Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this work study meeting of the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.
Katy ISD · Work Study Board Meeting Agenda
Katy ISD Work Study Board Meeting, July 24, 2023
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In this meeting
The headings and the descriptions beneath them are the district’s own words, taken from its index of this recording.
- 0:03 to 1:20 1. Call to Order
- 1:20 to 33:30 3. Public Comment
- 33:30 to 1:02:43 6.1 2023-2024 Budget Update
- 1:02:43 to 1:19:17 6.2 Discuss and report upon the most current operating results of the 2023 Health Plan and the future planning activities for the 2024 Katy ISD Health Plan.
- 1:19:17 to 1:21:07 7.1 Discuss and consider July 2023 budget amendments.
- 1:21:07 to 1:24:22 7.2 Discuss and consider May 2023 Financial Reports
- 1:24:22 to 1:28:27 7.3 Discuss and consider a compensation increase for the 2023 - 2024 school year.
- 1:28:27 to 1:30:14 7.4 Discuss and consider publication of the Notice of Public Meeting to discuss the Budget and Proposed Tax Rate.
- 1:30:14 to 1:33:36 7.5 Discuss and consider a Health Plan Consultant for the Katy ISD Self-Insured Health Plan and Voluntary Benefits.
- 1:33:36 to 2:11:09 7.6 Discuss and consider the Discipline Management Plan and Student Code of Conduct.
- 2:11:09 to 3:22:31 7.7 Discuss and consider the 2023 Community Bond Advisory Committee (CBAC) Bond Package Recommendation.
- 3:22:31 to 3:48:34 7.8 Discuss and consider Board Policies EFA and EFB.
- 3:48:34 to 3:53:39 7.9 Discuss and consider the Raines Academy Optional Flexible School Day Program.
- 3:53:39 to 3:56:17 7.10 Discuss and consider the 2023-2024 District Professional Development Plan.
- 3:56:17 to 3:58:44 7.11 Discuss and consider an Interlocal Agreement with the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) and Katy Independent School District for the use of district facilities for adult education in courses available to the community.
- 3:58:44 to 4:00:10 7.12 Discuss and consider a delegate and alternate delegate to the 2023 Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Delegate Assembly.
- 4:00:10 to 4:01:33 7.13 Discuss and consider Board endorsement of nominated individuals for the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Director for Region 4, Positions A and B.
- 4:01:33 to 4:02:47 8. Information Items
- 4:02:47 to 4:03:02 9. Future Meetings
- 4:03:02 to 4:03:48 10. Closed Meeting
- 4:03:48 to 4:06:19 11. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
Full transcript
Automated transcript, not human verified. It is a way to find a passage, not a quotation.
1. Call to Order
Today is Monday, July 24, 2023, and the time is 5 p.m. Everybody, welcome. Welcome to you.
Dr. Gorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act with regard to notice for this meeting?
Mr. President, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting tonight.
Thank you. KDISD Police Chief Henry Gaw will lead us in the Pledges of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Honored a Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.
Do we have any scouts in the audience this evening?
At this time, the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak
3. Public Comment
in accordance with KDISD Board Policy BED Local, as defined by Board Policy.
Speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, July 24, 2023, provided their first and last
name and signed in 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting will be allowed to address
the Board.
Board. Speakers who signed up to speak on posted agenda items will be allowed three
minutes to speak. If a speaker has not finished speaking at the end of their three minutes,
the audio will turn off. If speakers wish to share written material with the Board,
please 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
proper channels as stated in Board Policy, the presiding officer's designee shall advise
the speaker to seek resolution through the appropriate policy.
Finally, pursuant to Texas Government Code Sections 551.074 and 551.0821, the Board will
not permit the presentation of personally identifiable information regarding a student
and will not discuss the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline,
or dismissal of a public officer or employee or to hear a complaint or
charge against an officer or employee. Should a speaker wish to address one of
these issues they must do so through their appropriate local grievance
policies FNG local, DGBA local, CKE local or GF local. Our speakers will be
called forward in the order they were signed up to speak. The first speaker
Our next speaker tonight is Patty Lacy.
And the speaker after that is Elena Fazio.
Welcome.
ELENA FAZIO, Hi, guys.
I came here to talk about the bond.
So this is the book that the bond committee got to use during our four weeks.
And I don't know how many of you all got to come to the bond meeting or not, but I just
want to plead for y'all to really consider voting on the bond. The way that
I understand it is our administration and our teachers came up with most
important things to them of what they needed to have done in their schools. I
want you to respect our leaders like Dr. Gorgorski and the rest of them because
they are highly educated, a lot of them with their doctorates and their masters
and they know better than any of us and any of you, but no offense to you, what we need and what our district needs.
And along with the teachers and administration, they've come together to find out what exactly the needs are
and the most important things for our district.
And I just want to make sure that they are respected for that.
Of course, who benefits the most from our bond passing and being, you know,
letting it be the community's choice as to, you know, what we vote on is, of course, our students, which is number one.
and our teachers and the community in general.
The committee, the bond committee that I was on,
had over 150 community members that were in it.
We spent tons and tons of time
poring over all these details
and making sure that the bond had the things in it
that we agreed with the administration
needed to be on there,
and every single item that they suggested passed
to be sent on to you guys.
So I just want to ask you guys to really consider that.
I think it'd be a real slap in the face of our administrators and our teachers and everyone that worked so hard.
And, of course, the bond committee, if this doesn't get onto the November ballot.
But one of the things, I had a little conversation on Facebook, which is always fun.
And someone was asking, well, why?
What do you have to gain from that?
Well, I, like many of you, have children in the district.
They're all graduated now.
But I have five beautiful granddaughters in the district also.
And I have two teachers that are in our family.
Two of my daughters are teachers.
But when someone asks what do we have to benefit from it? Why do I care? Well I
care for my little baby girls and I care for our teachers and our administration
and for the buildings to be in good condition and stuff. As many of you know
I'm a realtor so I also care about the values of our homes. So what I said not
to talk real fast is KDISD needs to continue to be a destination district
and all homes will increase in value which is actually a good thing. In
addition to that if you're not a homeowner in the district you also know
absolutely no one else that's a homeowner you don't know it have any
children or grandchildren in the district then of course you don't really
care if the bond passes or not but we need to keep our districts strong for
our students and for our children and for my grandchildren and for your
children and also to support our administration and all of our teachers
thank you thank you our next piece or speaker is Elena
Elena Fazio, after that, Lynette Aladum.
Good evening, Dr. Kogorski, President Perez, and board members.
My name is Elena Fazio.
I have 40 years' experience as an educator.
I retired recently with 29 of those years in KDISD as a teacher and principal.
These last three years, I have been a principal and assistant principal substitute
in numerous elementary schools.
The reason I am here tonight is because of a comment that was made at the last board meeting in reference to staff compensation.
When referring to the 3% versus the 1%, it was stated that the focus is on student outcome and who is closest to the students.
This statement was indicating that the teachers should have the 3% raise and others, including principals and assistant principals, receive the 1%.
I am sure by that statement that some board members have absolutely no idea of the day-to-day
operations of assistant principals and principals.
Assistant principals meet with students concerning behavior and absences along with academic
concerns.
They work with them and build a relationship to determine the issues that need remediation
to be successful.
I have personally observed that they often cannot finish their AP paperwork requirements
because they spend a good amount of the day with the students.
Principals' decisions directly impact student outcomes.
All activities, incentives, and programs are implemented with what's best for the students to be successful.
Principals are in-ards, contributing and monitoring the educational plans of our special needs students.
Principals have the responsibility for the educational success and safety of all students on their campus.
Since retirement, I have seen that the demands of principals have increased.
Student needs, teacher needs, and parent needs have increased, but that has not been taken
into consideration.
With a shortage of teachers and substitutes, it's the assistant principals and even principals
covering some of those classes.
You see, principals are teachers first and always a teacher.
They went from a class of 24 to 900, 1500 or more, along with 100 or more staff.
Every staff member under a campus roof is directly related to student success.
It is unethical and unprofessional to pick and choose who on the campus is more valued.
I noticed that the district theme this year is excellence, inspiring learners into leaders.
Those leaders are the principals of the schools that the students will emulate.
Many former students are returning to the district to teach, even at their former campuses, because of the impact that all had on them.
I am retired, but this is my district, and I will continue to support my former colleagues and their dedication to the education of students on their campus.
Last month, you told them that you don't equally value them.
I hope that tonight you will reconsider.
It is known that there is a shortage of teachers and substitutes.
I hope there won't be a shortage of our exemplary APs and principals.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Lynette Allidon.
And after that, Tamara McFarland.
Okay, good evening, Dr. Gugorski and the Board of Trustees.
I'm Lynette Allidon, a retired KDISD junior high school librarian.
I have concerns about storing the school library book orders in a warehouse after a response to Texas House Bill 900 and its impact on board policy EFB.
Regarding Texas House Bill 900, it mandates that vendors complete the rating requirements by April 1st, 2024, relieving school districts and librarians from book rating responsibilities.
However, during your June 26th meeting, it was mentioned that the school board reviewed the book orders before shipping them to the schools.
I am concerned about the criteria used for this review considering the new law stance on the district's role in rating books.
My question is, what criteria will be used for this review,
giving the law's statement that book rating is not the school district's responsibility?
Additionally, if the plan is to keep these books in the warehouse until April,
most of the upcoming school year will be completed before students receive access to them,
potentially denying their right to read these books.
Such a delay could be seen as a violation of the First Amendment,
which grants students the right to receive information in library setting.
School librarians play a vital role in selecting books that cater to the
students reading interest in educational needs. The decision to halt purchase
orders has raised concerns among both my former colleagues and the broader school
community. I strongly urge the school board to reconsider this decision as it
appears to disregard the expertise and dedication of school librarians leading
to a sense of mistrust between the board and library professionals. Allowing
allowing librarians to continue their important task for which they are professionally trained
would have significant benefits for our students and the entire educational community.
Their expertise ensures that the book collections align with students' interests, promote
learning, and foster a love of reading.
Excluding their involvement in this process could hinder the educational experience and
deprive students of valuable resources.
I implore the school board to recognize and respect the invaluable contributions of school
librarians and work collaboratively with them to provide the best educational resources
for our students.
By doing so, we can create a more inclusive, engaging, and enriching learning environment
that empowers our students to thrive academically and emotionally.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Tamara McFarland.
after that is Logan McLean.
Hello.
I want to thank the input from the librarians and plead with them to read some of these books with us
so we can work together and fix this once and for all.
In December 2021, Superintendent Grigorski sent out an email regarding this issue with the inappropriate books.
and we were assured that he would make a commitment not to make pervasively
vulgar books available to children. Now can we please see the results of this
review and what the procedure was for this review of existing books. As far as
we can see the only books removed were found by parents according to the on the
KDISD website these were challenge books by parents. I'd like to see the
results of the KDISD internal review. It's been two years and there are still
vulgar and explicit books in the libraries. Allow me to read from Luciana
currently in KDISD libraries. The entire book is about a 14 year old girl having
sex, filming it, and posting it on YouTube, and then getting an abortion, all in
graphic detail. I would do anything to get the attention of a boy, so sure. I show them my tits.
He asked me to touch his penis. The penis is an insane body part. Please stroke me. I am nice.
The penis is talking. Penises to me are like puppies. I have lots of sex with anybody on the
baseball team, basketball team, tennis team, or swim team, but not the football team. Those guys
are brutes and can't be trusted not to drug your drink or gang rape you. Okay.
And let's see some more literary art. As a 14 year old I have pretty much
unlimited opportunities to have sex and what I really love about sex it's
getting the whole attention of another person all to myself. Okay and then on
and his hands were everywhere at once and then he was inside of me thrusting
and moaning. It hurt and I just held my breath waiting for him to finish.
Okay and then I'm going to read from another parent reached out to me regarding this book.
It's a detailed guide for the ultimate guide for LGBTQ teens.
Vaginal, okay so use plenty of lube, stop if it doesn't feel comfortable, sex should feel good,
it shouldn't hurt vaginal sex this is when a penis finger or sex toy is inserted into a vagina
sex with dildos on and on i just want to know what is the sex ed policy of kdisd like is it
opt-in or opt-out because if we're going to be teaching sex in the libraries is this an opt-in
or an opt-out i think we need to address this because the book review system is a fail thank you
Logan McLean and then after that Mark Grisdale.
Good evening board. My name is Logan McLean and I'm a recent graduate from Cinco Ranch High School.
I'm here to talk a little bit about the decision last month to put recently purchased books in a warehouse.
Now I understand that the passing of HB 900 would cause some new bumps in the road for our process of vetting books,
but to put every new book in a warehouse, to sit them on a shelf in shrink wrap for who knows how long, that is overreach.
That is a waste of taxpayer money.
That goes way beyond the scope of HB 900, and everyone in this room knows that.
And there's essential questions here that need to be answered, like who is going to vet these books?
How long will the books sit there?
Are we going to compensate the people who take the time to sort these books?
What will be their qualifications or even their biases?
Even beyond thinking of the outrageous logistics behind this move, I'd like to remind you that we are preventing students from every new book that could benefit them.
The books sitting in the warehouse right now included geography books and the magic school bus, books that have been in KDISD libraries forever, books that taught me to love science and to learn about the world.
You're taking that away from students right now with this overreach.
And I'll use a phrase I've heard in this room before about filtering out a few bad apples.
And this term has always made me laugh because if a farmer handled bad apples the way KDISD is right now, we'd be cutting the entire orchard down.
They'd be putting their shiniest apples paid for everyone in this room in a warehouse to rot.
You know we can't run a school district this way.
You know that's not right.
But even then, the bad apples phrase is a facade I've heard many of the sitting board members tell for years now.
now. Trustee Calhoun, at the last board meeting you finally used the words you've all wanted
to hear with the comment targeting pride sections and sexually alternative lifestyles in libraries.
And you know, I am glad that you're finally saying it with your full chest that you want
to erase LGBT stories in particular. I've been tired of hearing this board dodge around
that truth for years. It has never really been about bad apples. It's been about diminishing
LGBT people's existence into nothing. It is a message to your students that if they are
not welcome in the library they are not welcome anywhere so thank you miss calhoun for letting it
slip that this is what it's always been about erasing people like me and i want to finish with
the message about what our priorities are here while we spend hours and thousands of dollars
arguing over these books my classmates are losing their teachers i was given a long-term sub for
several years and while they did their job that is not the quality of education this district strives
for? We need teachers and bus drivers. Arguing over these non-issues takes time
away from real problems facing KDISD. I was never sex trafficked or groomed by a
book. I've never been threatened by a book. When can you, when you think about
all the students have approached this podium before, can you name one who has
spoken to the apparent danger of books or one that restricted literature, that
supported restricting literature at all? I know you're going to continue focusing
on the bad apples, but please don't destroy the orchard that is KDISD.
Thank you.
Mark Grisdale, welcome, and after that, Grace Ding.
Good evening, Dr. Grigorski, President Perez, members of the board.
For those that may not know me, I'm Mark Grisdale, principal of Tompkins High School,
and I'm entering my 19th year as an administrator in KDISD.
I am here tonight representing many of my fellow administrators.
We stand before you with an unwavering belief in the power of education and the individuals
who shape the minds of our future leaders.
Our teachers, support staff, and administrators are the backbone of our educational system,
working tirelessly day in and day out to provide our students with the knowledge and tools
they need to succeed.
In the presentation on the compensation plan on the 26th of June, the Board proposed a
3% raise for teachers and hourly employees and a 1% raise for everyone else.
We wholeheartedly support the raise for teachers.
We also implore you to consider also granting a well-deserved 3% raise to all staff members
including counselors, LSSPs, diagnosticians, instructional coaches,
administrators, and many more. One of the sentiments expressed by the board in the
conversation at the June board meeting was to be rifle focused on
teacher retention and to do that in part by increasing pay to stay competitive.
This is the right idea and there is broad agreement on that point. Every
Every administrator here who hires teachers can tell you that we have seen fewer candidates for more jobs than ever before in our careers.
But there are also severe shortages of diagnosticians, LSSPs, speech pathologists, and other specialist positions across the country.
Educators who support classroom teachers are crucial to the functioning of high-performing, effective schools.
There is an incongruency to laud the education of the whole child, but to not recognize that everyone from principal to janitor and the teacher to the counselor play a role in student success.
An effective school is the epitome of team concept.
To make a point on recognition, compensation is recognition.
It is recognition of the value that an individual in any given position brings to the organization in which they work.
a 1% raise for some and a 3% for others sends a clear message you are not as
important as building principles we know how important the entire team is to
creating a highly functioning organization that has one goal in mind
to provide our students with the best possible learning environment education
is a collaborative effort and the success of our students relies on the
collective commitment of every member of our educational community from the
custodial staff that maintains clear clean and safe facilities to the
counselors who provide guidance and support from the teachers who impart
knowledge and the administrators who shape the educational landscape thank
you thank you thank you we appreciate you thank you very much thank you thank
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Grace Sting is our next speaker.
Grace Sting is our next speaker.
He's a well-compended staff member.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
He will continue to go above and beyond the live live live
live
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applies to everyone. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. Grace, your time is up please. Your time is up. Your time is up.
Please sit down. Please sit down. Your time is up.
Grace Ding, thank you.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Grace Ding, and I'm an incoming sophomore at Tompkins High School.
I'm here to share my perspective on diverse library book selections.
collections. Growing up, I struggled at times to understand myself and my identity. And in middle
school, I felt very alone in what I was going through. Finding characters in books who had
similar thoughts and experiences made me realize I wasn't so different. For example, this year,
I read The Joy Luck Club in school, and it helped me feel connected to my Asian American heritage.
Many stories like The Joy Luck Club resonated with me in ways I never expected.
They gave me hope during a confusing time.
All students deserve to feel seen and understood like I did.
Fort Bend County is the most diverse county in Texas, and our books need to reflect it.
Diverse books are a lifeline for those struggling with their place in the world.
School libraries offer unique access to books students may not encounter elsewhere.
I've even found many of my favorite reads at the Tompkins Library.
library. For many, it's their only exposure to literature across perspectives. While my
own path is still unfolding, I know that inclusive literature made the way. While intentions
may be thoughtful, banning books marginalizes minority voices. It sends the message that
only certain groups belong here. And I've seen firsthand how vital inclusive literature
can be for all students and removing these stories is incredibly isolating. We cannot
not allow for policies that limit access to diverse books and exclude
representation you all have a duty to provide an inclusive environment
fostering self-acceptance for us students thank you thank you
the next speaker is Eric Beersdorfer Eric Beersdorfer and after that's
Virginia Johnson. Good evening. Thank y'all for giving us the opportunity to speak.
I'm a little humbled. I've heard a lot of good things from the other speakers, and
I can't say I disagree with them. My topic's a little different, but I do support theirs, and
I'll get into mine. I'm a watchdog dad. I'm a former PTA president during COVID.
I've been on junior high and elementary boards. I'm also a coach in the community leagues.
And when I was reviewing the agenda tonight, I saw that you were going to review the discipline
management plan and student code of conduct. And I come from the generation of spare the
rod, spoil the child and getting paddled in school. And thankfully, Texas still allows
it though our district does not and I'm all about discipline and no tolerance
and those things but I do believe that our process in addressing behavior could
be improved and so I hope that as y'all consider these y'all look at that
there's a gentleman named dr. Ross green if you're familiar with him who talks
about children do behave when they can we've done a lot of things as a school
We've asked them to sit in
classrooms for eight hours a
day. We've minimized their PE.
We've decreased their recess
time. And we just expect them to
sit there like good little
soldiers and stay focused. And
we're also injecting chemicals
into these kids via their food
and drugs and diagnosing them
with all these diseases. ADHD
has been on the up rise. And
we're also trying to get them
to stay focused. And we're
And we have an increase in single-parent homes and broken families and various things that kids are having to struggle with now.
We've created participation trophies and safe spaces.
So these kids aren't even learning how to deal with social skills and conflict resolution.
So my proposal to you is, as you look at this and we get into the long forms and the punishments, let's consider involving the counselors first.
Let's find out where they're struggling.
Excuse me.
Let's understand why they're doing what they're doing.
Because a lot of these rules and these long forms are for
kids who are intentionally doing things wrong.
And they're intentionally doing it so they're not getting
caught because they're being sneaky.
The kids who are suffering in these long forms and these
disciplines are the kids who are struggling with something
the problem.
We need to help them learn how to deal with the
problem.
How to address the problem.
I've had my children personally go to a teacher
or go to someone to tell them about it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your time is up.
Our next speaker is Regina.
Thank you so much.
Thanks.
Our next speaker is Regina Johnson.
Good evening.
I appreciate the opportunity to address the new board.
Before I get started, I'd like to express appreciation for taking a position at your
last board meeting that was not popular but necessary.
In relation to that, I'd like to address the bond package budgets and your role as fiduciary
oversight.
After watching recent board meetings, it's clear the district struggles with immediate
or future O&M demand.
Ann, blames state legislators and the governor all the while using the staff pay as the pawn
in the annual budget game.
I've been in and out of this district for the past 12 years, and pay always comes up.
Some on this board have been here longer, and the issue hasn't been fully resolved,
which is disappointing.
My background is optimization in the energy sector, and the rule there is the closer to
the oil head you are, the safer your job.
And when income is strained and access to capital becomes harder, we lean internally
to identify and present to the board cuts that can be made across every single function
and any impacts to the bottom line.
We don't cast blame.
Perhaps KDISD can do the same.
Actual cuts across all functions would present optimization of waste-eliminating opportunities.
Adjusting your tax rate may help as well.
Non-value-add programs, overlap in personnel doing the same or similar jobs,
a deep dive into your supply chain contracts for best practice and best
prices would be a good start if you did that perhaps your discussion around
tapping into fund balance would lessen optimized O&M would allow for more funnel
more to be funneled into that salary piece of the pie that you presented a
couple months
ago or in june in your budget pie chart that went to these folks pay protect your wellhead and
closest to it in tandem fix your discipline policy thank you sir so those that behind me that are
asking for support will want to stay i was a private citizen member of your bond committee
and a minority in the room i would say the majority was kdisd badge personnel contractors
contractors and trustees, no matter how they identified.
I voted no for many of the items because when I asked,
we were either not afforded the requested details
or got a straight answer.
Like why these projects?
Why these totals?
Why are these projects under a bond instead of O&M?
What projects didn't make the list?
What metrics were used to determine the priority?
What is your ESG score, CSR score?
Do you guys have to do that?
And how's that tying to the receipt of your bond?
Can you show me incremental increase in student injuries to justify new turf at Legacy?
But tying back to your budgets, I'll get real quick.
What is the impact of every single thing to your O&M budget?
If you're struggling at O&M now and you go to vote on a bond, how is it going to impact?
Like Chromebooks, they hit your O&M with an increase.
They require additional head count.
They require a three-year recurring bond at $8 million in today's dollars for us voters
voters to maintain the kit.
So.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your time's up.
Thank you.
This concludes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your time's up.
Your time's up.
Thank you so much.
This concludes the open forum portion of our meeting.
The Board will now convene in closed meeting as authorized under section 551.001 of the Texas Government Code for the following purposes.
Texas Government Code 551.071 and 551.129. Thank you.
you. The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, July 24, 2023. Is my microphone
on? Okay, thank you. The board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, July 24, 2023,
and the time is 5.58 p.m.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's work-study meeting.
Each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Friday, July 21, 2023.
The board will receive information and documentations from staff, administration,
and the superintendent on these agenda items as tonight's meeting.
Board members will be able to ask questions, receive answers,
and should be prepared to take action.
Just by the way, this is our first work study meeting since we implemented two meetings a month.
One is a work study meeting which will be basically to receive information, to discuss,
and not necessarily to take any action until the regular meeting which will be next Monday.
In accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code,
any action arising from a discussion and closed meeting,
6.1 2023-2024 Budget Update
which we just reconvened from, must be taken in open meeting.
The first item of business is a report on the 2023-2024 budget update,
and our presenter is Chris Smith, Chief Financial Officer.
Good evening, Superintendent Gagorski, President Perez, and trustees.
It's my pleasure to be here tonight to give you an update on the budget that we'll be
asking you to adopt next month for September 1 start date.
We've gone through this much of our budget and here we are again.
Our goal is to maintain a balanced budget.
What you're going to see tonight will be a surplus of $14.2 million without a salary
increase at this point.
Last month when you saw this, it was a $3.5 million.
What's the difference?
We went back and looked at our local interest earnings,
and interest earnings have been up since just before Christmas,
and they continue to be strong.
We're amending the budget that we're currently operating under
to show more interest earnings.
But interest earnings are really helping out when you apply that.
We usually look at other local revenues after the school year is over because that stuff is still changing every month.
And when the school year is over, we get a better look, and that's when we looked and saw, hey, we've got some money there and interest that can help.
So that's the big difference there.
We want to maintain a competitive compensation plan.
We want to maintain our health plan.
We're going to talk about the health plan in a couple of items tonight.
We're going to try to avoid TRS active care because our plan, although it's not the best in the world, so I hear it's way better than TRS active care, which the majority of the ISDs across the state are participating under.
Obviously, we have a high priority on student safety, staff safety, and we're opening Youngblood and Fountain Elementary schools.
schools. And then also in the budget that you're going to adopt next month, we're going
to have expenses to open junior high 18 and high school 10 because those expenses will
hit in the 23-24 budget. So let's look at this and what happened about 10 days ago in
Austin lowered the tax rate. We knew that it was going to be about a 7.5 cent decrease.
That's what I told you all last month.
Now we're looking at a 10 to a 17 cent reduction.
We've seen when the tools that are available to the financial services departments across the state have shown anywhere between a 10 and a 17 cent tax reduction.
I'm very optimistic that it will be higher than that.
I'm using a 13.5 cent in that graph in the range of 7 to 10.
We will know tomorrow what that's going to be.
Tomorrow, by the end of the business, our values are due from the county appraisal districts, Harris, Waller, and Fort Bend.
Those certified appraisal values will be due.
We won't in Harris County because of the size.
We will only get 90% certified.
But those three things combined will give us the final piece that we need to determine exactly how much our tax rate is going to be lowered.
and I do expect it to be somewhere between 10 and 17 cents. Again let me
back up and say that that's that's from the special session that just happened
and they put significant dollars towards tax relief. There's also a homestead
exemption which we'll find out the actual voters go to the polls in
November for that but when we receive our values we should be receiving what
what $100,000 on all our homesteads exemptions would look like
so we can include those in the next budget presentation.
Okay, I want to talk about the deficit.
I want to kind of hit pause and back up to this time last year
when I told the board that I was not going to lose sleep
over the deficit that was going to be adopted at $11 million
dollars because I knew some things that that usually happen it's just they're
not solid enough to put in an original budget or they're one-time dollars that
that happened and then when in doubt myself and the staff is conservative so
here's a list of things that are happening that we know of in the 2022
23 that we expected are not expected but we anticipated this time last year but
but they've come to fruition.
The additional earnings is not one.
Knew we were probably conservative in that,
but that conservative, no.
$9 million of additional earnings.
When you look at the amount of return
that our budget and treasury office has been able to give,
we're looking at $9 million.
That's in a budget amendment tonight.
I think it's the first item, 7.1.
You'll see that in there.
Additional state revenue from student demographics,
$10 million.
dollars as we took a hit to revenue when it came to our average daily attendance
our average daily attendance was down still two basis to two percentage points
although our enrollment was way up it did not make up for the low the low
attendance rate however we did had higher comp ed numbers that that was
than we budgeted as well as special needs demographics were higher and those
two things brought us up out of the ADA slump and to about ten million dollars
so again when in doubt we try to use that crystal ball but when in doubt we
lean toward conservative it could be in conservative as surrender at cost
revenue we would look at as being four point three million dollars that's not
been budgeted yet that'll be budgeted in the final amended budget because we'll
know exactly what it'll be next month we have a property review value audit in in that the
comptroller has reviewed sent off we've accepted it and it's sitting at tea waiting to fund that
and we're expecting some significant dollars off a prior year property value audit that was done for
the 21 22 school year and then we're we've been talking ad nauseum about our underspending this
year and we're probably looking at about 10 million dollars when you look at salaries and just
just campus and department budgets that have been underspent we're looking at about 10 million
dollars and then we've got some unfavorable changes we're already starting to issue refunds
in the current tax year for current tax collections and so we expect to to dial that tax
collections uh off uh back uh between now and next month um and then the insurance supplement uh
That's probably a very aggressive number, meaning it's probably too high,
but we do want to cover the loss to our insurance program through the general fund.
Those three things, all of those things added together show that we are out of our deficit
and will likely add to fund balance, and it will probably be more than an $8.3 million add to fund balance.
Those same things that are out there for 23, 24, with the exception of one thing,
I was asked to budget for the ESSER indirect cost revenue.
So the numbers that you're going to see tonight, although one time at $3 million, they're in tonight's revenue number.
But we cannot expect that next year.
But I was asked to add that.
So that's already been in there.
But the other items are not.
Okay.
Again, I've just kind of talked about these.
And I'm not going to hit all of them because it's just the same thing with no numbers.
I wanted to show this.
this is our historical staff trends. This is where our money is spent at 88 percent. And you can see
that in instruction, these are our FTEs, mostly teachers per student. And if that number goes,
if that line goes up, we're getting a little richer in our spend. So this is brought down
per student. So, you know, we add teachers every year because of our growth.
both. But when you look at it from a per student standpoint, that line is relatively flat,
although it, but it does go up a little bit, which is good for, for classroom learning.
There in the orange is instructional support. And you can see that that's been pretty level
over the years. District operations, you can see that's actually tailing down. I'll give
Mr. Vierling and Mr. Fuchs the credit for that. They're looking really hard on how we can save on
our utilities. Remember, that's our second largest expense behind salary and benefits, and you can
see the efforts of that since the 2018-19 and working that expense down. And then there's the
central administration at a relatively flat line. Yes, we get more central administrators or people
that work in this building but over because it takes more work with as
larger as we get but again that's a flat line meaning that when you look at it
for student it's about the same as it was ten years ago so our variables we're
still dealing with the basic allotment regardless of the point in blame there's
there's no blame to point other than state law in Texas does regulate how we
We are, all districts are funded, and that basic allotment number has been the same since 2018-19 school year.
So this is our fifth year that we'll be using that, and it has the main fuel for all school districts when it comes to generating revenue.
That gold number there that you see, that's, and I'm amazed at how many times it's been printed.
It's what saved our bacon.
we have eight golden pennies and the yield on those golden pennies increased by that
$28 that generated about 28 million dollars
That's how we pulled out of that deficit that we were in last year's because of that
That's nothing that was done during this last legislative session. This was done during a session two or four years ago
I don't remember which
But they put that into law and so it had to go up during this last session because of prior law
But that was a good for us because we have all eight golden pennies
And again, that's what put us in what I would consider at this point a favorable position with the surplus that I spoke to earlier.
Our enrollment, we've got as a 3,475 student increase.
Again, that we were higher than what we budgeted as the year ended.
So that probably makes this year's a little bit more conservative.
conservative. And I want to also say that when I mentioned average daily attendance earlier,
Mr. Hines and myself have dialed back our percentage this year. Last year, we budgeted
as normal thinking things would go back to normal, and they didn't. This year, we're not. We're going
to, we've dialed back our attendance rate in there. So the attendance incentive that you guys approved
last month, if it's positive, will yield positive to our bottom line, should yield positive to our
bottom line teacher growth and non-teacher growth there's those numbers we've talked about
and right now again i know the administration is recommending a three percent across the board
salary increase this presentation for for the most part has zero uh and then we'll i'll talk to if
you add 21 million dollars to it and i'll do the math for for those that are maybe math challenged
I'm required to mention this. State funding is like a fulcrum, and the fulcrum is that
$6,160. And as property values go up, our local share increases, meaning that the taxpayers
of the district are responsible for more and the state is responsible for less. But the
flip side can be said for districts that may lose value. Their taxpayers are responsible
responsible for less and the state's responsible for more. So it's a fulcrum. And obviously we have been more as local share increases that left hand side. This is the same thing showing the same information with a little bit more detail. But again, as property values increase, the state's share decreases and vice versa.
So 88% right now in salary and benefits, non-payroll is 12%.
Both of those are rounded.
At this point, it's 88 point something and 11 point something,
and I've rounded them to 88 and 12 respectively.
So our general fund, the tonight's budget amendments will show we're kind of
the cart before the horse, if you will.
You haven't approved the budget amendments,
but because it made a good impact to the fund balance,
projected fund balance as of September 1, 2023,
and in a committee we had last week,
there was some obvious what I felt was people didn't understand the effects of it,
so I went ahead and showed it there.
So it shows us with a $324 million fund balance,
that's about three and a half months.
That's a large number, but it's about three and a half months.
Three months is what you want to be in any household.
or in any organization, you really want three months cash, and that's what we have.
Our revenues are just over a billion dollars.
Next month, you're going to see a major change, not to the bottom line of that $1.22 billion,
but you're going to see a major shift from state program, actually from property taxes and other local to state.
Those two are going to swap because of what was done 10 days ago.
There's not enough time nor a tool to do it yet.
They released a new tool today.
It takes about five hours to work through that tool.
I haven't done it yet.
It was released this afternoon.
But by this time next month, you'll see a significant shift away from taxes
and a significant increase in program revenues.
I don't think you'll see an increase to the bottom line at this point.
Federal programs are up.
That's the $3 million I told you about on the ESSER indirect cost.
That is in there.
It will not be there this time next year.
Expenditures, again, there you can see that 88% salary and benefits at a billion six million expenditure budget.
Transfers out, that's $3 million that we transfer out to the health insurance fund to keep it healthy.
and then there's $500,000 that goes in that's from the operations of the Leonard Merrill Center.
That would be a net change to fund balance.
You saw this on slide two, $14.2 million for an ending fund balance of $338.7 million.
Again, the administration's recommendation is a 3% across-the-board salary increase,
which is just under $21 million, or I'm rounding to $21 million.
So you would look at, if you did, add a $7 or $8 million deficit if we do what the administration has recommended,
which, again, 100% not going to lose sleep over that because of the things that I'm aware of that came to fruition this year
that I think will come to fruition as we move through next year.
So not going to lose a wink of sleep over a deficit that's around $10 million.
dollars food service fund uh it's starting out with a 19.6 million dollar fund balance i told
the committee last month i've told the this board on several occasions and i told the committee just
last week that 19.6 is too high we've got to get that spent down we've been trying to spend it down
but unfortunately with what we're using the spend on uh it's with the renovations and construction
projects and you got to get to that part it's like if we were building a house uh we can buy
with that source, the dishwasher, the stove, the oven, and the refrigerator.
But guess what?
Unless the house is framed, the cabinets are in, you really can't get that put in.
So we can't spend that money, and hopefully we'll spend it in the 23-24 school year,
and that's an intentional spend down because, again, the Texas Department of Ag has said
and our auditors have said that's too high of a fund balance.
You need to spend it down, and we're trying.
Right. Our food service operation is very efficient. With COVID, it became extremely much more efficient, and that's what generated that big increase in fund balance.
And again, we've got a plan to spend it down. Our debt service fund, I don't know why I like this slide, but it just shows that the property values have gone up,
because and we've we've grown in students because property values have
gone up meaning there's value in the houses and the apartments that those
students are in there's value in there's taxable value in the businesses that
support those students and those families but unfortunately we've had to
add to borrow through issuing bonds to build schools and we've built what
thirty-something schools in the last 20 years and that takes that takes debt
There's no way in Texas to fund a school through operations.
There's no way.
If you did, there would not be any money to pay teachers
or to meet the law of student-teacher ratios in and of itself.
There's no way.
Debt service fund, what it looks like,
it's got a healthy fund balance of $60 million, $244 million in revenues.
news again i want to point out that we do not receive any state funds in existing debt or
instructional facilities allotment back in 1999 the legislature put in a program and that helped
build new schools across the state we were recipients of that those monies until about
the 2014 13 14 school year we no longer are recipients and i'm not sure that anybody receives
those funds anymore because the property values have gone up enough that we've we've run out of
being able to receive state aid so when we receive when we issue bonds we're 100 on our own in katie
or in in katie isd and in most districts we do get the support of the permanent school fund which
helps lower our bond costs as does our good uh credit ratings from moody's and standard and poors
but we get no help from the state when it comes to just paying cash for our buildings
when they do increase the homestead exemption they do fund that so all the bonds that are
outstanding now when it when the Hubstead exemption increases from forty
thousand to a hundred thousand I expect that three million dollars to increase
even significantly more we're not quite there yet but we should be next month on
and that number you'll see that number grow and that property taxes will go
down because we're going to budget as if a homestead exemption were out there and
we're not going to collect as much taxes so the state's going to make up for it
There's $244 million in expenditures on that.
143.4 is in principle that does include $20 million in defeasance.
We're going to flat out save taxpayer dollars by identifying $20 million worth of bonds
and just paying them off and save us interest.
And that would put us at a small surplus.
And again, we have a good fund balance in the debt service fund that if a homestead exemption
and the whole harmless didn't make up for it like we expected hopefully that
we could lean on that fund balance if we had to in a year or two if it was tough
I will say that moving forward you know any district that has that has not had a
bond election and it's not sold bonds yet assuming they they they they those
those bonds will not be eligible after some certain date so if a school district like katie
has a bond election in november we're on our own it will not be subject to asahi again our numbers
were conservative enough i feel still feel very comfortable but that's why it makes paying down
as much principal as we can uh like with that defeasance that much more important it helps us
that much more so our summary of all funds you know you've seen all three of these now that's
this that all of it so we've got about a 404 million dollars in fund balances 1.3 billion
in expenses are in revenue 1.3 1 1 in expenses uh and an ending fund balance of 403 million 287 000
um state funding i i'm confident i was confident six months ago that or seven months ago that
something would have been done in Austin that didn't happen. I am confident that
one of these special sessions that will happen in September or October there
will be some funds appropriated towards the school funding formulas. I will say
that as I mentioned last month we've got there's 4.9 billion dollars that was in
House Bill 100 that is basically in the budget that was supposed to go to public
education that that's just sitting there. So there's money that that is sitting
sitting there ready to go to public ed and that's what makes me confident in that. We are being
fast growth or prorated our fast growth allotment. We are the largest growing school district
over the last five years at 14,000 students over a five-year look back. That is by about 3,000 or
4,000 students higher than the second next one but that puts us at 42 million dollars in the fast
growth allotment that's being prorated backwards and so we're only getting
about 30 30 million out of that so if you look at the difference between that
and in the full amount along with the tier two implications you're probably
looking at a 14 million dollars so had that been funded to where this at a at a
level that would have went everywhere or would have been a sufficient and
adequate level we would have a balanced budget or even after you guys adopt a
salary increase. That's really hurting us that it's not been fully funded. And then we're obviously
going to be looking at ongoing rulemaking with the laws that were done during the regular session
in this special session already. And again, tax rates are going to vary. We don't know at this
time. We'll know tomorrow or for sure by the end of the week what our tax rate is going to go down.
It's going to go down a lot.
Okay, budget and tax planning calendar.
Here's where we are tonight on the top.
Next week, y'all are going to approve a couple things.
We're going to publish with TEA by Friday, August the 4th,
we're going to have our maximum compressed rate.
That's what's driving the rate down.
We're going to file that with TEA.
And then August the 10th, we're going to publish a notice of meeting,
public meeting to discuss the budget and the tax rate.
That will be done on August the 21st.
And in September, you guys will adopt that rate that's significantly less than the rate we have now.
This is what the notice says.
We're going to be meeting on August the 21st in this room at 5 o'clock to discuss the budget and proposed tax rate.
And that's where we are.
It leaves August.
And with that, I'm done.
done. If anybody has any questions, I'm glad to ask. I know everybody's excited. Remember three
months in your personal lives? Thank you, Mr. Smith, and really appreciate the time that you
and your staff spent with our board finance committee recently to go over the budget again,
and we see some really significant improvements from when we met a month ago.
We were looking at a $3 million surplus roughly and now $14.2 million I believe and with the
3% that was proposed we were looking at about a $19 million deficit a month ago and now
we're looking with the 3% that's been proposed about a $7.4 million deficit.
So huge improvement and we appreciate the, you know, drilling back and looking back at
the budget and making those improvements because it provides a lot more flexibility in terms
of as we look at the salary picture, it's a lot different now than it was a month ago
and we were looking at a $19 million deficit, which many of us on the board were not very
excited about.
So improving that deficit to about $7.4 million even with the 3% and $14.2 million surplus
plus without it is a big improvement in terms of looking at the budget.
So appreciate that effort.
Take another look at it.
Definitely very positive.
Anybody have any questions?
Mr. President, I have a question.
So the golden pennies, so I know it's in there, but can you, there's a couple people in the
audience who knows what that is.
I'm looking.
But can you educate us to what because when I multiplied that out that's about 11 million dollars is that correct that we get?
In in golden pennies. No, it's about 50 million. We get in total
52 million I think is to be
But what that is is for golden pennies it is that number
$126 times our weighted average daily attendance which in our case is
120,000, Jamie? Rough, you know, that's off the cuff. It's about 120,000 weighted students. Now, again, that includes all the special populations like dyslexia, gifted and talented, special ed, free and reduced lunch.
All of those dozens of variables, when you look at it through the formulas, we have about 120,000 weighted average daily attendance.
So it's $128 yield times weighted average daily attendance per penny.
So you would take those 115,000 times 128 times 8, and it generates a large number.
And we're responsible for a portion of it.
The state gives us a big chunk of it.
That's why they're golden, because the state gives us a big, big chunk on those.
And so when we saw the increase of what was it, $30?
It's 30 times $120, 20,000 students times the eight golden pennies, and that's what
generated about $28 million.
And again, most ISDs, unless they've had a VATRE or a Wobbeye collection, only have five
golden pennies.
We have eight here in Katy, which is a really good thing to have all eight.
Mr. President, just quickly.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
I'm excited about what the state has done for taxpayers.
I mean, that's good news for the people of Katy and across the state.
and they'll make up that difference of when you show the picture of the person where we the
taxpayers pay more than half of an education that's not what the constitution has set out
that's not that's not what it's supposed to be and so they're making that better and i applaud
them for that when we have when we deliver such quality instruction to students and we're the best
at it when we do that it takes people 88% of a budget of a billion plus plus
plus billion dollar budget 88% of that goes to people who are making a
difference for students and their families in the future when you only
have 12% to provide everything else it it's it's difficult to have this kind of
budget because every 1% is how many millions of dollars to increase in
salary every one percent is seven million so when you talk big numbers like that it's it's a great
responsibility for us to to make decisions to be able to take care of the people who take care of
our students and i appreciate your information for us to help us make a good decision for that
Thank you.
Thank you.
6.2 Discuss and report upon the most current operating results of the 2023 Health Plan and the future planning activities for the 2024 Katy ISD Health Plan.
Any other questions?
Thank you.
Our next item is 6.2, which is to discuss and report upon the most current operating
results for the 2023 health plan and the future planning activities for the 2024 Katy ISD
health plan.
and the presenter is Lance Nauman, Director of Risk Management.
Just.
Thank you.
Got dual factor authentication working here.
Okay.
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Yeah.
Yeah.
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Okay.
Thank you.
All right, while we're working through some technical difficulties, I'm here as part of our semi-annual report to you about how the health plan is doing.
If you'll recall, back in May, I brought to you a very comprehensive, very lengthy presentation of how 22 ended and what we were looking at in terms of 23.
And this evening I want to kind of bring you up to date where health plan year 2023 is
progressing and what we want to look at is projection, actual, what we're doing and our
next steps.
steps.
Yeah, it's in board docs.
Maybe you can talk to that.
Okay.
It should be in your board docs.
And here we go.
I apologize for this.
We're going to look at plan year projection against year-to-date actuals.
We're going to look at plan year 23 activity, and then what we're doing in 24,
and then our next steps to you in August.
As you can see, when it came to you last year,
we had a loss projection of a negative 5.163 million,
where we collected 66.3 in contributions from employees and district contributions.
We had medical expenditures we were projecting at 49.3 million,
and pharmacy spend of 15.1 million with administrative costs to run the plan
and administer all the programs that we have of 7 million,
leaving us a projected negative 5.163.
If you look forward in terms of a six-month projection,
we should be at a negative 2.5 million.
In actual numbers, we're at a negative $944,000,
which is really good considering where we were in 22 and in 21.
Some of you have seen those numbers as we progress through COVID.
A lot of the impact that we have seen, I try to use the terminology that when we were during COVID, people were trying to find medical in each and every way they could.
They weren't following good practices.
It was in the hospitals were closed.
Doctors offices were closed.
What we saw was over-utilization of emergency rooms, urgent cares, but we also saw tremendous activity in our virtual medicine platform, which deferred, kept us from having even greater expenses.
So if you will look at the next slide in your presentation, I wanted to show you what's going on.
In 22, the yellow line exhibits what the activity was.
And then, as you can see in the blue line on the medical spin for this year, current through, we're beginning to see a stabilization of medical spin.
And what we saw in 22 was because of the hospitals were shut down, people deferred getting diagnostic care.
They deferred surgeries.
And a lot of things that people had in their bodies and diseases that were manifested didn't come to fruition until the latter part of 22.
And you can see the spike where it happened in, you know, April and May of last year when
that's when people's hospitals started opening up again and people started seeing treatment
activity.
And as it followed form with the pharmacy spin, it paralleled, but it's down significantly.
The next slide is just an exhibit of what plan year 22 premiums were, where we increased
premiums a little bit and impacted the POS2.
And what we saw, the takeaway from this I hope for you to understand this evening is
is we saw a migration away from the POS2
to the more profitable Memorial ACO
and the high deductible health plan.
We had about a 16% migration away from the POS2
to the other two plans.
So what were some high points in 23
that we were able to accomplish?
In 23, we entered into a new pharmacy plan, which
which will save us an estimated $1.2 million in additional rebates in terms of pharmacy rebates from Express Scripts, or PBM.
We've implemented control measures to check the overutilization of specialty meds for treatment outside their intended purposes.
I think you've seen in the news here lately some specialty meds are being used for other purposes.
We've put control measures in place with our PBM.
We don't want to prohibit people from getting pharmacy, but we want to make sure that the drugs that are being used are not outside their intended purpose.
And then medical spending, as I alluded to earlier, we've seen some stabilization from the COVID influences of inflation, underutilization, catching up,
and then chronic diseases that have morphed themselves into greater than expected.
So what are we doing for 2024?
We're currently evaluating plan designs and the structure for plan year 2024,
and we're also will be looking to market our voluntary benefits with new pricing out in the marketplace this next coming August.
and my next step is to bring to you, as we normally do in August,
our proposal for premiums and voluntary benefit offerings
for your consideration for the employees for plan year 2024.
And I will also add to conclude, for those of you who are new to the board,
our plan year is a January 1 anniversary date.
It does not follow form with the fiscal year.
so and again I apologize for the technical difficulties I'm unaware what
happened here so thank you any questions yes mr. president I have some questions
champagne thank you so much for your presentation mr. Norman but you know I
see that we have reduction in prices however what why are our premiums going
up especially for the employee plus spouse employee plus children if our
costs are going down then why are those going up so much well that was 22 if you
look the exhibit I'm showing was playing your 22 and up until 22 the district
had made a conscious decision not to to increase premiums because it was a
decision that was made we would take those those funds and basically absorb
those losses over time. It's very important that at some point in time you
have to because of inflation I think I've mentioned the term medical trend we
have to stay up with our inflationary trend and we have a very we have a very
good trend it's three and a half to four percent that we have to stay up with
that and if you if you stay up with that the the increase in premiums are
incremental as it relates to inflation.
And that keeps, everything does go up,
and we try to keep as little pressure upon the staff,
but we have to stay up with those increases.
Now, the decrease in spend is, as I said,
we've seen, we had hyper-utilization during 21 and 22.
We're now seeing a more stable, historic trending of expenses.
Okay, but so like if I look at any of these plans on page six, the, for example, the MHACO has gone up $164 for the employee plus spouse.
It's gone from $655 in 2022 to $819 in 2023.
23. And so are you saying we're trying to recapture the expense that we put off from the
COVID years? Yes. And trying to make it up now? In the last two years, we're trying to play in 23.
We tried to catch up a little bit incremental to those, but also too, we have to look at
where our large losses are occurring and try to price those programs within those respective
tiers and we were seeing a lot of large losses in that tier two which is the
employee plus spouse so are we ever going to go back down to you know once
we catch up with ourselves can we see that we could go back down I think
prudence is you have to stay up with inflation your medical training if we
look at that every year we actually rarely do a loss pick that says this is
is where we're going to be and it's based on our previous numbers so i mean we look at that and we
try to look where we can save money from administrative piece to keep keep the total
cost of the program and i think i'll bring something to you later this evening where we're
able to do that uh to hedge those those those premiums um going up any further than they might
need to be. And the last question is, do you shop for better deals with different insurance
companies? Yes, we do. We are currently within a program with Aetna and next, this time next year,
we'll be going out to the marketplace. Now, keep in mind, we are what's on an ACO model with Aetna.
We pay an administrative cost per employee per month, and we're self-insured.
So all the things that we try to teach our employees to be good consumers of their health spend impacts us all.
There really is, in terms of there's not an insurance company underwriting this.
These funds come directly from the general fund for expenses to our health care.
I had one question on the administration.
So the seven million annual projection is that an outside third party that we bid out that is multiple
Mold that's Aetna. That is the administration piece. We paid Express Scripts to
dispense our drugs that's
stop-loss insurance that is
We have what we call our save on program which is a program where we pay a third party to go out and
find other additional savings on the specialty meds I think I explained if
you were calling back in May the trend on specialty meds is 17 18 percent so
this is a backdoor way that we can find additional savings that helps not only
the district but it also helps the employee at the point of sale so it's
that's a that's a capture of a lot of different things that we keep the bills
rolling if you will administer the plan and it's it's a it's a very
comprehensive plan that we have to keep a lot of fingers in the pine yes to
specifically answer your question we shop those those programs as they come
up for renewal thank you any other questions thank you so much the next
7.1 Discuss and consider July 2023 budget amendments.
item is 7.1 which is to discuss and consider July 2023 budget amendments the
presenter is Sherry Butterfield executive director of budget and
and Treasury actually having Esperanza Rios who's gonna present those on behalf
of Sherry tonight welcome miss Rios good evening board president Perez and board
of trustees and superintendent Gregor ski tonight we're amending the general
operating fund local revenues to recognize nine million two hundred and
twenty nine thousand in additional interest earnings we are also
recognizing additional state revenue of 10 million 15,000 based on final PEMS
student demographic counts. General operating fund expenditures will
increase $35,000 due to increased concession expenses due to rising food
costs. All other general operating amendments are direct offsets between
functions. Approval of these amendments will result in an increase of 19 million
$1,209,000 to the general operating fund.
We will also be amending the food service fund revenues and expenditures to reflect an increase of $369,645 related to the summer food service program.
The other food service amendment is a direct offset between functions.
Approval of these amendments will result in no net change to the food service fund.
NEW SPEAKER PORCHAS.
ANY QUESTIONS?
7.2 Discuss and consider May 2023 Financial Reports
THANK YOU SO MUCH AND WELCOME TO KDISD.
THANK YOU.
THE NEXT ITEM IS THE MAY 2023 FINANCIAL REPORTS AND OUR PRESENTER IS JAMIE HINES, EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE.
Good evening, President Perez, members of the board, Superintendent Gorgorski.
You have before you our district's financial statements, construction report, and tax report
through the month of May, as well as a summary of our check registers for the month of May.
The financial statements include our expenditures, our revenues, and any changes in fund balance,
as well as an analysis by function and object.
The tax report provides information on our tax levy assessed,
collections to date, and our balances.
And our construction report has a summary of all of our capital expenditures.
A couple of things to note.
We're nine months through our fiscal year at the end of May,
which is 75% of our fiscal year.
At this point, we are seeing underspending fairly significant,
a lot like it was last year.
Mr. Smith commented on that earlier and will be bringing that later on into the budget, but we are seeing that.
Otherwise, we're kind of on par with the same place we were at last year at this time.
Do you have any questions?
Thank you.
As I recall, because of the underspending and other items, we're expecting our general fund to be,
be to end up approximately close to 340 or so at the end of around September 1?
I believe.
335, 340?
That's my dart girl, yes, sir.
Okay, that's what we're thinking right now.
Yes, sir.
Okay, thank you.
Any other questions?
Mr. President, I just want to make a comment.
Thank you.
I want to make a comment.
I saw that we, the financial team of KDIC, got awarded some kind of thing for the cost savings.
I know this isn't really, so I just wanted to applaud you all for that, the energy savings.
I just wanted to acknowledge that I thought that that was awesome that you.
Thank you for throwing that to financial services, and we do cartwheels over that kind of savings,
but the real credit goes to Mr. Veerling and Nathan Fuchs over our maintenance and operations department.
They have done a fantastic job.
You can see that in that graph I showed you, and they get all the credit.
We'll take it for just a second, but the reality is we get to enjoy it.
They're doing the work.
Yeah, and I won't take it at all.
Nathan and his team need the credit.
It was actually we were the only school district in the state of Texas was recognized by the Department of Education
and Department of Energy.
It was a great award, fantastic job that these guys do.
Chris spoke to it.
The fact that utilities are going down and our square footage is going up, they do an
outstanding job.
Well, congratulations to you all and thank you so much.
Thank you.
7.3 Discuss and consider a compensation increase for the 2023 - 2024 school year.
Thanks so much.
The next item is Discussion Considered Compensation Increase for the 2023-2024 School Year.
And the presenter is Brian Schuss, but I understand there actually is no, there is no new information
to present from what we, was presented last time.
I just want to highlight again that right we've had some really good news I
think in this budget reiteration this month versus last month for example the
general fund we now think it's going to be around 340 which is a significant
increase in improvement from what we looked at before the budget surplus
we're now projecting it to be 14.2 million before salary increases compared
compared to about 3 million that we saw last month.
And that the budget deficit, instead of being 19 million,
assuming the 3% salary increase,
is now gonna be a budget deficit of 7.4.
So a significant improvement.
Again, thank you to the finance staff and Mr. Smith
for spending time with us on the finance committee
and going through the budget with us in detail
with Miss Teamee and Miss Champagne and myself,
and we appreciate the improvement in the budget outlook for 2023-2024.
And really, given where we are and given the improvement in the budget
that we're seeing right now as far as a drastically reduced deficit,
I really see no reason why we should wait until next week to approve
approve and vote on the salary increase.
We should go ahead and do that now.
Mr. President.
Mr. President.
Ms. Teeming.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves a 3% increase of the midpoint across the board
for the 2023-2024 school year.
Second.
Do I have a second?
Second.
And the motion has been made and seconded.
And so if you were now I'm not sure that we're set up right now to vote on the there we go
so press your press your button for I or for nay to approve the
motion
And the motion carries seven zero
Mr. President, we didn't have discussion before the vote, so if I might, thank you to the
the finance committee for your work this week,
and to the team to be able to
look at the budget and find a way
to reward our hardworking staff.
It takes all of us, all of them,
to deliver quality instruction to our students
and to be able to show all of them
how much we value them is is important and I appreciate the board agreeing to
take some time to look at it again both since last month and I appreciate the
work that's been done and being able to reward all of our people three percent
is not enough you know we would love to do so much more but to treat them all
equally shows value and our appreciation for what you all do thank you thank you
very much for those comments anyone else have any comments or questions thank you
7.4 Discuss and consider publication of the Notice of Public Meeting to discuss the Budget and Proposed Tax Rate.
we'll now move on to item 7.4 which is discussing consider publication of the
notice of public meeting to discuss the budget and proposed tax rate and the
the presenter is Christopher Smith.
All right, well, this will be quick.
This time last year, y'all approved a resolution naming me the person responsible to complete this notice,
a public meeting to discuss the budget and the proposed tax rate.
You have a copy of a blank one of those.
As we get our values tomorrow and the rest of this week, working with the Texas Education Agency, et cetera,
We will publish this in the paper, and this will have the proposed tax rates, which again I expect to be significant reduction.
It shows what we expect our fund balances to be, our property values change from one year to the next.
This is an annual deal that we've been putting together every year my entire 26 years in public education,
And I'm the one responsible for doing that, and we ask that you, again, approve our being able to go and publish that next month for the August meeting.
And just to clarify, Mr. Smith, what we're doing, what we'll be doing next week with the approval will be just to publish.
the notice of the meeting.
Just to publish.
You've already, until that changes, I'm the person that this board has designated to be
the one responsible to fill that out.
I will have a couple members of my team that will do the blind share of the work, but I'm
7.5 Discuss and consider a Health Plan Consultant for the Katy ISD Self-Insured Health Plan and Voluntary Benefits.
the one that is responsible for it.
Okay.
Thank you.
The next item is to discuss and consider a health plan consultant for the KDISD Self-Insured
Health Plan and Voluntary Benefits.
and we have glad to hear from you again Mr. Nelman, Director of Risk Management.
Well I hope my presentation is in front of you this evening. I apologize for that.
No worries. That's the first time that's happened. Oh never, so I apologize. As part of the
ongoing management of the KDISD self-insured health plan, the district
seeks advice from a benefits consulting firm that provides actuarial projections
projections, legislative updates, compliance support, and market updates, as well as the
placement of voluntary benefits for KDIC staff, authorities granted through CR Legal.
Recently, the Risk Management Department sought proposals for healthcare consulting and the
placement of voluntary benefits.
As a result of the process, a total of six proposals were received and evaluated.
The district sought creativity in the design and the lowering of administrative expenses
where applicable.
After careful review, Risk Management recommends Inns Group of Houston as the lead consultant
for the health plan.
The proposal presented achieves the desired outcome the district was seeking with the
following.
One, the benefit administration system which provides open enrollment and staff support
will now be at no cost to the district. Based on current enrollment numbers on
the plan, this represents a savings of $948,980.
The fixed monthly consulting fee has been eliminated, which represents a
savings of $405,000. Current 1095 administration fees, as required under
the Affordable Care Act, are now vacated with new benefit administrative
administrative platforms, saving approximately $50,000.
The experience and engagement functionalities of the new enrollment platform will have no
impact on the staff.
Risk management will also gain operational efficiencies through technology enhancements.
Compensation to the vendor will be supported by the placement of voluntary products and
paid directly by the insurance carriers.
Additionally, Inns Group has reduced their compensation by 5%, further lowering voluntary
rates for the employees who elect these coverages. It is recommended that the
Board of Trustees approves Inns Group of Houston as consultant for the KDIC
plan and voluntary benefits for plan year 2024 with four additional one-year
renewals as mutually agreed upon.
Do we have any questions? When does this, when would they take over and what plan
year would it be? It will be plan year 2024 and this uh starting January 1. January 1.
And so they will help us shop and structure our plans? Correct. Do they start that now? Yes,
that will be started now. As you will see in transition that usually is the process.
We will begin that process upon your approval.
7.6 Discuss and consider the Discipline Management Plan and Student Code of Conduct.
Thank you.
The next item, 7.6, is to discuss and consider the Discipline Management Plan and Student Code of Conduct.
And our presenter is Sherry Ashorn, Director of Student Affairs.
Welcome.
Good evening.
Thank you, President Perez, members of the board, Dr. Gregorski.
You might remember we had a discussion item last month about the Discipline Management Plan.
The big changes you'll see in front of you include the retention of that dress code chart,
because I know that was a request that was discussed last month, as well as updates to any legislative changes,
most notably House Bill 114, which modifies, or I should say includes, DAP placements for e-cigarette use.
You may remember that our board a couple of years ago had approved that a DAP placement would be appropriate on a second vaping infraction.
So this would kind of trump that.
you will notice that the vaping language has been removed in order to include
that letter of the law e-cigarette reference in House Bill 114. Do we have
any questions or comments? Yes, Mr. Perez. Champagne? I do have some questions
about the discipline management guide.
First of all, do every parent and every student
are supposed to sign this, right?
So it is acknowledged during the registration process.
We provide updates in the e-newsletter,
the district updates.
Campuses also push out updates and information
in their newsletters and emails that are available.
But there is an acknowledgement.
It's not a physical signature anymore.
more so when i was looking at the actual paper copy of the guide there's a place for the signature
so there's not a signature anymore it's collected through the online registration process so that we
can easily document that of course if there was a need for someone to have a physical copy we
provide that to them um but that's linked online and that's where we track that signature of
acknowledgement so my point is is that it's been signed so because it's been signed it's expected
it to be followed the rules in the in the guide correct correct that we've provided notice of what
those roles and potential consequences may be if there's a violation of the code of conduct all
right so um i just want to say that there are some things i believe are not followed very well and
dress code telecommunications cheating to name a few i i don't believe that those
those policies are being followed at every campus the same way and I see that
you know there is discipline provided in the book so I don't have a problem the
way it was written and I'm not asking for that to be rewritten I'm just trying
to understand how how this can be reinforced I guess I'm just going to
keep harping on this I've been criticized sometimes for saying I'm not
mentioning anything about terrorist attacks well I'm only bringing up things
that I hear as concerns from the majority of parents and teachers so I'm
not bringing up every single thing that's in the book otherwise that would
take all night long I'm only bringing up a few things that seem to be
consistently not followed and not adhere to so I don't understand I just don't
understand why some of these things aren't being more actively disciplined
So I would love to have some kind of answer or follow up with that at some point, but
until then I guess I'll just keep stating it over and over again.
Mr. Champaign, I think this is a great opportunity because you have so many principals here listening.
You know, I too hear from the community in terms of like the enforcement of discipline
seems to be inconsistent from campus to campus.
And schools have the reputation or not,
or whether they, about enforcing discipline,
enforcing dress code, the cell phones, et cetera,
and it varies from campus to campus.
And, you know, from, as a, you know, we can,
I think that this handbook is great,
that the discipline management plan is great,
but it's a matter of, to me, looking from the outside,
of consistent enforcement.
That's the way I look at it.
And I'm, personally, I am,
and Dr. Gorski knows this,
we've talked about it,
I think cell phones is a huge problem.
I hear a lot about that from the community.
I wish that one day we could go,
we could aim or have a goal
of basically having a way for the day
cell phone policy.
Because it, you know,
I've got some things here,
here. Teens who were decreased overall smartphone use had stronger health relationships with
others. Higher academic scores, improvements in mental health, decreases in school exposure
to pornography. I mean it's more likely they're going to see pornography on somebody else's
phone than actually on a library book. Stronger support for anti-cyber bullying laws, increased
great honesty and also decrease in student incidents based on research I've seen.
So I would love it if we could tighten up on our cell phone policy as a goal.
Mr. President, can I say something back to you and also to the other principals here?
The benefit I see to that one-to-one Chromebook would be that if that was approved in the bond,
that we could have some kind of policy where everybody puts their cell phone away
way and everyone has equal playing field with the technology of that Chromebook rather than
have, you know, some people have flip phones and some people have, you know, I don't even
know what the latest iPhone 14, I don't know, or that one that opens up the big Android
thing.
You know, that's my hope with the one-to-one of the Chromebook.
But just in general, I just want to say something about dress code.
I know that a lot of people will say, well, dress code is not that important.
and it's just it's just a little thing but somewhere in here in this book it says that
there's going to be equal learning opportunity for everyone and that no distractions and i'm i'm sorry
but the dress when i see girls with you know from below their bra to above their uh below their
belly button exposure i don't i think that is a distraction to a lot of people and also you have
have to start somewhere with following the rules. If you can't make a kid follow a simple rule of
wearing a shirt that doesn't expose their stomach, then they're not going to follow other rules and
other rules and other rules. So that's just my thing. I'm not going to stop harping on it until
I can walk through a high school and not see that anymore. Thank you. Mr. President, I'd like to
to piggyback on to what Ms. Champagne said. I agree with maybe can we implement something to
where you're having some kind of signature, physical signature from the students every year.
It's like a contract that they sign every single year saying that you have read these rules,
you understand them by signing this, you are agreeing to this and the consequences that come
if you break these rules.
It's just, I mean, anybody else would do this
in a normal environment of signing a contract
saying that you're agreeing to abide by the rules.
This helps to support our staff
that's trying to implement these rules at every level,
and they're coming up against this,
and they're, oh, I didn't see it,
or that doesn't apply to me.
Well, yes, it does.
So it kind of takes the wiggle room out of this.
What does that look like,
putting that implementation into into practice mr. president miss Morgan miss
Calhoun sorry they that's why I was saying that they do shine that they do
sign this and you know I'm sure that many parents probably see it and sign it
for the kid on the now that especially now that we can do it online and
everything probably the reality is is a kid reading this whole thing you know
I doubt it, but I like your idea to make this one thing or whatever, a few things more specific,
so that they are forced to read a piece of paper rather than, I don't know how many,
150 pages of something that they're probably not going to read.
So I think that's a good idea, but they do sign it.
But it's a digital signing.
Exactly.
So there's a difference, and I mean, we all know that,
between you just clicking a button and it signed your signature and it's no big
deal to where you physically having to take a piece of paper and pen and
signing your name and it becomes a little bit more real and I know that
that seems very simplistic and that's not that's kind of silly but it's it's a
legitimate thing so again I go back to the same question of what does that look
like an implementation how can we see that being practiced what does that look
like I'm not sure I have a direct answer for you miss Calhoun I'm not sure what
the logistics of that look like collecting you know different papers for 95 000 students and
who keeps them and what does the one piece of paper say that's going to sum up the 70 page
document i'm not i think there'd be a lot of exploring to do there um to give you a more
direct answer um it is something that we used to do a long time ago before we had the opportunity
to actually document who was logged in who did click the button what was the date and time of
that button i do know that that's a screen that administrators utilize to again it kind of
acknowledge receipt of those rules right it's not necessarily saying you agree to the rules because
you may not agree but they are the rules and you have now acknowledged that we've provided you the
opportunity or the link or the information to familiarize yourself with what what the rules
are and what the consequences may be and we try to utilize um different opportunities i know that
that our office provides PowerPoints that summarize
the discipline management plan that campuses use
with their grade level assemblies to kind of give
that summary of what are the rules,
what could those consequences be like,
what's different for next year,
and we try to utilize parent communications
to really kind of hone in on those big pieces
that we're really trying to make sure they understand
before they come back to school.
And so I can imagine with the approval
of the discipline management plan the new dress code image will be one that will probably be
flying around the newsletters the staff documents our district e-news our website and so we'll
utilize those opportunities to really kind of educate while retaining currently that electronic
signature piece but as far as what does that look like or how would that be done i think i would
need to coordinate with our school leadership team and our campuses and ms hack and everyone just to
kind of find out what what would something like that look like on a bigger scale can i ask you
another question um so on that uh dress code policy specifically uh when we're talking about
a midriff shirt just so i'm clear on that that is not within dress code correct if if they are
showing showing skin right like if it's a crop top that's cutting off right that would not be
be with a dress code.
Right.
So and then the discipline for that is,
could you educate me on that?
Sure.
So it could be a range of options.
So since we provide the level charts, so if you look,
there's, I believe, a level two and a level three, perhaps,
of dress code violations.
Some of the consequences can include a behavior contract,
correcting the dress code, parent shadowing at school,
parent phone call, exclusion from extracurricular activities, social skills training, detention,
recovery time, overnight suspension, and those are just the level twos. Does any of that include
you changing your clothes? Sure, it could be correct the dress code violation. There's a
very specific action record to that to correct it right away. And our principals and our assistant
principals have the ability to enforce that rule to where you are said you can either change your
or close or you can be dismissed.
You might need to specify the word dismissed.
Like you're talking about like a,
can go home, like a suspension?
You can either choose to stay in school
and change or close.
We will provide you with a PE shirt if you want one.
Or you can be dismissed from school
with an unexcused absence.
In school suspension, something to remove you
from the learning environment.
To remove you specifically, I.
If you choose not to change your clothes.
If you choose not to.
Right.
I'm not confident, Ms. Calhoun, how often they just refuse to change their clothes.
I think I'd have to do some research with our school leadership team to see kind of what their frequency is.
Right now, we do have the opportunity for overnight suspension, which is a mandatory conference.
We can give them that behavior conference, which would remove them temporarily from the instructional environment.
but at this moment in time we reserve ISS and OSS for you know violent or
significant disruptive behaviors so we can keep them in instruction I don't
want to speak on the behalf of principals I can hear them murmuring
behind my shoulders making me very nervous I don't want to speak on their
behalf but but I I want to say they're pretty successful in the correction of
those dress code violations now what what that student does when they walk
out of the office and turn the corner you know might be another thing but i do think outside of
our actual physical documentation of discipline in e-school plus for dress code violations i think
that's redirection that's occurring in the hallways on a consistent basis my visits with the high
schools in the spring we did talk a little bit about dress code and you know it was something
that was being addressed constantly and consistently as they could um but again if that
that student corrects the dress code violation,
turns the corner, and then engages in another violation
or unzips the hoodie or whatever the case is, right?
They're having to, you know, check that, you know,
chase that student down again.
And that's kind of just one simplistic answer,
but I don't know if that answered your question.
That was a little bit of rambling.
I just want to make sure that if we're asking our administrators
to enforce all of these rules,
that there's something to back them up to say,
say, hey, you can do this, you can utilize this, and you can use this with the full force
that you have, and that this is there, the student has acknowledgment of it, the parent
has acknowledgment of it, this is not me picking on you because I don't like your outfit or
it's not cute, it's because I would like you to cover your body.
And here is why, and here is what you need to do in order to do that, so that everyone
can have a learning environment where they don't have to stare at you without half of
your clothes on.
So I want to make sure that our administrators and that our teachers have the support in
in order to enforce those rules.
So I want to be clear with what that looks like.
Does that make sense?
Absolutely, yes.
So I think that the new image will give us
some common language and a common image we can all
point to across the district, no matter what campus you're at.
And you were correct.
A dress code violation is a violation
of the board-approved discipline management plan.
And there are a range of consequences
available by administrators where
they can pick the option that would best change the behavior
or best help the student modify that behavior for the future.
So it's not if this happens this there's only one consequence right your your plan has the level system so that they can choose
What's best for that student in that situation?
And if that doesn't work then the next time they get caught they can try something else on the list right you're not limited to
Just that one consequence
Okay, mr.. President
Okay, I have a question for you. I'm just curious would you just
Being a former teacher. I'm I had principals that were very
very good at enforcing the discipline. And then I worked for teachers that, I mean, principals that
maybe didn't as much. And so I'm just curious if you know, do the principals in our district
feel the support that they need in order to apply the discipline management policy that
has been voted on and agreed to by the district? I believe so. My phone rings constantly and
and hopefully this group behind me will affirm that.
And so I provide not only that support, you know,
let's talk out the situation.
Where is that a violation in this document?
Oh, you're right, it doesn't really say that.
Let's try to see if it fits somewhere else.
So I provide that personalized customer support
that can help them apply this document.
And from what I can tell,
just based on my own personal professional experience,
is that it is being utilized.
And if there was a situation
where someone felt that it wasn't being enforced,
that's definitely something that could be reported
to Dr. Grigorski and myself with the school leadership team
could investigate, look, provide resources,
provide supports, whatever that may look like.
But from the seat that I sit in,
the number of phone calls I get
as soon as the school year starts,
I feel like they have the knowledge and tools
to be able to identify what the violations are
and what consequences they have available.
And then working within their admin teams and feeder patterns to try to enforce consistency along those lines
Well, I'm sure they I'm no doubt. They have the knowledge and the tools
I just don't know I want to be convinced that they're getting backed up when they do make a decision
Because sometimes you know parents are not always
Receptive or excited about any you know their child being disciplined
So I'm just saying that's an important role that they need to be able to depend on as well.
And I believe that's kind of why they call too.
And they don't only just call me.
They call our assistant superintendents for school leadership and support because they want that confidence that if they make a decision, especially one that might be a little messy or a little gray, that they have the full support if that parent takes it to the next level.
I think we have great training practices in place.
just today at admin conference, we were providing training on what to expect for discipline for next year,
what are some of the things being proposed, and so
we want them to be knowledgeable so that when they're making those decisions, they have the force not from district level,
but from this board-approved document that kind of takes the force of policy, right? As long as they're operating within these guidelines,
that's a lot of support right there.
Ms. Ashwin, thank you for all of this discussion.
We've confirmed that the document has everything in it that it needs.
We don't need to change the document.
It's the enforcing of the policies that we've voted on that makes it difficult for principals.
They have a bazillion things go on in a school day, many, many, many of which rise way above
of somebody zipped up a hoodie and then unzipped it
when no one was looking.
However, we get that.
And that it is a logistical nightmare
to try to follow through on dress codes when, let's face
it, the world right now is about dress codes that
don't fit in our policy.
So do principals have what they need to enforce it?
Understanding that consistency is the key, like it's just repetitive, right?
I understand the importance that I can see the looks on their faces and understand the importance of keeping kids in school so they're not doing that just to get to be sent home, keeping them in school.
But the consequences, like Mrs. Calhoun said, an ugly T-shirt or an oversized something,
would be, you know, whatever they choose to implement.
Do they have everything they need to implement the policy?
And if they don't, they call here and they get reinforcement to do that.
Because we all are saying we expect compliance with the policy.
and I just remember several times when we've had to change policy like over flip-flops because
they said we have kids in our office consistently over flip-flops so right we had to change it
because it was just too many children were missing instruction trying to enforce so if teachers
choose to look the other way are there consequences there like you have to report it to us so that we
can be consistent i remember one principal said i don't make the rules i just have to enforce them
so parents you can't be mad at me call the school board right so things like that do they have tools
is there a humor way they could get it across is do they have everything they need to uphold
the standards we've set and what can we do to help with that um so um i don't know if that was
a question sorry mr perez i mean or if it was kind of rhetorical do they have what they need but i
will say that our school leadership team the assistant superintendents um a lot of them have
even been you know fairly recent principles and so i think that's one of the greatest resources
um for principals to be able to troubleshoot how to implement this plan in a way that um you know
is reasonable doable what are those creative solutions within this plan that they can address
those concerns and if they need more resources what does that look like and
who do they ask so we have a great team there and I can speak to a little bit of
that too I'm over here hello I'm Chris Morgan assistant superintendent over
secondary schools with my partner dr. Craig we deal with a lot of issues with
our principals and our principals are fantastic about reaching out to us
asking questions I'll be honest with you most of our discipline that we work with
our principals on is not dress code dress code is definitely an issue that we need to address and we
know that and we have taken steps to do that the campuses have all they need to deal with these
things i will tell you as a former principal of the 3000 plus high school i am not in order will
my assistant principals be able to see everybody miss fox that you just mentioned all day every day
i used to tell my staff and i know my principals they tell their staff all the time we need your
help with that. So if you see somebody that's out of dress code, you don't have to address
it because they don't want to get in the weeds with the kids. And I get it. I understand
you don't want to get into an argument with a kid. So all they have to do is call the
office, tell the assistant principal, the assistant principal can meet them and go take
them out of the classroom and address the concern immediately. So it's a group effort.
Principals have everything they need, but again, you're not going to see every kid every
day that's out of dress code. So we'd have to have support from our staff, paraprofessionals,
teachers letting us know what we need to do but again we deal with all these
issues but again most of our issues are more serious than dress code but we will
address the dress code as well thank you mr. Sella yeah thank you mr. president
I have one question specific question I hear from also teachers both male and
female teachers being uncomfortable in the classroom because of the way a
female is dressed on the top some of which may be undersized shirt but has
Has there ever been any consideration of having something see-through?
She's wearing a shirt, she's covered, but it's all out.
So I don't know if that's really addressed here.
So it's probably not going to be as clear in our visual.
I do know that some of that, right?
Pun intended, maybe.
But that does happen.
Right?
But some of that language, you know, it does say at the bottom that school attire may not cause a material
or substantial disruption or interference with normal school operations. So that's kind of the
blurb on the bottom that I think administrators could point back to. To be fair, the box is
see-through and clear on the icon. It's at the very bottom of the icon. Yes. School attire may
not cause a material or substantial disruption of or interference with normal school operations.
So it doesn't specifically say no see-through clothing, but I think that's where I would
recommend if I receive that phone call an administrator to reference a student
a parent to yeah put that in the PowerPoint we can put it in the
PowerPoint yes just one more thing so I agree that the the rules are here I
believe mr. Morgan is corrected that they have you know the tools that they
need it's the enforcement that we're after and and I just want to say since
all the principals are here what I commonly hear is that they don't want to
discipline of I hate to pick on girls but generally a girl who's not wearing
something appropriate because they don't want to take away from her education a
little time but you're you're taking away from the other kids time too
because you know if you don't remove her they're all staring at her you know the
the other kids I mean these are hormonal teenagers and it just is just so so
So we're valuing the girl who's wearing the inappropriate, or the boy, who's wearing the inappropriate clothes,
but not thinking about the other kids in the room, too.
That's my point.
I'm done.
Thank you so much.
And, you know, I think we all know that discipline is a big reason why a lot of teachers leave the profession.
And so that's why we're kind of harping on this, because of the teacher issue, that they get frustrated.
they maybe they're pressured to under report instances and they just get tired of it and
they leave the profession.
So that's one big reason that we're harping on it.
Thank you so much.
I have one more question.
I'm sorry. I was wondering if you could help us understand a little bit more about the physical fighting discipline charts. I'm looking here and there are a couple revisions there on this.
And so I wanted to kind of address or look over that as well, because I know over the last year we have all seen some of the viral videos about some of the fights that have gone on, even down to a junior high level.
And we've seen it in our high schools to where our teachers are being put into, they're being put in danger.
our administrators are being put, their safety is paramount for us as parents
trusting these people to keep our children safe when they can't even keep
themselves safe. So what does that look like going forward in this next year
with the discipline management plan on how we're keeping our teachers safe and
what that discipline looks like when you have students that are acting out in
aggression in ways that is completely inappropriate and unsafe for an entire
environment? So a couple of things. So we're getting a little better at our
data collection so you'll notice that some of the changes proposed have separated fighting and
physical aggression because physical aggression might be a one student problem but fighting is a
two or more student mutual combat problem right so really being able to define those two separately
in our system will allow administrators to make you know data informed decisions about what's
really going on in their campus because right now if you look at fighting or physical aggression on
a campus you don't know how many of those were actually fights to even begin with so that's kind
of the first step the second step is that you'll notice in the changes what's been recommended are
permissive placements for multiple fights or assaults so last year we implemented permissive
placement to the daep if you engage in multiple fights we're obviously adding assault for this
year we have a behavior contract in place for students who engage in fights and will soon to
be multiple assaults to help educate them on what future consequences might look like which could
include a daep placement for typically 45 days because we do consider that more of the violent
violent type of offense so it would not be a 30-day placement but a 45-day placement
and so while working through those pieces from the discipline side of course there's behavior
interventions that can be provided we're considering if the student you know as a student
with disabilities there's all kinds of supportive measures that are going in place when these things
are happening but from the discipline standpoint first and foremost accurate data collection and
and then appropriate consequences based on that classification.
And then kind of long-term picture, if this is a repeat offender,
working with myself, with our leadership team,
the assistant superintendents to request a permissive placement to the DAEP.
So I'm just going to go back just for a second.
So you said that there's a behavior contract that they have to sign
if they get into multiple fights.
They can.
That's a tool that we give administrators,
and we certainly require that or recommend it and requirement if they're
going to ask for a permissive placement we want to make sure that they were told
very specifically engaging in future fights or assaults could you could get
you to the OAC okay so not to beat a dead horse but if you have a repeat
dress code offender who chooses to not cover their body or to be inappropriate
and what they're wearing could they also not sign a behavior contract stating
That you understand the rules is that also in place as well for just repeat offenders across the board
So behavior contracts can be made about anything regarding anything now whether or not it would be the same type of behavior contract
I'll be allowed a placement right but you could certainly
Even put some positive behavior reinforcements in there if you have you meet dress code for five days in a row
This is the positive reward that you can earn if you fail to meet dress code. These are what those consequences may be. Okay?
Okay. So on these physical fights, how many fights are we talking about or physical contact,
physical aggression that we're looking at? And what are we talking about? Where's the line?
Is it just one and you're out? Like this is a zero tolerance policy deal or what are we looking at?
And what does that mean in terms of when you said special needs or disabilities or something like that?
So what does that look like in terms of physical contact, physical aggression or fighting within the classroom?
Could you extrapolate on that a little bit for me?
Sure.
So zero tolerance is kind of a hard word because the state tells us we have six factors we have to consider before we can send a student to a DAP or send them on out-of-school suspension.
So it's intent, self-defense, discipline history, a bunch of words about a disability, but whether or not they have the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness, homelessness, and in Texas Department of Family Protective Services.
So before we can make any of those choices, we are required by law to consider those items,
which may or may not change the discipline.
It just depends.
Certainly, if you had a student who did have a disability specifically related to physical
aggression, it's possible that whenever they have their meeting to determine the change
of placement, they do a manifestation determination review, and you have to decide whether or
not the discipline is a manifestation of their disability.
And so we can't send kids obviously to the OAC if it's a manifestation of their disability
So that's a bunch of ifs and that's down the road if the disciplines even recommended and a bunch of special education information
I'm sure dr. Coffee would say much more clearly than I have but um
But that's kind of what what we're looking at
And and so it's not necessarily a one-and-done that if you get in your second fight you go it certainly could be
That's part of our district level committee that we have that's outlined in our discipline plan
It gives us an opportunity at the secondary level.
It's Dr. Emily Craig, Mr. Chris Morgan,
who you just heard from, myself, and Janelle Coleman,
the principal of the OAC.
And we meet with the campus
and we just talk about the student.
What's going on with the student?
What's the discipline history?
What happened?
You know, if it was more significant or highly disruptive,
you might go faster than maybe, you know,
something that was a little bit minor
or, you know, didn't involve as many students.
Like, it really just depends.
but our committee is the way of kind of discussing that,
vetting those placements, and then providing supports,
if necessary, to the students in the campus.
Mr. President, I was going to talk about the same thing
that Ms. Calhoun talks about.
Mine is more like for elementary level physical aggression
from students, this is where our APs and our principals
are tied up a lot of time in boys and girls
who are struggling, like our public forum speaker said.
We don't know why, what's happening at home,
or why they're there.
But what they have in place, do they have in place
everything they need to take action, number one.
Number two, I understand that the state has a restriction.
Dr. Gorgorski may be the one to ask about this.
The state has a restriction of the number of days
a student can be placed in the AB unit.
unit.
10 or something like that.
Is that correct?
I think you're talking about the total days of removal for a student who has a disability,
either a 504 or under IDA.
Yes, 10 days.
10 days.
Okay.
So when a student is, just the stories I've heard, right?
Clearing desk, disrupting an entire group of 22 students in a classroom repeatedly,
but can only be removed for 10 days.
there's your disruption of education for a greater number of people. Do you need
our help in an advocacy level at the state? How can we help those students be
best cared for, best given education, and yet also protect the other students who
are in the classroom and not protected because of the 10-day restriction? And I
see Dr. Coffey walking towards a microphone. I was sending her messages to
please come closer. I got the subtle hint to walk over to the microphone. So it's a very complicated
situation. It's more than just a state rule. It's federal legislation related to the Individuals
with Disabilities and Education Act and some intersection of other state and federal
protection laws related to the entitlement of students who have been identified as students
with a disability. We do have an affirmative action required on our part by a school district
that if we suspect that a student has a disability and one of the ways that we
might suspect is if they are having very inappropriate interactions such as
outwardly aggressive behaviors on a regular basis that would be unexpected
based on the provocation that might have occurred all kids get upset but the
level of upset could indicate to the district representatives working with
the students teachers Perez or parents even that a disability may be present we
We then initiate testing protocols, which are very highly regulated within federal and
state mandated and tracked laws that drive all sorts of things, including some of our
accountability ratings, funding, all that good stuff.
We assess the student, hold an admission review and dismissal meeting, and that student can
then be admitted into special education.
When we look at the impact of that student and their behavior, we have to determine,
is that disability directly the direct cause of the interaction the student is
having that is inappropriate or could it possibly and this is not typically that
the case in KDIC but we consider it every time could it have been something
that we did that we should possibly have known not to do that was the reason that
that student engaged in that behavior and if so we cannot move forward with a
discipline we have to talk about what proactive measures we can put into place
Now, certainly because I would think you know because of the job that I do, this is a very important topic to me, but there are times, and we have these conversations with administrators regularly, they call me a whole lot too, and Ms. Ashorn and I talk a lot as well, to try to support and go through this because every child in special education and 504 has an individualized approach to some level to their needs.
And so it's very difficult to answer global questions other than to say there are a number of federal and state laws that are very closely tracked related to those questions.
I would like to add.
Sounds time consuming and difficult to process.
And thank you for doing the best you can.
And if there's something this board can do to help you, Dr. Gorgorski, you as well, we're here to help to make sure that every student who comes has the best learning environment they can.
And our people are protected, right?
Right, our APs and principals, we know the stories of the physical harm
and the amount of time they spend away from the duties they have to do
before they can go home at the end of the day from some of our boys and girls
who, from what I understand, it's a repetitive thing, not necessarily a one-off.
So let us know what we can do.
Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Ashford. Thank you so much.
7.7 Discuss and consider the 2023 Community Bond Advisory Committee (CBAC) Bond Package Recommendation.
The next topic is item 7.7, which is discuss and consider the 2023 Community Bond Advisory
Committee Bond Package Recommendation.
I'm not sure we have a presenter for this.
It's more of a...
Go ahead.
No, but I was just going to add that in spite of what was said before in open forum, our
our board does have an oversight responsibility over this process we have the responsibility to
ask questions and we have the responsibility to community and this board is not a rubber stamp
i just want to make that clear because it was implied that that we have no role in this process
i just want to make it clear that we do and with that i'll just see if anyone has any questions
about the package? I do. Ms. Calhoun? So I'm looking at the bond package and one of
the things that I saw on there we have a large ask for instructional materials
and technology and I wanted to see how that how that coincides with House Bill
1605 and with the monies that are allotted or have the potential to be
allotted based on the new curriculum that they've revamped. I know Amplify Texas is
not popular and I understand that. It violated about five different Texas laws to begin with,
but we know that they've gone back and they're re-looking at that and they're giving us options
on how to adopt this curriculum and what that looks like if we move away from technology.
There are incentives to that for us increasing from $61 per student to the potential of $300 per student for instructional materials and technology.
And it's a pretty broad umbrella over what that looks like inside the classroom.
That's a pretty large amount that the state is giving the districts.
In the face of being said that the state is not doing enough, they did quite a bit.
Now this is for the 2024-2025 school year, but I want to know when we're looking at the bond package, I can't remember exactly how much, I want to say it was $83 million for instructional materials and technology.
What does that look like in the face of 1605? Does anybody know?
The short answer on that is we're going to have to wait to see what TEA does with that money and what they want to do with instructional materials.
The bond packages that we build when it comes to technology are generally for products, not for instructional material purchases.
We bring to the board, when adoptions come up for new materials, we bring those to the board through the IMTA fund, which is different than bond funds.
So we're talking two different things here.
So if TEA went with something related to more of like a state-run curriculum, okay?
Now, they certainly run the TEKS, and we follow the TEKS, which are those objectives, and that every student should learn and know.
But in terms of instructional materials, yes, there could be a future savings there if the state came up with materials for which our teams vetted and said those would be good materials to purchase in the future.
There could be a savings there to our IMTA funds, but those are not the same thing as the bond funds.
So could you explain the difference then to me?
Because I'm having a hard time understanding, I guess,
because with what I had it explained to me, this covers smart boards,
this covers computers, this covers curriculum,
this covers planning for curriculum, this literally covers everything.
So I'm trying to understand from my, I guess, uneducated view
of how this works when we're talking about $83 million.
Yes.
So I'm going to go ahead and I've got Dr. John Allone over here on my left and Dr. Christine Kasky who understand the technology and they understand that new bill that came through and might be able to provide a little bit better description of what that really looks like.
Sure.
As Dr. Gorski was explaining, really they're two different accounts, right?
So the bond is one funding source and the IMA or IMTA is a different funding source.
So out of that instructional materials allotment, that's where we purchase our textbooks, right?
and instructional materials, not so much technology because we selected to purchase instructional materials out of that fund.
What you're referring to with that new bill is that if we adopt state board approved materials, then we will get money back.
So there's, and Chris may know the price tag on that, but there's a certain dollar amount that we would get back by going with materials that the State Board of Education approved,
which typically we do approve materials that have been approved by the State Board of Ed.
So it's not purchasing technology.
But under the state bill it is purchasing technology.
That's what I'm saying.
It is covering technology.
And it's $300 per student.
You can do the math.
$300 per student times 95,000 students.
It's quite a bit of money.
So what I'm asking is, is there is an overlap?
Because to me you're saying that we're purchasing textbooks and we're purchasing all of these
things and that's not technology.
And this other money, it is.
And I'm like, okay, well there seems to be an overlap here to where we're spending money that we don't have to spend
Because the state is coming in and saying we got you covered. We understand that there's a lapse here
We want to help support you. So that's what I'm trying to I'm trying to understand that because it seems like there's a lapse
There's they're over there's an overlap. Let me try to explain that a little bit better or maybe differently
If the state comes up, all right, so we get an IMTA account of certain dollars are allocated
okay which you could spend some of those dollars on technology should you choose
to do that there has never been since I've watched that account in my years
doing this enough money in there ever to cover our instructional materials things
we have to buy like Christine says textbooks instructional supplies
software everything we need to do to instruct kids there's never enough money
in there now to take matters one one step further last legislative session
they reduced that IMTA account and Chris I believe that was five million dollars
loss yes sir yeah reduction was sixty percent so so they reduced the amount so
we ended up spending money out of gof to cover those things now they have since
restored that to IMTA so you're correct if the state over the next year or two
two or three, comes up with additional instructional resources, and we take advantage of those resources,
obviously we wouldn't be spending our IMTA money on that because we would take the state resources.
So could that free up some dollars in the future from IMTA?
Possibly could be.
I don't know if it would ever free up enough to do, John, what the requests are.
Maybe you can talk a little bit about that.
Yeah, let me just add to that.
So, approximately the IMA funds, IMTA funds, is about maybe 10 to 15 million every, sometimes
every two years.
And that's really barely enough.
An adoption, a book adoption, is about six to eight million, and that's not including
other expenses that may be incurred during those two years.
Now, the technology bond is primarily capital investment.
We're talking about infrastructure investment.
These are, you know, you're talking about 20, 30 millions for infrastructure for networks.
Devices, it's around maybe another 18 million for devices.
And then you add to it other tools.
So it's primarily really capital investment, while the IMA, IMTA is primarily really operational
type of investment.
So it's really the textbooks, the supply cost, which is typically around 12 to 15 million
maybe, and that's not going to be enough to really cover for capital investments like
infrastructure devices that last five years basically so that's really the
main difference between the two and when you're sorry when you're talking about
the devices the devices that you're talking about is that including the
one-to-one Chromebooks yes ma'am and so those are going to be those are going to
need to be replaced every five years and my understanding I heard a number being
batted around it was eight million dollars uh so yes they will have to the the life cycle is five
years for devices this kind of device some some devices are 10 years but this chromebook is a five
five year life cycle uh the yes the incremental cost so we've done the 50 percent ratio for a long
TIME AND THEN WE ADDED ANOTHER 50% TO GET TO ONE-TO-ONE.
THE INCREMENTAL COST, EVERY CYCLE, EVERY BOND CYCLE IS AROUND 8 MILLION.
NOW THIS BOND CYCLE IS GOING TO ADD ABOUT 16 MILLION BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO
BRING THE WHOLE DISTRICT.
WE USUALLY RETROFIT HALF OF THE DISTRICT EVERY FIVE YEARS, BUT THIS BOND CYCLE, IF WE'RE
GOING TO GO ONE-TO-ONE, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO BRING THE WHOLE DISTRICT TO ONE-TO-ONE,
which is about 16 million but the next bond cycle it will only be an
incremental cost of 8 million does that include our infrastructure for our
servers to be able to handle our entire district being on one-to-one devices
because my understanding is that right now we are not there and that we
frequently have crashes inside the classroom during test-taking with a
number of problems having students have to retake tests the next day or have to
to use their own devices.
So of course, we're talking about
they would have their own device inside the classroom.
So yes, this bond includes enhancement
to the infrastructure in the classroom
and across the whole network.
And obviously, when you connect through these systems,
there are a lot of points that these devices connect through
to reach servers.
Sometimes they're in another state across the internet.
But our infrastructure will be enhanced to accommodate the increase in the number of devices.
But the maintenance, so the turnover rate to replace all of these devices, that is not going to be covered by the bond.
That's going to go into our O&M, correct?
So, yes.
So the maintenance costs for these, in other words, the fix and repairs that needs to happen during the five years will be part of the operation.
Another $8 million.
Another $8 million.
That's actually the cost is, we've calculated the cost.
It's going to be, and I'm just going to quickly kind of add the numbers,
but it's 200,000 for parts, replacement parts, and that's a device that's broken.
We need to replace a part in it.
There's another maybe estimate four to six field engineers that we may need to
add for this that's if you multiply that by maybe 50k so that's about 300,000
every year so you would have to add those numbers but we have these these
numbers four to six field engineers estimated and then about 200,000 for
parts right now we pay about a hundred thousand for parts so since we're gonna
double the number of devices we think it's gonna be about two hundred thousand
to maintain really enough parts for parts so do we know what that cost total
is for salaries for four well just say six we'll just go on the high end just
to be safe so six field engineers salaries including compensation packages
with obviously our health care as well as their salaries for each year and then
covering the parts again every time that we have to maintain. Do we know
what that bottom line number is going to be added on to our O&M? You know we
estimated, Mr. Church maybe can add to that because that's costed
through payroll, but we estimate about maybe 40 to 50 thousand per field
ENGINEER.
AND LET ME JUST ALSO CLARIFY HERE, WE ESTIMATED THIS BASED
ON THE ENROLLMENT, STUDENT ENROLLMENT.
WE FACTORED ABOUT 96,000 TO 98,000 STUDENTS.
AND WE ASSIGNED ABOUT ONE FE TO EVERY 3,000 STUDENTS BASED ON
OUR TALKS WITH OTHER DISTRICTS WHO HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE.
NOW, WE DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW THIS IS GOING TO IMPACT EXACTLY
OUR SUPPORT SERVICES.
Now, right now we deal with a variety of devices, student devices that they bring with them,
and it does complicate the service.
Now, having a standard device that looks the same everywhere may actually simplify the
cost for us and the service.
That we may not experience more cost because we have a standard device.
But since we don't know how this is going to look like, we're going to assume that one field engineer is going to be needed for 3,000 devices, and we came up with this number, 4 to 6 FEs.
But after we run this thing, we may find out it's actually, it got a lot simpler because we have a standard device now everywhere.
very well.
Yeah.
So just to summarize, it sounds like on the one-to-one, on the Chromebooks, it's
about $500,000 a year, like $200,000 for repairs and maintenance, and about $300,000 for labor,
for the additional personnel, the field engineers.
It's about $500,000 added to the M&O, the operating expenses, plus $8 million every
bond cycle.
That's, yes, estimated, yes.
Yes, that's a good.
I just want to kind of get that and summarize that.
Any other?
Mr. President, I have a question for you.
Do you think it would be wise or beneficial to have our SBOE representative come and speak about House Bill 1605?
Sure, we can at another time, of course.
Mr. President?
Okay, thank you. Thank you for the details and the discussion. The questions that I asked tonight that I think any of our board members asked are extremely important, not just for us, but for anyone listening and the entire base of our constituency.
there's 240,000 voters that I'm aware of that could vote on this bond they were
not in the bond committee as I was not so I appreciate the time to get to some
detail and ask questions thankfully I was able to go through the very big
binder that the committee had so I did digest some good detail and there was
some great Q&A that was documented. I appreciate the committee members. Some of you are stellar,
smart people asking great questions. On the Chromebooks, I just would like to ask,
was there any deliberation on not doing one-to-one and addressing the... I realize there is a need,
There is a shortage of Chromebooks perhaps campus to campus it varies
Teachers get frustrated when they don't have enough. Maybe kids don't have a computer at home. So they need one to check out
Did we frame the problem as I just stated is that really the true problem?
Do we really do have a problem with this one to one does a third grader really need a Chromebook?
So I guess I'm kind of challenging that idea
and proposing, you know, perhaps these third, fourth, and fifth graders, they don't need a one-to-one Chromebook checkout.
Was that ever discussed?
What deliberation was there on that?
Ms. Gazelle, if I can, it was on the bond committee.
And one of the most, the thing that was most convincing for me was also the STAAR testing requiring going online.
and so having every student having to have the device moving towards start
testing was kind of a another event that drove the decision to move there quicker
that was just being on the bond committee one thing that they shared with us.
I realize there's computer labs in our campuses they're already there these
kids do get prepped on excuse me these these these kids do have exposure to
technology so yes because I was also on the bond committee and I felt like that
there was a good discussion on it you know I don't like my third to fifth
grader personally having a computer and therefore if it's needed I'd like for
them to have access to it the computer labs I've volunteered many times in
elementary they're not accessible all the time i mean you only get to go ever so often it's not
enough training if the child doesn't have a computer at home or the parent doesn't want
the child to have a computer the computer lab is is great but it's not enough time for a third
grader who's never used a computer to fully learn how to use a computer or
laptop or home but so personally if I had a child that age I don't want my
child to have an iPad I would
appreciate a Chromebook at the school so that I don't have to have an iPad for my
young child and at school they there's a filter they can't get into any many I
don't know I don't you know you can't get into the bad type of things that are
out there for that you wouldn't want your children to see so another reason
why I wouldn't want my child to have an iPad that I'd rather have the Chromebook
that they couldn't see anything because they have the filter.
That would be my argument for the one-to-one.
Plus, I will go back to what I said earlier,
that children in high school or junior high
who don't have the up-to-date technology,
it's embarrassing to them to not have the same thing as everyone else.
This is an equalizer.
They all have the same thing.
Now, I would really appreciate if I would be really in support of it
if I knew that the teachers are going to make the kids put their cell phones at the front
and not use any of their own cell phones in the classroom and only use the Chromebook.
That way they could not access pornography or whatever they're trying to look at,
you know, Facebook or whatever.
I know there's filters, but they can bypass that with Wi-Fi.
Y'all know that, right?
They don't have to, you know, they can turn the Wi-Fi off and get onto that.
Mr. President, could I have us continue my question?
So with the, I'm particularly hunting in on the elementary kiddos.
I appreciate what you said, Ms. Champagne.
I know parents who are leery of having technology all over the desks in an elementary school.
school. And many parents last year were concerned with some of the online instruction, particularly
in math, a lot of frustrated kiddos. So when we say one-to-one for the elementary kids,
are we talking about changing the trajectory of how we teach our kids, particularly the
elementary kiddos? Does that mean more online math? Someone could reach that conclusion
easily.
Actually, the Chromebooks actually just level that playing field, right? Like we've talked
ABOUT.
EVERY STUDENT WOULD HAVE THAT SAME DEVICE.
TEACHERS COULD LOAD THEIR INFORMATION ON THERE.
IT'S REALLY, IF YOU THINK OF IT, IT'S LIKE A NOTEBOOK, RIGHT?
IT'S LIKE ONE OF MY STAFF MEMBERS, DR.
BILL, SAID LOTS OF TIMES, IT'S LIKE A COMPOSITION NOTEBOOK THAT HAPPENS TO BE ELECTRONIC.
SO EVERYTHING IS LOCKED DOWN ON THERE AND KEEPS THINGS STANDARDIZED.
SO IT ISN'T CHANGING THE INSTRUCTION.
IT'S GIVING THE TEACHERS MORE TOOLS SO NOT EVERY CHILD HAS A DIFFERENT DEVICE.
SO THE TEACHERS AREN'T HAVING TO MANAGE MULTIPLE DIFFERENT DEVICES, HAVE STUDENTS SHUT DOWN
down different devices it standardizes it okay and then one follow-up question about the cell phone
um i did see the slide in the uh powerpoint that's in the binder saying something like if we go one
to one then we're able to get rid of the cell phone in the classroom uh i could see that perhaps
but i think it's a lazy way of approaching it to be honest in an expensive way if that's your goal
we can get rid of cell phones there's a lot of great teachers who do that already
and administrators who back up those teachers to decrease cell phones in the classroom.
We don't need a one-to-one $16 million line item on a bond to do that.
So I'd just like to offer that comment.
I've seen great schools who handle that really well here in Katy as a substitute teacher firsthand.
Ms. Fox?
Mr. Perez, I attended many of the bond committee meetings,
not all of them and not in their entirety, I must say.
But there was an evening where two students came and talked about the compelling ways
they would use the Chromebook or that they did use the Chromebook.
Mr. Veerling was there and maybe he has more input than I will here, but it was super impressive.
Everyone in the room was, who was kind of on the fence once they heard from those two
to junior high students on how they use them, why they think they're necessary, how it just
improved their learning and how, I don't know if Mr. Vierling would be able to speak to
it better than I would, but it changed my mind from where I was maybe similar to what's
being discussed here to understanding how it does, it levels the playing field.
It takes away the opportunity that like, I have an iPhone, you have a Chromebook, you
have an ipad and and yet while you're doing the work on your own device and you get a text you're
diverted you you're stop paying attention although it just had so many things that i thought hmm and
you're right about the online stuff mr redmond that was a heartburn for so many students and
parents this year of when they're getting ready for a state mandated test on an electronic device
that it's the future for sure.
Go ahead, Mr.
I'd like to kind of step in for a second.
I'd like to step back for a second.
You know, in 2021, our bond was $676 million.
And this one is, and we built six schools,
including a high school.
And this one is four schools and no high school,
and it's $841.
And I think I saw someplace, I think in the notebook, that we're looking at the 2026 was estimated at possibly 850, which is like two elementaries, one junior high, maybe a high school 11.
Not sure about that.
So, I mean, we're going from 676 to, I noticed inflation going to 841, and then we're hearing that in three years it'll be another 850 or so.
At least that's what I saw someplace.
And, you know, you get to get concerned about, you know, the district and the voters and the community just kind of like bond fatigue.
You know what I mean?
One bond after another getting bigger and bigger.
And of course we had to continue feeding the schools that we have to retrofit them.
And of course we still just have our 39 cents and our taxable value to serve as that.
So we're going from I think 2.3 billion in debt to what 3 billion and change.
I don't have the number here in front of me.
3.1 billion.
and then another possibly 800 after that.
So it kind of, when you look at kind of the big picture
of where we came from, where we're going,
and we continue to go,
that's kind of, as I look at it,
kind of the concern is just kind of the bond on top of bonds.
And we're building fewer schools,
but we're having to, of course, feed the existing schools
and then the technology.
And so it's a concern in my mind
And in terms of the debt, I realize we're paying down as quickly as we can.
But sitting back, I kind of look at the big picture and say,
we're just starting to get put on more and more debt.
And maybe Mr. Smith can speak to the debt profile after this bond
and then the one after the next one
and sort of like how we're looking in terms of ratios.
you know, if we're getting close to any ratios or if we would still be in good shape on our ratings,
on the ratios we look at in terms of our debt fund, in terms of, you know, our taxable value to debt,
whatever ratios you pick, I'm just looking at, you know, this one, the next one, and thereafter.
after is it looks like they're not going they're not decreasing in size they're getting bigger
just just kind of an overall just looking back not the only thing and unfortunately i'm not able
to quote ratios that the uh moody's and standard and poor's uh give us so i'm sorry i just can't
recall that off my the top of my head but we do score well in our credit ratings and they do do
those ratios uh the reason we're not triple a or the best rating we could have is because we do
do have a large amount of debt, but they always quote that based on the makeup of our tax
base and the growth of our community, we're definitely capable of paying that debt.
And they're very complimentary about our debt structure.
We have investment bankers that come through and come into my office and they're very impressed
with our debt structure for the amount of debt that we have and the way it's picture
picture perfect the way it's being able to be paid down.
And so while we have a lot of debt, we're paying it off, we are very, in a very good
position to be able to pay it off and not a problem at this point, especially if we
continue to grow and our, and our, and our, the, the tax, the, the, the number of students
continue to increase and they are, they're projected to do so.
That's only as good for the program that we have going.
We've structured our debt to where it's a declining debt structure purposefully, knowing that we have to have bond elections to be able to build these schools.
And Mr. Perez, you mentioned debt bond fatigue.
You know, I've been here 20 years and we've been doing it every two to three years because
in lieu of getting a $1.5 billion authorization, our community wants to say give us the range
in smaller amounts and say calibrate with us sooner rather than these big amounts.
And I think that our board has done a very good job of going and coming back to the community
and saying, hey, look what we did.
We met the promises we said we were going to meet, and we're able to do that.
And we've done it time and time again.
As an administrator that is highly involved in those over the last 20 years,
would I like to have gotten $1.5 billion and not done it as many times?
Absolutely, because it's a lot of work.
But we're recalibrating with the community,
and that also limits our abilities to go do other things with those monies,
because those broad those bond languages are written rather vague for example
starting to ramble I know but for example when we build Tompkins high
school that came in significantly under budget because of that and this some
other savings we were able to build two elementary schools we could have built a
stadium we didn't this board chose to build two elementary schools because of
the priorities but when you have a billion five authorization and it takes
you eight or ten years, things can change. And so we've recalibrated and done it more often.
And yeah, it's fatigue. It's fatigue from an administrator standpoint, but it also gets us
back to the community to say, hey, we did what we promised we were going to do. And
I go back to our credit ratings, which are on the transparency website that basically show that
we are in a good shape to pay them back.
It's not a strain for us to do so.
We are able to tax at a 50-cent debt limit.
We're at 39 cents, and we're at 39 cents easily.
And so we have an 11 cents more to go before we –
so in other words, we have more income capabilities to strengthen those ratios up.
Nobody wants to pay more taxes.
I get that.
that, but we do have the ability as a community to tax ourselves more to pay that should it
become a problem, but it's not a problem.
And it's not a problem.
A couple of the items just, and then anybody else has a question, a couple of the items
jump out at me.
One is the 37 million in land, which I know that's way more than what we need to take
take care of the schools that were that are in this bond way more than what we
need and then also the 20 million infrastructure which last bond was was I
think seven million for that number and now it's 20 which which it strikes me as
sort of like a cushion on top of cushion if you will that number the
infrastructure number 20 million so maybe if you get it you could address
that yes sir I think both of those things I think the purchase of land in
the northwest quadrant is a big piece of that challenge if you followed our land
purchases you know over time the best land deal we got was the high school 10
site Lisa what did we pay it was super super cheap a dollar a dollar a square
That was several years ago and the result of that was that we bought a bunch of land that had absolutely zero infrastructure run into it.
We had to go out and find water and drainage and all of those things we've got to do.
So that piece of the infrastructure in our land is there.
And then the other part of it is as land is disappearing in the northwest quadrant and we continue to need to purchase land,
it leaves us in less of a buyer's market and more of a seller's market.
Could we have gone back 15, 20 years ago and bought up a ton of land in the northwest and we'd be sitting pretty?
Maybe, but we didn't.
And part of that is because with Harvey and all the other things that have happened up there
with the analysis of what that area was going to grow like,
we really didn't see as much or as many single-family or multi-family dwellings
up there we really thought the Northwest was going to develop more industrial and
that's flipped in the last few years Harvey had almost zero effect on how
many homes they're building up there the pieces of property may be smaller but
they're still building the same number of homes and there's an and in home
home builders are snatching up that property quickly. So as Lisa and I and our team and Mike
Winkler and all of us are out there scrounging around trying to find land to purchase, the cost
of land is significantly more expensive than it used to be. And then the challenge of buying a
high school site, 100 plus acres, from a developer or perhaps a private citizen, it's tough to get a
piece of land that big anyway. There's some real challenges. So it is a little high. I believe Dr.
Gorgorski sent you our kind of feedback on the infrastructure. There are some specific projects
in there, like the road that connects Greenhouse Road to the East Transportation Center. I don't
know if any of y'all had the pleasure of driving on it. I hope you got good handling. For those of
you that are over there, you know what I'm talking about, right? It needs to be replaced.
replaced. We've got some drainage and some things at Cimarron Elementary, some of the older campuses
that need some concrete work. And then the bottom line is there are some things that are unfounded
when we get into construction projects that we don't know about. Even with all the surveys and
all the stuff that's done, there are some things that pop up. In addition to that, counties will
will say to us, hey guys, the road is too busy.
We need you guys to build a turn lane or add a stoplight here.
And generally, counties don't want to pay for that.
And so that falls on us.
So we've had that.
Even most recently, Hayes Elementary,
we were required by Harris County
to put in a turn lane to keep traffic off of the main road.
So there's just a smattering of kind of things
that drive that infrastructure budget.
Mr. President, do we have an ESG or a CSR score correlated to our bond debt?
Well, I'm going to have to get you to tell me what those stand for, and then I can get you whatever that is.
Okay, we'll talk.
My apologies.
Okay, I will send you an email.
Perfect.
Okay.
Ms. Grisella?
Ms. Ms. President, I have a question.
For the Proposition D of 30 million, half of that is road stadium repairs.
So could you help me?
The questions will come, so it's really helpful if I have some more detail here on how do
we use road stadium, the percent utilization of road stadium, if you have that, compared
to legacy.
How do we justify retrofitting roads and renovating it?
Can you please explain how often do we use it?
Who uses it in general?
I have ideas.
I know of some.
I'd like to know that.
And why?
When we have a substantial stadium next door.
Yes, ma'am.
So the purpose of having two stadiums really is so that, you know, back in the old days, before Legacy Stadium was built,
We got to the point where when Tompkins High School was built, we were having to contract out football stadiums to other districts, right?
So we would go out to Waller and play out there or Fort Bend or wherever else.
So part of the driver on that was the number of schools in the district.
As far as how often the stadiums are used, we can get you some data on that.
they are used I can say constantly between football in the fall soccer
we've got umpteen rentals that outside organizations do that they pay us for so
the stadiums are used often to say the least okay can you speak to roads
specifically I would say roads except for the fact that roads doesn't have the
community rooms that legacy does that are checked out all the time I would say
I would say Rhodes and Legacy are used, I would say, about the same.
Yeah, I wouldn't say there's much difference.
Okay.
Okay.
I'd love exact numbers later.
Sure.
Okay.
Thank you.
And a more specific question, because I know it'll come.
I will be asked these questions.
There are a couple of very unique, I would call them boutique items on our bond package
package that only address perhaps 150, 160 kids in our district. We have 95,000 kids. So I want to ask the question and have due diligence on it, please. So for example, the Miller Technology and Auto Program, I think it's really neat that we offer that. It's a really great elective. It's not our bread and butter. But here it is. It has its own line item on our bond. Granted, it's
2.5 million of the 840 million.
I get that.
But can you speak to that?
And also it makes me wonder what other unique groups, student groups,
that didn't make it onto this wish list of the bond, and how did it get on there?
Yeah, so I think the goal is to provide the kids at Miller with the opportunities
for them to either get state certifications or be able to be jobable when they get out, right?
So Miller is a bit of a unique animal in and of itself.
The last bond in 2021, we did add some things in the culinary area.
We did some stuff with the vet med group.
We did some things in dental and medical, and we've done things in the past with technology and things like that.
Technology is one of those that I know, if you paid any attention to the bond committees,
lots of healthy discussion about, you know, are we going to add technology to Miller?
How much are we going to do with the rooms and things like that?
The auto tech emerged because it came out as the one program over there right now that has the most kind of waiting time in terms of getting kids in and getting kids through.
It allows the kids more hands on.
If you've been over there, if you've seen it,
it's a challenge when there's 30 kids in a class or 25 kids in a class
and you've got one vehicle or one space for a vehicle
and everybody's trying to crowd around.
The idea of a program like the automotive tech program
is to get kids in there and turn in wrenches, right?
So that extra space gets them that.
All right, and I read there's 52 on a wait list, 52 kids, correct?
Okay, so that's addressing that wait list, 52 kids.
and then I mean is that correct yes I don't know the number do you have the
number 52 sound right if the board would like to hear from principal Carrillo she
is in the audience I can ever come up to the microphone over here with mr.
beer Ling and she can answer anything about the Career Center what I will add
to that is because I've seen the Career Center I visited several times this year
and I've been down to the auto mechanics it's not just expansion for more kids to
to get them off the wait list, but what we're serving currently right now in the bays is
overcrowded.
So like when Ted was talking about that, you go in and you go in one of the bays and you
see 15 kids working on one automobile, because we put too many in there trying to service
more kids.
So our goal is to not only expand it for new kids coming in the program, but get more space
for the current kids we're serving to get them more hands on.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I think that's good. I have one last detailed question about
another
Niche item which were what is the Katie plus?
ELC correct
five million dollar line item first I wanted to understand why those two
Serve totally different needs am I correct on that correct?
The Katie plus community is the 18 to 21 year olds that we are required by law to service
which we already do so there are a whole nother set segment of students and then
we have behavior Learning Center which I am definitely keen on with all the
discipline and disruption we have in classrooms I think that that is an area
that affects a lot more kiddos so it's curious why they were coupled together
in the bond package as one line item so there is there are dollars tied to
the new building that we're working on purchasing right now that hasn't gone through
completely but we're almost there to get that the board had approved that purchase
a short while ago and there is dollars in the bond tied to finishing that out okay so two programs
are over there one is moving our current behavior transition program over to that side and then the
other is the 18 plus moving that off the campus so uh miss coffee did an extensive uh um presentation
to the board and we provided that information she can certainly come up and talk more specifically
about those programs but that's what we hope to accomplish with that first floor of that building
and the dollars that are going into there i guess if i had to look at it this way i can't say though
the five million is based on a cost per square foot to finish out a building and
that's just a standard cost in there I couldn't tell you exactly how much of
that five million is one program versus the other but I also say this when we
look at building something for the future sometimes we look into okay this
is serving 150 kids okay well that's not really what we're talking about it will
serve 150 kids this year but we'll build that and it's kind of like when we build
to elementary school that will last 50 years. Okay. If we look at the cost for 900 kids or a
thousand that it serves, yeah, that's pretty costly building for one year. So when we make
this investment in these programs for these kids, it's for the long-term and the growth of the
district. We're looking at, you mean we're going to top out this district somewhere near about
120,000 students. So programs are going to grow. We need the space. This helps alleviate space on
on the campus and how many kids, I guess I'd look at it this way when I put a price tag
on something we're going to build, how many kids will it serve over 30, 40, 50 or 60 years?
Kind of like the $2.5 million investment into the auto tech.
Yeah, that might only help maybe 60 or 80 kids next year or the year we build it, but
how many kids would be served in that program over the next 30 or 40 or 50 years?
And that's kind of what we look at as a long-term investment.
Okay.
So you can't specify the split of the investment in BLC versus KD Plus?
I would have to get, maybe Ms. Coffey can, but once again, we're talking about infrastructure in there,
and I don't know if we have those figures to talk about infrastructure in the actual, because we haven't designed it yet.
So the $5 million that is in the bond that you see is just a blanket,
square-foot cost to finish out space for education based on just a standard.
I don't remember what that square-foot dollar is.
Ted, maybe you know it off the top of your head.
I don't know off the top of my head.
I want to see it.
That's what that is.
So it hasn't been costed out by program yet.
So the first thing would be is, or the next steps actually are, we need to design something and then show the board what the cost would be for that design should we choose to build that and put that in there.
Okay.
And Dr. Gorgorski, we would have to finish that building up for something if we choose not to do a plus or a...
Absolutely.
...choices.
That money is there to finish the building no matter what we put there.
Correct.
Correct.
And as Dr. Gregorci said, any of these new builds that we do or innovations, we always
bring those presentations to the board.
And the board has opportunities to ask questions.
Sure.
I just ask because when investing in something and you have a particular interest, it'd be
nice to know what is the intent between those two groups.
Absolutely.
But we do know, and Dr. Coffey can attest to that, we do know that discipline that will
will help the campuses with the BLC is a tremendous piece of what I think all these principals
would say that they're struggling with.
So we understand that for sure.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. President, I have a few questions about this.
First question is, I see a presentation, a PowerPoint in our documents.
Are we going to see that at its whole or are we doing this instead?
I thought what what what was presented in May is the same presentation right now that we're seeing right now the same exact
Presentation isn't it? That is correct. Yeah, that's the presentation that the board received in May
So we're not gonna see it on the overhead. Okay, then I won't refer to the slide so
Included in all of this. I see that there are
20 20 additional buildings and programs that have
I'm not
not point by point, but overall.
There are five elementary schools
that will get renovations.
Some of our oldest ones, Bear Creek, Sundown,
Main Creek, Hayes, McRoberts,
all are included in this for renovations.
Certainly we've lived in our home a very long time.
It's been renovated a couple of times.
Those things are very important
because of the investment that we've made
through the years, boards that came long before us.
and we're taking care of the facilities where all our children are think those
things are very important a lot of other other things here when in addition to
just new schools so to your point mr. president as as our district grows our
our responsibility to older schools.
Like we're adding schools and more and more things
are getting older, so I'm with you on the difference
in the cost from the last time to this time.
There's inflation, but there's also a whole lot more
buildings and a whole lot more students using our buildings.
So I would expect the cost to go up in maintaining
older facilities, expanding facilities as our student needs
and our student offerings go.
I, for one, have been hyper-focused on opportunities
for students to have programs where they can get a certificate
and become successful and be able to take care of themselves
and their families with a high school diploma without any college.
The things like the auto program, you look up and down I-10
at all those automotive dealerships and they want our students, the HVAC,
all the things that happen at Miller have small student enrollment because of size,
but they all provide for our students to be super successful
and to take care of themselves without college cost and debt.
and time and I'm all about them. And so investing in those have proven to be successful and help our
boys and girls. So this is very complex. The other thing I would say, which is a comment,
all of these are comments, not questions, but you're asking for our input. 142 people
people from across our district, zip code to zip code, came together and poured through this line
by line by line, question after question. Mrs. Cuzela said they're smart people and they ask
intense questions. And I remember the binders of information, the emails that would come,
and from week to week, they would get all those information. And we heard their questions when
we sat there mr president i appreciate the community building this bond and bringing it
to us and saying this is as a community what we want for our future and our role as a board is to
we work for the community this is what they're asking us to do and our role is not to say yes
Yes, we approve, but we will let the community decide by giving it to them as an option.
This is what your fellow citizens have asked for, what they want for our school district and the future of our community, what someone said about the health of our community, our housing values, all those things.
So when they ask us to approve this and put it on an election so that the community tells us what to do.
I serve at their request.
I know, but we're not here just to pass the time.
We're here to do our due diligence.
I understand.
Our oversight responsibility.
That's just what I want to get across.
Mr. Perez, I have a question towards that.
I don't want to diminish that at all.
We're just here, just rubber stamp, just passing the time.
That's the thing I reject.
So, you know, we have the right to ask the questions.
We approve or disapprove, et cetera.
I appreciate the work of the committee.
They put in a lot of work.
I was there for every meeting.
And I just don't like to diminish the role of the board.
No, and I'm not.
I'm not.
I'm just giving my input on how I view it, not for everyone else.
This is my view, and I'm putting it out there.
And I have asked the questions, and I've seen the reports,
and I just wanted to give input based on some of the other things that were said.
And I'm not saying it's not our due diligence.
I think we should ask the questions.
That's my view.
Okay, I appreciate it.
I have a question.
I have a question towards that, Mr. Perez.
Go ahead.
Towards the committees, that was something that I wanted to understand a little bit more.
So on those numbers, do we know exact numbers of like what the numbers were for teachers to parents
or let's say employees of the district to users of the district?
Or do we have numbers of beneficiaries who would benefit from these bonds
versus the payees who are actually going to be paying out these bonds in terms of the voters?
So do we know what that looked like on those advisory committees when they were formed in those groups of how many were selected to be on what grouping?
And do we know that?
I don't have those statistics in front of me of exactly how many of each group was invited.
But I know we do, we take the requests and we have people sign up and then we try to
make a balanced group throughout the district by quadrant to get equal representation as
equal as we can get.
I can certainly get those figures for you about the community that served on there and
I would like to see them just for just to have clarity, just to have it be a little
bit more transparent about who was actually on these committees.
I know that we had staff members that were on there and I know that we had voters and parents that were on there
I understand that but I just kind of want to have a broader picture of what that looks like for transparencies purposes
Yeah, so if I could have those ratios on how many was how many groups there were and then what groups they were in
And then who they were that would that would be beneficial
mr. President
on page 16 of the
Presentation has a list of everybody on the committee. I do believe everybody who was on the committee is a voter
So I don't think anybody served on the committee that was not a voter if I remember correctly when I asked this question in the
Past I'm not concerned about them not being a voter
I'm concerned about what they do within the community and who benefits where from what understand
I was just they live in our their voters in Katy was the main thing I was sure I think
the question that the
members are not users of the
the school district? Do they have children here? I mean, if we're going to ask those
kinds of questions, do they have children? Have they had children? Do they teach students?
You know, what are they? They're probably more invested than the random person.
Contractors, realtors, project managers, people who benefit directly from the bond,
from building materials, from supplying the items that would go into a bond package.
That's what I want to see.
And do they have children in the district? I want to see.
If I may add, Ms. Calhoun, we may not have the detail down to what you're talking about,
because if a parent asks to serve on it and says, hey, I live over in this quadrant and I've got two children here,
we don't ask the parent what their profession is.
But we don't go out and purposely go find contractors or architects or people who would service these projects and put them on the bond.
That's not what we do.
but I may not have it down to the detail you're asking like I may not know that a parent is a realtor I
Might know that or I might not but I wouldn't always know who what the professions are of our any detail is
Right, I'll take a look and see what we have on that to try to break it down by like a bond makeup of
The folks that were on that bond. I just may not have it down to the detail
Mr.. President any other questions. Yes, I'm paying okay um
I have a lot to say, but I'm going to try to narrow it down.
My feeling is I was on the bond committee,
and I was also on the committee that helped choose the people to be on the bond committee.
And as far as I can remember, I think there were about 400 people.
It was advertised to, you know, if you want to be on the – sorry.
It was advertised if you would like to be on the bond committee.
And I think we had about 400 people that said yes.
We went through the list.
I remember we had people and staff that were also choosing Dr. Krikorski who was in there.
And he made sure that there weren't too many principals, that there weren't, you know,
the people he knew.
You know, he would say, well, we can't have too many principals.
We can't have too many teachers.
And you know, now did we write down an exact percentage?
No.
know but you know we didn't choose a lot of people because there's like maybe too
many principals too many teachers um now I understand that we do have due
diligence I understand that I've been on the board for five years so I don't have
to be explained that part of it okay but I do value our community I see ourselves
and maybe you don't see yourselves as this way but I see myself as someone
that's going to represent you know what the people want that's that's kind of my stand on it and
is yes i do have the ability to vote yes or no and i mean many times i have voted no a lot of times
but i do value the community's input they had the option to be on the committee or not i realized
there's 250 000 voters but only 400 of them decided to be young we can't control that um
There was 150, and then we got numbers.
Mr. Perez asked for specific numbers of the yes and no votes,
and actually I made a list of all the yes and no votes of each line item,
and I've made copies.
If anybody would like to have some, you can.
What's interesting is there's 55 things on the committee to choose from,
and I wrote some notes.
There was one person in the committee that answered no almost 70% of the time.
16 of the 55 items had 100% approval.
29 of the 55 had over 99% approval.
And if the one person was taken out of the vote, then it would have been, let's see,
29 of the 55 items would have been 100% and 39 of the 55 would have been 99%.
But even not considering that person, everything but three things had 95% approval.
The lowest rated items had 94.17% approval.
Those three things, so that means, so there was only seven people who said no to those three things.
One of them was one-to-one Chromebooks, the other was roads renovation, and the other was high school weight room.
But all the other 52 things had nearly 99% approval or over.
And even those three things had close to 95%.
So I just, you know, that was a lot of work that went into that.
I was there, I've been on two bond committees.
I was the one on the 2017.
2017 and this one and I actually really appreciated the fact that it was really a toned down thing
compared to the 2017.
2017 one was great but it lasted for two or three months.
This one was four times but we met for like four hours each.
Those people that were there, they had other things to do.
You know, they were volunteers. I had other things to do, you know, but it was a process that we all voluntarily went through.
So I do value the people there, and I do realize that we have due diligence to, you know, make an overreaching decision.
decision, but by the same token, if we're going to do that, then maybe we don't have committees
anymore on the bond because it's kind of, you know, important to represent the people that
were in that bond committee. That's all I have to say. Okay, thank you. Thanks for that. Any other
comments? Yeah, I've got one. So, sorry. So, on these voting tables that we're looking at,
these total tables i'm looking at that sheet as well as what i think you're talking about
miss champaign and on these it gives the impression that it says like total tables 20
and then you had one table that voted no so but that doesn't actually reflect the entirety of the
table i mean yes you had two-thirds vote right you had a two-thirds vote and that was was am i
understanding am i misunderstanding that yes we got something else that he asked for the numbers
it was in friday update it's on friday update it gave every person's name every way they voted on
on every single item.
I took the time, I took a couple hours to do this,
I added them all up, figured out how many people voted yes
on each particular line item,
and that's the information that I have here,
counting the number of votes.
So most things had at least 99, 98% vote.
Okay.
Do we know, again, and this will be on that updated deal,
of how many voters or how many people that were on the committees were
employees of the district I think that's a better that one we probably will have
correct I'm gonna guess no no that that does have the names you can go look at
the names and look at them but I'm gonna guess well now I know that there was one
one employee at least at every table because they were kind of like the
leader so there's 20 tables so that would be 20 at the minimum and at our
table we had one employee I think the number was about 30 32 employees okay
about 30 something as I recall he gave us that exact but there was a person was
at my table I mean she's she's here and also has a child in the district so
she's not only a you know an employee but she's a mother of someone too so no
I think I felt like it was a good representation and I'm not saying that
it's not. My concern is not necessarily that, but I understand that you're supposed to be
representative of the committees, the community and the people that were there. But we also have
a fiduciary representation that we have to uphold to our voters and to our community.
And when we come before them and we say, hey, here's an $840 million, just under a billion
dollar bond we'd like you to pass. I understand groceries are expensive. I understand you can
barely put gas in your car. I understand your electricity bill is probably upwards of $500,
depending on what kind of house you have, but hey, here, can you pass this too? I feel like
that we have a little bit of a responsibility to the people in which we represent to say,
hey, we're being judicious and we're being responsible with the money in which you put in.
And I understand what this is and I understand that there are needs here that we do have to meet,
but to do that in a responsible way is something that we absolutely have a job to do.
Yes, I agree with you, but my focus is always going to be, and I'm not saying that yours isn't, but I'm just speaking for myself, is on the children.
And, for example, you could like minutely dissect everything, but like roofing, you know, Taylor had a leak, you know, and I think it kind of affected two or three classrooms.
So when you don't buy a new roof ever so often, then that's more money than just the roof.
You know, that's, you know, you've lost instruction time.
You know, more things in the classrooms were damaged.
I mean, you could go through each one of these things line by line, but the thing is, is that people have already done that.
So I just tend to believe the professionals.
I want the children to have a roof.
I want the children to have technology.
I want the children, you know, there's more children living here. They need to have a building to go to. I don't want overcrowding. I think that's something you and I agree with. We don't want overcrowded classrooms. We don't want overcrowded buildings.
buildings. So I've lived in this district and my kids have gone all the way through from kindergarten through senior year, three of them. And before I knew what was going on, which was, you know, when my kids were little and all that, I didn't know really what was going on. There were bonds that were continuously being passed so that my children would have a place to go to school. And their roof wouldn't leak. And so that they would have to go to school.
have the latest in technology and such forth.
And I'm grateful to this district.
I will just say, you know, all three of my kids have graduated high school.
Two of them are out of college.
One, you know, I'm sorry, we don't really know what's going to happen to her,
but she's finding herself.
But that's no fault of the district, you know what I mean?
And I personally was on that bond committee,
so, of course, I'm going to be defensive of it a little bit.
But I understand your questioning.
I think it's good to ask questions, and I understand the due diligence, but I'm just stating my opinion and I'll be quiet
I am NOT ass. I'm not advocating that we don't reroof the schools
I'm not saying that schools should go and have leaks in them and students are getting wet
That's not what I'm advocating for what I am advocating for is that we?
Extrapolate on these ideas that have been put forth in front of us and we say hey
Let's look at this a little bit more. Let's kind of dissect this a little bit more. This is a lot of money
This is a lot of money that we're asking people to vote for.
And when we're talking about need versus want, I think that we can ask those questions and
we can say, hey, what you want isn't what you need.
Roofs, obviously you need that.
One to one Chromebooks, that's debatable.
So I think having this debate and being able to say that and being, again, being responsible
with other people's money.
I don't I'm sorry, but I'm gonna ask the questions. I know you're not blaming me for it, but that's kind of what my job is
Mr. President, I would share with the board too. We
Right if it was the seven of us that were sitting here
Digging through information and making a decision. I do believe that would be
Irresponsible
but to engage
140 people I see financial advisors. I see
the people all over the schedule.
Yes, some administrators.
We've got people that you would consider far right, far left,
lived in the district, taught me when I was a kid,
have lived here less than a year.
And so I do think our responsibility in oversight as a district
is we didn't just do a small thing where we got together, looked at it,
said, ooh, we think that's good.
We brought in people from the community, other voters,
and gave them the opportunity to dig through the information,
maybe deeper than some of us on the board have done so far.
And so I do think as a board we can feel good about knowing that we can trust this process,
trust these people, that they put effort into it.
Because I know I had someone at my table that they walked in,
and I'm determined they thought they're going to try to sneak a stadium in on us.
And they were looking for something that they could cut.
They thought, hey, we need to cut the land.
They thought, hey, we really shouldn't do this at Rhodes.
And as they went through and asked questions and we worked through it,
they ended up coming around going you know if we don't do this now some kid's going to get hurt
right so they they said we if we don't buy the land now we're not going to have the opportunity
to get it in a couple years and then right we we know we can do bonds we can rezone or we can put
in portables so if we don't do the bond wow we get to rezone everybody in the district because we've
got to fit everybody that's not happening don't listen to that uh but right so we walked through
that process and it wasn't just us as a board now yes we get their
recommendation but I do think we could say not not say I think it was
financially responsible that we brought in other people all over those who are
fans of the district those who are a little more pushback may not be fans and
and have them dig through the information so being on the committee
just sharing that with everybody that I do think that is financially
responsible. Thank you. I would just say my focus is on not the committee because
you know I appreciate the committee, the bond committee and the effort they put
into it. My focus is on the projects and the number, not the committee. You
know we focus too much on the committee. The focus is needs to be on the dollar
amount and on the project. That's what I've been focusing on. Not making
the committee you know the object. The committee dug through it though and
approved the amount in the project sure had the ability to nix things so
But this is a committee and the numbers and the projects are the same. Yeah, it was a it was a good process
But the whole thing is not about the committee. It's about
The projects that we're looking at and the dollar amount in my view not not really focusing on
You know the committee it's making them be
the fall guy or anything like that.
On the contrary, you know, people gave up their time,
and, you know, I appreciate that.
Anyway, any other questions?
Thank you so much to whoever.
Ted?
Mr. President.
Yes, Ms. Fox?
Sorry, something's bothering me, so I just want to say,
not directed at any one person,
but we all moved here for the school district
without doubt everybody moves to Katy because our schools are so successful
for us not to be visionary and fiduciary responsible and to ask our community
what kind of community what kind of school district do they want and they
tell us and then we question everything they did like people moved here for our
school district we're successful we have to take care of it it's a lot of money um i i don't know
where we can find big ways to make it less there might be a small increment here and there where
we could we could move some things but new schools are expensive renovations are expensive our
children the parents the people who work in the buildings and the community who
supports Katie School District bonds because they believe in Katie School
District and the way we manage our work has been proven time and time and time
and time again I served on two bond committees before I came to the board
I've watched many bonds come through and we had the same questions every single
time that's a lot of money that's a lot of money will they support it and this
community trust our school district so that's my two cents thank you this is
the purpose of a work-study meeting because we're talking about it we're
debating it you know we're having a back-and-forth so that's why we have a
work-study meeting thank you for those I love that will we vote on it next week
Will it be on the for action next week?
7.8 Discuss and consider Board Policies EFA and EFB.
Yes.
Thank you.
Okay. We're on to 7.8, Discutter and Consider Board Policies, EFA and EFB.
And it says here their presenter is Victor Perez, Board President.
You bet.
And so after, as everybody may remember, last, in June, last meeting, Mr. Graham gave a presentation about the new law, HB 900, having to do with sexually explicit materials in textbooks and so on.
And so in connection with that presentation, in connection with that discussion that we had,
we endeavored to, as a result of that, to update and revise our EFA and EFB,
the instructional materials and the library book materials, EFA and EFB,
to revise those to bring in some elements related to HB 900 and also update it and to
be consistent with that.
And then also at that time we discussed with Dr. Ogorski and he agreed about pausing certain
book purchases that were in process and he said they were on their way so they were put
in the warehouse temporarily.
and so certain book purchases except for the two new elementary schools that
those were not stopped so that we could obviously you know meet their needs the
two elementary schools after after tonight and after next week when we
actually approve the policy the idea would be that the district using those
criteria district personnel would go back through the list of pending
purchases or the books that are on hold if you will in the warehouse and
then based on those that comply with the policy those those books would
immediately be released you know back and back back to the schools from the
way they were ordered so it's not the idea here to sit I think somebody said
that we're gonna sit on these books till April or something like that that's not
not going to happen.
The idea is to, once the policy is approved,
the district goes through the policy
and does their due diligence on the books
and then releases the books that meet the policy.
That's what's going to happen.
And so basically, as a result of the meeting last month,
our policy committee went to work,
which is Ms. Cuzela, Ms. Calhoun, and myself,
to revising the policy, EFA and EFB,
and so we presented the drafts of those policies here tonight,
and so we can discuss them,
and then we would approve them next week.
Does anyone have any questions or comments regarding the policy?
Mr. President, I have a few questions.
I don't know where to begin,
but first of all, HB 900 doesn't take effect until September, correct?
September 1, yes.
Okay.
I appreciate the fact, you know, jumping ahead and, you know,
getting this going, you know, sooner than that.
One question I have is there was this kind of intricate new process
that was developed by, she's not here, Mrs. Hack last spring.
Is that null and void or is that, you know, I'm not looking at it now.
You mean the reconsideration committee?
Yes.
Oh, there's two in place.
Okay, there's still a reconsideration.
Just like before.
Okay.
And also the elementary books that are being held, I understand you want to get the policy going and all that.
but the elementary books are being held can I understand why those are being
held the elementary books well they were just caught up in that order and so when
the when the policies revised and we see that note all the books meet the policy
and all the books will be released so who's going to review all those books
the districts okay so it's not it's not really the way the the way the policy
written it's not our the board's role to be checking off books and approving
orders well first off that's the district's role the board just wants the
role to be able to object and remove books if necessary so far as long as
I've been on the board, which isn't all the time, but it has been five years, and that's
probably most of the time when this book thing nationwide has been kind of big, is during
my tenure here.
I haven't seen elementary books brought up.
I haven't seen elementary books on the list of the removed books, but I mean, maybe I'm
wrong about that.
but I just want to make sure that we're not removing those based on ideology is
that correct we're not we're not removing books that's not never that's
never been the case well all right I just want to make sure that that's not
gonna that that's not the case because you know I know that the HB 900 was
was written for the sexually explicit and all that.
So I understand that.
So that's all I have.
Yeah.
OK.
The law specifically prevents us from removing books
based off of ideology or based off
of how we feel about an author or an author's political bend.
The law specifically prevents us from that.
This new policy does not have anything
to do with ideological bounds.
Okay, so I understand that, and I brought that up at the last meeting, and then the pride books were brought up as why we were going to stop the elementary books.
There's a basket in the third grade classroom of some elementary schools, so no.
And at the last meeting, I said I had gone to two trainings with different sets of lawyers, asked the same questions, both sets of lawyers,
And just want to make sure that that's not why those elementary books are being withheld
There's nothing in the policy there's nothing in the policy related to
Ideology or pride or anything like that is strictly about sexually explicit harmful obscene material
Mr.. President can I make a comment in question?
It's the discussion we're having great
Great.
So the elementary school books, please jump in and educate us.
But at the time, it was not clarified
that there are separate lists for the purchase lists
were separate for elementary schools.
If they are,
Those could be released probably fairly quickly, more quickly than junior high school.
So please, district, step in and clarify that and let us know what the timeline is, perhaps.
I had a great librarian contact me.
She's concerned about the Texas 2x2 books.
I get it.
And the Blue Bonnet Award books.
I get it.
So can we work smartly and maybe tackle that first?
And I'm throwing that out there.
And that's not the board's, that's not our function.
Our function is oversight and to step in when there's a problem and ask.
And then we've got to depend on the district to follow through with the policy that's in place and help us out.
So could you help us figure that out?
The short answer is that I can try.
Thank you.
The books that made it to the list for being ordered previously,
those books fell under the previous board's policy standard.
Okay?
So I hesitate to ask the team to go evaluate the books that are being held
until we have a new standard in place.
Sure.
Okay.
So that would take some board action.
In the policy, and I had to refresh my memory, from EFB, which is Instructional Resources Library Materials, on page 3 of 10 at the bottom, there is an entire new section in this policy about elementary school books.
So I want to make sure before I ask the team to evaluate the elementary school books that
we have a board policy in place that the board agrees to and that I can point to this is
the standard for which the reviewer should be applying at that time.
Okay.
Maybe for comfort level for librarians and teachers, is that before the school year starts?
After?
Soon after?
What do you think?
Not to put you on the spot.
Yeah, I wouldn't ask the reviewer or reviewers to start reviewing them until we put the policy in place.
Okay.
And we're voting on the 31st.
Correct.
So soon after that, they should be able to take this policy standard and start with the elementary books first, apply the new standard, and start reviewing those books and releasing those.
Okay.
Thank you.
You bet.
That's good.
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
Because we took action on something else that we were comfortable with.
We've had an opportunity to review this and look it over.
If the board is comfortable with it, could we take action on these two things tonight in order to – we took action on the –
We can't do that, Mrs. Fox, because policy needs to have two readings.
Any change in policy requires a first reading and a second reading.
Mr. Graham, go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong on any of that.
You're right.
Right. Policies, it got a specific place in there where it says two readings.
We can do that next week as opposed to waiting for the following month.
Got it.
Yeah, so we're reading it tonight, right?
And so then when you vote on it at the next meeting, it'll be good.
A speed reading it a second time tonight doesn't count.
Yeah, it's 4,100 pages, I guess not.
Okay, may I follow up?
So I agree with all the thing about elementary books.
We have never removed an elementary book for the sexually explicit nature that that we all you know have been concerned about so I
Certainly hope we can get those released quickly and then all the rest of them as quickly as possible
You don't have a you don't have an idea of how long that will take but
Soon as possible. Thanks so much. I
I have to admit, Ms. Fox, I don't know the number or count on those lists of what's in the library.
I can get the count from the team.
I just don't have it today to know how many we're talking about.
Am I talking about 50 books?
Am I talking about 500 books?
I don't really know.
Though, once again, I point back to the proposed policy, page 3 of 10, the elementary schools.
There is a new standard there.
and those books will have to be taken a look at based on that standard.
Mr. President, I really appreciate what the policy committee did
because I know that it's a lot of work, and like she said, I don't know how many pages, but a lot.
But who is going to review it?
it. And also by the time the 31st comes, I understand what Mr. Graham says that we have to
do the two readings and all that, but school starts two weeks later or something. So that just
seems, I appreciate it. I mean, there's nothing we can do about it, but it's going to take a while
to read. I don't know how many books and to review them. So I would think it would take
longer than two weeks to review all the new new elementary library books but I
don't know because I don't know how many people are doing it. Honestly this is kind of a
low bar for the elementary schools it's not like they have to read the entire
book this is this is basically saying that and I don't know it basically
saying that in the elementary school library so shall no material shall
shall contain visually or visually implied depictions of sexual acts or simultaneous
acts, simulations of such acts, explicit written descriptions of sexual acts, non-explicit
written descriptions of sexual acts, except for purposes of teaching students, as may
be approved by parents, to avoid and report molestation or depictions of nudity and implied
I mean, it's kind of a low bar.
It shouldn't be that big of a deal to get the elementary school books that were ordered delivered to the elementary schools.
Okay, but I appreciate what you're saying, but I just want to say I used to, I volunteered in an elementary library for, I don't know, five hours a week for, are there any Exley people here?
Nine years.
And it is a lot of, just to get a book and put it into circulation is a lot of work.
just one book it's ridiculous you wouldn't think it's a lot but I mean
they weren't also reviewing it so I understand this is policy I understand
the need for it but I'm just trying to you know figure out you know how they're
gonna do this and the librarians you know it is a lot of work to chronicle
all the books and everything have a great suggestion just start with the
two by two books and the blue bonnet books and start there that's it and continue on um beyond
that we are going to have to catalog every single book in our libraries at some point per hb 900
there are going to be ratings attached to every single book so we're getting a jump start on this
to be honest and yes it is going to be tedious and it is going to be a pain in the butt and somebody's
going to have to do it but we are getting a jump start on this now okay
but also in the HB 900 the vendors are going to do do that in April so who's
going to go through and do that at our level because somebody's going to have
to go through our libraries and rate each individual book well it's going to
have to start somewhere there's a policy state that we have to do it or know the
vendors will be responsible for that but we're getting a jumps that's the whole
THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS POLICY IS WE ARE GETTING A JUMP START ON THIS BILL BECAUSE WE KNOW
THAT THERE ARE EGREGIOUS EXAMPLES OF SEXUALLY EXPRESSIVE BOOKS IN OUR LIBRARIES.
AND WE, AGAIN, LIKE I SAID IN THE LAST MEETING, WE ARE NOT WAITING BECAUSE I DON'T THINK THAT
OUR FAMILIES OR OUR STUDENTS DESERVE FOR US TO WAIT UNTIL APRIL.
SO IN THE MEANTIME, BEFORE ALL THE BOOKS GET REVIEWED, WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO ALL
all the books that are currently on the library shelves in the junior highs and high schools.
Right now, with what we have being flagged, we're going through those books.
And with what is in the warehouse, they're going to have to go through them.
And if they're sexually explicit material, then they're going to have to go through them.
They're going to have to remove it.
So nothing has to be removed unless it does not meet this policy.
Sexually explicit material, obscene material, harmful material per the law.
That's all we need to focus on.
It's not like we're trying to take care of everything in the library.
It's very specific in terms of what the law is, both the penal code and now HB 900.
It's again, it's a very low bar in terms of when you think about it, sexually explicit
material period.
Just focus on that.
Okay.
So the other books that are already on the shelves that aren't sexually explicit and
all that but as i understood it the vendor is still going to go back and you know and whatever
label them and all that so even all those other books are still going to be done by the vendor
even the ones we're not looking at but they're going to tell us the book what books they've sold
us that are sexually explicit yep yep and then they have to recall books that they've sold us
so they're still active that we have.
That's per HB 900, not per this board.
That's per the law.
But, of course, if we have any in the meantime,
we should get rid of them that are sexually explicit.
That's the idea.
Yeah.
If anyone has any comments about the draft,
if anyone has any comments on the draft,
draft, please make those or also send any you can send comments by email, etc.
We make some changes.
I think a big change that y'all made was the power of the board to veto.
I may not be using the right terminology, but to override or veto committees.
committee's, am I getting this right, the reconsideration committee's decision to keep
a book?
Correct.
So the way the policy is written, that either at any time, either any book that's in the
shelf currently or the decision of the reconsideration committee, if any two board members disagree
disagree with that decision or any two board members have issues with a book that we currently
have, they can bring it to the board for the board to review it.
Any other comments or questions?
Mr. President, I had one.
Currently, what we ran into this last year was when a book was challenged before it was purchased.
We didn't really lay out what's the process for that getting challenged.
And so I don't know if the committee looked at that to say, all right, it's a different standard.
We're held to on selecting that book compared to once it's on our shelves.
So it may be something that we look at maybe in the future to rework that process for what happens during that purchase window.
Does that make sense?
You mean like during a 30-day period?
Yeah, so, right, PICO, Board of Education, right,
First Amendment issue wants this on our shelves,
but prior to us buying it, not the same standard.
So we have a little more leeway there, at least my understanding.
And so what we didn't do last time in our policy was lay out
what does that challenge look like prior to purchase.
And so it may be something we look at in the future in that defining that better
and giving more clarity to what that looks like.
if someone were to challenge it during that 30-day period yeah sorry you mean like challenge uh that
we should buy it at all for example yeah like if if that list is there like what we're running into
now the list is per put online someone brings it up gives us the list before it's purchased or
before it's actually arrived on our shelves can we lay out what that process looks like in the
challenge or i didn't notice if it was clear enough is it just the same thing it goes to a
committee the entire committee reads it and all that kind of stuff or we have a
different one so actually the only that's a good point the only the only
criteria or ability that we have is if if it comes to a board member who
questions it and then gets another board member to review that that book but not
like right now the way the policy reads currently is that the community this is
out there for 30 days and in the community is able to bring it up or challenge it if you will.
Mr. Perez, if I may, over here.
Go ahead.
I think that what Mr. Redman's talking about is actually contemplated in this policy.
If we look at some of the comments, and I think Mary Ellen was on the policy committee
and had some comments.
If you look at the acquisition procedure that's redlined in your book, page 6 of 10,
Again, it talks about new library materials and getting, and then before those are purchased,
we have to have a list, and it must be provided to the superintendent, and the superintendent
provides it to the board.
And then there's a 30-day period where then we go to the board.
The board, number one, if a board member wants more information, they can ask for it and
get it from the librarian.
I mean, the superintendent will get it.
And then the second thing is if that's when if two or more board members challenge it,
that challenge will happen before it's acquired.
So I think that that's what Mr. Redman is talking about.
What is the procedure before the book is on the shelf?
And I think it's clearly outlined in the policy as proposed.
Okay.
Thank you for that.
Just one last question.
The library books that need to be reviewed,
you know, the new library books.
which ones the ones that are being purchased right the ones that are in the being held right now i
guess um what is there going to be somebody extra that's going to be able to review these because i
know you think it's a low thing but i'm just worried about the timing of there's just two
weeks till school starts so um i'm just real quick so even before this new policy there was
a policy in place and there were selection criteria defined by this board
line or I wasn't on the board last year so there's always been a policy in place
so when whoever's deciding to purchase these books should have already thought
about the selection criteria and the policy and had done some sort of review
as they purchase that's not a new product shouldn't be a new process right
I understand what you're saying but that should always be because we've always
always had a policy in place. It may or may not have been followed perfectly, but that's part of
district operations always. So the books that have already been purchased, though, have supposedly,
I understand, been through the process already, you know, especially the elementary books. How
will they be indicated? Is there going to be like a tag on them, or how are they going to be
indicated that they've been reviewed.
Well, maybe you can answer that, but let me just add that there were books that were objected
to by the community, and that's what gave rise initially, besides HB 900, gave rise
to the fact that there were certain books that were brought to the surface and the community
objected to, some of those have been read here, that were just being purchased, were
were just purchased and are now sitting in the warehouse, I assume, those same books.
So it's the community that really objected.
It wasn't the board really going through the list.
It was the community members that objected to certain books.
And so therefore it's like, oh, my gosh, these books shouldn't be acquired.
And so that led to the pause and also because of the pause as well,
also revisiting and HB 900 revisiting the policy.
So how are the books that we review from the warehouse going to be marked?
I'm not aware of anything in the new policy that talks about marking the books.
Now, one day they will all be marked, is my understanding, when we get the vendor markings
on books, what those look like.
I don't even know what that's going to look like until I see something on that.
But there will be no marking on these books unless the board would like to put some kind
of marking in the policy that helps identify a book, or we just wait for the vendors to
create that piece.
Or, but you don't want to re-review a book that's already been reviewed.
you know what I mean in the interim true but we shouldn't the district shouldn't have to
re-review a book the vendor is going to notify us if it works the way the law is written the
vendor is going to give us a title and a rating on that book I don't know if that comes with a label
or a sticker or what of how it's going to be marked but the vendor is going to tell us we
We sold you this book, here's the title, and here's its rating.
And then somehow we put the rating on the book.
I don't know what that would look like.
Okay.
Okay.
No other comments or questions?
7.9 Discuss and consider the Raines Academy Optional Flexible School Day Program.
We will vote on that next week.
And the next item on the agenda is 7.9,
which is to discuss and consider the Raines Academy
optional flexible school day program.
and our presenter is Kerry Sanguinetti, coordinator of Raines Academy and KSAT,
and Richard Merriman, principal of Raines High School.
All right, good evening, Dr. Gagorski, President Perez, members of the board.
Tonight we come before you for our yearly application review for the optional flexible school day program.
To give you just a little bit of information, the primary goal of this program is to recover
and re-enroll students at risk of graduating due to extenuating circumstances and or who
have been withdrawn with a lever code of 98, which would indicate them to be a dropout.
Eligible flexible school day students may have reported or are at risk of reporting
to TEA as dropouts.
The program provides a personalized learning plan and environment focused on earning a
high school diploma.
diploma. The OFSDP waiver ensures the district can offer at-risk students with extenuating
circumstances an alternative option to obtain a high school diploma.
So just kind of an example here of how scheduling would work for a kid. They have a few different
options 8 to 12, 10 to 230, or 8 to 230. Typically what they're doing is they're completing original
credit courses or credit recovery. Those times you see up there are the approximate averages
of what a course takes to complete for any requirement to meet graduation requirements.
Students on average can complete these in three to five weeks.
The note here is it's common for students to attend fewer than two hours at a time
or times other than their official schedules would indicate.
This occurs due to various challenges in the student's life, whether it's transportation,
childcare, work schedule, family personal illness, anxiety, depression,
depression, or anything that would prevent them from coming to school on a consistent
basis.
The benefits of the program, which we have seen over the years, ensures KDISD is able
to accrue ADA funding for all times in which students receive instruction outside of the
flexible day option.
Attendance accrues after the first 45 minutes.
A student has to be there for 45 consecutive minutes before you are able to start collecting
prorated funding on that kid.
And it ensures we can offer another flexible day opportunity
for a kid who is not able to come to school during an ADA period,
and it provides flexibility for the number of hours or days
a student may attend each week for attendance purposes.
And with that, we can take any questions you may have.
Thank you very much.
Any questions?
Mr. President?
Ms. Fox?
But I don't really have a question, but I do have a question for the board.
Because my mentor students have been in your program, been there weekly, see the incredible things that are happening.
And I tell Mr. Merriman all the time, please come and bring us the pictures, tell us the stories, or bring us for a field trip to Raines Academy.
It's incredible what we are doing to save students from the easy thing, which is drop
out and go to an hourly wage job.
My mentor student, who was so far behind because of choices someone else made for her that
kept her out of school for a year and a half, she never went to school, she was so far behind
She has a child and she went to Reigns and boom, boom, boom, she flew through because
she's very bright.
She's now a manager at her business and she graduated a year ago May.
So the amount of information and the success you poured into her and how you told her that
success was rewarded and that she saw that she could do it.
No one had ever believed in her.
It's life changing.
And you have story after story after story, examples, and the facility's amazing.
I mean, I'd love us to take a field trip there or for you to, if Mr. Merriman could bring pictures or stories or something.
Because I think there are students throughout our district, parents who might hear about or be watching.
And it would be like, oh, I know someone.
As a matter of fact, on Saturday when I was having lunch, the young man who waited on us was talking about,
you know, he really wished he'd finished high school because he wanted to go to college,
and I gave him your number.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Fox.
It's incredible.
We should go see him.
Okay.
Thank you.
Any questions or comments?
7.10 Discuss and consider the 2023-2024 District Professional Development Plan.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
the next item is to discuss and consider the 2023-2024 district professional development
plan presenter is nicole czar did i pronounce that right
okay i didn't know if the w was silent or or what sorry about that that's okay
Okay.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Thank you.
Good evening, President Perez, board members, and Dr. Gorski.
I am here this evening to present the KDISD Professional Development Plan for your review and consider for future approval.
In accordance with board policy DMA local, the Board of Trustees shall annually review and approve the Professional Development Plan.
plan. The district professional development plan includes the mandatory trainings which
are required by the state board for educator certification. Thank you.
Do you have any questions? Could I ask a question? Do you have a dollar amount on how much we're
paying outside sources to do this professional development these are
district created trainings okay because I'm looking at the at the thing is this
a M&O staff and it says no so who would be doing that then so each of the
maintenance and operations has certain mandatory trainings that they have to
view oh okay yes okay got it campus okay mr president who is receiving the training right
right okay i have a question miss gusela thank you uh i was curious the very last item uh is
something we just discussed number 29 instructional technology library
and it lists the policy to be trained on just efa legal i would request that that be the local
EFA and EFB as well and EFB legal to be very thorough on the topic particularly
the local policy okay thank you
any other questions or comments thank you very much thank you 7-eleven the
7.11 Discuss and consider an Interlocal Agreement with the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) and Katy Independent School District for the use of district facilities for adult education in courses available to the community.
The next item is to Karen Lewis, our presenter, Director of Internal and Community Relations,
discussing and considering an interlocal agreement with Harris County Department of Education
and Katy Independent School District for the use of district facilities for adult education
and courses available to the community.
Good evening.
Good evening, President Perez, Dr. Gagorski, members of the board.
I'm here tonight to bring forward the renewal of an interlocal agreement
with the Harris County Department of Education or HDC or HCDE. HCDE provides adult education
program that serves adults in our community. Their adult education services include GED courses,
English as a second language, citizenship classes, and workforce certification. For the last 20 years
KDISD has supported the HCDE adult education program by providing classroom space for the
evening classes at one of our campuses. Presently and for the past several years, KDISD has hosted
HCDE at Maid Creek High School. This year's agreement would continue this relationship and
would run from August 2023 to July 2024. It describes the responsibilities for each of the
two parties, KDISD and HCDE. Per this agreement, HCD is responsible for providing staff, instructional
materials and supplies and supervision of the program. KDISD is only responsible for
providing a professional employee, and that's myself, to serve as the primary contact for
the program, and we also provide classroom space and custodial services for the program
and assist in the recruitment and registration of students.
So tonight we are asking the board to review and consider the continuation of this partnership
for the 2023 to 2024 school year.
Take any questions.
Just a quick question.
Most of the courses are what?
So for the last two years, the only courses that they've actually offered at our location
have been the ESL classes.
Okay.
Okay, thank you.
Any questions?
Thank you so much.
7.12 Discuss and consider a delegate and alternate delegate to the 2023 Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Delegate Assembly.
The next topic is, we're almost there, we're almost to the end, but 7.12, and that's
discussing considering a delegate, an alternate delegate to the 2023 Texas Association of
School Boards Delegate Assembly.
And I believe that Mr. Redmond was our delegate last year, and I think he's expressed interest
interest in being delegate again for this coming year.
And basically the delegates, I understand it,
attend an annual conference like in September and vote,
basically, based on issues that are put to the delegation.
And then the next topic is discuss and consider board
endorsement.
Does anyone have?
Well, we need an alternate in case he gets sick.
Does anybody have a thoughts on that?
Ms. Fox?
No, I think I have to be there anyway because I'm the TASB director.
So it would have to be someone else as an alternate, which is probably not going to happen, but it has on occasion happened.
I was the alternate last year and ended up serving.
Okay.
Anybody want to volunteer?
Okay.
Thank you, Ms. Champagne will be the alternate, and Mr. Redmond the delegate.
7.13 Discuss and consider Board endorsement of nominated individuals for the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Director for Region 4, Positions A and B.
And then 713 is to discuss and consider board endorsement of nominating individuals for the Texas Association of School Boards TASB Director for Region 4 Positions A and B.
and these individuals are running to be on the TASB board.
I don't know any of these individuals.
I think Ms. Fox knows the individuals,
and I think Ms. Champagne, you as well, and maybe Mr. Redman,
and you recommending that the board endorse them because they're running.
Ms. Fox, you told me they're running unopposed.
Well, there's a position A and a position B
because region four is so huge.
Rose Avalos is a former educator, retired,
and has a school named after her in Aldine.
Incredible educator and advocate for students.
Darlene Brough is the president of ALEAF.
Thank you, ALEAF School Board.
She's dynamic and focused, super hyper-focused on student success.
I've worked with both of them in my position and we were on the same committee last year.
Incredible, talented ladies and they don't have opposition here.
8. Information Items
They are, I would highly give them my endorsement for sure.
Okay. Item number eight, information items.
The investment report for the quarter ended May 2023 was provided to the board.
The board received the clearinghouse publication for review.
you and the donated items this was provided to the board and I don't think
we have any do we have any board member information requests okay champagne I
took some notes miss Cozzella wants the number for the roads yeah and she also
I also wanted to know that split for the 18 plus and the BLC.
And Ms. Calhoun wanted to know more information about the people that were on the committee,
even though we may not be able to give her all of that, you know, because we don't know their jobs and things like that.
But if you could provide whatever you could provide.
Is that correct, Ms. Calhoun?
9. Future Meetings
okay thank you okay that's our there will be a regular board meeting on July
31 2023 that's next Monday that's our that's our regular board meeting tonight
10. Closed Meeting
with the work-study meeting and the board will now reconvene in closed
meeting let's take a short break before we reconvene in closed meeting we'll
take a short break. We convene in closed meeting as authorized under section 551.001 of the Texas
Government Code for the following purposes. Texas Government Code 551.071, 551.074, and 551.129.
It is necessary for everyone to please clear the room as the Board will convene in closed
meeting in this room. Thank you very much. And we'll just take a short break and then we'll come
back in here the board will now reconvene an open meeting today is monday july 24 2023
11. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
and the time is 10 10 11 p.m the board heard a level 3 dbga grievance 23-009 pursuant to kd
independent school district policy dbga legal and dbga local regarding employee grievances
in closed meeting in accordance with chapter 551 of the texas government code
any action regarding this matter must be taken in open meeting
do i have a motion on the level 3 dbga grievance
Do I have a motion on the level 3 DBGA grievance?
It's up on page 12.
Mr. President.
Ms. Champagne.
Ms. Champagne.
three dbga grievance in the dbga 23009 thereby upholding the decision of the level one and level
two hearing officer it has been moved and seconded do we have second second it is moved and seconded
that the board trustees denies the level three dbga grievance in dbga 23-009 thereby upholding
the decision of the level one or level two hearing officer.
We will now proceed to vote.
Board members, please record your vote on the screen via your keypad.
The ayes have it, and the motion is adopted.
Thank you very much for your attendance.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it.
I got it.
That's next.
There being no further business for the board, this meeting is adjourned.
The time is 1013 PM.
Thank you very much.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 11.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees denies the Level Three DGBA grievance (DGBA 23-009), thereby upholding the decision of the Level One and Level Two hearing officer.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| amy-thieme | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| mary-ellen-cuzela | Yes |
| morgan-calhoun | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
| victor-perez | Yes |