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Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting Agenda
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, March 28, 2022
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Today is Monday, March 28, 2022, and the time is 4.59 p.m.
Dr. Grigorski, will you verify that we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas
Open Meetings Act with regard to the notice for this meeting? Mr. Schulte, I do confirm we are
in compliance with the Provinces Open Meeting Act for our meeting this evening. We will open
tonight's meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Dr. Grigorski, will you please introduce our
Pledge Leader. It's my pleasure. I'm gonna go ahead and invite up to the microphone
Victoria Zarate. She's fifth grader from Rylander Elementary. I saw her
principal out there, Cheryl Glasser. I see her parents are sitting with her out
there too, Rocio and Guillermo Zarate. And students special interest, you come on up.
You bet. And Victoria loves to sing and is in the choir. She also writes songs on
her own. She's a dancer and performs in recitals. She loves to write stories, has
written some books in hopes to one day became a published author favorite
subjects math and reading and a few notes from her teachers from mrs.
Cheryl Landry fifth grade home you homeroom teacher Victoria is a model
student she's extremely bright has lots of poise and is of strong character she
is the first to volunteer when help is needed she's willing to do whatever is
needed to make her class successful and from Megan Kessler coffee music choir
teacher Victoria is a gem she goes out of her way to help others and exudes
kindness and compassion to all she meets Victoria works hard at all she does
going out of her way to seek extra opportunities she is a joy to have in
the choir and it's an honor to be one of her teachers and from Tara Steubing
fifth-grade teacher Victoria is a hard worker who truly loves learning for the
sake of learning she is a model student who finds joy in helping others and in
and out of the classroom so welcome Victoria go ahead and we will get ready
and you'll lead us in the pledge 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 thee Texas one state
under God one and indivisible good evening president Schulte board members
and superintendent Gorgoski my name is Victoria Sarate and I'm a proud fifth
grader at Rylander Elementary. I have been a Rockin' Rhino since kindergarten. I'm proud to
be a Rockin' Rhino. I'm proud to be at Rylander because all my teachers have been sweet and always
ready to help. I also made the principals to hunter club every year which is our school's top honor.
My teachers make ease make learning fun and they're easy to talk to. I'll be graduating in
May and attending Cinco Ranch Junior High in the fall. I plan to be in the choir because I love to
sing my advice to future ron under students is always be kind if you do i'm sure you'll
make lifelong friends like i did
What, y'all don't love me enough to tell me this one?
I don't want to.
Here we go.
Here we go.
You bet.
Thank you.
Are there any scouts in the audience this evening?
No? Okay.
We'll now move on to recognitions.
Dr. Grygorski?
This time I'd like to introduce Maria DiPetta,
manager of media relations for the recognitions portion of our meeting.
Good evening President Schulte, trustees and Superintendent Grogorski.
Participation in the University Interscholastic League competition is a
privilege and an honor for Katy ISD student-athletes. Competition enriches
their educational experiences and helps them build character and grit that is
essential for both athletic and academic success. Last month, KDISD students
brought home four gold medals from state championship competitions. At this time
I'd like to introduce Ms. Debbie Decker, Executive Director of Athletics
for these recognitions. Thank you. Good evening President Schulte, trustees and
Superintendent Gorgorski. These student-athletes have invested hard work,
perseverance, and dedication which earned them the highest state honor in their
their sport. Each gold medalist here this evening has a team of KDISD educators, coaches, and leaders
who are devoted to the growth, success, and well-being of the whole student. So students,
when I call your name, please come forward, and also the team that supports them. So from Jordan
High School, first we have Kaylee White, who earned a gold medal in the Girls 200 Freestyle
at the UIL Swim and Dive State Championship.
Joining Kaylee is our coach, Scott Slay,
assistant coach, Emily Rigetz,
athletic coordinator, Mike Robby,
and our principal, Dr. Ethan Krell.
Please give them a round of applause.
Thank you.
Thank you.
These next athletes brought home the gold after competing at the UIL State Wrestling
Championship.
Also from Jordan High School is Garrett McChesney earning the gold in the 5A Boys 132 weight
class.
joining Garrett is going to be coach Mike White coach Mike Robbie athletic
coordinator and dr. Ethan Kroll principal so come on up please give him
a round of applause
Thank you.
is coach Vinnie Lowe who was actually just inducted into the Texas high school
wrestling coaches Association Hall of Honor so congratulations coach well on
that
and I know dr. Hull couldn't make it but I think coach Joseph was trying to make
it come on down coach Justin dr. Hull come on down please and dr. Rick Hall
principal
At last, from Taylor High School, we have Michael Bone, winning the gold in the 6A Boys 160 weight class.
Joining Michael is Coach Todd Hart, Coach Chad Simmons, our athletic coordinator, and Dr. Melinda Stone, principal.
Please give him a round of applause.
Congratulations to all of our student athletes.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Decker.
Congratulations to these gold medalists, to their coaches, as well as the school communities that support them.
This concludes the recognitions portion of this evening's meeting.
Thank you. Congratulations.
Congratulations.
At this time, the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak in accordance with the KDISD Board Policy BED Local.
As defined by Board Policy, speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, March 28, 2022, provided their first and last name,
and signed in 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting will be allowed to
address the Board. The public participation section has been recently
modified to include two categories. Category one is for speakers that signed
up to speak on posted agenda items and category two is for speakers that signed
up to speak on non-posted agenda items. Speakers who signed up to speak on
posted agenda items will be allowed to speak three minutes. For speakers who
signed up to speak on non-posted agenda items, a maximum of 30 minutes has been
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 the speaker is not finished speaking
at the end of your three minutes, the audio will turn off. If speakers wish to share written
material with the board, you must provide 10 copies to the secretary for board services
before the meeting begins for board members, the superintendent, the chief communications officer,
and permanent record. If the speaker has not attempted to solve a matter administratively
through the proper channels as stated in board policy, the presiding officer's designee shall
advise the speaker to seek resolution through the appropriate policy. Finally, pursuant to Texas
Government Code Section 551074 and 5510821, 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 a speaker wish to address one of these issues, they must do so through the appropriate local grievance policies, FNG local, DGBA local, CKE local, or GF local.
Our speakers will be called forward in the order they sign up to speak.
speak. First, we will call the speakers that have signed up to speak on posted agenda items.
Again, for this category, each speaker will have three minutes to speak. The first speaker
tonight is Amy Traynor, and the second speaker tonight is Regina Johnson. Good evening.
Good evening, Dr. Gagorski and trustees.
Thank you for your commitment to the students in KDISD and for the opportunity to speak
this evening.
Over the past 18 to 24 months, Alicia and I have shared an abundance of research and
data related to the cognitive science of how individuals learn to read and the instructional
practices that best support the attainment of literacy.
This has been provided to the board secretary for you to have at hand this evening.
In summation, research now estimates that 95% of all children can be taught to read
by the end of first grade. We know that reading failure can be prevented in all but a small
percentage of children with serious learning disorders. It is possible to teach most students
how to read if we start early and follow the significant body of research showing which
practices are most effective. Students living in poverty, students of color, and students who are
eligible for additional intervening services can become competent readers at any age. Persistent
gaps between more advantaged and less advantaged students can be narrowed and even closed.
Fundamentally, these gaps are the result of differences in students' opportunity to learn,
not their learning abilities.
If we look at the KDISD school-specific data in the HB3 targets for board presentation
that's archived in BoardDocs, it is clear that even our campuses demonstrating the greatest
proficiency on the STAR remains far from this 95%.
Let's take Bear Creek and Wood Creek Elementary schools for examples.
The percentage of third grade students who achieved meets and above on the STAR in 2018
was 43% and 61% respectively. Together they have a student body of 1950
students with 993 not meeting expectations, half of their student body.
If our schools allowed half of our students at these two schools alone to
go hungry we would all be outraged. My friends we are leaving half of our
students starving for literacy we know that 95% of students can learn to read
by the end of first grade so why are we choosing complacency and allowing less
than half of our students to become readers by third grade we are all proud
of what Katie ISD is and what it can be however the district's current
instructional practices are leading far too many students illiterate Alicia and
I welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the district to find a way to get
95% or more of our students reading our students families and community deserve
literacy thank you thank you the next speaker is Regina Johnson the speaker
after that is Alicia Calvis all right good evening I'd like to address the
board's consideration to nominate the superintendent for TASB superintendent
of the year this is recognition of the success not of the individual but of the
organization the individual leads therefore consideration of a nomination
should be in light of the status of the district especially during times when
when the medal is being tested.
The superintendent in this board chose
to avoid participating in COVID-19 mandates, which
were proven to be politically partisan
and now confirmed illegal by the US Supreme Court.
I also applaud the adherence to the direction mandated
by Governor Abbott.
I am, however, unable to personally align
with the nomination and will touch on key areas.
Number one, discipline.
Staff, students, and parents are painfully
aware of a growing problem in our schools.
Let me be clear, I'm not placing blame on KDISD staff for student behavior.
I do, however, place accountability and blame for the administration's complete inability to enforce their policies.
Post-COVID, this has been increasingly prevalent across all schools, which points to the fault of the district admin, the superintendent, and the board.
Respectful boundaries are no longer adhered to, and swift action in reinforcing those boundaries are nonexistent.
The quantity of fights and disruptive behaviors in class that are allowing to continue are
unacceptable in a district that lays claim to creating a safe, inclusive learning environment
for students.
Teachers also feel unsupported.
High quality, dedicated and tenured teachers are resigning from KDISD only to gain employment
in districts next door where they will be respected, supported by their staff and are
paid more, including sign-on bonuses.
Your troops in the trenches are leaving.
Number two, parent and staff engagement.
Stakeholders, specifically including parents, teachers, and staff, and students
largely no longer feel the school is advocating for them or is in service of
them. Parents are increasingly reporting events in which they are disrespected,
ignored, or avoided. Parents advocating for safe environment and classroom are
being told that kids cannot be protected from other kids and kids cannot be
protected from teachers seeking retribution for parents expressing
concern or complaints. Parents advocating for age-appropriate materials are
lectured and told we are bigots and fascists by many including some in this boardroom this evening
the actions to date by this admin show very little engagement or willingness to align with parents
specifically on common objectives for our students education diversity equity and inclusion the
importance of dei in schools cannot be denied all students must be given an equal footing and right
to be successful unfortunately this endeavor you have in this endeavor you have invited identity
politics into the classroom and now redefine the individual based on race
gender and sexual preference while choosing to focus on over sexualizing
our students in this singular aspect sexuality what defines the LGBTQ
community and if not then there then the then is there such a focus on placement
on vulgar offensive and pornographic materials in schools the school district
is not sufficiently competent to recognize that vulgarment thank you
thank you the next speaker tonight is Alicia Calvus and the speaker after that
is Melissa Talton good evening good evening dr. Gers Gragorski and trustees
thank you for the opportunity to be here at the March 8th special Board of
trustees meeting amy and i were pleased to hear of the teamwork collaboration and expertise that
has driven the improvements to our district's approach to serving the mental health needs of
our students the passion and willingness to improve our services for children in crisis
was admirable i would like to call upon the same level of collaboration and partnership when it
comes to addressing the literacy needs of our students and community the connection between
mental health and literacy is well documented don meichenbaum one of the world's leading experts on
on trauma and violence and one of the most influential
mental health professionals of the last century,
said one thing is more important to traumatized children
than anything else, more important than therapy,
more important than social programs,
more important than anything else.
The research shows the single most predictor
of their ability to overcome the trauma
and survive their circumstances is the ability to read.
If they can read, they have a chance to find success
in school and overcome all of the terrible things
in their lives.
If they can't, school will only be another source of pain and failure added
to the other sources of pain and failure. If they can read, they can benefit from
therapy and everything else we may try to do for them. If they cannot, all of
that is a waste of time. Dr. Steven Dykstra puts it like this,
I work with severely traumatized children every day. I work with
victims of torture, abuse, and every kind of crime and trauma you can imagine.
I see places and go places every day that many of you will never see.
My advice to all of you who teach is to resist your good, natural, maternal, parental, protective impulse to save these children from what surrounds them.
Do what you can to clothe and comfort them, but know it will never be enough.
You will not save them.
Instead, understand that teaching them, and especially teaching them to read, is the salvation
you have to offer and the salvation they most need.
Don't let their poverty, stories, and circumstances distract you from that.
Not for a minute.
Amy and I ask that we form a collaborative team to address the literacy needs of our
community that is driven by passionate experts from across the state that will provide our
students with instruction they need and deserve thank you thank you the last
speaker on category one tonight is Melissa Melissa Tobin good evening
hello my name is Melissa Talton I have been a KTISD elementary specialist for
music specialist for 16 years and a clarinet private instructor for Katy ISD secondary
students for 24. My own children have grown up here in Katy since kindergarten also. Earlier
today I sent you a more detailed letter that gives you a snapshot of responsibilities of
an elementary music teacher in our district. Tonight I would like to share a small part
part of that letter. Just some samples from the letter of things that we do. We're responsible
for choral and instrumental ensembles outside of the normal instructional day. We could
have up to 70 to 120 kids in that ensemble. We teach them two to three hours a week during
that outside of instruction time. We teach music peaks that are at the Texas Essential
knowledge and skills seven differentiated levels of instruction for
all the grade levels at our school we organize grade level and campus and
public performances like musicals which I'm sure that that you you know just any
kind of performance like that that's just a few things I wanted to share from
that letter that I sent as our schools and communities mature we are losing
music teachers to excess rules leaving one music teacher behind to provide a
quality music education for as many as 999 children this not only impacts our
pre-k through 5 but also our band choir and orchestra in the secondary feeder
schools I have lived the life of a solo teacher this year because my partner was
excess in the spring as elementary music teachers are excess from KDISD which
which results in one music teacher per campus, the opportunities given to students will have
to be lessened.
A solo teacher cannot provide the same high level of programming as two.
The hours actively working with kids during and outside of the instructional day, preparing
for their instruction, and effectively communicating with parents becomes too taxing and allows
little to no personal life, and I speak from experience this year.
This level of commitment is not sustainable for a single music teacher.
My support for all fine arts, although my support is for all fine arts, although my
career and my heart are first invested in a sound music education for all
children. Building community and forming individual connections with my students
becomes very difficult with the current student-teacher ratios. I believe that
two music teachers are a must for all of our KDISD elementary campuses. I have faith and
confidence that you will make the right decisions to support our KDISD students' elementary
music education. Thank you so much for your time.
Mr. President, I have a clarifying question. I believe the superintendent probably knows
the answer. When there's one music teacher at an elementary school, how many days do
Do the children go to music?
It's a good question that I don't even know the answer to.
It depends on the master schedule
and how each elementary principal has set up
their specials.
So when you talk about music, you're
talking about one part of three specials.
You've got PE in there, and you have art in there.
And so a school that has one music teacher
might have two art, and then so it rotates differently.
So I don't know exactly how many days they go,
because I think it would vary by campus, depending on the staff
staff members.
CHAIRMAN BRYANT LIMAGE.
NEW SPEAKER Thank you.
I'll now provide the speakers from category two on non-agenda items.
The first speaker is Ann Russe and the second speaker is Cameron Samuels.
The timer for this section is one minute and 40 seconds per speaker.
Thank you.
Good evening.
NEW SPEAKER Good evening.
Please return This Is Your Time by Ruby Bridges to elementary school libraries where it belongs
and remove the internet filter that is targeting sites with LGBT affirming content, including the Trevor Project.
I've brought you each a copy of This Is Your Time by civil rights icon Ruby Bridges and the review documentation.
The majority of reviewers said this autobiographical children's book was appropriate for elementary schools, yet it was removed.
So help me understand, how is it that we do not remove books from any of our schools based on disagreeable subject matter, yet this book containing no vulgarity was removed?
As a district, we must reconnect with Policy EF Local's guiding principle that says, a parent's ability to exercise control over material extends only to his or her own child.
All of our students deserve to have the freedom to see themselves reflected in the books they read and the choice to read books that reflect experiences that are very different than their own.
Lastly, the human sexuality filter is disproportionately censoring LGBT affirming websites while allowing access to comparable sites that contain chat features and blatantly homophobic and transphobic content.
content. Unblocking the Trevor Project will ensure every student has access to an affirming
and inclusive suicide prevention resource we all hope they never need. Thank you.
Thank you. The next speaker is Cameron Samuels. And the speaker after that is Heather Tolleson.
Good evening.
Good evening.
November, December, January, February, March.
For five months, I have spoken here as a Seven Lakes student calling on you to stop censoring
vital resources for students.
I'm thankful that four queer websites were unblocked, but what about the countless other
LGBTQ websites?
What about the Trevor Project suicide prevention lifeline?
It is unfathomable that an educational institution dedicated to supporting students is encouraging
parents to report websites and books that they wish to ban merely for political reasons.
Students are not political pawns.
When we distributed more than 500 books last month, I expected challenges on these books,
but I did not expect the district to seriously follow through with these ridiculous requests.
requests. Beloved was restricted to 11th and 12th grade. Flamer was removed from all schools while
currently under review. And Mouse is under an internally prompted review. I encourage you to
read these books and recognize their value in depicting the truth, depicting affirming and
relatable experiences, and saving countless lives. Nobody is forcing students to read books or visit
websites but your restrictions are forced upon all students and are denying
them their identity. I hope you understand the impact of your decisions.
Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.
The next speaker is Heather Tolleson. The speaker after that is Christopher Junte.
Apologize if I said that wrong. Junte, good evening. Good evening. I stand
I stand before you tonight a parent of two Katy ISD elementary school students and the lead pastor of an LGBTQ affirming and queer congregation here in Katy.
and I've come to urge you tonight to stop letting bigoted, racist, homophobic, prude misconceptions
guide the board's decision to censor library books. Do not allow dogmatic and narrow-minded
fears of a loud minority of parents influence your decision to pull books from our library shelves.
Instead, hear the words of the students who dare to come before you and this community and speak
speak their mind and speak their truth at all costs.
We find ourselves in a critical moment where when we pull genderqueer and racially diverse
and religiously open books off the shelves, we in one fell swoop devalue the very lives
that you say are so precious, the lives you say you value to teach and protect.
Hear their pleas to be valued, to be celebrated, and to literally have a place in their schools.
KDISD values itself as a leader in education. So KDISD do just that. Set an
example for our district and our state and our country that we value bringing
up students in education that will be leaders, influencers, and good citizens.
Set an example that we value diversity. Set an example that a student's value is
not determined by their race or sexual orientation or gender identity be
leaders exemplify diversity and stop
thank you the next speaker is Christopher Junte and the speaker after
that is Kathy Carpenter good evening
Good evening, members of the Board of Trustees and Dr. Grigorski.
My name is Chris Junte.
I'm here tonight to do something that happens very infrequently these days in public education.
I'm here tonight to say thank you to the superintendent and his staff.
A little background.
I'm in my 34th year in education and have held leadership positions in KDISD
as well as other districts in the Houston area.
My children attended KISD schools. I can share that the academic rigor, level of
instruction, and focus on producing graduates ready for the next step is
second to none in KTISD. I think we can all agree that the last two years have
been incredibly challenging as we navigated how to provide quality
instruction while doing our best to keep students and staff safe. Dr. Grigorski
and his staff have provided effective, focused, and steady leadership during a
period of great anxiety and at times anger and hostility towards educators. My
wife and I both work in Katy ISD. I can share that we both feel supported by the
district personnel in jobs that we do every day. This support starts at the top.
Dr. Grzegorski, the leadership team you have assembled are excellent at their
their jobs. The team is solid and the performance of the district is outstanding. I want to thank
you for your exemplary leadership, congratulate you on a job well done, and wish you continued
success as you lead KSD in the post-pandemic future. Thank you. Thank you.
The next speaker is Kathy Carpenter, and the speaker after that is Jagat Prashar.
Good evening.
I've already introduced you to the five simple stair steps of the gay agenda.
And last month I informed you that the gay agenda can lead to a dark world.
Your packets of today will introduce you to that dark world.
And I hope that you, just like me, don't want to live there 24-7.
And if the gay community cannot realize that an agenda is not a community, then so be it.
The world that you are looking at will be the end results of all five steps.
This is what you're currently protecting, defending, and supporting.
The agenda is waiting on you to push harder while these parents are trying to protect their kids,
not only from the agenda, but from you.
you. The value of a child is priceless and apparently you don't care. Thank you. And
I also noticed that TEA has 30-page document on how to go about handling suicide. Thank
you. Thank you. The next speaker is Jagat Prashar and the speaker after that is Victor
Perez. Good evening. I apologize if I said your name wrong. No worries. Thank you and
Good evening. It is a great privilege that I speak to you all today regarding the issue of book banning in KDIC schools.
My name is Jagat Prasar and I'm currently a sophomore at Jordan High School.
As one who loves to read and write, literature has always been an outlet for me to learn about diverse perspectives
and also express my feelings, voice, and knowledge to others.
Working alongside other students such as Cameron J. Samuels and Allison Franks,
we students, with respect to KDIC regulations, have distributed over 500 books on topics to deal with racism,
LGBTQ rights, and other realms such as slavery.
Not being able to receive access to such books, however, not only prevents students from educating themselves,
but creates a society where others may struggle to understand their peers.
As mentioned by Write to Read Texas, an organization that is advocating against the banning of books,
the library is a place of voluntary inquiry.
Students are not required to read books from the library, and no book is right for everyone,
but one book can change one's life.
Today, LGBTQ students are stuck amid conflicting viewpoints, often encountering both support and discrimination.
nation in a nation with us where the freedom to read is emphasized by the
Constitution we deserve the freedom to read and educate ourselves thank you all
so much for your time and consideration thank you
next week tonight is Victor Perez and the speaker after that is Mary Ellen
Cozzella evening my name is Victor Perez thank you for the opportunity to speak I
I stated last week how it appeared to me the teacher salaries in KISD would need to increase
by roughly 3.3%, maybe more, on a weighted average basis to be on a par with nearby districts.
This is just to catch up to other districts, not to be at the top.
We all know we have a teacher shortage in Texas, nationally, and in KDISD, and this
factor has not helped to attract and retain teachers.
This is one of several reasons teacher morale is low.
Anecdotally, I understand attendance at the KDISD job fair was disappointingly sparse.
By the way, the 3.3% mentioned earlier would equate to about 1.6% of the 21-22 budget.
In the corporate world where I come from, if you can't pay a competitive wage to your key frontline people,
like your key salesmen, your key operators, or you're losing these people to the competition,
you tend to take some corrective action.
I think in the KDISD world, the teachers and campus leaders that have face-to-face interaction with children
day-to-day are like those kind of people because they are key to delivering a quality education.
With this backdrop, I was disappointed to learn you're proposing to add two new positions,
a new director of business intelligence and a new assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.
At a time when you are recovering from the impact on KISD of COVID, fighting low teacher morale and low salary increases,
stretched special ed resources and larger than optimal classes, this doesn't make sense and it also has bad optics.
I was also surprised last month when you approved over $200,000 to send a group of people to a worship at Harvard.
Parents and taxpayers expect you to be vigilant about cost and be smart about allocation of funds.
Thank you.
Mr. Schulte, I'd like to share a couple factual responses from what we've just heard there,
because I do want to comment because I am going to make a recommendation to our board of trustees in closed session about some
Positions we have open they are not new positions that director of business is a replacement from a vacant position
So it's not a new position. It's a vacancy the position of assistant superintendent over in teaching and learning is
a position that we are going to
consolidate two other positions into one and that one position is going to be a
savings to this district of approximately a hundred and twenty
thousand dollars by taking two positions and making one out of it and elevating
that person to assistant superintendent so there's a little bit of
misunderstanding on those two positions are not new positions in there the
information that was shared about the Harvard about teacher leadership that is
not taxpayer money we are using ESSER dollars for that they come from the
federal government and ESSER specifically talks about professional learning as part of those
dollars so we are using some ESSER dollars for the Harvard leadership development of our principles
but they are not taxpayer dollars thank you thank you oh sorry sorry the next speaker is Mary Ellen
Cuzela the speaker after that is Bronson McClellan she's sick okay I didn't see that thanks dude
so Bronson McClellan is next and the speaker after that's Colburn Colburn
McClellan
good evening
my name is Bronson McClellan on October 3rd 2019 when I was 17 I called Hispanic
kid the slang n-word off campus in a private video in my youthfulness I did
not understand how the use of the word could be so offensive I grew up hearing
the slang word used among my age group in the hallway on sports fields and in
the locker room I got caught up in the casualness of hearing the word I did not
realize how hurtful it was on October 4th 2019 my world radically changed KS
the issue a public statement that was false and misleading this statement
represented to everyone that after a rivalry football game that I called a
specific black Tompkins football player the N-word. This was a lie, is still a lie,
and that player who is now at Texas A&M will tell you I did not send that video
to him. As a result of the KISD statement, the news media, relying on the veracity
of the KISD statement, published the story. My photograph in the misleading
KISD statement took center stage nationwide, online, and in print. My
reputation was trashed, I was demonized as a racist, and the D1 college recruiters
backed away we have tried now for over two and a half years to have kisd retract that false
statement ksd has refused this past summer i learned the principal of katie high school admitted
he and kisd knew four to five days after the statement was released that i had not sent the
video to the black tompkins football player i ask you why have you not retracted the false statement
and issued a truthful version why did you do this to me i am now 20 my future is at stake i ask you
to tell the world that I did not send that video to a black kid, that I did not call
him the N-word in a racial way.
The design of the statement through insinuation puts me squarely in a false light.
I sincerely ask you to correct the permanent record.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Colburn McClellan, and the speaker after that is Sophia Dixon.
Good evening.
Our entire litigation is unnecessary and could have been resolved.
We tried numerous times to come before the board for a level three hearing.
Every time we were denied as a general counsel refused our lawful request.
Do you think it is important to hear from both sides?
Not only is it wise to hear the facts and see documents that have been concealed from you,
I believe it is your duty to know the truth.
Your general counsel only shares what he wants you to know.
This is the exact reason KDIC defendants do not want to give their depositions in our current litigation and they continue to hide behind legal
technicalities and their government immunity which they can freely waive.
Stands to reason that if a superintendent and a general counsel had credible evidence supporting their conduct,
they would want the general public and this board to know of their innocence. Thus, the reason Mr.
Schulte has already given his deposition. Board members, certainly you stand for truth, transparency and accountability.
Therefore, exercise your authority and give a direct order to the superintendent to immediately
sit for his deposition and provide his testimony.
I know the taxpayers are asking, if these KISD administrators haven't done anything
wrong, why are they refusing to give their depositions?
That behavior is very telling.
We would gladly give our depositions.
Why not you?
To circle back on last month's meeting regarding rules of a closed board meeting, it is your
general counsel that violated your ethics.
It was he who told my then lawyer that in closed session that board members C.D., A.V.,
and BL did not want to retract the false statement about Bronson because quote it
would embarrass the superintendent in quote the decision of board members to
intentionally choose to sacrifice my son because they didn't want to embarrass
the superintendent is sickening and truly shocks the conscience our latest
settlement offer which mr. Schulte has a copy of remains in effect I ask you to
work with me and settle this do not be a part of the problem correct it remember
remember your oath. Thank you. The next speaker tonight is Sophia Dixon and the speaker after that
is Ryan Apt. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Sophia Dixon and I am from Katie High School
and I'm here to talk about the book ban. Fahrenheit 451 is one of the books we were required to read.
its main theme being the censorship of books.
Quote, books were only one type of receptacle
where we stored a lot of things we were afraid of we might forget.
There is nothing magical in them at all.
The magic is only in what books say,
how they stitch the patches of the universe together
into one garment for us, end quote.
Nothing is black and white.
There is always a gray that holds balance to societal values.
As once one draws the line,
it redefines the balance into nonsense a lack of experience leads to lack of common sense lack of literature ends
With lack of self-discovery it comes to one question was the ideal result of success or did it lack the value?
That of course was a rhetorical question
Which the definition being one does not expect a direct answer because the answer is already in front of them. Thank you for your time
The next speaker is Ryan Abt, and the speaker after that is Gabrielle Azou.
Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for this time. Again, my name is Ryan Abt, and I come
before you as a parent of a KDISD student and as a professor of history. My research looks at
in American interpretations of Nazism in schools.
I think you can see how it is pertinent to what's happening today
and unfortunately fairly similar.
I have two main points.
One of them has already been made by a number of people here today
and it is that advocacy for so-called parental choice that bans books
isn't about choice for all parents and all students.
It's about choice for a select set of parents, the loud ones, the ones who want others not to be represented.
My second point is this, and I find it unfortunate because my only belief can be that this board is failing in leadership.
Not necessarily every single individual member, but as a whole.
Leaders take responsibility, yet this board has put librarians and
teachers in the line of fire by placing their decisions and
their activities subject to the abuse by misguided individuals.
All the while, the board has seemingly not taken a stand to protect those teachers and
librarians and students.
Instead, hiding behind statements about concerned parents and having a censorship hotline using
Thank you.
The next speaker tonight is Gabrielle Azou, and the speaker after that is Angie Waller.
Good evening.
Good evening.
I could talk about the facts, how teen suicide rate among LGBTQ plus youth is much higher
than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts for a complex mixture of reasons including
societal and familial rejection, alienation, and harassment.
Yet it is very apparent that the facts are irrelevant for the school board and the numerous
parents pushing for this anti-LGBTQ plus book ban.
I want to first point out that the emotional and psychological well-being of all KDISD
students are exactly the business of this school board in this entire debate.
Our safety and well-being and our own say in it should be paramount in this discussion.
The questions that apply to this situation are ones like, are we going to say with this policy
that the wants of an expressly homophobic group outweigh the well-being of our LGBTQ plus students?
This policy is an opportunity for you to expressly outline what KDISD prioritizes.
All I can do is implore you to stop and consider the students.
I attend Taylor High School, where I have seen an openly transgender woman be degraded by her peers, calling her it.
Where I have had to keep my significant aspects of my life and romantic relationships to myself,
in fear of eventually telling the wrong person and making my life much more difficult by doing so.
Where I do mention my bisexual identity, I can never avoid the looks my peers give each other the moment I reveal it.
A look that puts themselves in an in-group, and me as an outsider.
This behavior can be written off as products of ignorance, but ignorance does not resolve people's culpability.
In KDISD, we live in a willfully ignorant environment to which policies like these actively contribute,
essentially erasing the stories of marginalized communities.
I want you to know that we will fight with everything we have to make sure our stories won't be erased,
that we will not be erased.
We will not hide our identities and histories to be more palatable for those who wish ill upon us.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Angie Waller, and the speaker after that is Piniel Otto.
good evening good evening hi my name is Angie Waller I have a senior in KTISD
right now and I have two that have already graduated high school I've been
an active volunteers in the girls and in the district every year since 2005 when
we first moved to KTISD I'm here tonight to speak about the current policy of
reviewing books I'd like to start by thanking you for all you've done and for
listening to parents concerns about the books however I feel the current policy
needs to be updated today it only takes one parent to complain about a book and
that book is removed immediately pending review and it district goes over 88 or
over 9,000 students it should take more than one parent to have a book removed
and reviewed if a book generally is inappropriate for students it shouldn't
be hard to find other parents are in agreement with you it would be more
balanced for all involved if instead of just having a parent fill out the form
have the book removed, that they had to present a petition with a number of signatures that shows
it's not just one individual that has a problem with it, but it's multiple.
But something that lots of parents have reservations about.
As we've seen from the past few months, a parent can find anything wrong with almost any book.
There's been many books that have been removed, books on Bush, books on Obama, books on Trump,
all these books that are just teaching us about the history of our presidents
have been removed because a parent thought it was wrong the Bible has been
reviewed having a single individual dictating book availability for all
students in KTIC even temporarily is antithetical to the principles of free
SPEECH AND ALLOW PARENTS TO HAVE A STATE IN THEIR OWN CHILDREN'S EDUCATION.
THANK YOU.
OUR CHILDREN AND THEIR K-N-S TEAM.
THANK YOU.
THE NEXT SPEAKER IS PENNIAL OTTO AND THE SPEAKER AFTER THAT IS STEVEN ALWAN.
GOOD EVENING.
MY NAME IS PENNIAL OTTO.
I'M A SENIOR ATTENDING SINCLAIR RANCH HIGH SCHOOL IN THE MILLER CAREER AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER.
I'm also an intern with the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office.
I addressed the board a few weeks ago regarding the boat bans you as board members are approved
of.
I came here to not only address such topics but also show unity with my fellow high school
students within KISD who have come here to speak on such topics.
As you as board members sit here today and listen to us speak, I want you to ask yourself,
when did comfortability and or discomfort encourage your growth as a
person you as board members do have the duty to protect children in schools from
things that can be subjectively deemed perspacially vulgar but you also have
the duty to make sure kids are growing up with the right outlets to be able to
express themselves no one is shoving books down these children's throats
these kids are finding books that appeal to them and make them have a sense of
understanding within themselves you're taking away a right that these children
deserve when kids grow up thinking there are deals lifestyle and or background is
wrong and or is suppressed within the same school and or systems which is
meant to be an outlet and encourage them to be themselves the trust inside not
only the school but the school district will be lost devastatingly your efforts
to protect so-called children are also hurting more the same thank you thank
you the next speaker is Steven Alwan speaker up that is Eric San Miguel
go. Good evening. Thank you very much everyone. My name is Steven Alwan. I'm
here to talk about the ongoing review of the graphic novel Mouse that I'm holding
in my hand right now. I sincerely believe that everybody in this district, everyone
in this room, only wants what's best for our students. However, the implications of
reviewing a book like Mouse are incredibly troubling. This is a book
about the Holocaust based on the author's family's direct experience with
with this genocide.
His immediate family had 85 members living
in Europe in the 1930s.
In 1945, he had 13 family members alive.
Accounts of these horrors, direct accounts,
are critically important for everyone
to learn so that we may avoid them in the future.
Yes, there is nudity in Maus, though I should point out
that it is cartoon mice nudity.
In reality, actual living human beings were stripped of their clothes and made to walk to their own murders.
If the aspect of that that offends you is the nudity, I do not know what to say.
I will end by pointing out that the Nazis engaged in a very thorough campaign of book banning.
They understood the power that books have and therefore the control that they could have by taking away those books.
to ban a book about Nazis is to be beyond parity I trust the reviewing
committee to make the right decision and not take away these important stories
and I will also say if any of the kids here need a copy of it
mines up for grabs just come find me right afterwards thank you very much for
letting me speak thank you the next speaker is Eric San Miguel and the last
speaker tonight is Rhonda Kaplan.
Trustees, it is with deep concern that I come here before you today. Recently
KDISD spent $30,000 on a special investigation conducted by a Dallas law
firm. Why a Dallas law firm? Did someone at KDISD have a connection there? The
KDISD Board of Trustees and the general public were assured that the findings in
this report were accurate and factual. I'm here today to inform you that your
Your report is flawed, not fully accurate, misleading, and speaks untruths about Ms. Champagne.
This letter, dated March 19, 2022, sent from Attorney Keith Donati to Attorney Christopher Gilbert,
identifies untruths, slanderous conduct, and misleading statements that are contained in the KDISD report.
There are demands contained in this letter that calls for retractions and an apology related to Mr. Donati and his law firm.
Now, as a taxpayer, I stand here making a demand that this board retracts the false statements, untruths, and insinuations about Ms. Champagne and apologize to her publicly.
As a citizen who contributed to this $30,000 report, I am saddened and outraged at this serious transgression and the sloppy, careless, and work contained in this special report.
How could you let this happen? Who is responsible for this?
The resulting harm to Ms. Champagne is beyond excusable and calls into question the entire report.
The KDISD employees involved in the special report should be held accountable and terminated for a no-confidence vote.
Further, any trustee that was involved in the special report should resign or be removed from office immediately.
I appreciate and expect your immediate attention to this matter with complete and total transparency.
You swore an oath.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The last speaker tonight is Rhonda Kaplan.
Good evening.
Good evening.
I'm Rhonda Kaplan.
I moved to Katy in 2011 with my family to be in the Katy ISD school district for my
kids' education, the destination school district.
I'm here tonight to speak about my shock and horror about the possibility of Mouse and
and mouse too being banned from the shelves of the library because of its pervasive vulgarity.
We don't need to go the history of mouse. It's been around for decades. I don't know
why all of a sudden it's surfacing. According to my children who have been educated in this
district for the past 11 years, the Holocaust education is brief. They say Hitler came to
power, killed a lot of people, mostly Jews. That's the education. Without Holocaust education,
education, history has more potential to repeat itself. With the Holocaust survivors dying out, we need more stories.
Maus is one of those. In recent times,
antisemitism is on the rise. The Holocaust has been used as comparison. My own children tell me about the Holocaust
jokes posted on social media by KDISD
students. A college student posted on a Greek fraternity website recently, out of state, talking about Jewish students,
and I quote, get them off our campus. You are disgusting, smelly,
rapist, greed bag, slime balls. We all hate you. F the Jews. Get them back
in the gas chambers where they all belong. Unquote. A male
student a few years ago in eighth grade threw little pieces of paper with swastikas
drawn in them at my daughter at Beckendorf Junior High. Dr. Kroll, if he's here,
he's not witnessed the whole thing. If these people
maybe, just maybe, they had more education about the Holocaust
at earlier age these vulgarities would not have occurred yes I say vulgar the
Holocaust thank you
this concludes the open forum portion of our meeting tonight the board will now
convene in closed meeting as authorized under section five five one zero zero
one of the Texas government code for the following purposes Texas government code
551071, 551129, and 551074. Thank you.
Good evening, everyone. We're going to go ahead and get started.
Yeah, she said to go ahead and get going. The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today
is Monday, March 28, 2022, and the time is 7 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 march 25th 2022.
the board will receive information and recommendations from staff administration
and the superintendent on these agenda items at tonight's meeting board members will be able to
ask questions receive answers and should be prepared to take action the board has just
reconvened from closed meeting in accordance with chapter 551 of the texas government code
any action arising from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in open
meeting well now proceed to agenda item 6.1 consider board approval of employees
who are being recommended to receive a one-year employee probationary contract
one-year employees dual assignment probationary contracts one-year employee
term contracts one-year employee dual assignment term contracts two-year
employee dual assignment contract for the 2022-2023 school year.
Mr. President? Yes. I move that the Board of Trustees approves the employees who are being
recommended to receive one-year employee probationary contracts, one-year employee
dual assignment probationary contracts, one-year employee term contracts, one-year employee dual
dual assignment term contracts in two-year employee dual assignment term contracts for the 2022-2023
school year with the exception of those employees who have resigned or a decision is
not been made at this time concerning being recommended for a contract for termination
or for proposed non-renewal which will occur which will occur at a future meeting as recommended by
the superintendent in closed meeting yeah we have a motion by mr redmond the second by miss van
will now proceed to vote all those in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye the motion passes
7-0 now proceed to agenda item 6.2 consider board approval of a naming of the director of business
intelligence I'll entertain a motion yes I I'm a board trustees names James
Kreider I had quite a man James Kreider is the director of business intelligence
second thank you we have a motion by miss van second by mr. Redmond will now
proceed to vote all those in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye the
The motion carries 7-0.
Thank you.
Dr. Gorski?
You bet.
If I could, Mr. President, I'd like to go ahead and have James Stanton be recognized.
And he's worked for us for a long time, but we're going to recognize him on this promotion.
He's doing a great job for us.
So congratulations, James.
Okay, Agenda Item 6.3, consider Board approval of the naming of the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees names Dr. Sine Bell as the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning.
Second.
Second.
We have a motion by Ms. Fox, 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 carries 7-0.
Dr. Gorski?
You bet.
And another well-deserved promotion from one of our valued employees, Dr. Bell is off to my left over here.
If you'd stand and be recognized, Dr. Bell.
Ms. Mr. President, maybe Dr. Gorski, would you clarify that these are not new positions
but replacements of openings?
Mr. You bet.
You might recall just last month Jamie Hines received a promotion of his own to an executive
director position in another department.
that left a vacancy that James in that department has filled now,
so an internal move to fill a vacancy.
And as I mentioned during the open forum part there,
we had a vacancy at executive director in CNI.
We took two positions of executive director,
and Dr. Bell is the recipient of that promotion into assistant superintendent,
and that saved that department about $120,000.
Excellent.
And a whole lot of extra work for Dr. Bell.
Thank you. Congratulations to both of you.
Agenda item 7.1, discuss and consider board approval of the renewal of the Texas Association of School Boards Risk Management Fund Casualty Program.
Presenters, Mr. Lance Nallman, Director of Risk Management. Good evening.
Good evening.
President Schulte, Dr. Gagarski, Board of Trustees.
In March of 2021, Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees approved the renewal premium quote for casualty coverage from TASB Risk Management Fund for a 12-month period.
The renewal premium provides auto, general liability, police liability, and school board liability coverage for the district at a cost of $400,981.
The Risk Management Department seeks to renew this program, which provides casualty coverage for the district, because the district continues to grow, adding more employees and assets yearly.
The renewal premium is offered at higher than the expiring premium.
The increased premium is a result of organic growth in baseline exposures, increased coverages, and market pressures related to rates.
This program provides commercial auto liability coverage for vehicles owned, operated, and or leased by the district.
Additionally, the program provides general liability coverage against actions resulting from the day-to-day operations of the district.
Next, police operations are also contemplated as part of this offering.
Lastly, the program extends school board legal liability coverage for claims resulting from administrative issues.
Enhancement to existing coverage includes violent acts coverage for expenses related to mass incidents at campuses.
This program has been reviewed regarding adequacy of coverage, assessment of risk, availability of service, and cost.
Authority is granted to purchase this coverage via CRB legal.
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the renewal of the Texas Association of School Boards TASB Risk Management Fund Casualty Program for plan year 2022-2023.
Any questions?
I'll entertain a motion.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the renewal of the Texas Association of School Boards TASB Risk Management Fund Casualty Program.
second we have a motion by ms vance second by mr redmond we'll now proceed to vote all those
in favor raise your right hand say aye aye the motion carries 7-0 thank you agenda item 7.2
discuss and consider board approval of the january 2022 financial reports presenters chris smith
chief financial officer good evening good evening mr president schulte superintendent gorgorski and
trustees. Before you is the January 2022 financial reports. That's through five months of the fiscal
year or 41.7 percent. In those financial reports, you have the financial statements
by function and by object. You have the construction report, a copy of the tax report
through the again through the month of January of 2022, and a summary of our January 22 check
check registers. That's been presented for you as it is monthly for your approval.
Thank you. Any questions?
I don't entertain a motion. Mr. President? Yes. I move that the Board of Trustees approves the
January 2022 financial reports. We have a motion by Mr. Redmond, a second by Ms. Vann. We'll now
proceed to vote. All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Motion carries 7-0.
Thank you.
7.3, discuss and consider Board approval of the financial audit engagement letter.
Mr. Smith?
All right.
Item 7.3 is for the financial audit.
If you'll recall, just a couple of months ago, Whitley Penn presented our financial audit in January.
Section 44.008 of the Texas Education Code requires that each school district have an annual financial audit.
attached you have a proposal of an engagement letter from Whitley Penn
engaging them to perform our annual financial audit for the in the review of
our comprehensive annual financial report or the ACFER for the years ending
August 31st 2022 or the fiscal year that we're currently in and the 21-22 school
year or the 2023 fiscal year i'm sorry the 2022 fiscal year and the 2023 fiscal year excuse me
tongue-tied the estimate annual fee is 92 000 i am privy to a survey that's very good pricing
when it comes to a district of our size and as i've said before to the board it's because the
amount of work that the accounting staff does on that annual comprehensive uh the the the
I'm not supposed to call it the annual comprehensive financial report anymore.
Because comprehensive, I'm supposed to call it the annual.
It's a whole long story, but it's hard to get used to,
and I'm getting tongue-tied saying it.
But we do our own report.
It's a report I gave you a hard copy of last month that is posted on our website.
And that report is largely in part, in fact, 99% done in-house by in-house accounting staff.
staff, and because of that they do the review and that helps us engage in good pricing.
That would be my recommendation is that we engage for a two-year commitment to them to
perform our annual financial audit.
Chair Greg Musil Thank you.
Any questions?
If not, I'll retain a motion.
Chair Greg Musil Mr. President?
Mr. Yes.
Chair Greg Musil I move that Board of Trustees approves a financial audit engagement
letter.
Ms. Second.
We have a motion by Ms. Vann, 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 carries 7-0.
Agenda item 7.4, discuss and consider board approval of an efficiency audit.
Okay.
This came up after last month's strategic design meeting,
and there was much conversation around staff compensation and inflationary pressures, et cetera.
In an effort to identify a tool to address these discussions,
I asked our audit partner Whitley Penn for information and pricing on an efficiency audit.
We think we can use the results of an efficiency audit for assurances and or ideas in terms
of efficiencies through our expenditure budget, our utilization of the resources that we have,
keeping in mind that 88% of our budget is in salary and benefits, and basic overall
financial management.
We could use this in an attempt to incorporate the results in our budget as we're developing
our 2022-2023 school year budget. Efficiency audit is an instrument that is also required
by House Bill 3, Section 11.184 of the Texas Education Code before we can investigate and
or pursue local revenue opportunities such as a TRE that was also discussed last month.
Whitley-Penn has experience with these audits and has provided the district with the attached
document that describes the objectives, scope, methodology, and timeline of the audit.
Expenses to the district for this would be $22,000 and would involve many members as
they prepare their report and investigation.
Upon completion of the audit, the district may or may not move forward with the options
identified in or throughout this process.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the efficiency audit.
Second.
Mr. President, I'm sorry I had a question about that. I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr.
Smith. So I'm reading on here that it says that this is required by House
Bill 386 legislature. So have we been doing this or is this something new? I
mean if this is required. This is something that is ongoing by myself and
some of my staff as far as looking at efficiencies and trying to make sure
that we're being prudent with our dollars in fact the administrative team of dr gorski's is doing
this uh pretty much ongoing uh but house bill three does require it uh for that uh uh as as
part of the uh house bill three section 11.184 the education code uh and we've looked at that from an
opportunity to just have a second set of eyes to go in and look at our expenditures uh and hope
again timing may be an issue we're doing this early but we hope to be able to get
some results back and get some input back that we can incorporate something
into our 2022 2023 budget excuse me I've been struggling saying those weird dates
right there for some reason tonight but but yeah we hope to incorporate that and
again it is also required as part of that education code if we want to pursue
other revenue options so as my understanding let me just make sure i got you right so you've been
doing this but now we're just going to have an outside party look at it also and i think that
that's awesome and and but but when do you think we'll have the results of it we i i do this not
from in this exact aspect they're going to do it their way we look at the data uh miss butterfield
to not look at it our way, which is through all this information that school districts
submit through PEIMS, Public Education Information Management Systems.
All school districts input their audit data and then TEA in the next, could be the next
week, could be the next month, will publish that data and it makes it available to school
districts to either put in their database, to subscribe to a database or to just calculate
those numbers in Excel.
And that's when I think last month I used some of that information that we've put together as part of that research in my budget presentation, especially when I spoke about the amount of instruction that we spend and then also our low administrative costs or our lowest around administrative costs.
Thank you.
Mr. President?
Yes.
Will you finish, Ms. Champagne?
Okay.
Okay.
Last month we talked a lot about this,
but I don't think the meeting was streamed that we talked about.
Okay.
This is one of the main reasons we're doing this is for the TRE to see if we can do the TRE.
Is that correct?
This is required to have a TRE?
Yes, sir.
In order to have a TRE, we wouldn't know how to have a TRE,
and we won't know that until sometime in late July.
The Texas Education Agency uses information from our three appraisal districts, and they
are going to calculate our maximum compressed rate.
With that information, we'll have information to determine about the specifics of a TRE
possibility, but until then, it would be just, I guess, no specifics.
Sure.
But this is required and this is the first step if they we ended up wanting to go there
How long is this audit valid for how long could we use it for a TRE or is it each cycle?
We'd have to do a new one
Mr. Keller, I maybe that's I don't know the answer to that. I'm sorry
I just I asked myself that question and I intended to research that and I did not I'm sorry
I'll say that there was a smart question then if you had already thought of it. Yes, and I'm sorry
I don't know but I do think it's not clear
It doesn't say that you have to have one every year or every, you know, but I did not specifically ask it.
Well, we can look at that.
Okay, thanks.
Let me get your answer.
Just to clarify, too, Duke, I think it's good because a lot of this was talked about at the strategic design
that the board placed an emphasis on finding a way to increase teacher salaries,
and with the basic allotment not being increased, and I think this was year three,
the basic allotment has not been increased, inflation is getting up, expenses are going up.
We're hoping that Mr. Smith can find a way to, with the current allotment, to get teacher raises.
If he can't, and we feel like the board feels like that's something that we need to do,
a TRE is something other districts are doing to get additional revenue sources.
And what we told certainly Dr. Gorski and his team is if we decide to do that
and we don't decide until November, it's too late.
We're going to lose a year.
So what we said is what would we have to do now to give us the ability to use that toolkit,
something in our toolbox, if we decide that an additional revenue source is required.
So this is something, one, that will help us do an audit of our budget to see if there's additional money that we can use.
And if it's not and we decide our TRE is something to go, we've already got that lined up so we don't lose a year trying to get a TRE done,
if that's something we decide to do.
So I think it's a win-win.
Hopefully we get both.
Hopefully we find the money and if we need to do a TRE we've got that in our back pocket as well
That makes sense to everybody any questions
Mr.. President I have one question mr. Smith I
I see a lot of information here this audit is going to cover everything not
Not just how well you manage our fiscal right?
It is information because it's a big scope of things it looks at curriculum
It looks at resources and efficiency and yes, it is pretty all inclusive and I'm excited
to see from my perspective that information so I can refer to it and try to be better.
It will look at staff and how we compare to other places, that kind of thing.
It will look at like what we do to conserve electricity, all of those things are included
This is going to look at peer districts based on our size and our socioeconomic makeup of
our students and it's going to compare information.
Again, I'm doing some of that, but I think it's going to be a different perspective or
a different light on the same information, but maybe from a different angle and I'm excited
to see it from their angle.
I am as well.
I think this is a good move for us to look at all angles and see where we can squeeze
a little bit more.
Thank you.
Turn the mic on.
okay before we start asking questions i believe we had a motion by miss wilson and a second by
miss van we'll now proceed to vote all those in favor raise your hand and say aye aye the
motion carries 7-0 thank you mr smith agenda item 7.5 discuss to consider board approval of the
march 2022 budget amendments miss sherry butterfield director of budget treasury good evening
Good evening, President Schulte, Trustees, Superintendent Kragorski.
Tonight we have budget amendments in all three funds.
In the general operating fund, local revenues are increased $17,500,
along with equal and offsetting expenditures related to summer camp at the STEAM Center.
That's the Shaw Center.
additional local revenues are increased by $195,000 due to changes in the forecast for concession revenue at the stadiums and the Merrill Center,
and the same budget forecast recognizes stadium expenditures increasing $64,600.
These are all in the general fund.
The remainder of the general operating fund expenditures are direct offsets between different functions, and approval of these amendments will result in a $130,400 increase to the general operating fund's fund balance.
The food service fund has an expenditure increase of $250,000 related to supplies, and approval of this amendment will result in a $250,000 decrease in the food service fund balance.
Construction funds are being amended $5,591,671 for renovations to Miller Career Center,
$6,963,132 for Junior High 18, and $7,341,702 for High School 10.
Funds are available within the 2017 bond project savings and within the 2021 bond infrastructure budgets, resulting in no change to construction fund balance.
Thank you very much.
Any questions?
Yes, Mr. President, I have a question.
Thank you, Mrs. Butterfield.
I want to know is there any amendment in here for the cost of our investigation?
I mean, okay
Where would that money come from?
Do you know?
Are you talking about legal fees? No, I'm not sure. I'm not sure where the money would come from
So I think this question is about the board's investigation the board's decision to investigate themselves
THAT ACTUALLY HAS A DIFFERENT FUND CODE AND IT COMES OUT OF
GENERAL LEGAL EXPENSES, WHICH YOU HEARD A ROBUST PRESENTATION
FROM YOUR CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER ARE SUBSTANTIALLY DOWN.
BUT WE CAN GET THAT INFORMATION TO PRESIDENT SHULTY AND HE CAN
SHARE IT WITH THE BOARD.
THANK YOU, MR. GRAHAM.
ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?
MR. PRESIDENT?
YES.
I MOVE THE POINT.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the March 2022 budget amendments.
Second.
We have a motion by Ms. Vann, a second by Mr. Redman.
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.
Agenda item 7.6, discuss and consider board approval to award a contract for design services necessary for the renovation to Hutsall Elementary School.
A very busy Ms. Lisa Kastman will be presenting for a while, I think the next two or three hours, huh?
Yes.
Only five this evening.
Only five, okay.
Good evening, President Schulte, Trustees, and Dr. Gagorski.
The first item I have is award a contract for design services to Stantec for renovations to Hutzel Elementary.
They have worked on elementary projects at Memorial Parkway and Fielder, as well as Rains, Miller, and OLC,
and have experience with the city of Katy.
Perulvius is here this evening representing Stantec.
Any questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approve to award a contract for design services necessary for the renovation to Hutzel Elementary School.
Second.
We have a motion by Mr. Redmond and a second by Mrs. Fox.
We'll now proceed to vote. All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
The motion carries 7-0.
Agenda item 7.7, discuss and consider board approval to award a contract for design services necessary for the renovation addition to McDonald Junior High School.
This is for the IBI group for the renovations.
They previously completed work at this campus from the 2014 bond for the office and CTE renovations.
And Danny Brewster is here this evening representing IBI.
Thank you.
Any questions?
Not all entertain a motion.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approve to award a contract for design services necessary
for the renovation in addition to McDonald Junior High School.
Motion by Mr. Redmond and second by Ms. Wilson.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
The motion carries 7-0.
Agenda item 7.8, discuss and consider Board approval of the change in construction delivery
method for the addition of Smaltz Elementary School.
If this change in delivery method will be more feasible for budgeting and site logistics,
as you recall, Schmalz only has one way in and out, so that would have to be buses, cars,
and construction traffic.
So bringing someone on board early will help us work through all those items.
Any questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move the Board of Trustees approves of the change in construction delivery method for
the addition to Schmalz Elementary School.
of the school.
The motion by Miss Van second by Mr. Redmond will now proceed to vote.
All those in favor raise your right hand say aye. Aye.
Motion carries 7-0. Agenda item 7.9
discuss and consider board approval of a contract for the construction
of elementary school number 45.
So four proposals were received in Satterfield to Ponticus.
Ponticus ranked first overall. They recently completed
Jordan High School and Raines and they're starting work on high school
10. This elementary side is just north of the high school, so there'll be some synergy there.
This project is over the original allocation, but we were able to lessen the overage by value
engineering components of the design. I want to point out that the changes made will not impact
student learning, and representatives of VLK and Satterfield and Ponticus are here this evening.
Thank you. Any questions?
Mr. President? Yes. I move that the Board of Trustees approves a contract for the
the construction of elementary school number 45.
We have a motion by Mrs. Fox and second by Ms. Champagne.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
The motion carries 7-0.
Mr. President, I just can't let 45 and 46 go by without saying that I moved here
and Creech Elementary was our first where we got rezoned.
Number 19, 1-9, 45.
Busy.
Unbelievable.
Did you have something, Mr. Smith?
Yes, sir.
I just wanted to say that item 7.9, the ones y'all just approved, will require us to come back with a budget amendment next month because what she mentioned about it being a little over budget, as well as this next item she's going to talk about, is also going to be a part of a budget amendment next month.
I am going to go ahead and help override those now that the
Assuming the contracts will be this next one will be approved
But if it is approved then I'll help override those so we can get that process started
Without the formality of the before the formality of the budget amendment next month
Thank you
So we're now move on to agenda item 7 10 discuss and consider
Board approval of a contract for the construction of elementary school number 46
six so six proposals were received and jamala ranked first overall they've completed multiple
similar footprints and just recently completed hasket and this elementary school is just next
door to hasket so they're familiar with the site as well as working within the city of katie
this project as well was over but we were able to lessen it by some engineering design no changes
to impact student learning and we have representatives from vlk and jamala here this
evening and trustees i will add this is one of our elementary schools in the city of katie it's right
next to hasket you've seen hasket you've seen the um the fields that we where we're getting the solar
energy from you've seen the retention pond next to it right next to that because it's in the city of
katie we're trying to work with them to get an expedited plat review so that hopefully we can
move the process forward right lisa that's correct so we're currently in the process of working with
the city towards that goal mr president yes i move that the board of trustees approves of
a contract for the construction of elementary school number 46. we have a motion by mr red
i'm sorry is there any other questions okay we have a motion by mr redmond second by miss wilson
we'll now proceed to vote all those in favor raise your right hand say aye
the motion carries 7-0 agenda item of 7-11 discuss and consider board approval of the
the interlocal agreement with the City of Houston and Katy Independent School District
for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Henry Gall, Chief of Police.
Good evening.
Good to see you.
Henry Gall, Chief of Police.
I'm getting older.
Let me put my glasses on.
All right.
Good evening, Board of Trustees, President Schulte and Superintendent Gagorski.
Please come before you tonight to talk about the consideration for the interlocal agreement
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, ICAC, and with us. This interlocal
grant involves a 76,000 roughly 76,500 dollar grant from the
the Office of Texas Governor. This funding will provide funds for 70% of
the salary and benefits for one KDIC police detective and other things such
as lease car, fuel, overtime, equipment, and training. The primary goal of this
grant is to provide expenses to expand our abilities to investigate and combat
online child exploitation including the sexual solicitation of children and the
dissemination of child pornography and child violence images or materials on
the internet. If approved this will be the third year of ICAC grant funding for
us and we've been involved with ICAC since 2012. The current proposed
interlocal has a four-year auto renewal clause and has also been vetted by our
Office of Legal Counsel. Our ICAC detective works with our KDISD
the police department, of course, and administration, other law enforcement agencies provide a link
to the current cases of internet crimes against children and to assist in investigations connected
with this grant program enforcement. ICAC task force consists of a national network of 61
coordinated task forces representing over 5,400 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies
dedicated to investigating, prosecuting, and developing effective responses to internet
crimes against children. On the state level, the Texas Office of Attorney
General, ICAC, responsible is for 134 counties within the southern Texas ICAC
region. In other words, ICAC provides us with excellent and very valuable local
and outside resources for us to investigate these type of cases. We are
also the only ISD police agency in the region to participate in ICAC. Most of
all, most if not all these criminal cases that are ICAC detected, currently right
now shannon taylor investigates are very sensitive complex and require the investigative skill set
to properly handle in order to bring about the correct and desired outcome in most cases charges
and most recently the fbi complemented our ability to investigate these these type of cases
thank you chief any questions i have some questions thank you chief gall i um
I'm really proud that our district has this and that we've had this as the third year
that we've gotten a grant.
And so is Shannon Taylor the only one?
officer right now that is certified in this with our district? She is our ICAC
dedicated detective. We also have other detectives. You know we have one
with you know detective Cease and we also have former detectives who were
involved in detective roles but because of you know restructuring of the
department you know we now have the mental health unit which now consists of
former detectives and also our property person was a former detective too so if
if they need help in any of those areas, they can, you know, sometimes fluctuate and come over and assist.
And, you know, I give kudos to all our officers.
In this case, you know, I'm giving kudos to our detective squad.
They do excellent work with the resources they have.
Okay.
I have a couple.
So is this sort of a promotion for that person?
How do you identify who you're going to select to be the ICAC detective?
detective? Well, for people who come to these positions, of course, it's a selection process.
So it's not essentially additional pay in terms of, I guess, in terms of pay, but of course,
additional responsibilities, skill sets, you know, a vehicle, in this case is a lease vehicle
provided by it. And it's a different change of assignment. And, you know, this is something that
the officer pretty much has to have a passion to do. I mean, I've read some of these cases that
they've done and being from HPD which has a ton of detectives and a ton of
resources here with the resources that we have and the work that they do I'm
very proud of and then you know right now the cases that they deal with very
sensitive and you know the the outcome of it so many things are dependent upon
the desired outcome that they have to get it right in other words for people
who take on these roles and just one more last thing I am really happy about
but it is really sad to see these numbers.
And I'm just wondering, do a lot of these come through,
I know we have the mental health task force and all that,
but do a lot of these come through our Speak Up app?
I'm just curious.
Some do, and some just come from outcries and so forth.
And just a little bit about the numbers that you see.
I kind of, all of these numbers are potentially,
potentially, but the last one that you saw for child protective services, I kind of conferred
with Shannon today and about 10 of those cases out of 104 are about the ones that she actually
touched. So just not to make you think that we have an abundance of these type cases.
All right. Thank you so much. Any other questions? Mr. President? Yes. Chief, it says here that we
We are the only ISD police agency in the region to participate in this?
Correct.
Any idea why the other ISD police are not joining forces here?
It just depends.
Unfortunately, sometimes they might say, well, KDISD has it, so we'll come to them.
And then we all kind of network together.
Sometimes we go to them for resources that we don't have.
So it's just teamwork all the way around.
Okay.
Because this is the sexual exploitation of our children is a primary concern,
and Houston is a hub for that kind of thing.
sex trafficking and that. So I'm grateful that we are participating and providing one of our
excellent officers. But 70% of the cost is funded by a grant. I just wish there were more,
but I'm grateful that we are leading the way on this. Thank you.
Yes, it's a win-win here. We appreciate the grant funding for it.
Keeping those children safe. Thank you.
Any other questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the interlocal agreement with the City of Houston and Katy Independent School District for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program.
We have a motion by Ms. Fox, a second by Ms. Champaign.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
The motion carries 7-0.
Agenda Item 712, discuss and consider board approval of the resolution nominating Dr.
King-Grigorski as Superintendent of the Year.
Presenter is me, it looks like.
So yeah, I think this is an annual thing that we do, and we filled out the paperwork and
I'd like to certainly recommend that we proceed with approval of this motion.
Any questions from the board members?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approve the resolution nominating Dr. Ken Gagorski
as Superintendent of the Year.
Second.
We have a motion by Ms. Vann, a second by Mr. Redmond.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your hand and say aye.
Aye.
That's how many?
Keep your hands up.
That's one, two, three, four, six.
I'll just put it there.
Okay.
I'm staying.
Okay.
Okay, so it's a 6-0-1.
Okay, one abstain, okay?
Okay, sure, go ahead.
You don't mind?
Yeah.
I do appreciate that, and I appreciate our board putting their trust and support in me for that nomination,
and thank you, Greg, for moving that forward.
I know you had asked our team to do so, and I'll say this.
I think although my name gets put on that as the superintendent when TASB does these things and asks for it,
and it goes through the region process on these.
But I think the big testament to what we do in Katy ISD,
and I think you heard some of that tonight,
is the fine work we do at the district level,
all these people in this room who do this work,
but at our campus and our principals and our teachers
and everybody who runs those campuses and what they do for our kids.
You know what I mean?
Our kids get a world-class education every day in Katy ISD.
We're far from perfect, but it's a pretty darn good place to be here in Katy,
and I know a lot of folks come here for the reputation of this school district.
So I'm honored and proud to serve as the chief executive
But the the true honor of all of this is the testament of the hard work that shows how good Katie I see really is
I could probably list off a dozen things of awards and what we win and what we do here
You guys know what they are
but we do a lot of great work here for our families and I think it's a true partnership with our families and our kids and
I'm just proud to be part here and thank you all. Thank you. Dr. Gorski
We'll now proceed to agenda item 713,
discuss and consider board approval and adoption
of the Katy Independent School District Board Operating
Procedures.
We should have had a marching band or something come in
for this one, right?
What's that?
Yeah, we've been working on this as a board for quite a while
now.
We had a meeting on March 8, went
through the final few comments.
I would like to commend the board for your endurance.
A lot of people participated, gave some great feedback.
I don't think these have been updated since 2017 and I think we ended up with a really good set of updated procedures
so I appreciate everybody's participation and
I'm ready to to move on to something else. So I'll entertain a motion. I have a comment to make
Yeah, first of all, I do appreciate all the hard work that you know, the board did and also in particular you because
As you said that this has been needed to be done and I don't have
I don't have anything to say against anything.
I just wanted to make a clarifying something about the campus visits because I think that
some people are confused about that.
We are all assigned at adopted schools.
That doesn't mean, so that's because we want to ensure that every school has a board member
to visit that school.
But that doesn't mean that we can't go to other schools, but we have to be invited to
the school.
And we have protocols set in place within these board procedures that you know
We've all agreed to and I just wanted to put that out there as a clarifying statement about that
And I appreciate you letting me say that. Thank you. Any other questions?
I'll retain a motion
Mr. President I move that the Board of Trustees approves the adoption of the Katy ISD
school district board operating procedures
Second. We have a motion by Mr. Redmond, second by Ms. Champagne. We'll now proceed to vote. All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Motion carries 7-0.
agenda item 7 for 14 discuss and consider board approval of actions related to katie
independent school district elementary english english language arts and reading curriculum
so um just to give some background to that and then i'll get the discussion started at the
december march 8th not december 8th the march 8th board meeting uh we went through the strategic
DESIGN OF THE KDIC, THE BOARD DID THAT THE ADMINISTRATION AND
THE COMMUNITY AND EVERYBODY PUT TOGETHER AND SEVERAL BOARD
MEMBERS.
AND THEN WE WERE ASKED BY DR.
RYGORSKI, IS THERE ANY BOLTONS, I CALL THEM BOLTONS, IS THERE
ANYTHING IN ADDITION TO THE STRATEGIC DESIGN THAT WAS
DEVELOPED THAT THE BOARD SEES EMPHASIS IN THAT WE WOULD LIKE
TO SEE PURSUED?
AND THERE WERE FOUR OR FIVE THINGS, MAYBE THREE OR FOUR
THINGS THAT CAME UP.
I KNOW ONE WAS TEACHER PAY AND THE OTHER ONE WAS LOOKING AT
THE LITERACY THING, WHICH WE'VE HEARD A LOT OF SPEAKERS TALK
ABOUT IT WITH LAST YEAR OR SO, YEAR AND A HALF ABOUT THE LITERACY, THE BALANCED LITERARY
VERSUS SCIENCE OF READING.
I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE, I'M NOT THE EXPERT AT ALL THIS STUFF SO I MAY GET MY TERMINOLOGY
WRONG.
BUT THE BOARD I THINK GAVE SOME PRETTY CLEAR DIRECTION AT THE MARCH 8TH MEETING THAT WE
WANT TO SEE THIS LOOKED AT AND UNDERSTAND IS WHAT KDIC IS DOING, NOT THAT IT'S BAD,
BUT IS THERE SOMETHING BETTER THAT WE CAN DO AND WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT KDIC IS PROVIDING
OUR STUDENTS AND OUR COMMUNITY THE BEST THAT'S AVAILABLE.
So that was kind of the discussion that we had.
At that time, we're talking about forming a committee to do a deep dive into the curriculum that we're using,
what other curriculums are out there, what would be the plan, what would be the cost,
where would we shift from where we're at, what would we shift to.
So I think the superintendent asked that we give him some firm direction via action at a board meeting on what we want him to do,
and I think we'll move into that next.
But as luck would have it and I'll let I'm gonna ask dr. Dorsey to talk about it as luck would have it this week
We got a message from the TEA
I guess the the curriculum that we're currently using is the Lucy Calkins curriculum
And as I understand the TAS looking to do it and a lot of school districts in Texas are using that and the TAS
One you do an evaluation similar to what we were going to do of the efficiency of the Lucy Calkins
Curriculum and see if there's modifications that need to be done. So all that dr. Greg Orski
YOU HAVE MORE DETAILS ABOUT THAT?
I HAVEN'T DUG TOO BIG OF A HOLE FOR YOU.
NO, YOU'RE FINE.
I APPRECIATE THAT, MR. SHELTY.
SO, I MEAN, AS THE TRUSTEES KNOW, AND I DON'T KNOW IF THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY KNOWS, BUT THAT
YOU'VE BEEN TALKING WITH ME ABOUT OUR LITERACY CURRICULUM FOR QUITE A WHILE.
AND WE HAD TALKED ORIGINALLY, POSSIBLY IN THE STRATEGIC PLAN, LIKE YOU SAID, OF DOING
SEVERAL DIFFERENT TYPES OF ACTIONS TO REVIEW WHAT WE DO WITH OUR LITERACY PROGRAM.
AND THEN IT JUST KIND OF FELL INTO MY LAP LAST WEEK.
I got a notification from TEA and I'll read to it and let you guys know a little bit because I think this might solve
the issues the board has questions about
but TEA sent me an invitation and it it says TA is currently in the process of reviewing phonics programs
To develop a commissioners recommended list for phonics programs in order to help districts meet the requirements of HB 3
It's exactly what we've been talking about phonics and HB 3 and literacy
We'd like to review Fountas and Pinnell and the units of study.
Some people will call that the Lucy Calkins, but the units of study.
And they've asked if we would work with them and do we still have this and could we provide
their team.
If so, would you be willing to provide my team access to review of the program?
So I did respond back to TEA last week and I told them we'd be happy to partner with
them in anything we could do.
I asked Dr. Caskey and her team to get in touch with TEA and they've had their first
initial conversation about that.
But here's what TEA says they're going to do with these programs.
They put it in writing to me and I'm excited that they are going to do it.
So TEA's review would allow independent quality reviewers the opportunity to gather research
and evidence on how the program meets the literacy needs of all students.
Allow independent standards alignment reviewers the opportunity to determine the coverage of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in the program.
Allow TEA to learn more about the program through the findings of the reviewers.
provide TEA with information about the quality and standards alignment coverage
of the programs and be able to speak to its use in Texas and ensure all Texas
districts have access to quality information on the Texas Resource Review
website so like I said I'm excited about it I'm glad that they did reach out and
they're taking a look at it the review sounds pretty comprehensive to me what
what they're going to do and look at that in accordance with House Bill 3, what they're doing.
So it would be my recommendation to the board that this pretty much covers what we've been talking about
for a long time, an independent review of the resources that we're using,
and then we see what TEA is going to say about that.
And then we make a decision from there.
Let's see what the research says, let's see what TEA recommends,
and then bring that back to the board with what TEA puts out
and then be able to share that take any questions you guys might have and I will
also dr. Cassie and I have talked at length about some of these things she's
been talking with her team if you have any questions about any of it feel free
to ask sir they're all here prepared to answer those questions for the board we
want to make sure you guys get a thorough and enough information to make
a good informed decision on what we do with literacy in this district moving
forward I have a couple questions one and we might have talked about this I
I don't remember the answer.
How many, what I understood is there's a large portion of the districts are using the system.
And again, I called it by the wrong name maybe, but 40%.
How many are being asked to participate in this study?
Is it every district or are they selecting just a few districts to look at it?
Do we know the answer to that?
Dr. Kasky, you spoke with them.
You might have more intimate knowledge than I do about that.
Yeah, my understanding is last week she was contacting districts.
So what TEA did is they looked to see the districts across the state that have adopted those materials as their primary resource and that they were reaching out.
I know that they reached out to CyFair.
I'm looking at the team over there.
Any others that we know for sure that they reached out to?
Spring Branch.
So I shouldn't indicate how many, but basically what they wanted to do was to get into the system, not necessarily looking at KD data,
but they wanted to get into the system and look at the curriculum and look at the content to see what that alignment was.
So we did put her in touch with the publishers, and so TEA has the access to go in and do that research.
Did they give, like, a timeline or deliverables or kind of what they're?
November.
November?
November.
And is there going to, are we going to be able to participate?
I'm assuming we're not going to, like, do this and not hear anything until November.
Are there going to be updates, monthly, quarterly updates on what the status is?
I shouldn't indicate that.
I think that the commissioner's recommended list is set to be published in November.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay, and then the other question is, if we, at the end of this November, if we wanted to make a decision then, depending on what the report says, we don't know what it's going to say, right?
But if there's a probability that it may say, hey, we need to make some changes, is there anything we can do now to start studying potential solutions in parallel with this report?
SO WE'RE NOT STARTING FROM A DEAD STOP IF WE DID NEED TO MAKE SOME TYPE OF CURRICULUM
CHANGE OR WOULD THAT JUST BE A PREMATURE AND NOT GOOD USE OF TIME TO START LOOKING AT WHAT
WE WOULD DO IF WE NEEDED TO MAKE A CHANGE?
I WOULD RECOMMEND THAT WE WAIT UNTIL NOVEMBER BECAUSE THAT'S WHEN THE COMMISSIONER'S LIST
WILL BE PUBLISHED AND IF THESE MATERIALS THAT WE'RE USING ARE ON THE LIST, FANTASTIC.
THERE WOULD BE NO ACTION.
AND IF THEY'RE NOT, RIGHT, THEN WE'LL TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OTHER MATERIALS AND SOME OTHER
RESOURCES TO SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS.
OKAY.
I'll entertain other questions.
Okay.
I think it's awesome the TEA is going to do this, but can we – what is the downside of doing an independent review, you know, paralleling what the TEA is doing?
And I'm not sure what the review would look like because I'm not an educator, obviously.
but you know if it entails asking teachers you know our own teachers about
the curriculum you know that could be part of it and just to also get some
inside information from our own people rather than from only the outside source
that's just one suggestions yeah I'm gonna go ahead and jump in on that when
you ask a couple of valid questions I think I met miss champagne and for me
because Dr. Caskey and I have had this conversation on there, is one of the reasons I was excited
TEA is doing it is just the cost factor of that.
I did ask Dr. Caskey for a couple of things.
And one, she explored what a curriculum audit costs if we bring in somebody like TASB.
And do you remember that dollar figure?
Yeah, it was, I think it was TASA.
TASA or TASB, one or the other.
They come in and do a comprehensive curriculum look.
IT WAS 200, I BELIEVE, LIKE $256,000 PLUS AN ADDITIONAL $34,000 FOR TRAVEL.
I THINK LITTLE ELM WAS A DISTRICT THAT THEY'VE RECENTLY DONE.
WE HAVE A COPY OF THAT AUDIT.
BUT, AGAIN, THAT WAS A COMPREHENSIVE.
IT WASN'T JUST ELEMENTARY ELA.
THAT WAS K THROUGH 12 ALL SUBJECT AREAS.
VERY COMPREHENSIVE.
SO IF WE NARROWED THE SCOPE, THAT $250 MIGHT BE CONSIDERABLY LOWER,
BUT IT COULD STILL BE A FINANCIAL, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?
Well, the other, so I'm not really necessarily talking about hiring, you know, TASB or anything like that, because I don't know all the possibilities. I'm just thinking, starting with asking our own teachers some type of, you know, just the teachers that are involved with reading.
I mean, this is just a suggestion, just to get any feedback from them and see how the
program is working.
And also, is there other, so if other people like TASB has done audits on the Lucy Calkins,
can we look at that information that somebody else has already done, you know, and evaluate
that also?
You know, maybe, I'm not talking about spending money, I'm talking about other internal ways
or reviewing, you know, because I always believe in we don't need to always reinvent the wheel.
Like if someone else has already done a review on it, you know, we could evaluate.
We could just by ourselves look at that.
I mean, not me, but, you know, your experts, Dr. Caskey, whoever, you know, could look and review.
And maybe you've already done this.
I don't know.
But these are just possible other ideas.
Yeah.
I mean, like I said, when we talked about this through strategic planning, you know,
I mean, I turned it back to the board.
We're willing to do whatever our board wants us to do on this one.
I was just, after the strategic planning, I was still a bit unclear as to what direction,
and that's why I recommended we put it as an item and talk about it so I could get a little bit better understanding.
But whatever our board wants us to do, you know what I mean, you guys give us the task, and we'll be able to do it.
If you've got some specific questions about that.
I appreciate that, but so we didn't know about the TEA thing.
You know, when we had the discussion.
You bet.
We didn't know that, so we didn't know to put that into our discussion when we were
talking about the strategic design.
So that just kind of throws a wrench in it.
My problem with it, and I think Mr. Schulte would agree with me just on this one thing,
is the timeliness of it.
One year doesn't seem like a lot to me because I'm old, but to a nine-year-old, that's a
lot of time.
You know and if you could you know we get the evaluation in November and then you have to redo the curriculum
You know possibly and then it's the next year
So, you know then you lost this year and then you lost next year and now the kids 11, you know
And and I'm just two years older, but who cares about that?
But you know it's a good point you raise about timeliness in the sense of if we were going to take some action
If the this is what I'm saying about the TEA
information that they're going to do that is this piece. If we were going to, if the board was going
to task our department of doing some kind of independent audit, and I wouldn't recommend we
do an internal audit because that's not what we're really looking for here. What I like about the TEA
is independent quality reviewers, independent standards alignment. So I think what we're going
going to get out of the TEA is a true independent review, not our own internal review that somebody
might claim is biased or leans heavily towards one way or another. So the board has a tough
decision here, and I'll kind of lay it out this way. We either take a look, a hard look at what
we're currently using, and is it the best quality resources for our teachers? Or if you're saying
if because of a timeline of waiting to November to have our materials reviewed
through this independent study may be detrimental on a timeline is the board
asking us to just go ahead and move forward with a new curriculum but I'd
say this what are we gonna move forward with we'd still have to take the time to
vet something so I don't know so I once again I'm gonna turn that back to the
board hey we'll do whatever this board wants us to do on this one we're just
looking for guidance. Okay, the last thing I'm going to say about this is I don't mean to be
the expert at this as I'm not, but is there a possibility of other people who have reviewed,
who've already done some type of audit, you know, another school district or, you know,
and we can look at their? Sure, it's another good question. I probably said this to many of people
who've asked me, and I'm not a literacy expert, and I don't pretend to be, and I've never worked
at the elementary level. I have worked as a principal at junior high and high school and
know that pretty well. I can go find, if I wanted to, I could go find 10 people who say the units
of study is not adequate for what we're trying to accomplish, and I'll go find you 10 who say it is.
That research is out there. I think we could find that. Dr. Caskey, in some of our discussions,
you've told me about some of the researchers who've put some information together.
so but I don't know once again somebody might call those those biased somebody
might infer that somebody's got a motive on that the part like I said about tea
a that I really like when this came through is I don't think tea a has a
motive on this I think tea a truly has discovered that there are many districts
okay I could name you probably ten I shouldn't say ten I can name you five
off the top my head that are large school districts in the Houston area
THAT USE EITHER ONE OR BOTH OF THESE RESOURCES.
SO TEA PROBABLY, AND THIS IS MY GUESS,
A LITTLE BIT OF SPECULATIVE ON THIS,
IS TEA HAS LOOKED, HEY, WE'VE GOT A LOT OF DISTRICTS
IN THE STATE OF TEXAS USING THESE RESOURCES.
ARE THEY ALIGNED WITH WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH
THROUGH HOUSE BILL 3 AND THE PHONICS PROGRAMS
THAT ARE SO IMPORTANT, AND THAT PIECE OF THAT SCIENCE
OF TEACHING READING WE'RE TALKING ABOUT,
I THINK TEA IS GOING TO DO A FANTASTIC JOB
OF AN INDEPENDENT REVIEW.
I think they will much better than we could do on our own or that we could go find from other reviewers
So it's a potential outcome that they find that the system that we're using is deficient. That's a potential outcome
It could be fine. It could be hey, it's good, but it could be better
So it's just again, it's going to give you a kind of a scorecard that the TEA has decided in the House bill 3
They want to move to the science of reading in the phonics based thing. So the fact that they're doing an independent audit
it, they're going to make sure that what this program has is aligned with what they see
the future is.
That's a fair statement?
I think that's a very fair statement, and I'd welcome whatever scrutiny they bring on
that, because they might come up with the idea of, and people may not realize this,
once again, I'm going to talk literacy, and then the team will probably kill me because
I'm not a literacy expert, but we currently have, you know what I mean, we implement the
curriculum, okay, the units of study.
And then we do different things at other grade levels as well, okay?
But we also have probably eight or ten supplementary resources that are all phonics based that campuses can choose from, okay?
And they can supplement for when kids are not maybe mastering the curriculum, okay?
So we give that autonomy to the principals.
So TEA may come in and say, hey, these units of study are adequate for this, but I would supplement these areas.
Okay, they might say something like that, or they might just say this is fantastic, this is wonderful, or, you know what I mean, if TA wanted to make the boldest of stance, let them review it, and if they don't think they're adequate to make House Bill 3, tell school districts they don't believe that.
But show us the findings as well.
I would welcome to read the findings and know why or why not a certain resource either made the cut or fell short.
Mr. President.
Mr. Mr. Champagne, to answer Ms. Champagne's question, because I do, very sensitive to
the timing, this has been, it's just like the board operating procedures.
You think something's not going to take a long time, and before you know it, seven,
eight months has passed.
And it's not like you ever stopped working on it, but it just took a lot of time.
So I think with everything else the district has going on, this is an independent study.
It's looking at it statewide.
Do I think we can put a team together, get all the experts, and do it cheaper and faster?
AND YOU HAVE TO DECIDE IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A CHANGE,
IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A CHANGE,
IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A CHANGE, WHICH IS AN OUTCOME,
WHICH IS AN OUTCOME,
WHICH IS AN OUTCOME, YOU MAKE A CHANGE,
YOU MAKE A CHANGE,
YOU MAKE A CHANGE, THEN YOU'VE GOT TO FIGURE OUT
THEN YOU'VE GOT TO FIGURE OUT
THEN YOU'VE GOT TO FIGURE OUT WHAT CHANGES YOU'RE GOING TO
WHAT CHANGES YOU'RE GOING TO
WHAT CHANGES YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE, HOW YOU'RE GOING TO
MAKE, HOW YOU'RE GOING TO
MAKE, HOW YOU'RE GOING TO IMPLEMENT IT, AND YOU'VE GOT
that's something we should look at but getting tea dedicated focused objective to find the right
answer i i just can't imagine not i mean i just think that's a gift that that that happened
literally we got that email what was it a monday or or uh was it last week it was it was last week
sometime that you you and i talked about that over spring break sorry it came in over spring break uh
i didn't see it i was on vacation and then i responded back to it this week yeah we returned
I THINK IT WAS MONDAY WHEN I RESPONDED BACK.
I GUESS WHERE I'M AT IS I THINK I FULLY SUPPORT PARTICIPATING IN THE TEA THING.
I'M A LITTLE DRIVEN TO DO A LITTLE BIT MORE THAN THAT, LIKE YOU SAID, MAYBE GO GET SOME
AUDITS OR SEE SOMETHING.
I'D LIKE TO COME UP WITH A PLAN TO START THINKING ABOUT MAYBE NOT A SPECIFIC CURRICULUM, BUT
IF WE DID NEED TO MAKE A CURRICULUM CHANGE AT THE END OF THIS, JUST WHAT DOES THAT LOOK
LIKE?
WHAT'S THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THAT AND THE TIMINGS OF THAT?
that not that we need to go out and buy anything but less at least in our brain
that's my potential outcome let's think about what that's gonna look like so
just like the the TRE thing let's not wait till we need it and find out we
should have done this six months ago so I like the idea doing the TEA and seeing
if there's anything else that we can do so if the TA does says we got to change
well we thought about it that that would be that would be my recommendation and
and Greg right along with that what you're talking about is at the end of
THIS OR BY NOVEMBER, TEA IS GOING TO PUBLISH A LIST, RIGHT, OF APPROVED MATERIALS.
THEY WILL HELP US.
AND LET'S SAY WE WANT A NEW MATERIAL.
LET'S SEE WHAT TEA SAYS ABOUT THOSE MATERIALS.
THEY'RE GOING TO DO THE LEG WORK FOR US AND THEN VET WHAT THEY'VE GIVEN US AND THEN WE
WOULD PUT THAT TO SOME INTERNAL REVIEW COMMITTEES LIKE WE DO ON ANY OTHER ADOPTION OR IMA.
WE ALWAYS TAKE PARENT INPUT.
WE ALWAYS TAKE TEACHER INPUT.
We put teams together before we do a formal adoption on anything with IMA, and this would follow that same process if we're truly going to select a different material.
Mr. President, a couple of comments and questions.
So I'm guessing the TEA is doing this because their reading academy is going out to teachers and they are hearing what we are hearing, that teachers are saying, this is some really good stuff, but it doesn't align with the Lucy Calkins program in a way.
So, you know, they say a lot of things about that reading academy, a lot like we really should do sections one through six this year and seven through 12 next year so we can really take it in because it's extensive.
If it says it takes two hours, it takes four.
It's a burden to our teachers.
But they really like this, the content, but they can't always apply the content.
And so they're calling TEA and saying this is not how we do it.
So, you know, I don't have all the details.
I could get them.
I think we could.
So I'm glad TEA is doing this, and that's probably what prompted them to do it,
is they've made these reading academies,
and they see that they have programs throughout the state in many districts.
My understanding is the Lucy Calkins, maybe it's called something else.
Sorry, Dr. Kaskett might be called.
You have to study.
That's not on the approved list for TEA.
You have to get a waiver to do it. Is that correct? We had to do a waiver to get to do that
I don't believe that there's a waiver
They are not on the list because their materials are not in Spanish
And so in order to be on the list you have to have your materials have to be in English and Spanish
And how do we convert those to Spanish and Katie do it in-house, right?
So we use people that were paying to teach to convert to Spanish
I mean, why didn't she put it in Spanish, but that's another thing the so that's
That's one thing I think probably why TEA is.
I don't disagree.
I like that they're doing the study.
Like you said, I really like that.
I like it's independent.
Is there a committee?
Can we recommend some of our community members to be on it,
or is it just a hired group?
And do you know?
I'm not that detailed on how they're going to put the committee together
other than what they shared with me saying it's going to allow independent standards alignment reviewers
and independent quality reviewers.
As to why they're doing it, I don't know.
That would be speculative on our part to say so.
I don't know the origin of the review or how it happened.
Receiving it, you know what I mean, like Dr. Kastie, Dr. Kastie explained,
it sounds like they looked at which districts were using the materials
or had adopted those as those materials and reached out to those districts.
So anything beyond that of speculating why TEA is doing it, I couldn't speak to that.
Certainly there's a push for science-based literacy.
And so it taking to November is hard.
So once they come out with that, then would our district be able to take something from there?
I mean, I have a couple of programs I know that are good.
Dr. Orr from our strategic design, our facilitator, talked about Amplify.
And that's working in conjunction with those academies.
So, I mean, he mentioned one.
LET ME CLARIFY THAT ONE JUST SO YOU KNOW.
ONCE AGAIN, I'M GOING TO TALK LITERACY AND THEN SOMEBODY'S GOING TO TELL ME I'M WRONG.
AND IF THEY DO, PLEASE JUMP UP AND JUST TELL ME I'M WRONG.
AMPLIFY IS NOT A CURRICULUM.
IT IS A SUPPLEMENT THAT WE COULD USE IF WE SO CHOOSE TO DO SO.
IF THE BOARD WANTS US TO HAVE AMPLIFY, IF WE BELIEVE,
IF THE BOARD TELLS ME TONIGHT THAT AMPLIFY IS A QUALITY RESOURCE,
I CAN MAKE THAT AVAILABLE BY AUGUST, RIGHT?
AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE TEAM IS REVIEWING AMPLIFY.
WE CURRENTLY USE ISTATION.
SO WHEN YOU LOOK AT THOSE TWO READING RESOURCES, ISTATION AND AMPLIFY, IT'S USUALLY EITHER
ONE OR THE OTHER THAT'S USED AS A SUPPLEMENTAL.
WE'VE BEEN USING ISTATION AND KD FOR A LONG, LONG TIME.
BUT I KNOW THAT AMPLIFY IS FREE FROM THE STATE.
AND SO THE TEAM IS GOING TO TAKE A LOOK AT THAT AS WE MOVE INTO NEXT YEAR.
SO THEY'RE ALREADY POISED TO DO THAT.
SO THAT'S MY CONCERN IS NOVEMBER.
and then it's another year gone, and while I'm excited that we're going to have some great quality data to look at,
if it comes in November, do you feel confident that we could have, if it's a new program,
that we could have it for the beginning of the next school year?
Absolutely.
Well, Amplify we're looking at for implementation next school year prior to November.
I would like that a ton.
done. But all that research that says that if children don't get instruction, the way
the brain is wired to read if they're not taught science-based reading by the time they're
in third grade, they're dyslexic forever and then they do modifications, right? So I just
– I think we could look at district numbers on our dyslexia numbers or I had a teacher
asked me, you know, I would like to know the information on how dyslexia numbers changed
after we got rid of Johnny Can't Spell, which tells you the maturity of our teachers, because
I remember that. I taught some of that. So anyway, I just think we have some data that we could look
at, but it wouldn't be comprehensive. But if you're going to add something like Amplify and make that
available to all of our campuses, and that would help. However we help children read and
And because from first grade to second grade or second grade to third grade, you can't go back.
You know, this is not a catch-up thing very much, right?
Am I right about that?
Absolutely.
As a matter of fact, I talked with the team today about looking at our dyslexic numbers
and to see how our students are performing on a multitude of different data points.
So that's already in the works and looking at our students and how well they're performing.
Mr. President?
Yes.
So I want to thank Rebecca Fox because she probably asked my two largest questions.
So I think what's important for me for TASB or TEA to be looking at this is I would really like to know what that committee and who that committee is made up of.
Because quite honestly, if they're probably not forefront literacy experts, I think we have a problem in general.
wrong number two I can appreciate that TEA can do this but I truly think that
if we were to truly pay and I hate saying that because we have a hundred
other places we'd like to spend money but if we are to pay to focus on
literacy I believe that we are going to get a product and a delivery that 100%
100% specifically ties to the needs of our district, not somebody else, but to KDISD.
And I think that's valuable and incredibly valuable.
I don't know why units of study, Lucy Calkins, hasn't been approved by TEA,
and I don't know why it hasn't been approved by the State Board of Ed as an instructional resource.
MAYBE UPON SOME TIME AGO, IT WOULD BE BECAUSE HER
PRODUCTS WERE NOT IN SPANISH.
I HAVE A HARD TIME.
WE'VE BEEN USING THIS FOR 13 YEARS, I THINK, AS OF YOUR
LAST BRIEFING, IF I REMEMBER, DR. KASKE.
IN THAT TIME THAT THEY'RE NOT PRODUCING THEIR MATERIALS IN A
VARIETY OF LANGUAGES, THAT'S JUST ME PERSONALLY IF I LOOK AT
THE VIEWPOINT OF MY ENTIRE COUNTRY.
SO MAYBE AT ONE POINT, BUT I CAN'T SEE THAT TODAY.
And I fully think that if they're asking for this, it is because our reading academies, not just us, but I think our teachers are struggling.
They're having a hard time completing them.
It is tough.
We see it all the time.
Or you'll see them make a post sometimes that they're like, this one particularly kicked my butt or was really tough and took a lot more time than they thought.
THAN I THINK IT IS BECAUSE WE'RE USING SOMETHING THAT IS DIFFERENT THAN WHAT THOSE READING
ACADEMIES ARE DESIRED TO BE, WHICH IS WHAT HOUSE FIELD 3 WANTS.
SO IT IS DEMANDING.
SO I CAN SAY THAT I SUPPORT US PROVIDING INFORMATION TO TEA.
I THINK THAT'S IMPORTANT.
WE'RE ONE OF THE TOP FIVE LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE STATE.
BUT I THINK AT THE SAME TIME WE'RE DOING OUR STUDENTS AND OUR DISTRICT A DISSERVICE IF WE
we are not simultaneously doing it for ourselves.
I do agree with Mrs. Wilson on that.
And, you know, I'm not against the TEA either.
I just think that we could be doing something else simultaneously.
And be prepared, like Mr. Schulte said, for like a plan B or C or D.
you know, when we do get the information, let's go, you know.
I would be a proponent of adjacent tasks.
I would not be a proponent of duplicate tasks, right?
That is, I don't want to go to the TA.
Let's do the exact same thing, and that doesn't make any sense to me.
I'm sorry.
I don't mean disrespect.
I said that in the worst possible way.
I'm sorry.
I don't mean that disrespect.
To me, adjacent tasks, you do this, you bring in the experts.
I do like the idea of I don't know if I have enough information.
I think we should ask why.
I think we should ask the TA, why are we doing this?
Who's going to be involved in it?
how can we participate i i think those are legitimate questions i don't know why we couldn't
call them and maybe even go have a meeting with them and finally just really do a deep dive into
this but but i like the ta thing i don't think i i would like some more information like you said
miss wilson to make sure i want to be naive i want to be i want to do my homework trust but verify
they really have a good plan here and if they do i'm proponent of adjacent tasks not duplicate tasks
if that makes sense.
I think it's important to know why they're doing it.
Exactly.
Just to know why and make sure there's no preconceived notion going in.
Yeah.
I agree, Mr. President, knowing why they're doing it and who's doing it because I don't
want to really call anybody out, but the governor of Texas put together a task force about why
teachers are leaving the profession and he had two teachers on it and everybody
else had been out of the classroom for multitude of years and it was like ask
teachers why they're leaving right it just it just seemed like wait the
committee has who so and they only had one large school district on the whole
one person from one large school district in Austin on the whole
committee and it's like so I hope that the committee that they put together in
and the task force they put together to find this out has very engaged people without a
preconceived outcome like Mr. Gorski said.
With that said, I would ask the Board, I know Dr. Caskey's taken a few notes over there.
I've seen her take a few questions down.
Just to be clear, I want to make sure she captures every thought you have on that.
What are the questions you would like us to get answers to from TEA?
So I don't know that I have those today right now in this meeting, but could we give you a timeline to get those quickly like, you know, by the end of the week?
Sure.
If the board can send me the questions that you would like us to ask TEA, like I said, Dr. Kasky has already developed a relationship with the folks.
She's talked to them.
I don't see why they wouldn't answer any questions we have about the study so we can make a more informed decision as a board of what to do.
And so if I'm I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth from the board
Until we know more about the scope of what the TEA study is
We're taking no action at this moment. I was gonna ask you it seems like
What I'm hearing I heard several threads one is and it sounds like it's already
I don't know if there's any action you're already looking at the amplify so we don't need action on that
You're already doing that. Yes, I think you got full support on that
So I don't I don't think we need to do anything on that the TEA study sounds like there's general
general support and curiosity around it. We need to give you a list of questions. I knew about this.
A lot of the board members didn't know about this until about five minutes ago, so I think we need
to give them the benefit of send the email, let them see what the study has come up with questions.
I think by the end of the week is reasonable. Give it to you guys. You guys then go get the
answers to the questions, and then maybe we take action. I hate not to have to wait to the next
BOARD MEETING IF WE NEED ACTION FOR YOU GUYS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE STUDY?
NO.
NO.
BECAUSE OUR PARTICIPATION IS RATHER LIMITED IN SCOPE.
IT'S ACCESS TO MATERIALS, ACCESS TO THE RESOURCES, BUT LIKE YOU SAID, THEY'RE NOT DIVING IN
AT THIS TIME.
THEY HAVEN'T ASKED US TO DIVE IN ANY DATA OR ANYTHING.
OKAY.
SO THE ACTION WE REQUIRED, IF WE GIVE YOU THE LIST OF QUESTIONS FOR THE TEA, YOU GO
ASK THE TEA THE QUESTIONS, YOU COME BACK TO THE BOARD AND WE SAY, THIS LOOKS LIKE A SHAM
HERE.
We don't think this is in our best interest, and we wanted to do something different,
then the action would be to instruct you to do something different and what that looks like.
Absolutely, yes.
Yeah, I'd love to hear from the board exactly what you would like us to do in the future if it's something different.
Just tell us what you'd like us to do, and the team's ready to do it.
You bet.
So does that plan, how does that plan sound for everybody?
So Dr. Caskey looks at the Amplify.
I think that's a great idea for a kickstart in 2022, 2023.
Board members give us questions.
You can't get them by Friday.
I really like them by Friday because I don't want to waste any time.
I think the iron's hot.
Get answers by Friday.
Then Dr. Gagorski and Dr. Caskey can go get those answers, feed that back via email,
and we can decide this is good or bad.
If we need to, I guess we could call a special meeting or something to talk about it.
And in the meantime, I don't know if I need the answer now, but I really do.
I think it's separate.
I do want to identify is there an adjacent path that we could be taking that would help us.
I don't have that answer today.
That would probably be an action I want you guys to think about.
If I ask you to come up with what does an adjacent path look like, to think about that.
You guys are implementers of that.
I don't know how to implement it correctly.
I have no idea what it takes to do that.
But you guys could probably look at that and say, you know what, this is what we would do.
I LIKE THE IDEA AT THE END OF THIS, THEY'RE GOING TO TELL US THE CURRICULUM.
SO WE DON'T GOT TO GO FIGURE IT OUT AT THE END OF THIS.
WE GOT TO PICK ONE.
SO THE ANSWER WOULD BE NOW, BETWEEN NOW AND THEN, FIGURE OUT HOW ARE WE GOING TO SELECT
ONE, WHO'S GOING TO BE INVOLVED, WHAT'S THE PROCESS ONCE WE SELECT.
JUST THINK THAT THROUGH.
I DON'T THINK IT NEEDS TO BE AN OVERBEARING TYPE STUDY, BUT AT LEAST THINK IT THROUGH
SO IN NOVEMBER WE'RE READY TO LAUNCH ONTO THIS THING.
SO THAT WOULD BE MY PLAN.
So if that's the plan, there really is no action tonight that we've got to take.
But I want to make sure, complicate it, but I think I'm okay with that.
Yeah.
One more question.
So if I may address Dr. Kasky, what is KDIC's involvement?
Just, yes, you can have access to this, or will we try to tell them why ours is good?
And do we explain and support the program we're using?
How does that work?
At this point, Ms. Fox, my understanding is it's just access to the materials, because what they're doing is they're looking at an alignment, right?
So they're looking at those materials.
They did say that between 40 and 50 percent of the districts across the state of Texas are using either Fountas and Pinnell or the units of study.
And so that piqued their interest.
You know, they're interested.
So many districts are using it, so we want to take a deeper dive into it.
So at this point, they're just looking at the alignment.
I asked them if they were going to be looking at our data, student performance.
And at this point there's strictly looking at alignment to see what materials will make the commissioners list
Does that mean alignment alignment with their Academy alignment with the teaks alignment with the phonyx teaks alignment with the signs of reading
correct guys, yeah
Okay, and and it's a result of House bill 3 so the task force is a result of legislative action
Thank you.
Mr. President, as we're talking about a concurrent track,
I mean, there currently is a list that's already approved.
Those materials are already being used in our reading academies.
So November is not a brand spanking new list.
It's just most likely may be edited.
Our material may be on it at that time.
It's a phonics list.
There's reading, writing, and phonics.
What they're doing right now is they're addressing phonics.
Some of the point was if we need a concurrent track, we may have some way to go that's already there.
Thanks.
Wait a minute.
That gives me pause for a question.
So can I ask?
Absolutely.
So if for units of study, it's the phonics patch, I guess, as it's identified because it's kind of a separate thing within their bigger program.
They're only looking at phonics.
THEY'RE NOT LOOKING AT THE ENTIRE LITERACY PROGRAM?
MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT THERE'S, SO IF YOU LOOK AT OUR RESOURCES AND OUR MATERIALS,
THERE IS A READING COMPONENT, THERE'S A WRITING COMPONENT, AND THERE'S A PHONICS COMPONENT.
I DON'T KNOW IF I WOULD CALL IT A PATCH, BUT IT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE UNITS OF STUDY.
THERE'S UNITS OF STUDY IN READING, UNITS OF STUDY IN WRITING, AND UNITS OF STUDY IN PHONICS.
HOUSE BILL 3 SPECIFICALLY DIRECTS THEM TO LOOK AT PHONICS.
So that is the scope of what because I asked I said what about reading what about writing, you know, we have concerns
We hear the concerns about the materials that we're using
For reading and for writing and they said that right now this study the scope of the study is phonics
Mr. President I changed my mind
Now I'm completely changing my mind phonics only when they go to hand in hand don't think dr.
DR.
KESKE, READING, WRITING, PHONICS, IT'S ALL READING, WRITING, SPELLING, LISTENING,
SPEAKING.
OUR CHILDREN CANNOT BE SUCCESSFUL WITH THOSE THINGS.
MS.
ONE OF MY EXPERTS WILL COME UP HERE AND EXPLAIN THE CURRICULUM, HOW WE IMPLEMENT
THE CURRICULUM.
MS.
BUT IF THEY'RE ONLY LOOKING AT PHONICS, THEY'RE GOING TO LOOK AT WHAT PHONICS
PIECE SHE HAS.
BUT HOW THE UNITS OF STUDY HAS ADDED IN PHONICS WAS BECAUSE IT WAS MISSING IN THE FIRST TWO.
SO WILL IT ‑‑ I'M QUITE ‑‑
MS.
see if I can fill in. So you're right, all of these things absolutely work together, but they're also
very distinct. I know when a child is reading versus when a child is writing. We do them in
different workshops. We teach reading workshop, then we teach phonics workshop, then we teach
writing workshop. And you're expecting the phonics is the bridge between the reading and writing.
But these are all unique resources. At the time that the Teachers College materials, the units
of study were brought up for review they didn't work on the list because they were asked to come
in spanish they didn't come in spanish because they don't produce student materials they produce
teacher materials all of our teachers regardless of the language that they work in with the students
in even if they did in the bilingual classroom the teachers speak english so it's they don't have a
workbook per se like some publishers do if you had a workbook you would need the workbook to come in
Spanish so there was not a necessity from the Teachers College point of view
is what I've been told so that's why they don't produce it in Spanish because
it is not written for a student it is written for a teacher so that's kind of
that little piece then what happens with TEA is they didn't have an approved list
of their recommended phonics resource that currently doesn't exist there's
lots of lists that TEA puts out so they are looking now at what's being used in
phonics does it align with what we know about the teaks does it align with the units of does it
align with what they're saying in the courses and looking at the reading academy and looking for
that alignment piece so it's not a matter of if we like that resource think it's been good think it's
been terrible they're looking at it from a point of view does it meet the expectations that they've
identified through reading academies and through the teaks so these are the rules if you will that
they've established is that we should have these things and they're looking and saying lots of
people are using different resources throughout the state and so they're looking at all of them
dr linda corbin on my team has been a part of these reviews before not for this review not
for phonics but to get on that educators across the state apply to be on that they go through
extensive review to find the educators that do it so the experts aren't experts in the field the
The experts are educators from across the state.
And they review their biographies.
They look and see who they represent, people from small districts, people from large districts.
They get a cross-section of the state.
And then they go through extensive training on how to review the materials.
So Dr. Corbin has showed me extensive training that she went through to be a part of this review committee for the materials that she was asked to review.
Then they go through and rate all of this.
the result is a list and the Commissioner it says it's a very simple list that just identifies the
things that met the commissioners list so it's not really a quality I don't know if we can go
back then and see those things but it doesn't say this is my favorite this one had really cool
things it's not that it's a list of the items that are recommended could be long it could be
short that's the list you can choose to purchase items on the list or you can choose to purchase
just off the list it's just a list so the danger of us jumping ahead and
saying let's see what else is out in the world to see what really cool phonics
resources there are the danger would be that we might pick something else and
then it's not on the list again so I think that our most prudent things to
say what makes the list and then go just dr. Gregor ski was explaining go through
our traditional process that we do that involves all stakeholders any parent can
commute can review the resources we um teachers review the resources people at the esc review the
resources we go through our thorough review process of the items on the list and then make
a judgment what to do and mr schulte you're exactly right we've already kind of come up with a
um we've made like a little decision tree if we get come through and on no in november we find
out that the materials that we have selected are on the list that stop and go in a different
direction if we find out that the materials that we currently have purchased are not on the list
Then we go in this next direction and that follows the IMA protocols that we've already established. We just finished this up
For the PE and health resources and we go through this every year every time there's an adoption to choose our resources
So it's a really solid process. It involves lots of people
So just kind of the the nervousness about jumping ahead and starting reviewing is that's not really following the process
And we what if we pick out something that's not on a list
Just a couple of thoughts
Mr. President?
Yes.
So my, probably stay there, Ms. Mueller.
When you say at the end, the whole process gives you a list.
It doesn't say these are really cool, this is why it's great, these things are strong here or here.
It's just a list.
So now we don't know why they chose it, but I'm guessing there will be more than one.
I'm sorry.
So they will say they were choosing it based on alignment.
Does it meet the requirements?
The requirements of the TEKS, the requirements of the reading academies are the things that they're reviewing it for.
So I can we can speak the person from TEA was super
Helpful when we spoke to them and will certainly can give us any information
They're permitted to give as to what all that they'll be looking at but she was pretty frank
They're looking at the alignment to find out if it's in alignment with everything
That's identified in the teaks and with what's identified in reading academies. Why aren't they looking at reading and writing as well?
And I mean look at one piece I don't
see that that's going to get us where we need to be mrs wilson do you you you're versed on this
very well my only concern if they are only looking at phonics is that reading isn't just about
reading you you need to have phonics in order to read so if our phonics fall short
let me let me rechange my word on fall short because that that's unfair if if if units of
STUDY OR FNP IS NOT WHAT'S GOING TO COME OUT ON THE FINAL LIST FROM TEA YET THAT IS WHAT
WE'RE USING THAT IS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN USING FOR AN EXTENSIVE AMOUNT OF TIME WHO IS REALLY
TO SAY THAT THERE IS ANOTHER PHONICS PROGRAM THAT IS TRULY GOING TO BE ABLE TO WORK IN
TANDEM WITH A BALANCED LITERACY PROGRAM IN GENERAL AND ONE THAT'S NOT FULLY BASED ON
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE SCIENCE OF READING.
SO BECAUSE IT'S NOT JUST PHONICS.
I GUESS THAT'S MY ‑‑ I AM HAVING A PROBLEM BRIDGING THAT GAP BECAUSE I DON'T SEE PHONICS
AS THE BRIDGE BETWEEN READING AND WRITING.
I SEE THEM ALL HAVING TO BE TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY WORK SIMULTANEOUS IS ONE THING.
my dyslexic child couldn't write because she couldn't spell because she couldn't
sound out a word and she couldn't read I had a third grader who couldn't read not
here in this district I brought her here as a senior I'm gonna caveat that but as
a military family I raised her in a variety of states with the same problem
so I'm not challenging that I'm just saying that if I just take my own
personal experience with that it's a very different thing and I'm I struggle
with this really hard as a as a parent for those kids what what I can share
from House Bill 3 it says House Bill 3 amended statute to include multiple
reading initiatives including requirements that leas meaning our
school districts adopt a k3 phonics curriculum that uses systematic direct
instruction incorporates the use of integrated reading instruments and
prioritizes the placement of highly effective teachers in grades K through
three so the the reason TEA is looking at phonics is because of the legislative
action in House Bill three can I ask a question please dr. Caskey so the
reading academies I know some teachers you know I know kindergarten teachers
as first grade teachers, friends of mine,
that tell me that they're struggling,
but they do like the material.
But what does that material align with?
I mean, what is there?
Does it align with the units of reading?
Does it align with science of reading?
You know, what is it that they're learning?
Because they say that a lot of it doesn't, you know,
relate to what they're actually doing.
Actually, I went through the reading academies as well.
So I'm right there with them.
I understand the time that it takes.
It's focused around the framework of the science of reading.
SCIENCE OF TEACHING READING, SCIENCE OF READING,
IT KEEPS KIND OF MORPHING AND CHANGING THE TITLE.
BUT I'M GOING TO ASK MS. WESTMORELAND HERE.
SHE'S OUR EXPERT IN READING ACADEMIES,
AND SHE'S DONE A FANTASTIC JOB OF ACTUALLY CREATING VIDEOS
THAT TAKE OUR KDISD CURRICULUM
AND SHOW STUDENTS ENGAGED IN INSTRUCTION
AND HOW THAT OVERLAYS WITH THE DIFFERENT MODULES
OF THE READING ACADEMIES.
SO WE'VE TAKEN IT A STEP FURTHER
TO EVEN HELP OUR TEACHERS SEE THOSE CONNECTIONS
between our curriculum and the Reading Academies in action with students. And I'm going to stop
there. I've seen them. They're fantastic because our own kids and Katie engaged in the processes,
but I'm going to let Kim Westmoreland, you want to expand on that? I will. I'm standing here. Leah,
I was going to address you a little bit on this. So how the Reading Academies works. So science
of teaching reading of course isn't a resource it's a thought process right it's it's how are
you doing it what are you using and how are you going to do it with explicit and systematic
construction so when you have phonics for what you guys are talking about the reading academy talks
about decoding is the first thing they have to do just like what you were saying they've got to have
some type of decoding skills right and then from there it goes to oral language they have to have
that and then from there it goes to comprehension and that is in the reading academy is on every
single module and so and so what they're saying is those three things go in
tandem we can do decoding and and the syllable types and things like that but
if we don't move that through oral language then we're gonna have word
callers and not comprehension right so they have to a kid has to have all of
those strengths right so the great thing about the reading academies well right
now we're running 900 people through that 900 teachers I know it's tough I've
heard some great things and I know it's it's a struggle right but there's some
good things that come through that and one of the great things is really
focusing on decoding skills because you're right if they cannot decode it's
gonna be very hard right but our units of study phonics has a whole decoding
part of it it has the syllable types it goes through I won't go in the weeds and
it goes to a whole lot of progressions and things like that that really go
in tandem, kind of like what Dr. Caskey said, with what our students are doing it and how
they're doing it.
And I think what's happening here is the teachers are going, wow, everything has to be so explicit
and systematic and direct.
We have to do things like, today I want to teach you, you know, how to use the VCE syllable
type.
I mean, that's how we're talking to our students right now, instead of going, coming across
it and reading or something like what had happened in whole language.
It's not like that, right?
We're working in silos, just like Ms. Muller said.
We have a writing workshop, a reading workshop, and a finance workshop.
I hope that answers it.
Thank you for your presentation.
I just have something to say.
I know that y'all are working so hard.
I know that.
I can't even imagine the 12 to 15 hours probably a day you do or whatever.
I personally really appreciate that.
that. As a child that was also dyslexic, I know the benefit of people like you taking
time with children to get them past that hump. But whatever it is, and I'm not the expert,
my hope and I'm sure that everybody else here hope, every adult in this room, every adult
sitting there watching, every parent just wants the best for all the children. And we
We want, you know, those figures that those ladies provided, you know, the 40% is correct or whatever.
You know, we don't want the 40% that are not doing well.
You know, we all want it to be only 5% or less that are struggling, you know.
And so whatever it takes, you know, I'm behind, you know, whatever Dr. Kowarski thinks is better, whatever.
Dr. Cassidy, the experts, you ladies, you know, I'm in support.
And I just, but I want it to be fixed sooner than later.
And I know that we have to do bureaucracy and all this and not everything can happen that fast
But it's like they see you know you know you're six years old now
And you're eight years old two years later by the time everything happens, and you know you've lost that time
So we're not going to ignore any of those kids for those two years, so I said that we're doing
I believe absolute best for every kid. I believe very same thing you do I believe you
I know that y'all are working hard, and we don't want them to I know that you do not ever want to see a child
You know
fail at that. So I have full hope that
everything's going to get better and better and better all the time.
So I thought we were really close, and then the bottom fell out of it right at the end there.
So I'll be honest with you, I'm a little lost now.
I understand what you're saying about I didn't know it was just a phonics piece.
You had a question, Ms. Wilson?
Yeah.
So I thought we were really close to buttoning this up and having a good plan,
but with the if what I'm hearing is that a
participating in the TEA with the phonics only piece is is not really a solution that is a adequate solution from the experts I
Don't have a plan B right now
I'm certainly if somebody has a plan B. I'm open to hearing about it, but I'm almost thinking we need to I don't know
Efficient way is maybe form a committee or something of support people and some experts and figure out what to do
I don't think I can, I don't have a motion or an action to take based on what I just
learned.
I don't know if anybody else does, but I'm all ears.
Other districts, someone has said that earlier, other districts have done this recently or
something like that.
Could we find what they've done?
I appreciate very much the TEA doing this, and I thought it was going to be wonderful
because I thought it was the ELAR part, but you're exactly right.
Dr. Caskey, HB3 said phonics, and so they're doing what's been told to them by the state.
So that's not going to get us where we need to go.
My understanding is from teachers who are frustrated with the units of study is that decoding is not, that's not really a portion of what they do.
Are you, Mrs. Westmoreland?
It really is a portion of what they do.
If they use it with fidelity, it is a huge portion in the units of study phonics.
So we call them rug clubs and extensions.
There's all these fantastic pieces, but it has to be used with consistency and with fidelity.
Just like anything, nothing's going to change unless you do that.
I don't know that it's an add-on.
It's an integral part.
Is that correct?
It absolutely is.
But there's lots to do with it, right?
So you can't just do a piece of something and expect it to have all of the results.
You have to do the full, all the different pieces.
So we're looking at lots of different things to get there.
We're looking at additional trainings, additional support staff, working more closely with the teachers during the school year by going into campuses.
So we are looking at improving our ability to support teachers.
I really appreciate Mrs. Westmoreland's videos to show how it works.
And you're right.
If it's not explicit and systematic, it doesn't work.
And maybe our teachers need more help with those kinds of things to get that happening.
But I'm concerned about our Title I and our bilingual campuses.
and something you said Mrs. Muller about it wasn't in Spanish because it went to
English speaking teachers then why are we converting it to Spanish if it's not
necessary we're not converting that the pieces what that is the instruction for
teachers they're just converting any pieces of it that a student needs so
making word cards things like that checklists rubrics yeah so that they and
that's really also to support the parents as well so that they receive a
checklist or a rubric that a parent could would be able to read that as well
Okay. I would like to see a more comprehensive assessment of the ELAR so that we don't fix a,
we don't take a phonics recommendation and it doesn't fit with the other, with the,
with the other things that we're teaching. Yes. I mean, before we, this TEA thing,
which I thought was really good news dropped from the sky. Now, maybe it wasn't as good as
I thought it was going to be, but you still think it is. Okay. Please help me here because I'm,
I'm not, I'm not understanding that it is, but I might be missing it.
No, I don't want to steer the board one way or another, and I think I've been pretty clear on that.
Whatever the board wants us to do on this literacy, we're going to do it.
There's no doubt about it.
I think the phonics, okay, we've been listening to criticism about the units of study for a long time.
I'd say 99% of the criticisms we receive are about phonics.
They always are about phonics, or at least a large number of the criticisms of the units of study are about phonics.
That's why I like the TEA study because it was so focused on phonics for which were the units of study are being criticized
That's a huge piece of this. We don't hear a lot
I don't know correct me if I'm wrong about
Criticisms about the units of study other than the phonics based piece of the units of study
Well, you're saying if that's the case
If the criticism is overwhelmingly focused on phonics, that's what we should be looking at is the phonics
But once again, if the board, I mean, the board, I mean, we've been down this one here.
You want us to just go off the TA does have a list, right, of reading and writing?
Yes.
If those have been vetted and they're better than the units of study and the board has selected one of those, we'll move towards that one.
If the board wants a different phonics but TA hasn't produced any list yet, I don't know which one we'd select or review.
I do think and I think one of the ladies said this there is significant risk if we go out and review a bunch of
Phonics programs and they don't make the ta list and then we're criticized once again. Hey, there's not on the ta list
So we have to wait for that list before we choose a phonics one. So
There is no phonics list
Correct. Yes, that's correct. They gave examples in the information that you can find on ta now they gave examples of
of different resources that were approved
on the Reading Works Clearinghouse,
but would not make the grade for what TEA has put forward.
So they have let us know
that it will be a very stringent call on the list.
So I think we are in danger of choosing something again,
not on the list if we don't wait for the list,
if we're concerned about that.
So Mr. President,
it sounds like we're back with your tangent thing.
This is what I say.
They're doing phonics,
but if we could look at I know we because of TASB and TASA we talked to
other districts all the time and there are lots of districts who have moved
away from units of study if I'm saying those correctly to something else and
talk about what they learned through that I know other districts have done it
I think we could look to them and kind of get some if you want to do a board
committee to to go and do I hate to ask all of them for that but I'd be happy to
serve on a committee to look at some other districts and bring back a starter place so
that we're not just, because I don't know, Mr. Redmond, I know you might have some ideas
on this, but like how we could look at some of the connections we have and what have you
all done and maybe we could bring you a place to be like, okay, now go start there.
However we can help, I just think that looking at only phonics and maybe we don't get anything
done before the phonics list comes out but we would have something that looks
at all pieces of it of some other districts who have already gone through
the process without hiring at this point I couldn't vote to hire someone to do it
because we don't even know where to start on that I think if the ta comes
back and it looks at the phonics I guess this units of study if the phonics are
good the worst that they were saying the phonics could be good but the writing
and the what was the other three but there's writing reading reading font
fit the phonics is good but the other two could be bad and they're not going
there are lying to lying to bad it's not a great term not a lot we're not looking
at those can I ask one other question where does FMP fit into this fountain
is fountain is in Padilla our use of it as a district or as far as being reviewed
So our use of it in the district is it is a resource that we utilize to evaluate students and help find identify their reading level.
It's a tool for teachers to help them so that they can get kids in just right books so that they are working in books that are appropriate for their level and their needs.
It is also has we purchased units of study at the time that we made that purchase when we went through IMA.
that was the second choice by the by the district the first choice came up as
units of study the second choice was found us in Pinnell we got information
about both of those to bring forward the founders in Pinnell was actually much
more expensive than the units of study and it was our second place choice and
so we went with the first place choice but we use FMP every yes we don't use
the entire curriculum all of the resources we only use it assess the
the assessment tool from them.
Sorry, it's called the BAS,
it's called B-A-S, Benchmark Assessment System.
It's a piece of Fountas and Pinnell.
And you might have heard of the different reading levels
identified by letter.
That comes from Fountas and Pinnell.
So there's three parts.
Do you have to get the three parts from the same system
that is, you got the units of study,
and there's three parts.
Is it, you can't get,
we're gonna use the phonics from units of study,
but we're gonna use reading and writing
from somebody else, you can do that?
Sure. Okay, so okay, so I didn't know that so that's so is there list for the other two that are out. Yes
Okay
So they're they're they're they're independent so to speak that if you've got on the list or reading they are in writing
And let's pause on the phonics still the TAS done and then and there's no it's not going to be any
Misalignment when we're doing that you can get the reading writing and then the phonics
Yeah, but you might as well look at the whole continuously. I agree. That's all I'm saying right
But there's lists for the other two.
There are.
We don't have to wait until this study.
We can start looking.
So maybe the adjacent piece to me is let's do the TEA study.
Maybe I'm back where we started.
Do the TEA study for the phonics to make sure we get the right phonics piece.
And then on the other two pieces, we can start looking at those now because you already,
thank you, the decision tree was what I was looking for.
It's good to hear that you had that.
I didn't know that.
But with the other piece, with the reading and writing,
you can use your decision tree for ones that are on the list versus what you've got inside.
side what we do on these two while we're waiting for this one to be done is that
is that possible Greg I'm gonna jump in because I don't mean to complicate it
but tell me again ladies didn't we just do this on the IMA adoption yes it was
part of proclamation you did this what you're describing and and they selected
what we're currently using we just went through all the materials the IMA looked
looked at everything, and this is what we chose.
Other than what we chose is not on the approved list,
but it was because of the Spanish,
not because it wasn't a good curriculum.
It once again goes back to this board action.
It wasn't evaluated for that, so it wasn't a quality good or bad.
Thank you, Dr. McNeely.
It wasn't.
If the board is going to say, I mean, once again, board action.
I mean, I keep going back to that.
If you tell this group that you no longer as a board want the units of study,
they will abandon the units of study and they will go review through IMA process
everything on the commissioners list and choose one off the commissioners list if
that's what this board wants to do that wouldn't be my recommendation but that
that was what the board could do so as Lucy Calkins is not on the list right
units of study by Teachers College is not on the list okay so we heard there
They were not evaluated at the time of the evaluation by TEA.
They did not put theirs up for it.
And they have said that the reason it wasn't put up for it is because it didn't come in Spanish.
And that was a requirement by TEA.
Okay.
But it was chosen anyway, right?
We did not.
So you are, according to IMA, you are allowed to choose any resources.
They do not have to be from a commissioner's list.
That is just the recommended list.
So we looked at items that were on the list and items that were not on the list
and went through our comprehensive review and then we got our top two
choices and moved forward from there okay that was 2019 okay I'm gonna I'm
gonna I'm gonna stand by I'm gonna this is complicated more complicated than I
thought and I really appreciate all everybody being open transparent and
this is a learning experience for me but I still stand by I'm gonna throw
something out there somebody could throw bullets at it I it sounds like there's
THERE'S NO DISADVANTAGE OF PARTICIPATING IN THE TEA STUDY ON THE PHONICS PIECE.
YEAH, THEY'RE MOVING FORWARD WITH IT.
THEY'RE DOING IT WITH OR WITHOUT US.
REGARDLESS, THEY'RE MOVING FORWARD WITH THIS REVIEW, AND THEY ARE GOING TO CREATE A LIST,
REGARDLESS.
THERE'S NO REASON THEY'RE NOT, WELL, LET'S GET THE QUESTIONS AND PARTICIPATE.
MAY NOT BE THE END ALL, END ALL, BUT I THINK WE SHOULD DO THAT.
AND THEN IT SOUNDS LIKE WE'VE ALREADY DONE THE OTHER PIECE FOR THE READING RANKS.
SO I'M NOT PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION ON CHANGING THAT RIGHT NOW.
I'm not not tonight to take action on that but if it's worth looking at the
reading and writing I don't understand enough that just did that we're gonna
redo it but pick something that's on the list I need to learn more about that I
didn't even know that that was it was three different pieces and they're
independent I didn't understand that till the night so mr. president yeah
look the curriculum department you know deserve this deserve crowns and capes
and jewels in your crown all of it I applaud you the let's call it Lucy
Calkins because that's how teachers talk to me about it that's how parents talk
to me about it you just about google it and here it is there they're attacked
right and left on those on the places where they're missing out on title one
campuses, bilingual campuses, our children who might need the most help, how they're
not successful.
I know that Lucy Calkins is one of the things.
We're all through New York or maybe New York City in every school.
The chancellor who is the superintendent of New York City schools, getting rid of it.
So everyone's abandoning it.
And by everyone, it's a stretch.
I am exaggerating for effect.
And excuse me.
I don't just that's that's wrong
Not everyone is abandoning it but you see it over and over and over and it just causes me alarm in that and our
You're right. Some teachers like it, but a whole bunch don't and I would say let's look at some statistics in Katy
Let's look at campuses by campus not I love how well we do in against the state and against the region
But if we were to take our Title I campuses and our bilingual campuses and see how they
do on STAAR Test or Tel Pass or any of those standards of measurement, let's see how the
curriculum is doing with those babies.
It's not.
You know, we hear 41 percent.
It's...
I beg to differ on some of the statistics I've heard, and the ladies could talk better
statistics than I can I know them for a more broad standpoint but I'll say this
and I'll remind the board okay we are the largest district in the state of
Texas with an a rating and how do you get an a rating it's based on your
standardized test scores from star and a handful of other things of graduation
rates and whatnot but if anyone anything's open to criticism and I'm
willing to look at anything that would do better but I think what we're
forgetting here is even if the units of study are not working for a segment of our population
and let's say it's not the principals have the autonomy to supplement that with five or six
seven other vetted resources that are strongly vetted that are proven methods to help kids
succeed we do that currently and we're doing it for all of our kids and and so i think our kids
are getting all of the things that you describe or people would lead you to believe they're not getting?
So if they want an Amplify or something else, they just ask and they'll be provided that,
or they have to purchase it with their own funds, or they have to do a fundraiser to get it,
or how do they get things like Amplify?
Amplify is not one that we're currently subscribing to.
It's my understanding.
I remember the list.
You guys gave me the list.
I read it.
It's six or eight things on there and they are all phonics based
According to the chart you guys supplied me that dr. Caskey gave me and I read through it all
We have traditionally for a long period of time use I station. Okay, the parent our
Campuses are very familiar with it. You're with that I station and amplify our competitors you go to the internet
You're gonna find out
Amplify is going to tell you I station is the worst thing ever and I stations going to tell you amplifies the worst thing ever
It's one of those things like I described before I'll find you anything on the internet that
Criticizes ten people are gonna say this ten are gonna say the other if our teams review amplify
I trust in our experts if they believe amplify is a better product
We will get amplify in place by August and we would abandon the I station
Okay, so hopefully those who sign the I station contracts around here hear me don't sign another contract with them until we've reviewed this and make
make sure it's the one we want.
But there's other choices, too.
There's a handful of supplements that people can do to do things for kids who are struggling
or might be in a different group and the resource we provide is not adequate for them.
But once again, you know what I mean?
Once again, our kids are outperforming the region and the state on all sorts of levels, all sorts.
Now, granted, there's always room for improvement, Ms. Fox, but I would say this.
Find me a school district in the country that's got 100% reading.
Find me one.
You know what I mean?
And I'm not saying you say that so that's not our goal.
Our goal is 100% on reading level.
And I think our literacy folks strive for that every day with our kids.
I think they're doing that with our kids.
But it's a real challenge.
If we could get to 100% literacy, I mean, how long have we been tracking NAEP scores?
Since like 73?
Okay.
The line on NAEP hasn't moved other than a couple of fluctuations like this because it's hard work and it's challenging work.
And I'll guarantee you this one as well, and I don't guarantee much out there,
but if the board chooses to put a different literacy program in you will
have teachers who like this and don't like this I don't think you're gonna
resolve the conflict that out of I don't know we've got almost 6,000 teachers I
don't know how many of those would be elementary people are all 100% gonna say
that's the one it's difficult to get a hundred percent but if the board would
like as well you know i mean we could schedule you some site visits you could put your committee
together i'd love to take you to some campuses or the ladies would i wouldn't do it myself
they'll take you they'll show you the teachers teaching it using it what they do you could hear
from the campus professionals hear from your instructional coaches hear from your literacy
experts in the field what do we do or do we attempt to do for kids who aren't getting it
but i'm with you 100 if this is not the right curriculum and there is a better one out there
we'd love to get it love to so i want to try to get this to an action or agreement that there is
not action tonight great discussion i think we could stay here till midnight and at some point
you got to decide are we going to get any further by additional discussion i'm not sure that i can
so if a board member has an action that they would like to take we can take it i certainly
have still a proponent i don't think you abandoned the phonics piece that's got to be done you got to
wait till that's done to degree I still like the idea of forming a committee to
look at do we want to do something different on the other parts but I don't
have an action to tell him to go buy something else or change curriculum
right now but I do think we get the questions on the TEA study understand
what they're doing on the phonics piece we form a committee to look at what I
don't think we're gonna get to an answer tonight I'm gonna spend here we can't
spend enough time to get to an answer what to do on the reading and writing so
my might did to get through it form a committee to go look at it and make a
a recommendation by the next meeting on what we think we want to do.
As far as a plan.
Are you talking about a board committee that you will appoint?
Yes.
That's what I would recommend.
Is it a board committee?
We're going to need these experts.
You guys have done a great job tonight, but I thought I knew more than I did.
And I think I can become an expert pretty quick with this team.
It's not going to take long.
I know a question is asked, but I'm not going to get there tonight.
I'm not.
Is everybody okay with?
Mr. President, do we know?
When's the next time this is scheduled to be reviewed?
We're in year three of implementation.
You guys remember year one, COVID hit.
Year two, we were in full-blown COVID.
And this is year three of implementation of these new materials.
Is it eight years to the next proclamation?
Yeah.
Everything's about an eight to 10-year cycle with TEA.
So that's when they have us up for review again.
And then we would go through the IMA process.
so that's what we'll have more IMA funds to be utilized towards this as well we
would love any opportunity to walk you around campuses to show you what the
resources can be well I think that's what needs to happen we've got that
chance so I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna give it going once going twice
going three times on no board motion tonight other than we're going to I
I still think we get the questions to Dr. Grigorski on questions for the phonics stuff for the TA.
We participate in that.
They're going to do it anyway.
Might as well participate in it, figure out more about it, form a board committee to look at a plan forward on the other piece.
Is that okay?
Great.
Can I say one thing?
Absolutely.
Did you want to say something, Leah?
No, sir.
I was just looking.
I've been taking notes.
Yes.
And I want to reiterate.
I know how hard everybody works on the curriculum.
I'm not going to repeat everything Edelman said, but one of the things that started us
down this path was I just want to keep focus on even if we feel like we have the right
materials, part of the reason we started this discussion is finding out why do we have kids
that are still struggling.
So I just wanted to say that, that even if we don't have to change materials, there may
still be a focus on, okay, our materials are okay, but why are we having these issues with
certain students?
students. And again, that's not a reflection of anybody, but I just want to keep focus on that.
Appreciate that, Mr. Chair. Good question. Okay, so we're ready to move on. Everybody's okay?
Everybody feels heard? Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to Section 8, which is Action Items.
Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to move Agenda Items 8.1 through 8.9 to be approved
to a consent agenda vote.
Second.
We have a motion to move agenda items 8.1 to 8.9
to a consent agenda.
We have a motion.
That was by Ms. Vance.
Second by Ms. Wilson.
Mr. President, may I make a comment
about one of the action items?
Absolutely.
I'm not saying that I'm not in favor
of the whole consent idea,
but on 8.1, the staffing,
thing. I just want to say something about there was a teacher that came here and spoke tonight
and then she also sent an email and it's not that I know that we can't do anything about this
this year but I just wondering you know my heart goes out to the fine arts teachers that have lost
you know that they're down to one teacher whatever in their elementary school because I do feel that
that the love of music or arts can be instigated in elementary school in the early elementary years.
And I just think, you know, I've seen the teachers doing their thing in the classrooms,
and they're exciting and they're inspiring and all that.
And when a teacher has to go down from one to three days to one to four days, you know,
And so I don't know how many days, 177 days in the school year.
You can divide it out.
And maybe their optimal time to be inspired to love music or fine arts is in elementary school.
Then you're possibly losing kids on the way up into junior high and high school.
All three of my kids are in fine arts.
And I know that they had great music teachers in elementary school.
And they loved their time there.
I just know that in Fort Bend ISD, they have a thing where every elementary school has two music teachers in their schools, regardless of the enrollment.
And so I would just love if we could move, you know, try to think about at least moving toward that to make sure that we don't lose our fine arts kids on the way up.
That's just all I'd like to say about that.
So that's an action that you would like to consider?
I mean, I'm sure it's out of order for right now.
Yeah, just as a list, you know, Duke keeps a list of actions for Dr. Gorski to take under consideration like that to be on the list.
You know what would be a good thing to know is how many elementary schools only have one or have two?
You know, what's the formula?
You know, what's the number?
Is it less than 900?
You've moved down to one or, you know, what is the formula?
One thing I would like to know I think that they what they do is they get assigned a certain number of fine arts teachers
Rather than they don't say necessarily, you know, we're gonna get to music teachers to our teachers
They get however many and then they and then the principal divides them at you know, but I don't know what the formula is
so
Yeah, so miss champagne if I could capture a few of your thoughts in there
I'll remind the board and it was probably about six or six or months ago or longer
I REMEMBER MS. FOX ASKING ME A QUESTION THAT SHE HAD HEARD THAT IN THE COMMUNITY THAT WE
WERE LOSING KIDS IN JUNIOR HIGH IN FINE ARTS.
AND WE RAN A LOT OF DATA, AND I REMEMBER MS. HACK GOT ME THAT DATA, AND IT WASN'T ACCURATE
THAT WE'RE LOSING A LOT OF KIDS.
SO I DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO BELIEVE THAT KIDS ARE FALLING OFF IN JUNIOR HIGH AND THEY'RE
NOT TAKING THE FINE ARTS BECAUSE THAT'S NOT WHAT THE DATA SHOWS.
And I think we went back three to five years on that to show that kids are still the same percentages today that have always been.
So I don't think it's that lack of music program in junior high that is causing kids to leave because the data doesn't show that.
Now, whereas if you would like a copy of the staffing standards, I can ask Mr. Schuss.
He can give me the standards.
I can put him in a Friday info to the board, and you can see all the numbers on that.
So if the board is asking me, which is fine.
If the board would like us to change the staffing standards, if you would like to look at them and the board tell me you want a different standard on any standard of the standards, then we'll make that happen for the board.
But when you say that, there's a lot of considerations goes into everything.
Would it be awesome to have three music teachers at every school?
Absolutely.
Would it be great to have five band directors at every high school instead of three?
Okay, that'd be great.
WOULD IT BE GREAT TO HAVE FOUR GT TEACHERS AT EVERY ELEMENTARY INSTEAD OF ONE, MAYBE?
YES, ABSOLUTELY.
SO WE CAN ENRICH ANYTHING WE WANT TO ENRICH BY THE STANDARD.
BECAUSE I AGREE WITH YOU.
HAVING MULTIPLE MUSIC TEACHERS WOULD BE OUTSTANDING.
HAVING MULTIPLE ART TEACHERS COULD BE EQUALLY OUTSTANDING THERE.
BUT WE DO HAVE THE STANDARDS FOR A REASON IN THERE,
BECAUSE WE CAN'T OVERLY ENRICH EVERYTHING,
EVEN IF IT WOULD BE SUPER GREAT FOR EVERYBODY.
But we'll make a staffing standard happen for any way the board wants that standard to be.
I just bring this up, not only just for the students, you know, it's also, you know, the teachers are overworked.
And, you know, when you think about a teacher, whichever teacher it is, that has 800 kids or however many she has, I don't know how many she has.
I mean, that's a lot.
And, you know, they're younger and they need more attention and, you know, such and such.
So, anyway, I would appreciate to see those numbers.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Mr. President, fine arts is my thing.
I'm going to chime in here.
So when my understanding, he'll get it to us, when you drop below 1,000, you lose a
special assignment, and then the principal decides where they go.
Art requires a lot more hands-on, so they almost always keep two art.
But when you lose a music teacher, that means that students go from having music once every
three days to once every four days.
And if we believe what the statistics show about how children who have a music background do better at science, they do better at math, they do better at reading, their SAT scores are better, there's all kinds of data that shows that works.
works. So if we believe that and we want that base, that foundation for our children, I'm
going to fight for more fine arts positions wherever we can afford them. And I'm not the
one to choose the best exact way to spend the staff, but you would have my solid support
to have 850 to 890 or 900 students for one teacher is a lot.
certainly weigh a lot then two teachers divided between a thousand so I just
wish that kids could get to music more days and more often and all the things
they get to do with that so I'm not telling you where to spend your
resources I'm just saying you have a strong supporter if that's something you
believe you want to bring to us you're gonna you're gonna have my support of
that okay so we had a motion in a second by this man and miss Fox to go to a
consent agenda on item 8.1 to 8.9 we answered your questions any other board
members have any other questions on 8.1 day point nine if not we'll proceed to
vote all those in favor of consent agenda on 8.1 8.9 raise your hand all
right so now we have approval to do the consent agenda do we need to vote on it
now I would say for clarity purposes let's vote on the consent okay I need so
So I need a motion to approve items 8.1 to 8.9.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the board approves action items 8.1 through 8.9 with use of a consent agenda.
We have a motion by Mr. Redman, second by Ms. Vann.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
The motion carries.
Mr. President?
Yes.
We may explain a consent agenda, just knowing that we've stopped using it for a while.
Yeah.
If you're unfamiliar with the consent agenda, we used it before when we had two different meetings.
It's simply items that are action only, just one vote.
We roll them all together.
And just like you just saw the discussion happen, we pulled that one item out for discussion.
And so as the board starts to use the consent agenda going forward,
any person on the board has the ability to pull that item out and have a discussion.
session. Otherwise, on nights where we're going until 9 o'clock, may take some of those items
that were just simply read the motion, vote, read the motion, vote, read the motion, vote,
and make an entire, wrap them all up together. So just in case you didn't know what a consent
agenda is, that's it. Thank you. And I think the other thing that's important on the consent
agenda, we have gotten all the background information. We've read all the contracts,
all the bid assessments. So we've done it. We've either asked questions, got answers,
that we don't have questions so thank you mr redmond okay uh the board was provided a copy
of the donated items to kdisd uh that's agenda item 9.1 uh mr keller do you have any agenda
items you'd like to recap on 9.2 i do i have for item 7.4 that uh we're going to find out someone
with mr gorski and is going to find out how long the efficiency audit is good for tre purposes yes
Item 7.5, someone's going to follow up, I believe, Dr. Gorski, on the third-party costs of the board investigation.
7.14 is very long here, so let me know if I missed something.
I believe we're going to ask certain questions to the TEA, I believe, Dr. Gorski, including scope of TEA study.
I have these notes, by the way, if you need them later.
By the end of the week, board members are going to provide any comments or questions they have that they'd like included there.
And then you'll report back to the board.
We're going to evaluate and decide future action and whether we're going to go along an adjacent track with the TEA evaluation.
evaluation. I believe we said, because this bounced around a lot, that someone's going to
provide some statistics by campus regarding standards of measurement of the literacy.
We're going to either appoint a committee or discuss appointing a committee to evaluate steps
forward. So that's all I had on 7.14. I know we jumped around a little bit. Okay, good. And then
And then on 8.1, someone's going to look for us to find out how many elementary school
fine arts, what the formula is, how those teachers are distributed across the fine arts
programs on the campus, and what the staffing standards are.
Thank you, Mr. Cullen.
That's all I had.
Okay.
Mr. President, would it be possible to ask how many schools have only one elementary
teacher one elementary choir teacher music or finance okay that's great thank
you 10.1 there will be a special board meeting for raise your hand Texas
advocacy group on Monday April 4th 2022
there will be a regular board meeting on Monday April 25th 2022 there being no
further business before the board this meeting is adjourned the time is 906
Thanks, everybody.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 6.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves employees who are being recommended to receive one-year employee probationary contracts, one-year employee dual assignment probationary contracts, one-year employee term contracts, one-year employee dual assignment term contracts, and two-year employee dual assignment term contracts for the 2022 - 2023 school year with the exception of those employees who have resigned or a decision has not been made at this time concerning being recommended for a contract, for termination or for proposed non-renewal, which will occur at a future meeting as recommended by the Superintendent in Closed Meeting
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 002 · AGENDA 6.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees names James Crider as the Director of Business Intelligence.
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 6.3
PassedIt is recommended Wilson that the Board of Trustees names Dr. Sanee Bell as the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning.
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 7.1
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the renewal of the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Risk Management Fund Casualty Program for Plan Year 2022-2023.
MOTION 005 · AGENDA 7.1
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the renewal of the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Risk Management Fund Casualty Program for Plan Year 2022-2023. Motion Passes
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 7.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's January 2022 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 007 · AGENDA 7.3
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's January 2022 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 7.4
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's January 2022 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 009 · AGENDA 7.5
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's March 2022 budget amendments.
MOTION 010 · AGENDA 7.5
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's March 2022 budget amendments. Motion Passes
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 7.6
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Stantec Architecture, Inc. for design services necessary for the renovation to Hutsell Elementary School.
MOTION 012 · AGENDA 7.6
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Stantec Architecture, Inc. for design services necessary for the renovation to Hutsell Elementary School. Motion Passes
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 7.7
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to IBI Group for design services necessary for the renovation and addition to McDonald Junior High School.
MOTION 014 · AGENDA 7.7
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to IBI Group for design services necessary for the renovation and addition to McDonald Junior High School. Motion Passes
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 015 · AGENDA 7.8
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves a change in the construction delivery method for the addition to Schmalz Elementary School.
MOTION 016 · AGENDA 7.8
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves a change in the construction delivery method for the addition to Schmalz Elementary School. Motion Passes
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 017 · AGENDA 7.9
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Satterfield & Pontikes Construction, Inc. for the construction of Elementary School #45 in the amount of $32,459,534 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $38,757,267.
MOTION 018 · AGENDA 7.9
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Satterfield & Pontikes Construction, Inc. for the construction of Elementary School #45 in the amount of $32,459,534 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $38,757,267. Motion Passes
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 019 · AGENDA 7.10
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Drymalla Construction Company, LLC for the construction of Elementary School #46 in the amount of $35,562,652 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $41,921,530.
MOTION 020 · AGENDA 7.10
UnknownIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Drymalla Construction Company, LLC for the construction of Elementary School #46 in the amount of $35,562,652 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $41,921,530. Motion Passes
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 021 · AGENDA 7.11
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the Interlocal Agreement with the City of Houston and Katy Independent School district for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program.
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 022 · AGENDA 7.12
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the resolution nominating Dr. Ken Gregorski as Superintendent of the Year.
6 Yes · 0 No · 1 Abstain
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Abstain |
| duke-keller | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 023 · AGENDA 7.13
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the adoption of the Katy Independent School District Board Operating Procedures.
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 024 · AGENDA 8.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the campus staffing plan for the 2022 - 2023 school year as recommended by the superintendent.
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 025 · AGENDA 8.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the additional funding in the amount of $119,631.35 as it relates to the purchase of property for Elementary School #46.
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 026 · AGENDA 8.3
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the plat for Elementary School #46.
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 027 · AGENDA 8.4
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves Amendment Three to the Satterfield & Pontikes Construction, Inc. contract related to the comprehensive renovations and addition to Katy Elementary for the Guaranteed Maximum Price of $12,611,555 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $26,002,207.
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 028 · AGENDA 8.5
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves Amendment Two to the Stewart Builders, Inc. contract related to the comprehensive renovations to Diane Winborn Elementary for the Guaranteed Maximum Price of $16,902,741 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $21,367,924.
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 029 · AGENDA 8.6
PassedIt is recommendeed that the Board of Trustees approves the contract for the domestic boiler replacements at Alexander Elementary, Exley Elementary, Griffin Elementary, Hayes Elementary and Beck Junior High School to Nash Industries, Inc. utilizing Choice Partners Contract No. 20/017MR-15 in the amount of $627,515 and a total not to exceed project cost of $872,359.
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 030 · AGENDA 8.7
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the contract for the connections of portable classroom buildings at Leonard Elementary, McElwain Elementary, Morton Ranch Elementary, WoodCreek Elementary, Adams Junior High, Mayde Creek Junior High, Stockdick Junior High, WoodCreek Junior High, Cinco Ranch High, Paetow High and Taylor High School to Brown and Root Industrial Services, LLC utilizing Omnia JOC Contract No. R200102 in the amount of $2,934,006 and a total not to exceed project cost of $3,172,026.18.
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 031 · AGENDA 8.8
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the contract for the exterior and interior lighting retrofits and life safety systems upgrades at Mayde Creek Elementary, McRoberts Elementary, Morton Ranch Elementary, Katy High and Morton Ranch High School to Pieper Houston Electric, L.P. in the amount of $3,538,168 and a total not to exceed project cost of $3,972,302.
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 |