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Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting Agenda
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, December 13, 2021
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Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.
Today is Monday, December 13, 2021, and the time is 5.01 p.m.
Dr. Gagorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regards to notice for 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.
We will open tonight's meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Dr. Gagorski, will you please introduce our pledge leader?
Yes, thank you, President Schulte. I appreciate that. I'm going to go ahead and invite up to the podium a fifth grade student from Patterson Elementary, Kay Dozier.
Principal there is Debbie Barker. Parents are Kristen Palmer and Kevin Dozier, and he's got a sibling, Logan.
A little bit about our special guest tonight leading us in the pledge.
Cade's special interests.
He loves all sports, especially football and baseball.
Favorite subjects are science and social studies, but reading and writing are some of his favorites
too, so I think it's safe to say he loves everything in school and all learning.
A couple of quotes from his teachers from Mrs. Betsy Engelman, fifth grade science teacher.
Cade's a thoughtful and helpful student who works hard to help his peers and teachers.
He's a dedicated member of the fifth grade student council.
We can count on Cade to do his best every day with a positive attitude and a bright smile.
I enjoy working with him in class.
And from Ms. Rachel Nauert, fifth grade reading and writing teacher, Cade is such a wonderful young man.
He's hardworking, kind, respectful, and exudes excellence in everything he does.
Cade is always willing to lend a helpful hand to a classmate.
I'm so happy to have Cade as a student this year.
So welcome, Cade.
Happy to have you with us.
And go ahead and you can lead us in the pledge as we all get ready to stand.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for
which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Honor the Texas flag.
I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God one and indivisible
good evening president Schulte board members and superintendent Gagorski my
name is Kay Dozier Paterson is the best school because the teachers are amazing
and so are the rewards. So far it's been a great year. When I am in junior high I
will miss my teachers and will think about the memories with my friends and
teachers. Pattison is also a great school because we have awesome field days,
Colport, carnival and many other activities. I will remember all my years
at Pattison forever.
Come on.
Thank you very much, Kate. Do we have any scouts in the audience tonight? Any scouts? Okay, not. We're going to proceed to open forum portion of the meeting. At this time, the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak in accordance with KDIC board policy BED local.
local. As defined by this board policy, the first 20 speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday,
December 13, 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 are not finished speaking at 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
the Secretary for Board Services before the meeting begins for Board members, the Superintendent,
the Chief Communications Officer, and Permanent Record.
If the Speaker has not attempted to solve a matter administratively through 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 Texas Government Code Sections 551-074 and 551-0821, the Board will
not permit the presentation of personally identifiable information regarding a student
and will not discuss the appointment employment evaluation reassignment duties discipline or
dismissal of a public officer or employee or hear a complaint or charge against an officer or
employee should speaker wish to address one of these issues they must do so through the
appropriate local grievance policies fng local dgba local cke local or gf local our speakers
will be called forward in the order they signed up to speak our first speaker tonight is cameron
samuels samuels and our second speaker tonight is colleen salinas good evening
mr president miss deputy superintendent administrators and board of trustees
discrimination and censorship is not our legacy over the past month more than a thousand students
students and community members signed a petition that a friend of mine wrote to urge KDISD
to unblock LGBTQ plus resources like the Trevor Project suicide prevention lifeline from Campus
Internet because it had been under the category of alternative sexual lifestyles and in parentheses
GLBT.
When a student is on the verge of committing suicide, having access to resources and a
suicide prevention lifeline like the Trevor Project is a matter of life or death. The same
applies to resources like the Montrose Center and it is undoubtedly discriminatory that an internet
filter category like this had existed in the first place and is used to block LGBTQ plus news sources
like Advocate and Outsmart Magazine when it allows InfoWars and Texas gun shows. Yes, it is important
to keep our children safe, but what does that mean when life-saving resources are
blocked and students are prohibited from accessing them simply because of a
discriminatory internet filter? I have been working closely with the
administration to resolve this issue and all I can do is hope that promises will
come through into action. Unfortunately this issue is a grain of rice when
looking at LGBTQ plus issues within schools. KDISD does not have a policy
to protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
This needs to be a policy of KDISD.
During the board meeting, you will hear from several speakers on this issue.
I hope you hold the concerns of discrimination and suicide prevention dear to your heart
as we work to be a leading district in Texas.
I thank you for your cooperation in working with us,
and I urge you to support our efforts to update the district's non-discrimination
policy by adding it to the agenda for the next board meeting. The KDISD legacy
should be one of compassion not one of discrimination whether it be
intentionally or even unintentionally. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is
Colleen Salinas and the speaker after that is Ryan at
dr. Gorg or ski and Board of Trustees my name is Colleen Salinas and my son Bubba
attends Jordan high school almost two years this battle of Bubba being denied
as fine arts credit has been going on with no resolution other Texas school
districts including neighboring districts are making academic and curricular lre modifications
for students like my son with no hesitation these school districts are providing a full inclusive
environment by drafting goals to mold teaks and they grade the student based on said goal
student has banned or other fine arts elective on schedule the student gets the credit and the
student is able to fully participate a sample goal that was shared with me is student plays
eighth notes on beat for up to 20 seconds with only one prompt to look at
the director the TEA statement that the district gave to other media to the
media is false because why are other Texas school districts able to modify
following the same TEA standards do you realize the message that KTISD is
sending is you do not want to fully include students like my son sadly this
was never about Bubba or successes this is more about let's see how far we can
and push these parents until they give up.
If it was truly about my son, we would never
be where we are today.
My husband and I don't understand
why this is happening.
The retaliation tactics that we have witnessed are disturbing.
You have leaders trying to intimidate students
with resignation, consequences, and even going to the extreme
to say if they wear a Bubba's Warrior shirt,
they will be kicked out of band.
These tactics are inspiring us to advocate harder for Bubba
and other students like him.
We will never be bullied into silence.
rumor has it the district has a policy in the making that students with a
modified curriculum will not be able to participate in performance based elements
dr. Gregor scheme I was told you made a statement in regards to my son situation
if I do it for one do I do it for all my response to you is absolutely I da and
In ADA, all students are protected for curricular LRE.
I have to give a huge shout out to the students of KDISD
who have shown and displayed what true inclusion really is.
KDISD, you have a lot to learn from these kids.
Music is art and Bubba makes art.
If you truly care about all students with all abilities,
you will find a resolution.
We can truly turn this around to create something positive
and truly build an all-inclusive legacy at KDISD.
See their ability.
Encourage their participation and count them in.
I have an R meeting tomorrow.
Let's make this right.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Ryan Abt.
And the speaker after that is Amy Traynor.
Thank you for this time today.
day. This is the second time that I've come before the board speaking about the topic of library
books and censorship. As you know, I have a PhD in history, in research, in education, and gender,
and race, and the intersection of those. And I just want to be clear that the two people that
that just came before you represent the students.
They're all different and they all have different needs.
And I think you also know that they're a subset of parents,
partisan activists, who don't want to see this board
represent all students and don't want to see
all of our students supported in every way possible.
And they make claims that they are doing what they do because of students, but in reality,
they do what they do because they want students to only include a certain set.
I just want to say that historically, this is not new.
do. We've had activists use textbook censorship to silence others before and make no mistake,
they say that they're advocates for students and families but they're not. They want to
limit materials in schools and who those materials represent and who those materials support.
And I will tell you, I don't understand the perspective of LGBTQ students and I don't
understand the perspective of the student that was up here just a moment ago but i tell you this
i want them all all every student to have support i don't have to understand every textbook in the
library to know that i want all of them to have things places where they can go resources that
that they can go to where they can know this is someone speaking to them.
So I urge you in this moment, I think you see what is clear. You have the
opportunity, I think, to do the right thing. But the hard thing you can be a
body that protects our students and our educators from partisan interference by
Thank you for your time. Appreciate it.
The next speaker is Amy Trainor.
And the speaker after that is Mary Ellen Kuzella.
Sorry, I said that wrong.
Good evening.
Good evening, Board.
Dr. Gagorski.
KDE administration touts its dedication to its teachers.
Tonight I will be speaking on behalf of Dr. Emily Cantrell,
a clinical associate professor and co-chair of the Advanced Literacy Studies Program
in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M University, and
to the confusion and extra work created for teachers required to use curriculum
that doesn't align with the science of reading. The right to a free and
appropriate education is guaranteed to our children in the 14th Amendment of
the United States Constitution. Part of an appropriate education is providing
each child the very best opportunity to learn to read. For those who don't learn
to read or always struggle with reading, we know they are much more likely to
drop out of school, become involved with drugs and crime, become incarcerated, and even return
to prison.
Beyond cost of incarceration, U.S. health care expenses for individuals who read below
a fourth grade reading level are over three times that of health care expenses for those
who read at or above a fourth grade level.
In fact, the World Literacy Foundation estimates illiteracy costs over one trillion U.S. dollars
per year.
Illiteracy is quite literally a public health issue, and the cost on a personal, local,
and national level cannot be ignored. We also know through decades of empirical
research that the most powerful weapon we have against illiteracy is quality
reading instruction. As the National Research Council found, high quality
reading instruction helps children beat the odds. As a school district you hold
the keys to the door of literacy for the children of your community and the
future of our society. Those keys are the provision of effective reading
instruction. What does effective reading instruction require? One, knowledgeable
teachers and two evidence-based literacy curriculum programs. Knowledgeable
teachers are prepared through teacher education and professional development
programs that provide a deep understanding of the structure of the
language and how to teach it directly, explicitly, and systematically. At Texas
A&M University, we are the largest producer of teachers in the state of
Texas and we work tirelessly to prepare our pre-service teachers with this
knowledge base when they enter the field. Through rigorous coursework, our students
students leave with an understanding of the science of how reading develops and how to most effectively teach reading.
But one major roadblock has been and continues to be where our pre-service teachers enter the school that use curriculum programs that are completely
contradictory to everything we have taught them. Curriculum programs serve as a guide to teachers for what to teach, how to teach it, and the materials to teach.
In the same way that even the most talented of chefs need quality recipe and ingredients, so do knowledgeable teachers need quality curriculum programs.
In the field of education, fads and trends come and go, and it's easy to assume that
the science of reading is just another one.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Mary Ellen Kizella, and the speaker after that is Karen Perez.
I'm grateful to speak to you again tonight.
Thank you.
First, I want to thank you, Dr. Grzegorski, for making a public statement about the vulgar
books in our school libraries.
I'm glad to hear that the books read at last month's board meeting are officially removed
from all district campuses.
I hope this is a permanent removal and they will not return to our children's library
bookshelves ever again.
And for that matter, I hope they are not in any classroom libraries either.
I urge you to include parents in the book review process, offer a timeline, metrics,
and status along the way. Let's not have a slick online tool that effectively
does nothing but help your PR. Many may not understand that we've been asking
for the district to remove these books and to do a library audit since at least
September through private emails and also at prior board meetings. We read the
books to get your attention and help the public understand what kind of vulgarity
these books contained. Removing vulgar books is not about racism, hate, or
intolerance of anyone. No matter your ideology or what side of the fence you're on, vulgar books are
beneath you. We must safeguard everyone's dignity and self-worth, most especially that of a student.
No matter your beliefs, you deserve more respect than these books offer. There are plenty of other
books that tell stories of all people. Vulgarity and obscenity are not necessary to tell someone's
walk in this life. Raise the bar. We are made for more. Yes, most children have access to vulgarity
at their fingertips via smartphones. This does not mean schools should provide it too. Schools
should be a moral leader in the community. Many wonder how these books got into our libraries. A
major player is the corrupt American Library Association. Librarians use ALA award lists and
bestseller lists to purchase the books. This is now a failed process. Librarians cannot depend on
these sources for consistent reliable reviews any longer a great example is
the book lawn boy by Jonathan Evason which used to sit on KDISD library
shelves it includes extremely descriptive scenes of fourth graders
engaging in oral sex derogatory comments about homosexuals all throughout and
obscene vulgar language the American Library Association gave lawn boy an
editor's choice pick in 2018 and made it a top 10 book for readers ages 12
through 18 our community standards are higher than these award lists we should
not be a member of the American Library Association parents should be part of
the process to help the next speaker is Karen Perez and the speaker after that
is Elise Markowitz thank you for allowing me to speak we cannot rely on
the american library association the texas library association and the american association of school
librarians to choose appropriate books for our children they have become politicized organizations
with agendas these associations do not represent our community values for example the texas library
association's texas spirit award and the american library association's michael prince honor book
Book Award were awarded to Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope
Perez.
This book is in Seven Lakes and in Tompkins.
In their summary of the book, they say, indeed,
the book has an anal sex scene, but it's
a scene embedded in tremendous context of time, racism,
and power.
The review they give says that this is about race,
but that's half the truth.
That's a minor ingredient.
The book focuses on gratuitous sex situations that are beyond ninth graders.
It includes multiple comprehensive instructions on giving hand jobs, female masturbation,
justified for pain relief and mental escape from the physical abuse of the stepfather,
male masturbation by both the stepdad and the love interest.
Later on, the author teaches young adults how to go down and give girls a gift.
This sexualization is not romantic at all, it's nasty. The second book I want to
highlight is George by Alex Gino. This is another ALA award winner. It's a 2016
Stonewall Award. It's in six of our junior highs and in two high schools. It
tells a story of a ten-year-old boy's transgender journey. They talk about the
concept of pornography and how to find it in internet and magazines and it
It teaches students how to clear their internet history so that their parents will not be
able to see what they're looking at.
It teaches the process of androgen blockers and surgery to become transgender.
The book is in all of these schools.
My point is, do not be fooled by the book's approval by these associations or the awards.
I'm glad you're removing certain books and revamping this process, but many librarians
librarians are spoon-fed the material and training by the ALA that they cannot be counted on alone to control the process.
Parents need to be involved. Thank you.
The next speaker is Liz Markowitz and the speaker after that is Victor Perez.
Good evening. I've come to speak to you tonight about three issues. The lack of inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the KISD
discrimination code the human sexuality internet filter and the reviewing of what
the superintendent has deemed quote-unquote pervasively vulgar books
first I'd like to discuss the lack of inclusion of sexual orientation and
gender identity in the KISD discrimination code adding sexual
orientation means that the school district will not allow anyone in the
school community to be treated differently or to be harassed by anyone
one because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or because people think they are. Students who are
struggling with their sexual identity often face enormous pressures and sometimes violence.
Similarly, transgendered students probably suffer even more harassment than discrimination of GLB
students. They need to be protected for the same reasons. Non-discrimination and anti-harassment
policies tell the student that the school at least is the one place where they can be safe
with regards to the human sexuality internet filter currently sites like the trevor project
and the montrose center that offer mental health resources for those struggling with their
sexuality and gender identity are blocked it has been said that the administration does not see the
need to include such sites because mental health resources are offered in alternative locations
However, much like you would not recommend drug rehab to someone who suffers from anxiety,
the resources on these sites are targeted to meet a specific need.
Please consider unblocking these sites for those students in need.
Finally, I would like to express concerns regarding the reviewing and banding process
of books in KISD libraries.
Undoubtedly, some of the material that was presented at the last board meeting has no
place in a K through 12 institution however the superintendent recently sent out an email
regarding the review process for quote-unquote pervasively vulgar material without defining what
constitutes pervasively vulgar as we all know interpretations of the words vary vastly in our
community and the standard of book review has yet to be publicly stated however the list of books
deemed fit for removal from republican representative kraus consists mainly of
lgbtq race and gender issues in order to ensure transparency and accountability i request that
the board of trustees clearly define thank you thank you mr perez the next speaker and
the speaker after that is claudia turcotte i just want to say at the beginning that
thank you very much by the way thank you for letting me speak parents and
grandparents are just here we're trying to do is maintain the dignity of our
kids to maintain raise them up and keep them as innocent and as pure as possible
as long as possible there's nothing wrong with that this is not censorship
this is not censorship it is looking out for the kids the reason what I wanted to
talk about however is about CRT in the American Library Association they've
gone in hog wild all the way in to promoting CRT as well as even police
defunding and they are pushing this and peddling this to teachers and librarians
for example in their website if you would just spend a few minutes looking
through the website they say that they call on library workers to commit to
structural change and to taking action to end systemic racism and injustice
That's CRT code word.
We stand in solidarity, engaging in collective action against systemic racism, oppression,
and injustice.
This reveals our country's disgraceful legacy of state-sanctioned violence against black
people.
We join the chorus of voices demanding an end to this violence and insisting that BLACK
LIVES MATTER, all in caps.
We commit to dismantling white supremacy in libraries and librarianship.
This is, again, this is part of the ALA website.
What do they want people to do?
Librarians?
Study, amplify, and align with the policy demands of the Movement for Black Lives.
They also say evaluate the messages about police and policing libraries promoted to children.
See policing doesn't protect us in evaluating children's books about police.
In other words, they want censorship in any book that shows police in a positive light.
Invest in alternatives to policing and security guards within library spaces.
See, it's not enough to save Black Lives Matter.
Uproot racism. Here's something else from their website.
It's not enough to save Black Lives Matter.
Libraries must divest from the police.
The current global uprisings for Black lives have made it clear that police power is enormous, deadly, and unaccountable.
It is not enough for libraries to save Black Lives Matter.
Now is the time for libraries to divest from police.
library freedom project is calling on our profession to begin taking away
police power in our spaces in order to support in Minneapolis furthermore the
library profession is overwhelmingly thank you thank you
Claude Claudia Turcotte and in the speaker at that is Jennifer Myers
I'd like to thank you all for taking action regarding the pornography found in KDISD libraries.
We're all rational adults here and we all have the ability to choose our destiny and
our path in life.
Our children, however, are just that, children.
They lack judgment and are easily influenced.
Our schools must remain neutral on the issue of sex.
sex. Incredibly, many disagree with removing these books. I have even received a couple
of not so nice postcards from people that are upset with my stance. I can't imagine
that anyone hearing what we read at the last meeting would be okay with our tax dollars
going to provide those books to minors or with our schools making them available to
minor students. I liken it to those deeply misguided parents who reason that since kids
will drink alcohol anyway it's okay for the parents to be the ones to provide it
yes our kids are exposed to porn already yes many kids will choose to drink
alcohol but on principle neither parents or schools should be the ones making
those things available Katie is D please stay out of our children's sexuality
discussion of sex as it pertains to biology or science is one thing but this
This type of literature is gratuitously salacious and devoid of any redeeming educational value.
Kids are naturally curious about sex.
Our schools do not exist to teach our kids to objectify each other or engage in meaningless sexual encounters.
The outside world is already doing an excellent job of that.
Misusing the gift of sexuality negatively affects our hearts, our self-esteem, our dignity.
It can also lead us to treat others with disrespect or in extreme cases to abuse.
Please stick to what the educational system was created for, teaching reading,
writing, math, and science. In a time and climate where we're super sensitive to
abuse and sexual harassment, there should be copious vigilance given to keeping
this garbage out of our schools. Our kids are hyper sexualized and overexposed as
it is. The school library should be a safe harbor and not yet another venue
you where kids can access porn. A final word to those who have accused us of
being pro-censorship. You could not be more wrong. I strongly oppose censorship
and I cherish our First Amendment rights. I am simply
against the school library making porn available to minors and I object to my
tax dollars supporting that endeavor one has nothing to do with the other thank
you thank you the next speaker is Jennifer Myers and the speaker after
that is Tina seaman their presidential a board of trustees superintendent
My name is Jennifer Myers. I'm here to request KDISD Board of Trustees to quit membership of Texas Association of School Boards, TASB.
Mrs. Champagne, please take note. I don't mean any offense to you.
I voice this request as a taxpayer, a parent who moved from the city of Houston to Katy for its renowned school district.
According to public demand, TASB is a 501c nonprofit organization with over a thousand school boards in Texas.
In 2019, TASB made an annual revenue of $75 million.
90% of its revenue comes from program services.
In their website, TASB listed services such as board book, HR, board development, legal, executive search, printing, etc.
also from public domain in 2019 all 16 key officers in TSB made at least a
hundred sixty thousand dollars in salary while the executive director and
associate director director made 1 million and half a million each here's
my question to this board as an established and thriving school district
what would this board benefit from TSB furthermore what services this board
bought purchase from TASB these years. As a taxpayer, I hate to see my tax money go to these
redundant and bureaucratic channels. I request the board to be transparent on these expenses given to
TASB. Fundamentally, I do not understand the purpose of having an association of school boards
in state and national level. When we taxpayers elect board of trustees, it is understood that
not all of you have an educational background. Frankly, we don't need an education expert on the
board. That's the superintendent's job. You are to act as voice of parents. You need to listen to
what parents are looking for, not someone sitting in Austin or Washington, D.C. And we trust you to
have the best interest in us because you are one of us. This past September, the National School
Boards Association sent a letter to Biden administration requesting DOJ resources against
parents who speak in local board meetings and calling parents domestic terrorists. Shortly after
NSBA all apologize for the letter while 15 states withdraw from the organization
as a protest yet Texas is not one of them my question to this board and to
mr. champagne because you're a selected TSB board member do you agree with such
statement by NSBA by knowledge drawing from NSBA thank you thank you time is up
up thank you the next speaker is Tina Seaman and the speaker after that is
Lajune Lien good evening distinguished board dr. Gagorski area suits and all
those who are over various departments of this great district you see I am one
of your servants I have been with Katie for 33 years and on Friday I'm gonna
turn in my keys because my husband's going through some health issues but I
want to give you something and don't worry I'm watching the clock dr.
for Gorgorski, I promise. I want to tell you, back in 1989, I was teaching. I wasn't teaching
at that point. I was a paralegal. And you see, God said, it's time to go back. So I challenged him,
please don't do that. Because I said, if you can get me into KDISD, I'll go back. Well, 33 years
ago, you had to know someone to know someone. And I knew no one. Three days later, I had a job in
KDISD at Memorial Parkway Elementary, working under Patty Sanders. Here for six years, I was
there. I directed plays, taught, and did great things. Then her assistant principal was at
Cimarron. There, I again taught and did plays. And I did something for KDISD. You see, Tom Wilson,
who was over HR, decided that KDISD needed assistant principals in the summer. So they
had this opportunity to do, you can be a pilot program. I jumped on it. He said, Tina, there's
no money you work from seven to four every day there's no money I'll do it
and from there Katie I see got the assistant principals for the summer and
the next year I worked with Lonnie Roberts and Memorial Parkway element at
junior high the four goals the three goals that he said was make sure that
you get me a blue ribbon Texas a pentathlon and direct-to-play all
through remit because of great people I worked with I opened up Martin Ranch
junior high with Becky Bracewell who taught me great things then I opened up
Wood Creek and Dr. Bell back there was one that really honed me in on certain
things on knowing data and it was under Patty Schaefer. I went to work at May
Creek High School under Dr. Steele where she taught me about PLC and learning
walks and also making sure you take care of everyone. I then went to Windborn
under Dr. Mitzner who taught me about social media and now I'm at Westmore
Elementary. I was there with Paul Musavi who taught me that if you were in the
military you can walk real fast now I work with Becky more room who's a
fantastic principal and I know one day you'll move her up because she's so good
at what she does but I wanted to thank you tonight for all of your service for
letting me be your servant and also to dr. Carlson thank you for your prayers
for my husband who's going through thank you thank you
Thank you.
The last speaker is Hannah Brown.
Good evening, board.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
I would like to bring up three topics this evening.
The first one is I would like to request increased professional conduct training for teachers
and administrative staff, especially when they pull students for one-on-one situations
with elementary students.
These young children should be treated with respect,
just like for any other human being.
Wrongfully blaming or intimidating a student is not acceptable.
And prompt notification of a parent is important
to make the process transparent.
Parents have the right to inquire about the process
process, an inquiry should not be retaliated back on students.
Let's make an effort to set positive examples for students on how we respectfully treat
each other.
The second topic I would like to bring up is whether the KDISD would consider when it
comes to classroom flooring, would it consider non-carpet flooring when it's time to change
out some old carpets in the classrooms. I was thinking that this perhaps would
help certain medical conditions that may be more affected by carpet. The last
topic is related to school lunch menu. I was wondering how often and how the
menu is reviewed and if parents can participate in that process. Thank you
very much. Our last speaker tonight is Hannah Brown.
Good evening, I'm Anna Brown.
I'm a graduate of Cinco Ranch High School.
I have a teenager currently enrolled in Katy ISD High School and two little ones that will
be in Katy ISD School soon.
I also work in books specializing in YA fiction.
I absolutely believe books can change the world, but they do it best by allowing young
readers to be exposed to a diversity of ideas and representation so they can learn to make
their own informed decisions about their values and their world. Young people should see themselves
on the pages of books, but they should also see people who don't look like them, don't talk like
them, don't have the same opportunities they do, and don't have the same beliefs, so they can learn
to engage with the whole world around them and start asking questions of their trusted adults.
I'm here tonight in support of our librarians who obtained master's degrees to learn how to
curate collections for their entire incredibly diverse school populations there have been a lot
of challenges lately and also a lot of public judgment of this wonderful group that our
district has been blessed with and that's a shame we received an email recently for the superintendent
from the superintendent that stated one of the goals going forward is the removal of any book
that meets the definition of pervasively vulgar as outlined in board policy ef local except there
there is no definition of that phrase in the policy.
The definition from a standard dictionary
is spread throughout with indecency.
There's also been reference to the state penal code
regarding distribution of harmful material to minors.
Section 43.24 of the Texas Penal Code
defines harmful material as a material
whose dominant theme taken as a whole
appeals to the prurient interest of a minor
in sex, nudity, or excretion,
is patently offensive to prevailing standards
in the adult community as a whole
with respect to what is suitable for minors and is utterly without redeeming social value for minors
asexine or even several in literature does not make something pervasively vulgar
and it certainly doesn't indicate that it is utterly without redeeming social value for minors
i am alarmed by how many of the recently challenged books feature characters of color or
that identify as part of the lgbtq plus community it feels like the agenda here is not merely to
remove books with sex on them and let's be honest our teens do and should know about sex as a huge
fan of y literature i can tell you that most of it being published today does a good deal more than
our standard sex ed for educating young people about consent boundaries and their own rights
to remove them does more harm than good thank you
thank you this concludes the open forum portion of our meeting tonight the board will now convene
and close meeting as authorized under section 551-001 of the Texas Government Code for the
following purposes. Texas Government Code 551-071, 551-129, and 551-072. Thank you.
Okay, good evening, everyone. The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday,
December 13, 2021, and the time is 617 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 december 10 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 the chapter 551 of the
the Texas Government Code. Any action discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in open meetings.
The first agenda item is agenda item 5.1. Consider board approval of the purchase of
property for future school facility development. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. President,
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the non-binding letter of intent to purchase
approximately five acres of property on the northeast corner of Logginball Road and Katie
Hockley Road for the right-of-way for utilities and future construction of
Longball Road for a total acquisition cost estimated not to exceed eight
hundred and ten thousand dollars it further authorizes the board president
to act on a contract for this property at the requested same purchase price
we have a motion by mr. Redmond and a second by mr. Keller are there any
questions well now proceed to vote all those in favor raise your right hand and
and say aye aye motion carries 7-0 will now proceed to agenda item 6 discuss and
consider future board approval of naming of elementary school number 44 as
recommend there is recommended by the naming advisory committee dr. Gorski
Thank You president Sheltie so as you we talked about at the last board meeting
that we would at the board's direction put a committee together and review all
the names that were submitted for elementary number 44 the committee was uh able to meet as
a group and is brought forward and i've got a name a recommendation to the board and i'm going to
read a bio bio as well if you would allow me a few minutes to go ahead and do so but the proposed
elementary number 44 name is steve and elaine robertson elementary dr steve and mrs elaine
robertson have dedicated 64 combined years to public education steve began his career as an
an elementary teacher in Spring Branch ISD in 1985. His passion for school leadership led him
to roles in Conroe ISD and Katy ISD, where he served as an elementary, junior high, and high
school principal, and eventually as an assistant superintendent for secondary school leadership
and support. In these roles, Steve led school improvement efforts, increased student performance,
and provided support and mentorship to staff and campus leadership. He has said that the favorite
part of his career has been helping students and staff grow and achieve
their potential. In retirement Steve continues to mentor as a coach for the
KDISD aspiring principals Academy. Elaine Robertson grew up with a sister who was
profoundly deaf and often served as interpreter for her sibling. Her sister
was such an inspiration to her that Elaine always knew she'd become a
teacher of the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Elaine began her career with West 10
Cooperative in 1987 as a deaf education elementary teacher. She chose to focus on
her family for a few years but returned to education in 1997 as a parent infant advisor
for kdisd elaine assumed the leadership role of instructional officer for deaf education
vision and assistive technology in 2002. in this role she wrote grants to fund innovative
instruction provided engaging and inspiring staff development sessions and served on inclusion teams
and site-based management teams lane also organized extracurricular programs to bridge
academic and social gaps between the deaf and hard of hearing and other
students she was also instrumental in establishing Katie ISD's audiological
center both Steve and Elaine value the importance of giving back to their
community by staying involved with the school district as well as supporting
community events they volunteered with organizations including Katie students
run urban harvest Houston food banks backpack buddies and raise up families
ELLENE SERVES AS THE BOARD, AS A SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER FOR THE TEXAS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND
AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED.
STEVE EARNED HIS BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN LIBERAL ARTS AND IN EDUCATION FROM THE UNIVERSITY
OF TEXAS AS WELL AS MASTER'S AND DOCTORAL DEGREES IN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP FROM THE
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON.
ELLENE EARNED A BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN COMMUNICATION DISORDERS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS.
SHE WENT ON TO EARN A MASTER'S DEGREE IN DEAF EDUCATION FROM THE GALADIETTE UNIVERSITY,
the only university in the world where students live and learn using American Sign Language.
Steve and Elaine met while attending the University of Texas, were married in 1987, have three children,
all KDISD graduates. They both retired in 2020. So that
is the name I bring forward to the board, Steve and Elaine Robertson, as recommended by the naming committee.
And I'm going to go ahead
and Steve and Elaine are there, those of you who may not know, and I think everyone in this room knows who they are,
but you would be standing and be recognized one more time. I appreciate it.
So as the board knows, but I'll go ahead and share it anyway for the community who may not know,
we go ahead and we do a public hearing, and that will take place in January,
and then we come back to the board with a final recommendation and ask the board
to make a vote at that time with the final recommendation we anticipate all
that happening at the January board meeting awesome thank you
congratulations I got tired just hearing about what's up you guys it's just
amazing thank you congratulations now proceed to agenda item 7.1 consider
board adoption of the local policies included in board policy update 118 board members are
there any questions if not I'll entertain a motion mr. president I move that the board of trustees
adopts the local policies included in board policy update 118.
Second.
Oh, Ty.
Okay, Ty goes to Leah.
We have a motion by Mr. Redman, a second by Ms. Wilson.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion carries 7-0.
We'll now proceed to agenda item 7.2,
consider board approval of the minutes of the November 2021 board meeting.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the board of trustees approves the minutes of the board meeting
held in November 2021. Okay we have a motion by Ms. Wilson, a second by Ms. Champagne.
I'm sorry I said it backwards. Champagne, I'm sorry. Ms. Wilson made the motion and Ms. Champagne
made, Ashley made the second. Ms. Mann made second. Sorry guys. Yeah they all sound the same.
Okay we'll now proceed to vote. No the voices sound the same to me when I'm listening. I can't
don't look part okay I apologize that came out wrong geez I'll have to buy
everybody another Christmas present for that one okay I'm sorry well now proceed
to vote all those in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye motion carries
7-0 I'm in the doghouse I know what that feels like yeah that's right I'm not
proceed to agenda item 8.1 of reports progress update the board on the uses of the elementary
and secondary school emergency relief funds also known as esser 2 and esser 3 the presenters are
dr christine caskey chief academic officer and miss nakia coy director of federal programs good
evening good evening president schulte board members and dr gorski i'm here this evening
to present an update on the kdisd elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund
this slide presents an overview of the esser funds received by the district tonight we will
review the sr2 and sr3 allocations and provide an update on the activities please keep in mind that
we are in the beginning stages of implementing activities for these multi-year grants this
evening you will see budgeted activities but keep in mind that the expenditures will occur over the
the next three years. The intent of these funds is to help safely reopen schools and to address
the impact of the pandemic on students. There are three main buckets where funds can be spent.
Activities to assist in the safe return to school, activities to address learning loss,
and activities to address the well-being of students. We're required to spend a minimum
of 20 percent of the total grant in these last two areas. You can see here that we have exceeded
the minimum reservation there's 30 percent reserved in esser 2 and 60 percent reserved
in esser 3 to support these activities i'll outline the activities plan for each of the
categories that i mentioned previously safe return to school includes the purchase of
additional cleaning supplies and the implementation of health protocols
there's a total of 2.2 million dollars budgeted to implement health protocols
calls which included the addition of two floating nurses other upcoming activities include additional
cleaning of band instruments and the purchase of additional instruments to reduce the need
for students to share on this slide you will see the federally identified strategies to
mitigate learning loss that are included in our use of funds plan
we have budgeted approximately three million dollars to address the needs of our english
learners and students with disabilities. Current expenditures include software,
reading materials, and professional development. There's a little over a
million dollars budgeted for summer programs at individual campuses that
will take place in the summer of 2022. There's approximately 1.4 million
dollars designated primarily for before and after school tutorials. There's 24
$34 million allocated to the category of meeting the comprehensive needs of students.
This includes salaries for 152 campus staff, which consists of instructional coordinators,
instructional coaches, intervention teachers, and paraprofessionals to be paid over the
three-year grant period.
There's approximately $1.3 million designated to address individual campus identified needs,
and campuses have used these funds to hire instructional tutors and to purchase classroom
classroom resources.
The district has allocated approximately $737,000 for ensuring that our parents and families
have the necessary knowledge and skills to support their students.
Additional parent classes have been offered at Arcadia ISD parent centers and campuses
have offered parents opportunities to attend activities and events such as curriculum nights
and lunch and learn sessions.
There is approximately $1.5 million allocated to purchase and administer high-quality assessments.
Online reading and math universal screeners were also purchased to assist classroom teachers
in identifying student deficits.
Additionally, substitutes were hired to allow classroom teachers time to administer these
high-quality assessments to their students.
Approximately $2.8 million has been allocated to address the mental health services and
supports. These funds have been used to hire additional social workers, counselors, and
behavioral interventionists. Campuses have created counseling and mentor groups after school,
as well as provided professional development to staff to address mental health concerns.
The next few slides will describe how the remaining funds have been budgeted.
5.2 million dollars was allocated in the area of campus professional development.
This includes conference registration and funding for staff to provide just-in-time
professional development.
Approximately $808,000 is allocated to support career and technical education.
This includes the purchase of specialized hardware and software designed to enhance
our current curriculum and also to broaden student awareness of career clusters.
$3 million has been set aside to purchase education technology.
This includes Chromebooks, laptops, iPads, and educational software.
Approximately $18 million has been designated to provide continuity of services and to continue to employ staff.
Additional campus and department staff, which you will see on the upcoming slides, have been hired to provide needed services in the areas impacted by the pandemic.
Growth units were also included to address the increased student population.
This slide outlines the 214 campus-based positions hired to support campus and district initiatives
such as classroom support to mitigate learning loss, address mental health concerns, provide
support to absent students, and to support the coordination of intervention services.
A total of 34 staff members were employed by the district to provide professional development
to campuses, provide support to parents, decrease the dropout rate, and administer and manage
the federal grant funding and compliance requirements associated with these grant funds.
We will continue to conduct progress monitoring of our use of funds plan and to gain feedback
from our stakeholders through the esser at kdisd.org email and through our annual stakeholder
survey. In June of 2022, a semi-annual public comment period and update to the board will be
be held. And we're here to address any questions that you may have. Realizing that these funds are
spread out over multiple departments. I'm the presenter here tonight, but we have many, many,
many people here in the district who have been involved in the development of these plans. So
we're here to address questions as we can or to gather your questions and provide you with the
THE RESPONSES.
NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.
ANY QUESTIONS, BOARD MEMBERS?
NEW SPEAKER MR. PRESIDENT, I HAVE A QUESTION.
SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRESENTATION.
I KNOW THIS COULDN'T HAVE BEEN AN EASY THING TO DO ALL OF THIS, BUT I JUST WANT TO SAY SOMETHING
ABOUT THE COUNSELORS AND THE SOCIAL WORKERS.
I SEE THAT THERE'S FOUR EXTRA COUNSELORS AND FOUR SOCIAL WORKERS.
FIRST OF ALL, COULD YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN THE ROLE OF A COUNSELOR
AND THE ROLE OF A SOCIAL WORKER?
and where will these people be?
I'm going to take those questions down,
and I'll give you those responses.
So we got that?
Lynette?
Yes.
Got it.
Do we know?
Go ahead.
If you know it, tell them.
So campuses were given the opportunity
to choose the staff members that best suited their needs.
So we have four campuses that chose
to have an additional counselor, and those are?
Wood Creek Junior High.
sorry wood creek junior high seven lakes junior high hasket junior high and memorial parkway
elementary and then and i could i can also say that 10 college and career facilitators were hired
so that at the high school level those those positions can kind of work on the transition
to college allowing the counselors on that campus to spend more time with like
mental health and those kinds of things so so the four campuses that you
mentioned are those counselors or social workers those are the counselors and
then the four social workers I know they work district-wide district-wide based
on need okay well I think that's awesome they were given that opportunity to do
a per campus decision rather than it can't be just a one thing for all type
thing so that's nice thank you any other questions I have a few interrupt me if
someone else wants a turn thank you the presentation is awesome and I'm really
excited about what you're doing my number one question is how'd you decide
where to allocate the funds well as far as campuses it was based on a formula
with they we looked at special populations we looked at eco discs we
looked at enrollment so that's how funds and then also staff members like staff
allocations were determined and then also there was a district like a needs
assessment done by all the departments to look at where our needs were then you
know as far as that and then we just kind of kind of married the two but like
the campuses will receive that same allocation for the next three years so
so that they have their own kind of discretionary pot
where they can base their activities
on their specific needs.
I agree with Mrs. Champagne.
This has to be like a puzzle
that's almost impossible to put together
and allocate that correctly.
So I appreciate that.
So campus had input and your departments had input
and you look at needs
and then they have those funds for three years
is what you're saying.
Well, ESSER II is two years and ESSER III is three years,
but we're kind of working them together
where we might pay salaries in two and then we move that third year over to
three so we have to kind of juggle that way as well right and so when the campus
has that as their needs change they can use those people as needs change and as
they catch kids up and do those things when we look at slide number three if we
can go back that far there's the whole 20% minimum and 30% miss or two what is
all that mean okay so and it's really only a requirement for s or three where
where you have to have at least 20% of your total grant
addressing learning loss and student well-being.
So in the grant application, there's specific activities
that they reference in those areas.
So all of the activities are defined in the grant
application.
And so if you look at this one, these specific activities
for mitigating learning loss are in the grant application
themselves.
So we had to choose from which of those activities
we wanted to do.
So 20% of the funds have to be spent on these funds.
It seems so low to me.
Right.
I'm like, that would be the lion's share, and then you would do some others.
So 30% – I understand 20% is their requirement, and we're doing more.
How did you decide 30% and 60%?
Kind of what does that mean?
I see where you're dispersing it, but how did you come up with that?
It was not necessarily we decided to spend 30% or 60%.
It was once we looked at the needs of the district, this is how it kind of played out.
And so definitely the majority of the funds are spent on learning loss and student well-being.
And this, I mean, then there's also indirect, but.
So that's, I see there was.
could see where you would say the technology is learning loss and you know helping kids there so
just seems like 30% seems like such a low number is this total 60 this year plus 30 is 90 or is it
30% of s or twos and 60 percent of s or two in in totality but like I said that's not the
requirement um it's only in three but like okay so i'll give you an example um esser 2 there's 29
29.9 million but you know part of the state held money back so we had to replace 5 million
of that in salaries and so that kind of cuts into it um 3.7 is indirect where that kind of goes back
to our general fund for lights and all of those kinds of things um so the majority of both grants
is really in payroll as far as all of those staffing positions staff gets expensive i guess
and i'm pretty sure you all know when you guys vote on the budget every year and decide to
increase raises but staff gets pretty expensive pretty quick but also that's about learning loss
right so is that part of the 20 percent 152 positions seems like that would be 214 total
It depends.
I mean, I wrote down 152 is something you said.
That was on the comprehensive needs of students.
It was 152 for that specific grant activity.
So that's like academic support teachers, intervention teachers, tutors.
I love that.
You know right off the top of your head.
I appreciate that.
So when we look at slide 10, I think you've just answered the question, but I have it
listed right here let me go to slide 10 which is comprehensive needs of students
that's what my slide says we're talking 18 million budgeted and expended 1.5
that's s or 3 so is that just further out a bit and then that says over here
it says additional staff and instructional materials okay reduce
class sizes also important okay additional support for absent students
Okay. So this is just the beginning, is what you're saying. Expended, this is the beginning,
and it spends over time, and all of that budget will be spent by the end of the time.
So this was probably taken at the end of November, and so, you know, twice a month payroll comes out
and that kind of thing. So over time, it just, we budget the full amount to pay people for the
next three years, and then over time, it'll deplete. Awesome. This is my last one,
slide 18 the very last one tell me which one it's the continuity of services and
continuing to employ existing staff so
12 million and s or two and almost five and s or three this is the one where it
says additional campus growth units is that because of the need only of this
and then we need to keep those teachers as we go along is that what that's about
out or why why didn't the state pay us for the staff we need additional district staff increased
ability to provide needed services but growth units is the one that made me go like address
deficit and state funding that's the one that's your two funds address deficit and state funding
that's the hold harmless that they they kept back for i guess fiscal year 21 and so um we've
I guess paid ourselves back for that deficit.
Okay.
And then additional campus growth units, number of campuses,
that's just almost all of them, 72, right?
So every campus will need extra people to help catch kids up and keep learning going.
We have subs that every campus has received that assisted students when they're absent.
and then they're also assisting the campus administration with tutorials and interventions.
So that's kind of where that 72 comes from.
Not every campus has a growth unit per se.
It's just pretty much based on increased enrollment.
And so just because these funds have a short timeframe, we want to make sure we're spending
these funds first and maybe keeping some of our general funds for other initiatives or
later on.
Those are just the answers I needed. Thank you very much. I appreciate the explanation.
Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President, I have a couple more questions. I'm so sorry, if I may.
Just real quick, so from now on when we get the budget, we're going to see a different place for ESSER money,
you know, where it says all the different general fund and all this, and I'm just curious about that.
And also, I'm hopeful that when this is over, those people can remain employed, especially the extra counselors and social workers.
I'm sure they'll have to be worked into some kind of long-term plan or converted.
I do believe with attrition is kind of our plan right now.
That's awesome.
Another budget?
Yeah.
As far as the budget goes, the general fund budget, we really did not consider as her fund.
So that could be out there on its own.
because that will continue to be out there and dictated by law, by education code,
well after these funds are gone.
And so what we did is we kept them completely separated.
She mentioned indirect cost a couple of times,
and as I said during one of the budget presentations,
we didn't budget for indirect cost when it came to the general fund.
That's additional revenue that could have been budgeted.
We didn't budget it because what that creates is a bubble that's going to pop in three years,
and that money's going to go away.
So it was intentionally left out of the general fund budget.
Everything associated with ESSER was.
Now, over time, we're hoping that these positions, like we said, in a growing district,
we're going to need those new positions.
Are they going to be as rich as we have with these ESSER funds?
Time will tell on that.
COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN.
MR. PRESIDENT, I JUST WANT TO ADD, I APPRECIATE HOW MUCH
KNOWLEDGE YOU HAVE ABOUT EVERY POSITION AND HOW MUCH WORK HAS
GONE INTO IT.
I CAN TELL THAT IT'S VERY DEFINED.
AND HOW DEDICATED YOU ARE TO CATCHING UP OUR KIDS.
AND I KNOW THAT KDSD IS GOING TO BE THE ONE TO LEAD THE WAY ON
THAT.
AND THANK YOU FOR THE EMPHASIS YOU'RE PUTTING ON TUTORIALS AND
ALL THE THINGS.
THIS IS COMPLEX.
I appreciate it very much.
Mr. President, so a lot of times we, I mean, we don't really have the opportunity to pass things in here and then read them later.
And I know when this, I mean, it happened really quickly.
People were trying to move fast.
Have we seen any, right, federal funds many times come with strings?
Have we seen any strings that changes to curriculum or requirements of things that we're going
to have to teach because of any of the dollars?
No, there's no curricular impact.
Is that something that pops up?
I mean, social media, everything's true there.
But when it's not, right?
Those are the main questions that I'm getting asked are, are we required to change some
of those TEKS that we're teaching to our kids because of accepting these funds as well?
Thank you.
No, I'm sorry.
Any other questions?
Thank you very much.
We'll now proceed on to Agenda Item 8.2,
Supply Chain and Inflationary Impacts on Katy Independent School District.
The presenters are Mr. Ted Bierling, Chief Operations Officer,
and Mr. Christopher Smith, Chief Financial Officer.
Good evening.
Good evening.
Good evening. We've been dealing with this since March of 2020, and with the things that have happened as of these last 90 days when it comes to supply chain, we thought it was good to kind of package everything up and present it at one time, because KDISD is not immune to the supply issues that's going on throughout our country.
In the beginning it was just toilet paper and that was one that I could relate to at
our house because hey guess what, we need toilet paper and we don't have it.
But it quickly became things like cleaning supplies and you see the list above you, ahead
of you and we were as a district really trying our best to find that stuff that we could
legally procure or legally buy as quick as we could and as much as we could so we were
not without.
And staff throughout the district did a fantastic job of doing that and making sure that we were not without.
We even bought stuff and had to buy extra storage to make sure that we had enough and have it on supply.
And if you look at anything on the news lately, you see where your package is,
and it's kind of out there in that middle of the ocean, if you will, with that little arrow at the top right.
Right. But that issue starts with unloaded ships and containers at the shipyards.
Starts there and then goes to the truck drivers not being able to get them there,
the laborers and the service industry are all affected by these supply chain issues.
And I thought, or we think it's important that the board and the public know that KDISD,
even though we are a large purchaser of these kind of things,
we are very much fighting these issues as well from a management perspective.
And Mr. Veerling is going to kind of elaborate on a couple of areas,
and I'm going to go back and elaborate on a couple of specific areas as well when he's complete.
But go ahead and turn it over to Mr. Veerling.
Thanks, Chris.
So in addition to things, you also know that we've been short staff.
You probably haven't gone anywhere in and around the area where there haven't been help wanted signs
and restaurants being closed because they don't have enough staff.
We're not immune to that either.
Cafeteria workers, bus drivers, maintenance workers, custodians, teachers, police officers, paraprofessionals,
we've struggled with it.
You guys have seen that at several different board presentations,
and you all have discussed it together, it's a challenge.
It's a challenge because it limits our ability to do what we need to do for kids in the community.
It's a frustration for us, but our folks are resilient, and they work very hard.
And because they do work very hard and they are resilient, they do become exhausted,
and that is a challenge for us too, but we do keep pressing on.
The only positive with any of this and given to us by our CFO is it does create underspending
because we don't have folks hired for those positions.
But what it does require, though, is those other people to step up,
whether you're in the classroom with kiddos
or whether you're cleaning cafeteria tables after the kiddos leave for lunch.
It creates difficulties.
So starting off from a product standpoint,
our food service inventory has been a challenge.
We've provided several board updates to you guys
and talked about some of these shortages from food deliveries
to plastic forks and spoons and knives, serving trays.
All of those things are things that we've struggled with in the past several months
to get all related to supply chain issues.
So our food service department has been very creative in terms of how they're serving our kids,
making sure that they do get served, having to change menus at the last minute.
But I can assure you that none of our kids are going to go hungry.
I know that looking up there at that list, chicken nuggets and pizza and french fries, that may not seem like a big deal to you, but I can assure you that when you change chicken nugget, we got problems.
But the food service department has done a fantastic job.
So in addition to that, construction, if any of you had to build a new fence or work on anything in your house, you know that construction costs, things like plywood and that sort of thing, affects us personally.
but professionally things like steel and all those things affects us in a huge way.
So on all these new construction projects that we've got going with the 2021 bond,
we've seen extremely long lead times for things like chillers and generators.
At one point, our generator to the new rains building was out in California and stuck on a container.
Luckily, it is here. It is hooked up and we are ready to go.
But those kinds of things are stressors on the system for sure
And all those increases in cost right get passed on to the to the to the buyer and that is us
So see this is not a complete list, but it's it's some things that you think about when you're dealing with construction projects bricks
Ceramic tile won't read the list to you, but all of that stuff has an impact
Freight cost is something you don't think about if there's a shortage of truck drivers
How do you get the materials from the port to Texas?
All that stuff has an impact.
Things like drinking fountains.
We're replacing a bunch of drinking fountains so that we can have the bottle fillers at school.
All of those things a challenge.
And steel, which is what supports the entire building, major shortage there.
So how does this affect our bond projects?
When we put this with this bond project list together in December of 2020 and then into January,
we were seeing a little bit of this but not near the extent that we are now.
And as you know, as this thing progresses and we bid projects,
this will undoubtedly have a negative effect on our budgets.
And we're going to continue to work hard to get those budgets as tight as we can because we want to complete, we will complete every project that was outlined in the bond 2021.
And we want to make sure we do it right for kids and the staff.
But we also want to make sure that we're using our money wisely.
Okay.
Just some of the examples is normally when we, for example, elementary 44, normally we, and we just hired last month the principal.
and normally that principal gets on board and has a lot of input in in the
furniture that we're going to board for the campus and unfortunately we've
already had to order that furniture because of the lead time to have that
come in and now they're still going to get some input on some of that other
furniture that goes on that campus but by and large we had to get it ordered so
it would be here or we would be in August and not have it for for the
opening of school there's some timelines there on how long it's taken to get this
stuff and and our again the the staff throughout the district and in this case
the purchasing department has done a fantastic job to identify where those
delays may be and try to stay ahead of it technology is another area there are
some things from a technology perspective that you can order and it
come in relatively quick through three or four weeks and there's a significant
amount of technology that's taken six months so we are already ordering things
things that we have already ordered, things that are going to go into the buildings in
the technology retrofits and the new campuses, we've already ordered them that are going
to be installed next summer.
Some of that stuff comes in quickly, some of it doesn't.
Some of it kind of goes together and so that creates receiving stuff that we don't have
the other part to it and having to store it in storage for longer than we would normally
do.
But there's a list of things that's also affected very much from a technology perspective.
Other shortages, we went through a copy paper shortage.
It's just a short one, but there was a copy paper shortage in the month of early October.
Oil filters, plastic vehicles, you've had to amend this budget.
When we ordered vehicles thinking that they were going to be in before the end of August, they didn't make it.
So it's going to have to come out of this year's budget that we're in now.
I'm not sure if we've received those vehicles yet.
but there's long-laid times on that.
Another example, and the one that I remember the most,
is we ordered in January of last year,
so 10 months ago, we ordered band uniforms
on one of our band cycles to replace band uniforms,
and they didn't come in by the end of August,
and we had to amend this year's budget in order to do that,
and I'm not sure if they're in yet,
but they were not in as of August the 31st,
and things like that we'll continue to deal with.
And in property insurance, you know, with the winter storms
and then every other natural disaster that's happening,
we took into account the budget was going to have an increase in property premiums,
and I think next month the board's going to find out
because we're going to receive that information on what that's going to cost.
And I do expect it to be significantly higher than what this board paid for premiums
on our property insurance last year.
But I guess the final thoughts are, you know, the staff throughout the district in various
departments have been very in front of this and trying to keep up with it without affecting
the education process so far has done a fantastic job.
There are always worries about what's out there that maybe we didn't consider or what's
going to be the next toilet paper that we all kind of scratch our heads, why is there
there a shortage there and we get caught flat-footed.
But they've done a fantastic job,
and we wanted you to be aware that there
are some big pressures, even though we're a large purchaser.
I'll turn it over to Mr. Bailey.
Yeah, I think Chris summed it up really well.
I think our goal, whether it's operations or finance
or whatever group it is, we want to limit the negative effects
on the campus.
We want the kids and the teachers
to come to school every day and not feel things,
things, you know, not make it feel like it's different. We know that there are some times,
like when my son doesn't get the chicken nugget that he thought he was going to get
at Jordan High School, but he does overcome. And so, anyway, that's our presentation,
and we're happy to answer any questions. Whoa, what happened there? That was a little preview.
Sorry. We're happy to answer any questions you have. Yeah, I have one question. This is very
qualitative, right? You're kind of letting us know that things are happening. It's not very
very quantitative. So you guys are just letting know there could be some impacts. You don't know
what they are yet in regards to bonds and how you're going to fill in any, sounds like
over expenditures, not under expenditures, but there's really nothing here other than to
beware there might be some things coming that we're going to have to deal with in the future. Is that correct? But it's not
quantified yet. Well, some of it is. Elementary 44
is quantified. That came in and was awarded
over budget, what we had budgeted for back in January when we put the bond package
together it came in over budget we're looking at Kelly Katie elementary
windborne elementary being more than we budgeted and we're going to be using
some project savings from the 2017 authorization in order to make that
happen the project savings officially is about
24 million dollars but with projects that are outstanding that you will be
will be provided those that those those we're earmarking substantially more
for those projects, and so there's probably going to be about only $12 million right now available,
or $12 or $13 million available in underspending from the 2017, where we are utilizing those funds.
But you're still confident? I heard Mr. Vienling say you're still confident you can finish all of the projects,
even though you're, that's pretty significant.
You know, you obviously can't start cutting corners on the schools and stuff, right?
So you're just hoping you have enough surplus left over to fund the overexpenditure?
We do budget for inflation, and we have budgeted historically for inflation.
We've not budgeted for this type of inflation.
So there was a year of inflation, for example, in those next couple of elementary schools that tail Elementary 44 that has inflation built in it.
Whether that's enough or not, we just won't know until we get those bids back.
But it is going to be tough, and we're going to make those promises like Mr. Veerling.
but it may take us juggling some funds and doing some...
I would say from a construction standpoint,
KDISD is a great district to partner with.
We've got some great companies that we work with currently,
and we've got some great companies that want to do work with us in the future.
And we feel like that relationship that we've had with our architecture firms
and our construction firms will really help us in the long run.
It doesn't eliminate all this but those partnerships
I think do help in that Katy is a not only a great place to work but a great place to work with
So thank you any other questions board members mr. President
On the construction materials have we've been able to change any procedures. I know right now normally people are killing
They're fighting over trying to get in and provide materials for KISD
We looked outside the box about being able to put deposits down now, pay for stored materials,
cut corners to say, hey, bring the materials to us as soon as you can before these price
increases because they still have been issued out the price increases for the next three
months.
Same thing with drywall.
Insulation has a nine-month lead time that if we can put on, we could take it if it was
delivered or we found a place to store it or put a deposit down and that distributor knew it wasn't
a net 30 or net 60 they're fighting over those things it changes cash flow a little bit but
it does companies like amazon and and apple i think they they've opened up additional factories
they bought up a bunch of steel but we've actually got two items on on the agenda tonight uh to get
started a little bit earlier than we normally would uh that you that you will see um in a
a couple of presentations in the future. So we've got some things we're doing. Food service
equipment is a great example. Chris made mention of it a little bit when he was talking. We're
going to actually purchase some food service equipment sooner than later. Donna's going to
store it in the warehouse over at Nutrition and Food Service. It's not something that we would
normally do, but to be safe because trying to get all that stuff in a matter of just a couple of
months and then get the building open, it's a really tight turnaround. Well, and I ask that
question because many times those subcontractors that are the ones that
are actually buying the material don't want to rock the boat and they know that
if I commit to buy it today I can lock in those prices short of six months from
now but they're not gonna be the one that comes up to it because they don't
want anybody to take the contract away from them right they just they want
everybody to be happy and so I don't know if we were to initiate that
conversation and be like hey y'all go out here we're gonna pay for the student
stored materials you may be able to save a good percentage on we've done some
very creative things but we'll actually we'll absolutely look into that thank you any other
questions thank you guys very much good luck we'll now move on to agenda item 9.1 discuss and
consider board approval of the updated design changes associated with the comprehensive
renovations in addition to katie elementary school the presenter is miss miss lisa cassman
executive director of facilities planning and construction good evening
good evening president Schulte board and dr. Gagorski tonight I have three items
for your consideration the first is the presentation of the updated design
changes for Katy Elementary for your consideration
Kirksey architects will present these changes following comments from mr.
beer link I didn't leave you can't get rid of me so we we brought you a design
last month and let me just first say that Kirksey architecture has been a
fantastic group to work with they have worked very closely with Beth and her
team at the campus they've been a great partner of ours from a construction
standpoint and I do think there were some great things in that design and in
November we slept on it a little bit we we got some feedback from the board got
some feedback from the superintendent and we felt like this gave us an
opportunity to come back to you tonight and possibly provide a little more
traditional design give you a little bit of a different look on all what Katy
Elementary could be and so I'll turn it over to Kirksey good evening we're
excited to come today and show you the updated Katy Elementary School working
with guidance from the campus as well as a district personnel we've provided a
more traditional front facade which we'll look at here shortly as well as
updated designs for that entry kind of corridor lobby of the building itself
the other parts of the building that we showed you in the November board meeting
of the collaboration spaces the library the offices those remain consistent from
what we had before on the screen now you can see that updated design and so you
You can see the changes in it.
We've added kind of more of a gable over the entry there,
moved the bell that was off to the side,
kind of floated that up into the middle of the design there.
The color of the brick is consistent
with what's on campus today.
And so we're really happy with the way
this all has come together, working with everybody
to create something that reflects the history
and is moving forward.
And so we just have a few different views here
showing that of how that new entry is working
with the car drop-offs and tying into the existing campus
that's there today. I'm looking at it from the other side here. And then this
is backing up a little bit showing the corner of it so you can see the rest of
the campus here the 1965 addition the flat the flat roof part of it having
that red brick that's currently there with with the white overhang and then
the new entry in the in the in the in the distance there as we look back there.
And then this is standing inside that new entry corridor lobby of the building.
So this is after you've come into the building, you've turned around, you're looking back.
You can see where the glass is in the distance there.
That is the entry vestibule that you come into.
If you look up at the top of it, you can see that bell hanging in there.
For us it was important to really show that bell from the outside as well as from the
inside.
That's always kind of part of the student's experience when they're there.
You can see the rest of it, the more traditional design of the sloping ceilings on the inside
of the building.
On the right side you have glass looking into the library so that learning is always there, part of the experience of moving through the school.
But then on the left side you see kind of a recess there, an image of the original Katy Elementary and kind of some of the furniture that's there now.
But really incorporating that and bringing that back into the design of the lobby itself so that history is always part of the design.
And with that, that is the update that we have.
Thank you very much.
Any questions, board members?
Mr. President, I just want to make a comment.
I really appreciate your willingness to be so adaptable, and I also really think this
is a great example of how the Board, the District, and the community can work together and everybody
can be heard and come up with a final product that hopefully everybody's happy with.
I really do admire you and your company for that, and Mr. Veerling and everybody else
who's been involved with that.
Yeah, it was really good working with the district and the campus to really come together
and provide a design that everybody would be happy with and moving forward.
Any other questions?
I have just a couple. Good evening. The brick color you said is what's kind of there now. How
does that mesh with like the, you know, they did a new courthouse but made it look old. Is that
this design appears to be more in keeping with that? Is that, did we talk about that at all?
right I mean we're in the process of picking what exactly the brick will be right I mean there's lots
of manufacturers out there and all that that are making brick and and so we're in that process of
understanding what color it is and how that works yeah if I made that that brick has been a
challenge from the beginning and that's one of the reasons why you saw that more gray those gray
tones originally there's several different pieces of that building that have been added on to over
time some of the brick is usable moving forward some is not at all and so that
was kind of the original thought but but yeah we're gonna try to we're gonna try
to find a brick that kind of marries them all together and and gives it that
kind of traditional front look I love the front elevation the incorporation of
the bell I just love that because it has such rich history there I have one
One question about the library windows that you have here.
Who can get in to be, like the people who are standing there, if you'll go back one slide, please.
Let me just ask a question.
Who can come in there?
Is that just staff and teachers?
I mean, sorry, staff and students or visitors?
Do visitors come into this like when they're picking up children or waiting for the kids to get out of the nurse?
So, Ms. Fox, the vestibule is kind of where is the design that we use throughout the district.
where visitors wait. So this area will actually not be accessed by visitors
unless they're allowed to go through and they have a meeting or an appointment or
something like that. But so that little area where you see the woman standing, yes
ma'am, beyond that will be the vestibule and that's where folks will wait. Yes ma'am.
Because I thought all that glass is very beautiful but if visitors are there
seeing children not their own maybe we could have frosted glass you know a bit
of... Yes ma'am. That's not reflected in the design in this in this actual photo
But we will do that. We've done that at Jordan and Adams where those the long hallways with with glass
We've we've done the frosting on that to
Try to protect a little bit from security standpoint. Yes, ma'am
So I will say that that all of these are our designs, right?
and so we'll drill down with with Beth and her team and
And so what you see there is is not what you'll see in the end, but it's a rendition the idea is there
So we got some great ideas
Any other questions?
If not, I'll entertain a motion.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approve the updated design changes associated with
the comprehensive renovations in addition to Katy Elementary School as depicted in
the design presentation prepared by Kirksey Architecture dated December 13th, 2021.
That's it.
You guys are really messing with me now.
That was like five people.
I'll give it to Duke.
Mr. Keller.
Mr. Keller.
We had a motion by Mr. Redmond and a second by Mr. Keller.
We'll now proceed to vote. All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye. The motion carries 7-0. Thank you very much. Great job.
We'll now proceed to it. We'll now proceed to agenda item 9.2. Discuss and
consider board approval of the amendment 1 to Satterfield and Pontike's
Construction Inc. contract related to the comprehensive renovations and addition
to Katy Elementary School.
Thank you.
Before I start on this item,
I just want to say that
in regards to purchasing materials ahead of time,
we have provisions in our specifications
where they have to put in a bonded warehouse
so we can order that material ahead of time,
which is kind of what these next two items
Mr. Verling alluded to.
Some suppliers are saying,
if you don't take my price in 10 days,
it's off the table.
So the first item is for Katy Elementary.
Their package is a little bit larger.
They're going to be not only getting the steel,
But doing some demolition and site work for Katy Elementary and that work will begin after Christmas
Thank you any questions
If not, I'll entertain a motion president. Yes ten days is actually really good. We've been getting by the end of the day
But I move that the Board of Trustees approves amendment one to the Satterfield and Ponticus construction Inc contract
related to the comprehensive renovations in addition to Katie Elementary School
for the guaranteed maximum price of $4,300,000.
Second.
No, they don't. I heard Ashley's voice first.
We have a motion by Mr. Redman and a second by Mrs. Vance.
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 9.3, discuss and consider Board approval of the Amendment 1 to Stuart Builders Inc. contract related to the comprehensive renovations in addition to Diane Winborn Elementary School.
So Stuart Builders is a little bit different schedule and phasing, so they're asking for the material just to procure the steel at this time, so that's for the smaller amount.
Thank you. Are there any questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move the Board of Trustees approves Amendment 1 to the Stuart Builders, Inc. contract related to the comprehensive renovations in addition to Diane Winborn Elementary School for the guaranteed maximum price of $750,000.
Second.
You can give it to Wilson.
Okay, Wilson, yes.
We have a motion by Mrs. Fox and a second by Ms. Wilson.
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.
Thank you, Ms. Catherine.
Agenda item 9.4, discuss and consider board approval of the October 2021 financial reports.
All right.
So in your package, you have a copy of the board financial reports through October.
That would include several reports that make up our financial reports.
It would be an analysis of our general fund expenditures through the month of October, both by object and by function.
We're running about where we were last year, about 16%.
Through those first two months, 16.7% is two months of 12.
So we're running on about where we were last year, which does include some underspending
that you can see already starting to take shape.
And then we also have the capital projects report.
That's a four-page report that on the top of it has those numbers that I alluded to
earlier where it talks about some of those things that are causing budget pressures
that we are taking into account on that page and then we have our tax report which does show
is again it's through october before tax statements went out it shows a lot of refunds
shows us in a negative position from a means we've we've issued more refunds than we have
taken in taxes but we expect that to change at the end of this month and then in october
you also have the check register by fund summary by fund for the month of october
thank you are there any questions mr president i move that the board of trustees approves the
district's october 2021 financial statements we have a motion by mr champagne the second by mrs
van will now proceed to vote all those in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye the motion
carries 7-0. We'll now proceed to agenda item 9.5, discuss and consider board approval of the
December 2021 budget amendments. Ms. Sherry Butterfield, Director of Budget and Treasury,
good evening. Good evening. Thank you, President Schulte, Trustees, and Superintendent Grogorski.
We all six general operating fund expenditure amendments are direct offsets between different
functions tonight, and approval of these general operating fund amendments will result in no net
change to the general operating fund balance. We also have one construction amendment tonight,
and this is for $1,500,000 establishes additional funding for the Miller Career and Technology
Center renovation project. This funding is coming from the 2017 bond project savings.
Mr. President? Yes. I move the Board of Trustees approve the District's December 2021 budget.
Okay.
We have a motion by Mrs. Vann and a second by Mrs. Champagne.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Aye.
The motion carries 7-0.
Excuse me.
Thank you.
We'll now proceed to agenda item 9.6, discuss and consider Board approval of stop-loss insurance
for health plan year 2022.
Good evening.
Good evening, President Schulte, Dr. Grogorz, and Board of Trustees.
In 2004, KDISD began providing health benefits to plan participants as a qualified self-insured
employer.
As a self-insured employer providing health benefits to staff, the financial responsibility
rests solely upon the district.
To date, health benefit options have given employees quality care while allowing the
district to manage inflationary cost trends.
Every year, an independent actuarial study is prepared to model expected costs to the
plan with premiums and deductibles deriving from the study as part of this study an annual analysis
of how large individual losses impact the financial performance of the plan is performed
it was a conscious decision up until plan year 2020 not to carry stop-loss insurance for plan
year 2021 the district engaged with aetna to provide stop-loss coverage at a price of 18.69
cents per employee per month PEPM with a $750,000 self-insured retention this
program provides individual stop-loss coverage to coverage large individual
claims incurred by the plan factors considered in determining the need for
stop-loss coverage are as follows one protection against large individual
losses long-term plan stabilization three increased inflationary cost of
of care on large individual losses and continue near and long-term claim expenses related
to COVID.
It is the recommendation of Risk Management to continue the purchase of stop-loss insurance
coverage with Aetna for plan year 2022 at 18.69 PEPM with a 750,000 self-insured retention.
The estimated annual premium for this program is $1.77 million.
million dollars. It is recommended the Board of Trustees approves the renewal proposal
for individual stop loss coverage provided by Aetna for Health Plan 2022.
Thank you. Are there any questions? I have one question. Do we know how much we saved?
I mean, it sounds like we're doing it again. So I'm sure there's some numbers on the value
that we saved. Sure. In terms of savings, what we did not
have to pay. Yes, thank you. We did not have to pay. Just to give you a little, a very high level
aggregate number, large losses that would come under the self-insured retention was at 4.81
million. And when you back out the SIR, that gets you to about 2.56. So when you pay your premium,
your softball's premium last year, which is about 1.68, that gives us a net to the good,
I guess you would call it, of $881,000.
Now these numbers are just through November 1st,
so several of these claims are still maturing, if you will,
and as part of this plan, we still have yet to
do an annual true-up of the pharmacy benefits
that come with this.
It's a little separate deal
that trues up on an annual basis.
So the gap or the value could get even larger?
That is correct.
Oh, that's great, great decision
that we made thank you any other questions yes mr mr president i have a question for mr no and this
isn't really part of your presentation tonight but i'm just curious um when we've seen the
presentations from you before about the how do you want to call it the fraudulent cases that were
um made against for the for the insurance during covet and uh you know the the p you know the false
claims I mean how's that going how's the recovery of that if if I may presume
what you're asking is the unemployment insurance coins this is totally
unrelated to that but just real briefly we're continuing to hammer away at that
that number and awaiting quite frankly for TWC to make some final
determinations we have gone back and resubmitted our evidence where this was
was this or this coin was the result of hackers,
which we found the vast majority of these were,
and through their failed protocols and software.
I'm sure that's probably standard
for a lot of large companies across the nation.
It's probably happened to a lot of-
It's all across the board, private and public sector.
It's an incredible mountain to chip away at.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you.
Any other questions, board members?
I'll entertain a motion.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the renewal of the proposal for individual stop-loss insurance provided by Aetna for health plan year 2022.
Second.
We have a motion by Mr. Redmond, a second by Mrs. Vann.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
The motion carries 7-0.
Thank you very much.
Well, now I'll proceed to agenda item 9.7, discuss survey results and consider board approval of the 2023-2024 instructional calendar.
The presenter is Dr. Andrea Grooms, Chief Communications Officer, and Ms. Sherry Ashhorn, Discipline and CHARS Administrator. Good evening.
Superintendents and superintendents, Dr. Grigorski.
As you indicated, tonight I'm here to present the survey results of the 2023-2024 Instructional
Calendar Community Feedback Survey.
This survey was administered between November 16th and December 7th to over 154,000 parents,
guardians, staff, and students for whose email addresses we have on file with the school
district.
!
63% parents and guardians, 20% KDISD staff, 12% KDISD parents and guardians who are also
KDISD staff, and then less than 1% for the remaining categories.
Those who participated in the survey had a choice of two survey options to select from.
Option A represented 172 instructional days.
Both options did, as a matter of fact.
with the first day of school on August 16th the last day of school for seniors
on May 17th and the last day of school for all other students on May 23rd
graduations being held in May option B same number of instructional days but
you'll see that breakdown is different for the fall and spring semester with
slightly more days represented during the spring semester first day of school
August 28th last day of school June 5th for all other for all students rather
for this option seniors would would in school the same time as all other
students and graduations would be held in June and now the results 81% a survey
reason Risa survey participants rather opted for option a 14% for option B so
the response was overwhelming as you indicated Sherry Ash horn is also here
to speak to any questions you might have that are specific to the calendar.
Thank you.
Are there any questions, board members?
Pretty conclusive results, I would say, right?
Mr. President, I have a question.
Yes.
If we were not a District of Innovation, DOI, would we have the option for A?
No, we would not.
And 81% of our respondents, which is pretty representative, I guess, of everyone,
prefer that so it further solidifies our
Desire to go for district of innovation continue that designation
How about one more question? I don't know who this goes to miss
Dr. Gregor scale ask you the ending the seniors that happened while I was out the
Week earlier of 17th. How's that going? But that seems to be popular
Among the seniors yeah, especially popular to get out of week early
But yeah, with the calculation of the minutes and how we structured high school and added
a little bit of time to the high school school day collects enough minutes that we can do
that for the seniors.
And it also helps us with graduation.
Ever since we moved graduation from the LMC to the outdoor, we just do one per evening
to not have to do those during the day.
So backing that up, letting those seniors get out a little bit early so we can start
graduations right away is very helpful to be able to do those uh straight days uh eight straight
days graduations thank you thank you very much any other questions if not i'll entertain a motion mr
president yes i move the board of trustees approves the 2023 2024 instructional calendar
as presented by the administration second we have a motion by mrs vann and a second by miss wilson
will now proceed to vote all those in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye the motion passes
is seven zero. It's in item nine point eight. Discuss and consider board approval of all
closed of closed campuses for intra district and intra district transfers for the 2022 2023 school
year. Presenter is Mr. Ronnie Edwards, assistant superintendent for school leadership and support.
Good evening. Good evening, President Schulte, board members and Superintendent Dr. Gagorski.
I'm bringing for your consideration a list of campuses that are recommended to be closed to
voluntary student transfers for the 2022-2023 school year. Board policy FBD legal and FBD local
address inter-district transfers and closed campuses. Board policy FDA legal and FDA local
address inter-district student transfers. A closed campus list is defined as a campus exceeding or
nearly exceeding its building design capacity compared to the enrollment projection. Parents
may request voluntary transfers for their students to attend other kdsd campuses such requests must
meet the criteria established in board policy the list proposed the list of proposed campuses
was formulated by using the building design capacity and the projected enrollments for each
campus for the 2022-2023 school year we will continue to monitor campus enrollment to determine
if any additional campuses will need to be closed added to the closed campus list throughout the
year. Thank you. Any questions board members? Mr. President, I have a couple of questions. Thank you
for your presentation. I wonder real quick about Taylor. Is it at capacity now? So it is not.
When we're talking about design capacity, we're not talking about functional capacity, but it is
Taylor is at a enrollment where we do feel like it needs to be closed. Okay and then I have another
quick question it I just wonder this if a child starts at a different elementary
school that's not where they live are they are they still going to stay with
the feeder pattern you know will they continue on with the junior high that
belongs to that elementary or did they go back to where they live so if they if
they can they will stay with that feeder pattern yes they have the opportunity to
stay with that for you okay I just was wondering thank you any other questions
mr. president yes I move the Board of Trustees approves a list of campus
presented to be closed to voluntary school intradistrict and interdistrict
transfers for the 2022-23 school year based on enrollment projections second
okay we have a motion by mrs. van and a second by mrs. champagne will now
proceed to vote all those in favor is your right hand and say aye the motion passes 7-0
and item 9.9 discuss and consider board authorization for the board president to
notify the commissioner of education of the board's intent to vote on adoption of a proposed
innovation plan for kitty independent school district the presenter is miss sherry ashhorn
Shars and discipline administrator. Good evening. Good evening. No PowerPoint today with the you are here sign. We are here to get a first look at the draft of the proposed innovation plan for you to hopefully adopt in January. We had multiple subcommittee meetings, a lot of great dialogue, some things that were discussed that didn't make the list because we realized there were internal solutions available.
here within the district.
So a lot of really great conversations.
And what you have in front of you
are the proposed eight exemptions.
So we went from three over the past five years to the eight.
And we're looking forward to, with your approval today,
to notify the commissioner of your intent to work,
posting online so that we can gain additional feedback
from community members, staff, parents, students,
to continue to have open communication
about all the great things these exemptions
can do for our district.
Thank you.
Any questions, board members?
It's on the board docs.
Yes.
The draft local innovation form.
We're not voting on.
We're not voting on.
We're just voting to send a letter that said we're going to do something.
Yes, we're going to notify the commissioner with your approval that you intend to vote.
We'll have a chance to comment on that.
You're not actually looking for comment on the eight or nine things.
You're looking for comment on sending the letter.
Comment on sending, yes, the notification to the commissioner.
So there were three things that have to happen simultaneously.
Part of that is the approval by KIC, which happened last Thursday, posting it online for 30 days, which we hope to kickstart this week,
and then your notification to the commissioner of your intent to vote.
So those three things happen all together just before your intended vote in January.
Thank you very much.
Any questions, board members?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move the Board of Trustees authorizes the Board President to notify the Commissioner of Education of the Board's intent to vote on adoption of a proposed innovation plan for Katy Independent School District.
Second.
We have a motion by Mrs. Vann, a second by Mr. Redman.
We will now proceed to vote.
Mr. – sorry, I didn't get a chance to ask my question.
So this gives us local control other than just standardized start dates and lots of things that happen.
Every district in Texas can apply for this.
Is that correct?
Absolutely.
And they would apply for the things that matter to their district.
So it's about local control and what their values of their community.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
TEA actually has on their website all of the local innovation plans across the state of Texas.
And you'll see there's a whole lot to go through.
So we found some great ideas from other districts and you can see like you said I'm to use your words
What's important to them what flexibilities they need and there are lots of options. We did not choose correct
Thank you, we have a motion by mrs. Van a second by mr.
Redmond will now proceed to vote all those in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye
The motion passes 7-0. Thank you
Thank you.
Item 9.10, discuss and consider board approval of the purchase of new election equipment for KDIC elections that contains an audible voting system as required by revisions to the Texas election code.
The presenter tonight is Mr. Justin Graham, General Counsel. Good evening.
Good evening, trustees. I'm here tonight not as your counsel but as your elections administrator.
What you see before you is actually an item that you have in your budget that you approved earlier this year.
So while it may not be necessary to come back here per our policy and get you to vote on it,
we felt it important for you to understand what we're doing with respect to voting equipment
and also for there are any rest of community members that want to understand better the process
We have used the current equipment everybody the board the boards where everybody that's that's voted in the past decade
At Katie is he's aware you we've used the current East side equipment where you go and you spin the dial and you select
The item that's in front of you
As part of that process there is no inherent paper backup system now
We do have a paper voting process where there is a ballot by mail, and we audit that as well.
And I ask, we were trying to figure out how long we've actually had our current equipment.
If you'll remember, Mr. Fowlton served as elections administrator in some capacity.
Mr. Haskett served in this capacity for a long time.
And I've talked to those guys, and they believe that we've used this equipment since the early 2000s.
I can't tell you for sure because Hurricane Harvey destroyed those records.
You know, they were part of the first floor of this building that was flooded.
We do know that we rented them for a while, and then we've actually bought them from Hart in the early 2010s.
So we're at the lifetime expectancy of this equipment anyway.
So what we're moving towards is with the same company, Hart.
It's the same company that we've used here in Katy ISD for the last 20 years
But it is a system that also does have a paper ballot backup for those of you who vote in Fort Bend County
It will be similar to what how you voted last year in Fort Bend County
If you'll remember you went over and selected your item and then you took your paper ballot and you stuck it in a big box
Right and this is congruent to recent changes by the legislature that says hey, we need a we need to have a paper ballot
audit. Convenient for us because we're at the literally at the life cycle end of our equipment.
We've kind of been putting it together with duct tape for the last few years trying to make sure
we get the best bang for our money. If you look at the money that we're talking about here, it's
less than $340,000. That is a lot of money, but when you consider that the last time we didn't
host our own elections in November, you'll see the number that's there. It's publicly posted
on the document. It was over half a million dollars. And so this is an investiture in our
elections and our future of our elections and also brings us compliant with current state law.
Having said that, I'm happy to take any questions that this board may have.
Any questions? Mr. President, I have a question before we make the motion. Most motions where we
spend money has a not to exceed price and there's no cost associated with this motion do we need a
not to exceed because this sounds like you can buy it and we don't have a stop gap there does it need
it it does not have to require a not to exceed amount because you have the documents that are
posted online which will outline what we're what our expenditures are so it's going to be exactly
this price or no more yes ma'am so there will be no price inquiries because of
some shortage or anything like that no ma'am any other questions yes I move
that the Board of Trustees authorizes the board president to note oh I'm on
the wrong I move that the Board of Trustees approves the purchase of new
new election equipment that contains an auditable voting system as required by revisions to the
Texas election code. We have a motion by Ms. Wilson, a second by Mrs. Vann. 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 10.1, the board was provided a copy of the donated items to KDISD.
Agenda item 10.2, recap of board members' requests for information. Mrs. Champagne.
The only thing I had was when Mr. Redman brought up the storage capability and Mr. Vierling said that he'd look into it.
But then later, Ms. Kastman said that we have that already.
So I think that that's it.
That was it.
Thank you.
Agenda item 11.1, there will be a special board meeting held on Monday, January 10, 2021.
Agenda item 11.2, the next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, January 24, 2021.
there being no further business before the board this meeting is adjourned the
time is 735 p.m. thank you everybody have a good holiday
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 5.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the non-binding Letter of Intent to purchase approximately 5.0 acres of property on the northeast corner of Longenbaugh Road and Katy Hockley Road for the right of way for utilities and future construction of Longenbaugh Road for a total acquisition cost estimated not to exceed $810,000. It further authorizes the Board President to act on a contract for this property at the requested same purchase price.
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 adopts the local policies included in Board Policy Update 118.
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 November 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 9.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the updated design changes associated with the comprehensive renovations and addition to Katy Elementary School as depicted in the design presentation prepared by Kirksey Architecture dated December 13, 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 005 · AGENDA 9.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves Amendment One to the Satterfield & Pontikes Construction, Inc. contract related to the comprehensive renovations and addition to Katy Elementary School for the Guaranteed Maximum Price of $4,300,000.
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 006 · AGENDA 9.3
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves Amendment One to the Stewart Builders, Inc. contract related to the comprehensive renovations and addition to Diane Winborn Elementary School for the Guaranteed Maximum Price of $750,000.
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 007 · AGENDA 9.4
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's October 2021 financial statements.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 008 · AGENDA 9.5
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's December 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 009 · AGENDA 9.6
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the renewal of the proposal for Individual Stop Loss Insurance provided by AETNA for Health Plan Year 2022.
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 9.7
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the 2023-2024 Instructional Calendar 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 011 · AGENDA 9.8
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the list of campuses presented to be closed to voluntary school intra-district and inter-district transfers for the 2022-23 school year based on enrollment projections.
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 012 · AGENDA 9.9
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees authorizes the Board President to notify the Commissioner of Education of the Board's intent to vote on adoption of a proposed Innovation Plan for Katy Independent School District.
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 013 · AGENDA 9.10
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the purchase of new election equipment that contains an auditable voting system as required by revisions to the Texas Election Code.
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 |