they do it more quickly than the people who have half the day or 75% of the day in their native language?
I remember being a long-term sub, let me tell you this, in a fourth grade classroom.
They may get exposed to more English more quickly,
but their academic scores and their understanding of content
is not at the same level as our students in the bilingual program.
That's exactly where I was going.
So our students in our bilingual program outperform our students who are in ESL only.
Okay.
And this is throughout K-12?
These are K-12 exemptions for all their students?
The bilingual exception is required through elementary grades, so that's what we're requesting for there.
ESL is through 12th grade.
Through 12th grade.
Got it.
So our 112 teachers that were asking the ESL waiver, about half of them are at the elementary level and half of them are at the secondary level.
You have a very difficult job.
Thank you for what you do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Yes.
Yes.
I move the Board of Trustees grants approval for the superintendent to sign and submit the 2021-2022 bilingual education exception and ESL waiver application.
Second.
I have a motion by Mrs. Vann and a second by Mr. Redman.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The motion passes 7-0.
Agenda item 10.6.
Thank you.
Agenda item 10.6, discuss and consider board approval of the attendance boundary modification for elementary number 44 and Pato High School.
I'm not going to read all that.
Mr. Vierling will read all that.
I can read whatever you'd like to hear.
No, I'm sure you're going to present all that.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Ted Vierling, chief operations officer, and Mrs. Chris Poole, attorney and chief analyst, population and survey analyst.
There you go.
Well, thank you, President Schulte, board members, Dr. Grigorski.
We are here tonight, Chris Poole and I, with PASA, and PASA is a longtime partner at KDIC, well over 20 years.
And we're here tonight to present the final attendance boundary modification for the 22-23 school year.
I'll breeze through these slides a little bit.
You've seen this one.
You've seen several of these before.
By the way, you've got maps in your folders there at your desk.
If you'd like to look at those, they've got overlays for the elementary up to junior high,
and then for the high school ABM back to junior high as well as the old maps.
So the process, I'll go to it a little bit more,
but the process, we started this in June with a presentation to the board,
and then we brought information to you back in September,
and then tonight we are presenting the final ABM.
So the objectives, we had two big objectives for this ABM for the next school year.
Number one, we're opening Elementary 44, which is located in the Kane Island subdivision.
And that is, as you'll see here shortly, is splitting off mainly from Bryant Elementary.
That was a big one for us.
And then the next one is we are looking at growth in the Northwest.
If you were on the board several years ago, Ms. Fox, you know that the Southwest was our big growth area,
and we were adding schools and schools and school, and now it's the West and Northwest.
And so in looking at the bond election, and we were able to do that, and we were able to open high school, sorry, high school 10, we were looking at the numbers at Pato High School, and they get high really quick.
So we'll talk to you more about that shortly.
But those are the two big objectives.
The timeline, again, we brought to you at the June board meeting.
We brought to you the preliminary attendance boundary modification.
from that time through early October. We had information out to the public. They were able
to provide input, whether it was an electronic survey or calling us or emailing. We took all
that information, and then tonight is the final recommendation. And the communication, three phases.
We did the presentation to you guys. As I mentioned, stakeholders got emails and information
information online and we'll notify after this evening's board meeting assuming everything goes
as planned. And we did that through parent emails, media releases, the website and social media.
And Chris Poole will take us through the presentation.
Good evening, President Schulte, Board of Trustees, Superintendent Grogorski.
I am going to look over mainly the maps for you guys and you've seen most of them so we're going
going to sort of hit the high points before. So we'll start actually with the elementary zones.
This is the current elementary zones. Just as a reminder of why we're opening the school to begin
with, we can look and see that Bryant, if we were not opening elementary 44, could be looking at
1,740 kids in the fall, and it's got an enrollment, I mean a capacity of 1,030. So clearly the school
was warranted. And so this next slide here is showing the recommended zone for the new school
in Kane Island. It's carved entirely from Bryant, the attendance zone there, and the divider is
along I-10. The new school would open at just over 50 percent of capacity. That's relatively typical
in a really rapidly growing area because you can see by the fall of 2025, we would be expecting it
to be exceeding its capacity of 1,030 in just three short years. You can see that we are expecting it
to go ahead and exceed that capacity by quite a bit, but we can go ahead and relieve that in the
the future from the north side. Bryant would be very well utilized, heavily utilized. We're
expecting a lot of these schools in the southwest to ultimately flatten out and decline ultimately
in the long term. And so we'll continue to watch that and see if we need to make any more changes
there in the future. That new zone for 44 would include Kane Island and Remington Trails and then
a lot of vacant land that's north there to be developed in the future. Bryant would include
include everything South and that would be Young Ranch, Trails of Katy, Kingsland Heights, Willow
Bend Pass and Glenn and then Sarah and Willow Springs. There's quite a few little things in
there right around Bryan. It's everything South of I-10. Now we do have one additional little wiggle
here that you all maybe haven't seen in the past. We're continuing of course to do work for the
district and we have realized that a developer has bought some land that's here highlighted in orange
and so presently the lane new zones those are our little building blocks little puzzle pieces here
our lane newstone boundary splits that land and so we'd like to go ahead and make a little bit
of a change now so that we don't have to deal with it in the future it's important because
it actually is the boundary presently as we had looked at it between elementary 44 and katie
And so what we're doing is we're recommending that that line just go down the edge there.
I think it's Katie Lakes, or I'm sorry, Lakes of Katie and August Lakes.
And so we would recommend that that line just be drawn around those existing subdivisions,
and it should affect, we believe, based on our geocoded student population,
one student who is not an elementary student right now.
But we are wanting to go ahead and make that change there to try to clean things up and get ahead of that.
And you can see that it's right there and that where the star is, that's the area that we're talking about.
And then on to the high schools, like Mr. Verling mentioned, due to the delay in the bond election and COVID and all of the things that have happened in the last couple of years, now PAYTO will need to get through 2023 before the new school can be open there to relieve it.
And so with all of the housing boom and everything that's gone on, we're projecting almost 4,200 kids in 2023.
And so we were looking at ways to try to adjust Payto, try to help it out so it didn't have so many kids there in 2023 right before the new school opens.
And it's adjacent to the Morton Ranch attendance zone.
Morton Ranch is leveled out a little bit.
So we're looking here in 2023, 2,656 kids.
We've got a capacity of about 3,000.
So we've got a little bit of space there.
And so we were looking at the possibility of moving Laney Sons 12B, 13A, and 13B on to from
Pato into Morton Ranch. And it would be starting with ninth graders in the fall of 22. Eventually
that moves around 400 kids and more or less it's 100 kids a year with ninth graders, a little more
ninth graders than 12th graders in that final year. But we're hoping that that will just take
the top off of paytoe a little bit and help out in that year just prior to the the school opening
and so you can see on a map here the way it looks 2023 4100 kids and just keeping on growing for
paytoe and then if we go ahead and make those changes the area that we're talking about there
is highlighted in yellow that yellow box just right in the morton ranch label right there and
so this is looking at starting with ninth grade then ninth and tenth and and so forth and so on
leaving Morton Ranch at 3151 once all of those kids are moved over.
The capacity of 3,000 is pretty similar to a lot of schools in the area,
helping Payto out a little bit there.
So this is a little different than what we've done in the past.
We haven't done little mini ABMs along the way,
but the growth in the Northwest and really that delayed bond election
and the delayed start of high school 10 really is what kind of pushed this.
When we looked at it a little closer,
we would have moved these neighborhoods back to Morton Ranch
when the final ABM was done.
But we know, as a former high school principal who had 4,000 kids in the school,
I can tell you that you do not want to have 4,300 kids in your school.
And so we really needed to do something there.
And Julie Henson, the principal at Morton Ranch High School,
has called me and emailed me multiple times and said, Ted, we'd love to have some kids.
And so we're winning on both ends of that.
Just to kind of give you a little background, we will allow students to grandfather, should they choose.
If they have older siblings at, if those ninth graders have older siblings that are at Pato High School,
they could grandfather in through a transfer process.
and although not mandatory if you are an upperclassman who's in one of those
three land use zones who currently goes to paytoe high school or goes to paytoe
high school next year you would be able to apply for a transfer to Morton Ranch
high school for the fall and continue your time there which is a little
different than what we've done in the past additional information we looked
closely at the junior high feeder patterns and that's part of the reason
why we gave you the map so you can kind of see what that does those kiddos are at the mcdonald
and stock dick kind of areas there and they break off and go to either payto or morton ranch high
school so we don't have kids that are hanging out there by themselves and and go to go to high
school with with 10 other kids or whatever it's a pretty good mix of kiddos we will provide
transportation for the eligible ninth grade students who are going to morton ranch high
school next year and we'll also provide transportation for those kiddos at payto
high school that are finishing up through the 2025 24 25 school year so those kids are taken care of
and in conclusion um we feel like this is is going to benefit obviously elementary 44 we we needed
to to make these changes but we do feel like it'll benefit the students at both payto high school and
Morton Ranch High School and it's the best thing for those students and as I
always say when we do these we take these things very seriously we know that
moving kids and moving schools is tough because they are dedicated to their
schools and they love their teachers but we know that moving on down the line and
not having an overcrowded school is is the way to go so open it up to any
questions yes just to clarify so in 2022 2023 it's just ninth graders yes ma'am
I'm sorry yes we'll start with ninth grade we'll add a grade every year okay
so kind of like we've done with with where you open a new school like we
open Jordan we add we just did ninth and tenth and then we added 11 then we'll
add it right this is a little less typical than ABM yes ma'am it is very
Just doing 9th instead of 9th and 10th is something that's different.
I just want to make sure.
Right.
We felt like if they had started at Payto, we were going to let them continue there.
Although we are going to allow them the option to apply for a transfer and do that.
And Ms. Hack and her group has done a fantastic job of aligning course selection with the transfer process.
I don't know if she's put all that information out there yet, but they've aligned that.
So it will help us better when Mr. Schuss works with his group and trying to work out staffing for those schools.
So it's a much cleaner tighter process the students who are in eighth grade right now who don't have the capability of transferring this immediately affects
Yes, ma'am those kiddos and I was with you at seven likes when it was four thousand kids
And it was just one big happy family. Yeah, it was big. Yes, definitely big. Thank you
Any other questions? I?
Have one
Mr. Beer Ling I'm confused by the students with older siblings at Pato high school may be approved to stay
via grandfathering?
Yes, ma'am.
So if you...
Why wouldn't they be allowed to stay?
We have a board policy that says that students can attend with their siblings at any school.
Right.
I just want...
It's always like that.
I just wanted to clarify that in the presentation.
Oh, I thought you said this is different than...
No, ma'am.
I'm sorry.
If I said that, I apologize.
That was not my intent.
I was just checking.
Okay.
So students can choose to go with their friends or they can choose to stay with a sibling.
Yes, ma'am.
So if you're a ninth grader in those three land use zones, you would go to Morton Ranch
High School.
But if you have an older sibling, you could stay at Paytoe High School with your older
sibling or, which is new, and that's really what I meant was something different, was
that if you're at Paytoe High School currently, let's say you're an 11th grader at Paytoe
High School next year, if you're in one of those three land use zones, you could choose
to go to Morton Ranch High School via transfer, which is different than what we've done in
the past.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay, go ahead.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the attendance boundary modification for the
22-23 school year.
Second.
I have a motion by Mrs. Champaign, a second by Mrs. Vann.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Thank you very much.
We'll now go to agenda item 10.7, discuss and consider board approval of a contract
for renovations to the Miller Career and Technology Center.
Mrs. Gassman.
Good evening again, President Schulte, trustees, and Dr. Gagorski.
I have two items for your consideration this evening.
The first item is the award of contract to Brookstone for renovations to the Miller Career
Career Center for a fee not to exceed 2.15% and a pre-construction services for 10,000.
Five proposals were received and Brookstone rated the best value and they have experience
with us.
They did the Galbo and Pattison renovations.
Any questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
Ms. Kastner, that seems like a really low percentage.
That's not our typical in and around.
We're in a good place right now.
Isn't that great?
It's awesome.
Like we had options in it. I think that's a very competitive bid. I think it's awesome.
Yeah, and we had some very reputable contractors bid that work for such a small package.
I wanted you to know that side of this.
Thank you.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Brookstone LP for renovations to the Miller Career and Technology Center for a fee not to exceed 2.15% of the cost of the work, including pre-construction services totaling $10,000.
Second.
the motion by mrs van is second by miss wilson will now proceed to vote all those in favor
raise your hands say aye aye the motion carries seven zero uh agenda on 10.8 discuss and consider
board approved design associated with the conference of renovations
uh and building addition to diane winborn elementary
i'm sorry a little side discussion here okay um
We're looking for the presentation, to be totally honest with you.
It's not on the screen.
Anyways, with me this evening is Principal Frizen.
Where is she?
There she goes.
Megan Davis, our KDISD project manager, and representatives from VLK.
I will ask Principal Frizen to share some comments and turn it over to VLK.
Good evening, everyone.
We, my little Windbourne staff back there, we are super excited about this process.
As a new principal, jumping into this renovation, I will say that this has been an amazing experience already.
They have allowed us to be engaged in the whole process, seeing the building, seeing the opportunities of things that can be changed in Windbourne.
When born's kind of old, 40 years old, and needs some updates.
And so being able to jump in and be part of this process has been exciting.
The presentation, you will see they have lots of good updates, and they have really thought through and listened to what we would like to see when born turn into.
So I'll turn it over.
as Lisa said we're rushing to get the presentation that supposed to be
uploaded but it will give you a second there Todd Lisa did you find the
presentation you've got it back there okay because you could on that main
computer right there if someone would log into board Doc's you can pull it
right out of board Doc's as well I don't know which would be quicker but go ahead
and have at it
Thank you.
I CAN PULL IT OFF OF BOARD DOCKS AND PUT IT ON THAT
jump drop if you got a link
Mr. President, I want to take a little moment, if I can, to talk about Ms. Frisun.
I know some of your staff, and they are so happy with you.
I just wanted to give you a little plug.
So we have some quiet time here, so I just wanted to share that with you.
I'm killing this quiet time.
So anyway, yeah, I know some volunteers over there,
because I actually worked there for one year as a GT test proctor,
so I kind of was familiar with the school and all that.
So anyway, since we're not doing anything else anyway, get going, I guess.
Thank you.
They are wonderful.
We'll keep over here, but they are wonderful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
All right, thank you for letting us present to you tonight.
Mr. Schulte, board members, and Dr. Gorski,
we appreciate the opportunity.
We've always worked in Katy ISD,
and to present you this project that,
I know I renovated this campus years ago as well,
so it is another great campus for Katy.
What we were asked to do
is do a comprehensive renovation of Windbourne.
So what does that mean? It means taking the concepts that we're creating in the new elementary schools, some of the teaching and learning spaces and planning spaces and things like that, and adapting that to that old footprint.
But also upgrading finishes, life safety systems, things like that, to really bring it up to date and provide the same opportunities for the kids at Wedmore that we do have at the new elementary schools.
So if I can't introduce David Taylor, he's going to walk you through a little bit of it.
He's the project manager for the project.
We also have Lynn Hrabatsky, who's the project architect, who's going to bring it in for construction.
David?
Thank you.
We are currently presenting the design development, and as the schedule goes,
Next up is construction documents from October to January with a presentation of the guaranteed maximum price in March.
The substantial completion is expected in August 2023.
The project site consists of two areas that are going to be added.
One is an addition there to the top of the building as shown, and then a small parking
area to accommodate the parking where the addition took place.
The project scope consists of exterior, limited exterior renovations including new windows
windows and window frames, repainting exterior doors, and various canopy entries, entry canopies
around the building.
Interior, the renovations will consist of installing a new fire sprinkler, new ceilings,
new wall finishes, new flooring, and then we will reconfigure several areas.
You'll notice that the hatched areas with the diagonal lines, those will be reconfigured
areas where we'll move walls, partitions, and basically work better with the programs
in the school.
And then the dark gray area in the middle, that's more of a finishes and we're going
going to just change the finishes there and not do not do very many movements of walls.
Now to go through this is the existing floor plan
and you'll notice the orange on the bottom that's the administration area. The
blue are classrooms to the left that's pre-k kindergarten first grade.
Then to the right is the second, third, second, third, and fifth.
And then your central core there includes the media center and a cafeteria.
The large green box adjacent to the cafeteria is the gymnasium.
Then we have a considerable number of programs out in portable buildings.
We're bringing those programs inside.
side and the purple area to the bottom right is special education so that's how
the existing lays out what we're proposing is that we reconfigure and
clean up pre-k K in first grade so that we can better suit the programs as
mentioned you'll notice that the walls have been adjusted in that plan a
A reconfiguration of the admin in the orange on the bottom, and then a reconfiguration
of the media center.
What we're doing is putting, if you go to the top adjacent to the cafeteria, you'll
notice that where the gym previously was, there is now fourth grade in there with a
teacher lounge adjacent to the cafeteria.
cafeteria. So we were adding a new gym to the north of the cafeteria. Again, to stay
in line with what happens at the prototypes. And a reconfiguration of the life skills in
purple on the bottom right.
I'm going to step back to the floor plan again. If you look, you know, some of the
One of the spaces that we created in the elementary school prototypes is not only for the children
and learners, but also for the teachers.
So a lot of the spaces that we're creating are teacher planning spaces that are in each
grade level pod, and then adjacent to that is a collaboration space where they can bring
small groups out or even maybe half a class or a full class out to do a small activity
in that grade level there.
One of the most important pieces I know to the teachers is to create a new literacy library
for all their manipulatives and everything else, as well as another wish list item was
the LGI that we were able to create just to the top of the north end of the library.
But the whole area begins to flow a little bit better.
It opens things up.
up will allow for just a brighter look throughout with new LED lights and everything else would
be a much nicer feel to the entire campus.
On the exterior, here's the existing front entry, kind of dark in that, so we're going
to propose a new entry that will provide a sign mark to say here's the front door,
sell everybody where there is, provide a new canopy at the front for drop-off,
as well as creating a new, little more lightened view from the exterior out for security purposes as well.
Here we have an existing view of the waiting area that was in the existing building.
We decided to, in our reconfiguration of the entire admin area, create a much larger waiting area,
A SECURE VESTIBULE WHERE THEY WILL HAVE TO BE BUZZED IN, INTO A WAITING AREA WHERE THEY'RE
GREETED AT THE RECEPTION.
ALSO AN ATTENDANCE WINDOW WHERE THEY CAN, THE CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS CAN COME IN
AND OUT AND THEN THEY'RE ALLOWED INTO THE CAMPUS JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE CAMPUS TO
SCROLL FOR SECURITY.
THIS IS A VIEW OF THAT NEW SPACE SHOWING THAT THERE IS NOW A WIDE OPEN AREA WHERE THEY CAN
see into the space. Previously you had to go through a number of doors just across the
corridor and it just didn't work very well, but this allows it to function much like the
other campuses across the district. When we get to the classrooms, like David said, a
number of the classrooms were not really changing walls, but just really updating it, tearing
tearing it down to the walls and all the finishes, and providing upgrades to the technology,
the marker boards, the tack boards, getting those in the locations that set up a typical
classroom for KDISD.
This is a view of what that will look like.
Pretty much the basics, adding some more casework that brings it up to standard for the district
as well, and then new lighting and fixtures and technology, like I said, to give it a complete
update. There's areas of the first pre-K kindergarten and first grade. Those will be
completely reconfigured because those classrooms really didn't work out as well as they should,
and they weren't large enough. It also allows us to put a restroom in those pre-K classrooms as
as well.
In the existing corridors, here's
kind of a shot of one of the existing corridors
where it's not very inviting, doesn't
have a lot of space for collaboration
or entering into the classroom.
This is a typical pod outside of one of the grade levels,
where you'll have a teacher planning area in orange,
and then the collaboration space, which
is just a smaller little classroom area that
allow teachers to collaborate out in those spaces.
And this is a view of what that would look like in one of those corridors.
And then you can kind of see down the corridors we're providing some updated finishes and a much brighter learning environment for that.
In the library, a great functional library, but we're going to enclose it and also give it an update on finishes.
Here's the updated plan that still provides.
We're not really making it any larger.
We're just reconfiguring it and allowing for a much better use of the space within.
And then here's a view of that to give it a much more updated look and feel.
Still keeping the natural light and clear story windows from above, but really giving
it an update.
And then like David said, the final piece of this was to get all those people, all those
children out of the portables was to reconfigure the gymnasium and then
provide a new gymnasium at the back that also helps with the drop-off provides
clear story light into the new gymnasium and really finishes off the campus to
bring it up to like a station standards of the previous elementary schools with
With that, I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Any questions?
Mr. President, I have some questions.
I love it, but I'm just asking because I've been in there, so I'm just curious.
So the existing gymnasium, what is that going to be?
That becomes the classrooms.
That becomes the fourth, fifth grade, I think.
Fourth grade.
Oh, I see.
Okay, the fourth grade.
Fourth grade.
We'll just go into that space, create all those classrooms within it, and repurpose it for that and to provide a new gymnasium cafeteria, which actually works much better when they're lined up that way.
Then you can kind of open that wall between the two to create even much larger space for big presentations.
So are those other things, those empty ones, are those just empty classrooms, or what are those?
Oh, those are the old portables?
The old portables that are not colored.
Yeah, those are all the portables that will eventually go away.
We were able to get just about everything.
There's a few academic support spaces that will stay in one portable.
Okay.
And also, when I used to have to test children, I got familiar with the tiny teacher lounges.
I mean, those were the tiniest teacher lounges I've ever seen.
Yeah.
Now each grade level will have a teacher planning room as well as a nice big teacher lounge
at the back and then a nice workroom at the front as well as a separate parent
workroom where the volunteers and also the last thing is when you first walk in
and that will not when you first are gonna but when you go in and you go to
the left and I know those are all going to be first-grade classroom style but
those that used to be it's just a weird little hall like they used to have pre-k
in there a few years ago and they were all like it didn't go to the walls
didn't go to the ceiling and you know you could hear everybody that was that's
one of the areas where we looked at that and we say we need to go in here
completely got that whole space and reconfigure it with actual classrooms
that walls go to the deck in my opinion that should be done first we're working
We're getting on the phasing right now.
But anyway, it's a great presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. President?
Yes.
Yes, thank you for your presentation.
I just have one little question.
Looking at the existing floor plan, I see there's a dedicated science lab.
Yes.
I don't see a science lab on the renovation.
Will the LGB be used as the science lab?
If you look at the new plan, there's an area called the computer lab GT.
No, it's that classroom, the big classroom.
I'm sorry.
Just to the top of the life skills area in purple, there's a small green classroom.
That's going to be the science lab.
Okay.
And for code purposes, we're calling it classroom to make it all work.
Yeah, because I know that you mentioned multiple times.
Yes.
like having a light plan and things provided at this with this renovation
that other schools all get now and I know they all have science labs and I
was really glad to see that there'll be a dedicated volunteer space coming from
the days of going to a portable going to a closet going to you know whatever
where we moved where we had to but it's nice to see as well that those volunteer
spaces are in the new elementary schools too and that'll be a great boost to the
campus to have a dedicated place so just wanted to comment on that thank you
again yes I had a little bit of a flashback because this was the same
model of the elementary school I went to and I love what I really like is how the
library is getting enclosed that was I mean I remember as a kid like pulling
books off there and when I saw that picture I yeah thank you any other
questions yes a couple I love the entryway like way better right like
keeping the having the people come in and having just not it wide open and
there's a door right there where you can go into someone's office I was principal
assistant principal it's like parents could just walk in so I love the
entryway I love that there's a restroom right there where people are waiting and
you have little ones and you know you don't have to walk through the school
like that's awesome I loved that when you talk about teacher workspace it's
where it's the it's off the library the media center is that well yes anything
that's in orange in the floor plan that's called designated as a TP that's
a teacher planning space dedicated to that group of classrooms so okay that
was my question because a lot of our schools have like a collaboration space
in their pod and that's what those are right it looks like they didn't have
walls no well yes they all are except for the collaboration space is open it's
got to collapse space attached to its open but the orange ones are enclosed
so do they have storage yes I saw one up close and it looks like yeah the orange
space is a teacher planning and then it's got a door to the back which is a
storage space just for that teacher plan oh the storage is the big gray space at
the back yes okay okay good and LG I had that on here Thursday okay so when we
look at the classroom let's go there
we find it let me go there okay that in the library this is way off scope of my
scope but are the bookcases going to be on wheels so they can like make it into
any kind of collaboration you have that as our standard oh good when it's though
it's the picture with the students in a classroom right has the cabinets and
stuff like that those itty-bitty cubbies over there notes up that one there's a
little bitty cubbies I remember we built a school in the head cubbies and nobody's
backpack would fit in there and so then it's like what do babies do with their
backpacks you know kindergartners couldn't put a backpack so I know that
we've looked at that and done all those things and so much reason I know that
she will collaborate and pick the brains of everyone who's had a campus renovated
so she knows we've corrected that what would you do differently even so as you
make new ones it's like oh what would you what do you wish you had so what
campus is this one most like other campuses that you've renovated that kind
of are similar to this but it's probably the most similar to pattison-golbo that was good that was
kind of when we started this refresh of the elementary schools that was the really the first
one we did i guess build it fielder before before that but and does the principal
does the principal get to like choose colors and things like that or is that built is it going to
will be this blue and yellow that it's not exactly this this is we've taken
some liberties but we're gonna definitely get with the administration
and team to figure things out I know she'll choose well I'm excited for it
it's awesome thank you any other questions motion I move the Board of
Trustees approves the design associated with renovations and building addition
addition to Diane Wilborn Elementary School as depicted in the design presentation prepared by
VLK Architects dated October 25th, 2021. Second. Okay. Who's that? Mrs. Champagne? Nope. Ms.
Wilson, I'm sorry. Thank you. We have a motion by Mrs. Vann, a second by Ms. Wilson. We'll now
proceed to vote. All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Motion passed 7-0.
Thank you very much.
Well, now to proceed to agenda item 11.1, board discussion of the governance core, school board, superintendents, and schools working together book study.
Presenters, Mr. Lance Redmond, board of trustees, vice president.
Thank you, Mr. Schulte.
I appreciate the opportunity to have this discussion board here in open meeting.
sharing with everybody else in the room.
We've started working through a book together,
Governance Core, Superintendents and Schools
Working Together by Campbell and Fullen.
And our goal is really to have a more informed
and cohesive school board,
opportunity to have greater student achievement.
There's a quote at the end of chapter three
that I think kind of sums up
why we would even take this extra time
or ask other people to listen in on this conversation.
And the way this ends in Chapter 3 is it says,
The short, mid, and long-term costs of a lack of a governance mindset, trustee or superintendent, are enormous.
Conflict, mistrust, low performance, frustration, costly personnel cases, superintendent and other staff turnover, frequent instability, and much more.
The governance mindset takes time at the front end but represents a lasting bargain once established.
And so the hope in this conversation is that we can put in this work that outlives any anybody on this board. So
Bringing everyone up to speed we finished the last discussion
on September 13th when we did our last team building and
some of the high points on that we actually
Overlapped a little bit with what we're going to talk talk about tonight is the role of a governance and a superintendent mindset
but the high points were these the board should operate with a wide-angle lens
not a microscope we had a small conversation about when you're fighting
a wildfire there's there are people in helicopters that fly around and see
where the fire needs to be fought just to bring everybody back up speed
trustees work best together by coming together as a group versus individual
action for us to be effective we all have to be effective not just a few of
us successful boards understand how each piece must come together and be aligned
to reach our goals the importance of system systems thinking is that each
action has a reaction and sometimes that reaction is even bigger than the action
that we take as a board and the last part we talked about was that crossing
the line between governance or oversight and management or getting down in the
weeds as a board is usually a cause of conflict and so tonight we move our
our discussion in chapter three uh crosses like i said it crosses over a little with our last team
building session but we didn't officially cover chapter three so talking about that tonight so
uh trustees based on your reading of chapter three what are one of your two top learnings
that are maybe new that we didn't discuss last time
not everybody at once um can i say something uh uh mr redmond i i like the first quote in it
It says, if anything goes bad, I did it.
If anything goes to me good, then we did it.
If anything goes real good, then you did it.
That's all it takes to get people to win football games.
And that was said by Paul Bear Bryant.
And I really like that because it's, if we looked at everything like that, then we would spend, even in everything,
We would spend a lot less time pointing the finger negatively towards other people and
giving more people, you know, credit and that we're working together as a group.
And so with someone, you know, that's in a group, having a group mindset is that whatever
good, you know, you do or I do or he does or she does is good for the group and not
necessarily just good for that one individual person.
That's the way I kind of read that.
that. And the superintendent is definitely in the team of eight. So I think that was
a good way to start out that chapter.
Yeah, my takeaway was they gave several examples of poor performing where the superintendent
was kind of a hands off, keep the board in the dark. And then there's high performing
forming teams where the superintendent and the trustees work together.
And when you had a team that were working together, they were moving mountains.
They were doing the impossible.
And what struck me, what they said, the way that happens is, and you've already hit some of these, Lance,
but strategic versus tactical focus.
Superintendent's job in his team is to keep the operation running where the board is supposed to be doing the strategic type stuff,
not get in the day-to-day business of the district.
We need to challenge each other.
The relationship between the board and the superintendent is one of trust and one of
a firm belief that the trustees and the superintendent are going to do the right things for the right
reasons.
And in every case, the first move should be if somebody's doing something, they're doing
it for the right reason and we trust each other in that way.
Transparency and communication and objective data assessment.
The superintendent and his team give the board the data so that the board can make decisions
and work together on what's best for the district.
So it was a good chapter, I thought,
and got a lot of good takeaways from that.
I agree.
One of the things I liked about reading this chapter is
a lot of the things they talked about,
these effective superintendents
and how they've accomplished things
that others didn't think they could,
Again, I'm looking at you, Ken Gorgorski.
You do those things.
You really do.
I think the perception sometimes is that we all just rubber stamp things.
We don't.
We don't always agree, but I do feel like we always have the information we need to
be able to evaluate it.
I've actually liked the fact that a couple times this year we've tabled something or
we've stepped back a little bit to look at it to get more information and um i do really feel like
we all as a board and you dr grubowski we you do try to give us that information to help us make
those decisions so can i add something um something i took away from this was you know we we do a lot
of training as school board members were required to do so many hours of training
and you know we go year after year sometimes a couple times a year and receive more and more
training and i know that superintendents receive some of that training too at the tazza tasby but
the difference is is that we're trained on how to be effective school board members
and every once in a while we'll learn how we'll take a class on like how to work with
the superintendent. The superintendent goes and gets their
degrees you know in education and they get a background in teaching and being a
principal and you know you got a doctorate and what you get a doctorate in
see and it's not really training about how to work with the school board
remember you have to learn that when you become a superintendent you didn't
receive any training well I didn't receive any training either so actually
in that respect we're sort of on the same foot at the beginning you know when
when you became a superintendent, I was a brand new board member myself.
And so a lot of that, you're kind of learning it together.
And that's something I never really thought about.
I just kind of thought the superintendents knew what to do,
you know, with the school board people.
But so for those of you who don't know,
every once in a while he gets a quarterly review.
And I think that that's good because otherwise you wouldn't know.
I mean, you're doing your thing.
You know, you're meeting all your things.
but you wouldn't know what bothers us or whatever.
And I really respect the fact that you're open-minded to those things.
But earlier, I just want to touch on something about the strategic focus.
It's actually on page 70.
If a superintendent and board president structure the agenda around operational issues,
then not much is left for the strategic discussions that are at work on the board.
and so I think that if I know that the agenda items do are about the strategic
plan a lot but I just wonder if maybe the public doesn't understand that as
much and even new board members may not understand that as much and if that
could be somehow tied into the agenda to let us know that this is achieving that
strategic plan this is a team that's that's all that's something that I
learned from reading the book and I thought it was a real good book and I
really appreciate your recommendation mr. Redmond for reading this book
because it does it does open your mind to other other things that we could be
doing self-improvement is always good
I'll go I agree with everything that's been said so far but one thing that I
thought was really interesting was on page 71 where it says high performing
purposeful superintendents understand that the best way to help everyone
understand the importance of manner is to model the behavior and demeanor they
expect from their trustees and staff and keeping the third superintendent I've
worked with in my eight years I can say that that sounds right there exemplifies
what you do in day-to-day basis and I hope your staff agrees but you you don't
just talk the talk you walk the walk and and you lay a great you a great example
in the way that you lead and
what else I'll jump in there Greg I did narrow down the whole chapter and in a
lot of it you you think maybe you and I read the chapter together but I
I SUMMARIZE THAT UP AS JUST FOUR KEY POINTS OUT OF 40 PAGES OR WHATEVER IT WAS, 20 PAGES,
I CAN'T REMEMBER, 483 PAGES, ONE CHAPTER.
KEEP BOARDS INFORMED, FOCUS ON IMPROVEMENT, ENGAGEMENT IN PURPOSEFUL WORK, AND TRUST
AND CONFIDENCE.
THAT KIND OF SUMMED UP THAT WHOLE CHAPTER TO ME.
AND A LOT OF GOOD STORIES IN THERE ABOUT DIFFERENT BOARDS AND HOW THEY OPERATE WITH THEIR SUPERINTENDENT,
A LOT OF REAL STORIES ABOUT THAT.
SO I THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD TAKEAWAY.
point. Yes. So for people who are listening to us the first time, they're like, why are y'all
talking about the superintendent? But it's just chapter three. The rest of the book is,
you know, about us, but it's a great, it's a great chapter just to start with here. I,
I liked several things. One of them is, uh, about superintendents and working with boards. Like
we're called a team of eight, but you know, we have very different roles and to, for a
superintendent to work with seven individuals chosen by their community
with very different gifts talents and styles that I really liked the part
where they said that a superintendent a successful superintendent is one that
respects the different learning styles of trustees and right so he provides us
with a lot of data he'll make funk we make phone calls we have personal
meetings however the style is he understands that individual meetings to
to help understand those styles
and then to process through some of the things
that are not easy for me or not easy for you
or those different things because of our styles
that a superintendent's a good listener,
listens to the concerns of board members
to better understand perspectives.
And I think that's critical to knowing,
like the questions that we ask from here,
we've had some very robust discussions
and it's about the,
The perspective, the passion and the direction that we're all going toward the same direction to be better and to do to do what's right for for kids.
And, you know, he understands the importance of.
To including us to doing the campus visits, understanding what that when we see what what happens when it hits the school desk or or we see the Miller Career Center or those kinds of things.
the excitement that happens because what happens at this desk is no surprise to
anyone a bit boring it's it's necessary but when we see that the actions that we
do here translate into a classroom or to a Miller Career Center or to a updating
a 40 year old school it that's the piece that makes it all worthwhile and so I
appreciate that and the importance of the governance again you all have
have already said it.
I had one more thing.
That the superintendent makes sure that we understand the why
before he asks for the vote.
And, you know, you provide an incredible amount of information
that people don't know, that we, an incredible,
a ton, a boatload of information that we get.
And it's very helpful.
So I really like having, because you just can't have too much, right?
It gives us all of that to make decisions and to answer questions.
And you're exactly right, Mrs. Vann.
I had the same quote underlined in my book that you shared about.
One thing.
I think it spilled over from our conversation the other day.
And I think our first conversation had kind of shared, right?
that just book called the speed of trust right and when trust is high you move fast when trust
is low you move slow and not does that just work for us on a board but i think with the superintendent
it's a a big part of that well is the the higher level of trust we have and uh in the book it gave
one one line that i loved uh it read that you have to address reality you must confront the ugly
right and one thing that you've done a great job at least with me on the board is right you've
don't sugarcoat it you confront the ugly and I think each time the ugly is
confronted it helps build trust because you know not trying to be sold a bill of
goods just to make a decision the way that somebody would want us to and so
yeah I think that that trust part is huge for us to be able to trust each
other and to be able to trust you is really important so I appreciate that
else I have one last thing to say there was something in there that said that
that the board should see it before it gets out in the media.
And I just want to say, I think that is a good thing,
but I think it's been a real challenge lately
to make sure that we see something before it gets out to the media
because in the last, I don't know, when did COVID happen?
I get confused.
But anyway, since COVID has happened,
there has been so much in the media
that I think that that would, for you, be a big challenge.
But I know that that's the goal of yours.
I've heard you say those things before.
But I understand that it can't always happen
because we can't control what everybody posts
at any given minute, right?
Since we're talking about Bear Bryant,
I'd like to point out A,
and B to Alabama, too.
So that's in the record.
The superintendent's responsible for it, too.
anything else I just gonna say one more time I tell people this all the time
about how much I'm enjoying working with the board and with the superintendent
and I tell people all the time all I have to do is pick up the phone miss
dr. Krakowski knows the answer if I have a question about this school in this
grid I mean I don't know where you put it all but you have details to the nth
degree and you understand it and how it all fits together and that's just so
critical in a time when there are lots of moving parts and it changes quickly
and your ability to make that you know cogs go together work well and keep
moving forward that's an impressive thing that most people don't know and
and I didn't want to let this opportunity pass by.
That it?
Next time, chapters five and six,
and whenever it's on the agenda, you'll know that.
But if it's 4,000 pages, you know.
Four was really short, talking about new member board,
that we can come back to it.
It just felt like that was not a conversation maybe to have as a group here.
I think we should all read it, and then we can revisit it if we need to.
But we kind of move on to what would be the efficacy mindset is what we just are kind of wrapping up here and going on to the kind of a second phase is that the governance, what do they call it?
Governing for efficacy.
So start working through how we apply the things we've talked about over the past two weeks.
All right.
Thanks, Mr. Redmond, for taking the lead on this.
I know it's something that we haven't done before.
So thank you for taking the lead and thanks to all the trustees and superintendent for taking the time
To read more stuff because we read a lot of stuff. So it's another burden, but I think it's good stuff
So appreciate it. It's good hearing everybody's feedback
Okay, we'll move on to agenda item 12.1 a
Quarterly investment report the board was provided a copy of the quarterly investment report
Jenna item 12.2 the board was provided a copy of the donated items to Katie ISD
Agenda item 12.3, the board was provided a copy of the cooperative purchasing contract
management fees report.
Agenda item 12.4, recap of board members' request for information.
Did we have anything tonight, Ms. Champagne?
I had a couple of things, and these may be for way in the future, but I had asked about
the district of innovation at the teacher academy could be exempted or could be either
they're not exempted or extended or something since we seems like we have
that capability anyway and also and this may be way in the future too but mrs.
Fox had asked the principal of Miller if we could have the data on when she gets
it I don't think she has it yet but the data on what happens to the kids after
they graduate and does anybody use there's a bit clarification I just ask
if they collected it they don't collect it exactly but they're going to so that
wouldn't be something I would expect in the near future so yeah I said and then
feature long term if I might just add that I did ask about an update to the
waiver thing that mr. Schuch talked about last time and I'm wondering if the
you know the kva kids coming back if we have enough teachers how that's going
what we're gonna do with those teachers if that's gonna improve that waiver
things so maybe we'll have an update on that mr. Schuster refresh my memory I
don't remember the dates you gave me that the the first one was November 12th
I don't remember the second date but the first one is projected to be to the
board one through dr. Gorski November the 12th is that is that too far or you
wanted one sooner for Friday update
It doesn't fit under this item, so I will tell you offline what I want to say.
It doesn't fit.
We can certainly move up whatever date you guys like.
I know I remember sharing those with you when Mr. Schuss gave them to me about those reporting dates.
I just couldn't remember when they were.
But Mr. Schuss and I will work on an earlier timeline for that first one.
Okay.
Again, item 13.1, the next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, November 15, 2021.
There being no further business before this board,
THIS MINIS IS ADJOURNED. THE TIME IS 910. THANKS, EVERYONE. HAVE A GOOD EVENING.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 6.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees names Lindsey Chase as the principal of Cimarron Elementary School 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 |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 002 · AGENDA 7.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the Termination of the Cost Sharing and Development Agreement associated with the Haskett Junior High School site.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 003 · AGENDA 7.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the minutes of the Board meetings held in September 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 |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 004 · AGENDA 10.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's August 2021 check register.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 005 · AGENDA 10.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's October 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 |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 006 · AGENDA 10.3
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves an additional 1% one-time lump sum (total of 2%) payment of the midpoint to be paid in December 2021 for all District employees.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 007 · AGENDA 10.4
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves pursuing the District of Innovation designation for Katy ISD and the appointment of the Innovation Plan Committee as presented by the administration.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 008 · AGENDA 10.5
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees grants approval for the Superintendent to sign and submit the 2021-2022 Bilingual Education Exception/ESL Waiver Application.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 009 · AGENDA 10.6
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the attendance boundary modification (ABM) for the 2022-2023 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 |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 010 · AGENDA 10.7
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Brookstone, LP for renovations to the Miller Career and Technology Center for a fee not to exceed 2.15% of the cost of the work including pre-construction services totaling $10,000.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 011 · AGENDA 10.8
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the design associated with the comprehensive renovations and building addition to Diane Winborn Elementary School as depicted in the design presentation prepared by VLK Architects dated October 25, 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 |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |