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Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, November 6, 2023
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In this meeting
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- 0:07 to 0:36 1. Call to Order
- 0:36 to 1:22 2. Pledges of Allegiance
- 1:22 to 8:39 3. Public Comment
- 8:39 to 8:58 4. Closed Meeting
- 8:58 to 9:49 5. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
- 9:49 to 23:51 6.1. Discuss and consider Board approval of naming High School #10 as recommended by the Naming Advisory Committee.
- 23:51 to 28:36 6.2. Discuss and consider Board approval of the November 2023 budget ammendments.
- 28:36 to 38:46 6.3. Discuss and consider Board approval of the annual review of investment policies and strategies.
- 38:46 to 44:18 6.4. Discuss and consider September 2023 Financial Reports.
- 44:18 to 47:48 6.5. Discuss and consider Board adoption of a Resolution to cast Katy Independent School District's votes for the Fort Bend Central Appraisal District Board of Directors.
- 47:48 to 49:51 6.6. Discuss and consider Board adoption of a Resolution to cast Katy Independent School District's votes for Waller Country Appraisal District Board of Directors.
- 49:51 to 51:39 6.7. Discuss and consider Board adoption of a Resolution to cast Katy Independent School District's votes for the Harris Central Appraisal District Board of Directors.
- 51:39 to 1:07:46 6.8. Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the purchase of time and attendance software for disctrict-wide time and attendance.
- 1:07:46 to 1:34:39 6.9. Discuss and consider Board of the annual course additions.
- 1:34:39 to 1:37:23 6.10. Discuss and consider the Board to award a contract for design services necessary for the cafeteria kitchen component replacements at various campuses.
- 1:37:23 to 1:37:54 6.11. Discuss and consider Board approval on an easement to Sunterra Property Owners Association, Inc., along the western edge of the Elementary School #48 site in Sunterra Section 32.
- 1:37:54 to 1:38:15 7. Information Items
- 1:38:15 to 1:38:30 8. Future Meetings
Full transcript
Automated transcript, not human verified. It is a way to find a passage, not a quotation.
1. Call to Order
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.
Today is Monday, November 6, 2023 and the time is 5.01 p.m.
Dr. Gorgorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to the notice for this meeting?
Mr. President, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting tonight.
Thank you.
KDISD Board Chief Police Chief Henry Gaw will lead us in the Pledges of Allegiance.
2. Pledges of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
and the true 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?
No scouts? Okay.
At this time, the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak
3. Public Comment
in accordance with KDIC Board Policy BED Local as defined by Board Policy.
Speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, November 6, 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 is not finished speaking at the end of three minutes, their
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, Chief Communications Officer, and a permanent record. If a speaker has not
attempted to solve a matter administratively through proper channels as stated in Board
Policy, the presiding officer's designee shall advise the speaker to seek resolution
through the appropriate policy.
Finally, pursuant to Texas Government Code 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 of duties, discipline,
or dismissal of a public officer or employee, or hear a complaint or charge against an officer
or employee.
Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues, they must do so through the appropriate
local grievance policies, FNG local, DGBA local, CKE local, or GF local.
Our speakers will be called forward now in order they signed up to speak.
Our first speaker is David Nelson.
Welcome.
DAVID NELSON, R- Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the opportunity to come to address the
school board.
My purpose here tonight is to address the naming of the new high school, number 10.
As you all are probably well aware, that is being constructed on land that my father owned, my dad owned it,
and I lived on it, my brother and sister lived on it. We farmed it and ranched it for many years.
My dad never finished more than fourth grade in elementary school.
So he had to stop and help support the family of 11 children.
And so education was very important to him.
So as a result, when he come over here,
he supported many of the activities that went on in the school and stuff.
And, of course, our family has been here ever since 1940.
Well, he came over here in 1939.
That year I was born in 1939.
And he, we had numerous business and investment enterprises that contribute to the Katy community,
which in turn supported the school board.
So it's our request that, respectively request that in the naming process,
that the name of the number 10 high school would be the Nelson High School.
Not necessarily just for my dad, but for the George P. Nelson family.
family probably all familiar with Johnny Nelson who served the city of Katy for a long time.
So we just think the Nelson family in general had a lot of active participation in the community
over a number of years.
And so we just think it would be very fitting to honor our family by placing the name of
Nelson on the high school building out there.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Appreciate your comments and your contribution and outstanding,
being such an outstanding citizen and a great American.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Wesley Nelson.
I have to bring my ears with me.
I got two sets, one here and one right here, because I can't hear too good in case there's any questions.
I just want to thank the board for giving us the privilege of coming and testifying before the committee,
trying to get the name of the new school after our family, which is on the property of our land.
I don't know what David said, because I couldn't hear what he's saying, so I may repeat some of the same things.
But anyway, we appreciate all the people that's helped us and supported us in getting the name of the new school of the Katy High School for number 10.
That entire project was on our land of 160 acres that we were raised on.
So there's only the elementary school that's off of that property, and I think there's a couple retention ponds that's off of that property.
But all the rest of it was on our property.
We had two, my uncle George Nelson was on the school board way back in the 30s, and I was on the school board in the late 60s and 70s.
And like I indicated before, we had a lot of different problems, a lot nearer the problems that you folks have.
We appreciate what you're doing. Anyway, I'll tell you a little story.
When our daughter was in high school, George and Barbara Bush were friends of ours, so
I, she wrote George and asked him if he'd come down and speak to the assembly here in
the school, and he did.
And he encouraged the kids to stay in school, do the best they could, and to stay active
in all the fairs after school so that they make Katy and the school a better place to
live.
of anyway we just requested hope that the school board sees fit to name the new school after our
family i don't have much to add to what we've turned in on our whole our program there is two
pictures i put of our old home place and then i had an aerial view of the 160 acres of what our
place looked like before they removed all of the trees and we we kept some of the trees my brother
and i have a little sawmill and we kept some of those trees and we sawed it up and making
different things for our family so they'll have something to remember our family by
anyway we appreciate this and thank y'all thank you very much really appreciate it just dad was
on the school board when they integrated so you think you had trouble they had trouble
and laura lynn the big thing with her my sister was the the dress code because they were changing
in the dress code to work the girls didn't wear dresses they wanted to wear
pantsuits and Laura Lynn was one of the first people that wore pantsuits thank
you thank you very much both of you this concludes the open forum portion of our
meeting the board will now convene in closed meeting as authorized under
4. Closed Meeting
section 551 point zero zero one the Texas government code for the following
purposes Texas government code five five one point zero seven one and five five
one point one two nine thank you the board will now reconvene and open a
5. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
meeting this is Monday November 6 2023 and the time is 546 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 november 3rd 2023
board will receive information and recommendations from staff administration and the superintendent
on these agenda items at tonight's meeting board members will be asked will be able to ask
questions receive answers and should be prepared to take action the board has just reconvened from
closed meeting in accordance with chapter 551 of the texas government code any action arising from
from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in an open meeting.
The first item of business is item 6.1, which is discuss and consider board approval of
6.1. Discuss and consider Board approval of naming High School #10 as recommended by the Naming Advisory Committee.
naming high school number 10 as recommended by the naming advisory committee.
And the presenter is Dr. Andrea Grooms, Chief Communications Officer.
Welcome.
Andrea Grooms Thank you, Mr. Perez, and good evening to you, President, Trustees, and Superintendent
Lieutenant Grigorski. I'm presenting, as you said, item 6.1, the recommended name for high school
number 10. On November 2nd, which was last week, the board appointed naming advisory committee,
which was comprised of future high school number 10 parents who were nominated by their principal.
The principal, Mrs. Cobb, as well as two board liaisons met to review nominations for the naming
of high school number 10. The name selected by the committee for the board's consideration
for the naming is Freeman. That name is after an entire family, the Freeman family.
The Freeman family has been a part of the Katy community for over 125 years.
And before we introduce the Freemans who are here tonight, I have asked Mr. Craig Eichhorn,
the director of communications, to read the family's biography to provide some background
background on the family, which will help us to understand why the committee has recommended
their name for the high school.
Good evening.
Welcome.
In 1898, widower Joe Freeman left the harsh winters of Iowa by railroad and covered wagons
bound for Texas.
He brought with him his son William W.E. Freeman, W.E.'s wife Maybel, and their baby girl May.
They settled on a piece of land on the prairie about eight miles north of Katy.
W.E. and Maybel gave birth to their second child, a son, Jesse, in 1898, the first recorded birth in Katy.
They later had five more children, Mary D. Dick, Glenn, William Lloyd Bill, and Clyde Ellsworth Buck.
Dozens of their descendants would later be born, educated, work, and raise families in Katy over the next 125 years.
The Freedmen's were a well-known presence in Katy.
They built a successful rice and cattle operation which included a compound of homes, horse barn, blacksmith shop, and a warehouse on Longabow Road.
For years, W.E. and Maybel stayed in their home up north during planting and harvest, and during the winter resided in town where they focused on their children's education and contributing to Katie's growing community.
community. With Katy being such a small community at the turn of the 20th century, Katy families
were called upon to fill multiple roles to advance their community. The Freemans were
no exception. Over the past 125 years, Freemans have held positions as mayor, city council,
volunteer fire department, and the school board. They have also supported many service
groups such as the Katie Literary Club, Katie Heritage Society, and Keep Katie
Beautiful Board, as well as countless other school, church, and community events.
In fact, there is a section dedicated to the Freeman's impact on Katie in the
Johnny Nelson Katie Heritage Museum. In addition to the Freeman's long history
of civic service, two consistent themes throughout the past six generations have
have been agriculture and education.
At a time when many farming families did not formally educate their children,
W.E. and May Bell understood the importance of a strong education
and sacrificed so their children could attend school.
May, Jesse, and Dick finished the eighth grade at South Maid School,
the highest level offered at that time.
Bill and Buck later graduated from Katy High School.
Throughout the 20th century, the Freemans adapted and grew just like Katy did.
They later expanded their Katy enterprises along Longanbao Road, FM 529, also known as Freeman Road, Katy-Hockley Cut-Off Road, and Sharp Road.
These businesses included thousands of acres for rice, cattle, horses, and hunting.
several shops, warehouses, barns, tack houses, silos, cattle pens, a rice dryer,
homes for their families and employees, and even a small airport. Five generations of Freemans have
since graduated from Katy ISD schools, and members of the sixth generation are currently enrolled in
district schools. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Eichhorn. Members of the Freeman
family are here this evening and so I would like to I'd like to ask excuse me
that they be excuse me got a little tongue-tied there I'd like to ask that
they stand and be recognized.
And if trustees, if you have any questions about the process or the committee selection,
I can answer those now.
Any questions or comments?
Questions?
Mr. President?
Ms. Fox?
I was one of the trustees on the committee and it was a very difficult task because there
their incredible, incredible names on the list to look through and to go through.
And the Freemans, as you can hear, are very deserving of this honor.
With their long history in Katy, how you built Katy to be an incredible place
where people want to live and educate their children, raise their families, is honorable.
So honorable.
We heard from another incredible family this evening, the Nelson family,
who also raised their families here, owned land near you all, I assume.
They said that they owned the land where the schools are situated,
and we are going to name the junior high very soon.
And the high school and the junior high sit on the same property,
and I think it would be very fitting to have both families joined at that process.
I wanted to let the board know that in the past we have named schools just chosen.
The board can choose.
It is our responsibility and ultimately our responsibility to name these schools.
We've used a community process, which of course you know I'm all about.
But knowing that both of these families were so incredible in building Katie,
it would just seem fitting to hearing from the Nelsons
and they're incredible. There's also an incredible story with them in the packets that we looked through.
So that's just something that we might consider, might think about that, naming the junior high, the Nelson family,
because both are so incredible. Just wanted to throw that out there.
That's an opportunity for us if people wanted to give feedback to the president or whatever that is.
Thank you. Any other comments on that or anything else? Any other questions?
Mr. President, Dr. Rooms, could you give a quick rundown on the process?
For some people, it's totally foreign.
They have no clue how we go about selecting names.
Yeah, absolutely.
So once the board has approved the superintendent to form a committee, a naming advisory committee,
the following day, we will put out information to our community via email, as well as our website and social media,
announcing that the naming nomination process has opened.
That process remains open for about two weeks.
That allows the general public to submit name nominations
for consideration by the committee.
Every name nomination that meets board policy criteria
is considered by the committee.
Now, how is the committee, how does it come together?
Well, it's comprised of parents of children
who will live in the community of the school being named.
Those parents are identified by their current principals.
We ask principals to nominate parents
who are actively involved in their current school.
So they might be PTA members,
or they might be watchdog types of dads,
or they're involved in some other level
within their current campus.
The committee is also comprised of two board liaisons
who are appointed by the board president.
That committee reviews every single nomination,
usually within a couple hours.
Nominations can be anything from an email with a name
to a very large packet of information
that's inclusive of photographs or essays
or recommendation letters.
By the end of that process, that review process,
the committee will identify a name
that they wish to recommend and bring forth to the board,
which is where we are at this evening.
Mr. President.
Champagne.
Thank you.
I want to let the Freemans know congratulations.
I was also one of the other board members that was on the committee.
And I want to let also the Nelson family know and the Freeman family know that this decision was not made lightly.
You know, we did take up our whole two hours.
There were a lot of community members in there.
as dr grimm's has said there are a lot of parents in there that have children that will you know be
going to the school and um i just want to make sure that everyone understands that we really
took our time with this that um the parents you know are to me have the ultimate decision to make
on it and so we're very proud to have the Freeman as recommended for this and
you know next week we vote on it so I really appreciate the Nelson's having
come out and spoken on their own behalf also thank you for your time thank you
very much any other questions or comments I wonder if the Freeman's we'd
love to hear from you or just introduce yourselves if you don't mind just tell
Tell us who you are.
We're glad to have you here.
We're delighted that you're here.
And it would be great to just, if you want to introduce
yourselves, we'll have one of you introduce everybody else
if you want.
OK.
I'd like to introduce myself.
You all have it.
OK.
Thank you, Dr. Coleman.
Hello.
I'm Lynn Freeman.
Freeman. I was a substitute teacher in 1978. In 1979, I taught at May Creek Junior High
and Katie Junior High. And then after the birth of my daughter Carla, who looks like
a Freeman, she's a brunette, I got my Masters and my Doctorate and I worked at University
University of Houston for the past, well, 30 years.
I've retired.
Now, I've got to brag after I introduce the rest of my
family, and don't worry, this is going to be quick.
I'm not a big talker.
My almost daughter-in-law, who is a Nelson.
Masquerading as a Delaney.
Her father was Ron Delaney.
And then my son Kent, to whom she's engaged, my daughter
Carla and in my wonderful son-in-law my favorite one Phil and I'm interested full
disclosure I have to say I have students former students roaming everywhere in
the district and I happen to have run into
McKee I just happened to have bumped into her and I don't how many years ago
did were you my student
You know, I have a student, thank you, who is now teaching at Youngblood.
She's a third-grade team lead teacher.
She said, you know, Dr. Freeman, I graduated 22 years ago,
and I think, am I that old, or are we all that old?
But anyhow, nothing can make me prouder to represent the Freemans
who thought education was all that, and they still did.
And when I married, they said, you've got to get a job, Lynn, go teach.
And I did, I did, and it's been wonderful for me,
and I hope wonderful the district.
Thank you very much for letting me talk.
Thank you so much, and thank you.
Mr. President.
Thank you all of you for being here.
Mr. President, may I mention one thing that the committee just loved?
The very first birth recorded in Katy was a Freeman.
That was very special.
All right, thank you very much.
Our next item is 6.2, which is to discuss and consider board approval of the November 2023 budget amendments.
6.2. Discuss and consider Board approval of the November 2023 budget ammendments.
Presenter Esperanza Rios, Director of Budget and Treasury.
Welcome.
And there's someone else here I see.
Welcome.
I'm going to do a little tag team today.
All right.
Good evening, Board President Perez, Board of Trustees, and Dr. Cagorski.
Tonight we bring forth a budget amendment in the amount of $135,000 to cover the cost of the upgrade to the district's transportation routing software,
which was presented at the October 23rd board meeting and approved at the October 30th meeting.
All other budget amendments are direct functional offsets.
The approval of these amendments will result in a $135,000 decrease to the general operating fund balance.
We're also presenting the capital operating budget.
It will amend the funding in the amount of $423,764 for chiller replacements at May Creek High School, Morton Ranch High School, and Seven Lakes High School.
This is also presented at the October 23rd board meeting and approved at the 30th board meeting.
and this will result in no change in the capital projects fund balance.
Thank you. Any questions?
Mr. President, may I ask a question?
Ms. Jamie.
Okay, so I had a question on the budget amendment report,
amendment number three.
There were a lot of dues transactions there.
Do you have any details on that?
So the the it's the actual the dues for the College Board fees so they're
breaking up they're broken out by the actual campus accounts as we do have to
report that per TEA okay not reporting. Okay and then what about amendment
number and so the College Board dues that allows us to offer AP classes I'm
assuming yes okay and then amendment amendment five that's where travel is
that is that normal is that a normal occurrence that we're gonna see per high
school or that they're taking their travel money to cover the cost yeah okay
could do we have any details on what this was for so they're they're gonna
They're installing a security camera.
And so they're taking their money from their staff development travel to cover the cost of that installation.
Okay, so this is for a camera?
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay, and then last one was Amendment 13.
Okay, so that was like $17,000 for general supplies.
Do we have any details on that?
No.
So the campus is moving their money that they allocated in Function 23,
which is administrative costs, into Function 11, which is for instructional purposes.
So it allowed them to purchase any type of supplies that they would need for the classrooms.
For instructions.
So we're moving it from what to what?
We're moving it from administrative cost into instructional.
Okay.
Okay.
Mr. President?
Ms. Grisela?
Are you done, Ms. Teemee?
Yes, thank you.
Is that a normal move from administrative to instructional?
Campuses normally do that when they allocate their budget.
So the budget's allocated in February.
And so as they go through the year, they'll start to realize what they're actually –
So they'll move their budget within themselves.
and so they're taken from administration to
Use it for instructional which is basically what their baseline budgets are budgeted for okay? Okay? Thank you
Appreciate that questions
On amendment 12 that is if I'm understanding this correctly we talked about that at our last meeting
This is the new software for the buses is that correct 135,000 yes, okay?
And so we'll start to see that every year correct
Yes, going forward. So there's an offset of, there's like $42,000 that we currently have in the budget for that cost already.
Okay.
So that difference will be what will be allocated for next year.
Okay. That's what I just wanted to double check.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Any other questions?
Any other questions?
And we're on to 6.3, the Discussion and Consider Board Approval of the Annual Review of Investment
6.3. Discuss and consider Board approval of the annual review of investment policies and strategies.
Policies and Strategies.
And our presenter…
Sherri Butterfield.
Okay.
I'm speaking on behalf of…
I'm Sherri Butterfield.
Welcome.
…all of the investment officers.
So Mr. Smith, Mr. Hines, Esperanza, and myself are the district investment officers.
And tonight we are meeting a compliance requirement from our district policy CDA to annually review strategies by fund types,
approve our brokers, approve our investment pools, and training resources.
So your attachments list our recommendations for brokers and investment pools and training resources.
The Public Funds Investment Act, we refer to it in abbreviation as PFIA, is the governing law pertaining to investment activities of school districts.
and all of its requirements are incorporated into our KDISD policy, CDA legal and local.
PFIA authorized investments are described in our CDA policies,
and our quarterly reports that are information items to you meet the requirements for disclosure.
of quarterly reporting.
Your consideration and approval of this item 6.3
satisfies the requirements set forth
in the Public Funds Information Act.
Thank you very much.
I had a couple questions.
I'll go ahead and start with that.
The brokers, are they, you say we're approving these brokers.
Have we been using all of them, or have we added any new ones?
And also, what do they do for us?
Do they just act as brokers?
Do they also provide advisory services, underwriting, anything like that?
Okay, so completely different subjects.
So these are just our investment brokers.
Underwriting brokers are kind of a different thing.
So that's all related to issuing bonds.
The district does have an investment advisor.
And any time we're in the market to purchase a security,
We go through our investment advisor, and they're collecting these bids or offers from this list of brokers on behalf of KDISD.
Why is it this list of brokers?
This list of brokers has expressed an interest in serving the district.
They've gone through the requirements that we put forth, which is a certification that they've read our investment policies,
and they've completed a questionnaire that gives us some background about the types of volumes that they deal in,
the types of securities they deal in, so that we know they have some expertise in the type of security that a school district is allowed to participate in.
So basically our advisor is taking bids from the variety of brokers at any given time in
terms of taking the best price.
And these are the ones we use as brokers.
Yes, that's correct.
I had a question about in our policy, it talks about the fund strategies.
Yes.
And what jumped out at me is that for general funds, for our general funds, it has the primary
objective being safety of principal, investment liquidity, and maturity sufficient to meet
anticipated cash flow requirements.
Yes.
And then we have that same, pretty much that same strategy for special revenue and custodial
funds.
But then when you get into the debt service and capital project funds, it doesn't mention
or anything about preservation of safety of principle,
you know, safety of principle.
That's not mentioned, and I'm just wondering why that is,
why that would be.
So we hold that at the highest level.
We kind of refer to that as SLEI, safety, liquidity,
and then yield.
Right.
Never in the market according to, in fact,
school districts are prohibitive from speculative investments
by the Public Funds Investment Act.
So we're always first looking at safety and security, then liquidity.
So liquidity goes to those strategies, and the strategies are maybe a little difficult to understand,
but think about it in terms of cash flow, the reason why you have liquidity needs are very different from the operating funds and the debt service funds.
So in debt service world, it's pretty simple.
It's February and August payments, and they're enormous.
So we need to make sure that we have sufficient liquidity in those months to make those payments, cash flow.
The operating accounts, that's every month.
It's continual.
We're going to have payroll every month.
We're going to have accounts payable, check rents, paying our vendors every single week of the month.
So we we know where where our cash flow is in the general operating fund
That's those are monthly requirements that we need to make to make those and of course on capital projects
That's building a school
You know those are going to be more seasonal or more sporadic or more more
project to find because they're you're you're talking about bricks and mortar and you're talking about a draw schedule from
from contractors and such.
So that takes a little more structure.
What I was asking is really is on the debt service funds
and the capital project funds,
there's no mention of safety of principle.
There is a lot of mention of, of course,
of the obligations as they come up,
but I was just curious about why there's no mention
of safety of principle.
If that's just an omission in the policy, I don't know.
I believe, and I'll struggle to find it here quickly for reference, but I believe that our safety, liquidity, and yield is our first priority in the policy before we get down to the strategies.
So we can certainly add it to each of the fund groups.
It's not a targeted omission that we can go willy-nilly in that fund, but not in the other.
It's always the first priority of safety liquidity than yield.
And I just had one more question.
Unless there's somebody who wants to ask a question right now.
Okay, I just had one more question.
We have, as I looked, I think last month we got the report on the holdings.
And I think we had like about $216 million in bank accounts.
with one bank or the bank that we use for our operating accounts.
And all that cash is available I think next day, right, in terms of very liquid?
Because that's your operating cash?
At the depository, yes.
Okay.
Are those funds actually the credit risk of the bank?
No, they are not because as a school district, we are entitled as a public entity, we are entitled to request collateral pledged.
So in school district worlds, even in municipal funds, you have the right to request collateral.
So as part of a depository contract for a school district, we get to put in the depository contract the level of collateral that we seek.
So we always want our funds collateralized at 105% of market value because you're not collateralizing on par.
Some of your bonds could be principal reducing.
So in other words, it's called pledged collateral by the bank.
So the bank is pledging their assets to KDISD.
So if a bank goes bankrupt, we have their underlying securities pledged to us.
Those are further protected by being third-party secured in a safekeeping account at the Federal Home Loan Bank.
And we get monthly reports that we reconcile to the banks, what the bank says they pledge
and what the Federal Home Loan Bank says they have on deposit in our benefit, in our name.
Okay, great. Thank you.
To make sure that we are completely collateralized.
And we're not even talking close margins.
So we're not collateralizing down to like, well, we just got $100,000 margins.
So the bank is very generous with us on collateral to make sure that we're completely comfortable with those deposits with them.
They are also interest-bearing.
I figured there must have been some mechanism how we would be comfortable keeping that amount of money with one bank.
And don't necessarily be misled by a month-end report because, you know, we're always staging our cash,
and it might be the day that we move the cash into the bank to make the 831, I mean, you know,
whichever month you were looking at, the 831 payroll, so here comes the money, here comes the report.
But it's all structured to be interest-bearing all the time.
Thank you.
Anybody have any questions?
Thank you very much.
6.4. Discuss and consider September 2023 Financial Reports.
The next item is 6.4, and that's to discuss and consider September 2023 financial reports.
And our presenter is Jamie Hines, Executive Director of Finance.
Welcome.
Good evening.
President Perez, trustees, Superintendent Gorgorski, you have before you our September financial reports, including our financial statement, our tax report, our construction report, and a summary of our check register.
Also included is an analysis by function and object of our expenditures for the month of September.
September. Just something to keep in mind, September is our first month of the fiscal year, so this is showing about 8.3% of our actual expenses throughout the year.
If you look down at our tax report, you're not going to see anything yet. We won't start collecting those until November.
the expense registry is, or pardon me, the registry of our expenditures is on par with September as well.
These are for your approval for this evening.
Are there any questions I can answer?
Mr. President?
Ms. Grisella?
Hi, Jamie.
I was looking at the percent of budget expended, and yeah, I would expect it to be fairly low because that's our first month in our financial year.
But there are some that aren't, so I just have to ask.
Particularly number 34, function 34, other operating expenses, 65% of the budget already expended.
I'm sure there's a reason.
A lot of times you'll see that in function 53 and 34 is another one.
Those are like in function 53, that's software that we have to pay all up front at the beginning of the school year.
60, function 34, transportation.
Do you know why?
And I believe the particular object you're speaking of has to do with payments on an insurance claim.
So I saw that as well.
Yes, that's a big not an insurance claim but on a
auto liability
Expenditure that we made so that's out of the ordinary or is that a normal?
It's a normal. It's front-loaded expense 65% of the budget. It's our it's our insurance premium for okay
It's our insurance premium that we're that we're paid that we've already paid. Okay. Thank you. Thank you
Mr.. President, I'm steaming. Are you done? Mrs.. Cuz I think so okay? Thank you
I'll give you more time. No, it's okay. Go for it. Okay. And then on, I'm so sorry, Jamie, but
on code 5800, I see that we got about 19% of our income from the state. How often do we get that?
And how is that, what does that represent? So all school districts in Texas are given a class,
a one, two, or three. Actually, I think it's an A, B, or C. And so depending on where you fall in
that class and it depends on what your actual overall funding is we fall kind of in the center
because of our schedule for needs and when our actual fiscal year starts we get our deposited
funds from the state so the state funds us throughout the year and i don't know the exact
number i think it's it's five separate draws throughout the year but ours are um they're
They're funded based on when you're going to receive taxes.
Because of our tax base, we receive lots of taxes in November and then throughout the school year.
But as we get to the end toward August, September, then we'll get more funds from the state.
And so that's where that's coming from.
So an example would be we're going to get paid September 25th, October 25th, and November 25th, and it runs dry until March or until May-ish because we get taxes.
And then we get to go several months without payment from the state because we're getting tax revenue and then
And it's a standard schedule. We know it every year
There are some school districts that get
100% of what they're gonna get from the state in September and they never get paid again
And then there are some that would get a certain amount every month because they don't collect enough taxes
And they get the same amount every month for 12 months and we are the one that's you know
You get the first three or four months skip a few months and then you get finishing out but the bigger payments come up front
Okay, so I figured since it was about 20% we would probably get like five of these payments
So three up now three in the fall and then later in the year
Okay, it'll be smaller and but they'll come every month later in the year. Okay
Thank you. And those are standardized across the Texas across Texas with districts
other questions
Thank you very much.
Okay, 6.6.
6.5. Discuss and consider Board adoption of a Resolution to cast Katy Independent School District's votes for the Fort Bend Central Appraisal District Board of Directors.
6.5. Discuss and consider Board adoption of a resolution to cast Katie Independent School District's votes
for the Fort Bend Central Appraisal District Board Director
and our presenter again, Jamie Hines.
And he'll be the presenter for the next two or three items.
Good evening.
The State Property Tax Code requires that each entity cast its votes
for the directors of the Appraisal District Board before December 15, 2023.
We can cast our votes for one candidate
or can distribute our votes among a number of candidates.
This board action if you remember back to September you all actually nominated for the boards of directors for two of our counties
This is for Fort Bend or Fort Bend Central Appraisal District
Included in your materials you should have the candidate biographies for the five people who have been nominated
There are five actual
Directors so all of them will be elected
There's also a ballot. And so you are all welcome to cast your votes as you'd like. We can divide those up among all of them or divide them among some of those candidates or we can cast all of the votes for one candidate.
that we have 514 votes available.
So that is your decision to make, as this board would like.
For Fort Bend, we're talking?
For Fort Bend Central.
And we nominated Paul Stamatis, did we not?
Yes, sir, that's correct.
You nominated Paul Stamatis,
and he's been a member of the board for several years.
years.
Chair Greg Musil.
Anybody have any thoughts?
Mr. President.
We could vote for Paul Stamatis.
Mr. President.
Go ahead, Ms. Fox.
What have we done in the past?
Divided them equally or put them all in one?
When you have made a nomination, I think ordinarily you would cast most of your votes
for that person.
If you wanted to split it, the one other person that this board has voted for in the past is Jim Rice, who has a long standing directorship with the board.
So if you wanted to split, we could do that.
But I would think it customary, since you nominated Mr. Stamatos to actually at least cast most of our votes for that person.
But this is your decision.
And we're not voting on that today.
You haven't until next week, yes sir, to do that.
So, and we've got the ballot, and so next week is when you'll actually approve it and sign it.
Okay.
Mr. President?
Ms. Fox?
All five people will be elected because there are five people.
Thanks.
Yes, ma'am.
That's correct.
So all five will be elected?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
There are only five nominations for this.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Want me to move to the next one?
Go ahead and go on to Harris County.
Okay.
I don't know if it needs to be called, but the next county is, and the next item on the agenda tonight is for the Waller County.
6.6. Discuss and consider Board adoption of a Resolution to cast Katy Independent School District's votes for Waller Country Appraisal District Board of Directors.
Item 6.6.
Yes, sir.
And so Waller County is exactly like Fort Bend County in that we get a percentage of votes.
And that number of votes is 1027 to use as we want across all of the nominees.
Again, there are five nominees and there are five positions available.
We did not, this board did not nominate anyone in September.
So I would say traditionally you have split the vote across everyone or this
board is split the vote across all of the candidates when that took place but
again this is your decision. That makes sense to me to split them all up. Split the
vote up. Mr. President, I just noticed we don't have any biographies of these
people for waller county there were there were no biographies provided from waller county and and um
we supplied the packet that they supplied with us from each of those i i just if you don't mind i
wanted to bring up one other thing i don't want to interrupt you if you still ask me questions
they need a new campaign manager yeah but but there there's actually an additional two extra
votes because of the number of votes we have for water for for water counting
why don't you think why don't you you pick one yeah mr. Royce rape has had a
you know a long-standing relationship has actually been a part of that body
since at least 2003 we know of and and so if I'll just put those additional two
for him sounds good and then Harris move on to the next item or questions okay
6.7. Discuss and consider Board adoption of a Resolution to cast Katy Independent School District's votes for the Harris Central Appraisal District Board of Directors.
item six seven is for Harris County Appraisal District now this one is
different there's actually multiple people who are running for a single
position that KDISD is able to vote for and we have a single vote. We did
nominate or nominate one person and that was Martina Lamond-Dixon. The other person
who's running for this one particular board of director position is Bruce A.
Austin. Traditionally again the person that we nominated that single vote would
go toward that person but of course it's this this board's prerogative okay so we should probably uh
vote for martina lemon dixon
do we have any information on the other candidate they did not provide um any any information on
these candidates i i did go online and and look they didn't have biographies even on the website
um so you can go and look them up i apologize and and we did have a lot of information on the
the person that you had nominated pro in september because she's been there for several years and
She's on the Board of Directors for the spring, Umbil ISD.
And she's been a Board of Director for several years.
Anything else, Board, on this item?
Yes, that's it.
Thank you.
You have another one coming up.
a contract 6.8 6.8 discuss and consider board approval of a contract for the
6.8. Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the purchase of time and attendance software for disctrict-wide time and attendance.
purchase of time and attendance software for district-wide time and attendance
correct the payroll department has been in partnership with UKG our current time
and attendance solution for over 20 years and while it's been a good
relationship and they have a good product there there have been some some
some changes in pricing and there's also a major upgrade essentially there they're doing an end of life with the current software that they provide and because of that the payroll department went ahead and just went out to look and see what was available in terms of solutions for time and attendance invited various time and attendance vendors in did product demos and a thorough evaluation in the end of that time clock plus or
TCP was found to provide the best overall value for the district's time and attendance solution.
There is an upfront cost of $421,638, and then an ongoing annual cost of about $190,958.
So the first year of implementation is a little over $600,000 of that.
the implementation is going to take six to nine months but in order to have it ready for this
next August we're preparing now and and beginning a project that will initiate in January assuming
this board approves over time this solution is actually a significant savings to the district
After the first year of implementation, it's over 184,000 in savings per year versus if we were to stay with the current vendor that we have and just take their new upgraded solution.
So we feel like it is the best software for time and attendance, which is our time clocks in the district are a massive enterprise technology solution that we have.
it's not only the best product but it's going to save the district short term
and long term so we feel like it's a without a doubt the the thing that we
request that the the board questions mr. Perez miss champagne I have a couple of
questions for you mr. Hines um first of all how can you explain how we're gonna
to save money with this i mean i know that it's a good because we have this where i work too
something like this but how do we save money so technically we have a solution in place that we've
we've had in place for over 20 years the same company and and the software has changed names
over the year but it's it's now called ukg we have to have a time and attendance solution because
because people all over the district clock in and keep their attendance,
and then that is what essentially rolls up into payroll
so that we know how much to pay each week or every couple of weeks.
The savings isn't actually saving versus not having the system
because we have to have the system.
It is savings versus the system that we currently have.
The current vendor we have is forcing us,
not forcing, within three to four years,
Their software is going to be end of life.
It will no longer be supported.
So we have to upgrade to their new solution, which is substantially more cost.
Because without getting into too many details, it's a software as a service.
It's in the cloud.
And so they're charging a significant amount more than what they're charging for what we're using now.
So that's what caused us to go out and look.
But the TCP or Time Clocks Plus, this new vendor, actually has a solution that is going to save us over the cost of us moving, and it's even actually going to be less expensive than if we were to just stay on the current software that we're using right now.
One thing that's more expensive is up front, and you notice there's a large expense.
And the reason is every one of these vendors requires the time clocks to be selected for their particular software solution.
So we have to actually go out and replace our clocks.
And that's the upfront cost.
But by year three, the district is already saving money after replacing those clocks.
I'm sorry.
May I please continue?
Okay.
Okay, so eventually we will save money, but of course there's always some kind of break-even point with the upfront money.
Yes, ma'am, that break-even point is about two and a half years.
Okay.
On the third year, there will be significant savings, and then every year thereafter.
Okay, and then so right now, can you explain to us what happens right now?
So let's act like I work for KDIC and I'm coming to work today.
how do I currently let someone know I'm at work?
Okay, well, currently the majority of our people will go in
and they will use their ID and scan in.
And so it uses all of these clocks use RFID technology,
much like you've heard that the buses use.
And they'll scan in, and that's essentially what they have to do.
Sometimes it's a little more complicated.
If they have multiple positions,
they've got to select which one of those positions on that clock.
There will be a change in the fact that it's a different clock, but no change in the functionality or anything.
We tried to keep it as similar to what our employees are accustomed to.
So we're not making any changes with that other than it'll be a little bit of different hardware that they're looking at.
Same screen, same RFID, so there won't be any impact to that.
Now we do have clerks, attendance clerks, on campuses and in departments.
And so they'll be trained on the new system.
That's why it is a six to nine month implementation.
We're making sure that we've got plenty of time to train our folks to have all the documentation ready and to have the solution set up ready for next school year.
So all our hourly folks that do not have a workstation go to these clocks and they swipe in and they swipe out throughout the day.
And like Mr. Hines said, if they swipe in as a bus driver in the morning and then they swipe out to go clean a bus that's paid at a different rate and by hitting that code, it allows that.
So we're doing all that by software.
And if they have a workstation, like a paraprofessional that's at a campus office or in one of these
offices around here, they log in and out from their workstation on a browser.
So they clock in on their computer.
But all 14,000 employees, this is our time and attendance system of record.
So if I ask for a vacation day, I put it in a system that we call
Asa we used to be a sop. I said I know it is a sob and a sob will then communicate that to Kronos
As the official time and attendance record and so Kronos will show that Chris was not here even though I'm not
Punching on in and out on the clock. I was not here on
this Friday I
I won't be here, and it keeps up with all 14,000 employees.
This is a huge time saver for us, and if it weren't for it, I said earlier,
we'd have to hire 12 additional people, and I was told not.
It would be more than that because it's all electronic.
We're pulling all that data from across this big district, all 14,000 people,
and keeping it up with our current system.
And we think we're going to make a small improvement when we make this change
and save some money.
That's great.
There is actually some additional functionality that comes in this system that isn't available.
And without getting into a lot of details, that's going to actually save some time over the way that we handle our overtime.
Because a lot of that, not a lot, but there is some of it, some things that are done manually.
And so those are done manually at the department or at the payroll level.
And so we're actually, this new company, TCP, is able to do that entirely using the software system.
So we're
expect to see efficiencies with the savings as well. Mr. President, how long have we had the
current provider, do you know? Over 20 years, and I don't know exactly what the year it started was,
but I know it's been over 20. We were using it for those that went to a clock every day
prior to 2003. When I got here, we were already using it and had been using it for years.
years. Shortly after 2003, I would say 2004, 2005 is when we decided to put everybody on
there, because prior to that, if you were a paraprofessional at a campus, you would
fill out an Excel timesheet and send that over in the interoffice mail on paper, and
we would have stacks and stacks of paper and had to have data input, have it done data
input wise and now there when we made that move in 2005 ish when we put
everybody on there now that's when they had the ability to clock in and out from
their office we're pulling it over and saving all that time that data entry
time it's all being approved supervisors etc just like it was when it was signed
off on on an Excel spreadsheet but it's getting done electronically through
work flow.
And then do you have an idea of how long you'll want to, you have a goal of how long you want
to have this, use this, this new change of provider?
Changing vendors is never fun, so the goal, you know, from an operational person is to
never change if it works right and if it costs, and the cost is right.
But sometimes we do have to go out and make sure that we're doing the best thing for the
district and that's that's what happened in this case now this company um i will say is in more
than half of the school districts in texas including the largest district in texas and
we've spoken with many districts that are very similar to our size and much larger
and they were extremely positive about how well the system works so we know that they can handle
our size which is something we have to take into account when we do these things thank you for
taking the time to contact other school districts yes appreciate that and then um i just want to
make sure i understand so our first year our expense is going to be about 421 000 and then
every but we're not not in addition to that the other 190 000 correct so like the first year is
going to be 421 k and then every year after that it's going to be 190 k no that's that's i i'm
I'm sorry, the first year, the 421K, that's going to be for the implementation service,
which is what we pay just to actually implement, as well as all the hardware, the clocks.
Sure.
Okay.
And we also have to pay the yearly service, the 190.
Thereafter, it will just be the 190,958 per year, and we have that price locked in for five years with this contract.
Okay. So we're looking at like roughly $600,000 for the first year.
$612,000, yes, ma'am.
Yeah, and then roughly $200,000 every year after that.
Yes, ma'am.
And the break-even you said was about two and a half years?
Yes, ma'am.
And we're locked in at this rate at five years?
That's correct.
Okay.
At two and a half years, by three years.
The break-even is two and a half, right?
Well, it's a little less than that.
Okay.
We're actually at three years over if we were to utilize the company we're using now.
After three years, it's $198,000 total cost of ownership versus – I'm sorry, that's the savings.
The savings in the total cost of ownership is almost $200,000 at three years, and then at five years, it's substantially more.
Okay.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Any other questions?
Mr. President, I had a question about the ESSER funds.
Where are we in?
I'm assuming there was a deliberate decision to use those funds and the timing.
Where are we in ESSER funds?
They are one time.
Obviously, all ESSER funds have to be used within the next year.
And so I don't want to get into where we're at with ESSER funds.
That's really a mr. Smith and mrs. Coy could could discuss that further
But we did discuss it since this would be a one-time cost to the district. That's not going to be ongoing right?
We felt like that was
This is something it was analyzed there wasn't something that we would spend these Esther funds that to priority and precedence. Yeah, there's some
it's
I've described it this morning as a pair of pants
It's which pocket you wanted to come out of the general fund pocket or the Esther pocket in this case
It would qualify for Esther we put Esther down
That was you know being discussed as are we gonna stick with that funding source even through the you know through late last week
And we thought that that it would be a good one. I think we are miss coy
or also miss
Miss Freeman's student is gonna give you all report December on the status of our Esther funds and it's and we're in good shape
Okay, okay, and this was not a budgeted expense
Expected or was this something that was learned about this year after budgets were set?
Why why wasn't this already budgeted? So we we actually started looking into this over a year ago
So we began this process and there were funds that were planned for this
but the the
Kind of the option we were thinking was that we were going to wind up upgrading
grading until we really got into the quotes and looking at it and realized that we were going to
need to evaluate this better to do the right thing for the district. And when we did that,
we did not have enough budgeted funds, no ma'am. Okay. So timeline changed, expected timeline?
That's why it wasn't budgeted? We made the decision in September, late September. And so
we were still negotiating with everyone involved in this throughout August. And we were thinking
thinking that there was a chance that the current provider was going to sharpen their pencil, et cetera,
to make the upgrade a little easier, but they weren't able to do so.
And that was done in probably the latter part of September, early October, I guess.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Any other questions?
Mr. President, I'd like to say one other thing.
Mr. Hines, so basically we were going to have to have some sort of expense eventually
eventually because the program that we're using right now is going to be going to become obsolete
so we're just trying to get ahead of the game and you know do it now rather than we could do it now
or next year six months from now or well and basically we were going to have to do this
in order to time this correctly we really need to have that nine month lead time so if if we didn't
move forward now we were putting it off another year the issue is that in three years that the
actual software will be end of life and so from our perspective we we kind of had two shots at
it this year or next year and we decided that based off of our findings with the other vendors
now is the time to go as so that's what we're bringing to you now thank you
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
6.9. Discuss and consider Board of the annual course additions.
We move on now to item 6.9, discuss and consider Board approval of the annual course additions.
Dr. Sane Bell, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning.
Sane Bell, welcome.
Good evening, President Perez, Board members, and Dr. Grgorski.
I'm here this evening to present new courses for the 24-25 school year.
Each year, the Division of Teaching and Learning facilitates the process of course review, including soliciting input from central and campus staff regarding course additions and revisions for the upcoming school year.
As requests are received, the Division assesses each request considering the following criteria.
content of the course, availability of the curriculum, highly qualified staff, student interest, alignment to the TEKS, technology and facility needs, impact on other programs, sustainability of the course over time, and relevance to the district's strategic plan.
We also continue to take into account the state's expectations to develop pathways that give students the opportunity to be completers in a program of study for career and technical education courses.
The new CTE courses are proposed annually to ensure that students are prepared for high demand, high skill, and high wage careers in Texas.
Texas. Teachers and administrators have the opportunity to recommend new courses for review.
In addition to gathering input from campus staff on course additions and revisions, input
from district level staff who support the implementation of courses was also taken into
account before finalizing this recommendation. Based on input from multiple stakeholders,
the administration is recommending 20 new courses. Five of those courses are coming
coming from our secondary curriculum and instruction department.
15 of the courses are career and technical education courses.
Of the 15 courses, three are junior high courses,
seven are high school courses, two are courses being offered at the Miller Career Center,
and three courses are being offered at Raines Academy.
I also want to note that ten of the new courses are dual credit courses,
which gives our students the opportunity to earn college credit from Houston Community College while enrolled as high school students.
The complete list of proposed courses is included in your board packet.
I do want to take a moment to highlight some of the notable courses that are creating new opportunities for our students.
We are expanding the CTE offerings for our junior high campuses.
Two of the new proposed courses are entry level courses for eight different programs of study.
This gives students the opportunity to begin their CTE journey towards completing a program of study before entering high school and better prepares them to earn an industry-based certification.
The dual credit science and math courses being proposed are part of a new pathway that gives students the opportunity to earn an associate of arts in teaching prior to graduating from KDISD.
Students who participate in this program would then enter college needing only two more years
to complete their Bachelor of Arts in teaching with certification in grades 4-8 or EC-6.
Creating this opportunity for our students is in response to the teacher shortage that
currently exists in our profession.
With the addition of the dual credit Health Science theory and dual credit Medical Assistant
courses, we are creating a pathway for students to earn a Medical Scribe Level 1 certificate,
certificate, which gives students interested in entering the medical field a stackable
credential towards their associate's degree in medical assisting.
This allows students to enter the healthcare industry workforce and or continue their education
in the healthcare field.
Lastly, we're proposing three dual credit courses that are focused on real estate.
This will prepare our students to earn their real estate license while receiving mentorship
mentorship and internship opportunities within the industry so they are prepared to begin working as real estate agents upon high school graduation.
The CTE and dual credit course additions are in alignment with our district strategic plan specific result 1.2, which focuses on expanding CTE and dual credit opportunities for students.
The addition of these courses adds additional opportunities for students to become college, career, and military ready before graduating high school.
As you can see, we're adding several new and exciting courses for our students.
These new courses will provide our students with a number of choices and pathways that are designed to help them prepare for their post-secondary opportunities.
I'm happy to answer any questions that you have at this time.
Mr. President.
Questions?
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
Dr. Bell, thank you so much.
I love this part.
When you talk about the new courses that are being offered here, will they be offered?
Let's talk about high school secondary CNI courses.
Will they be offered at every school?
So, yes, the secondary CNI courses will be offered at all of our high schools.
And the seven new CTE courses that are designed for our home campus will be offered at our high school home campuses.
What minimum class size do you have set for those, and what will you do if they don't make?
We don't have a minimum class size, per se.
When we start student course selection process in January, we see what courses are offered,
students select their courses.
We've built a mechanism where we can provide students some course offerings that if the
number may not make at the high school, we have a mechanism for instructional day opportunities
where students can still take advantage of their course even if the number of students
low interest at their campus, they can be put in a course
with other students across the district.
So we really try to accommodate as best we can
those course selection that students
are interested in pursuing.
Are we still doing like a virtual option
where they could go to a classroom
and share a teacher across the district?
Yes, yes.
So if you don't have 18 students or something
for a minimum class size, if you had five,
they could join in somewhere else.
If it's a course that's offered in our KVS instructional day,
which has been very beneficial in helping to give students those opportunities.
So the 10 dual credit courses, who will teach those?
Will those be our teachers or teachers provided from the HCC?
A mixture of both.
We are really, our number one goal is to try to have our teachers,
our embedded teachers teach those courses,
and we've been working to help those teachers get credentialed but if we have
teachers on our campuses that have the credentials to teach those then we that's
our first go-to if not then HCC does provide us with the professor to teach
those courses with our teacher shortage you know looking at that going oh I hope
these make I hope these make and so sharing those virtual schools the
the virtuals and the extra teachers.
When you talk, oh no, here's the,
I love the medical ones, right?
We're a medical hub in Katy,
so that's just a very natural transition there.
I love those.
When you talk about these courses,
we've had this conversation before,
as with Dr. Gorgorski,
financial literacy for every student,
secondary student is my goal, right?
Right. So that would be so beneficial for everyone.
Certainly, you know, advocating for that at the state level to make that a requirement.
Is there anywhere to put that in here somewhere as an elective?
When I see like the junior high career launch pad, what is that?
So that's an exploration course for our students to explore the multiple pathways that are available, multiple careers, try to generate interest.
exposure to what is possible. And so it's an exploration of different careers and utilizing
real-world application, bringing visitors into the classroom so students can kind of get an
idea of, you know, what they may be possibly interested in as they prepare to go into high
school and hopefully they can continue to pursue things that they learned about in that particular
That sounds so beneficial to them as well. Like, how do you know what you want to do and pursue if you get too far down the pathway? And it's like, no, I don't like that.
Do you see a place for that financial literacy fitting into a curriculum? We already have. I know they have some like business courses at high schools that have that. But is there any way to get that to more students?
all the students say I went to college and I don't know how to you know I just swipe the
debit card because that's how money happens right so like those kinds of help if you want to live
in this kind of house you need this kind of career like those kinds of things do we have
that and do you see a way to get more of that into our secondary junior high and high school
students we do have a personal financial literacy and economics with economics course at our high
schools and so in terms of a personal financial literacy course for our junior high students
if that's what you're referencing um we we don't have that on the the books right now but mostly
high school we have it at our high schools but you have to choose it as a course or it comes in
economics which one both so you there's two strands of economics that you can take our traditional
economics course but then there's the personal financial literacy with economics so that was
the course i think i brought forward last year that the state really um through the last legislative
session said that we had to to add in addition to our our regular economics so we do have that
course on the books okay my last comment mr president until somebody here says something
very interesting i know that i know you do uh and i'm going to jump in after that probably but
my thing about the junior high courses which i love is do you think those will take away
opportunities for our boys and girls to do fine arts and that's just my fear
right that if you don't do music or band or choir something like that at junior
high you just almost never choose it at high school and we know that our musical
students perform better on the SAT and ACT because music and math go together
so well and all of the things that come with being in music and fine arts so I'm
I'm interested to see if these junior high offerings make our fine arts programs decrease in size.
No, I don't believe so, because in sixth grade, all of our students have to.
Their elective is a fine arts.
And so in seventh grade is when our CTE courses begin to be available to our students, seventh and eighth grade.
By the time our students get to eighth grade, they have two electives.
And so our students who have been exposed to fine arts, they get that exposure in sixth grade.
We already have CTE courses at the junior high level.
We'll be sunsetting a couple of courses that right now don't necessarily lead to a pathway.
They're just kind of courses.
We're really trying to be really intentional about the courses that we're providing our students
so that they can start their journey, their CTE journey.
The goal is our students need to be completing a program of study.
So if they start with the two courses that we're bringing forward, that gives them a jump start so that they actually have some more availability in their schedule when they get to high school.
Thank you for your intentionality.
Thank you.
Any questions over here?
Yes, Mr. Perez.
Ms. Champagne?
I have a few questions.
Thank you for your presentation.
But one of the questions I have is your dual credit course in Bio 1.
Is that a freshman level?
I thought that was freshman.
No, ma'am.
That would be the college-level course.
So all of our students will continue to take biology,
but then we have college-level biology, which is what you would take.
So that's not biology, like the regular high school biology?
That's a different?
Okay.
Yes.
The other question I have for you, if you don't mind, Mr. President,
is about the education associate's degree that they could get.
How is that being advertised?
Because I see the classes that you're offering now,
but of course I'm assuming those are going to be combined with other classes.
So I think that's a great program,
but how are we advertising it that this is available now to students?
So right now we are not advertising it at the moment,
but if this is approved,
then we would begin to advertise that to our current eighth grade students.
We want to get them excited about the pathway,
and we laid out what they need to take each year
to be able to complete that program.
Okay, and let's see one other thing.
Okay.
Oh, two things, actually.
If you don't mind, I have two more questions.
The real estate program that you're offering at Raines,
why is that?
I think that's awesome,
but why is it only being offered at Raines,
and can any student take it,
or is it only for the Raines students?
So it is only for the Raines students.
So think about our CDL program that we have at Raines as well.
This is another pathway that we're trying to provide just different areas of interest for our students at our RAINS campus.
And so the beauty of having our home campuses, our Miller and our RAINS, is that we have different programs to meet different interests of students.
So right now, this program is just for our RAINS students to get us started.
And who knows, ultimately, it may end up somewhere else.
But to launch this, it's a program that we definitely want to kind of give another career option outside of our CDL program that we currently have.
And my last thing is just a statement, real quick, just a last statement.
My daughter did take the financial literacy class at Taylor, but there it was called Money Wise.
So it is a thing that you can choose.
I know it's not mandatory, but she did gain a lot from that.
Ms. Cassell, did you have something?
Yes, super quick.
The listing of courses, I didn't see any new AP courses.
It looks like there's a concerted effort for more dual credit.
Is that deliberate?
So we kind of analyze our courses over the year, our trends,
especially with our CTE courses and analyzing data from the Workforce Commission,
kind of what the current needs are.
and so definitely the the five dual credit for the Associate of Arts we
needed those to build that entire program out we pretty much offer just
about every AP course that you possibly could offer I think dr. Otten is here I
think it's maybe a couple that we don't but we were offering just about
everything that you could possibly offer okay so these dual credits say that
again what what direction are you taking what you said the Workforce Commission
so the information of teachers yes so in the CTE department we kind of get data
from the Workforce Commission to let us know what are the high wage jobs that
are out there we want to set our students up for success so for example
there is a teacher shortage nationwide and we have a partnership through
through University of Houston Victoria.
And so that is one of the holes that we said,
you know what, there's something that we can do about this.
It'll work nicely with some other things
that we have going on in the district.
So the courses that are brought forward
are in response to what's out there,
what do we need to prepare our students for.
Okay, thank you for explaining.
And that dovetails into my next question.
So with these associates of arts degrees,
that what you call it, the two year?
Yes, the Associate of Arts and Teaching.
For the teachers.
Yes.
I'm assuming, I'm hoping that this is coordinated with state universities or, because we want
to make sure these are accepted and this coordinates well, so there's some sort of partnership?
Yes, so our partnership with this is with HCC and U of H Victoria, but dual credit courses
in the state of Texas, for the most part, they are transferable within the state of
Texas.
And so we work really hard to make sure that we're communicating that so our students are aware.
But those courses are generally transferable to most public institutions.
Okay.
Because Texas A&M, UT are all a very popular university.
So I would hope that those would flow well for those students who go there if they want to be a teacher and they've got their associate.
And we utilize the information that we have out there, the public information from the
state in terms of the university course codes.
And so we've looked at many of those.
We definitely want to be transparent with, hey, these courses are transferable, but you
need to check with your institution.
So that's the other piece.
We don't want to begin to offer things that it's like a path to nowhere.
So that was part of the background in terms of researching this particular opportunity
for our students. With our partnership with the University of Houston Victoria,
obviously, you know, it'd be great for our students to go there, but we know that our
students have many choices. And so dual credit courses, very, very appealing to
many people in the community as we think about the cost of college. And we want to
make sure that our families are set up so that if their students take that
route, they have all the information that they need in terms of understanding how
how courses transfer from each institution to the next.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, any other questions?
I have one.
So I was looking,
Thank you.
I was looking through some of the courses
that were being offered,
and Miller Career was one of the ones that I was looking at,
but it kind of falls into the junior high
and the high school courses.
The principle of arts, the AV technology and communications,
and where's the other one?
Audio and video production two,
and then practicum in digital audio technology.
So when I went to Miller Career, they took me around
and they showed me everything that we offer there,
which is incredible what is offered at Miller.
One of the things that we were talking about is how do we stay current
with the programs that are offered because there's such a high turnover
with the technology world.
So how are we going to continue to, I guess,
My concern with that is, is it cost prohibitive to continue to stay up to date with, one, the courses that we're offering, with audio and visual technology, with how fast the tech industry grows and turns over.
It's going to be quite a bit faster oftentimes than the three-year life cycle that we typically have on most of our devices or what we're offering.
So are we able to keep up with that when we're offering these new courses?
Is that something that's realistic in our ability to maintain, I guess, is my concern.
I think it's amazing, and I'm not debating that.
I want to offer this to our students who want to do this because going into a college-level course,
they don't want to go to college, and we have these other opportunities to get them into the workforce faster with more education.
and I think that that's great, but I just want to make sure that we can actually maintain
that we're not teaching them something that's five years old and is basically obsolete.
Does that make sense?
No, I get what you're saying.
So I heard two things in there.
I think I can address both of those.
One, in terms of keeping up with the technology and things that students are using,
like are we able to maintain the – keep up with the technology in the district?
Was that – did I capture that?
So that's one of the things when we're evaluating courses, we do look at the sustainability of the course over time.
And we also look at technology and facility needs.
There are hundreds of courses that if you start getting curriculum folks talking about, ooh, we can do this course and that course, I would love to do them all.
But when we look, we have to make sure, like, do we have the facility for it?
Do we have the technology?
Do we have the software?
So budgeting in terms of ensuring that we have what we need to offer the course is one of the factors,
one of the many factors that we take a look at to ensure that we can offer the course where it needs to be offered,
whether it's Miller or at our home campus, and that we're able to sustain the course over time.
Another thing that we look at when we kind of evaluate courses, if there's a course that,
which is what we're doing in our junior high, we have like two courses that our junior high students are taking,
but they're courses that really lead to nowhere.
And so they're not learning the skills that they're going to need over time to be successful.
And so it's a matter of really being intentional about what are we asking our students to do,
what are we exposing them to, and what are we getting them prepared for.
So when we evaluate new courses, we also look to see what courses we have on the books
that we probably need to revise that course, possibly make that course inactive,
because where it may have been relevant for the time when we brought the course forward to the
board, it's no longer relevant. And so we make those adjustments as well. So when we look at
things like that, like with the high school courses, are we looking at the way that that
can go in to support those Miller career courses or those CTE courses or whatever we're looking at?
Are we, I'm sure you are, I'm just asking as a broader knowledge. So are we looking to make
sure that those courses kind of can come in and supplement
or support going further?
Yes.
So what we do, we look at, number one,
which courses can continue to build out
the interest in our program and our Miller Career Center
programs.
And then we also, because some students don't necessarily
want to go to Miller, we want to make sure
that they also have the opportunity
to engage in a program of study at their home campus that
gives them the skills and the exposure for what they need
beyond once they graduate.
So we're really looking to ensure that students have many opportunities and many pathways, depending on their interests, and they get the exposure and the skills that they need in order to be workforce ready.
Okay, and then I just have one more question and then I'm done.
So on one of the things I was looking at, the dual credit health science theory, could you expound on what the health science theory is?
What exactly that, what that means?
Sure. I'll just read you the description of that course.
It's fine.
Okay.
So this course is a study of concepts that serve as the foundation for health profession courses,
including client care and safety issues, basic client monitoring and health documentation,
emergency preparedness, and response to basic medical emergencies.
This will also cover the basics of history and physical documentation and electronic medical record.
This course is the next course in the medical scribe level one certificate, which leads to the medical assistant level two certificate at HCC.
Okay.
And then just piggybacking on that, how do we ensure that I know with some of these, and we have talked about this before, with some of these college courses that there are some levels of teaching that we don't necessarily, it doesn't fall in line with our board policies.
So when we look at some of these courses and how they could somehow step outside of what we would normally teach and be okay with, and like our high school classes with our personal teachers here, but we're talking about professors from like HCC or U of H who they're outside of that.
Am I, and I'm correct in understanding that there's a level that they.
Yes, because they're employed by the university, not KDIC, unless they're dually employed, but yes.
Okay.
I just wanted to double check, and I wanted to make sure that I understood what that specific one was.
That's it.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Mr. Perez, I just have a quick question.
So I'm just going to – she brought up a good point.
So if a teacher is from a university or like HCC, and they're not an employee of KDISD,
and there is a topic maybe that doesn't follow KDISD board policy,
are parents informed of that from the very beginning?
What is the process for that?
So our students receive the syllabus in the beginning of the year,
And there's also the student learning objectives that are public.
They're on the website for HCC.
So you can see all of the objectives that students are going to learn when they take that course,
when students receive that syllabus.
Anytime there's a situation where there's a topic or maybe something presented and a parent has a concern,
they bring that concern typically to the campus,
and each campus has a liaison that works with Dr. Otten, who is our ‑‑ she's over at Advanced Academic Studies.
We work closely with HCC to share any concerns that we have, any topics that may have been discussed.
So we have a really good, solid partnership there with them to help troubleshoot some things that may come up as issues come up.
But just to note, it is a college course, and parents are electing to have their children enrolled in those courses.
So, but the big thing is just being, working in partnership with our HCC.
They're very responsive to our needs.
But the key is that parents are electing that choice.
But we don't, do we make it, do we make it clear to the parents, hey, this is a college course,
so we're going to be following what that course curriculum is, not necessarily ADIC?
Okay, so they understand from the beginning.
Yes.
What we're talking about a little bit different. Yes curriculum here. Yes, it's very it's very transparent and clear for our parents
Thank you very much. Thank you. Dr. Bell. Thank you. The next item is 6.1. Oh, which is to discuss and consider the
6.10. Discuss and consider the Board to award a contract for design services necessary for the cafeteria kitchen component replacements at various campuses.
board approval toward to award a contract for design services
Necessary for the cafeteria kitchen component replacements at various campuses
presenter Lisa Kastman executive director of facilities planning and construction
Welcome.
Good evening.
Good evening.
Good evening, President Perez, Trustees, and Dr. Gagorski.
The first item for your consideration is to award a contract to Salas O'Brien for the
cafeteria kitchen equipment replacements at King Elementary, Schmaltz, Williams, Katie
Junior High, Maid Creek 9th Grade Center, Taylor, and Taylor 9th Grade.
The 2021 bond provided for kitchen equipment replacement at seven campuses.
However, it was determined that the Nutrition and Food Service Department had excess net
cash resources that the Texas Department of Agriculture, TDA, allows to be used for the
purchase of child nutrition equipment replacement and associated connections.
The use of these funds cannot be used for any design professionals or reconfiguration
of the spaces, for example, moving walls.
Therefore, the scope of this contract will include the design and coordination of the
kitchen component replacement for fee for the final construction cost the bidding for the
equipment replacement and associated connection uses the competitive bid process as prescribed
by tda and administered by our purchasing department with partici participation from
nutrition and food service our department and the engineer thank you questions mr perez
Ms. Champagne.
Thank you, Ms. Catherine.
So that was really smart to use the extra money, the over budgeted money.
So is this total, though, is that in other words, did you take out the money that we're
going to use that we already have and then this is the extra money that we need?
There'll be excess of project savings from the 2021 bond from this project.
Nice.
Thank you.
I had just a question. How did we select Salas O'Brien and his 7% typical conversation?
Yes, because it's more like a renovation, working with all the different pieces of equipment,
and Salas O'Brien has been doing a lot of our kitchen work for the past two years.
So we figured them best qualified for the project, because it's a lot of mechanical equipment,
but they also do work with a food service supplier as well.
Okay. Thanks. Questions?
Any other questions?
Thank you very much.
I got one more.
Okay, one more.
A big one.
We need to award Sentara Property Owners Association an access agreement for the perimeter wall maintenance along the western edge of elementary school number 48 and Sentara 32.
6.11. Discuss and consider Board approval on an easement to Sunterra Property Owners Association, Inc., along the western edge of the Elementary School #48 site in Sunterra Section 32.
So it's like an HOA wall.
We just need to give them permission to do any maintenance on it.
Questions? Anyone?
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
The next item is our information items,
7. Information Items
and everyone's received the donated items list, which was provided to the board.
Madam Secretary, have we captured any requests from the board?
I did not notice anybody that had a request.
Am I missing anything?
Okay, thank you.
8. Future Meetings
There will be a regular board meeting again on Monday, November 13, 2023.
There being no further business for the board, this meeting is adjourned.
The time is 7.16 p.m.
Thank you very much.
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