Good evening everyone.
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting Agenda
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, August 22, 2022
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- 0:04 to 1:24 1. Call to Order - Upon announcement by the presiding officer that a quorum is present, the meeting will be called to order. The presiding officer will verify that the meeting has been duly called and notice of the meeting has been posted for the time and manner required by law.
- 1:24 to 7:18 3. Oaths
- 7:18 to 25:47 7.1 2020-2021 House Bill 3 Efficiency Audit
- 25:47 to 1:39:22 4. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
- 1:39:22 to 1:39:42 5. Closed Meeting
- 1:39:42 to 1:40:24 6. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
- 1:40:24 to 1:59:46 7.2 Current Process for Library Book Selection
- 1:59:46 to 2:18:57 7.3 2022 State Accountability Performance and Accelerated Learning
- 2:18:57 to 2:44:39 8.2 Presentation of the 2022-2023 Proposed Budget and Tax Rate
- 2:44:39 to 2:47:11 8.3 Receive public input regarding the 2022-2023 Proposed Budget and Tax Rate
- 2:47:11 to 2:50:13 9.1 Discuss and consider Board approval of the June 2022 Financial Reports.
- 2:50:13 to 2:58:02 9.2 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposed 2021-2022 final amended budget.
- 2:58:02 to 3:01:45 9.3 Discuss and consider Board approval of a resolution to commit and assign fund balance.
- 3:01:45 to 3:04:15 9.4 Discuss and consider Board approval of the 2022-2023 State Compensatory Education funding and other End-of-Course Assessment funding budget, as required by House Bill 5.
- 3:04:15 to 3:28:11 9.5 Discuss and consider Board adoption of the 2022-2023 Maintenance and Operations Tax Rate and the 2022-2023 Debt Service Tax Rate
- 3:28:11 to 3:30:15 9.6 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposed 2022-2023 Official Budget for Katy Independent School District.
- 3:30:15 to 3:31:06 9.7 Discuss and consider Board adoption of the Order calling for a Voter Approved Tax Rate Election to be held on November 8, 2022 and authorize the Administration to provide official notice of the election as required by the Texas Election Code.
- 3:31:06 to 3:46:17 9.8 Discuss and consider Board approval of the 2022-2023 Health Plan.
- 3:46:17 to 3:48:19 9.9 Discuss and consider approval of the Voluntary Benefit Products for Plan Year 2023.
- 3:48:19 to 3:54:53 9.10 Discuss and consider Board adoption of Policy Update 119.
- 3:54:53 to 4:46:49 9.11 Discuss and consider future Board adoption of a local policy update.
- 4:46:49 to 4:47:22 10. Consent
- 4:47:22 to 4:47:42 11.4 Recap of Board Members' Requests for Information.
- 4:47:42 to 4:48:09 12. Future Meetings
Full transcript
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1. Call to Order - Upon announcement by the presiding officer that a quorum is present, the meeting will be called to order. The presiding officer will verify that the meeting has been duly called and notice of the meeting has been posted for the time and manner required by law.
Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Katy Independent School District to order.
Today is Monday, August 22, 2022, and the time is 5.02.
Dr. Gagorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to notice for this meeting?
Mr. President, I do confirm we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for a meeting tonight.
Well, I'll proceed with the Pledge of Allegiance by, I'm not sure who's doing it.
Katie, please.
Oh, there we go.
Thank you.
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
do we have any scouts in the audience this evening
okay uh we'll now proceed into agenda item 3.1 with his uh peace officer oath of office chief
3. Oaths
Chief Call and Chief Deputy Tabor, good evening.
Dr. Guborski, President Schulte, School Board,
it's our distinct honor to introduce three of our newest officers tonight.
I'm going to ask the officers to step forward.
First up we have Officer Calvin Cazely.
Calvin was born and raised in Houston, Texas by Chris and Lisa Cazely,
where he graduated from Bush High School.
Prior to becoming a police officer, Calvin served four years in the United States Army
as a military police officer at Fort Bliss.
During his time in the military, Calvin met his spouse, Jalen,
and he had one combat deployment to the Middle East.
Upon completion of his military service, he attended the Law Enforcement Training Academy in El Paso.
After graduating, he was hired to become a police officer with the campus of Central Texas College.
After working for Central Texas College for nine months, he applied with KDISD to be back closer to home with his family.
Calvin Cozzelli, he's assigned to the evening shift.
Officer Celine Dar was born and raised in Houston, Texas by Steven and Rosie Dar.
After graduating from Lamar High School, she went to work for Smart AC Services as an office manager.
In 2019, while attending Wharton County Junior College, she met her spouse, Naomi,
Naomi, and upon graduation from the police academy,
Celine's first job in law enforcement was with the Rosenberg Police Department in 2020.
After working there for almost two years, she was hired on with the KDISD Police Department.
She has one son, Nathan, who attends pre-K in Houston.
And last but not least, Officer Listian Rustem was born in Albania.
He moved to the United States in the early 2000s and settled in New Jersey.
Officer Rustem graduated from Clifton High School in New Jersey and then attended Paramus Community College.
After receiving an associate's degree in criminal justice, Officer Rustem transferred to Rutgers University,
where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.
Upon completion of college, Officer Rustem moved to New York and attended the New York City Police Academy.
Upon graduation, he was an officer at NYPD for nine years.
Officer Rustem moved to Katy, Texas in the summer of 2021 for a better quality of life and cost of living.
He attended HPD for six months, and upon graduating the academy, he worked the Westside Station as a police officer.
After serving with HPD for a few months, Officer Rustem realized that his endeavors that he wanted to achieve were in school district law enforcement.
So he applied with Katie so he can serve and work in the community where he lives with his family.
His wife, Ediola.
His son, Aiden, is a student in the second grade at Davidson Elementary.
And his daughter, Ava, attends Kids Are Kids.
All three officers tonight are assigned to the evening shift and we were a little worried
they weren't going to get here this afternoon because they were a little busy.
I state your name.
I'm Mr. Calvary.
You solemnly swear.
You solemnly swear.
You solemnly swear.
You solemnly swear.
You solemnly swear.
You solemnly swear.
You solemnly swear.
of Katy Independent School District
of the State of Texas and will, to the best of my ability,
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws
of the United States and of this state.
So help me God. Congratulations.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
Congratulations.
Officers, we have been requested to move Agenda Item 7.1 up on the agenda
because there's a conflict with one of the presenters from Whitney Penn.
Is there any objections to moving that up on the agenda?
Thank you.
7.1 2020-2021 House Bill 3 Efficiency Audit
So we'll move on to Agenda Item 7.1 out of sequence,
the 2020-2021 House Bill 3 Efficiency Audit.
And the presenters are Mr. Chris Smith and Mr. Lupe Garcia.
Good evening.
Good evening, President Schulte.
Good evening, President Schulte, Dr. Gorgorski and trustees.
Section 11.184 of the Texas Education Code requires a school district to conduct an efficiency audit before seeking a voter approval tax rate election.
The audit is to be discussed in an open meeting no less than 30 days before an election.
And obviously if there is an election, we're well in advance of 30 days of that.
And a representative standing behind me, Lupe Garcia, he's a partner with Whitley Penn,
performed the R efficiency audit.
And I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Garcia to go through some slides
and a summary of the audit that each of you have a PDF copy of.
Good evening, Board of Trustees, Superintendent Gragorski.
My name is Lupe Garcia.
I'm here today to present to you the results of the efficiency audit.
As Mr. Smith just discussed, the efficiency audit is required
when a school district has called a voter-approved tax rate election.
This report and the information contained in the report
is to be made available on the district's website.
It's called an audit,
but it's really through comparative analysis,
a report that shows how the district compares
to its peer districts and to the state average
in a variety of areas.
Those guidelines are set
by the state's legislative budget board.
It does require that we use specific sources
to identify those peer districts.
There's 20 pieces of information
and 18 schedules that are required to be presented.
in the report as part of the efficiency audit. For the peer district identification,
there's two sources that we use. The Texas Education Agency has a peer snapshot search
function to identify school districts that are similar to Katie and a variety of characteristics.
And then Texas A&M maintains a database, which is referred to as Texas Smart Schools,
SCHOOLS THAT HAS ITS OWN METHODOLOGY FOR IDENTIFYING
PEER DISTRICTS FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS ACROSS THE STATE OF
TEXAS.
FOR KDISD, IN THIS EFFICIENCY AUDIT REPORT, ITS PEERS INCLUDE
THE 11 SCHOOL DISTRICTS THAT APPEAR ON THIS SCREEN.
SO SEVERAL OF THE LARGE SCHOOL DISTRICTS THROUGHOUT THE STATE
OF TEXAS.
FIRST PIECE OF INFORMATION TO COVER, THE ACCOUNTABILITY
RATING.
THIS IS VERY NEW INFORMATION.
THE DISTRICT EARNED AN A IN ITS LATEST ACCOUNTABILITY RATING
WITH AN OVERALL SCORE OF 91.
The 11 peer districts on average had a accountability rating of a B with a score of 88.
For the financial rating, that's school first.
The state has an accountability rating system.
For the latest rating that is available, 2021, based on 19 and 20 data, the district received a superior achievement rating, which is a letter A.
and the district has earned an A or a superior achievement in each of the last five fiscal years.
Looking at student counts and specific student populations for KDISD and its peer districts,
KDISD for 2020-2021 reported 84,176 students.
That is greater than the peer district average of just over 66,000.
looking at some of the special population economically disadvantaged students the peer
districts averaged a greater amount of economically disadvantaged students english learners kdisd
averaged more than its peer districts special the same for special education and for bilingual esl
now looking at those same student counts on a percentage basis economically disadvantaged
that drives a lot of funding so for kdisd that economically disadvantaged figure while in
And individual count is a large number as a percentage of the total.
It's only 34%.
Both your peers and the state are around 60% for economically disadvantaged.
So you'll see a little later that has an impact on funding.
English learners, just under the state average and your peer district average.
Special education, slightly above your peer district average and the state average.
And then bilingual ESL, the state average is 20.9, as is the peer district average.
average and KDISD's percentage of students that are bilingual ESL are 18.6 percent.
Looking at total revenue per student, this is fiscal year 2021 audited financial information.
The district was able to report $10,463 per student. That is slightly above your peer
district average of $10,355 per student, but that is below the state average where
where on average the state reports $11,504 per student.
If we look at the break up between
what makes up your total revenues,
you have local M&O taxes for Katie,
that was just under $5,200 for fiscal year 2021 per student.
You had just under $4,000 in state funding per student.
Federal is 944.
You can see there that's less than your state,
less than the peers.
That's where the economically disadvantaged percentage
comes into play because a lot of your federal funding is based on that
population and then you have other local revenues of $362 per student which is
primarily investment earnings looking at total expenditures per student Katie ISD
reported ten thousand five hundred and forty one dollars per student that's
less than both the state average and the peer district average instruction and
instruction railing related services includes school leadership and
instructional leadership of $7,600 per student $170 per student is the general
administration per student so you can see there that is both less than the
peers and your state average and then you have plant maintenance of operations
$956 per student and everything else is in that other category of one thousand
eight hundred and twenty seven dollars per student so overall per student the
the KDISD has the lowest amount compared to peers and the state.
Looking at drilling down on the expenditures,
you have instruction, which is 63% of your expenditures.
That's greater than both your peers and the state,
which report just under 61% and 57% respectively.
Your instruction-related services, including school leadership
and instructional leadership, is 9% of your expenditures.
This is for fiscal year 2021.
2021 food service operations is 3.4 percent of your expenditures which is less than both your
peers and the state general administration is 1.6 percent that's function 41 in your in your budget
that gets a lot of attention that's generally referred to as the district's overhead so you
can see for the district for fiscal year 2021 that's 1.6 percent of your expenditures which
which is less than both your peers at 2.2 and the state average of 3.3%.
And then plant maintenance and operations is 9.1%,
which is less than the state but slightly above average compared to your peers.
Looking at payroll costs, because that is the bulk of your budget,
goes to payroll and salaries and benefits.
KDISD reports 86% of its expenditures going to payroll.
That's greater than both the peers and the state average.
Katie provides a very competitive teacher salary.
It's higher than both your peers and the state average.
As a percentage, Katie has 50.9% of teaching staff
representative of the total.
Students per teaching is 14.3, which is on par
with your peers and slightly less than the state average.
And then students per total staff is 7.3,
which is just under peer district average
and just above the state average.
The last few slides in my presentation are related to fund balance. There's several different categories that the district reports in its financial statements for fund balance and its governmental funds. You have fund balance that's not spendable because it's an inventory form or it's a non-spendable.
You have restricted fund balance, which means there's restrictions from outside third parties on how those funds can be spent.
That's typically going to be your grants and any proceeds from bond issuances that are dedicated for capital projects.
Then you have two categories here.
Committed fund balance are amounts that are earmarked by the Board of Trustees for a specific purpose.
Assigned fund balance is a category where that can be earmarked by management if it's been delegated to management by the Board of Trustees.
anything that's been committed or assigned can always be uncommitted or unassigned.
And then lastly, we have unassigned fund balance, which is the last remaining category of fund
balance. Anything that doesn't fall into the other four categories is referred to as unassigned fund
balance. The Legislative Budget Board has information that's required to be in the report
on unassigned fund balance, so that's what we're going to discuss over the next few slides.
So general fund, unassigned fund balance, the general fund is the district's main operating
account per student for fiscal year 2021. The district reported $2675 per student in
unassigned fund balance. That's less than your 11 peer districts where they averaged $2,709 per
student. And if we look at the last four fiscal years, you can see that KDISD reports a lower
amount of unassigned fund balance per student. What that means is KDISD is having an appropriate
amount of unassigned fund balance as a reserve for near future operations but
it's reinvesting every dollar it can back into students it's not being held
back and it's not in the district's account and so compared to its peers
that is evident here on this slide looking at the last five fiscal years as
a percentage of its operating expenditures Katie ISD for the most
recent fiscal year had 28 percent of unassigned fund balance compared to its
operating expenditures and so you can see here similar to the previous slide for unassigned per
student as a percentage of its total expenditures kdisd has a smaller amount of unassigned fund
balance at the end of each fiscal year compared to its peer districts now the lbb has a three-month
goal in the report a three-month goal would equate to a hundred percent uh in this particular
chart. And so KDISD reported 112% of that goal. So it met that three-month goal that the LBB
requires to be in the report. So that's less than its peer districts. Because again,
you do have less unassigned fund balance on a percentage basis, on a per student basis,
compared to your peer districts. So that completes my presentation. Again, it's called an efficiency
audit by the LBB that was a requirement of the 86 legislator back in 2019 it's
not a pass fail this is information that's going to be used by the taxpayers
by the voters if a an election is called and it's more of a comparative analysis
to see how you stack up against your peer districts and against the state
average in all these various categories so if there any questions about the
report I'd be happy to take those questions at this time thank you are
there any questions trustees it's president yes let me ask you this the
The fact that we have the highest 86% of any of the peers, of the peer average in payroll
compared to the other districts, is that, do you consider that good or how do you view
that?
So payroll is not just the teachers, it's also any teachers' aides, any assistants.
So your Katie's a grown-
I noticed that we are lower in terms of payroll, teacher payroll, compared to the peers, but higher in the overall payroll.
So I'm just wondering what you draw from that.
86% is not out of the norm, you know, 86, 84%.
Again, this is just looking at one fiscal year, fiscal year 2021.
This wasn't a long-term calculation.
But 86% to us isn't out of the norm for that being total payroll.
I mean, the instruction of children is very labor oriented, so we would expect to see a lot of the district's expenditures going towards salaries and benefits of its employees, especially in a growing district like Haiti.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I don't want to assume what you're asking, Mr. Perez, but when this was taken in 2021, this was based on the information of 2021.
And at that time, our teachers were low in the region as compared to other teachers'
salaries at that time.
I mean, we've since caught up.
But at that time, so I don't know if this is – I guess this is what I mean is we have
a large percentage going to the payroll, but a smaller percentage going to the teachers
as compared to other districts in our peer group.
And so, so what do you think that that could indicate?
The peer group that's in this analysis?
The peer districts are from around the state.
So on a percentage basis, 86% of your expenditures goes to payroll.
That includes benefits, health insurance, et cetera.
Salaries is not including the benefit number.
So there on a per teacher basis you do have a greater amount of salaries going to your teachers compared to your peer districts
The percentage per teaching staff is that where you're referring that it's lower than the peers the fifty point nine percent versus the fifty one point
Three I guess as compared to this at the state level where we are a lot higher
But anyway, so we're paying our teachers sixty thousand nine fifty eight average and in this period sixty thousand four sixty nine
So I don't know if that equates to a couple of percentages or not, but how will this information be used, I guess, when we're trying to talk to our taxpayers who are trying to, like how in general will this information be used?
So this report, once it's finalized, will be posted on the district's website.
It's required that it be posted 30 days or more before the election.
All right.
Thanks.
Questions?
Mr. President, so as a long-term school board member and for as long as I've lived here,
24 years, KDSD has always hovered around 86% of our budget goes to people because we're
a people-heavy business, right?
And so this number looks very even to me as far as usual.
usual, do you know if it has changed significantly over the years or did you just do a one-year
analysis?
This is just looking at one year, but this is not out of the ordinary or an outlier for
KDISD.
It feels correct to me, Mr. Smith.
My question is about slide 15, if you will, please.
Oh, that's not it.
I'm going to have to go back.
I don't know.
know, right at the beginning when you define ELL and ESL learners.
Gosh, I thought it said 15 and I'm wrong.
Back a little bit more.
Can you help people understand the difference between English language learners and English
as a second language?
Just for people who are going to be looking at this, maybe an identification of the different
categories.
It's still back another one, I think.
We were having this conversation just last week and Mr. Hines had to bail me out here,
but as I understand it, English learners are those that are learning English, but their families have
declined bilingual services. And the bilingual ESL education families, they are learning English and
we are helping them out to do that. Is that correct, Dr. Caskey?
Okay.
So EL is the broader category.
So we have bilingual services for our elementary students.
We also have elementary students who receive ESL services,
and we have secondary students who receive ESL services.
So bilingual is at the elementary level.
ESL runs elementary, junior high, and high school.
But EL is the broader term.
If that helps.
Thank you.
I was just hoping to help people understand the difference in those categories.
Is it true, Dr. Kesky,
EL MIGHT MEAN PEOPLE WHO ARE LEARNING ENGLISH THAT DON'T SPEAK SPANISH AS THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE.
THAT IS CORRECT.
WE HAVE OVER 100 LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN OUR DISTRICT.
HOW MANY?
OVER 100.
THANK YOU.
I BELIEVE.
CLOSE TO THAT.
ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?
MR.
PRESIDENT, HAVE YOU, JUST CURIOUS IF YOU, THE WAY THESE COSTS ARE PUT TOGETHER FOR THE,
ALL THE DISTRICTS, THE PEERS, FOR EXAMPLE, THE PERCENTAGE FROM DIFFERENT, LIKE GENERAL
administrative or instructional whatever are you comfortable that all the districts tend to account
for those costs the same that they put the certain costs always in those same buckets so that they're
consistent apples to apples did you know to look at that yes no that's a good question so this
information comes from peems data this is audited information that all the districts have to submit
through peems to the state the categories that are used in their financial statements are defined by
the state so general administration function 41 is the same for kdi scene is the same for every
school district in the state of texas so all the school districts are required to follow the same
chart of accounts the same definitions so everything is classified exactly statewide thank
you any other questions thank you very much very informative appreciate it thank you we'll now move
4. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
on to the next agenda item which is the public comment citizen participation portion of the
meeting the public participation section includes two categories category one is for speakers sign
up to speak on posted agenda items category two is for speakers signed up to speak on non-posted
agenda items speakers who signed up to speak on posted agenda items will be allowed three minutes
to speak for speakers who signed up to speak on non-posted agenda items there will be a maximum
of 30 minutes allocated with time divided equally among those who have signed up however the
The maximum time allotted for any one speaker will be three minutes.
If a speaker has not finished speaking at the end of the three minutes, the audio will turn off.
If speakers wish to share written information to the board,
you must provide ten copies to the Secretary for Board Services before the meeting begins
for board members, the superintendent, the chief communications officer, and permanent record.
If a speaker has not attempted to solve a matter administratively through 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 policy, excuse me, FNG local, DGBA local, CKE local, or GF local.
Our speakers will be called forward in the order they sign up to speak.
First, we will call the speakers that have signed up to speak on posted agenda items.
Again, each speaker in this category will receive three minutes to speak.
The first speaker tonight is Ann Russey, and the second speaker tonight is Logan McLean.
Good evening.
Good evening.
President Schulte, Board, and Dr. Gagorski. I'm here tonight with my family, including my
daughters, a KDISD first and second grader, who thanks to their wonderful teachers have already
fallen in love with reading. I stand with students, parents, librarians, classroom teachers, and staff
who believe KDISD can and must do more to combat the white nationalist extremism threatening to
take over our school district. I recently had a fellow mother tell me I should keep books like
flamer in my personal arsenal instead of insisting the KDIC police return it to
the Jordan High School library that they recently took it from. It struck me that
this mindset is in large part why the why this board has been so stuck in this
debate over books for the past 10 months. The extremists driving this political
movement that is wreaking havoc on public school systems throughout the
entire country, but especially here in Texas, don't view this as a debate. They view it as war.
A war they plan to win one seat and one school board at a time. Every fight is a battle over
masks, over CRT, over gay books. They will come for queer and BIPOC students and staff next.
Anyone or anything that doesn't fit into their white Christian nationalist worldview
view will become the next target. These people are fighting a war in which books are weapons
and collections of books or libraries are arsenals. Our school board and administration
are being held hostage by threats of litigation and worse. Queer and BIPOC students are being
treated as targets that must be obliterated. Teachers and librarians who try to signal with
with inclusive books and posters to LGBTQ plus students
that they will be safe and affirmed in their spaces
are being labeled groomers and forced by administrators
to take their support underground,
all to protect the feelings of these hateful adults.
You may hope that through careful revision of EF Local,
you can negotiate some kind of peace treaty
with these adults who demand you remove all books
that make them
feel offended or uncomfortable by offering them bits and pieces of what they're asking for
the problem is every bit and piece you give to them is chipping away at all of our students
constitutionally protected first amendment rights and sends a clear message to our marginalized
students that their sense of safety and belonging in our schools is negotiable so tonight as you
discuss and consider policy changes i ask you to heed the oaths you've all taken to consider the
needs of our district as a whole and be cautiously guided by what is best for all students thank you
thank you the next teacher tonight is logan declan and the speaker after that is henry ebbin
good evening good evening my name is logan mclean and i am a senior at sinka ranch high school
i'm here to discuss the state of book removals in our district my back-to-school experience can be
summarized in one word fearful my classes usually lined with bookshelves
are barren and empty my teachers usually welcoming and excited to start the year
are tense and they hesitate to connect with students targeted political attacks
on public education based on fear and bigotry have seeped into every aspect of
my classes recent unpublicized crackdowns on classroom libraries have
done nothing but put more pressure on our teachers and librarians forcing them
to inventory every resource they use to give students enrichment has simply led to their
elimination in entirety teachers already have an extremely full plate and by asking them to take on
this extensive workload most of my classes have simply opted to get rid of their personal libraries
if we are facing a severe teacher shortage why are we putting more pressure on them
we should not be prioritizing fear and prejudice over our teachers and students
students. We are asking for simple things policy wise. Eliminate the clause that allows
books to be removed before a formal decision is made. Include students in the review process
and clarify that formal review is the only way that a book is removed. But I am also
asking for transparency from KDISD. Why is SLAMR being removed from campuses when it
has already passed a formal challenge? How many other books are being secretly confiscated?
Why am I, a student affected by book bans, restricted from accessing information on challenged materials?
If so much time and effort is going to be put into this policy, we need to follow it.
I urge the district to be honest in the actions taken behind closed doors.
Month after month, your students have asked you to protect our First Amendment right from attacks on our educational freedom.
We are still here asking for the same thing.
Several of you on the board have applauded me for speaking out, for being brave, and
ask why should I have to be?
Why do we, your students, have to continue fighting for our right to a truthful and whole
education?
I'm tired of it.
I am tired of being in a district that continues to let fear dictate my education.
I'm tired of seeing books that reflect my classmates' experiences removed from shelves.
I'm tired of letting fear and bias chip away at my right to learn.
I'm tired and you should be too.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Henry Eben and speaker after that is Sophia Pueblos.
Hi. My name is Henry Eben. I'm a senior at Cinco Ranch High School.
and I'm firmly opposed to KDISD's practice of removing books from our libraries through the informal review process.
As a straight, white male, I don't really have a lot of experience with being a minority.
But several of the titles under consideration for banning, such as Mouse, Knight, and All American Boys,
have offered me much deeper insight into the experience of people in minority groups,
which I feel has made me a more understanding and sympathetic person.
I've heard about the Holocaust in my history classes.
I've listened to pundits on the news discuss police misconduct,
and I've understood the awfulness of both.
But it wasn't until I had read the books I named earlier
that I was truly able to understand the horror of the situations
African Americans and Jewish people have experienced throughout history,
and even today.
Being able to connect emotionally to an oppressed character in a novel
vastly aids in one's understanding of the horrors minorities face because of
that personal bond that is formed. The importance of these books in creating
well-rounded individuals cannot be over exaggerated. The KDISD mission statement
states that the district wishes to inspire each student to live an
honorable fulfilling life, to create the future. So please help us create the
future by allowing us to read about and thusly explore the world we live in today thank you
thank you the next speaker is sophia pueblos and the speaker after that is siever chester
good evening
hello and good evening my name is sophia pueblos and i am a senior at cinco ranch high school
I am here today to discuss the ongoing ban of books imposed by KDISD and why I think it is illegitimate.
My issue is not the process, though.
Personally, I think it's fair and reasonable in theory.
However, the district has shown time and time again that the process is hardly ever utilized.
I and many other students have noticed the rising frequency of books being removed after one informal review,
completely skipping the entire process supposedly put in place by the district.
Countless books have been banned as a result of one person's complaint.
One single complaint.
That is one person holding jurisdiction over more than 80,000 students.
To you, a book might not be anything more than a mere dump of information to digest,
but to someone else, it could possess an infinite amount of value.
Take me for an example.
I was born in the Philippines but grew up here in the States.
The neighborhood I spent my childhood in was predominantly white.
Because of this, I felt like an outsider, an alien.
It was hard to make friends.
It was hard to relate to the kids around me.
It was hard feeling like I belonged.
I always wondered why I was so different from everyone else.
To further my confusion, my school provided only a small selection of writing
that discussed different things like races, identities, or physical appearances.
I grew up naive and ignorant of my own and others' culture.
culture. Now, how does this relate to the banning of books? Many members of the student
body have noticed a detestable trend associated with the books flagged for removal by the
district. Much, not all, but a vast majority of books banned by KDISD explore themes of
multiculturalism, gender identity, same-sex relationships, ethnicity, critical race theory,
and the quote unquote darker side of American history. KDISD choosing to ban these type
of works limits the spread of inclusivity of media in our libraries in other words it is plain
censorship enforced by the district by kdisd if things continue the way they are now many if not
all future kdic alumni will not have only received an education through the lens of an ill-manufactured
heteronormative and caucasian catered district they'll possess little knowledge of different
races cultures or identities they'll be ignorant what worries me is the likely
possibility that this ignorance will lead to a white supremacist mentality
and worse in the racism racism problem that is already present in our schools
it is so important for future generations to learn all about the world
that we live in not just the components that the district seems appropriate it
is not logical to shelter kids from important and influential information
never forget that our future leaders are seated in those classrooms thank you
the next speaker is Cever Chester and the speaker after that is George Scott
good evening hello my name is Cever Chester and I am currently a senior at
Cinco Ranch High School today I would like to speak about the positive impact
of books on my own life and how this connects to the rights of readers in
general. One book in particular, The Catcher in the Rye, stands out to me for its honest and at
times discomforting view of the world through the eyes of depressed teenager Holden Caulfield.
As a person with a lifelong history of depression, Holden's unique voice has comforted me time and
again. For that I can thank my public library who lent me a copy at the age of 16. Though The Catcher
in the Rye is considered by many today a beloved classic, it has a long history of censorship.
In fact, between 1961 and 1982 it was the most censored book in high schools and public libraries
across the United States. The book was banned repeatedly for profanity as well as sexual scenes
and was deemed by some inappropriate for high schoolers. I challenge this belief. Though some
books like The Catcher in the Rye may contain elements some may find vulgar, to me this does
not mean these works should be removed. The Catcher in the Rye and other books like it that
present the perspectives of the marginalized and neglected many times offer the greatest meaning
and deepest comfort to readers. Moreover, those that find a book discomforting are free at any
time to return it. This is advertised in school libraries throughout Katy ISD
with the following self-censorship statement. If a book is unappealing or
offensive to you in any way please return it and select another. Why
introduce additional censorship to supplement this? I understand why the
constituents of this district have the right to bring certain books under
scrutiny and review. I am by no means advocating for pornography or other lewd
materials circulate through our schools. However to remove a book from the school
libraries when its review status is currently pending is to me like
declaring a person guilty before trial books in my mind ought to be kept on the shelves until
they are formally deemed inappropriate in addition the process of informal review in my opinion
shortcuts the full process necessary to deem a book worthy of censorship only a formal review
complete with a written report should have the power to remove a book with these measures in
place the rights of present and future readers in this district will be better protected i thank the
board for their time and consideration and i hope that together we can achieve a less restrictive
and more transparent policy regarding censorship. Thank you again.
Thank you. The next speaker is George Scott and the speaker after that is Regina Johnson.
Good evening.
George Scott, Ann and I have lived in Katy since 1983. Our children are Katy ISD graduates.
I'm going to run out of time and that's okay. You have a full copy of my remarks.
the media does, many of the administrators do. I want to add
parenthetically, if I could overlay the student academic performance results
that the educational professionals of KDISD get with our students over the
peer districts that the TEA determines, you would give our educational
educational professionals a standing ovation right now.
I have admired the courage of Dr. Grigorski to do the right things for all the right reasons
on behalf of KDISD, even when the right thing is far from the easiest path.
I once put my personal credibility on the line for the guy.
Still no regrets.
With what I hope will be the board's decision to ratify his wisdom on proceeding
with the tax rate and budget that will for the first time in the district's
history automatically invoke an election which could veto that decision, this
board can become an historically courageous board as well knowing full
well that local politics can turn nasty. We cannot take results for granted. The
laws in flexibility did not consider a literal disruption of the world's
supply chains, creating hyperinflation in some sectors, high inflation in others
that have affected our families but KDISD profoundly. The laws and flexibility
never envisioned any pandemics impact upon campus-based and other educational
professionals and instability the laws actual implementation could invoke. My
My mission tonight, begin the process of protecting this district from any negative tipping point kind of decisions.
I have four messages. We have former school board members.
Former school board members serve because they love the district.
They may be called upon to serve again.
Our namesakes, your names are not on the building for any other reason than you loved and served passionately this district.
You may be called into action again.
To the critics of KDISD, without sacrificing your passion or your positions, please look at a bigger picture.
It is not the time or circumstances for vendetta politics.
Please, meet with me, talk with me.
I can tell you this.
KDISD is one of the elite school districts in Texas.
My family owes educational professionals of this district more than we can ever
repay for preparing and opening up the world of opportunity for our children.
I'd like to finish. You have it. Thank you. The next speaker tonight is Regina
Johnson and the speaker after that is Adam Albana. Good evening. I, along with
other parents are against sexually explicit graphic harmful material placed in the hands
of all minors no matter their grade level regardless of the book is about straight gay bi
trans black brown white there should be no splitting of hairs either sexually explicit
graphic material is just that regardless if it's over or under the shirt it's not about censorship
of books like ruby bridges or mouse my message to those in the room who say otherwise don't get it
twisted the sexual content in these books depict one-dimensional sexual
beings which is beneath our students dignity whether they are gay or straight
and you all deserve better the board and admin should align with that distinction
too all should be for parental control with robust process and policies in
place that are enforceable but more importantly follow the law board members
stated in June that we teach children not adults and materials provided on
on KDIC campuses need to be appropriate for minors
and books that teach students to perform sexual acts should not
be on campus library shelves.
As you also stated that you would go through and review
the materials that were already on the shelves.
Where are we at with that?
How about a review on our front end purchasing?
Where are we at on that?
Have you all ceased to spend on new materials
while you adjust these policies?
Books that have been reviewed to date
for sexually explicit graphic material
do remain on the shelves contrary to popular belief.
These books have gone through the entire process from campus admin complaints up
to level one through three grievance and nothing.
One quarter of the book can have sexually explicit content, but
they stay on your shelf.
KDISD police has also been directed that any concern around a violation of
Texas Penal Code will be labeled and founded.
I do trust that at least the possibility of allowing students to serve on a reconsideration
committee won't make it on your new policies because that violates Texas Penal Law, Penal
Code, excuse me, and US Federal Code, Title 18, Section 1466A.
If you purposely place harmful, potentially sexually explicit materials in the hands of
students, that violates the law.
It is illegal.
legal. You can ask the DA, Fort Bend County. While you're at it, why don't we hand them a crack pipe
and some crack and let them smoke it and see if that violates the law. They can tell you.
We're in a room of adult professionals. Y'all are in leadership roles. You're charged with the
responsibility of my kid and these kids' safety and their education. We don't want to see y'all
subvert the law or hide behind your loopholes. That's failing a legacy. I'd offer your audience
tonight for TRE is us the taxpaying law-abiding parents not minors not
activists not lobbyists and a final note I'd appreciate if y'all can take care of
a staff sending unapproved surveys to kids about thank you the next speaker
tonight is Adam Albana the speaker after is Jessica a civ out of apologize if I
I said that wrong.
Good evening.
Good evening.
My name is Adam Albano.
I'm a student and the senior class president
at Cinco Ranch High School.
Today I'm here to talk about the district's flawed system of book
bans in our school libraries.
Books play a huge role in us students developing our ability
to formulate our own opinions, ideas, and character.
They are another way for people to make a connection
and true understanding of the topics discussing these books.
In some cases, topics dealing with minority groups.
My first time reading Ghost by Jason Reynolds in my seventh grade classroom library opened up this flame of learning and understanding the struggles that many of my fellow minority friends deal with.
Jason Reynolds and other authors that addressed these topics became my favorite writers at the time, and it opened a whole new perspective on racism and oppression in our society.
It helped me grow as a person and friend.
By limiting the availability of these books, even for a temporary time, it takes away the chance of exploring and learning these important topics.
I urge that there be revision in the book banning policy that introduces more community input overall, and especially with us students that read and experience these books firsthand.
Having secondary students in the reconsideration committees can help bring a fresh insight as well as help mitigate any biased decision by other committee members.
members. Also allowing books being reviewed to stay on shelves will help stop the limitation
on our growth as readers and learners and prevent the bias from a single person affecting
the tens of thousands of students. And lastly, a clear and written out reasoning for the
book removal process to ensure the legitimacy of the reconsideration committee. As a student
that has moved around Houston from district to district, I'm blessed to say that I reside
item one that has given me the most resources to help me grow as a learner
in person. It hurts me to see that these resources are being taken away from the
next generation of leaders and this district policy that allows hatred and
racism to impact the learning of our students is just doesn't make sense to
me. We are regressing as a district and failing the future leaders of our world.
Please listen to us. Thank you for your time.
Jessica Acevedo and then Salma. Boy, I'm not going to get this one.
Albuyulala, something like that. My apologies. I know I didn't do that one very well. Good evening.
Hello, my name is Jessica Acevedo and I'm a senior at Cinco Ranch High School.
I'm here to discuss the issue of book removal process in our district.
My father is a first generation immigrant from Mexico and although I've known this for as long as I can remember,
it took me a while to fully comprehend the extent of this identity.
Growing up, the only representation I saw in the books I read and the movies I watched represented my white side.
So to me, I was no different than the fully white kids around me.
Despite being close to the family members on the side and participating in their traditions,
it took me a while to realize that I was allowed to embrace my Mexican side and I still struggle with that to this day.
Maybe if I had the resources that made me aware from a young age that there were people out there just like me,
I would be standing here today fully confident in my racial identity.
But instead, I am here to emphasize the importance of representation in the resources that students have access to.
Out of the ten books that have been permanently removed by KDISD,
a majority of them serve to illustrate the experience that members of certain minority groups,
such as racial minorities or the LGBTQ plus community, experience and the hardships they face.
Books like these not only give a clear insight to outsiders as to what people
similar to the characters in such books experience, they serve as representations
for students that are a part of those communities. As I mentioned before, media
is already extremely limited in terms of representing minority groups. Not only
are they hard to find in the first place, but restricting them adds an entirely
separate challenge that outright hinders the ability of a student to develop
their identity to the fullest potential. Although these books weren't all removed
for the reason of pervasive vulgarity, it seems like no accident that the majority
of these books cover topics that serve to highlight a minority group's experience.
We are living through a wave of politically charged challenges that search for vulgar scenes
only found in books featuring underrepresented characters or topics.
It is very easy to hide behind the excuse that a book is vulgar in order to conceal
the real reason for removal, but your students see right through it.
Students should have the right to read a book that represents their experience and contains characters that are like them.
When we remove this right from students, we are denying them of something so crucial to their
development and identity. KDISD claims that the bans on the books are not based on the
ideas expressed in the books, however any ban on a book is inherently content-based.
This means that when a book is challenged, it comes down to a matter of opinion which
directly dictates our generation's access to education. Because of this, the process
of which this occurs must be executed properly. I am asking for two things. Number one, when a book
is decided to be removed, I am asking for a written report on explicitly why. If students
are denied access to a book we are entitled to know exactly why rather than receiving a vague
or outright secretive reason number two i am asking for books to only be removed for the
through the formal review process one complaint should not be enough to restrict access to
a material from 90 000 students this allows personal bias specifically racial bias to have
a huge impact on today's generation therefore therefore both tolerating and encouraging
prejudice to impact all students in the district and enabling this prejudice to command our
education system as such a diverse school district your students deserve and expect better from you
thank you the next speaker selma abuyala and the speaker after that is abby ramsey
my name is selma abuyala and i'm a senior at sinka ranch high school here to discuss
our schools our school district's book removal policy books are being removed from our shelves
under the guise of protecting children from uncomfortable topics however growth is impossible
without some sort of discomfort.
And it's time for all of us to come to terms with that.
Censoring our libraries is not about protecting children.
It's about restricting them.
As adults, you don't only read one newspaper or watch one news channel.
You spend time on multiple to make sure your sources are unbiased and well-informed.
You search for different perspectives before you form your own beliefs.
Not only is it fair for children to have that same privilege,
it is critical for their development, both socially and academically.
Limiting access to different stories and perspectives is not a protective measure.
It's a grasp for control.
Calling it any less than that is diminishing KDISD's responsibility
as an educational institution to uphold our intellectual freedoms.
I learned to read when I was three years old.
My parents took turns taking me to the public library
and spent hours teaching me how to recognize letters and pictures.
But what they really taught me is the power of a story.
The perspective and acceptance I gained from literature
has been so much more valuable than anything I've ever been taught in school.
I've personally read all 10 books that currently stand on KDISD's banned book list, and I can confidently say that each one of those books has given me a vital insight into the experiences of various minority groups.
Jack of Hearts showed me a sliver of what life is like living as a gay teenage boy in a hostile, homophobic environment.
It taught me about the stereotypes that LGBT youth face daily, and it helped me better understand how to better support my friends who face the same struggles at our very own schools.
schools. All Boys Aren't Blue showed me the true meaning of the word intersectionality.
It shed light onto the dark and intense experiences of black queer children in a raw, authentic
manner that is simply impossible to achieve in a lesson plan. Forever for a year, and
Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl taught me about consent and safety, two topics conveniently
lacking from KDISD's health curriculum. I believe that every student should have the
opportunity to pick up a book and see themselves written all over the pages. Schools are meant
to be spaces of safety and refuge for everyone regardless of race religion or sexual identity
every student id in our district has a mental health hotline on the back but i must say it's
awfully easy to slap a qr code in a phone number onto a plastic card and call it a day
it's time for kdisd to truly start prioritizing student needs and the first step is to stop
removing books that have yet to be formally reviewed by a committee with parents teachers
and student representatives it's your responsibility to create a new publicly available
formal review system that is regularly updated. We're one of the biggest school
districts in the state of Texas. One angry phone call from a parent, one email,
one complaint should not have the power to tear through our libraries and
deprive 9,000 students of their First Amendment rights. Thank you.
Thank you. The next speaker is Abby Ramsey and the speaker after that is Mary Ellen Kuzella.
Good evening.
I've observed a few recent school board meetings and witnessed the back and forth over what
materials do and don't belong in the schools.
My focus today is on books with vulgar or sexually explicit material.
According to Jenny White, a former public school teacher, numerous studies on the use
of graphic material by students indicate negative psychological effects, including having more
casual sex partners and having sex at younger ages. Furthermore, the American Academy of
Pediatrics has found that exposure to violence and sex in media, including books, can impact
kids by making them act aggressively and desensitizing them. Peter Sprague of the
Family Research Council noted that removing certain books from libraries is about showing
discretion and respecting a community's values, and it doesn't prevent people from getting those
books elsewhere. He said, quote, it's an exaggeration to refer to this as book
banning. There is nothing preventing books from being written or sold, nothing
from nothing preventing parents from buying them or children from reading
them. One of the more troubling things I heard at a past meeting was when a young
speaker advocated for vulgar books to remain in the school because, the speaker
said, exposing young people to this material is part of a full educational
educational experience. I homeschool my kids and the lack of vulgarity and sexual content in my
home and in the books they can access is in no way contributing to an educational gap or any gap
for that matter, emotional, spiritual, social, etc. While we continue to get bogged down in culture wars,
our kids' mental health is suffering. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness,
suicide is the second leading cause of death among people age 15 to 24 in the United States.
Nearly 20% of high school students report serious thoughts of suicide,
and 9% have made an attempt to take their lives.
We really need to take it seriously that what our kids are being exposed to
and what we adults are allowing and normalizing is contributing to a mental health crisis.
The bottom line is that regardless of political affiliation, gender, race or sexual preference, certain material is harmful and it just doesn't belong in the schools.
I hope that you'll consider the statistics I've shared so whatever policy is eventually established, it will be designed solely to protect our kids.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next speaker is Mary Ellen Cosello. The speaker after that is William
Russey. Good evening.
Good evening. KDISD is still out of compliance with Texas law and their very own existing
policy. We still have sexually explicit books in our libraries and we have the district
review committees and the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning personally approving
to keep them. Again, this is not about being insensitive to different kinds of people. It's
about protecting students and following the law. Texas Penal Code 4324. Because a book appeals to
certain people is not reason enough to break the law. Developing a student's critical thinking
skills and exposing them to different ideas is essential, but it can be done with a thousand
other books that don't include sexually explicit material. We are applying a process and policy
if you're something that is illegal. This is where you the board should stand in the gap and take care
of these books that make it through review committees and the personal approval of a
district employee. Take a vote to remove the book. You are a publicly elected official and should act
on behalf of your constituents. I do want to mention this is not about one angry parent and
one phone call. Do you really believe the majority of KDISD taxpayers, your voting base, would want
you would want the district to purchase and make available these kinds of books do you really want
to be on record for allowing books like these to stay in our libraries do you realize the
possession of or promotion of child pornography can land you on the texas sex offender list
It was suggested by board member Leah Wilson in the June board meeting that students should be on the book review committee.
I hope this idea has been dismissed.
This sets a dangerous precedent.
What other authority are you going to give students over other students?
The book Looking for Alaska has smoking, binge drinking, sex all throughout the book.
The explicit sex scenes objectify young female students as powerless sexual objects.
Why would you stand for this?
Why did a district employee approve to keep this book?
The assistant superintendent of teaching and learning suggested the district feels a book like this provides students access to ideas.
What kind of ideas are we talking about?
Is it ideas pertaining to underage sex, porn, blowjobs, binge drinking and smoking?
I repeat, books like these desensitize young minds to sex,
groom them for more sexual behavior, are a gateway to porn and exacerbate the sex trafficking epidemic.
taxpayers do not want to pay for them they're already in the public libraries
just as we do with drugs and guns let's use good boundaries with sexually
explicit books keep them out of our schools use your unique powers aboard as
stated in current policy and vote on the removal of books don't just do the
minimum for students rise above and do more for every student by those padres
hispanos who can say con nosotros in la lucha para proteger a no estros ninos y
y exigir una educación bien formada,
sin libros con sexo explícito,
malas palabras y ejemplos de tomar alcohol en exceso.
Vengan al próximo encuentro el 26 de septiembre.
Gracias. Thank you.
The next speaker tonight is William Russey.
William Russey.
And the speaker after that is Jennifer Adozy.
Good evening.
Thank you.
Hello. I am a parent of two in KSD, a former student, a long-time listener of these meetings, but a first-time speaker.
And believe me when I say I'd probably rather be any place but here right now.
I'm tired. I'm tired of witnessing policies being enacted by the board to police and further alienate vulnerable students.
A Gallup poll in 2021 found that only 7% of the population identifies as LGBTQ,
yet how much time do we spend here developing policies to make these students' lives so much harder?
and why what is one of these kids done that's made your life so much worse
because you are making their lives worse and we're dedicating a lot of resources
and time to do so and I'm worried I'm worried we were going to have an exodus
of librarians and staff we are now asking them to police books in every
classroom and I'd like to think we were at least increasing their salary to
compensate them for such an important task that we dedicate a lot of time to
here but we know they did not get the raises the classroom teachers received
if everyone you work with received a raise but you got the extra
responsibility how would you take it I'm also worried for what is next if
successful censorship will not end here censors will come for science texts as
well they have already targeted history anything they happen to disagree with
they have before and they will again and I'm mad in fact I'm furious that our
school districts response to kovat the dangers that pose the students staff
parents and family was that each family is to make a decision best for them and
And yet here we are, letting a small group of parents try to parent my child about dictating what they can access at school.
The board chose to do next to nothing with mask mandates and now seem very active censoring diverse literature.
Something I have heard at these meetings is the assumption that reading a book will turn a kid gay, and this is frankly laughable.
Reading Jane Eyre did not turn me into a woman.
Reading Once and Future King did not turn my wife into an Arthurian knight.
And simply reading a book will not turn you gay, but it may help you better understand your neighbor.
So to the board, please stop enacting official policies that undermine our
librarians and trust them to do the job they were hired to do. Please stop with
informal policies that circumvent and negate the actual formal procedure. And
to those wishing to censor, please stop trying to parent my child as was the
vogue with COVID and please stop this puritanical crusade. I'd much rather err
exposing my children to diversity than sheltering them from it. Thank you.
The next speaker tonight is Jennifer Adozie and the speaker after that is Andrea Norman.
Hello. My name is Jennifer Adozie and I'm a senior at Cinco Ranch High School and today I'm
here to talk about EF local policy. Upon reading EF local policy, I'd like to point out a few
bulleted points mentioned on the EF local policy page and my thoughts about them. One, enrich and
and support the curriculum, taking into consideration
students' varied interests.
Removing books also removes any consideration
of students' varied interests, as such unique and mature
interests are being denied.
A large issue is that many books that are inaccessible
currently involve interests pertaining
to race, sexuality, the Holocaust,
and matters of immigration.
And these topics are completely valid to have interest in.
As a black female, I have the right
to be able to read books that detail upon my race, such as This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges.
Students having an interest in these topics is undeniably valid, so they need to be considered
as well. Two, stimulate growth in factual knowledge and societal standards. Growth cannot happen
without accepting what is real. Most residents living in the suburbs of Katy, Texas already have
a limited perception of the real world. However, books provide an outlet to seeing and understanding
understanding a reality that is typically unrealized in this district.
This consequently stimulates the growth of that student, both in
awareness and even potentially acting towards solving such issues.
So this restriction of books only narrows the already tiny scope
that students in KDISD can see through.
Three, present various sides of controversial issues.
This one needs little explanation. By denying the access to books that
that are usually considered controversial by KDISD,
you are preventing students from seeing and interpreting
different sides of these issues
and making these informed judgments.
It's contradictory.
Four, represent many ethnic, religious, and cultural groups.
The main contradiction to this arises in the denial
of reading books that address the Holocaust
and antisemitism.
Such restrictions on books like Maus or Knight
directly take away any opportunity to learn more
about the Jewish culture and silence the truth
of oppression that they faced.
5. Provide a wide range of background information that will enable students to make intelligent
judgments in their daily lives. KDISD limits the range of information students can receive
and learn from due to this restriction of books. As a school district, it is your responsibility
to make sure that students have the resources to learn, which urgently needs to be addressed
now by not restricting books during the formal review process. It is your responsibility
to consider the importance of giving students options to learn and understand
different perceptions instead of forcing them into a narrow box of oblivion. So
take responsibility now. Thank you. Thank you.
The next speaker is Andrea Norman and the speaker after that is Zoe Rice. Good
evening.
Good evening. I'm coming here today because right now I homeschool my children.
And the reason why, the main reason why, is because of the things that they would be exposed to within the school district.
The direction that we're going in as a country has ramifications that are, I think, not exposed the way that they were once upon a time when the Bible was in school.
If you really want to have a full take on what's going on, the one book that we removed that our founders placed here for us that created a blessed nation that we live in now and all these wonderful blessings that we have every day, even the breath of life, was the Bible.
That was their instruction manual. That's where our laws were even based from.
sometimes will be the only Bible that people see.
And I understand why these children are passionate about what they're passionate about
because they don't have the light.
They don't have the full truth.
They have literature that's written by people,
people who may not have a conviction because they may not have the knowledge that the Bible gave.
The Bible tells us, it warns us, there was a city called Sodom and Gomorrah.
Father, help me, Lord.
Thank you, Jesus.
A city called Sodom and Gomorrah that was destroyed because of sin, because of homosexuality, because of sin.
It was literally destroyed by the Lord.
This is something that is a reality.
We say in God we trust.
We have it written on our money.
This is something that our founding fathers held dear, and those that held it dear were able to establish the Constitution
and able to enact laws, moral laws, and laws that reverence the Lord that have enabled us to be a blessed nation the way that we are now.
The way that it's going now, Abby, she pointed out so many great things as far as the ramifications that the children being exposed to these, you know, the sexual acts and things like that will cause, whether it's the suicide rate, you know, things like, and for me, I'm concerned about the soul of the children.
And it's like, why, you know, they wonder, they're asking, why are we so concerned about it?
It's because we're concerned about their eternity.
And you all have, you know, the ability to be able to help guard them.
We're supposed to raise them up in the way that they should go and protect them.
And so I ask that you all pray.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker tonight is Zoe Rice.
The speaker after that is Anise Hansen.
Good evening.
Zoe Reyes.
I am a 10th grader at Cinco Ranch.
I want to talk about the book banning.
There are still many communities that are struggling
to be represented in literature.
People of different races and ethnicities,
members of the LGBTQ community,
and adherents of different religions and faiths are seeing
the books that tell their stories and stories of members
in their communities being removed
from our public school libraries.
The target audience for most
of these banned books are young adult readers.
Young adult fiction is described as literature intended by people between the ages of 12 and 18.
A genre that tends to market towards this audience is coming of age novels.
The coming of age genre tends to focus on the growth of the main character through their journey
of maturing from childhood to adulthood. Coming of age stories also deal with themes of identity and
self-exploration through the character making choices such as wanting to be the popular kid
in school or remaining loyal to their best friend and so on. Now that begs the question, if students
Students at this age can handle that kind of discussion regarding identity.
Why can't they handle stories that discuss ethnic and racial identity?
Why don't you believe that students can handle stories and informative books that could help
a student discover themselves and find something that they identify with?
I know this is something that you hear a lot, but representation does matter.
Growing up as a Mexican immigrant, the first representation of my Hispanic culture that
I saw was Dora.
Now let's just say I wasn't watching Dora every morning before school because I needed to learn Spanish.
When I was a bit older, around 10 years old, Disney's Coco came out and I was absolutely thrilled.
I would get so excited every time we would watch Coco because I loved seeing someone like me,
someone who shares the same culture as me, represented on screen.
When I see a book that has someone that I can relate to, it's one more reason that motivates me to pick up a book and read.
read. To this day, I still get just as excited as that little kid who came to America and
felt a little less alone when they found people that they could relate to.
Identity is the most important part of who we are. Books are being banned for discussing
people's experiences as people of color, someone who believes in a different religion, or as
a queer person. According to Book Riot, 80% of these challenged books are LGBTQ stories
or have LGBTQ characters. If a kid who is trying to see themselves represented in media
that is easily acceptable, say in their public school library, but 80% of those
books are being challenged and could possibly already be banned, then we are
not doing what we can to represent all stories for all members of our community.
We are such a diverse community here in Katy and we need to do our part to make
sure that there are stories that all kinds of kids can relate to and enjoy.
Young adult readers are much more mature than you think and it would be
beneficial if we could have a student representative in the book review
community thank you for your time thank you the next speaker is a nice Hanson in
the speaker after that is Hong Zen Jin
good evening hello I'm a nice Hanson and I'm a senior at sinker Ranch high school
I'm here to discuss the current book review policy within our district I
started my educational journey with KDISD in the first grade after many
years of moving to different states and cities within Texas, my family settled in the Katy community because of its value for children and their educational opportunities.
I, like many other students, have been largely inspired by the books I've immersed myself in throughout my schooling.
I remember one instance in elementary school when I read Encounter by Jan Uell, a book that detailed the confrontation between Christopher Columbus and an indigenous community through the eyes of a Diana boy.
boy. After reading this, my fellow classmates and I were amazed at how different our perception
of Columbus was. As elementary students, we were often shielded from the darker truths
throughout history and had spent years praising the very man that enslaved millions of indigenous
people. However, these topics can be broken down in age-appropriate books meant to educate
young students. I think it's important that KDISD maintains its status as a district that
fosters excellence by making a more transparent book review process. When teachers are fearful
full of keeping books on the shelves of their classrooms and inherently discourages learning.
As a high school student, I have more freedom in regards to the literature I can access,
be it the local library or store. But for many young students in our district, that
is not the case. They look at the books on the walls of their classrooms, on the shelves
of their school library. They seek the advice and recommendations from the teachers that
they trust. This is why it's so important to keep the books on the shelves during the
informal review process. Young readers who seek to develop a voice of their own are inspired
inspired and encouraged by diverse range of literature.
Despite only 10 books being permanently removed from our district, there are still restricted
books within certain schools.
I'm asking for more transparency from the district regarding these restricted titles
and the reasonings behind them.
I'm also urging that you keep the community of Katy informed and involved in the book
review process.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Hongzen Jin and the speaker after that is Ligang Li.
Good evening.
Good evening.
Hello board members. I'm a father of three current KTISD students. I have so
far attended several monthly meetings. I find myself deeply disturbed that at
each and every of these those meetings there were a handful of parents and
students trying very hard to push their agenda on this district. One argument I
heard often was something like as a student I want this book in our school
library or as a parent I want my kid to have access to this book. Someone even
argued that their first amendment rights were being denied. I said come on
you can check out those books from any public library and read them as many
times as you like. Your first amendment rights are not being infringed in any
way. School libraries don't have an obligation or capacity to carry any
specific book just because one student finds it helpful in some way.
Isn't this simple enough to understand? Rather than cry about a book being
removed, go check out the book from a public library and enjoy your reading.
Someone also insisted to have student members in the book review
community under the name of diversity. Back home, my wife and I worked together
to set the rules for our kids to follow, not the other way around. If for the sake
of diversity I need to include one daughter and one son in the rulemaking,
believe me, my third kid is smart enough to sneak in as well as something else.
From now on they will always outnumber us three to two. They will vote to play
games all day long. They will vote to not do homework and they will spend every
Every dollar I saved on toys they liked.
Not including my kids in the decision making doesn't prevent them from voicing their feelings
or complaints, but they need our guidance, especially when they are still young.
In a similar way, I believe strongly that the book review committee should be adult
only.
Some books are not age appropriate for KTIC students because of their sexually explicit
content, offensive language, and inclusion of drugs, alcohol, or smoking, and they need
to be purged from our school library immediately.
Let's do it now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is LeGang Lee, and the last speaker on agenda item one is Jennifer Mears.
What?
Oh, no, there's some, I'm sorry,
I get a different list, it gets updated right at the end.
So, I'm sorry, yeah, go ahead.
Hi, good evening.
I'm Lee Kang-Li, I'm a civil engineer
living in KTA for 10 years.
I would like to address the issue
of the tax ratification election.
Can you please vote against any tax increase in the future?
Tax is important to our community.
We pay tax to hire officers to serve
and protect our community, including KTISD.
We are willing to pay reasonable portion of our tax.
However, we cannot pay too many tax.
As you all know, the inflation this year is more than 9%,
but the majority of employees in KT
do not have a salary increase of 9%.
So we must cut our expense from our livings.
to buy less food at H-E-B, at Costco,
and we also need to save other monies.
On the other hand, more cost as a gas station
and more cost living costs for inflation.
In the end, we are spending our savings.
You know, our savings will be gone for sure,
sooner or later.
Therefore, I do not think this is sustainable for us
and for our community.
In a Chinese saying, there is a way said,
.
It means a higher tax will be more dangerous than tigers.
In China, China has more than 300 years of history,
but most dynasties last less than 300 years.
The main reason for the violent violation
is the high tax rate at the end of dynasty.
If a Chinese people can't afford the tax,
they would fight against the government
and the government will be bankrupted.
I believe that about 250 years ago,
tax was one of the main reason for the North American people
to fight against the British government
in the end the US on its independence.
In concluding, if we want our community to be sustainable,
please cut our tax instead of increasing our tax.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The last speaker again on item one is Jennifer Mears.
Thank you.
I'm here to speak about TRE.
I don't expect you to change your mind after my speech because two weeks ago before school
started some of KISD teachers were already told by their principals that they need to
spread out words to get TRE passed in November if they want a second raise.
Here I'm a question to this board based on my research.
search. Houston Chronicle recently published a database of teacher salaries across Texas per
TEA data. From this database, I compare the average teacher salaries and annual increase for KISD and
other neighboring districts, Spring Branch, Fort Bend, HISD, Cyphair, and Lama. In 2017, an average
teacher makes about 60 grand in KISD, the second lowest in all six ISDs, only higher than HISD.
In 2022 today, if I count the 5% increase that this board just approved, the highest jump in five years, thanks to the new board member who actually delivered, now an average teacher in KISD will make $66,000.
Let me put it in another way. In the past five years, an average KISD teacher saw an annual growth of 2%.
It seems to me that KISD never let any salary increase in Houston area, only the bare minimum.
For some of the board members who has your own business, is this a good commercial to get new hires if you want to keep building first class school districts, as the KISD logo suggests?
Apart from the story of teacher salaries, we taxpayers have been paying a higher and higher property tax every year in Katy.
This year, we will pay at least 10% more taxes than last year, according to the Fort Bend County Appraisal District.
I know this ISD already argues that this property tax dollars has nothing to do with allotment to ISD.
This rule applies to all school districts.
But combining the two facts that PISD tends to lack salary increase for teachers
and no other districts are doing TRE this year, even though they all raise salaries by at least 3%,
I question this board's ability to hold the district accountable to manage budget.
In addition, comparing to what the frontline teachers get in low board all these years,
our superintendent gets a consistent 7% or 8% increase year over year since the beginning of his employment,
Especially last year, he still gets an 8% while teachers get pretty much nothing, or a nominal 2%.
And mind you, this percentage increase for superintendents is definitely leading in Great Houston.
I don't blame the superintendent for such rates, because after all, KISD has been ranked A all these years.
But it seems to me that he is the only one who gets the reward for such ranking, not the front line teachers.
My question to this board, is this the way you will run your own business?
Reward only the managers but ignore the far outcry of working bees.
Numbers and numbers. Never the full story and you can use the same numbers to argue both ways.
That's fine. The takeaway from my little research, this board is slow to act and is playing favoritism to the superintendent over front line teachers.
And now, since this issue is so urgent, you are holding teachers and effectively our children at hostage to pass this...
Thank you. Thank you.
now proceed to call up speakers who signed up to speak on non-posted agenda items by policy
a maximum of 30 minutes has been allocated with the time divided equally among those who have
signed up each speaker will have three minutes to speak the first speaker tonight is rebecca preston
and the second speaker tonight is kathy carpenter good evening
good evening president schulte dr gregorski and trustees my name is rebecca preston and i am a
math science instructional coach in KDISD. First, I want to extend my sincerest gratitude to you all
for your dedication to KDISD and say I am humbled to have the opportunity to speak in front of you
today. I would like to ask any instructional coaches here with me tonight to stand.
My fellow colleagues and I have come to discuss the instructional coach salary and pay scale.
For the record, I want to communicate that we all love our positions and are passionate about
the work we do on our campuses but with that many of us are feeling unappreciated and frustrated
our position is a necessary piece of teacher success and student achievement
instructional coaches go well above and beyond principal expectations and they see our value
because many principals are using esser funds to staff up to four instructional coaches on their
campuses i have provided a copy of our job description exhibit a for you to review highlighted
Highlighted at the top is our contract days.
We work a 192 contract but yet get paid less than a classroom teacher.
Yes, we do get the opportunity to earn swap days, but to earn those swap days,
we have to work five extra days in July before our contract starts
and still come back five days earlier than teachers.
So we are still working more days and getting paid less,
even with the swap days as shown in Exhibit B.
Also highlighted at the top of our job description are some key points explaining how becoming an instructional coach is considered a promotion in KDISD.
Two major ones that stick out are having five years of teaching experience and a preferred master's degree.
So if becoming an instructional coach is considered a promotion, why is working more days the only reflection of that?
Is going back into the classroom considered a promotion now because teachers are making more money?
Exhibit C shows my daily and yearly pay compared to a classroom teacher with the same years of experience.
You can see no matter how you break it down, I am making less.
In February, my family grew to a family of three and I now have a six-month-old daughter to provide for.
How much are monthly benefit premiums going up this year?
Is our 3% raise going directly to that?
With inflation rates up over 9%, it's just not enough.
There is so much more I would love to say, but I'll close with this.
Classroom teachers and instructional coaches are so different, so I understand being on different pay scales.
What I ask is for instructional coaches to be compensated in a way that shows the earning of a promotion beyond just increasing the number of days we work.
Maybe we should not only significantly raise the floor for our first-year employees, but also significantly raise the ceiling for our veteran staff, too.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Kathy Carpenter and the speaker after that is Marcia Lavia.
Good evening.
Good evening.
Gays Against Groomers is a coalition of gay people who oppose the recent trend of indoctrinating,
sexualizing, medicalizing children under the guise of LGBTQIA+, which I call the gay agenda.
Our community that once preached love and acceptance of others has been hijacked by radical activists
who are now pushing extreme concepts onto society, specifically targeting children in recent years.
years.
The overwhelming majority of gay people are against what the community has transformed
into.
We do not accept the political movement pushing their agenda in our name.
Gays Against Groomers directly opposes the sexualization and indoctrination of children.
This includes drag queen story hours, drag shows involving children, the transitioning
and medicalization of minors and gender then gender theory being taught in the
classroom the activists backed by school boards government woke media and
corporations have been speaking on our behalf for too long when fighting for
equality our goal was to successfully successfully integrate ourselves into
into society. But now these radicals aim to restructure it entirely in order to accommodate
a fringe minority as well as to seek indoctrinate children into their ideology. We're saying
no. There are millions of gays within the community that want nothing to do with this
alphabet religion and join the fight with parents and concerned people everywhere to
to protect the children.
We also aim to return sanity and reclaim the community
we once called our own.
The gay community is not a monolith.
Those pushing this agenda do not represent or speak for us all,
nor do we want to be associated with them in any way.
What we are witnessing is mass-scale child abuse
being perpetrated on an entire generation.
We will no longer sit by and watch it happen.
It is going to take those of us within the community to finally put an end to this insanity,
and that's exactly what we're going to do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Marcia Leava, and the last speaker tonight is Claudia Turcotte.
Good evening.
Good evening.
First of all, thank you for all your service to the KDISD community.
My name is Marcia Leyva and I'm here today to request for this board of
three to address our local admissions policy. I provided you with some copies
of guidelines and timeline of the what happened. I learned on the hard way that
this district at this district there are three ruling guidelines the TEA ones the
local policies ruled by this board and the Patterson elementary school policies
that rule above the other two and are determined by the moods and wishes from
that school staff. This statement is based on an unfortunate day for the
administration team July 27th. That was the day that I felt bold and truly
disappointed with the team that is head of the school that my older daughter
currently attends and I truly hope that this district protects her rights and
and keeps her safe from any attempt or retaliation from this staff.
After receiving a phone call from the ADA clerk on July 27,
saying that my younger daughter was not eligible to attend kinder at KDISD due to TEA cutoff date,
the same person that back on May 3rd confirmed me by email that my daughter would be attending kinder at Patterson,
I was speechless.
I couldn't believe that three weeks from the school to start I was receiving that phone call.
I asked why the law was not being fully applied considering that TA, based on the foundation school program,
mentions that there is a test that these kids can attend and perform and they have a chance to enroll.
I was just told that she didn't know about that test and just put her back at Primrose.
as Ed Primrose, there is no harm for you.
Who determines that?
On the attempt to discuss this misunderstanding,
I request to meet the principal.
Well, I got a phone call.
She was very energetic and talking borderline with rudeness.
She mentioned, I had been doing nothing
but talking with frustrated parents all morning
for the same reason I'm talking to you.
So I'm trying to be sympathetic with you.
But at the very end she finished the call, even if your daughter attends private kindergarten this year, she will not make it here to Pattison first grade.
Which I said, if the policy says that, fine.
Counselor called me around 2.24.
Worst.
I had no, I was not offered the test.
I was denied that by saying, I've been doing this for over 20 years and never saw a kid approving.
Just put her on pre-K.
And I also wait.
I'm so present number nine so I also wait a year just get your daughter to wait well the end of
the call was I will give you a little advice if I was you I would look for another school
your daughter will not make it for first grade second third fourth or any grade at Paterson
thank you thank you
Thank you.
Oh, I'm sorry.
There's one more speaker.
Claudia, sorry about that.
Last speaker tonight is Claudia Turcotte.
Good evening.
Good evening.
What I'm about to read was written by a concerned Katie taxpayer who couldn't be here tonight,
but wanted her voice to be heard.
On September 29th, 1959, Russian Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev made the following prediction.
Your children's children will live under communism.
You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept communism outright, but we will keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you will finally wake up and find out you already have communism.
We will not have to fight you.
Marxism is the process the democratic socialists of America are using to destroy our country and indoctrinate our children.
They seek to sow division among us using gender, ideology, and race.
Our children are being forced to accept questionable ideas about human sexuality and to use pronouns and language that don't make sense or line up with reality.
These things don't belong in school.
These kind of subjects are the purview of the parents.
We at home should be talking to our kids about sex and about these other issues.
They don't belong in our schools.
Please stick to the fundamentals of education.
and leave the rest where it belongs, with the parents.
And I've got a little bit more time, so I would just like to add that after sitting here
and listening to everything I heard tonight, genuine love is willing the best for somebody.
And the best for somebody is what God has created them to be and what God has called them to be.
And particularly adults should know that the best for our kids is not just to do what they want
or what they feel but what god's called them to and i don't see that happening i see a lot of
adults advocating for kids in ways that i don't think are going to serve them in the long run
so i would just ask people to consider that and think about that and one last thing
padres hispanos the katie les necesitamos in esta batalla por nuestros hijos
ayudanos a defenderlos de estas ideologias que quieren robarles la inocencia
Thank you.
This concludes the open forum portion of our meeting.
The Board will now convene.
What's that?
Did you sign up in advance?
Yes.
Yes, go ahead.
I'm Morgan Calhoun.
State your name, please.
Morgan Calhoun.
Thank you.
At 84,000 students, can we start to look at KDISD not as a school district in the traditional manner that we've grown up thinking of it,
but more in the perception as a corporation mindset?
mindset in terms of management of such a large district.
And like so many corporations today, what we're witnessing is this large swing to adjust
to political and cultural winds.
I feel this way because I became aware of some troubling information over the summer
and recently as a few days ago.
I approached an employee, well, over the summer I wanted to check and see what policies were
in place for counseling in schools, specifically in the elementary levels.
I have three children that range in the ages from fourth grade down to kindergarten.
I approached an employee of the district with very specific questions that at face value
many would brush off as a non-issue.
It's not going to happen.
You don't need to worry about it.
And I disagree with that.
The question I asked was if my child happens to come into the guidance counselor's office
with a concern about their physical bodies or confusion about their identity as a boy
or a girl, what is the protocol?
What do you do?
How would that situation be handled?
I was told by that staff member that we would ask a lot of questions, talk with that child,
and try to find out why and how they got to feeling this way.
What led to the next question that I had?
All of that's well and good, and I don't disagree with questioning and doing that with a child
and having a conversation.
But the next question I asked is where the concern really started to flag up.
When do you notify the parent?
When do I find out about this conversation?
The answer should shock every parent that's in KDISD.
I was told that the information would be discussed with the child whether or not they were comfortable
consenting to sharing that information with a safe adult.
Not a parent, a safe adult.
So let me get this straight.
My child, whether it be a boy or a girl, comes into the public school questioning whether
or not they are the sex they were born and the staff member then doesn't call me immediately
to let me know what's going on.
They ask the elementary school child, the six-year-old,
if it's okay whether we tell mom and dad.
That's insane.
The ungodly amount that we spend as homeowners
to pay your district is crazy enough.
And the things that we get for it is that you're going to spit in our face
and tell us that we as parents may or may not be told
that our children are confused about their gender
talking to a stranger that we don't know and don't trust.
We have no idea.
This is insane.
saying please tell me that I'm wrong in my understanding of this please tell me
that this is not what's happening I would like a response in some form or
fashion to what this is what's going on inside the school thank you this
5. Closed Meeting
concludes the open form of our meeting the board were now convening closed
meeting is authorized under five five one zero zero one of the Texas
government code for the following purposes Texas government code five five
5-5-1-0-7-1 and 5-5-1-1-2-9.
6. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
Good evening, everyone.
The board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Today is Monday, August 22, 2022, and the time is 749 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, August 19, 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 an open meeting.
7.2 Current Process for Library Book Selection
We'll now proceed to agenda item 7.2, current process for library book selection.
the presenter are miss sophia darcy and miss carrie heitman both library programs coordinator
library systems coordinator good evening good evening president schulte trustees and dr grigorski
i'm sophia darcy the library programs coordinator and i will be reviewing the current process for
library book selection with you this evening kdisd librarians are trained to develop library
collections that meets the needs of diverse student population each campus
serves. Each title must be carefully considered in regards to our selection
criteria as the librarian curates lists that ensure students have access to the
best possible collection. Librarians curate lists of books for consideration
from a variety of sources including professional publications, sample books
books from conferences, student and staff requests, and professional learning networks.
Once a book is identified as a possible addition to the library collection, the librarian then
follows a multi-step process to determine if the book meets the district selection criteria.
At the most basic level, a book must have two positive reviews from approved professional
professional resources and must also be considered age appropriate, which is determined by considering
all reviews available.
In an effort to continue to support the high standards of the district, librarians do not
stop at reading professional reviews to determine whether or not they are positive.
Librarians are scrutinizing their reviews more closely than ever to identify potential
issues.
issues. This often leads them to research additional sources for more information.
Only after considering all reviews, including professional research, along with age appropriateness,
will a librarian decide whether or not a book should be added to their order. Sometimes
a book does not have two positive reviews from the approved resources. At this point,
the book is added to a separate list for further consideration. Books on this list
range from new releases to picture books to non-fiction. Newly released books often take
a while to gain two reviews and the librarian may have to wait until additional reviews are
available. But sometimes the book falls under special circumstances that will prevent it from
from ever having two positive reviews.
The librarian must now use their professional expertise to determine if one of the exceptions
to the selection criteria can be applied to the book.
Our youngest readers, our emergent readers, need books that focus on building their phonemic
awareness, fluency, and decoding skills.
Easy readers and picture books provide emergent readers with this type of reading practice,
but they often lack two positive reviews.
As a trained professional, a librarian can determine if an easy reader or picture book meets this exception and can be purchased.
Some other exceptions librarians must consider include books for reluctant readers, books in a series, graphic novels,
and books that might have reviews higher than the level for which it is considered, as is the case for some higher interest level books.
For example, cookbooks, dictionaries, gardening, and even Lego books have content appropriate for elementary or junior high students, but have a young adult or adult interest level because of the complex language in the book.
All of these nuances must be taken into consideration by the librarian.
librarian.
Once the librarian has developed an order of books that meets our selection criteria
and submits it, the order goes through the Library Services Department for a two-step
approval process.
We are fortunate that Katy ISD has prioritized hiring a librarian for each campus who is
certified and has a master's degree.
These professionals use their knowledge and training to build diverse collections that
meet the needs of all students on their campus.
Thank you for this opportunity to share with you how our librarians select library books.
Thank you very much.
Are there any questions, board members?
Mr. President?
Yes.
Just wondering if, of course, you've been aware of the controversy over the last few months
about parents being upset about inappropriate books in the libraries.
Have you, in deciding what to purchase,
Are you familiar with some of the standards like pervasively vulgar, the Texas Penal Code,
and what's considered harmful material and obscene?
Have you gone through that and keep that in mind besides the reviews?
Yes, we do that.
As librarians, as a group of librarians, have the librarians taken upon themselves
to look at their collections to see if you have anything in your libraries that fits that?
Part of the collection development process is to continually examine the collection
to look for books that may no longer meet selection criteria.
Okay.
Any other questions?
Well, I wanted to ask, who actually approves the library purchases?
So first, whenever it's turned in, it comes to us and I check to make sure.
I actually call the librarians and find out whether or not they meet the selection criteria.
And then it happens once again when the order comes in.
We check again to verify that it meets the selection criteria.
So but who actually signs off on the book editions of the...
Yes.
You do?
Yes.
The two of us sign off on that.
Okay.
Okay.
Any other questions?
Yes, I have a few questions.
First, thank you so much for giving the presentation.
I really enjoy knowing what you guys do, and I appreciate all that you do, too.
But when there's a new school, so I've been told this by people, so I don't know if this is true or not.
When there's a new school and you have to have thousands of books, like at a high school,
is there like a publishing company this is what i kind of understand maybe i'm wrong there's a
publishing company and they'll they have already gone through the review process and they say
here's the thousand books that we recommend is this something any any part of that true and then
you the librarian would just or you or whoever would just say okay then these these books have
gone through some kind of review process already and there's so many books to
let's say go to Jordan High School let's just use that as an example and then
you know you're not talking about one book at a time you're talking about you
got to get the whole library supplied at the same time can you explain how the
new school process goes yes that's a good question and for new schools I have
the the pleasure of opening payto high school and for us what we did was we took the book collection
from tompkins high school because it's a kdisd high school and we looked at their collection
and then we looked at does it fit the parameters or the community that i will be serving at payto
high school yes you can look at what vendors have but that is not the be-all and the end-all because
you have to look at kdisd selection criteria and their standards and so yes you're talking about
thousands of books but we do have to keep in mind KDI's D selection criteria
I have two more questions okay so on the reviews where you have the reviews by
the professional I wrote it down the professional journal reviews who who
are those professionals most of the there are a wide variety of professional
journals that do book reviews. The vast majority of the approved review sources
for KDISD have reviews from librarians who are in schools and or other literary
professionals. Okay and let's see oh so do you do you only go by the reviews or
do you ever actually have people that read the books? No we do not stop just
just at professional reviews.
There are a lot of book sources that are out there as well
that do almost spoilers of books,
kind of like movie spoilers,
but they share content for books as well.
We do consult those and other information
that we can find about the books prior to purchasing.
Thank you.
Mr. President, thank you for your presentation.
I have a couple of questions.
So when I was looking at the presentation
in our decisions tonight, I was like, adult books.
We don't teach adults.
We don't need adult books.
But what are some examples of adult books that apply to children?
I think you've just covered it, but send us some more.
Like cookbooks, gardening, right?
Those are very appropriate.
If you can think of a hobby, knitting, crocheting, barbecuing,
all of those hobbies, publishers consider adult interest.
So when we see adult, no alarm, those are really good things.
I think YA might be the category where we are looking at some struggles that we might have.
So when librarians make choices, they don't choose one book at a time from a list,
and they will not have necessarily read the book.
Is that correct?
Like do they order all the books they order one at a time or groups?
Do they order groups?
We vet every book individually one at a time.
Yes, that is correct.
Correct.
Then the difficult question for me, with all due respect, how did some of the very pervasively
vulgar books get to our libraries?
Again, a good question.
There was different selection criteria prior to 2018.
We also strengthened our selection criteria last year and added in the district level
approval process.
And librarians do work diligently to ensure that the books that are being purchased actually
do meet selection criteria.
However, sometimes you can find information that's available about a book after the purchase
has already been made.
And at that point, if a librarian finds a book that does not meet selection criteria,
they remove that book from the collection.
Yet we still have some books in our libraries that are inappropriate for young
minds.
So we have our process, I guess, to challenge that if a parent sees it or something like
that.
And that's how we got here.
I mean, I think, with the review.
I have it.
Hold on.
Because we have some that are like they're award winners.
You know, they've got a Caldecott sticker on it.
And I know that graphic novels are very desirable by some of our young readers.
They really like the graphic novels because they're kind of cartoon-like and comic-like,
and so those are good.
But many of them have inappropriate content in them.
them, and I'm wondering where the reviews that you read about those books don't always
reveal all of the content.
Is that correct?
Well, they may not always reveal all of the content.
As soon as it's brought to the librarian's attention, then they do their due diligence
to remove it from the collection.
That's again, that's part of the ongoing collection development process.
So it's the librarian's choice whether or not to leave it in the library.
Once they know that there might be pervasively vulgar or sexual content.
They would have to examine the book.
In a YA book.
They would need to examine the book.
Okay.
I'm wondering if librarians would prefer a protective policy for them to,
and that's something we'll have to consider, I guess,
as a protective policy for them to be able to remove books without any backlash to them
that would be...
I'm struggling here, as you can see, with what we have and pervasively vulgar is what
we're trying to define and sexual content for young minds is...
You can't read it and then take it back.
You can't unread it.
You can't unsee it. You can't uninternalize it as a young child to have something that you're exposed to.
So that's our concern. I appreciate you telling us how that happens.
I'm still questioning. They choose one book at a time and they order approximately how many books are ordered every year in an existing school?
I don't have that number in front of me. We could get that for you.
However, in KDISD last year, we had over 44,000 titles purchased.
And those were chosen one at a time, not like I'll take this section on earth science,
I'll have this section on revolutionary something, history, or that.
It's one at a time.
One at a time.
That's different than information given to me, so I'm glad I asked.
Thank you very much for your information.
information. Mr President, I have so a clarifying question and then another question.
One at a time, but if there's a new high school like Jordan, you're just going to kind of copy
something. You don't have to really review all the books if you're just going to take what
Tompkins has, for example. They don't take what Tompkins has in its entirety. When I was looking
at what Tompkins had I removed books that I did not feel would suit the
community or fit the community at Pato high school all right so you do have to
add in books and take away books that you know are going to either meet the
needs of your community or not meet the needs of your community based on the
student population that will be coming in okay so I just want to clarify this
so initially y'all are going through a review process and you're trying to
follow the policy that we have and it was updated in 2018 so at the front of all of this your there
are books that aren't getting in you know at the front of this based on your review right
but if one happened to get by or like you said it was before 2018 or whatever um
that's when we come into play and then we have to do the process of removing the book or the
parent has to do a formal complaint or whatever. So when a lot of people come and speak to
us and say that we are banning books, I just wanted to be kind of clarified that it's not
necessarily, we're just trying to remove books that shouldn't have been there in the first
place based on the guidelines and the policies that we have. Is that correct? I mean, you
know, you have, so the books, so in other words, you know, they come and they do a formal
review and then we go through the process and they we decide either to let the book stay or not to
stay but it's just following the policy that y'all would have been following anyway from the beginning
in a manner of speaking yes so in other words you know it's not necessarily that we're just
banning the books it's that in the beginning they they maybe shouldn't have been able to get in
And then we wouldn't have had to have this formal process and all that with the particular books I'm talking about
You know it would depend on the title
Okay, thanks. Yeah, I had something yeah, that's nothing. I mean I think what you're what you're getting at is it as opposed to
Having this challenge process which of course we will have and and we have and
And once you get the criteria established and we all agree on the criteria
that it's possible perhaps if everybody got on board with the criteria that not everything
that gets challenged has to be addressed by a challenge committee, but that the librarians
also understand what the criteria are and head off any books that shouldn't be there
to begin with based on the criteria, whatever the criteria is.
I think that's what you're getting at, you know, that it doesn't always have to be like,
like, you know, that we're removing books and this is a challenge committee and that
the board has to intervene and things like that.
That it's actually we agree on the criteria and everybody gets on board with that and
the librarians help in implementing those criteria.
I think that's what you're getting at, so I don't know if that's, but anyway.
I don't have anything else.
Thank you very much.
Are there any other questions?
Mr. President, I just have a question that may be for the superintendent.
attendant, rather than ask you ladies who are not prepared to answer this question,
of the books that have been removed, were they purchased before 2018 when they said
that the criteria was changed?
And you may not know that, and you can get that to us later.
Yeah, I'd have to get that to you.
I couldn't tell you.
I know we publish it on the website, and we list all books that have been removed.
Very transparent about that process.
But I couldn't tell you when those books were purchased.
Mr. President, I have a question.
Yes.
Is this process mainly for new books coming into the entire library?
Or is it, like, if we were to open up a new school, would you look back and say, all right, well, book A is already owned at 15 of our libraries.
So we don't even need to put it through the process because it's deemed to already have gone through the process.
So is it just new books, like new titles coming into all of KDISD, or is it each specific
library?
Each specific campus has a specific community that they will be serving.
Therefore each specific librarian has to consider that campus when making the choices for the
books that are going to be on their campus.
So every librarian looks at those books individually, whether it's been in the library or not.
It can play a part as to whether it's already in KDISD or not, but it is not the be all
and the end all of whether they include the book or not include the book it has to meet
current today selection criteria thank you any other questions
okay well now thank you very much we appreciate it we'll now proceed to 7.3 2022 state accountability
7.3 2022 State Accountability Performance and Accelerated Learning
performance and excel accelerated learning miss natalie martinez and dr sine bell good evening
Good evening, Board members, President Schulte, Dr. Gregorski.
Tonight, I'd like to share with you the accountability results of the 21-22 school year.
We are excited to share our district rating.
Once again, KDISD has earned an A rating.
This is definitely a collective effort.
We want to give kudos to our teachers, to our students,
as well as our admin and our support teams.
There we go.
Our campuses are also rated.
And in KDISD, schools were rated A, B, and C.
We did not have any campuses with an NR rating, which
stands for not rated not rated is used this year only which means a rating of a dr and f but it's
labeled as not rated i'd like to review our accountability system with you our state system
has three domains which includes student achievement school progress and closing the gaps
tea uses the best score from domain one and two as seventy percent of the overall score
score. Domain three, closing the gap, is 30% of the overall score. And again, this year's
ratings included A, B, C, and not rated. Student scores on STAR and EOC are a large part of
the accountability system. Performance standards are set for each of the performance levels.
TEA designates approaches, meets, and masters as passing. There are times when we review
review approaches but in kdisd we push students towards those meets and Masters levels
while we know the pandemic has disrupted student learning kdisd monitors student performance to
make adjustments and provide needed support this slide shows the performance across the
state and across the district comparing pre-covered performance of 2019 and current performance of
2022. kdisd is closing the gap at a faster rate than the state
in accountability tea uses an average of approaches meets and masters to show overall gains
as you can imagine a decrease in approaches may not necessarily be a negative if the meats and
the masters are improving significantly the amm average combines all performance
levels to get an overarching picture of the campus and district performance
this slide shows the kdisd amm average for prior year and current year for each content area
these scores represent all star and eoc scores you'll notice that social studies maintained at
our highest amm of 71 while all other content areas saw an increase from prior year in their amm average
at this time i would turn it over to our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning
dr soneva
thank you good evening texas education code requires each school district to provide
accelerated instruction to students who did not perform satisfactory on star or eoc assessments
accelerated instruction which occurs throughout the year
consists of teak salon targeted instruction designed to meet individual student needs
this slide shows students who were successful after receiving accelerated instruction during
the 2021-2022 school year. If you recall, state testing resumed in the spring of 2021, so results
from the spring 22 assessments is the first time since 2019 we have been able to compare
accelerated learning results. Although this is baseline data with new methodology, we can use
historical data about how students perform after receiving accelerated instruction in KDISD.
For example, in 2019, for grades 4 through 8, KDISD was 10 points higher than the state in reading and math, which indicates that our accelerated learning supports go above and beyond state average.
Although we outperformed the state, we will continue to make adjustments to our accelerated learning supports to be responsive to student and campus needs.
These are some of the accelerated learning structures that are in place to support students.
With the exception of summer accelerated learning, these supports are provided throughout the year depending on student and campus needs.
This slide shows the number of students by course who participated in summer accelerated instruction this past summer.
We'll be happy to answer any questions that you have.
Are there any questions, board members?
Yes, I have a question. Dr. Bell, thank you for your presentation, Mrs. Martinez. I know this is a very complicated issue, and we actually get training on this a little bit in TASB when we go, and I just did my renewal thing this, I don't know, a couple months ago.
But I'm always a little bit confused about the approaches part of it.
And, you know, I'm not saying that people don't explain it well, but I would just like a refresher.
And what does approaches mean?
Let me just explain to you why I want this.
It's because I've been told that the approaches is not really a great indicator of a child's success.
Because in the TASB presentation that we get, they'll show a chart and they'll show, like,
which kids are going to end up going to college and which kids are going to end up being able
to be successful in college.
And the kids who are in the approaches aren't in that category.
And so, you know, although it doesn't look bad on here, you know, and the word approaches
sounds like a positive word it's not necessarily a positive category to be in
is that is that correct in one of our slides it's TA language approaches is
likely to succeed in the next grade level with targeted intervention so
likely and targeted is where we kind of disagree right I hear you I will also
say that when we talked about approaches meets and masters we understand what the
the TEA language of accountability says,
but we also know that in KDISD,
we strive for meets and masters.
And so anytime that we are with campuses
and we're talking about the data,
we are pushing to, and quite honestly,
only look at who are our meets and masters
and keep pushing up to those levels.
So we don't look at bubble kids anymore.
It's who is almost masters, who is almost meets,
who is almost approaches, who is almost,
and we push every level going up.
We don't just stop at passing.
We don't even speak in that term anymore.
It is moving every kid up a level, meeting them where they are.
So this is a TEA language.
It is a TEA standard, but in KDISD we push it even further.
Any questions?
Mr. President, what is the criteria for you continuing to offer accelerated learning help?
help? In other words, like for example, continuing into the year as opposed to just in the summer,
what are the criteria for that in terms of offering, making sure that you offer additional
help? So any student who is not successful on a star assessment or an EOC assessment will receive
accelerated instruction throughout the school year. So for example, students on the 2022 spring
assessment if they were not successful they will start or have started
accelerated instruction when we have students that maybe didn't show
demonstrate mass or demonstrate success on the spring assessment those are the
students that we provide summer opportunities for so not all students
participate in summer opportunities that is one method of accelerated instruction
the law requires that students who are not successful receive 30 hours of accelerated instruction in that particular subject.
So there are a lot of different variables. Just because a student completes those 30 hours, though, does not mean that you're finished.
You don't have to get any more support. A couple slides back, it showed the different ways that we provide accelerated instruction throughout the year.
So the summer is not the only opportunity.
There's multiple opportunities throughout the year.
In their original classroom, before school, after school tutorials,
there are a lot of different ways that students can receive that instruction.
So when you say they're not successful, it's below approaches?
Yes. Yes.
Any other questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I have a couple of questions, and I'm sorry I didn't ask them earlier this week.
When it came to, I have two questions.
When it came to the summer instruction that we offered this year, were y'all looking at previous,
I know we didn't have a STAAR Test the year before, but did you look at how they performed the year before and what those grades were?
Did we have any kids, I guess what I'm asking, attend prior to really taking that STAAR Test
TO HELP, I GUESS, PREP AND BEEF UP SOME OF THAT ACCELERATED LEARNING.
DID WE DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT?
I HEARD AT TASB I HEARD SOME DIFFERENT DISTRICTS DOING THINGS LIKE THAT.
ARE YOU REFERENCING THE KIDS FROM 2021?
I GUESS, YES.
OKAY.
SO WE DID NOT HAVE SUMMER PROGRAMMING IN 2021.
THOSE RULES, HOUSEBALL 4545 RULES, WE GOT THAT INFORMATION RATHER LATE.
YEAH.
So a lot of that accelerated instruction happened throughout the school year on the campuses.
And so what we did, we organized a lot of our efforts to provide campuses with resources and different types of support.
There was just not enough time.
It was June when it was like, oh, you could count summer hours.
And so instead of throwing something together quite quickly, we wanted to make sure that we provided accelerated instruction that was targeted to meet the needs of the students.
because you want to make sure that they have the opportunity to be successful and we can pinpoint
and diagnose appropriately okay thank you for that and then my second question is
when we're looking at this for everybody who participated so fully for our percentages as
well as participation is all of this inclusive of our special education community of children as well
Yes. Okay. Thank you.
I have one more thing, Mr. President.
Yes.
In terms of math for 2022,
it doesn't look like there was much of an improvement compared to pre-COVID or in 21, I guess.
What do you attribute that to?
I think that's part of the national discussion about mathematics.
MATHEMATICS SKILLS ARE, THEY BUILD ON EACH LEVEL BUILDS ON THE NEXT.
FOR EXAMPLE, IF WE THINK OF READING LANGUAGE ARTS, LANGUAGE ARTS TECH IN KINDERGARTEN IS
THE SAME TECH IN 12TH GRADE.
IT JUST GETS BIGGER WITH THE STUDENTS.
THOSE SKILLS ARE THE SAME OVER THE COURSE OF THE TIME THE STUDENTS ARE IN SCHOOL.
BUT MATHEMATICS, EVERY SKILL BUILDS ON THE NEXT SKILL.
So if you add the pandemic on top of other situations that may have occurred with students,
they may be missing some critical skills that they didn't receive in the previous year that was vital for moving beyond the next step.
And sometimes in mathematics, especially as students matriculate, they may learn a new skill a day or every couple of days.
And so if there is a gap in that skill development that is going to have an impact on the outcome
So they go back now. Do you go back now and try to help them work and pick up where they were?
Yes, and so a lot of those supports through our curriculum departments. They provide guidance to our teachers through our curriculum
that's where a lot of the
development in the accelerated instruction the resources and what teachers provide students they try to figure out if
If students are struggling with this in eighth grade, where is the entry point for that student?
Because it may be sixth grade, they missed this critical skill.
So before you can jump into the eighth grade skill, you have to back that up to ensure that students are successful.
So you can't slow down the curriculum if they're in their regular mathematics classroom.
So the accelerated instruction finds where the students are struggling and works to close those gaps for those kids.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Mr. President, if I may, thank you very much.
Would you go to the AMM averages slide so we could talk about that for a minute?
And I know full well that KDISD shines.
Peer districts, statewide, I'm so grateful for every person focused on students.
But can we just address the fact that approaches is not grade level, right?
Right?
Approaches is, might be successful next year if they have targeted learning, targeted interventions.
Targeted interventions are people, right?
Which is why all the whole 86% of our salary goes to lots of people to help and support.
So I appreciate that we don't let them slip.
But approaches does not mean success at the grade level.
Is that accurate?
Like that's not really pass.
pass. That's probably will pass next year if you keep working with them. That's what
we learn at our conferences.
That is correct. I'm not understanding your question.
Well, so that's not success. When you take the meets and masters of kids who are on track,
successful in their school year, in 2021, the ELA would be 51% of students succeeded.
In 2022, it would be around 55% of students succeeded.
And now the other 50%, 45%, need a lot more help, right, for the next level.
So I'm just pointing out the math on what the TEA tries to get us to look at all three of those and call it success.
Well, again, this is an accountability presentation, so we follow TEA accountability rules.
However, we also give you meets and masters so that you can make your own conclusions,
and I will tell you our teachers do as well.
So accountability doesn't drive the way that we act in our campuses.
They are focused on getting every kid to the next level,
but we do have to share with you what TEA accountability says.
Exactly, and I agree with you 100%.
Perfect.
Our teachers are focused on our students, and they're never going to give up,
and I know that our students and their parents are grateful,
but I just want to talk about how TEA gives us this STAAR Test and then they
give you numbers that make it look like it's going really well so if we can go
to that next slide that has a accelerated learning my question for you
is percent of students who pass after accelerated learning 67% and 57% is that
the students who were approaches or is that students who know even the lower
ones they were not successful and so these are the ones who passed at
approaches at approach they made it to approaches right after our help during a
summer or during the year or what how did they get there after accelerated
instruction whether that happened during the school year or in the summer okay so
we brought them up to approaches so those 67% are included in that first
chart is that what yes because that first chart would have been 2022 right
and so these were approaches in 2022 this is a subset of that because this
group of students had to have not passed prior year where the original chart was
all students who met accountability so in 2021 they wouldn't have been on this
first chart at all and in 2022 they made it to this approaches level there some
Some in 2021 may have, because you have some students who fail multiple times.
So it is possible.
Just clarifying for our friends who are paying attention.
I just want to...
TEA friends.
Of course.
Who are not being completely truthful with the STAAR Test and the results.
Because everybody knows, I hate the STAAR Test.
And the accountability that they think that they're doing, I'm all about that.
that's my personal thing that I'm working with with the TEA and the state legislature
about how that is not an accurate assessment of how our students are doing and how hard
our teachers are working.
So to add the approaches in and make it look better is unfair, I think, from TEA.
Nothing to do with y'all, but I just wanted to point it out because I'm going to need
some more ammunition when I keep working for it.
Understood.
Just one, I just want to add one thing, if I may, Mr. President.
It's a big problem I have with that approaches thing is parents who see,
you know, we get the star thing, you know, the analysis or whatever,
you know, when your kid takes a STAAR Test.
And if it says approaches, then the parents are kind of led to believe,
oh, my kid's doing kind of good, you know.
and I know that's not your issue.
I just wanted to state that,
but I think it can be very misleading.
Any other questions?
Thank you very much.
We'll now move on to the public hearing portion of the meeting.
8.1, receive public input regarding accelerated learning.
There was no one that signed up to speak
on the public hearing part of this agenda item.
8.2 Presentation of the 2022-2023 Proposed Budget and Tax Rate
So we'll move on to agenda 8.2,
presentation of the 2022-2023 proposed budget
budget and tax rate. Mr. Chris Smith. All right, well hello again and I just want to say last
month I promised, sorry, I promised I'd be quick this month because y'all went through the treasury
of these first eight months of the year or seven months of the year where we are to date on this
on this particular calendar. TA requires us to have our budget adopted by August 31st. Presumably
that'll happen tonight. Assumptions that we made is just as a reminder, our enrollment growth at
4.9 percent. That's over what we budgeted last year. We opened last week Stephen and Elaine
Robertson Elementary and then added a 12th grade at Jordan High School. Our tax base has grown 14.3
percent. Yes, that's new value, and yes, that's appreciated values that was mentioned earlier
earlier tonight and yes, regardless of the tax rate,
homeowners do pay more in taxes than the state,
as y'all know, based on the basic allotment
and the way the state funds things,
as we get more tax revenues, state funding goes down.
That's one of the reasons why the Texas Education Agency
and the state of Texas has a big surplus
in their budget for education.
education. Teacher pay grade raises 5% hourly employees, 5% non-teacher professionals, 3%
is what's in this budget. There's no lump sum in the budget that you're seeing tonight.
The tax rate, this tax rate is built on .9148. It does not consider a TRE. If a TRE is called
and if it passes we would amend the budget sometime in November to reflect
the increase in revenue and any increase in expenses but this is built on the
compressed rate an INS tax rate of 39 cents again our anatomy of the tax rate
as I anticipated last month our compressed rate did go from the blue
column at 85.15 cents down to 80.46 that's a floor so there are about 600
districts that hit that floor and that there there's so those so that
particular part of a district's tax rate ranges from 91 cents down to that that
floor of 80.46 cents our enrichment pennies those golden pennies and the
copper pennies add up to eleven point zero two and you can see through this
This last year, this time when you adopted the tax rate last year, we've reduced the tax rate by 16.5 cents.
And this year, if we lower the rate based on that compression, it would be 21 cents reduction.
General fund, about 53% of this budget is made up of local revenue.
44 or 45% is state revenue and very little or is less than 2% is federal revenue.
The general fund, 88%.
I know you saw 86%.
That was an actual.
We don't particularly or always spend our entire budget, so this is a budgeted amount
at 88.1%.
and we did put more in to salaries this year with the increase.
Again, the second largest item in this budget is utilities.
They're in the maroon section, I guess, or the plum-looking section at 5%.
The vast majority of that slice is in utilities.
Very pleased to say that, and you saw this in the efficiency audit,
that we put the majority of our spend in the classroom.
That's shown on this slide that it's just 67% is in instruction and direct student support is another 12%.
So 79.5% is spent in the classroom on our students.
And then if you include things like transporting those students, the counseling and the co-curriculars, 90% or 90.5% of what we do is spent directly on students.
As it should.
Our general fund balance is anticipated through the final amended budget to be $313.1 million.
Total revenue is $934.4 million, and expenditures are $943.8 million.
We have transfers out to the health fund of $3 million and a transfer in from the TERS of a half million dollars,
netting out to a $2.5 million transfer out.
and that net change to fund balance is still around hovering right around 12
million dollars deficit and we would end the fund the year with a fund balance at
301 million dollars again that's assuming we spent all of that budget and
that's assuming that we're spot-on with the revenue which is as you know is
strictly around the students and the type numbers of students and the types
of students we have regardless of what happens with the taxable values when it
comes to this general fund it's the number of students and the type of students we have period
the food service fund uh look like looks like we're gonna have a a pretty hefty fund balance
of 25.3 million dollars you heard me say that we have too much fund balance uh we're going to try
to spin that down this year and i'll i'll show you that in a second but we've got 39.5 million
million in revenues. Our expenditures are 46.1 million dollars. That does include 4.3 million
dollars of capital outlay. That's for some of the renovations and projects that we're doing as part
of our bond program. And so that would use six and a half million dollars of fund balance and bring
it down to 18.7 million dollars. That's still too much money. We need to spend more and we will
over time, but you just can't say, okay, it's ready to spend money on the renovation on XYZ
campus because it takes time to get to that and we won't get it all in the 22-23 school year.
Debt service fund has a 59 million dollar fund balance. Mr. Hines will go over
the final amended tonight. We're going to use our fund balance or we're projecting to use our
fund balance in the debt service fund. We're getting hit pretty hard with refunds and
and lawsuits that happened, tax lawsuits that happened during COVID stacked up.
And we've been hemorrhaging refunds, and Mr. Hines will talk to you a little bit about that,
and the general fund and in the debt service fund,
and refunding more money than we're taking in when it comes to taxes this summer.
Never seen it like this.
We will file property value audits as appropriate during the next school year.
That should make up for it.
and the general fund will not make up for it in this debt service fund.
So we're looking at $210 million in revenues.
We're on our own from a taxpayer standpoint.
The state's not helping us build any of our new schools.
They are paying a little of the additional state aid for homestead exemption
in the form of hold harmless.
When the homestead exemption increases, they are paying for that,
but not for the bonds that we issue that the voters authorized.
authorized expenditures of $209.9 million or net change of fund balance of just a little
$480,000 for an ending fund balance of 59.9 and I will note that that principal payment
does include a six million dollar defeasance in other words we're just going to pay bonds off that
we can the fund this is a summary of all three of our budgeted funds those three funds I just
spoke to you about those riding across to the far right is 397.8 million dollars in fund balance
revenues of 1.18 billion dollars expenditures of 1.2 billion dollars there's those transfers out
of two and a half million dollars and we would use about 18 million dollars of fund balance again six
and a half of that in the food service fund or the special revenue fund we really do need to spend
end, but we would end the year with a healthy fund balance, assuming everything goes as budgeted.
This is the rate, this is the budget by function. Again, the vast majority of that you've seen in
the graphs has been directly in the classroom. We're done through the budget timeline. I'll tell
you moving forward, we're going to closely monitor the budget expenditures. Unfortunately, there are
our trucks for fleet and some new officers on vehicles that were ordered this time last year
they're not in yet and that will they come in between now and august 31st i don't know
somehow i doubt it but they're not in next year's budget we will amend next year's budget for items
like that i think this time last year the one i specifically pointed out were banned uniforms on
a replacement cycle that we said would we ordered them nine months earlier and those weren't in and
those came in in October. We have several items that are related to the supply chain that we will
likely amend the budget in the next couple, three months for stuff that we attempted to buy this
year. The good news is that'll be in fund balance, and we have had underspending in addition, and Mr.
Hines will talk to you about that on the final amended budget as well. We're going to prepare
for growth. We're continuing to grow. We're going to have to staff for new campuses and all the
staffing etc that happens over the year we're going to open two campuses this
time next year and they'll be part of this next this budget we're adopting so
that's in this budget the startup cost or the cost through in August for
elementary 45 and 46 enrollment growth drives everything basic allotment the
fixed yields those yields that have been static for four years now enrollment
Enrollment growth drives it.
We do have a bigger budget because we have more enrollment, period.
And enrollment growth drives that.
Property value growth doesn't mean much on the general fund.
We did have a, what did I say, a 14% increase in our property values.
That's offset by and large by the state when it comes to the general fund.
That does help our debt service fund.
Economic uncertainty.
uncertainty. During the break there, I saw this slide again and I kicked myself for not saying
the legislative session right here. That's as uncertain as our economy, the legislature.
going to meet in january and they control everything with that with state funding laws
they're going to ones are the ones that control the basic allotment and the tier 2 yields
and everything else so we'll be keeping an a a a a a eye on that the budget is likely to be amended
as i mentioned several times our values we still don't have certified values from one of our
counties we expect to get those in the next couple of weeks but and just like
last year from the time we budgeted and through now our values kind of tail off
as appraisals I guess appraisal review boards etc happen and lawsuits homestead
filings etc kind of tail off and take we will lose a little bit of value over the
course of the year and we'll amend as necessary on that timing amendments I've
I've already mentioned that.
And if a VAPRE is called and passes, both revenue and expenditures will be amended to reflect those additional revenues and expenditures.
With that, I'll just say that I want to appreciate Sherry Butterfield and Jamie Hines.
Sherry has her arms wrapped tight around this budget, and it's not in better hands than her.
This is – I feel real good.
I'm able to sleep at night because of the way she handles that.
And, of course, all the principals and administrators and the board and the superintendent and the cabinet have worked real hard on this.
It's not been easy because, you know, we are limited with what we can do and with the supply chain issues
and especially with the enormous pressure from inflation that we're under.
And we were able to do it and put it together.
and it's before you tonight and Ms. Butterfield's going to come up here and whatever item that is
and ask you to adopt the budget before August 31st.
And I'll be glad to answer any questions if you have any.
Are there any questions?
Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
We see revenues going up $32 million in spite of losing about $14 million from the state.
can you kind of walk us through that what's driving those two numbers on the
I'm sorry the the revenue increase and then you have the decrease in revenue
from the state of like 14 million as I believe well our property values
increased 14% our number of students increased by 4% so both of those are the
the number of students makes our overall amount of money that's available to the
district more when our values increase faster than that rate then the state
funding decreases at the same rate so that's that's why the you see the
increase in property taxes and the decrease in state funds included in that
state funds are included in both of those numbers that you see it that level
level tonight is other local revenues like gate receipts, interest income, etc.
When you're looking at the local and then state revenue, a large portion of that is TRS on behalf.
And so TRS on behalf and TRS stat minimum and some of those TRSs are also included in that state number
that are not offset by local property value increases.
So we're funding more of the basic allotment, basically?
Yes, sir.
Our share?
Yes, sir. If you'll remember that jar that I used a few months ago, the water level is higher because of our appraised values increasing, and our taxpayers will pay more towards educating the students of our district, and the state will pay less because of the way the funding formulas are set up. Yes, sir.
Any other questions?
COMMISSIONER MAYOVSKY- On the fund balance, just another question on that, if I could.
On the fund balance, which we saw earlier from the efficiency audit, it talked about
the unassigned fund balance and the ratio of other peers and so on.
So we have, we're projected $313 million, which is about over four months, and then
with our deficit that we're projecting without the TRE, to go to the fund balance to go to
to 301 million, that's 3.8 months, or about 32%.
What do you think about that fund balance at the end of 23 without a TRE?
Well, I've said from this position before,
if right now the total fund balance, now the efficiency audit,
the legislative budget board requires them to use the unreserved fund balance
or the fund balance that's not spoken for,
but our total fund balance is about 38%,
and I expect that to be about 35% when we're going to add to fund balance this year,
but I expect it to be about 35% when it's all said and done,
when you get your audit in August, I mean in January.
Yes, it's going to dip down to about 32%.
You're correct.
We really can't let it go below 25%, but we've got a long ways to go.
And so I've stood here before and said if that line stayed somewhere between 35 and 30 percent between now and the time I retire, I will be a very happy person.
I'm not going to say that that's – but we're not building that fund balance percentage up and making it easier for me to sleep at night.
But we're not using it, and we're going to keep it for a rainy day.
And that's what it's really for is what happens if we get caught with our feet flat and something happens and we need that fund balance.
i.e. Hurricane Harvey is a perfect example.
Hurricane, or the storm Uri was another example.
COVID could have been.
State of Texas helped us out on COVID.
So anything over 30%, I'm happy, but we need to be over 25%.
It doesn't need to grow to 40%.
Yeah, I'd like it, but that means money's not working for kids,
and that's not good.
We need to have the money working for our students.
Something that caught my eye a little bit was in the efficiency audit,
in the actual report, the draft, I guess.
Yes, sir.
You made a comment that we need further cost reductions slash efficiencies
to achieve a balanced budget in 2024.
And that was even, I think they were assuming even with the TRE.
So depending on obviously how that, if we do the TRE and how we spend it,
you would think that the TRE at the level it's proposed,
we would still have, you know, we would pick up, you know,
$15 million at the end of 23 as far as plus,
because we're at negative 12 right now, right?
And then I guess they're saying that we would wipe that out
over the course of 23, 24,
unless there are additional cost reductions or efficiencies
or what have you.
The administration will continue to work on that.
As I said a month or two ago, I'm not sure when I said it,
but I'm not losing sleep over this deficit.
This deficit I don't like, but the deficit is there
because the school board did their courageous thing
and probably did more in salary increases
because of the record inflation that's happening all across the state.
Our staff needed it, and that's what put us in that position.
I think that was the right thing to do.
I don't like it, but that was the right thing to do.
And I'm not going to lose sleep over that.
I think things will work out.
We underspend our budget.
Our enrollment so far, Mr. Hines, is looking okay,
meaning that I think we're going to be darn close to the projections that we had for this year.
And we'll have some property value audits that will happen.
I don't know how to budget for those because I don't know how much they'll help us.
But I really do think that this time next year as we wind up, it won't be catastrophic.
I really don't.
And we have a level of fund balance to get us through this inflationary hit that we're being, all the school districts are having to face because of static or stagnant revenues.
That's good to hear.
I guess however if we're talking about the TRE also talking about the budget
or TRE is coming up okay
mr. president yes I just have a one question but I also want to tell you mr.
Smith I really kind of enjoy your presentation and I really appreciate
your pictures and your you're not talking in a monotone voice and all that
like some some accountants do but anyway i really appreciate that um well thank you did y'all hear
that everybody yeah so you you kind of keep it interesting a little bit but um anyway but my one
question is i remember when um i met with you when i was first elected i thought that you told me
something and this is from a while ago now so maybe i could be wrong are we required to keep
a three-month surplus? Yes. Yes, so can you explain that because I don't think
everybody understands that. Okay, we have we have about three and a half months or
four months right now. If we did that fund balance drops below 25 percent, 25
percent is three months of 12 and if it drops below that then that gets us in
trouble with the rating agencies uh it may not get us uh there is no law that states you can't drop
below three percent or 25 but you it's not good from a rating standpoint it's not good for school
first uh etc and it's not good for if you have a rainy day and you need cash uh you have it's not
there we have as the final amended budget shows tonight a 313 million dollar fund balance hey
Hey, that's a lot of money, but that's only three and a half months of this operation.
This is a big operation and a very big operation.
And so, yes, it looks like a lot of money.
It looks like money that, man, why don't we just spend some of that?
Well, we can't spend some of that because just like somebody wouldn't go spend their life savings
or a large portion of their three months in their household on a vacation,
If you spent half of it on a vacation, whoops, it's gone.
It's gone forever.
And then if something happens and you have a house incident with a flood or a fire,
you've spent it because on something that,
and you can't spend it on something that's recurring or it'll go quick.
And so, yes, $313 million is a lot of money, but it's three and a half months,
and it needs to be more than three months, period.
For the rating.
So I just want to clarify, it's not just we're just doing this for fun.
It's sort of a requirement, not a law, but to maintain our good standing and everything.
Yes.
Schools First does look at our fund balance, and we'll go over that in October.
It looks at our fund balance.
But that's the first question that happens on ratings calls with Moody's and Standard & Poor's is tell us about your fund balance.
What's your fund balance is doing?
And they look at that because that shows the basic trajection of where the districts go headed financially.
If there's continual uses, that's not good.
If there's continual gains, that may be good financially, but that means money's not working for children.
Any other questions?
I just had, since you mentioned the ratings, Mr. Smith, we do have the debt service fund.
that looks like you try to maintain around 60 million.
Does that come into play with the rating agencies as well?
Like, is there some sort of rule of thumb that you're using there?
Because it looks like you're paying down debt,
but just enough to still maintain that 60 million balance.
Yes, sir.
We have a healthy fund balance in our debt service.
Yes, sir, we are going to use about $2.5 million, I believe it is, this year
because of those refunds on the INS side.
That's a healthy fund balance.
At one point we strategically had that fund balance healthy because of one of the bond
sales we had that's been paid off, it's no longer there.
And so we've mentioned fund balances as a tool that we have in a toolkit to maintain
that 39 cent tax rate if we have a hit in values or if we refund a record number of
debt service taxes we have that fund balance there to lean on without having
to increase that rate because obviously nobody wants to increase the debt
service tax rate do you anticipate the 39 cent debt service component needing
to may it stay that way as opposed to having to increase if we issue bonds
down the road or we with this fund balance and the 39 cents should that
that take care of us for any future growth as far as like facilities?
My recommendation would be to leave that tax rate at 39 cents,
even if we have gangbuster value growth,
because that value growth is what's driving our need to sell bonds.
And when we have that growth, we're paying off bonds sooner.
So we could lower the tax rate and borrow money for a longer period of time.
Six one-half dozen the other.
I get that there's an argument to be said on both sides.
My thoughts would be let's pay off bonds if we can as aggressively as we can with that 39 cents.
Plus, as long as we're going to be continuing to grow, we're going to have to go to the voters.
And at 39 cents, if you drop it, you potentially have to raise it back up for future bond authorizations.
Thank you.
Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it.
8.3 Receive public input regarding the 2022-2023 Proposed Budget and Tax Rate
We'll now move on to the public hearing part of the session.
Most of the speakers were accelerated on to the first part.
I think we have one speaker left, which is Regina Johnson.
Agenda item 8.3.
This is on behalf of a community member who couldn't make it tonight,
so they asked me to make their statement,
and I got permission from legal counsel, Mr. Christensen.
Okay, I have lived in this district for roughly 17 years.
I'm a parent, volunteer, and a former KDISD employee.
I used to have an extreme level of pride when it came to KDISD.
We were lucky enough to be able to raise our family here over the last few years.
That's changed.
People have gone.
People that we gave our voice to through the Board of Trustees elections choose not to represent us.
They do not stand up for us.
They took our voices and did nothing.
Our superintendent prefers to allow woke culture, representations of a small percentage of our population
to have their wants catered to while leaving the majority with nothing.
We have principles that allow teachers to violate civil liberties of students
in the name of fairness.
We have teachers that prefer to ignore state laws
and teach according to their own agendas.
That was not supposed to be taught.
As parents, we are left answering lots of questions
that a student shouldn't have to ask.
I can go on to what else she says.
key points is basically why ask task taxpayers why should we allow you to
keep receiving more money when continuation of stuff like this
continues so that's that person's comment I'm gonna make my own after the
presentation it's a great place to see that that we're carrying a projected 32
32% buffer in our budget, just in case for the rainy day fund of three months to cover
the school district.
But my question or comment to you guys is it would be really awesome to see some cost
reduction in efficiencies before you come to taxpayers and ask for more money, before
you have to tap into your 32% projection.
Be nice to see stuff like that.
It would be nice to see some cost efficiencies and some reviews on processes that already
it exists like this library process that was presented tonight so i'd ask for you guys to
do that first before you come to us and ask for more money thanks thank you well now to move on
9.1 Discuss and consider Board approval of the June 2022 Financial Reports.
to agenda item 9.1 which is to discuss and consider board approval of the june 2022 financial reports
presenters mr jamie hines executive director of finance good evening
Good evening. President Schulte, Superintendent Gorgorski, and the trustees.
Yes, ma'am. Is that better? Better? Okay. All right. So tonight we're going to present our
financial reports as we do each month. This is going to be through the month of June,
which is 83% of this year's fiscal year.
We're also going to show the,
or you've also got in front of you the construction report,
the tax report, and a copy of our check registers
for the month of June.
I'm going to talk about, you know,
as we go on through the night in just a moment,
underspending, and I'm going to bring that up
within our general fund.
And we've seen the same thing through June
and through this financial statement.
Again, this financial statement is an analysis of our expenditures by function and by object through the month of May through 83% of this fiscal year.
The other thing that's really impacted us through June and also through the end of the budget year that we'll talk about in a moment is our tax refunds, our prior year tax refunds and protests.
And that's had an impact on us because the counties took a long time to get to those cases.
And so now this year, instead of us getting tax revenue each month, we're actually having to go back and refund the counties for those cases that they've had to pay back because of protests that have been won.
So does anyone, before we move on from this item, does anyone have any other questions about the financial reports for this month?
Mr. President.
Mr. Hines, forgive me if this answer is going to be yes.
The construction report, you don't need to turn to it.
You'll know this answer.
This one that talks about each one of these authorizations, is this here every single time?
Yes, ma'am.
So we see it every month?
Yes, ma'am.
That's there every month.
Thank you.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the June 2022 financial reports.
Second.
We have a motion by Mr. Redman, a second by Ms. Fox.
We'll now proceed to vote.
All those, what's the new word?
Record your vote on the screen via your keypad.
The motion passes 7-0.
9.2 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposed 2021-2022 final amended budget.
Now I'll proceed to agenda item 9.2, discuss and consider board approval of the proposed 2021-2022 final amended budget.
All right.
First, before I get started, I just want to introduce Mrs. Kayla Smith.
She's back there, and she's our director of accounting.
And along with Mrs. Butterfield, Mrs. Smith's team have been integral in doing the lion's share of the work
that goes into all of our budget amendments throughout the year,
as well as this final amended budget that I'm about to talk about.
I just want to make sure that we call her out, and then if there are any questions I can't answer, I'm sure she can.
The number one thing that we have to do from a governmental accounting standpoint with a final amended budget is we have to make sure that we don't exceed the budget within any functional category.
And you've probably heard blowing a function, but we are not allowed, or at least we would get deemed on audits, sort of like if we were to go below our fund balance of 25%.
That would be a problem for us.
So we have to make sure that we never, ever exceed any of those functional categories.
And so we've made sure, we've met with departments and we've done the analysis and made sure that we've got these functions throughout here with enough padding to get us through the next few weeks, essentially, to get us through the end of this fiscal year.
So you'll see that after the year end is over, the excess deficiency of revenues, and that's really the first number I want to go to.
that 5.3 million at the bottom of this report that excess of revenues is going to go up it's
going to go in favor of the district a little bit so what that's going to do is the 313 million that
mr smith brought up earlier that's going to go up a little bit by by a few million dollars that's
going to go up right now that's it just under 35 percent of our overall expenditures you're going
to see that at the end it's going to be right at 35 percent we're not talking about percentages
To give you an idea of where we're at also with this budgeted fund balance, as compared to last year, the budget, our audited budget at the end of the year, we were at 37% of our expenditures.
And this year we're probably going to end up right at 35 or 35.1 or somewhere in there.
So that's kind of where things are at with that.
Again, going back to what's impacted the budget this year, underspending, we've seen it over and over, but kind of the antithesis of that is the reduced revenue that we've gotten from our tax refunds.
And so, you know, you've got one fighting the other. And if you go to the bottom of the debt service fund and see that $59 million, right above that, we've got a deficiency of revenues. And that $3.4 million deficiency is directly attributable to the fact that our property tax revenue has gone down. And we've seen that and noticed it, and especially in these last few months.
Again, Mr. Smith noted that we will eventually be able to recover a lot of that through our property audits.
We don't know exactly how much, but most of that will come back through property audits.
But for this budget, that's what's causing that.
Again, with the general fund, as those revenues go down from the taxes, then we get a little bit of additional revenue.
So that balances out in the GOF.
So that's why you don't see the same thing in the GOF excess.
Yes.
Okay.
I've also got five budget amendments for this.
Construction funds are being amended by $1.5 million for high school number 10 for kitchen equipment previously presented and budgeted in food service and is available within 2017 bond project savings.
The budget for chillers at Sundown and Stanley Elementary are being amended by $61,068 and $20,995, respectively, as approved by the Board of Trustees in July and is available within the remaining 2021 bond project savings.
The capital projects fund budget is being amended to account for the proceeds of the expected sale of property as approved by the board in May and to allocate funding from those proceeds for the classroom addition at Schmaltz Elementary as approved by the board in July and for synthetic turf replacement at Tompkins High School, resulting in no change to the construction fund balance.
That's all I've got for the final amended budget. Can I answer any questions?
Any questions, board members?
So we would expect to start the year about 315 in fund balance, something like that?
If I were to make an educated guess, I would say it's going to be a little bit more than
that, probably somewhere between.
I couldn't say, but a little more than that.
It's hard to say, but I expect it to be a little bit better than what you're seeing in the final minutes since it will underspend.
We don't know what's going to land over the next several weeks.
Gotcha.
Okay.
Mr. President.
Yes.
Mr. Huns, my question is about the money from 2017 bond project savings for kitchen equipment.
When we have an, I don't know what the word is, when we have a large fund balance in services, why don't we use that money instead?
Mr. Verling may need to bail me out on this, but what it is is we had hoped to build the new high school and use food service funds for that.
And that was our original plan, but the Texas Department of Agriculture turned that expense down because it's a new campus.
And even with the inflation, what we were having at the time, they would not allow us to use that new campus because of construction or bond funds.
And so that was mixed.
You did a great job, Chris.
The Texas Department of Agriculture is very difficult in terms of how to spend that money.
It's kind of like if you get a gift card to someplace you don't want.
You've got a bunch of money, but you can't spend it.
And so we've worked really closely with financial services and construction and M&O to really get that money spent down and find some projects that are going to be good for schools and kids and help us out a little bit on these bond projects, but very difficult to do.
So it cannot be used for new construction, but you'll find other places where, because it can't be used for anything.
It must be used for other food service projects.
Yes, ma'am.
The equipment piece is really easy in terms of what you can buy.
They don't like it when you start moving walls and things like that with that money you have to get approval and it's very difficult
Cumbersome and what complicates it even more which is what mr. Smith was saying earlier
You can't just go out and buy kitchen equipment like you could two years ago
There's a wait time that's months and months and months if not years which complicates that whole piece
At least this question was on target of me remembering about that fund balance and not embarrassing like the last question
nice response of not looking at your construction cost every single month i apologize okay are there
any questions if not i'll entertain a motion mr president yes i'm moving the board of trustees
approves of those 2021 2022 final amended budget second we have a motion by ms vann second by miss
wilson will now proceed to vote please record your vote on the screen via your keypad
motion passes 7-0 now discuss and consider 9.3 discussing the consider board approval of a
9.3 Discuss and consider Board approval of a resolution to commit and assign fund balance.
resolution to commit and assign fund balance okay the the Gatsby the governmental accounting
standards board adopted a new statements they create rules and it was statement number 54
for. They adopted it in 2010 and then right after that, TEA brought that in as a requirement that we
have to do. And it requires us as a district to adopt a resolution to commit a portion of our
general unassigned fund balance and to delegate the responsibility of assigning its fund balance
to the superintendent or his designee. This resolution presented tonight comes with 5.5
million of fund balance designated to contributions to the district's health plan, as well as 10
million of the fund balance for unanticipated expenditures and or revenue loss
are there any questions i just have a clarification so the five and a half million for
example for the health plan is that the amount we're actually needing to contribute to the health
plan for the for the year so as far as what's needed for the health plan for the year that
would actually probably come later on in the evening but what we've done and this is this
This is above and beyond the general fund.
This is so that we can assign additional, designate portions of our unassigned fund balance.
So that $313 million throughout this next year, we can just go ahead and ear tag it and say if we had to hit our entire fund balance, these items would have this much.
With a district with a $300 million fund balance, this isn't something that is really going to have a big impact.
but from an accounting standpoint, we know immediately, and it shows where our priorities are at,
where we're going to probably have to use that fund balance if we have to go into it.
As Mr. Smith has said, we will have the intention of going possibly.
in into fund balances next year but um this is above and beyond that budget and the 10 million
is just for unknowns is you know over the last several years we've had harvey we've had covid
we did not feel like it was a good idea to not have something assigned to
unanticipated expenditures because we've every year seen something happen we want to make sure
that we're at least prioritizing those money so they're in the right place if we need them
Mr. Hines, so you're allocating the $10 million, but you don't have approval to spend the $10 million?
It's just allocated.
You still would have to get approval to draw that $10 million down?
Is that correct?
Well, it would be an allocated part of the fund balance that's sitting out there that is above and beyond our budget.
So whether or not it was approved, the superintendent, I believe, is being given the authority to do what is necessary.
To spend up to the $10 million?
Yes, sir.
Essentially, if we're going to spend that, we're going to have to expense it.
In order to expense it, the board will have to go through the approval process.
We'll go through the approval process, and we'll point to it and say,
remember we added $10 million of unanticipated, well, XYZ asteroid happened,
and it's going to cost us $5 million, and we're going to point at that.
Point to this budget category.
And that will come out of the fund balance.
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
If not, I'll entertain a motion.
Mr. President? Yes. I move that the Board of Trustees approves the resolution to commit and assign fund balance. Second.
I have a motion by Ms. Champagne and a second by Ms. Vann. We'll now proceed to vote. Board members, please record your vote on the screen via your keypad.
The motion passes 7-0.
9.4 Discuss and consider Board approval of the 2022-2023 State Compensatory Education funding and other End-of-Course Assessment funding budget, as required by House Bill 5.
9.4, discuss and consider Board approval of the 2022-2023 State Compensatory. I didn't say that right, but thank you. Compensatory.
and other end-of-course assessment funding budget as required by House Bill 5.
Ms. Sherry Butterfield, Director of Budget and Treasury, and Mr. Smith.
Thank you, President Schulte, Trustees, Superintendent Grigorski.
Item 9.4 is the end-of-course assessment funding as required by House Bill 5.
We've had this for several years now.
The district identifies a special project budget of $120,000 called student intervention.
This is included in the 22-23 proposed budget that you'll see in item 9.6.
And this budget is distributed by school leadership area assistant superintendents during the second semester to campuses that are in need of additional tutorials.
So this agenda item basically documents the district's compliance with the requirement to budget funds for accelerated instruction related to satisfactory performance on end-of-course assessments.
as required for graduation.
Thank you, trustees.
Are there any questions?
I have one question, Mr. President.
I want to make sure I'm understanding this.
So is this money that essentially we're setting aside
to pay for the overtime of the teachers
who are providing that,
or are we actually hiring tutors so that I understand?
We call it tutorials.
Tutorials, predominantly it's extra duty pay rather than a contracted service, yes.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Mr. President?
I move that the Board of Trustees approve the 2022-2023 State Consensory Education Funding
and other end-of-course assessment funding budget as required by House Bill 5.
Second.
We have a motion by Mrs. Champagne, a second by Mrs. Fox.
We'll now proceed to vote.
Board members, please record your vote on the screen via your keypad.
The motion passes 7-0.
9.5 Discuss and consider Board adoption of the 2022-2023 Maintenance and Operations Tax Rate and the 2022-2023 Debt Service Tax Rate
Now we'll move to agenda item 9.5, discuss and consider board adoption of the 2022-2023 maintenance and operations tax rate and the 2022-2023 debt service tax rate.
Mr. Smith.
All right.
Well, in front of you is what I call the allocation of our tax rate,
and I mentioned this during a budget presentation,
and that top line, the compressed rate, has been set by TEA, published by TEA,
and I said earlier around 600 districts in addition to us hit that floor at 80.46.
That is a 4.69 cent reduction in the compressed rate.
That is thankful from House Bill 3.
It goes back to House Bill 3 when they established the basic allotment and those other Tier 2 yields,
but that is purposefully being pushed down statewide.
statewide that's four point six nine cent reduction that plus our two are
eleven point zero two enrichment pennies those are available to all districts
anywhere between five cents and seventeen cents those in rich which
pennies added together eight which you see there is gold is the maximum you can
get in gold and nine copper pennies are the total copper pennies that can be
be obtained. That shows the total M&O tax rate maintenance operations of 9148 and total tax rate
of when you add the 39 cent debt to of $1.30.48 or a 21 cent reduction. Should you, that's without a
VATRE, should we decide to as a board to just to keep that tax rate the same as it was in 21-22?
It would essentially just shift those compressed 4.69 cent savings in compressed over to copper pennies, making our enriched tax rate go from 11.02 to 15.71.
Again, that would, total tax rate would be the same at $1.3517, and those additional
copper pennies would generate about $23 million in taxes and about $1.9 million in additional
state funds to the district.
Again, that was not considered in the budget presentation that you saw tonight or on the
the budget that is going to be proposed to be adopted.
We've recommended, or I've recommended, the projected tax rate that you see here.
That does include those enrichment pennies.
Going back to the conversation that this board had back in the spring sometime, where we
talked about wanting to be the highest teacher in the area.
area. In order to do that, the only thing that we can do to control our revenue is this right here.
And that's the only mechanism that we can really do to control revenue. We can
give Ms. Butterfield a big encouragement and she can probably get some more yield on some of our
investments, but that's not going to make a little pea-sized dent in what we need in times of
of inflation that we're in in order to affect this budget.
And this is our only tool that we
can do to control our revenue.
OK, I just have one point of clarification
for all the trustees, because this was confusing to me
when I was approving the agenda.
The agenda item here, the way it works,
and I think it's the statutes, is
we have to approve the tax rate.
And then we have to approve to do the TRE.
So in this case, if we chose not to do the tax rate increase
or maintain, sustain, then we just skip over the agenda and add the TRE.
But we have to, if we're going to increase the tax rate or sustain it,
which means we're going to do the TRE, we have to approve that here,
and then we have to do an administrative vote just to say we've already approved
to go forward with the increased tax rate.
Now we've got to do a second vote to do the TRE.
So the discussion and the decision on to do or not to do the TRE really needs to occur here.
there's an agenda item two down which is really just an administrative if we
agree here to do the TRE we've got to check the box that says we agreed to do
it but if we agree not to do it then we're done
does anybody is that clear okay so so now we can entertain discussion or
motion on the on the TRE and we've talked about this a long time but any
questions or comments now would be the time anybody I guess I'll start it out
Mr. President, so as I look at, I guess, you know, there's no, I think nobody wants to increase taxes on people,
especially right now when we have a high inflation rate, we're in a recession, et cetera.
And as it is, I think we discussed that regardless of the TRE taxes on about $320,000,
I think that's the average home in Katy that was arrived at for valuation purposes.
Yes, sir.
Regardless of the TRE taxes on that home, we're going to go up by somewhere around $375 a year.
And then we're saying that the TRE adds about $150 on top of that.
So for a total of like $527 a year on an average home in Katy per the valuation.
So I bring that out.
So additionally, we have a fund balance that's called $315 million,
and we have a $12 million deficit.
But I think I've heard say that we're going to be able to make up that deficit,
if you will, throughout the year of 2022-2023.
So therefore, it's likely we'll end up with roughly the same fund balance
at the end of 2023 as what we have right now
because we're making up that deficit now obviously we've got to give raises
as well in the coming year so you know I guess what I'm what I'm sort of throwing
out or asking is the necessity and maybe we could talk about that necessity for
doing the TRE now when we have this you know healthy fund balance and we think
we can make up the deficit through other means in terms of just looking at our
numbers and and basically under spending or finding ways to you know reduce the
deficit so i just throw that out there as uh as an overall comment overall question um
and that is you know uh is it necessary that we do it now and the pros and cons
anybody mr president yeah so when we go back to our original uh strategic design this past year
Right as a board, one of the things we said was we wanted to value teachers.
We saw some changes in teacher retention.
And so the TRE was really birthed on the fact that we wanted to move to being at the top of the pay rate in the area, not to make up for the deficit.
Obviously, we had no clue that we were going to get to this point where the budget is today.
day. And so the TRE was, the conversation was started long before next year's budget was even
put out for the conversation. So I would, I would say the TRE is to make up for a deficit
would probably a misunderstanding that some people may have had. We haven't had a chance
to communicate that. The TRE is there so that we can increase our employees' salaries.
salaries. As we've said throughout throughout this board.
The thing that makes Katie I see specials are people.
And so that the T. R. E. right we've dropped 16.49 cents over the past 3 years.
Most likely that will continue after the next year so if we stayed at that this year.
So that we can put that in our employees.
not pockets, but put it in their pockets to make a significant difference,
it allows us to stay ahead.
So we made some headway this year in the market.
We moved to be above the market median.
Well, this would be almost a permanent increase that other districts would have to go do a TRE,
which there are many.
I was trying to find the number just a little bit ago.
go how many other districts have been put in this position because our
legislature hasn't acted since 2019 so what we're having to do as a local
community is to step up where our state legislature has moved slowly is that
nice way to say it thank you is where they have not moved and they may
possibly move in May but then every district will be in that same position
again that we're not moving and staying ahead we're just playing catch-up at
that point so that makes sense I would say that the TRE is not to catch up for
a budget deficit it's to put us ahead and give us the ability to invest in our
and our staff in a way that we haven't been able to and there's not a lever we
can pull other other than this and and I agree 100% with that in terms of like we
we want to have the dry powder, that's a good thing,
to have the dry powder to be able to,
not just the raise that we gave this year,
but also to be able to afford that, if you will,
in future years.
And not be getting behind, behind, behind.
So, but obviously the TRE first came to light,
I know that you were talking about it in the strategic plan
to accomplish what you just mentioned,
but it came to light very specifically when we approved the last pay raises
and we incurred the $12 million deficit.
And so that's when we brought up the TRE as a way to kind of like cover that deficit.
But I agree.
And then I'm hearing the $12 million can be covered without any particular issues.
We're confident of that.
But that the TRE is really that we need to have the flexibility to take care of our teachers.
You know, I would like to, and it doesn't say it, I think, in the use of funds, but,
you know, we haven't said anything about safety and security.
I want to make sure also that if we were to do the TRE that we make sure that we have
ample funds so that if we need anything for safety and security, I know we spent a lot
of money on safety and security, equipment, training, protocols, systems, et cetera, but
But if we need any additional staff to make sure that everything is good as far as safety and security in our schools,
that we take care of it with the TRE.
Because I think safety and security and the teachers are the biggest issues,
the biggest factors that we could really go to the voters for, I think, in terms of a TRE.
To ask them to pony up, to make sure that we're in good shape,
not just looking at this year, but in the future years,
in terms of taking care of our teachers
and make sure that we have safe schools.
I just wanna highlight that.
I think we've all talked about this,
that we have till November, if it's approved,
first we gotta decide if we're gonna do it,
and it has to get approved, right?
Those are two big yes, but if it gets approved,
we can decide between now and November.
I think we need to do some, I call it a deep dive,
on how we're going to spend that money,
and I think we should get really creative,
and we should challenge ourself,
where's it gonna create the most value?
We just had that big safety and security workshop with the board
There's some opportunities there that I think have been brought up
There's a lot of things that we can do and I think if we decide to go with the TRE
We should really spend some time really putting a lot of thought into what's the best way to use this money to create the most
Value for you know our number one resource, which is the people that make all this happen, so
It's president. Yeah, thank you for that. We are asking the voters to if we go ahead with it
we are asking the voters of course to
have that confidence, if you will,
about how we're going to spend the money,
how we're going to use it as well,
because we're saying staff and growth, et cetera,
it seems to be, to me, sort of open.
And I know we're not going to prove today
who gets what raise or what exactly we do with the money.
Maybe we don't do anything with it initially this year,
but it's something that we need to have
to make sure that we can take care of our staff
and our teachers over the next year or two.
and also have a strong fund balance.
So to me, that would be the motivator.
It wouldn't be, you know, in other words, safety and security
and take care of our teachers.
To me, that's the driver.
Yes.
Mr. President.
Yes.
I would just like to echo what Mr. Redmond said.
Mr. President, we're really glad you're on our board,
but we've been talking about a TRE for a long time,
about how can we how can we pay our hard-working people more when in a
normal budget there's two or three percent and as this year we we used
savings our fund balance to give our teachers five percent because of the
inflation but we need to be able to pay them more and this money will go for
people and it won't it won't be a blank check to do whatever we want and that's
coming up in a future action item that we have here but i just want people to know that should
we choose to do to to call for an election for a tre that this money is for our people
and i agree with you about safety and security that is a very number one focus that we have that
the state of texas has on keeping our children safe and that comes in the form of of armed people
that can take care and make sure our schools are safe.
So I just wanted to confirm what Mr. Redmond said,
that we've been talking about it for a while as an option
because other school districts have been doing it.
And, you know, we really want to pay.
And when I say teachers, I mean our educators,
our educator professionals, our hourly employees,
our support people, the ones who make sure that students learn
learn and are prepared for their future.
So forgive me if I say teacher,
I don't just mean a teacher,
but certainly they are a big focus, right?
But so I just wanted to confirm
that that's been something that I have cared about.
I've had conversations with the superintendent about it
and something I've been considering.
And I know our board has been talking about it
during strategic design and all those things.
So it's been on our radar for a while.
and my view is we ask the people to tell us what they want. We work for the people. They're our boss.
And we ask the people, what kind of community do you want? What kind of school district do you want?
Here is your choice in the ballot box to tell us what do you want us to do,
and that's what I believe this TRE is about, asking our community.
what kind of school district they want.
Mr. President?
Yes.
Yeah, Ms. Wilson.
Thank you.
So I think I'm going to probably play off of a couple of people up here as well,
but I think it's probably time at least I get there and I say this.
To me, this just isn't about paying our educators for retention
and attracting new educators.
This is truly about paying our educators and our employees
what they deserve to be paid.
because we're not getting that help from the state.
And they deserve it because of what they do day in and day out for our students.
We have had robust conversations for a couple of years about moving with a TRE,
learning about a TRE, and I think sustaining our teaching capabilities,
our schools, our extracurricular activities, all of the other different programs we provide,
provide CTE, our ROTC programs. It isn't just about paying that. It's about being able to sustain everything else we do while doing that. And I think that's so important because it's so much more. And I think it's just time for us to absolutely put it in the voters' hands. We represent all of those people. And I don't have the right to make that decision for everybody. But they have the right to tell me to do that. So thank you.
Thank you.
But I think if I, Mr. President.
Would you be recognized please?
Thank you, Mr. President.
Yeah.
And does anybody else?
I think you were next.
Yes.
Go ahead.
Mr. President, I have two questions and then I want to make a statement if that's okay.
The first question is, so this does not approve in November.
I know this seems obvious, but I just wanted to say this.
The tax rate would be .9148.
Okay.
Okay. And the second question I have is, is this TRE a permanent thing?
So every year it would be this unless we decided to...
Well, you keep the pennies until you decide to give them back.
The board could decide.
Let's just say the basic allotment went up to $8,000 per student or something.
You know, that's a crazy scenario.
But if that happened, we could decide, hey, we don't need these pennies anymore.
Maybe we could give them back, right?
Once you give them back, you can't take them back.
you can keep them or you can give them back yes sir that's correct and you can
see the history there that eleven point zero two cents has been there for a
while it would stay that at fifteen point seven one until legislature
changed it by compressing it that amount but we'd still keep the money or the
board wanted to give it back but you would only get it back through an
election or you'd only be able to get it back after another election get it back
Yes, sir.
That was well said, Mr. Schulte.
That really wasn't my question.
I meant was the tax rate going to be the same every year?
So there's a point for it?
Yeah, I think that's what you're saying.
Okay, okay.
It is unless you change it.
All right.
Okay, so now let me just say, give my statement about this.
I agree with many people here that have already said this,
that I believe that the people should have the right to vote for this.
But my vote on whether to allow this or not is not a reflection of how, you know, Mrs.
Wilson even addressed this too, of how it's going to be spent.
I just think that I really want to make sure that some people that, especially, you know,
some of the people who keep talking to us are brought up to the standard of pay that
I feel like they deserve.
deserve. Certain isolated people like ICs and librarians, it's just my opinion, should be,
you know, paid maybe a little bit more, and I feel like the principals and below should get the raise
and maybe not the people at the top that are already above the market, and that's all I wanted
to say. Oh, and I just wanted to also thank Mr. Schulte, President Schulte, for pushing this so
so hard this year and as you know, this is something that I've been wanting also and
so I'm really grateful to you because I've been trying and trying since 2018.
So I'm really, really grateful to you as president pushing this forward.
I think it's very important.
Thank you.
That's it.
Yes.
Thank you.
No, I just want to emphasize, I wasn't on the board but again, I can question the TRE
even though you've been talking about it for a while.
I guess I just want to emphasize to me the driver
is to take care of the educators in the classroom
where they be support staff, teachers, et cetera,
that are making a difference for the kids.
And also safety and security.
And I echo kind of what you're saying, Ms. Champagne,
in that I don't get motivated to ask people
to pay more taxes in order to pay across the board
pay increases.
We need to focus on the teachers.
Across the board, pay increases to me don't work.
And we've seen, and we've been told by a couple consultants
that the top people, especially in administration,
are being paid above market.
That's not the reason why we wanna go and get a TRE.
It needs to be to focus on the teachers,
take care of the teachers,
take care of some of the hourly people,
the bus drivers, et cetera,
and provide for safety and security,
and keep a healthy fund balance.
And that's kind of, to me, the rationale would be to go ahead.
Any other comments?
Mr. President, we are not making those decisions tonight.
Those are the things we're going to be working on diligently.
That'll be the deep dive as we talk through that.
That'll be the deep dive and we've got to put a lot of thought into it.
But our community can be confident that it will be for people and not for projects.
Thank you.
Sorry, Mr. Redman?
Oh, Mr. President, I was going to simply say one of the things that changed this year when we did the 5% for the classroom and hourly employees is that moved everybody in our district up to be above the median.
So one of the reasons that was different was because there were some things we saw across the board where there were some areas that were higher.
And so we moved a group up moved groups up so that now everybody was equal at that point
So there isn't no longer is there a specific group in our district that is sitting higher than the median if I'm correct
You know that dr. Gorski I do it looked at that we bumped everybody up and so now everybody sits about that 2% above
market median I
Would have to look at the exact data
I couldn't confirm it's 2% but everyone is at the market median or higher yes
somebody else I think was gonna started to speak down here okay I'm sorry is
there any other questions I thought I'll entertain a motion mr. president I move
the board of trustees approves the property tax rate be increased by the
adoption of a tax rate of $1.3517, which is effectively an 11.79% increase in the tax
rate, and further recommend that the Board approve the order adopting the maintenance
and operations tax rate of $0.9617 per $100 valuation, and the interest and sinking tax
tax rate of 0.3900 per $100 valuation for the tax year 2022, as reflected in the order for a decrease in the actual total tax rate of 0.000.
Second.
We had a motion by Ms. Vanna, second by Ms. Champagne.
Mr. Redman.
Mr. Redman.
We'll now proceed to vote.
Board members, please record your vote on this keypad.
The motion carries 7-0.
9.6 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposed 2022-2023 Official Budget for Katy Independent School District.
agenda item 9.6 discuss and consider board approval of the proposed 2022-2023 official
budget for kdisd independent school district mr smith and miss butterfield
so mr smith's already been through this but quickly i'll run through the highlights of the
2223 proposed budget the general operating fund uses 11.9 million of fund balance for the 2223
proposed budget with $943 million of budgeted expenditures. The district provides for non-payroll
operating expenditures for campuses and departments. However, the majority of this
budget provides for district-wide salary and benefit for new and existing staff. Revenues are
at $934 million. Also in this proposed budget for food service is a use of $6.5 million in fund
balance with an expenditure budget of 46 million and revenues of 39.5 million in
the debt service fund budget reflects an increase to fund balance of 479 thousand
with expenditures for bond payments of 209 million and revenues of 210 million
and that's it thank you we're expecting more there's big the big finish there
any other any questions board members that'll entertain a motion
mr president yes i move that the board of trustees approves the proposed 2022-2023
official budget for kdisd second we have a motion by mr redmond a second by
mrs. champagne will now proceed to vote board members please record your vote on
the screen the motion passes 7-0 you guys can sleep well tonight now right
great work appreciate it 9.7 discuss and consider board adoption of the order
9.7 Discuss and consider Board adoption of the Order calling for a Voter Approved Tax Rate Election to be held on November 8, 2022 and authorize the Administration to provide official notice of the election as required by the Texas Election Code.
calling for voter approved tax rate election to be held on November 8th
again this is the administrative part that we have to complete so I just need
a motion unless there's further discussion mr president yes i move that the board of trustees
adopts the order calling for a voter approved tax rate election to be held on november 8 2022
and authorize the administration to provide official notice of the election as required by
the texas election code we have a motion a motion by ms wilson a second by mrs van will now vote
vote please register your votes motion carries 7-0 9.8 discuss and consider well done mr graham
that was the best presentation we've had all night
discuss and consider board approval of the 2022-2023 health care plan
9.8 Discuss and consider Board approval of the 2022-2023 Health Plan.
mr nalman risk management good evening good evening uh president schulte dr gregorski and
Board of Trustees. When the district moved to a self-funded health plan in 2004, the main objective
was to reduce the long-term impact of health care inflation while improving the quality of health
care options to its employees. Since its inception, the year-over-year average inflation rate has
ranged from four to six percent, while during the same period the national average saw trending
rates of 9 to 12 percent. At the conclusion of plan year 2021, the health plan consolidated from
four plans to three for plan year 2022. The offering was the result of a comprehensive RFP
and to achieve greater efficiency in the delivery of care.
Plan years when the collection of premiums did not keep pace with the medical trend,
the district absorbed these losses and did not plan did not pass premium increases to staff
for plan year 2022 a slight increase in premiums were implemented to the plan based on coven 19
and organic growth in the plan as a result of coven 19 related expenses plan year 2023 will
see premiums increase across choice pos2 memorial herman aco and the high deductible health plan
For participants in the Choice POS-2, premiums will increase along with deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.
Participants in the Memorial Hermann ACO and high deductible plans will see premium increases, but no changes to program design.
All three plans will see no changes in the pharmacy program.
Additionally, virtual medicine continues to be free of charge for all plan participants and their dependents.
Risk management will continue to verify dependent status for all qualifying life events for new enrollees.
Those plan members who have already been confirmed as eligible will not be required for their status to be validated during open enrollment.
The dependent verification process is designed to promote equity and fairness to all plan participants.
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the proposed plan design and premiums
for plan year 2023.
Thank you, Commissioner Nolman.
Any questions from the Board?
Mr. President?
Yes.
You noted that virtual medicine is free for our employees?
That is correct and has been for the past three years.
Yeah, for a while.
And that's through a program that the district pays for it.
Because I know, like, as a private citizen, if I do tell a doc or, you know, tell the virtual, you pay a fee.
Right.
So is that what you see that helping when our employees go to doctor's appointments and they don't pay the deductible?
It's a tremendous benefit to our employees for various reasons.
Obviously, the employee can seek care at their terminal or wherever they may be on their phone.
It keeps the employee engaged in the classroom if needed.
It provides convenience for them in terms of I can have a prescription ready for me at the end of the day.
I can go pick it up.
And as we saw in COVID, we averted a lot of primary care visits.
The average visit was a little over $350, $375.
So we have avoided lots of those costs.
And then also, too, it's the trend in medicine, and we look to expand the services in terms of diabetes management, chronic disease management platform for our staff that will enhance and hopefully the goal is to reduce our urgent care expense, our primary care expense, as well as avoiding the emergency room, the standalone emergency room cost, and also the emergency rooms at home.
hospitals. But we still, we want to encourage people if they need to go see their primary care
to do so. Right. But it's, it's, it serves such a great purpose and we've seen that year over year.
So I'm guessing it's 24-7? 24-7, 365. Okay. All right. I think that's, that's great. Thank you.
Any other questions on benefits? Mr. Press, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Dawn. Okay. So I'm just,
I'm just wondering about this.
You're also not boring, so I appreciate that.
I'm just wondering about the virtual.
I was going to piggyback off what Mrs. Vann said.
If we're saving money in that respect,
could we ever see that reflected for the employee
to have a savings on their out-of-pocket expense
for the actual plan?
For example, you know, the choice POS2 with employee plus family is $11.70 a month.
But if let's say that family historically just kept doing virtual visits,
that seems like a lot of money to pay for someone that's doing primarily virtual visits.
To answer your question, the best way is when you price a plan,
it's based on the collective experience of the plan.
So by avoiding cost for people going to these doctors, that actually reduces the cost in the actuarial underwriting of that plan.
So if we upcharge, if we didn't have virtual medicine and we didn't provide that service, people would be going to providers on a more frequent basis.
Right.
So that would drive up the cost of the plan.
So every year when we do our actuarial study, that cost would be driven up.
And so by doing so, by avoiding that cost, you're allowing to keep those costs in check and not having to increase a premium based on that extreme cost, if you will.
Okay, I appreciate what you're saying.
But, like, for example, that Choice POS2 cost that I was saying went up from last year.
But if we're doing more virtual, I don't understand why it went up.
I mean, maybe that's too complex of a thing for you to answer at this point.
Well, I will tell you this.
If you'll recall in my last presentation to you last month, PLS2 during COVID had lots of large losses.
And that's the reason we have to cover these large losses as we go forward.
I think the actual cost per member in terms of we're keeping in check by the virtual medicine.
And all those little pieces of levers that we pull, whether they be big or they be small ones, helps keep the plan in check.
And we last year ran just south of a 5% trend during COVID, which is even with our large losses.
By doing all these little things with our pharmacy, and we're not making any changes
to the pharmacy, we keep the plan cost down so we don't have to pass that inflated rate
down the road to the south.
It could go down if the virtual visits increase?
Correct.
As I alluded to just a moment ago, we're looking at different expanding those services in terms
in terms of diabetes management, chronic disease, hypertension,
and those things that we can keep employees from having to go to their doctor three or four times a year
to simply get their medicines refilled.
So all those little things add up, and if we keep the wave like this instead of the spike,
as I always talk about, the cost each year doesn't go up proportional.
Okay, Mr. President, I want to apologize. I didn't continuously ask you for permission to keep talking, but I enjoyed that. Thank you.
Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? Mr. President? Yes.
Mr. Roman, I have a question. I want to make sure I heard you correctly.
When you were talking about the, I think it was the Memorial Hermann ACO, you said that not only are they obviously seeing a dollar increase, but the deductible was also increasing for them?
The Memorial Hermann and the high deductible health plan, those program designs are not changing.
Those deductibles out of pockets are not changing.
So it was the choice that's changing.
It's the choice where program design is changing in terms of deductible and out of pocket maximum.
Any other questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion.
Mr. President?
Yes.
With regard to the choice, actually any of these that have, I'm seeing like pretty significant increases, particularly employee and spouse, like 20%, 25%.
Is that a sort of a strategic sort of pricing, if you will, in terms of shifting, you know, putting the highest increase at that level?
at that choice, if you will.
And the other thing is,
even though costs have gone up,
are we contributing more to the plan to help the employee,
or is the employee having to bear that inflation 100%?
Let me ask you to answer your two-part question.
The spousal tiers we have seen,
particularly in the PLS2s,
where a lot of our large losses occurred during COVID,
it and in years past so we need to make sure that that tier helps pay their their their their way
along because they have a very high frequency and very high severity rate in the employee and spouse
and employee spouse tiers which is tier two for all three plans and that that has been his this
is my 11th year here that has historically been the been the case so we want to make sure that
we collect as much, not as much, but a premium that is reflective of that risk, if you will.
In terms of the district paying its portion, we contribute $385 a month per employee per month
for their health care. However, in years past, when we haven't increased premiums,
the district has funded that deficit and we have not passed that expense in terms of premium increases.
There have been years where we ran a slight deficit, but the district made the conscious decision,
we're going to absorb that loss.
So really that 385 is a little bit more that employees really don't see because you don't hit them near a,
they're not hit in terms of premium increase related to inflation.
Does that make sense?
No, but the 385 remains constant?
Remains constant.
That's the district contribution that we .
Their premium went up, say, 20%, 15%, but our contribution is staying constant.
Our contribution is staying constant, but, however, the plan picks up year in, year over
deficit.
I brought to you, we had a $13.1 million deficit.
That deficit was not passed on to the plan participants, if you will.
So if you take that deficit and you pass it on, the premiums would be higher for staff.
But the district has funded that deficit.
So in essence, the $385,000 plus the deficit, the district is paying a significant amount toward their health care.
Do you know what that number is?
To give specific, the district since February has expensed $12.5 million of general fund dollars to the plan in order to keep it in cash.
And hopefully that will get it to where it will break even when the plan year is done in December.
So $12.5 million on top of the $385 per employee per month is what the general fund has kicked in.
And then also tonight, remember the transfers out?
There was a $3 million transfer out.
The general fund plans on we budgeted for the general fund to send $3 million over to the health fund.
It's done that for many years.
If the plan is performing, we'll just transfer cash.
If the plan is not performing and needs money, then we will expense that $3 million to the general fund like we did this year.
But if the plan performs and breaks even, we'll just transfer the cash.
We have to show the real expense on our expenses.
And when you get your audited numbers for the general fund, it won't be 385 times per employee per month.
It'll be that plus that $12.5 million that you'll see in January in the audit.
And then for 2023, you're anticipating a $5 million loss.
So $12 million is going down to $5 million, but it's still a loss that the district's going to have to eat.
Some way, and we'll try administratively to figure out a way to cover it.
We could go away.
But and make that go away or hopefully the plan will perform better than has these last couple of years
Mr.. President just one more thing so therefore the really what the what their employees paying plus a 385
Doesn't come close to reflecting the real cost of the of the health plan that is that is a true statement. Yes, it's great
It seems like there must be some way to kind of show that to the employee,
you know, that how much the, as opposed to just the 385,
how much the district is paying overall.
That's a lot of money.
It is.
And I would add, too, that like everything else, gas, fuel,
milk bread inflation in the health care industry is is is skyrocketing and the cost of of a health
plan is directly related to the cost of care and we try to communicate to to staff that that issue
that's that's the bottom line is every time I go to a doctor it's going to be increased to what
level i do not know and that's that's the 64 question we try to get our hands around any
other questions if not i'll entertain a motion mr president yes i move that the board of trustees
approves the 2022-2023 health plan we have a motion by mr redmond a second by mrs van
we'll now proceed to vote vote members please freeze that please record your vote
The motion passes 7-0. Agenda item 9.9 discuss to consider approval of the
9.9 Discuss and consider approval of the Voluntary Benefit Products for Plan Year 2023.
voluntary benefit product plan for 2023. Certainly. Board policy CR legal states
that a district may procure contracts with any insurance company authorized to
do business in Texas to insure its employees. Voluntary benefits made
available to district employees through payroll deductions are offered to
provide access to services that promote and enhance the health of employees and their
dependents. Additionally, the district makes available to retirees both dental and life
insurance utilizing the group size of KDISD for this select group. The benefits are presented to
the Board of Trustees on an annual basis for approval. The current offerings all accept
short-term disability, long-term disability for plan year 2023 represent no changes in design,
structure, or increase in premiums. Because of COVID-related factors, risk management felt
it important to investigate the market through an RFP for short-term and long-term disability
and create a product structure more favorable to employees than an expiring offering.
As a result of the RFP process, employees will have the option to select coverage for short-term disability, long-term disability, or both based on their needs with premiums lower than an expiring renewal.
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the voluntary benefit products for plan year 2023.
Great news. Any questions?
Mr. President?
Yes.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the voluntary benefit products for plan year 2023.
Second.
We have a motion by Mrs. Champagne and a second by Ms. Wilson.
We'll now proceed to vote.
Board members, register your vote.
Yeah, so 6-0.
Motion passes 6-0.
9.10 Discuss and consider Board adoption of Policy Update 119.
Agenda item 910, discuss and consider board adoption of policy 119 update.
Ms. Sherry Ashwarm, good evening.
Good evening.
President Schulte, board members, Dr. Grigorski, this is policy update 119.
You heard a little bit about it last month, so this is your second reading.
So the administration is asking for your approval tonight.
Are there any questions, board members?
I have a couple of questions.
I'm sure you probably expected that, Ms. Ashmore.
And I'm on the right page this time, so I really apologize about that last month.
So my question is, it's not really, oh, the FEC local.
I just wrote out my question.
So what I wrote down that it said is that the students that are in the remote learning
do not have to have a 90% attendance anymore.
Is that correct?
So that's in the legal policy.
the FEC Legal.
Is that the one you're talking about?
Oh, sorry, FEC Legal, okay.
Right, so that's just updated
from the legislative session.
So our local policy.
So that's not a change?
Correct, so that was, our FEC Local was updated
the month before in our District of Innovation package,
where we did talk about that 90% rule
as it relates to District of Innovation,
but this is just updating to the current law.
All right, and then the FM Legal,
I think that's about...
Student Activities.
student activities I'm gonna find it I'm sorry I wasn't better prepared it had to
to do with the um let me let me find it i don't i'm sorry oh here it is fm legal
um oh is it as education code 33096 i wrote that down too
here. It has to do with the same sex.
The transgender students and athletic activities.
Right. That's the point. So is this a new policy or is it just something that's just
being included again?
It's updated from House Bill 25 from that third called session. So this policy updates
plan catch up from any of the legislative changes from our last session.
Okay. And so I'm just wondering, do we have a forecast into what might happen if, I'm not really up on the news, but, you know, I think the current legislation has said that we could possibly lose federal funding if we didn't do, as he stated.
I don't know if that's a law yet or if you even know how that's going to apply to us.
I'm sorry, Ms. Champagne.
I don't know specifically what that trajectory might look like.
But it does provide just some update from House Bill 25 that kind of puts us in line so that our legal policy follows that law.
And then any local changes that we might want to have that are specific to the district would be in a local version of that policy.
All right.
I appreciate that, Ms. Dasmar.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Mr. President?
I had a question on, I think it's EHAA local, about human sexuality instruction.
And we do, and I didn't see it here, maybe someplace else,
but we do, in terms of any human sexuality instruction,
we do give notice to the parents and allow them to review the program in advance.
and they can opt out if they want, correct?
I believe so, Dr. Kasky.
Yes, that's correct.
Actually, what has changed is now they opt in.
So it used to be that they opt out,
but now they have to actually opt in.
But yes, they can view all of the curriculum.
They opt in.
Okay, and they get advance notice about it, et cetera.
It has to be given at least 14 days prior to instruction,
and we've already sent out the notice.
It had to be posted before the student started school,
and that went out in our e-mails.
And that's not in here.
and it's is that part of this policy ahaa or someplace else or maybe this is not the full
human sexuality instruction maybe i'm looking at the wrong thing
ehaa local the eha i think talks about the family violence violence child abuse dating
violence and sex trafficking and those related curriculum materials
Which they have to opt into that instruction as well.
It follows suit with the human sexuality.
Okay.
Okay.
And one last thing, and that is last time we were required to look at the clearinghouse
as far as professional development, and we did that.
We complied with that.
We're not actually approving the professional development program.
We were just looking at we're required to look at the clearinghouse as I recall
That correct. Yeah, we did that last month. That was last month. Yes, okay
Mr.. President yes, I have one other thing last month. I asked about the FAFSA
Information that was counselors, and I wanted to tell you dr. Gregor ski
I read the email that went out to the parents, and I really appreciate that being included in there the information about that
I really appreciate that. I just think that that's a bonus for parents to know about that beforehand
You bet appreciate you sharing that that's all
Deputy superintendent Leslie hacks work over there. Thank you then mrs. Hack. I really appreciate that
You know the question if not, I'll entertain a motion
Yes, I'm a board trustees adopts policy update one one nine
Second we have a motion by mrs. Van a second by mr. Redmond will now proceed to vote vote members
Please register your vote.
Leah.
7-0.
Thank you.
Motion passes.
Now we'll do a 9-11.
9.11 Discuss and consider future Board adoption of a local policy update.
Discuss and consider future board adoption of local policy update.
So today you're lucky.
You get to talk about two different policy updates.
In accordance with board policy, BF and BF legal and local policy amendments may be initiated by board members.
And this item comes to you at the request of the board.
We solicited feedback and then took that feedback and incorporated those requests within this policy update.
As a reminder, this is the first reading.
There is no action required for tonight.
Mr. President, are you going to say any questions?
I was going to say something real quick.
I was just going to say something real quick.
I'm just trying to get in front of the man at the end down there.
But that okay, I'll let you go. I'll let you go first
I just want to provide a little bit more background of what happened
So, you know, we got a draft of it. I think it was midsummer or something and the trustees had a lot of feedback
So we requested all the trustees to send all the feedback to at the same time we were getting direction from TASPA
TASPE and TEA other districts were doing updates and what miss Ashland did and miss hack did I asked them to compile everything
Everything.
Every trustee comment, every version of it that we could find, we were getting, I was
talking to community members and getting their feedback, and we put that in a huge matrix
of options.
And what we had to do is in many cases a trustee wanted A and another trustee wanted B and
another trustee wanted C and TEA said D and somebody said F. Somebody had to decide what
to put in there.
So what I did is I set up a workshop with Dr. Gorski, Ms. Hack, Ms. Ashhorn, Mr. Redmond
in there and we went through for, I don't know, two or three hours, every comment. And then, uh,
Mr. Redmond and I decided what we were going to put in this draft. We had to put something out
that we could throw bullets at, right? So what we have here is what was a result of a extensive
review of all of the feedback, trying to figure out what we thought the best way to navigate
through this was. I'm sure it's not perfect. Um, but what the idea here is what we're trying to
get to perfection, at least enough to vote on it by next month. So what we're trying to get tonight
is what on this new policy can you not support?
And I guess we're really looking for the fatal flaws
that, hey, I can't vote for this if this is in here,
and then we'll have to go back
and take one more pass at that
before we go to the vote next month.
So that's kind of the history and the context
of how we got to where we're at.
So I just want to make sure you guys understood that.
Any questions on that?
Okay, so Ms. Fox, you have the floor.
Thank you.
I have a lot of questions, so I'll ask a few,
and then I'll take a break and I'll come back because they're kind of jotted down from the
public speakers and whatever. So the first question I have, so it says at the very beginning,
the district shall provide instructional materials designed to teach the TEEX and further the
district's educational mission. Got it. Later it says library materials, where's the piece?
It says library materials are essential interactive collaborative learning environments ever evolving to provide equal
physical and virtual access to ideas
information and learning tools for the entire school community
Got it
So as we go through here and talk about
Instructional materials does that always apply to library materials? I'm just asking if they're this that's a great question
What we decided to do is when I was going through the different comments and we had the the
Instructional materials and library books in the same it got very confusing
So what we decided to do we have an EFA and an EFB you guys correct me if I'm wrong
I'm gonna I got a 50-50 shot of getting this right. I think EFA is instructional materials and EFB is the library B is for books
That's how I remember it. What's that? Okay?
B is for books, library books.
So the A is just for the instructional materials,
and then we get into a much deeper dive on the library books, which is B.
Does that answer your question?
It answers my question and now confuses me if I'm pointing it to the right thing.
In the pre-read, there was an EFA and an EFB, correct?
Okay.
Okay.
Got it.
Okay.
Okay, so just for clarity's sake, based on some of the comments that we've heard about ethnic and racial identities,
none of what I'm going to say or talk about has anything to do with that.
The concerns that I have are about sexual desensitizing, talking about sexual acts, or those kinds of things.
That's where I'm coming from.
I want to protect our children.
We teach children, not adults.
Our children's minds, hearts, and spirits from information that's harmful because they are still children.
children. So that's what I'm talking about. It's not about racial
ethnic ideologies only about that so that's what I want like mouse and Ruby
bridges those are not offensive I've read those books that's not what I'm
talking about my my conversations are about desensitizing minds and spirits of
of boys and girls based on sexual conversations.
Okay, so,
as we look at the,
let's talk about the review process for books, okay?
On one of these things it says,
parents opt in for classroom selections from an ELA library.
parents have an opt-in if they want their children to check out books from an ELA classroom.
But it looks like at libraries, children can check them out and then the notification goes to parents.
Is that correct?
I think there's a two-step process.
I think on the parent request for a library restriction, they can opt-in or opt-out of the restriction,
and they can also get notification if they check a book out.
Okay.
They can do both. They get both.
I would like it to be that parents have to opt in.
Yes, my children can always check out YA.
Instead of like they check out YA and then they get the email,
the child could read the book before the parent ever looks at the email.
You prefer it like the, I think what we just talked about.
Just like classrooms.
On the human sexuality that Mr. Perez was just talking about,
where it's an opt-in versus an opt-out.
Opt-in, yes.
Opt-in.
Or young adult checking them out of a library or a classroom.
because those graphic novels are quick reads.
Those kids have access to those.
So, yeah, they'll have a readbook.
Until the parents opt in, they can't check out any library books?
Not a YA one.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, one that, and if we could just,
I appreciate very much the inclusion of the penal code in the new writing here,
and if I could just review why I think that's important.
THE PENAL CODE SAYS HARMFUL MATERIALS MEAN MATERIAL WHOSE THEME APPEALS TO THE PUREE
INTEREST OF A MINOR IN SEX, NUDITY, OR EXCRETION, IS PATENTLY OFFENSIVE TO PREVAILING STANDARDS
IN THE ADULT COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE WITH RESPECT TO WHAT IS SUITABLE FOR MINORS, AND IS UTTERLY
without redeeming social value for minors.
And then it talks about the person commits an offense based on that.
So when we talk about the prevailing adult community as a whole
and redeeming social without redeeming social value for minors,
I'm glad we have the penal code as the guideline in there for that.
Don, and just be patient.
This is Fox.
I think if it's possible, we'd like to understand what issues do you have concerns with versus what you –
Is that okay?
Because we've got a lot of people that have things to say.
Okay.
Is that possible?
I'm just trying to identify that I think that some of the books that are still in libraries go against this.
And the other piece is when we're going to have this, I have concerns about the committee process, too.
But so the Alaska book, what's it called, Looking for Alaska, has alcohol, smoking, and explicit sex, and yet it has remained in school libraries.
I don't get it.
I don't understand how that doesn't go against the penal code.
And Flamer, is that a graphic novel, I think?
But the Flamer book also has sexual depictions.
I think those books are just…
And they passed.
Well, it's out, but that's before this new policy is updated, right?
So that's a separate discussion, and I'm not saying it's not a valid discussion,
but this is specifically about the revised EF local, not the previous review of books,
because we're trying to come up with a new process.
It looks like the review process stays the same, and that process.
I think at the time we did that, and I'm not trying to defend, I'm trying to answer,
if it sounds like I'm defending, I apologize.
No, you're not.
No, I appreciate the conversation.
I think what happened before is we really didn't have a process.
And we were making it up as we went.
And I think that's a lot of the criticism.
We were making up the rules as we went because the policy wasn't as robust as it needed to be.
It didn't talk about all that stuff.
So we tried to put something in place to de-escalate it.
And I think in our best efforts to de-escalate it, we actually made it worse.
And that's why we spent all this time to have a process that's very articulate on what is going to happen and not happen.
The other one was too vague.
May I offer a great job?
the one-year committee I really appreciate that I think having a
committee I like having the five committees that will rotate I appreciate
that because I think if you have a committee that's there for a year long
it gives continuity of if you have a different committee for every book you
don't know what why they decided this one on that and it could just be
different okay so I appreciate that very much I would like to see a bit more
transparency and why the book was removed or why it remains and the person
who makes the presentation gets ten minutes to say something and then they're
escorted out and they don't get to hear any of the discussion or defend like oh
I said that wrong that's not exactly what I meant or you know something like
that I that's I don't know why that's there but those are my comments and I'm
happy to yield the floor okay did you see that there is a checklist that each
that each committee member is going to be given that specifically says why,
how they're rating the book, why they're rating it.
That's the exhibit at the end there.
What's that?
Will the parents see that?
Yeah, this is what the review member is going to see.
They're going to fill this out.
No, I mean the person who's asking for the review.
Oh, well, they see this as part of the final report.
I don't know.
What does the final report look like?
That is the report.
Okay.
They would.
Thank you.
I wasn't aware of that.
Got it.
Thank you.
Can I go?
Absolutely.
And I'm only going to try to talk about the changes, okay?
So I wrote some other things, but let's see.
All right.
So the following individuals may serve as the superintendent's designee,
curriculum coordinators, instructional officers.
So does it say anywhere in there how many people that is?
Because it just says curriculum coordinators.
instructional officer gets anybody with that title but I mean is it one two is
it four people then I think he can they these are the designated designated to
anybody that's got that title correct I mean is it the reason there's not a
number to it because you don't want to come back and change your policy every
time if I have two positions like that next year we have four six or eight it's
just anybody who has that title and so it's not it's not a specific number of
like I'm gonna have five people and they're gonna be from this pool of
people or six people or whatever no it's not a specific number it's just anyone with that title
okay so all right so i am going to ask you about on the review process where it says harmful
material means material whose dominant themes taken as a whole and then i'm not going to read
it but basically one of the things on there says as a whole so the book as a whole so these
these different committee members are going to be the ones who judge whether it's on a whole or not.
Because, in other words, to me this says it could be a page of it, but it's not as a whole.
I mean, I guess that's going to be up to each of the committee members.
That's what the law says.
That's correct.
Okay.
So back to the committee members, though.
I do have a problem with children being on the committee, and this is why.
Why?
Because if they're reading a book that is something that could be harmful to them, well,
I don't want that kid reading it either.
What we said on here, 18 years old, so they're an adult or parent's permission.
All right.
Let's see if there's anything else.
Oh, the last thing I want to say is that on EFA local page one, it states that although
Although the superintendent or designee shall ensure that the professional staff select instructional materials in accordance with district policy and administrative regulations, the ultimate authority for determining and approving the curriculum and instructional program of the district lies with the board.
And I just want to say that I think it's very, very important that we're doing this.
I appreciate you letting us give the input because that's how people read that.
They think that we, the board, you know, Don Champagne, Lance Redmond, and the rest of us have the ability to take a book and just remove it if we want to.
Because that's how that is read.
So I don't know if there's any way to adjust the wording of that or not.
What's your concern?
I guess the board could always decide, the majority of the board can decide if they want to start tackling books one by one at board meetings, right?
Three board members could add it to the agenda and we could vote on every book that we want, right?
So board policy allows that, correct?
Right.
Should I go ahead and remove it?
Yeah.
The board has the authority to do whatever they want.
That's right.
It's the majority of the board, certainly.
But it's not the preferred process.
But the board can a majority of the board three board members can add it to the agenda. We can vote on it
That's never not an option
President if a local is actually referring to that structure. That's right
That's EFA is the library books that I was going to say that to EFA local is the instructional materials not the library books
I don't think so. No
So if you go to EFB, I don't think that same sentence.
Ms. Ashmore, do you know if that's in there?
I'm looking at the top, and it does not have a similar section that I see.
Okay, so we do not have the authority to take a book and get three people on the agenda and say let's go on a library book?
I think, like Dr. Gorski said, I think the board has a lot of authority to do that kind of thing.
If we get a majority of the board, we could do that, I think.
The policy doesn't say that, so maybe that's a hole in the policy.
Yeah, did you have?
Mr. President, Board of Trustees, Dr. Gorski, I would say yes at any point in time
that if this board decides that they have three members that want to put something on the agenda,
whether it is to remove a book a specific book from the library I think
that's always within your prerogative I don't see anything under state law that
would prohibit it again we're we're under the confines of the First
Amendment of federal law right so we'd have to consider from that vantage point
but again you are at the end of the day if you have three board members I want
to put some on the agenda for discussion absence some legal precedent I'm not
currently aware of I think that you can it would seem like we have the policies
in place to allow that to come to the agenda get to a vote make a motion and
pass even if it's gone through a formal process of a review and all that we can
just completely there's two ways you can get to the board one I guess the board
could you serve the process and the board could put it on there the other
way could get to the board is through the grievance process if if I decide I
want to challenge a book it goes through the process the process says the books
good I don't like that answer then I can bring it to the board that way or the
board could just say we don't like what the committee's done I'm making this up
probably sending it the worst possible way the board doesn't like what the
committee decided we're going to we're going to pull that in and we're going to
deal with that ourselves like the two books you talked about went through the
old committees we don't like that how that worked we're now gonna take that
because we're not happy with it right so what I'll say it just for context this
is a board you guys are deciding what you want to do with your policy here
right so whatever policy you put out there the administration dr gorgorzky and his team they
have to follow they can't usurp that however if at any point in time this board felt like hey we
need to change our policy i need to do something different than what's in our policy y'all put it
on the agenda we can discuss and move forward but uh mr schulte is right that this does contemplate
um after a formal review is done that you could go through that a parent or a constituent could
to bring this up through the agreements process,
which would ultimately lie with you as the board.
Then answer your question.
Okay, any other questions?
Yes.
Okay.
Actually, one of my first comments is
that I think we should put in the policy
that the board, majority vote of the board,
can basically remove any book, period,
and can also overturn the decision of a reconsideration committee.
Do you feel better having that written in there,
even though that really could happen anyway, for clarity?
Absolutely. I think we should.
Because it says right at the outset that that's the authority of the board,
so we should put some meat on it, if you will.
The other thing, I'm definitely against any students being on the committee.
Again, they're students.
They're not parents.
They're not teachers.
They're students, and they shouldn't be on the committee.
And I guess in terms of the mechanics,
what we're talking about is five rotating committees will be assigned,
and that's from a drawing.
I guess we're going to ask for people to volunteer.
We asked for people, again, trying to be anonymous.
So, yeah, people would volunteer, and it would just be,
they would just pick out a hat and put it on the committee.
And we picked five committees because they don't know how many books are going to be counted.
There would be a call for volunteers.
Yes.
I would suggest that there would be a drawing per committee,
a separate drawing per committee as opposed to one drawing,
and then we kind of, somebody assigns them.
So when you're picking them, pick the first, whatever, what, nine people per committee, I think it is?
Pick those nine, then move on to the next one versus?
Exactly.
Okay.
Again, I'm just taking notes.
I'm not agreeing.
I'm just taking notes.
Okay.
I want to hear everybody and want to go back and then take another pass at this.
I don't know why the committee members that are non-parents that are employees can't be.
Well, that has to be confidential.
In other words, the professionals that are on the committee.
Is that sensitive?
Mr. Perez, I would say it's sensitive up to this point that I think if you put the names out there of the committee
and they're about to hear about a certain book, that gives potential for people to start trying to influence the committee
before they've had that opportunity to read the book and make their own decisions on that.
but if the board chooses that after a committee decision is over and it has
per se ruled on a book you would like to know the names of the employees I could
certainly give you those but once again there could be some perception of some
kind of retaliation on the committee about the book well a very sensitive
topic thank you I think the exhibit is doesn't have the list of the people that
sign on the back yes but if somebody requested that we would redact those names okay so but
i thought that that exhibit filled out was going to be the results of the committee i thought i
read some place we're going to be uh the challenge material and the results including that exhibit
were going to be posted the results we were very careful do we want people to volunteer for
to do these committees, right?
And we don't want there to be retaliation.
So there will be a recording of the vote,
but it's not required that you record your name
on the one that's made public.
The names would be redacted from the form,
but you would see that a vote was done
by each committee name.
They would just be blacked out.
Okay.
Now, if the board prefers it in a different way,
that's the board's option.
It's the board's policy.
Yeah, that was something that we put in there, I put in there, just because I think to be
anonymous is pretty important.
Okay.
I saw that, I guess in the definition of young adults, I believe it was, was included, may
include profanity, sexuality, violence, blah, blah, blah.
It seems like that really makes it kind of, like, it's confusing because it makes it kind
of like, it opens it up, if you will, to like, well, you know, we said that the resource
where the young adult could contain, for example, sexuality, profanity, et cetera.
So it seems like it kind of like confuses the matter.
That's confusion as opposed to clarity.
That's just a comment.
This is a comment.
So, yeah, would your comment be to remove the definition of young adult?
I would remove that, yes.
To remove the definition of young adult.
Going to the form for a moment.
I'm just going to keep going unless somebody has some.
Mr. President.
Yes.
To kind of piggyback on a couple of things Mr. Perez said and your comments too about the names of the individuals in the committee, I think it's very important that the names are protected and protected.
If we want to get committed, thoughtful people on this committee, I know and we all know
from being public figures that people can be really pretty cruel.
And I would hate for, especially with being an employee, to have that in question.
And I also, I as a board member do not support the option or the consideration of the committee makes a decision, but we have the opportunity to overturn their decision.
In practice, yes, that makes sense, but again, it's not going to be encouraging people to sign up for this committee or volunteer for this committee if they feel like, why am I going to put in all these hours just to have it go to naught?
I think if we are putting in place this committee as a board we need to respect
the role of this committee and not be you know an overshadowing body that I
mean you know you write what you said we can do you know many things but out of
respect for the hard work and these these are going to be volunteers even if
they're paid employees to do this and it'll take their time and it'll take
their thoughtful measure but if time and time again we're like thanks for your hard work but
we still don't we don't agree with you it's just going to undo the purpose of this being a
thoughtful process and this is what we were that and again all these comments are valid right
everybody's point is understood and this is what we were faced with where somebody says yes somebody
says no we got to come up with a something that we can we can hopefully all get behind but but i
I don't think in this case probably everybody is ever going to get a version of this
that everybody can stand behind because we're just, it's too,
it's my intent just to get all the feedback, try to make one more pass.
That may not change anything, and we'll put it up to vote.
If it doesn't pass, then we'll change it again until we get it to pass.
Mr. President, I appreciate what you're saying, Mrs. Vann.
I completely agree with that because, you know, I've been on committees
and that would be terrible, you know.
but but since this is a new process you know what about a book I'm just throwing
out there that they had the old process you don't I mean I mean I understand
what you're saying but but we didn't have this process before so I guess that
What I'm kind of confused about is a book can be re-reviewed 100 times over, I guess,
because a different parent could just say, I don't want to review it.
There's a timeline.
Once it's been reviewed, it's a year.
Oh, once a year, okay.
Otherwise, the system.
Right, it would just keep going and going and going.
It never cleans itself.
It's just constantly recycling, yeah.
And I want to make a comment about something Mr. Perez said, too, about the young adults definition.
I think it's for me personally I think it's important to have the definition of the young adults so that the parents who want to
Whatever they're gonna do opt-in or opt-out or whatever whatever they're gonna do
They're gonna have they're gonna know what they're opting into, you know, because if you're don't know what the definition is
How will you know?
You know like if you're a first-time mom or something or dad and you're you might think young adult means Captain Underpants
I don't know, you know
You may not really be clear about what it is. So
So that's just my take on that.
So I'm keeping score here, who's for, who's against.
Mr. President.
Yes.
Sorry, Mrs. Wilson.
You got more to go, so I'll get back to you.
Yes, Ms. Fox.
Okay, I'm sorry.
So I would like to speak about the student involvement.
So when I actually was one of the ones who made that request
and I asked for juniors and seniors, and it came back to seniors only age 17 with parental approval
or our 18-year-olds who are, whether anybody here wants to agree or disagree, they are an adult.
My 18-year-old is always going to be my child, but she's an adult.
And I would like to say that I think the young students that are going to be volunteering for this,
these are our AP-level students, our dual-credit students.
They are already college students.
in high school doing college credit work and all of the other things that go with that your ab
those are the kids that are going to be choosing our students let me rephrase my word they're going
to be doing this we had 10 speak tonight detailed eloquent understand what's at absolute stake for
for them and their peers.
And we have had them here in droves every single month.
They are asking for a stake at the table
to make choices that affect whom?
Them.
They have a right to be there.
They have not been aggressive.
They have not been ugly.
They haven't been reading passages out of books.
They have been nothing but respectful to us
and to everybody else in this room that is exactly who needs to be on this
committee because they're looking at that from a very high level lens that's
just my opinion and my viewpoint on those young adults because that's what
they are thank you mr. president so I have one more there's something I think
I think it's on both A and B, that it says the material shall not be restricted during reconsideration.
And understand the call for that, but if it's something that's harmful, that's deemed inappropriate or harmful to students,
why would we leave it there during the process, which takes a while?
So that's a great question. Can I answer it?
Because we talked about it, we thought about it, and I think we captured it.
So the concern is the system gets flooded, and we start removing every book that's removed,
and probably just throwing out a number, 80% of them are going to end up being put back on.
It's not going to be 100% that are going to be challenged are going to be removed.
So it's a disservice to remove them all.
So what we've done is you can opt in.
I think it's an opt in or opt out.
I'd have to check.
We're going to tell you when a book's being challenged.
It's going to be on the website.
You're going to get an email.
This book is being challenged.
You can opt out and if you weren't out there you say I don't want my kid to check this book out
Everyone's gonna get the email that this book is being challenged every parent
I'm not getting it every parent is gonna get an email that a book is being challenged or only I
Understood it's everyone's gonna get we talked about that, but I thought it was everybody was gonna get it
Unless you opt out
well
Now like we talked about this, you know the details better than I do. Yeah, mr.
Ms. Shelton, you're correct that it was the board's request that once a book is challenged,
every parent in the district would get that email that this book has been challenged,
and they know, and then it goes on the website as being challenged,
and on the website it would reveal the outcome of that.
So any parent watching, all you've got to do is check the website.
I might just reference we had a challenge of a book.
It's called The Hate U Give.
and so we pulled it from libraries.
The sales of that book, the request for that book,
went through the roof because it had been challenged.
So if you send an email to everybody going,
this book is challenged, guess what every kid's going to do?
Go get the book.
So that's the, I mean, they will, anyway, I guess outside,
but if it's harmful to students, of the 20% that are,
I just I have a problem with this one this one is harmful enough not to be
Got to be removed while through the process this one doesn't then just open up this whole subjectivity. That's not what this is
No, they all say on this shall not be removed. That's why we're absolutely black and white
So it's not gonna be removed until it goes through the committee
Because if you start if you start adding the flexibility in there
Then who is the pre committee that decides if it stays on the shelf or doesn't and you've got a pre committee
that's got to make that decision, right?
And then you're adding more subjectivity into the system.
But I'll capture your point.
Your point is...
If you have something that's harmful to people,
if you had something that's like,
oh my gosh, that could be poison to a child.
We would decide that in your opinion.
Let's leave it there until we put it through the test
to see is it really harmful if they drink that
or eat that or take that.
We're going to restrict it.
You're going to know it's there
and you can opt out of seeing it.
But listen, I'm not trying to sound like I'm defending it.
How would you like it?
If you could change it, how would you change it?
get removed until it's reviewed.
So any book that's challenged is removed?
How long does that take?
How long does the review process take?
I think the target is
30 days.
Yeah, I thought it was
30 days.
I thought it was 10.
Well, I mean, everybody on the committee has to
read the book, right?
You've got the committee and you've got to do the forms.
And then you've got to do the forms and then you've got to do things.
So probably 30 days.
Like it's gonna hurt somebody if it's not there for 30 days
So we listed as soon as reasonably possible the committee shall meet and determine
And continue on with the process. So I think that would depend on what's reasonable based on the length of the book
So you're sure you're just saying basically until it's made it through the committee take it off until you know, I mean it you wouldn't leave
Right has reason for someone if you thought go, huh? Is it or is it it's probably not
Maybe it's just a placebo, but if it's poison would you leave it for a child to have access to just in case?
But TASB's recommendation is to actually not remove it. That is TASB's
specific legal direction. Do not remove it. Do not take away
anybody's right to have access to that book. I know I like I went through TASB and TEA and I think that was one of my
comments actually. That's why I'm on the KDS Physical Board because that's just what I want. That's just what I'd prefer.
But this is about taking feedback, right?
I know.
I understand your position.
And I agree with what Mrs. Champagne said about students.
Now, something might be harmful to students,
so we're going to ask students to read what might be harmful in order to review
and say, yeah, that was really awful and I can't sleep at night,
or I can't get it out of my mind,
or why would you have students review something that might be harmful to students?
I don't think students on the committee.
I've got that.
On this committee.
Well, I hadn't said that yet.
Okay, I thought you did.
I think that having students review something that might be harmful to students makes us responsible to the penal code.
Okay.
Any other?
Mr. Perez, I don't think we finished you yet, so sorry about that.
So just to clarify though, when a material is challenged, that result, the name of the
book, et cetera, and the result, that will be posted.
Regardless of the outcome?
Yes.
We thought that was important so people could see that it's made it through the process
and what the outcome was.
They could decide if they liked that.
If they liked that it was removed, then they're okay.
Or they could challenge it one way or the other.
They could challenge it because it wasn't removed and they wanted to do or they could
challenge it because it wasn't removed and they did want it to.
They could go through the grievance process or something if they wanted to.
You know, on the frequency of review, I can see that with regard to a book.
I just wonder with regard to instructional material, like curriculum material.
I mean, once you decide that a material used in instruction in a classroom has been removed,
I don't know why you'd even want to look at it again.
It's been removed.
It's instructional classroom material as opposed to like a book, you know, a library book kind
of thing.
I just question that in terms of the instructional material part of it as far as frequency.
I mean, it's either if it's not good, if it doesn't meet the criteria, if it doesn't
meet its educational purpose, blah, blah, blah, it's gone.
Why look at it again and put it in the classroom?
So just one comment there.
On the check sheet, if we could go to the exhibit.
MS.
BSA or BSD?
MR.
Well, I think, yeah, A.
MS.
They're the same.
MR.
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I think that's part of the problem is they're both pretty much the same.
They're both the same.
Like I don't think that the Section B, those 11 criteria, apply to A. They only apply to B.
Those 11 are not in A. And I think the 11, some of these are pretty weak actually.
It only takes one of these to keep the book going, if you will, in the process.
kind of bogus, but anyway.
You get what I'm saying?
That B, the 11, only applies to books.
It doesn't apply to instructional material.
Yes, you're saying the forms,
the check sheet for EFA versus EFB should be different.
Right, I think it's just a...
Really, Section B should be out of EFA.
Yeah, that should mirror whatever we have in A.
as if this this actually comes from B yes this check this then the 11 yeah
understand anything else mr. press so for example on how did any of these
forms work if anywhere along the line if it for example if it doesn't mean any of
the 11 then it then it we're done right it's done you stop right there I guess
I'm just figuring trying to figure out how it works
similarly like in let's say that and see in next one harmful material and D of
of scene material to the extent that it's yes, like the box are checked, then we're finished, aren't we?
I'm not sure how the mechanics work here.
I think it's a valid question.
I haven't actually worked through the actual process of if you get a bunch of forms
and different boxes are checked exactly what comes out the other side.
So I think that's a valid.
I don't have an answer to that.
This form was done at the very last minute.
I thought it was important to have a form, but I think that's a valid.
I don't know if one of you can answer it.
I can't.
That's why there's a yes, no section at the end of each section.
So if you get down and then has at least one criteria been selected, yes,
and I'll say for EFB library books, the 11 selection criteria,
this is what the library coordinators are referring to.
Do the books meet these criteria to put them on the shelf?
So, you would like to think that if a book was being reviewed, they're going to trigger
some of those 11 criteria.
So, probably those boxes are going to be checked.
So you would, if you check yes, continue to Section C. Section C is where you start going
into the harmful material and the verbiage is identical to what the penal code is.
And so, that's what we want to make sure this book is reviewed against the penal code.
And so when you get to the end of Section C, yes, if the boxes are checked, is the instructional
material considered harmful, do the dominant theme.
If you check yes, it's stopped.
You go directly to your board policy, EFA local, EFB, which tells you you checked the
box, you deemed it's harmful, so that's where you stopped and that's where the book would
probably be removed.
But if it makes it out of Section C, then you've got to go to the obscene part of the
penal code and go through those check boxes and definitions. So we really worked to align
the exhibit with what the selection criteria was in EFB and then with the penal code that
we're vetting it against that definition.
Thank you.
And so it would be like a majority rules type thing?
Simple majority.
You know, okay.
Okay.
So let me, so that's a question and that is, with every question,
as far as does it meet this, is it obscene, is it harmful material?
With each one of those, is the committee voting to say yes on each question?
Or does everybody have their checklist and they check off what they think?
And then at the end of the day, they can just vote either way.
I would assume it's anonymous, right?
The committee fills out the forms independently.
They don't do it as a group, right?
Yes, they would be going through.
They would be having that discussion.
We really wrote this also as a script for the non-voting moderator
so that they were very, you know,
so we had consistency within the five committees,
and we have consistent moderators each time too.
So as they're going through and they're asking each question,
whether they had their own form or not, and they're checking,
and then it would be a majority how they, if it was the criteria.
It's filled out as a group or it's filled out individually?
Our view is it would be filled out individually.
If I was a member, I could say yes or no, yes or no.
There would be discussion, of course.
But if six people are saying on Section B,
we all think it checks off on 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9,
they were all in agreement, it's going to take discussion
and then majority to check the boxes and then to determine
based on how that outcome of that section to move forward.
And I know we were kind of keeping it high level there until we really got into the committees.
It sounds like more of a committee discussion than an individual discussion.
You've got to have committee discussions.
Right, right.
But I guess what I'm thinking is everybody checks their own sheet, and then they vote, don't they, on the book.
It's not like we have one scorecard.
What about question A?
Okay, that wins.
questions A, okay, we got majority on question B, et cetera, and then you come up, you have
one answer at the end.
I think at the end, I think each of the committee members should fill it out for themselves,
and then they vote at the end.
Based on what their scorecard is?
At the end, yes.
I think what I'm understanding, that's one way to do it, and I get that way, but I think
what I'm hearing from Ms. Hackett's a different way is that they're going to fill out the
form collaboratively.
With the moderator?
Well, you're saying, Mr. President, you prefer that to be independently versus collaboratively.
And then the committee votes.
I mean, you know.
Well, the big committee votes.
Basically, you fill out your form.
You're going to know it's yes or no from the way you filled out your form, right?
Yeah.
And then you just tally up the forms.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a shame, though, that we are reducing this effort in a way.
I know we're trying to be objective here.
We're reducing.
We're making our criteria.
Is it legal or not?
And that's really a low bar.
You know what I'm saying?
As long as we're not breaking the law, the book's fine.
So that's kind of just an overall comment that we should have a higher standard.
Do you have another idea?
Huh?
Do you have another idea?
Well, we have a committee.
We draw, we have a committee, and we go by this.
I'm glad to have the penal code.
You've got to have something, right?
I'm glad we have it in there.
That's what I'm saying.
the committee still needs to vote because again it's not it's kind of like a shame that we have
to like that our standard has to be just the minimum which is you know is it legal or not
but if you have other ideas maul we'll listen to other ideas but there is still a vote if you look
at the back page each member has the option to vote retain relocate or remove so that is where
a simple majority is going to come out after the discussion yeah if it made it to that section and
it didn't get stopped at section B, C, or D.
Makes sense.
So relocate would be to like, it's bad at this level,
so we're going to move it up.
To restrict to like 11th or 12th graders?
Sorry, Ms. Wilson.
Yeah, that maybe a book should only be for high school
and not junior high or not elementary,
but only junior high and high school.
So maybe it could be relocated to a certain age group.
Yeah, one thing about where we say that the parent only has authority,
if you will, in terms of restricting instructional material for their child only.
But I think in the case of the library books, I assume that if it gets rejected or the vote
is to remove it, it's removed for everyone.
It's a removed period.
It's not just for that child or that parent that's complaining.
That's correct.
Mr. President?
Mr. Perez, may I?
Yes.
Okay.
Thank you.
I wanted to go back to the students that are on the committee again real quick.
I just want to make a comment that all of my personal children turned 18 early in the year,
of their senior year.
But I know at Taylor High School they still had to follow the rules of the school.
you know they still had to you know I had to still sign them out or I still
had to you know I can't even remember I thought it's kind of ironic you know
project grad happened after graduation so now they're 18 and they're not even
in school but they still have rules of signing them out and signing them in and
chaperoning and all the things so I I just wanted to address that I see I
still think that the 18 year olds who are in the high school are still
still students and yes they are legally adults but in the eyes of at least of Taylor High
School they were still kind of kids you know I just wanted to address that and I and I
just think that they're still being governed like like students they're still being monitored
like students and so I just wanted to address that and also it would be awesome if this
this form that y'all developed would be used by the librarians.
Because I actually think this is great.
You know, it has the penal code.
It has all the definitions.
It has all the things.
And my ultimate hope would be that if they followed this,
then we wouldn't have any books to even have a committee, you know.
So I do really appreciate this form.
but I just wish that maybe something like this would be used by the
librarians. It might simplify it,
you know, the process. And then the last thing I want to say
is, since it seems like we're voting on things, I want to talk about the
parental control on the EFB local.
I think it's on page 3 of 6.
I don't have it pulled up, but I really believe, I don't know what
what the word is, opt-in or opt-out, but I believe that the kids, if the parent doesn't want the
child to have the book, that it's not just an email that goes out after they've checked the
book out, because, you know, I know people that that's happened to. Well, the kids earmark what
page the thing, the bad things are on, and they'll just read that page. They don't need
to read the whole novel they just need to read those three pages and then
they'll turn it back in and then the parent later when they get home from
work goes you can't have that book and the kid goes oh okay I won't have that
book anymore you know and by the way they've also let their 20 friends read
it too so that's just my opinion any other comments again I don't want
anybody feel like if you come up with something after this meeting you can't
still send an email or something like you did last time so we wanted to have the discussion
get the brunt of it but don't feel like this is it you know we're not voting on this for another
month so you've got there's time to get feedback for the community to give feedback i just wanted
to capture the the big things tonight so is there any other comments that need to do they feel like
need to be said tonight mr president i think mr pres okay you know i just want to make it clear
that what we're about here is avoiding the early sexualization of kids and
protecting kids. As I think Miss Fox mentioned, this is not about racism, this
is not about anti LGBTQ or minorities or anything. That's been totally taken
overblown. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about
protecting children from graphic sexual scenes and discussions, graphic sexual
acts and that basically has no redeeming value, books that cheapen and
dehumanize and take away the human dignity of the individual. That's what
it's about in my view and that's why we're doing this.
Thank you. I just wanted to add that. Any other questions?
Mr. President, I wanted to say that I appreciate the inclusion of parents in all of this.
Parents have ultimate, they're being encouraged and respected to have the decisions for their children, and I appreciate that.
The other thing is, just reminded, sorry, Mr. Redmond, I'm reminded of something Mr. Redmond said.
We can do the most we can do here to protect children with our resources, but they have so much access to things that are, you know, the reason we're here is because that's something that's so pervasive in their society anyway.
And so we'll do the best we can, but they'll find it somewhere.
somewhere. And I wanted to say that earlier I asked Dr. Grzegorski to find out which of
the books who have, I think there are 10 books who have been removed.
When they were purchased. And had they been removed when they were
purchased? I looked them up and only one came after 2018. So it sounds like the librarian
process of choosing books is really working because I remember when the first book was
challenged it's like it's been on the shelf for eight to eight years and no
one it's been checked out like three times but all of a sudden it becomes the
thing so you don't need to get that information for me and I just wanted to
say I think the librarians are doing a really good job with the process they
already have because only one of them was but after 2018 so kudos to them any
other comments again can don't feel free to email dr. Gorski and I if you've got
any other comments that come up after the meeting and I I believe I
I understand the draft policy.
I thought it went live this morning.
I don't think it goes live until tomorrow.
Is that correct?
So I think I misinformed some of the public.
I actually thought it went live this morning, but it's because it's the board has it.
I forgot what that divorce.
The board has to talk about it first.
It's going to go out tomorrow.
So my apologies for the bad information.
I apologize, Mr. Schulte.
Can I just say to Mrs. Hack, great job with including the penal code and every one of those checked boxes.
like it's very thorough thank you miss sherry ash horn dr. Sinead Bell miss
Darlene Rankin to think as well they were excellent job miss Ashwin and all
of those thank you okay if there's no further discussion on that we'll move
10. Consent
into the consent agenda this president yes I move that the Board of Trustees
approves the consent agenda for items 10.1 through 10.5 we have a motion by
mr redmond a second by mrs van will now proceed to vote please record your vote on the screen
the consent agenda passes 7-0
we're almost done here 10.4 10.5 11.1 the board was provided a copy of the 2023 appraisal district
11.4 Recap of Board Members' Requests for Information.
budgets 11.2 the board was provided information regarding the certification
of anticipated tax collection collection rates for 2022-2023 11.3 the board was
provided a copy of donated items to Katie ISD item 12.1 there would be a
12. Future Meetings
special board meeting on September 12 2022 12.2 there'll be another regular
regular board meeting on September 26, 2022. There being no further business before the board,
this meeting is adjourned. Time is 1058. Thank you, everyone. Have a good evening.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 9.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's June 2022 financial statements.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 002 · AGENDA 9.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the 2021-2022 final amended budget for the Katy Independent School District.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 003 · AGENDA 9.3
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the resolution to commit and assign fund balance.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 004 · AGENDA 9.4
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the 2022-2023 State Compensatory Education funding and other End-of-Course Assessment funding budget, as required by House Bill 5.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 005 · AGENDA 9.5
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of $1.3517, which is effectively a 11.79 percent increase in the tax rate. And, further recommend that the Board approve the Order adopting the Maintenance and Operations tax rate of $0.9617 per $100 valuation and the Interest and Sinking tax rate of $0.3900 per $100 valuation for the tax year 2022, as reflected in the Order for a decrease in the actual total tax rate of $0.0000.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 006 · AGENDA 9.6
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees adopts the 2022-2023 Official Budget for Katy Independent School District.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 007 · AGENDA 9.7
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees adopts the Order calling for a Voter Approved Tax Rate Election to be held on November 8, 2022 and authorize the Administration to provide official notice of the election as required by the Texas Election Code.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 008 · AGENDA 9.8
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the 2022-2023 Health Plan.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 009 · AGENDA 9.9
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the Voluntary Benefit Products for Plan Year 2023. Not Present at Vote: Ashley Vann
6 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 010 · AGENDA 9.10
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees adopts the local policies included in Board Policy Update 119.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 011 · AGENDA 10.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the Interlocal Participation Agreement for the administration of workers' compensation claims with TASB Risk Management Fund for the period September 1, 2022 through August 31, 2023.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 012 · AGENDA 10.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the Interlocal Agreement between Harris County, The City of Houston, Montgomery County, and The Katy Independent School District for the distribution of funds through the Texas Anti-Gang Grant Program.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 013 · AGENDA 10.3
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the renewal of the Excess Workers' Compensation Reinsurance Policy offered by Mid-West Casualty Company with a $550,000 specific retention for an estimated deposit premium of $149,732.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 014 · AGENDA 10.4
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the waiver for Remote Instruction.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |
MOTION 015 · AGENDA 10.5
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the minutes of the Board meeting held in July 2022.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| ashley-vann | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| greg-schulte | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| leah-wilson | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |